Running away was supposed to be the best decision Haek ever made. It wasn’t.

Starving, dirty, and poor, Haek didn’t have any energy to go on. His family hated him, so returning was no longer possible. His village despised him, and thought that he was better off dead. What was he supposed to do in the middle of the Werinin woods? There wasn’t another village for miles.

Groaning, he set off for the nearest village, Cartanotha. The town was well known for being a stopping point for most migrating Avios. Avios were half bird- half human. Most of the townspeople didn’t mind Avios as they were kind to the natives. Personally, Haek had only met one in his entire life.

It was then that Haek saw the burning orange embers floating down around him in the night sky. He looked around. Where would a fire be coming from all the way out here? His first thought was a forest fire, but it was too wet for something like that. The tree’s would simply stop burning because all of the tropical rain they received during the summer months here.

He spotted the fire a few hundred yards from where he stood. The closer he got, the more he noticed. The fire opened up to a valley in between the hills. And then he got closer and realized it was buildings on fire.

“Hello? Anyone here?” Haek shouted. He couldn’t hear anything over the roaring flames. He couldn’t imagine this village really being empty. There had to be people here. Haek waded further into the fire, and listened for anyone’s reply.

None came. The only noise was the collapsing of buildings around him. He stood in what would have once been considered the villages main street. But now it was just a flatten dirt trail in the middle of the woods.

“Help! Someone help!” A woman shrieked. Haek took off in the direction of the screaming woman. He couldn’t tell where it was coming from. Frantically, he looked at all of the buildings. There was no way anyone could still be alive if they were trapped in those huts.

The screaming came again, but was muffled by the sound of wood falling. Haek turned to see a woman outstretched in the doorway. She was crushed by the wood plank that was meant to hold up her door. Her head and arms stuck out from the wood and in her hands was a small baby wrapped in a pink blanket.

“Please! Save my baby!” she begged Haek. The fire was swooping in around her. Haek hurried over to the hut and tried to lift the heavy piece of wood off of her. He was strong but not nearly strong enough to lift it off of her. He didn’t have any ideas. The woman screamed in pain as the fire burned her legs.

“You can’t save me. Save her. Save my baby, please!” The woman was desperate. She couldn’t even take her withering eyes off of her baby. Haek didn’t believe for a second that he couldn’t do more to help this woman though.

“Okay. I’ll take her.” Haek rushed out. The woman let out one more painful wail before handing over the child to Haek. He took the baby and moved her to the middle of the dirt compacted road. She would be safe there for a moment while he worked on freeing the baby’s mother.

“No! No, you have to get her somewhere safe! They’re after her! Get out while you still can!” The woman screamed. She barely had the energy to flail her arms around anymore. Haek found the biggest piece of wood he could that wasn’t on fire, and tried wedging it under the heavier wood.

Haek pushed and pushed on the wood. With a final effort, he slammed down on his leverage, and it snapped in half. The woman was truly stuck. She would burn alive there.

“Get out of here! Take her and run!” The lady screamed. She clawed at the dirt as the fire consumed her lower body. Haek backed away as the shock and fear rolled over him. This woman was dying. And her baby- her baby needed help.

Haek turned to see a man adorned in metal armor marching through the flames of the village. He carried a long staff with a bright red stone at the top. It lit up the night air with a ruby red glow.

Haek sprinted toward the baby at the same time that the man in the armor did. He tripped and stumbled forward. Haek landed with his face in the dirt but with his arms around the baby. Haek struggled to his feet with the baby in his arms and ran as fast as he could. The armored man bellowed at him to stop in the name of the king, but that wouldn’t stop Haek. He didn’t belong to this king.

As Haek ran, the witch’s midsection was starting to burn. She was dying, and yet, she was still protecting her baby. Little did Haek now, but the witch had managed to catch a lock of his hair. And in catching his lock of hair, the witch wrapped it around a hawk’s feather. The feather glowed as she spoke the incantation that would forever bind her baby to the man who saved her life.

“The hawk in the sky protects like me, saving her life, it seems.” The witch uttered low. The feather whizzed from her hands. It danced through the air, leaving the ever-fading glow of a hawk behind.

The feather whizzed passed the warlock as he hunted down the witch for the last time, and made a beeline for Haek. Waiting until the boy was a safe enough distance away from the burning village, the feather struck. With the pointed side down, it stabbed Haek in the back right shoulder blade.

His movements felt sluggish as he fell to his knees. The bushes around him would offer him limited cover for the night, in case the man came looking for him. The baby gurgled when Haek set her down next to him. He felt really tired- like pass-out-drunk tired. The ground invited him, even beckoned him to lay down on it. And that he did.

Haek wasn’t awake long enough to even remember laying down.

***

The hangover the next morning was terrible. Haek pressed his free hand to his temple. He tried to release some of the pressure that was trying to crush his skull in. The pounding was only made worse by the sound of a crying baby.

Now, Haek was no stranger to a wild and drunk night. But waking up next to a crying baby? And not to mention the fact that he didn’t remember going to a bar last night. He didn’t have the money to afford beer at the current moment.

When the wails of the baby seemed to rip apart is very brain matter, Haek sat up and rubbed his eyes open. He was laying in dirt on the side of the road. He was shrouded by a large elephant plant leaf and the baby was beside him. No one else was around.

The memories seemed to flood back into his mind.

The fire, and the woman. The baby and that armored man. All of it came flashing back into his mind. Haek picked up the baby and did his best to shush her. He wasn’t sure who that man with the evil looking staff was, but he didn’t want to risk being found.

“Shush, shush.” The baby was not having any of that. She screeched and wailed. Haek wasn’t sure how much the baby could truly understand, but he knew that if he had to watch his mother burned alive, he’d be crying even louder than the baby was.

His back itched and he shifted to scratch just below his shoulder blades. He froze when his hand brushed something soft. The sudden heaviness around his shoulders clued him in that something was not right.

He picked up his small bag from the ground and stood up. His legs were shaky and unstable in holding up this new found weight. The baby was still cradled uncomfortably in his right arm.

A stream of running water could be heard splashing down the mountainside nearby. Haek decided that the stream would be his first priority. And then it would be finding his way to Cartanotha to drop off the baby. The baby wasn’t his to keep, and even if he did keep her, he wouldn’t be able to take care of her. He could barely take care of himself.

The water beckoned him closer. His mouth was so dry and his head ached from dehydration. Being on the road for so long made it hard to find a good drink of water. Haek found the bank of the stream and lowered himself down onto his knees. With the baby in one hand, he freed the other to wash off his face.

Haek cupped water in the palm of his hand and he slurped it up unsatisfying. After he had his fill of drinking water, he peered into his reflection. Haek noted the baby bundle in his left hand, and the necklace that hung loose around his neck.

His eyes drifted to something he hadn’t noticed before. White and long things stuck out from his back. They accounted for all the extra weight he felt, and that thing that stabbed him in the back last night.

Wings. There was wings on his back.

He let out an ear shattering scream and scrambled back from the water’s edge. The scream woke up the baby and she started to cry even louder than Haek’s outburst.

Haek sat there, with a crying baby in his arms, wings on his back, and not a penny to his name. Where had his life gone so wrong?