1 The beginning of her story

"Al..., Ali..., Alice! In gods name, Alice, wake up already! The suns up since a while ago and you still have to go to the other villages. Today it's your turn, don't you remember?"

"Huh...? Mom? What is going on? Haaaammmm...", still half asleep, Alice yawned long and loud, not befitting a lady.

"Good morning, sunshine!"

"Haaaammmm", Alice yawned again, rubbing her eyes and stretching her limbs.

*pop* *pop* *popopopopopopop*

She stretched her limbs one after another until her joints gave off a satisfying popping sound one after another, driving away that feeling of pressure and stiffness she had every morning.

*snap*

Her mother gave her a flick on the forehead.

"Ouch! Mom!"

"Is your head made of stone?!", her mother asked exasperatedly while blowing on her finger.

"Hmpf! Suits you!

"You know exactly that I don't like it when you crack with your joints like that!"

"But didn't the doctor say that it doesn't do anything to my body?"

"Pah, that quack? How could it be anything good to make sounds with your joints they are definitely not supposed to do? In the first place, it is that sound I don't like! It sounds nasty! Haaaaa... Whatever, now get going, you still have to go to the other two villages today, you don't have the time to dillydally! You can eat your lunch on the way, I packed it for you already."

"Urgh, I don't want to! Do it yourself, I want ta sleep!"

Turning around in her bed, Alice remembered.

The village that Alice lived in was only one of the many nameless villages that one could find almost everywhere on the great land. To be exact, it was a small hunters village. In her village lived never more than twenty people and everyone was related to each other in one way or another.

The village was directly next to a small forest, it was there where they would go hunting for animals and collecting different kinds of herbs and mushrooms. That forest was the only source of food and income in close proximity because the surrounding land wasn't suitable for farming or rearing cattle.

Instead, there were two other villages, both around two to three hours away by foot. One specializes in raising livestock and one in agriculture. Because of that, they were frequently trading with each other, and that was what Alice was supposed to do today. Normally she could visit both villages and get home again in half a day, but this time she wasn't going there to play, she would have to pull a cart with their products and the goods she would exchange them for. For that reason, she had to leave early if she wanted to get home before it got dark.

She really didn't want to do that, she would be walking for most of the day and it was in the middle of an especially hot summer right now.

"Get up, lazybug! You want your old and weak mother to run around the whole day in this heat? "

"Hrrmmmm...", Alice moaned in her bed unwillingly.

"Get up or I will throw you outside, then you can get changed in front of the house!"

Hearing her mothers threat, Alice panicked and tried to think of another excuse.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you!"

"Hooh? And why if the lady cares to enlighten me?", her mother asked, sneakily putting her arms around Alice exposed back.

"You will hurt yourself, you are old and weak after all!"

"Don't get naughty! I can at least handle that much!", saying so, Alice mother hugged Alice from behind and lifted her from her bed.

"Ahhhhh! Stop! I'm going, I'm going!"

Her mother let her down and Alice picked up the clothes that were lying beside her bed. She turned around and left the house through the backdoor in her room. In the small garden behind the little house stood a big washbasin filled with clear water. After washing away the sweat on her body with the refreshingly cold water, she put on the simple shirt and the short skirt her mother had prepared for her.

Now fully clothed, Alice turned towards the basin once again. Breathing out shortly and then back in until nothing more fit, she held her breath. In one swift motion, she put her whole head under water, using her hands to wash and comb her hair, until she couldn't hold her breath anymore.

*Puuaaaah*

She let out all the bad air from her lungs and took a few moments until she could breathe normally again.

She still stood whole time with her head over the basin so that her hair could drip off until it was at least not drenched anymore. She started to shake her head like a dog would his body to speed up the process, making her mother soaking who was standing right behind her. When she saw her mother, Alice turned around and asked cheekily:

"Mother, why are you so wet? You could catch a cold if you run around like this! By the way, could you help me with my hair, please?"

"What a funny little lady you are!", her mother said with a little mock anger.

"What do you think why I was waiting here for you?"

"Thanks!"

Turning her back to her mother, she sat on a little stool that stood beside the washbasin. Her mother took out the beautiful small comb she had inherited from her own mother and started to comb Alice's hair.

Alice had always been proud of her hair and thus took good care of it. She had the beautiful wavy curls of her mother, but instead of the dark blonde and brown hair that everyone else in the three villages had, she had the fiery red hair of her father.

Her father was originally one of those rare few travelers that would visit the villages only a few times every year. It seemed that her father was originally a traveling mercenary, so when he settled down in this village and married Alice mother, he hadn't a hard time learning to hunt, as he was already learned with bow and arrow and also knew how to lay traps.

