It seemed like a normal, quiet life in the village. I spent my days helping out with chores and attending classes at the little shack of a school we had, which was a lot of fun because I got to hang out with friends and learn all kinds of cool things about the world. Our teacher was an old man named Mr. Smith, who looked kind of funny since he wore big round glasses and his hair was all gray, but he really knew how to teach. He taught us math, history, science, art, music...everything. And though our house was small, it was home.

It was just mom and I there. My dad passed away when I was born, so that left me with only my mother. She worked hard every day doing whatever she could, from growing vegetables or baking breads to making clothes out of wool she'd gotten from sheep who lived in the mountains far north of us. The villagers were happy to trade their goods for what she made, and many people came by to visit her shop where she sold handmade items on the side, selling everything from jewelry to vases to pots. It wasn't much, but it kept us fed and gave us a roof over our heads.

I often found myself wondering about other places, though. I'd always dreamed about going to the capital one day but mom would always tell me to think more realistically. There was no way for me to travel there. At least not without money. I couldn't even imagine what it must be like living in the capital, surrounded by hundreds of buildings, thousands of people bustling around everywhere, and roads filled trade goods. At least that's what I'd heard from the village elder. So instead, I devoted myself to learning as much as I possibly could, hoping that maybe one day I could go to school in the capital, and make something of myself. I knew it was just a pipe dream but I didn't like to think about that. Instead, I tried to focus on my studies.

The village itself was a tight-knit community, where everyone knew each other's names and greeted each other with warm smiles. Life here was simple and serene, far from the hustle and bustle of the city that Krone would tell the children of the village about. How the streets were always crowded and how it was always so noisy. Just hearing his stories made me envision the sprawling streets of the capital.

My friends and I would often spend our afternoons exploring the surrounding woods, discovering hidden paths, and creating our own imaginative games. One afternoon, as school was let out, I had plans to spend the afternoon with two of my closest friends, Mia and Lucas. Mia, was more of an outgoing free spirit while Lucas, on the other hand, was the calm one.

"Guys Krone is leaving soon, we need to go and ask him to bring some things back for us."

Krone was a rich man who lived in the village. He'd always bring back things for the village children after he was done travelling. His wife, a beautiful woman with long black hair, had also died some time ago, leaving him alone in their large mansion, which sat atop a hill overlooking the town. Krone was a jolly man, always smiling, and the villagers and I were glad to have someone like him as our friend.

"How about some books on economics Krone?" I said.

Krone turned to me and shook his head.

"Laura you always ask for books, don't you ever want anything else?"

"Of course! But books are so useful, and if you're offering I intend to take you up on it."

He laughed and rubbed his chin. "Well alright then, I'll make sure you get some nice ones. You have a good day now!"

One of my other friends walked up to me as Krone walked away.

"Laura why do you always ask for books?"

His name was Shane and he wasn't the brightest. He always asked for things like a sword or some cool armor but Krone always rejected his request because he wasn't old enough to even wield a sword yet.

I looked at Shane with a devilish smile. "If you can't tell why then I guess you're just not smart enough."

Shane didn't like that and tried to trip me but his brother who was older by one year Marcus stopped him before he could.

"Knock it off, both of y'all!" Marcus snapped.

Shane glared at me. "Well Laura some day I'll be a knight and I'll be the envy of the whole village. Just watch."

Marcus gave Shane an annoyed look. "That's great but you need to work on how to fight first."

Shane and Marcus were my neighbors and they'd been my friends since childhood. We had grown up together playing outside and making up stories about what we would become when we grew up. Seem like Shane was dead set on becoming a knight. A bot from a remote village in the forest becoming a knight? What a story that would make.

After I got back to my house I went to my room which was filled with all sorts of books. History, mathematics, geography, science, philosophy, and language. Every single time Krone asked me what I wanted from outside the village I had told him educational books without hesitation. Some of the other kids in the village were weirded out by me doing that though. They thought I was strange because of my love for reading so much.

