Chapter 1: Fire and Freedom

The earliest memories I can even begin to remember, are dark ones. Dark, cold and painful. I remember feeling the pain all over my body, the bruises that felt as if they were pulsating like heartbeats. The cold air and dust I had inhaled every day from the beams of wood that were above me. I was a prisoner. But not any old prisoner, no. I was cast aside by my family and locked away where no one nor thing could find me. The footsteps I cower from were that of my fathers, he believed I was a demon.

He blamed everything misfortune on me. The death of my mother giving birth to me, the mountainous debt and the countless jobs he lost. And Why he did this you may ask? Not only was he a drunk but because of certain features I had upon my body. the very features that would qualify me as being the very thing that he truly believed I was. A demon.

A red bushy tail, two ears that stood straight upon my head and a cunning personality. Half Human... Half fox. But at the time I didn't know what a fox was, I had never seen or heard the outside world. Because of this I truly believed that I was the word that had been branded in my mind and left a scar. A Demon.

I suffered this treatment for five or six years before my farther had assaulted a guard in his drunken state. When they apprehended him, if I remember correctly, He barked like a madman that he had been possessed by the demon under his house. The military went the house immediately to find this said demon and exorcise it, they feared that it would bring misfortune to the town as well, that it would spread quicker than a plague.

They searched the house, tipping tables and pulling bookshelves from the wall, I could hear their footsteps and the clattering and snapping of wooden furniture breaking above me. I was scared, even more scared than the times my father would beat me. I didn't recognise these voices, they were angry, shouting at each other, saying words that I didn't understand. I didn't know what to do at all. I sat there, cradling my knees and rocking back and forth. I didn't make a sound. or at least I tried, tears of fear were rolling down my cheek and over my hand that cover my mouth, softening the sound of my little crying groans. I couldn't help it.

Then the sound of feet suddenly stop and I hear the basement latch open. I took a deep breath in and help it as my eyes fixated on the stairs at the far side of the room. There was a slight pause of hesitation before the wooden steps began to creek and squeak. I froze, I had no where to go. If I had known there was another way out I would have left years ago. And there it was, a metal plated boot, it was the first time I had seen something made of metal in my life. It stepped upon the stairs with a heavy shunt, a slight pause between each step. I hid myself in the shadows as the light of a lit torch began to slowly illuminate the stone and mossy room. The metal figure stood in the light and looked around the room before looking back up the stairs and shouted something. I didn't understand words back then but what I did know is that it was going to bring the rest the metal men down the stairs.

I exhaled slowly and took another deep breath in. I had to make a run for it, for my freedom, I just had to, I believed that I was going to die if I don't try and run. So I slowly emerged from the shadow. The metal man noticed me me and backed up against the rock wall and dropped the flamed torch onto the floor. My improved hearing could hear his metal coating shudder slightly as he slowly reached for the sharp shiny equipment that hung off his waist. He pointed it at me and and I could see him shaking as he lifted it. "Stay back demon!" he shouted through his head gear, as it echoed through the cellar. "Stay...Back... demon..." My fragile voice mimicked his as I tilted my head slightly in confusion. I stepped slowly and cautiously towards him, my bear feet moved silently on the cobbled floor. He shouted again, but this time louder "I said stay back!" His voice cracked slightly as I took another step and the torch upon the cold wet floor burnt out. He could no longer see me. I took this as my opportunity to break for my freedom. I darted past the metal man, knocking him back into the wall and i rushed up the stairs. I struggled slightly because my body was weak from starvation.

When I reached the top I was greeted by a not so welcome party of metal men as one took a swing at me with his sword. I tried to back away quickly but my slow and weak body wasn't quick enough and he cut my left cheek slightly. I let up a painful yelp and ran into a table, knocking of what ever debris and broken wood was on it onto the floor. I then bumped into another soldier who was holding another flaming torch and made him stumble back and trip over a beam of wood resulting in him going unconscious and dropping the torch. The fire quickly spread as the broken wood made it easy. setting books and wall panels ablaze. I panicked, this was the fist time I had seen the hellish fires. I jumped out a window and landed in a flower bed. I didn't stop to take in the sweet and freshening colours of the petal as I headed into the woods. My legs got more and more used to running and I became faster, trees flew by and the cool breeze passed through my hair. I began to smile, this was the first time i had ever experienced freedom. The smile turned into light chuckles and there wear not tears of fear running down my cheek but tears of happiness and relief. I couldn't believe it, after all this time. I was finally free