Westward

Chapter 1

I'm in the light. I feel it shining on me. I keep my eyes closed and try not to worry about anything. 

It's not working. All I do is worry. Worry about my sister, my brother, my aunt, Burn, and basically every living thing I have ever come across. I open my eyes. I can't think like this, I decide. 

I head back to the cottage, the path seems almost too easy to follow. When I was little I would get lost so easy, yet now I can find it in my sleep. 

I'm walking past the lake, like I do every day and the naiads giggle and beckon me to join them. Like I have everyday, I ignore them. Today I don't add my usual laugh. I can't seem to laugh after last month. 

My walk to the cottage ends abruptly when I almost run into the door. I had forgotten to make it visible. I sighed as I snapped my fingers twice, paused, thrice, paused, and then once more and my small cottage appeared. I opened the door and entered in. I snapped once, paused and snapped twice. The cottage should be invisible.  Burn was on her chair and she was snoozing away. I pet her scales and kissed her warm nose. She hadn't moved an inch since I left. I walked into the kitchen and prepared Burn her breakfast. Mice. She loved centaur flesh, but that would be illegal, so a mouse it is. I give her 20, a little less than her usual breakfast and then started preparing mine. 

I had a nice Cockatrice egg that was almost as big as me. I didn't eat all of it, but I did eat more than I usually would. Maybe I knew I needed to be extra fueled today. Today I would need it. I would be leaving. I heard some sickening sounds coming from the the living room and I ran in there as quick as I could. It was only Burn, finishing her mice. 

"Good morning, to you" I said to Burn as the last mouse disappeared. 

She gave me the closest thing to a smile. 

I gave her my closest thing to a smile and she hopped off the chair. 

Her beautiful purple blue scales passed across my hand and reflected the sunlight streaming through the front window. 

I loved Burn. We're linked. When she dies, I die. When I die, she dies. I was born the day she was and I haven't been able to live without her since. 

I looked around at my small cottage I had lived in for 20 years. I looked at the old pots and pans I had used, what my family had used, I looked at the worn old chair that my grandfather used to sit in. I looked at the old mirror that hangs on the wall. I saw myself, cocoa skin, bright green eyes and jet black hair that was cut close to my scalp. I tried smiling, but couldn't. 

I grabbed my long purple cloak and tied the golden strings together, creating a safety bubble around me. I had enchanted it long ago to let Burn in. I grabbed anything else I would need for the journey and tried to prepare myself. 

"Let's see if I can do this." I said aloud. 

I walked outside of my cottage and started in on my Step Dad's old magic. I can't do magic on my own, so I have Burn lend me strength and a bit of her magic through her one of her horns touching my hip. I closed my eyes.  I focused on every memory, every trinket, every object in my cottage and just as my magic was failing, I snapped my fingers twice. Snapping was the only way I could channel my magic now. It's sad it was coming to this. My eyes flew open and I saw the tiny pendant on the ground where my cottage was. I had successfully compressed my cottage!

I hugged Burn and kissed her on the horn, still hot from transferring magic. 

I walked over to the pendant and picked it up. I found a long piece of twine and put the pendant on it. I tied the two ends of the string together and I put it around my neck. It rested right over my heart. I clutched it close. It was the only home I had ever had. 

I moved out quickly, before I could react to the loss of my woods, my forest, my trees, my friends. I needed to leave.  I headed West, just like my story said. West to the Evermountains. West would shape my future, my present and past. West would find my purpose. 

I traveled until I got to my Pegasus. Angel would carry me most of the way. Her white wings lifted us into the sky with Burn trailing behind us. 

"You know where to go," I whispered into Angel's ear. She neighed and kept on prancing through the sky. 

I looked behind me ever so often to see if Burn was keeping up okay. She was born premature and as a Beag Dragon, she was extra small. Her small wings would tire quite easily.  She seemed to be keeping up. I tried not to worry, but I can't seem to stop worrying when I start to. 

We traveled for hours, never stopping. It was getting close to lunch time and Burn was well, burned out. 

We all decided to stop. I wasn't sure if I should pull up the cottage and get food from there or stop somewhere. I hadn't bought much food in weeks because I had been trying to make my cottage as light as I could for the compression magic. Hunger gripped my sides. I knew what I had left in my cottage and it wasn't anything very good... Needless to say, we decided to go to a tavern. 

I told Angel to stay outside and to just fly around a bit. I promised her food. I brought Burn inside with me and kept her close. When I walked in, only a few people were there. I asked for some nice dinner and sat down with Burn. I looked more closely at the people there. There was really buff elf, an ogre and a small centaur. The centaur looked shady and the ogre glared at me from across the room. I pulled my purple cloak closer and tried not to look at any of them. I couldn't let them know I was fully human. That would defeat the whole purpose of leaving home in the first place. 

Soon, my food came and after some more hostile looks, Burn and I decided to take our food outside. I gave some food to Angel, and Burn ate almost all of my food. She lit a tree on fire after because when she eats vegetables, she blows fire. It reminds me of why I named her Burn... When I had turned 1, I gave Burn a carrot, according to my mother, and she nearly killed me when she burned our carpet. All I would say after that was "burn!" So the name stuck and Burn was named Burn. I tried to change it so many times, but she wouldn't respond to anything else. 

So far, in all of our 20 years together, her true name hasn't revealed itself to me. I don't know if she has one for sure, but I hope it's more elegant than Burn. 

Once we got the fire out, we head West again. I decide not to ride Angel though because my legs  feel like lead. A good walk will help all of us. We walk for a while until we got to a really nice lake. It's beautiful and reflected the sky high above us. When I disturb the water just a bit, it creates ripples that warp the water to reflect an abstract sky. My lake at home never seemed to do that. What else of the world haven't I seen?

We decide to stay by the lake for the night. Early night, early rise. We will get better time that way. 

To be truthful, I'm actually worried about sleeping. I don't want my past to visit me again. My body feels to clumsy and too numb to do much about it so I end up going to sleep before I can try to stop myself.