(Anya POV) *Warning: tragic content*

'Cold, so very cold. No fire to keep me warm, no food to fill my belly, and no mother to comfort me. All the other villagers say it's my fault for being cursed and that I deserve it all, that my mother was a fool for keeping me alive and my father died a fool's death too. They wouldn't tell me how he died, just that it was all because of me and my curse. Not even mother would say, she always changed the topic or said not to worry about it. Although, from what I heard mother saying to herself late in the night, it seems that she thinks the other villagers killed him and blamed it on something else. What they blamed it on, I still don't know.

Thankfully, mother was important to the village, so we got decent money and could eat relatively well. Mother is the only healer in the village, so she was able to keep me safe from the bad people that kept trying to hurt me and call me bad names. They often called me "the cursed child" and "Bringer of destruction. People would always ask me why I wanted to kill them all or what they did to deserve death, but I never threatened them and have never wanted to kill them, so it confused me greatly for years. That was until I heard the story of the lost civilization, the civilization of our ancestors that was brought to ruin in a single day.

I was wandering the town one evening after dinner, hiding from the other villagers so they wouldn't pelt me with rocks again, when I passed by a house with its window open. I could hear one of the adults, a dog-kin demi human, talking to someone and looking inside I could see it was her kids. She was telling them a story, one of the ancient past.

"A long time ago, our ancestors lived in huge cities with towering buildings and roadways five carriages wide. Everyone lived in harmony, and none suffered from the prejudice and racism seen today from the Einoore Kingdom. The Einoore Kingdom was part of an empire called the Barazi Empire, which included itself and our protectorate kingdom of Escudo."

"What happened to the empire, mother?" The youngest child asked curiously.

"An evil cat-kin tyrant with two-colored eyes made an army to threaten the empire as she was jealous of the power the emperor wielded and wanted it for herself. She fooled many other of our kind with false promises of glory and strength saying she would make them the overlords of all other races, but she knew she couldn't deliver on her promise. She went forward to fight on the front line to take all the glory for herself and make herself Queen, leaving all the others to only take on the civilian volunteers. Eventually, she could hold on no longer against the power of the emperor and his generals and used a terrifying weapon called a nuclear bomb to blow up the capital and kill everyone inside. After the bomb went off, a terrifying winter came that froze many people all across the empire and brought a sickness with it that was extremely deadly and could even cause mutations if you got too close to where the bomb went off. Even the technologies made by the empire were destroyed, the methods of making them that were written down were lost in the explosion and the engineers who could make them were killed off by her armies."

"That's horrible! Why would she do something like that?" The kids all said, looking terrified.

"Some people say her two-colored eyes were a sign of evil and corruption while others say she was possessed by an evil spirit and the eyes are what shows others she is possessed. While they are rumors and no one knows for sure, it's something to think about and be wary of."

"Doesn't Anya have two colored eyes, mom? Is she evil?" Said the oldest.

"We don't know for sure if she is evil, but we should treat her like she is and never get near her or talk to her. We would drive her out of the village, but her mother is our only healer, and she believes that cursed daughter of hers isn't really evil. If it were up to me, I would kill that demon spawn and force its mother to heal us anyways as repentance for bringing about and protecting such a thing."

After that, I couldn't listen any longer and I finally knew why my mother and I were treated so terribly by the rest. Mother has been protecting me all this time and I never knew just how the other villagers saw me or why. Are my eyes really so evil, so cursed? I never thought so, and mother always called them beautiful. Mother has bright blue eyes, like one of mine, and says my other eye is the same color as my father's. Sadly, that's all she would tell me about him and refused to answer any questions I had about him, preferring instead to change the topic.

As I walked back home, I thought about what I would do if mother weren't around and how I should keep myself safe. I would probably have to leave the village, but where would I go and what would I do? As I pondered these questions, I arrived back at my house and found the door open. That's odd, I know I closed it when I went out.

"Get away from me! Don't come any closer!" I heard my mom shouting and knew something was wrong.

"Haha, she's a lively one and pretty too. How much money do you think we'll get for her?"

"A lot I would think, probably around 500 gold if we sell her to the right person!"

I didn't want to hear it any longer, I charged inside to try and protect mother just as she protected me all this time.

"Holy shit! That kid's cursed, kill her!" They saw me immediately and one of the men came over to me with a sword in his hand and a scared but determined look on his face. Maybe I can use this to my advantage.

"If you hurt me or mom, I will curse you and-" Instead of making him pause, it only made him more determined, he swung down at me with his sword, ready to kill me.

"Anya no!" That's all I heard before a single wet 'thunk' resounded in the room, and I was covered in... blood. I looked up and saw mom on top of me, and I was on the ground. I could see a big slash across mom's chest with blood pouring out of it. She was still alive, still protecting me, but her wound looked fatal.

"Anya, run! Get out of here and don't look back!" She tried to heal herself, but the blood wouldn't stop, so she stood up in front of me and said, "I won't let you hurt my daughter!"

"Shit, she's not a virgin, you know our employer won't accept her, right?"

"Yeah, I just wish she didn't run in front of your sword. She looks ugly now with all that blood on her, but maybe we can still have some fun with her before we kill her. Just gotta kill the cursed kid first."