But those same kids never noticed how bright I was. Because they were too wrapped up in their own lives to pay attention. As a result, they were all pretty stupid. I, however, was not.

I opened the door to my room, and sat down on my bed. I took a book off the shelf and began to read. Half an hour later mom called me downstairs. 
"Laura I need you to take this to the village elders home."

Mom pointed to a bag of money on the counter. "I was late on my taxes this year as well but he gave me an extension. Please take that to him while I finish dinner.

"Ok Mom." I said taking the bag of money and heading toward the elders home.

The house in town that housed the village elder had been passed down through generations of his family. It was originally built by the first generation's patriarch, who lived there until his death. At least that's what I've been told by the Elder.

After walking to the house I knocked on his front door. He answered it with a smile on his face. "Good evening Laura. What can I do for you?"

I handed him the bag of money. "Elder, I'm here to give you the taxes my mom owes you this year. Thank you for giving her an extension. She is really sorry she didn't pay earlier."

He gave a hearty laugh. "No need to apologize Laura. Now run along home and don't keep your mom waiting."

"Ok I won't." I gave him a wave as I ran back home.

The next morning, after a delicious breakfast, I ran straight to the school building which was just a one room shack on the outskirts of the village. All of the other kids in the village hated school but I didn't. It was an exciting time to learn new things from Mister Smith who was a very knowledgeable teacher.

I pulled open the door and entered the classroom. Mr. Smith was sitting at his desk with a stack of papers in front of him. He looked up for a second and smiled at me.

"Good morning Mister Smith." I said.

He nodded back, "Good morning."

Mr. Smith chuckled and flipped through the pages of the paperwork on his desk. Then after all the student had sat down he set them aside, picked up a piece of chalk and we started the school day.

After we got done the school day I would rush home to see if mom had any errands for me to run, or if she had already finished them. On my way home with some of my friends we spotted Krone on his way out of the village. His carriage was the fanciest in the entire village, more than enough for a successful merchant. Every time he would go to the capital city Dawn he would always bring back presents for the village children.
"Oh, everyone good to see you all. I'll be sure to bring back some nice things for you all."

We all waved goodbye to him. He was such a nice person to all of us. When I got home mom was getting ready to cook dinner. She stopped what she was doing and turned to me.

"Did you have a good day today Laura?" She asked.

"Yeah, today was good." I said.

"That's good dear, so how did your lessons go? Did you learn anything interesting today?" She asked.

I thought for a moment and replied, "You know, I always wonder about things like that. How other places look, how people live there. I've been thinking about this a lot lately actually."

Mom stared at me for a few seconds and then said, "Oh? What do you mean?"

I put my hand to my chin and thought hard. After a minute I spoke, "Well, for example, I wonder about how big the capital is. What it looks like inside, how different it is than here. Do they use different money there? Are there people everywhere? How big are the buildings?"

"Wow, sounds like you're interested in a whole lot of stuff. That's great honey, I'm glad to hear that. Tell me, what else do you wonder about?"

"How far are the other villages from here? Have any of them ever come to visit ours? Is there another village close to ours? What does it look like? Who lives there? A whole bunch of stuff."

She smiled and said, "You really are smart, aren't you?"

I nodded my head. "I even asked Krone for more books from the capital."

"Always asking Krone for more books, we're going to run out of space eventually." She said.

I shrugged and said, "Why not? If I can't learn about the world and what's out there, then who will? I want to leave the village some day and make something of myself."

Mom smiled and shook her head. "Well you never know, if you keep learning all these things and working hard at school maybe someday you will be able to do everything you want to do but that's the future. Right now let's worry about what's right in front of us. We have a good life here, with plenty of food and a roof over our heads. Nothing wrong with taking things one step at a time."

I nodded my head, "I understand mom. One thing at a time."

She smiled at me and went back to work on dinner.

This was a usual conversation between a single mother and her twelve year old daughter.

