The Fire Haired Girl by Kirashon (best classic books to read txt) 📕

If you haven't heard of Besglen, It wouldn't be surprising, just a simple little farming town with little cottages and several mills. All the men in town went to the Drunken Horse, the only inn Besglen has.
It would be even less likely that you have heard of me, Katrina. No one even in all of Wallachia, notice me, it seems.
I took on my mothers profession, and the five generations of women before her as a healer. My parents and family members made jokes about me, how I would wander off into the woods and gather herbs and flowers, even braiding some into my bronze colored hair. My grandmother was very spiritual, and would always say strange things about my hair, which I thought was quite simple, but in the sunlight she insisted it had blood red streaks that blazed gold before dying once more, like a phoenix.
Although I enjoyed going out into the woods, my mother insisted I didn't go for long, why? Wolves? Bandits? no.
We feared our own prince. His name I had been told was Vlad III, and had the title of The Impaler. That isn't what we feared though, he would randomly destroy his own towns in delight, or take the virgin women back to his castle and do horrible, wretched things to them.
Although I never said it out loud, I was not afraid, he would surely take my sister instead of me. She was blonde, blue eyed, beautiful, with considerably tan skin, but went with her looks.
I, on the other hand, had light brown hair, pale skin that made me look like a ghost, and a narrow build, but both of us were tall with blue eyes, but mine were more of a watery blue than her vivid green-blue ones.
But this is just where the story begins.

“Katrina!” I spun around, my feet spinning on the flattened dirt of the street, “Yes, Mama?”
“Make sure you aren't gone after nightfall!”
“Yes, Mother!” I waved to her before walking off into the slightly colder shade of the woods, my emerald slippers scuffing off fallen tree branches as I looked through the dark layers of the forest. Walking to the small brook like I always did, kneeling down and picking up the sprigs of bushy cattails. I was about to keep on looking for more, when a rabbit jumping out from behind the brush startled me. “Oh, hello there.” I greeted it, trying to calm my unsettled nerves.

For the next several hours I wandered around trying to find wormwood, the particular plant evading me as such mother needed it for a tradition of keeping the evil spirits away. Not realizing until the sun sank behind the evergreen-topped mountains how late I was, I rushed home stumbling here and there. Right before I reached the edge of the tree line I saw orange light up the black sky.
Fire.
No, No, the town can't be under attack now! I hid in a thicket of trees as a troop of armored warriors ran by, lighting up the wooden houses. My eyes burned from the smoke, I wiped them in an attempt to clear them, but to no avail. I listened to the crackling of the fire and screams of people, hoping my parents weren't among them.
Even though I lay behind the bushes, temporarily safe and hidden, but my body was inflamed. I looked down at my skin to see it glowing, “What the-”
------------
A roar echoed through the village and everything seemed to freeze, and in the next couple of seconds everything happened so fast. A shadow swept over the entire village blowing the fire out and sickening crunches, bursts of flames and massive whirlwinds of air startled everyone. When all was quiet, the warriors were gone. Dead presumably.
People crawled out from under their hiding places, Kathryn scrambled out from behind a barricade of barrels. “Katrina? Katrina?! Where is she?”
------------
“Ugh..” My bloodshot eyes opened slowly, I felt like I got kicked by a horse. I was propped against a broken wooden wall that was full of burn marks. I stood, Shakily getting to my sore feet. The pain seep through my body as I straightened my dress and hair, smudging the ash that covered me in layers. My ears were ringing painfully and I heard what sounded like a distant voice buzzing at me like a swarm of mosquitoes.

My eyes focused and as did my irritated ears. I heard my sister, Kathryn calling for me and heard her footsteps and she ran to me, but I couldn't seem to be able to process what exactly happened, and the fact the village was mostly intact despite the siege.

“Katrina! There you are. Where were you? Are you alright?” I slowly looked over at her, having to look up slightly seeing she was only an inch taller than I.

“I'm... I'm fine I suppose, and I was in the woods, trying to get home.” After getting checked over by my mother and sister, the town 'elders' as we called them, called together a meeting about exactly what happened.

All of the remaining people piled into the circle shaped meeting area, which was meant to house many guests.
“All right... I would like to call this meeting to order, about the topic that I'm sure everyone has thought about: What happened?” The main Elder, Sabjorn Announced, gaining everyone's attention.