"Anya, run NOW!" Mother shoved me out of the house as a spear came near me and it hit her instead, and since mom lost her balance when pushing me, it went right into her head. Mom... is dead. I ran, I ran as fast and as far as I could trying to get away from the slavers. I could tell they were, not only because of what they said, but because of the Einoore Kingdom slavers crest around their necks. It's something everyone is told to watch out for and to avoid. If we see it, we are told to run as far away and as quickly as we can while we wait for Escudo Kingdom soldiers to arrive. Sadly, they came too late to save mom, and the rest of the village will probably follow. 

I didn't pay attention to where I was going and realized after a long time that I had run straight towards the mountain range near our village. I could probably be safe there, they wouldn't follow me that far, would they? With all the monsters there it would be too dangerous, but I would rather risk dying to a monster than falling into the hands of those slavers. With them, I am guaranteed to die, here I might have a chance.

It's cold, so cold. As the sun set the snow started falling and I was getting closer and closer to the mountains, but I saw people nearby. They looked to be humans, and not the same ones that killed mom. Maybe they are the soldiers, and maybe the others can still be saved!

"Help, help me! There are slavers in the village, and they killed my mom!"

They came towards me and began talking to each other quietly. I am good at hearing, but I still couldn't hear their conversation. One of them turned towards me and yelled out, "Hey, come on over here. We will keep you safe, we'll give you a good place to sleep and some warm food. Then we can go help your village and get rid of those slavers."

Finally, some people can help me! Wait, is that- Oh no! I have to get out of here! They have the same crest as those slavers from before, I can't risk getting captured or killed by them!

I ran, ran as fast and as far away as I could, hoping they would leave me alone. Luck was not on my side though, as I could run faster than them, but they could run for longer. Sunrise came and I still couldn't shake them off my trail, they just kept coming. I ran for the entire day, going deep into the mountains, barely avoiding the monsters prowling the area and using snow to cover my scent. This however, only made me colder and I eventually ran out of stamina. I couldn't keep running. Thankfully, I found a small cave that didn't smell of monsters or other animals, so I took a rest hoping they couldn't find me anymore or just gave up.

 Once the sun began to set, I woke up to voices right outside the cave.

“The trail leads here, thankfully the snow has been light so far and there was still a trail to follow.”

“Oi, keep your voice down. We don’t want to let her know we’re here. Don’t screw this up, we can’t afford to lose any more money.”

I hid against the wall of the cave in the darkest spot I could find, but I knew I would be found eventually. I had to slip past them and keep running. I don’t know why they can’t just give up and let me go already, I’m not worth hunting down. I watched as they came in and started looking around for me, only one of them having a long range weapon. I can do this, I can make it. They won’t chase me forever, I just have to keep running.

There’s my chance! They just went past me, I can get out of here. I slipped past them and ran outside, but I stepped on a small branch on my way out.

*Crack!*

“Shit, she’s outside! Go after her!”

I kept running, I can’t get caught. If I do, mother would have died for nothing, and I can’t let that happen! I will get revenge some day, I will get rid of slavery and put an end to the cruelty of the Einoore Kingdom. Too many have suffered by their hands and it’s their fault mother is dead.

Eventually, I see pile of rocks that appeared to be blocking a cave of sorts and there’s a hole in the pile that is about a foot in diameter. While I can’t see what’s inside, and I can smell something weird coming from it, I don’t smell anything that seems like it could be dangerous. I’m also running out of options here and will take what I can get. I’m not sure I can fit through there though. If only I could be as small as the cats we evolved from.

Right after thinking that I felt a warmth run through my body, tingling my skin like a jolt of electricity while also calming and comforting. I decided to jump at the wall, hoping I could fit myself through the hole. Next thing I knew I was small, very small, and heading straight for the hole leading into the cave. I had heard the slavers shouting for me before that, but I would never go to them, not even if it killed me. After I got inside, I crawled to the closest wall, and blacked out from the exhaustion. 

I woke up a while later, and it seems I was out the whole night. Wait, why is there a fire next to me? Why am I wearing… a dress I think? I decided to look around at my surroundings and saw something monstrous, a giant thing made of metal and sitting on the tracks that lead into the mountains from the village. I went over to it and tried hitting it, seeing if it’s really made of metal.

“Can you not do that?”

‘Who is that?! Did someone capture me? But why would they warm me up and put clothes on me? What do they want from me?’ Tons of thoughts about what could be happening went through my head, but I decided to try talking to whoever was there, hiding in this metal contraption. Also, they only talked to me through my head, so I couldn’t hear where the voice was coming from. I also couldn’t smell anything due to the overwhelming scent of metal and the weird smell I smelled earlier. After talking for a while, I came to find that whoever this was, they didn’t fear me like the rest and didn’t try to make me feel bad. I was finally treated like a person by someone other than mother. 

“I think they look pretty…you aren’t cursed.” Even though this person doesn’t seem to know anything about history and he’s probably not afraid because of that, those words saved me. They are the same words my mother would tell me, the only reason I could keep going. He also said some words I didn’t understand, but I could tell he didn’t mean any harm, since he said he also already killed the slavers who were after me. I would also ask him to help me save the village, but it turns out he can’t leave the cave right now. He’s trapped and needs my help to regain his strength. For someone who saved my life and gave me hope again, I am willing to do anything. My life may finally have meaning, my mothers sacrifice may not have been in vain but only time will tell.