Worry

The people of the village had just escaped the hungry wolfs and were now in sledges, escaping towards the count's house. Afriel's mom was in one of the first sledges.

It was completely packed with people and all of them very worrying. Luckily, the attackers were wolfs and not goblins, otherwise they would have had to rebuild the village.

In the north there weren't a lot of bandits either so they were really happy to get out and after some time, return to their old homes. Only one worrying in the sledge was Afriel's mom. She had sent her son away to help a woman but he had not returned to her sledge.

She knew, that Afriel was strong and would not miss the boat, however something still pressured her mine. The ride into the count's house would take at least three days and for that whole time, she would not meet him.

She went to sleep that night and tried to forget what was going on. She slept and started to see a dream. She saw Afriel. That adorable black hair and green eyes. How he ran around the house with his wooden dolls

She put on a warm smile while thinking of those things. Then the dream changed. Everything felt cold and dark, she seemed to be in some kind of cave.

She walked and looked around until her eyes fell on a boy.

She looked closer and saw the trembling body of Afriel, she gasped loudly, terrified of what she is seeing.

She heard him complaining.

"It's cold. There's no food. I want my mom."

She shed tears and tried to walk closer to him, but then she returned to the shed. She was awake, she was breathing heavily and glancing around.

It was just a dream. She then noticed a piece of break on her lap. Someone had seemed to give it to her. She took it and ate it.

Thinking about her dream, the worries grew. She tried to look for other sheds in hope of seeing Afriel. They were too far away, however.

The sheds would stop for some breaks but they wouldn't stop at the same time. She could only hope for Afriel to be well.

Back in the village a boy woke up. He weakly opened his eyes. He looked around him by weakly moving his head and wondered how he was alive.

He then noticed the dead wolf in front of him. He backed away shocked about it. He backed away closer to the forest from the path. His back slightly hit a tree and it fell down.

He was even more shocked as he stared the just fallen tree. It took him sometime to progress what happened. He started to observe his body and saw some changed.

His bandage was broken from his right palm. Like something had pierced it. His leg was still missing but the wound had healed. It was not bleeding; it wasn't dirty or infected even.

It then took him some more time to notice the weird feeling on his back.

It felt like he had large hands with no fingers there. He touched his back and felt it. The soft and hairy back made him realize it. He had awakened into to an Elvian warrior.

He started jumping from joy. He couldn't wait to test his strength, to slay monsters and earn money. He however noticed something; he had no idea how to use his abilities.

He hoped, that when he arrived at the bigger city, the guild would teach him. He then started to feel other things about his evolved body.

He didn't feel cold in this weather, he felt hotter, his heartbeat was faster like blood was moving three times faster. He noticed the new muscles on his body.

He had even grown in height. He was now 160 cm. He couldn't see his wings and there was nothing to check it with but he thought that he could check them at the guild.

The nearest city took a week on foot, for a normal human and although Afriel couldn't fly, he was still fast. However, there was a small problem, he had only one leg.

He couldn't run with just leg, how could that even work. So, he had to think of a solution. And he thought of one.

He went back into the forest and found a cup; it was a metal cup. Then he took some string and rope, and a leg from a table.

From those he crafted a leg that was not very advanced or good, but with it, he could walk or run for some time, before it broke.

So, he practiced a while and then when he felt like he was ready.

So, he faced towards the direction he was supposed to go, got ready mentally and started running.

Snow was flying behind him like a storm, he couldn't see trees fully, just as slim lines as he ran through the forest. He didn't feel tired for running at such a speed at all.

It took him half a day of running at foot speed until the nature started changing, soon it wasn't snow what was falling behind him, it was dirt. The trees were full of leaves and there wasn't almost any snow.

He knew that the wings would let him go faster, but he couldn't control them like that yet.

Although they felt like hands with no fingers, he still couldn't control them. He approached the city gates and saw the tall walls of the city.

The villages gate felt like a wood fence compared to this. It was over ten meters tall and had no gaps. He didn't know about the thickness but watching the gate, it was probably thick.

However, he couldn't confirm it. Because when he took a step closer to the gate, an arrow landed at his feet. He looked up and saw a guard standing with a bow on his hand.

"Begone you demon!".

Afriel was confused at what the man was saying. He could only raise an eyebrow, weren't Elvians respected warriors that.

"No one wants your demons here, take your demon wings elsewhere!"

Afriel was even more confused, he saw no monsters near him so what was the soldier talking about. But the as he was going to shoot another arrow, he ran away.

Demon wings, what was he talking about? Then something hit him, he ran into the forest and soon saw them. The large black wings on his backs. There were even two horns on his head.

Scared of his image on the river he fell on his back and broke the fake leg he had made.