I woke in a cold sweat, my clothes clinging to me like they were ten sizes to small. My scratchy wool blanket sat in a tangled mess on the floor. I sat up and rubbed my temple. I've been having the same dream for a week now.

Forced to watch my father take his life over and over on a loop. No! He's alright he's just in hiding. I say that to myself every time, never having been able to return to that place to search for him. But why hasn't he come back for me? I shove that thought into the depths of my mind, knowing its true.

If he really was still alive he would have come back for me by now. I grab a new pair clothes and run outside to the stream behind my cabin. I strip off my clothes with some difficulty, and toss them over a tree branch to dry.

I tentatively dipped my toe into the clean, untouched water. The water was cold, refreshingly so, but the sunlight that peeks through the trees warms the water to a pleasant temperature. I sink down into the water,sitting on a smooth rock that juts out from the side. I'm up to my neck in water, cupping it in my hands to dump on my face.

I take in a shaky breath. My father. Biologically he wasn't my real father, but he had taken me in as an infant even before he knew I had magic. He was the greatest Mage in the entire land. He had many magic trinkets and weapons. Unfortunately he disappeared when I was 6 so I never learned where he kept them or how to get there.

I stayed in the water for a few more minutes, playing with some of the curious fish. Little did they know one of them would be my dinner tonight. I only had 1 fish a day to keep the population up since the stream wasn't that big, and I had to save some for the animals.

I watched as a gray wolf stalked the edge of the bank, then struck, taking two large bass out and carrying them back to her pack where her pups probably were.

After I dried off using a heat spell, I put on some fresh clothes, (handmade of course). On my way back inside I hear the sound of horses, clopping their way along the dusty path. Pearl, who's in her sorry excuse for a stable, lets out a loud, agitated whiny at the approaching group. It didn't take long for the group to appear through the trees and when they did I got into a fighting stance.

"Well look what we have here!" the obvious leader of the group bellowed, "Shes a fine little lady ain't she? Tell me miss, what a young lady such as yourself is doin' all the way out here?" The man was wearing armour made of gold. You could pretty much find any mineral imaginable here, except iron, but that's a story for another time. He had golden hair matted with sweat and the beginnings of a beard.

"For your information," I snapped, "I live here!"

"Oh really?" he said with a sideways glance at his friends. "You know what to do!" All at once the other 10 men jumped off their steeds and charged at me and my house. I shot an icebeam at them but I only managed to take down one before two others grabbed my arms and held me back. They placed iron cuffs around wrists before forcing me to my knees. Long story short iron prevents all magic.

The man in charge walked over to me, bending down so he could look me in the eye.

"You seem to not know who we are. Haven't you heard the news?"

"No I forgot to listen to my personal messenger." I answered sarcastically.

"Well after today you will never forget the Death Riders! We are the kings personal thieves! Robing all witches and wizards of anything they posses!"

Just then the men burst out of my shack."Shes flat out broke boss." one of them said. "This was all we could find" He held out my last few morsels of bread and the ring my father had given me. It was a simple silver band with a sparkling amethyst in the center. The silver snaked its way around the gem and on the inside of the band, etched into its surface were the words, To My Darling Daughter, Thalia.

I watched as the men inspected my ring. I rarely ever took it off but it had been sitting in a polishing bubble while I was in the stream. The leader took my stale bread and tossed it to the side. I watched as it landed in the dirt and the ants swarmed it.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here? We could give this to the king for his daughter! As long as we smoothed out that name....."

"It's fake!" I shouted in a desperate attempt to stop them.

"Is it really?" he sneered, "Then I guess you wouldn't mind if I...." He threw my ring and raised his foot to crush it. Id let him crush it. I could fix later with a simple spell. Upon seeing my refusal to do anything, he crushed it and ground it into the dirt. I flinched slightly but no one saw because they were all re-mounting their mighty horses. I knew that Pearl had cast a cloaking spell on herself, she was a unicorn after all.

The leader of the "Death Riders" walked back over to me, grabbing my chin to hold my head up. "We'll be back and you better have valuables for us!" he growled. His hot breath blasting my face. He raised his fist and smacked the side of my head. His feet were the last thing I saw before the whole world went dark.

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Hello!!!!! I know I said I wouldn't update this until we got to six votes but I couldn't help myself!!!

Well, I hope you enjoyed and don't forget to VOTE, COMMENT, and FOLLOW!!!!

-SG🌰