#3

When Katya stepped into the Second Wood she immediately found herself face to face with a beautiful girl with menacing expression, teeth bared, tensed to fight. The first thing she registered was the terrifying hostility, and the second thing was the girl’s antler and half antler, which sprouted up out of a tangled mess of brown hair.

            After a moment to place what was before her, Elva hissed. “Human,” she spat, pawing the ground with a hoof and narrowing her eyes to slits. She sniffed the air and could smell the unnatural, sweet smell of warm human flesh.

            Katya thought quickly, wondering if this wild-looking girl would hate her more or less if she revealed that she was a half-breed. She knew people in the Second Wood were often distrusting of other races in their own world, but she reasoned that anything was most likely better than human.

“Only half human,” she said quietly, holding her hands up. “And unarmed. Please, I mean no harm.” Elva’s hazel eyes widened in disbelief; she had never heard of a half human before. Most creatures of the second wood found humans inferior and repulsive.

“Impossible,” Elva scoffed, looking Katya up and down. She noted the girl’s leather boots, blonde braid reaching down nearly to her waist, and pale, dirt-smudged face. “You look entirely human to me.”

Katya pursed her lips and considered the tan, dirt-smeared girl in front of her. “That’s what my mother was hoping when she cut off my wings as an infant,” she admitted to the girl, who looked to be about 15 but with a harshness around her eyes that made her seem older. “I promise you, I was born with the marks of my kind.”

Elva looked stricken once again- “you’re lying. Invels only do such things to criminals, just as my people do.” Katya sighed and shrugged off her fur coat, exposing her skin to the cold to reveal an array of scars across her chest and down her arms.

“She burned my skin where it was gold and silver,” Katya said. She let Elva stare at the marks in horror for a few moments, then pulled her coat back over her shoulders, shivering a bit. “My mother married a human man,” Katya explained sadly, “she just wanted me to belong to the human world.”

“Even if you are telling the truth,” Elva said, setting her jaw, “My people are no friends of the Invels. We govern ourselves.” “Your people?” Katya demanded, eyebrows raised as her eyes flickered across Elva’s bruised face and up to her broken antler, on which a strange-looking bird had perched and was now staring at her with large empty sockets. “And where are your people?”

Elva flinched and this comment, then glared at Katya. “Fine. You are right- they are not my people any more.”

Katya nodded slightly and said gently, “you see? Neither of us have a people.”

The two girls stared at one another, Katya hopeful but trying to look like a strong and competent traveler, Elva looking entirely suspicious. “I’m Katya,” Katya announced suddenly, “what’s your name?”

“Elva.” After speaking, the girl looked surprised and rather annoyed at herself for responding. Katya smiled and hurried on, “nice to meet you Elva. Listen, these woods aren’t safe to travel alone.” Elva snorted. “Not for you,” she said. “Not for anyone,” she admitted darkly after a moment, staring off into the dark woods.

“I’m not incompetent,” Katya informed Elva firmly. “I can fight. I have a knife, which I’m fairly certain you don’t have. Plus I can climb trees, and my mother taught me about herbs with medicinal properties.” Elva’s expression didn’t change, but Katya knew she was listening. “But I’m looking for someone,” she added slowly, gauging the other girl’s reaction to her words. “A man who works for the king.”

Elva’s eyes flashed, and she turned to look at Katya so quickly the skeletal bird was unsettled and flew away, empty eyes still turned towards Katya. “You’re going to the Golden City?” She said sharply.

The Golden City was where the ruling class dwelled. From what Elva could gather it was the center of power in the Realm. It had a reputation as a city of fashion and sparkling parties, but was where nobles sought power through a network of lies and carefully spun webs of deceit. Elva had been taught to abhor everything not of the Second Wood, especially the great far-off cities that shined so brightly with unnatural light that they dimmed the stars.

 “No,” Katya assured her. It was a lie; the Golden City was her ultimate destination, but she had things to do first. “I’m looking for Copperville. There’s a wizard who lives just on the outskirts of that town who I need to find.”

Elva shrugged, her holding chin in the air and looking disdainfully at Katya. “Why would I help you go there? The forest is my home, and I am no guide.”

“Because the wizard who is there can do for you what he can do for me,” Katya said with a half smile that made Elva’s skin crawl. She felt tremors of excitement coming from Katya, who stepped forward towards her. Elva held her ground.

“He can return what’s been taken from us,” Katya said, pulling her fur coat open once more to reveal swirls of badly healed burns on her pale flesh.

(This is my pathetic attempt to recreate Chiara Bautista's style of drawing! She's my favorite artist, and every segment of this story is based on a drawing by her.)