The Crown of Claws

Chapter 1: Exile and Ember

The gates closed behind him with a sound that felt too final.

Leo stood at the edge of the orphanage grounds, watching the world beyond in silence. His wild red hair flickered in the cold wind like a dying flame. Behind him, no one called his name. No one begged him to stay.

The sky was overcast, heavy with unshed rain, and the forest ahead loomed like a mouth waiting to swallow him whole. He didn’t flinch. He had nowhere else to go.

They said he was trouble.
They said strange things happened when he was around.
They said he wasn’t normal.

But Leo had never seen anything strange about himself—only the fear in their eyes whenever that faint claw-shaped scar on his arm began to burn softly in the night.

He didn’t know what he was.
But they didn’t want to find out.

His clothes were thin, barely holding warmth. His boots were too small. His bag was nearly empty. Still, he didn’t hesitate as he stepped off the path and into the woods, where the world would no longer protect or pity him.

The wind howled behind him.
The trees whispered.
And in the shadows, something unseen stirred.

Leo didn’t look back.

He had been cast out.
But this wasn’t the end.
It was the beginning.