Page 46 - North Star Magazine 2022

The Way We Are, Chapter 1
by River Ashe
The cries of joy were hesitant at first, mirroring the flickers of the torches as they struggled against the massive piles of kindling and forest debris that had been propped up against the house’s sides. As they caught and began to burn
in earnest and the first panicked shouts of the unlucky inhabitants reached the raiders’ ears, the jubilation turned to a roar that drowned out everything except the devouring fire itself.
Each time a scream was heard, the revelry grew somehow louder, an echoing testament of cruelty to the surrounding forest and the tall, shivering body of the child crouched behind the burning house, out of sight just behind the treeline.
For every pop and crackle of her childhood home, the girl flinched as if struck. Her long arms were wrapped around her slender frame, trying to warm herself, but the only heat came from the blaze behind her and she could not stop shivering.
Laena could have easily squinted against the harsh light of the flames;
if she had, she would have barely been able to make out the silhouettes of two crosses in what used to be the family’s living room, short sides touching as if their crucified burdens were holding hands even as they burned. Though she couldn’t see them from her position, she knew that the rubble would have four more smaller posts arranged in front of the gruesome grave markers. The abrasions on her wrists from the ropes would attest to their presence for years to come. Branded into the backs of her eyelids were their fair, angular faces; her parents and her adoptive siblings, all gazing at her with expressions far more blankly neutral than she had ever seen in life. Gods, what monsters could the raiders be that she was already beginning to forget her mother’s smile? Though, truth be told, that smile had not been seen in some time.
These were dark days. The Hunt had begun again, her mother would whisper as she kissed Laena’s curls. Being so young and full of ignorance, Laena understood none of it.
But now. Oh, now. She understood far too well; the memories of her parents crucified as criminals just for the shapes of their bodies and the magic