Dying letter ||ONC Entry

Chapter one

The warm sun shone on the land as if it wanted to see everything that happens. Everything it can't see happens in the shadows, nobody knows for sure what happens in the shadows exactly.
Now in the unseen, Caren walked through a large forest. She walked a bit off the road, so no one passing by would notice her. Caren knew that humans don't like hers, she doesn't know why, but for some reason, they really seem to hate her.
To protect herself she only got a knife, hidden on her arm, in therefore made leather straps. This protection was hardly not enough, but it was all Caren can afford, else her things would have been too heavy and only slow her down. Beside her knife she got a dark Cape, with a big hood, to hide her face, and more important, her horns! Every dragonewt has two little horns growing out of the head and a Dragon-like tail. Some even grow fangs and claws at some point.
Quietly she slipped through the bushes and suddenly heard horses running in her direction. Quick she hid behind a near tree and listened if she could catch something of their conversation. "Have you heard the rumours going around?", the first man asked a second one, who was a bit taller than the other.
They were dressed in no extraordinary clothing, only in simple tunics, leather trousers and shoes. The second man looked confused and asked: "What for rumours? You mean the one that the chief seems to have a deeper relationship with the youngest daughter of Tom?" The first man shook his head and brushed it away, with his hand and said, slightly laughing: "No, no! Not that one! I mean the one that the one sword should still be in the possession of the family that once received it from the old king." The first man was really into it, he sounded excited about this sword, but as he mentioned the family the king had given the sword to, his voice was full of disguise.
Caren had never heard of something like this before, so she tried to focus on the words, which slowly got more like a whisper in the distance. Now the second man started to speak: "Wait, which family are you talking about? I can't quite follow you on this point. You can't mean this family?!", he seemed very confused and somehow his voice was filled with anxiety. That made Caren curious, why would someone be afraid of a family?
She never really had one, well, she was sure that she must have had one long ago, but she couldn't remember anything of her past. Once she just woke up with a headache, not knowing where she was, only with a letter in her hand. She had tried to read it many times, but unfortunately, the language in which the letter was written, Caren couldn't read, only the address was written in a recognizable language.
"I'm sure we both mean the same family. The dark Duke of Rednet." Caren opened her eyes in shock. Rednet, that was the man to whom the letter was sent! She tried again to focus, but the men were too far away, she couldn't hear another word.
Caren started to walk again, but she couldn't get the words out of her head. What had they meant by 'dark Duke'? She had no idea what the lord could have done to receive such a name. Caren thought about it for another few minutes but then tried to forget it until she had enough time to properly think about it. In a little tavern, with something to eat and drink. Caren became hungry from her own thoughts of something to eat and her stomach began to roar. "I really need something to eat." In the woods, she hadn't found the slightest hint of mushrooms or some berries. The forest was practically dead, only a few trees had leaves left, and it was like this in every forest. Only dead trees and not a single singing bird. It was like wandering through a silence world, in which no one would want to live. But still this silence was somehow interesting, she thought about her forgotten memories. Caren was sure she had known this season before, because she must be older than other people she met in her journey, and therefore she had some years on her back.

After quite some time, she finally left the forest behind. To be secure she turned her hood on and sneaked into a town not far from the forest. There she found a shabby tavern where she could rest. Because Caren had only a few coins left, she became the cheapest room in there,
which stunk like hell and the bed looked as if it would burst under the weight of a feather. In the bed laid many dead animals, squished by the former guests. Caren just wanted to run out of there, but it was only for one night, so she decided to sleep on the ground because it looked more safely to her.
After this short inspection of the room she went down to the bar, it was not well visited at the time. It was Caren's plan to sit in a corner and look if she could find out something more about this dark Duke Rednet. "Something to drink?", Caren looked up and saw a girl standing in front of her. "Beer please and something to eat.", she said simply. Caren knew that if she wouldn't buy something it would look suspicious and also her stomach groaned so loud, she thought the girl would hear it. The girl nodded and soon brought her beer and kind of soup whit meat, or so. Caren couldn't clearly define the things swimming in there, but it was something to fill her stomach with. Instead of saying 'thanks' or so, she just laid her last few coins on the table and the girl went away.
The sunset was over, more and more people arrived at the tavern. The girl from before had a lot to do, always carried a plate with beer and food. Caren observed her for a while, somehow she had an interesting aura around her, something that was new to Caren. Once she thought the plate would fall down, it really was on the line to fall, but it hadn't. Caren wondered what could be the reason for this, but she couldn't grab a conclusion. She got through the scene many times, but the only thing she could remember was the girl looking straight at the plate, that was all, and that was not enough to say what happened with the plate.