"Bye Mom, Dad! Bye Pete!", she said her goodbyes to her parents and her older brother.

Pete, Alice older brother, was five years older than her and was already learning how to hunt. Alice should have another big brother, Daniel, but he had died from sickness, not even a year after he got born, so Alice never met him. Different from Alice, Pete had the brown hair of his mother and the same brown eyes that everyone else had, but Alice still thought that he was much better looking and nicer than the other boys so she was very proud of her brother.

Considering that everyone in the village had the same brown eyes, even Alice father and brother, she had always thought it weird that she was the only exception. Alice's eyes were of a beautiful emerald green color.

Half an hour after she got out of her bed, she was already on her way, pushing the heavy handcart with one hand and holding a loaf of bread in the other.

"By Gramps!", she said to the old man that sat in front of the last house in the village.

"Good luck, little fairy! Be careful that you don't get a heatstroke!"

He was the oldest person in all three villages, he was already over seventy years old, much longer than the average fifty-five to sixty years other people lived for, and he was still going strong. He was so old that there were even rumors between the children of the other villages that the old man was immortal.

When she finally left the village and had eaten up her breakfast, her hair had long dried and she was sweating under the summer sun. At that moment, she didn't want anything more than taking a refreshing bath in the small river in the forest.

Still, she didn't stop walking and started to whistle a little melody to distract herself from the heat. She had to, as reaching the next village was the only way to refill her waterbag with fresh water. The water her mother had filled it with was already lukewarm.

....

Three hours later, she finally reached the next village. As the wind had been blowing in the right direction and it was hot as well, she had been assaulted for the last half an hour by the stench of cow dung and feces of the other livestock.

Alice had always liked this village the least, especially at this time of the year. That was also why she was coming here first because that stink only became worse later at the day as it gets hotter. Also, there was a little stream on the way to the next village where she could wash the smell of. She didn't want to go to bed like that when she would be coming home this evening.

She was still some time away from the village when she heard a voice:

"Yo, you here already? So our village comes first today? You just couldn't wait to see me, right, Alice?"

His name was Michael. He was twelve years old, two years older than Alice. He had brown hair and eyes and everything in his face just seemed to be a little bit too large. Considering that he could be a real a*s sometimes, his only redeeming feature was his strong body frame, that didn't really fit his age.

He was the only person in the three villages who Alices wanted to hit in the face regularly. But he was also the only one besides the grownups who was stronger than her, so she didn't dare to risk it.

She had mostly inherited the good looks of her mother, the only two things she had from her father were his hair color and his ancient blood. There were only one out of a hundred people that had ancient blood. It was said that in those people the blood of the old races manifested itself. This mostly expressed itself in the form of a strengthened body. Some got faster, some stronger and some had higher stamina, in some rare cases, it showed itself in form of a mutation of the body.

In Alice case, the blood was especially strong. She was faster, stronger and had better stamina than most boys, even those older than her, and even her five senses were strengthened. She even healed faster than other people and most small cuts would already be fully healed after a good nights rest. That was also the reason why the Grandpa was calling her ‚little fairy'. She had beautiful, big and long eyes, and her ears were slightly pointy. The Grandpa was claiming that these were all characteristics of the beautiful fairy race.

All in all, there were only upsides to her ancient blood, the only downside being Micheal. He had a crush on Alice since he had learned what love is and probably already before that. That in itself wasn't a problem since he wasn't the only boy like that, much to the dismay of the other girls. The problem was that Michael would always wait in front of the village like he did this time as well, and would continue to pester her until she left. That was annoying, but as Alice was used to it she had long learned how to deal with him. The real problem was, that he wasn't really the brightest person around. Claiming that he was the only one who was ‚worthy' of Alice, as he was the only boy who was stronger than her, he would start fights with the other boys because of that on a regular basis.

"Hy Micheal. Bye Micheal.", saying that she continued walking toward the village. Normally she could have just run away as he was strong but slow. But since she had the handcart, that was not possible this time.

"How could I let my little angel work hard like this! Give me the cart, I will pull it for you!"

Thinking about the losses and gains from his proposal. Inflating his already large ego even further versus not having to draw the cart anymore in this heat. She didn't have to think long before she gave Michael the handle of the cart.

Ten minutes later, they had reached the village entrance, where she heartlessly left Michael behind. He laid on the ground exhausted, without being able to lift a finger. He was strong, but neither was he bright nor did he have good stamina. There was a good reason why Alice was the only child of her age group who had to make those tours after all.

When she finally reached the village, she got greeted by some of the people that lived there. Most of the villagers were out, taking care of the cattle. But one of each family had stayed behind to trade with her.

"Oh, so it's you this week. Good day. What do you have this time with you?"