A few days later I started having a raging headache. The pain grew steadily worse until it was unbearable. I put my hand to my forehead, and grimaced.

"Mom, I have a terrible headache, could you help me lay down for a bit?"

My mother helped me into bed just like I asked.

"What's wrong mom?" I asked.

Mom was silent for a second but she smiled and said. "Nothing. Go to your room and rest."

I nodded my head as my mother helped me to my room before the pain got any worse. Soon after that, my vision became blurry and spots appeared in front of my eyes. I fell asleep in pain.

I awoke the next morning, still feeling awful. When I tried to stand, my legs felt weak. I immediately fell back on the bed and moaned. My headache was even worse. So bad that I started crying.

Mom rushed into my room and kneeled beside me. She placed her hand on my forehead and began to rub gently. "Honey, what's wrong? Talk to me."

I sniffled back tears and whispered, "It hurts so much mom."

"It's alright Laura. You'll be fine."

I wiped the tears out of my eyes just to see my mom crying too. She reached out and hugged me.

"Everything will be okay. It will all be fine."

Her voice was monotone, without a shred of emotion.

"Laura please lay back down in bed. I'm going out, I'll be back soon."

Before she left she kissed the top of my head and said, "Just rest today and try not to move too much, alright?"
I nodded my head.

After she left I laid there for a few hours. My headache started to subside a little so I got up out of bed to go to the bathroom. When I looked up and saw my reflection in the mirror my heart sank. I had two horns sticking out of either side of my head. My eyes were red and bloodshot. I touched the horns and confirmed they were in fact on my head, they felt real and I felt myself touch them.

"Is this some kind of sick joke!?" I thought.

I grabbed one of the horns and tried to pull it out but it didn't budge at all. I finally gave up when I realized I wasn't getting anywhere with it. Upon closer inspection I saw that my one of my eyes had turned from white and blue to black and red.

"What the heck is going on here!?" I yelled.

I started to hyperventilate when I heard a knock at my front door.

"Laura?! Are you in there?"

It was Mia's voice. Oh no.

I ran to my room and put a blanket over my head to cover up my horns then made my way to the door, I could feel my heart pounding like a drum in my chest. I slowly opened the door revealing Mia and Shane.

"Hey, Mia and Shane," I said, my voice quivering despite my best efforts to appear calm.

Mia peered at me, concern etched on her face. "Laura, are you okay? You didn't show up at school today so everyone was worried."

I forced a smile, hoping she wouldn't notice my shaky demeanor. "Yeah, I'm just not feeling my best. Headache and all that."

"Hey, Laura," Shane began, "what's with the blanket?"

I faked a weak smile, trying to keep my voice steady. "I just caught a really bad cold, and my head is pounding. The blanket kind of helps."

Shane smiled an impish grin and before I could react, he stepped forward and grabbed the edge of the blanket. In one swift motion, he pulled it off my head, exposing the two horns jutting out from my temples. This was always his problem, he would always do things like this when his older brother wasn't around to keep him in check.

Mia gasped, her hand covering her mouth. Shane's eyes widened, his jaw dropping. "What... what is this?"

I stumbled back, tears welling up in my eyes. "I don't know! This... this just happened."

Suddenly, Mia let out a scream that could shatter glass, and I turned to see her dashing toward the door. "Village chief! We need the village chief!"

Shane began to follow her in a full sprint. "Wait, Mia, don't leave me here with the demon!"

Mia and Shane's shrieks echoed through the village as they sprinted away, leaving me standing there, utterly shocked and alone.

As my heart sank, I realized that my life had changed in ways I couldn't even begin to understand, and I was left to grapple with the implications of my newfound appearance and the reactions of those I once considered my friends.

"Why did this have to happen to me?" I whispered to the empty room.

As I sit there frozen with tears running down my face suddenly, a new, ominous sound filled the silence. It kept growing steadily louder, accompanied by angry shouts and the clanging of metal. I looked out the window to see a mob of my fellow villagers with pitchforks and torches heading towards my home.