Caren's look wandered through the room and eventually, she found a group of men keeping their faces low and spoke really quiet. They sat near her, but because of the noise going on around her, she could only understand a few words. "Sword", "girl", "magic", "Rednet", again there was this name. Caren really focused, but it caused her a headache and she drunk a sip of the still untouched beer. When she tried to listen again the men stopped talking, because the girl from before brought them another beer.
One man laid his hand around her waist and tried to pull her near him. Caren watched the situation carefully, but she knew, if she would step in, she was most likely going to reveal her identity in front of them. "Oh sweet girl, stay with us for a while.", the man grabbing her said, but the girl took his hand and tried to take it off. Caren looked at her face, but the only thing she saw was disgust. The girl seemed to be used to such situations, and Caren was sure she could handle it alone.
"I'm sorry, but I have lots of work to do, you see. Maybe I come back when a few guests are gone.", Caren almost laughed, the girl replied with such a smoothly and really sorry voice, that it was clear that she was lying and not even wanted to stay another second. The man let her go, but asked: "What's your name girl?" "I'm Mary." Fast she walked away and got back to work. Caren just saw her walking off, instead of following her steps she looked again at those men. They got back to their quiet talk and hadn't look drunk, so what was the reason for disturbing Mary in her work? "Really? Do you think she could be the one?", one man with a deep husky voice asked. Caren closed her eyes to understand them better. "I'm sure of it. Have you seen the plate? Once it almost fell off, but it hadn't. She used magic.", said the one who grabbed her before. Magic? Caren knew that magic wasn't seen in the world for almost a decade, why are they so focused on Mary? Is she the only one with magic? Caren was completely puzzled. She knew that she was hated by humans, but that magicians were hated too was new to her. Once magic was seen as high status. And now? Dragons and magic were the objects of fear. Caren wanted to find out now. Once she got into something Caren couldn't hold back. But if the men were hunting Mary, she got to help her. Caren watched her carefully and thought that she was a nice girl and not someone who would hurt people with her magic.

The night went on and Caren couldn't find another hint in the conversation of the men next to her. She decided to get some sleep and she stepped onto the stairs. Finally, in her room, she sat in a corner near the door and rested her head on the wall. She closed her eyes an laid the Cape around herself. Before she slept Caren thought that even the ground in the forest was a better bed than the room she was in.
Carens eyes shot open. Had she been sleeping? She was not sure. Didn't felt like it. Her whole Body ached and her head was still so heavy. With her hand she massaged her forehead.
Turmoil from below caught her attention. There was something wrong in the taproom. Quietly Caren stood up and opened the old door.
She slipped along the floor and looked down the stairs. The men who were sitting near her the evening seemed to have started a fight. At least it seemed so, because they stood around Mary and held knives in their hands. One of them shouted so loud that even without wanting to hear it, she could clearly understand what he said: "Filthy witch! No need to deny it, we already know. There is a little bounty set on every head of a witch. It's a shame that someone so pretty had been obsessed by the power the magic promised." While saying this he came closer to Mary, who held her chin high. There was no sign of fear in her face. Caren admired her for this, being brave enough to endure those glitchy, human creatures. The men came even closer. That was the moment Caren could no longer stand still. She rapidly stepped down the stairs and found her way through the people gathering around. Caren's thoughts were filled with anger, none of the humans wanted to help an unarmed girl. Instead of laying things beside with words, she just stepped behind the man and stabbed him in the upper leg. The men, shocked by the pain, screamed loudly and turned to face the bad guy, but Caren already circled around him and took Mary by the hand. Shocked by the action of Caren the other men stared at her and let her pass.
Caren dragged Mary to follow the dragonewt to the door, to escape into the protective shadows of the night.
Finally a few streets away in a little dead end they stopped and Caren let go of Mary's hand. "Who are you and why did you helped me?", Mary asked, a little out of breath. While saying her name Caren removed her hood and looked the girl infront of her directly into the eyes.