"Good day!The same as always. Meat, pelts, leather, well more leather than pelts, no one needs pelts in this heat anyway. Some herbs and mushrooms as well."

Like that, Alice exchanged greetings with almost every single person and after around half an hour of haggling and trading, Alice was about to take off again.

"By the way, you probably won't meet the others this time around. The one from the farming village wasn't here yet and ours has gone there first. So you have probably all gone in the same direction this time. Until next time!"

"Thanks, goodbye!"

This was something that would happen sometimes. It had established itself over time that the villages would trade like this regularly and all on the same day, it was simply the most efficient way. But they would still go in whatever direction they wanted first. Sometimes they would meet on the road and exchange some words, it was always a welcome distraction.

When she left the village again, Michael had caught up to her again.

"Until next time little angel! I hope we meet soon!"

"Bye. I hope not!", Alice answered bluntly. Alice was in a bad mood because of the heat and the smell, so she didn't have the motivation to be any nicer.

"No need to be so shy, you can just be honest!"

Rolling her eyes, Alice thought:

"I wonder what is larger. His ego or the hole in his head?"

....

After another half an hour of walking, Alice finally reached the small stream. She looked for a good place and finally found one after about five minutes of walking.

She left the handcart behind at the side of the street and hid behind a big stone where no one would be able to see from the street. But she would still be able to hear if someone came, especially with her sharp hearing.

After she had taken a short bath and refilled the water in her water bag once again, she took a short break in the shadow of the huge stone to eat and drink before continuing on her way once again.

....

When she was about an hour away from the farming village, Alice became a little nervous. On one side, because she was a little late and had to hurry, but on the other, she had the feeling that something wasn't right.

If she remembered correctly, they should have begun the harvest some time ago, but the fields were already all completely cleared out. They shouldn't be this fast as the fields were quite large. Also, when she strained her eyes a little, she could see that the fields were unusually dark in their latter halves.

After another half an hour, Alice finally realized what must have happened as she had gotten a closer look. To be exact, she found out what the black patches in the fields were. It seemed like the fields had caught on fire in the heat and completely burned down.

But she wondered, how bad must their luck be that all seven fields burn down in three days. Three days ago was the last time that she had met up with her good friend Cathy and at that time they had just started harvesting the day before.

Restless, Alice hurried up. Now she really wanted to know what had happened.

When she was only a few minutes away from the village, she began to feel the oppressive aura that surrounded the village. With every step she got closer, her instincts seemed to scream louder. Something happened, something bad, something dangerous.

It didn't take long until she saw the first villager, but something was wrong. He lied face down on the ground and wasn't moving.

The villager that was lying on the ground was a man, he must have passed out while leaving the village.

Alice left her cart behind too get to the man faster and get a closer look. He seemed to be hurt, so she had to help him.

When she got closer, she suddenly fell down on her knees in shock. She had seen the arrow that was sticking out of the back of the man head. She had only heard about such things in stories and never thought that it would happen in reality, the man was definitely dead. Other children her age may not be able to come to that realization as fast, but Alice was the daughter of a hunter family, so she knew what would happen if an arrow struck the head of a living being.

Alice was very shocked and afraid, almost as if she was in a trance, she slowly stood up and continued walking towards the village. What she saw there, was a massacre.

The farming village had been the largest of the three, there lived families of four to six in fifteen small houses. On a whole, they were over seventy people here.

When Alice entered the village, there were corpses everywhere. Strangely calm, Alice looked at the terrifying scene. Alice only stared blankly. In stories, people would be sad and angry if someone close to them died, or happy if it was an enemy, but Alice felt as if all her emotions were wiped blank. She didn't feel anything when looking at this scene and didn't know how to react.

Most of the dead men were in one place in the middle of the village. It seemed that it was there where they fought back at first. And, all of them were strongly mutilated, many had lost limbs or had several deep wounds.

On the other hand, the children where all further back and mostly killed with one attack. Either a slash of a sword or a single arrow if they had tried to run away.

The corpses of the women were the most unsettling, they were scattered all over the place, mostly alone, sometimes in groups of two or three and even some children in between. In one of those groups, Alice finally spotted Cathy together with her mother and another girl that Alice knew. All of them were stripped naked to some extent and were hurt all over, their bodies were covered in bruises and cuts until their whole bodies looked red.

After Alice had taken the whole scene in, that strange calmness from earlier dissipated and she felt something well up from inside of her. She fell to her knees and puked out everything she had eaten in the course of the day.

