Kiara was forced from her home a year ago for possessing plant magic – now, tragedy has struck her village. Will she help the people who cast her out?
Kiara meandered through the sprawling tree house aimlessly. Lately, she’d found herself getting very bored. In her boredom, she’d expanded the tree house to more than three times it’s original size. It now spanned across a dozen trees and had more rooms than she could count. Certainly more than she needed, considering she was the only one living here.
She felt the long-familiar pang in her heart. “It’s better this way,” she told herself, as she always did. “It’s better if I am alone and hidden away.” It didn’t take the ache away. It never did.
She sighed and came to a stop at one of the balconies she’d fashioned by weaving smaller branches together with her plant magic. She gazed across the tree canopy and the woven branches that formed her sprawling home. The whole house had been created by her magic over the past year. It was hard to believe that a year had passed since she’d fled her home village in fear of her life. Tomorrow would be the one year anniversary.
Do they miss me? The thought flitted through her mind before she could stop it. “I doubt it,” she said brutally, in answer to herself. “You need to stop wishing about the past and concentrate on the future. You are dead to them, so they have to be dead to you.”
The ache in her heart only intensified.
Her nose twitched, bitter thoughts momentarily forgotten. Was that smoke? She inhaled deeply and scanned the tree tops. Definitely smoke. Where was it coming from?
Turning, she gasped. Not too far away, just beyond the edge of her forest, several thick black plumes rose, scattering small flakes of ash wherever the wind carried them.
Her stomach twisted. That was the direction of her village. Her family was there! She needed to go and help them.
They cast you out and abandoned you! part of her argued. They hate you! Your magic is a curse to them.
The faint sound of screams drifted to her ears. Gritting her teeth, she summoned her deep reservoirs of magic. She concentrated on the trees before her. Her magic quickly shaped them into a green tunnel that led straight to the village. She could be there in minutes.
A small part of her resisted. They will still hate you, no matter what you do!
She pushed that bitter part of herself away. “I’m not the monster they think I am. There are people in trouble! I won’t stand by and do nothing!”
She leapt off her balcony and pelted down the green corridor. As she passed through it, she drew the magic she’d used back into herself, causing the trees to go back to their usual positions. She may be about to go and help the people who’d cast her out, but that didn’t mean she was going to give them a clear route to her safe haven in the forest.
At the end of the tunnel, she came to a stop and surveyed the scene while she recovered her breath. The whole village seemed to be burning. She couldn’t believe how far the fire had spread. There was only a fraction of the village left unscathed – and that was perilously close to becoming engulfed in the flames.
Dismayed, she gazed at the destruction. “Why couldn’t my magic have been with water?” she muttered.
Day 24 already! I am honestly surprised that I have managed to get 500 words (or more!) of a story starter published up here everyday for nearly a month! 🙂 It takes a lot of energy to think of a new idea from nothing everyday, let alone write a coherent starter from it! 😀 Hope you continue to enjoy them!
Is this one of your favourite 500-word-story-starters? Click the heart to like it and it may become a fully-fledged story! –> 2