Feathers on the wind

Prologue

Author's Note

Hey Guys, this is my first book and i want to see if you like it. Never written much before but I love to read... beware of spelling and gramma... but otherwise enjoy!

Alina's POV

Some people say that my clan is cruel in its existence, barbaric even. Accordingly we are a variation of human that should have long ago been wiped out. A variation that differs from humans and their spirits in a way that leaves them frightened, terrified enough for them to justify the destruction of our sacred places and the complete annihilation of our livelihoods. Scared of us in a way that the genocide of my people has been rationalized as a necessary sacrifice that they must make.

Until today we have suffered in silence and arranged treaty after treaty to stop the violence. But that was before the murder of innocents, before they bombed our homes, our schools and our hospitals. Before I lost my family.

The screams of the wounded ring in my ears as I trudge through the wreckage. The air is acrid with smoke and the scent of charred meat. The forest, our home, is a wasteland of fallen trees. The bodies of loved ones found in the destruction are piled in family groups. Wings protrude from the piles, shredded, feathers stripped by the shrapnel.

There are too many dead, so many that I fear the funeral pyre will burn brightly tonight.

I don't know where I am walking. A cold wind brushes my dirty tear-streaked face, bringing with it the taste of ashes.

The once glowing Tree-City of Loivissa has fallen. Thousands of lives with it. We who are left number less than three hundred, but a reckoning on the humans there will be. Today we will mourn, but tomorrow... tomorrow we will summon the clans and for the first time in many centuries we will speak of war.

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