It took her a few minutes, but after she got up again and began to go back to her cart, she still didn't know how to feel. She knew everyone in that village to some degree and she was friends with many of the children that lived here. Deep down, she knew that she could never talk with them again, they would never run around together again or play games together. Never again would they work together trying to play tricks on the grownups or other children only to fail horrendously and run away laughing. Deep down she realized all this...

But right now, she was too shocked to make any sense of these feelings.

Just as she was thinking about who did this and why they would do this, a nagging feeling rose up inside her. There was something she had overlooked but she didn't know what!

She took her handcart again, steeled her heart and pulled it through the village, eyes only looking at the sky, trying not to think of the dead bodies.

Just as she left the village, she realized what that feeling was. The thing that she had overlooked. This village was placed where three roads met each other. Three roads, three ways to come and go. And she came from one of them without meeting even a single person on the way.

Suddenly her head became blank for a few moments, then she started running, leaving her cart behind. When the left the farming village in the direction of her home, she didn't need a hunter to find the traces, even she, who had never been on a hunt, could see that a huge number of people had passed through here recently.

....

Alice had never run like this before in her life. Normally the distance between the hunting and the farming village took around two hours and three with the cart, right now Alice had run the whole way without a stop. If the hottest time of the day hadn't been over already she might have collapsed on the way due to dehydration, but now she had run all the way in less than an hour and was barely holding on.

When Alice got closer to the entrance of the village, she saw four mounds of earth with crudely made wooden crosses on top of them. They were graves. In front of the graves laid a headless body, the limbs were turned in directions that would never be possible normally and it was covered in blood from the countless wounds that looked as if someone had slowly ripped small pieces of flesh out of the body. A little bit to the side stood a spear, pierced into the dry ground and on top of it was the missing head, like an offering or sacrifice to those who were buried there. The head looked just as disfigured as the body, but Alice could still tell whos head this was, it had the same red hair like her, the only person like that was her father.

At that sight, the complicated knot of emotions that had been accumulating in her head started to unravel itself. When Alice broke down where she was and her tears started to fall like an endless stream, a light summer drizzle started to fall, as if even the heavens were crying together with her.

....

The next few days had gone by without Alice even realizing. When she later tried to recall them, there would only be feelings of pain, sadness, and exhaustion.

In those few days, she lived from what she could find in the now empty houses. In those days Alice had dug graves for everyone in her village one by one. After she had done that, Alice even dug up the four graves at the village entrance and threw the remains of those people in the forest for the animals to feast on them, they didn't deserve a burial.

....

After Alice had done all she could, she recalled something that an old man had told her long ago while looking at the stick in her hand and thought:

"Is this what he meant? Is this the sign he was talking about? The start of my story, my fate...?"

After Alice had searched through the empty houses, she had collected everything she thought usefull and put them on another small handcart. She couldn't bring herself to go back to the farming village and take back the bigger handcart, but they luckily still had a smaller spare one in their village. She took all the food that she could find in the village, it was enough for a very long time and several water bags which she filled to the brim. Other than that she also had taken her blanket for the nights and several other smaller items. One of them was half of her mother's comb, the beautiful comb had been broken in half and Alice couldn't find the other one. Another thing was the walking stick that her father had been using when he came to this village for the first time.

Her father had always said that this simple stick was something very special, it was a simple, smooth and perfectly straight rod of around 180cm length. It was just thick enough to comfortably fit into an adults hands without being heavy and was made of a beautiful silvery white wood. Although it was very beautiful, Alice didn't understand what was so special about it.

....

Now that Alice had decided to leave, she had to make a decision. In which direction should she leave? Just like the farming village, the other two villages too had three paths to choose from.

The first possibility she excluded was to go back to the farming village, she never wanted to see that sight again! That was why she decided to first go to the last remaining village, to tell them what happened and then come back to walk in the other direction. But just as she was about to leave, she found the tracks of the people who had done this again.

At that moment she suddenly thought of Michael again, he had always been an annoyance and was quite stupid, and sometimes she really wanted to hit him, but in the end, she never really hated him as he was always very kind to her and always exhausted himself in the process of helping her. When she thought about seeing even those last people she had known dead, she couldn't help but get sad again.

"But... maybe,", she thought. "maybe they just passed through there and no one was hurt?"

But in the end, she never dared to confirm the truth, only holding on to the faint hope that there were still people in this world that she knew, that she wasn't completely alone.

That was why she decided to take the last path available to her. The one her father had taken a long time ago to come to this place. Alice didn't know what place laid at the end of this path, she only remembered that her father had once told her that the ocean was in that direction and it was also the direction the old man had left into many years ago. Suddenly she got rather curious about how it looked, those masses of water her father had told her about.

When she finally left the remnants of her little village, she wondered:

"Did that storyteller back then... Did he know that this would happen? If I meet him again I will ask him!"