“A witch”
“A demon.”
“I heard from Marcus it was a ancient serpent from Hell that fought for us. Does that mean were damned?”
“I thought It was a dragon..”

These were all suggestions brought to light, most were shot down of course. Eventually, we only had one choice left : Dragon.

“Why would a Dragon protect us?”
“Maybe it's only protecting one of us...”

“Or..” The Elder said loudly, gaining silence in the hut once more, “It could be one of us...”

“What nonsense are you spouting?! There is no such thing as a dragon in human form!”

Elder Sabjorn Chuckled to himself quietly, rubbing his silvery beard.
“There are tales, mind you, about such things. About an ancient line of dragons, who learned to disguise themselves as humans, to live among them and learn their ways... But, those documents were lost long ago, and the family line seems to have disappeared, or maybe... Forgotten.”

The Bar keeper, Farin, spoke up this time. “How could one forget if their a dragon or not?

“Well... think about it. Maybe with dragons being hunted they wanted to give their young a normal life, and kept it hidden from them, and they remained in human form.”

From our spots near the left corner me and Kathryn exchanged side glances. Is that was happened? I studied my sister, the low glow of the fire dancing off her features, trying to imagine her as a dragon, but the image couldn't fit.

Actually, I couldn't even see myself as a dragon for that matter, nasty horns fire-breathing scaly beast, not for me.

After the meeting had ended we all walked back to our huts, but one thing is for sure. This isn't the last Besglen has seen of Vlad III Dracula, or the mysterious dragon.

The court had been mostly quiet that day, with little complaints from anyone. Until of course the momentary peace was interrupted by a beaten, bruised, charred solider ran through the door looking like he had just ran straight out of Hell. Despite his appearance, The Prince looked upon the man with irritation, to alert his people in the court with his appearance.

“My Prince!! -huff-huff-... The attack...”

The Prince leaned forward slightly, his dark eyes narrowing at the scrawny man. “Well? Get on with it!”
This made the solider more nervous as he suddenly burst out. “All the troops sent to Besglen are dead your highness!”
This caused the infamous man to raise an eyebrow, “Dead? By whom?”
“I-I... I don't know sir, everything was going smoothly then a massive shadow covered us and... and... I don't know. It protected the actual town but demolished all our troops and supplies! I managed to find a sketch Hadvar was drawing during the attack, before he was slain as well...” The solider then brought out a scorched journal, then shakily, stepping to the edge of the blood red carpet that surrounded the throne extended it to a royal guard who handed it to the prince himself. His eyes scanned over the image, his brow furrowing slightly, before he handed it back to the guard.

“Very well. We'll see this 'dragon' of yours. General, get my troops ready and my horse, we head out as soon as possible.”
“Yes Prince Vlad!”
He turned back towards the frightened man, “And you, are coming along, and you better hope that dragons there if I'm going to all this trouble.”
The man shakily nodded, nervously glancing back and forth.
--------
“Where are we going?!”
“Away... For now.”
“We can't just leave!”
“We have to, it's not safe, even with a dragon around.”
I kicked a rock while glaring at the ground, my parents had gotten scared of living in Besglen, so they wanted to move a little while away from it, until things settle, if they ever do.
“Lets stay here for the night.”
“What about wolves?”
“Wolves don't like fire. We'll be fine.”

In the middle of the woods, with the sun settling behind the mountains and casting a fiery glare upon the woods, my father made a make-shift cover for us, and made a fire, going to collect extra wood while the rest of us settled down.
“I still don't like it.” I muttered, curling up against my sister with a pout.
“Katrina, it's not up for discussion, we're going, whether you like it or not.”
“Yes, mother.” I muttered, before curling even closer for warmth, I could already tell it was going to be a cold night.
------
The sun hit my eyes, slowly getting to my feet, the morning was bright and alive. Looking at my sleeping family, I heard a noise, my name... Something was calling my name... I turned and climbed the small ledge and ran through the birch trees, hearing the voice still, calling, calling. “Oof!” I feel down into a cove in the forest, and turned. Blue reptilian eyes stared back, “Y-You're the dragon...!”
“What are you talking about? I think you slept to long.”
“huh?!” I blinked, and the dream was gone, instead my sister leaned over me with a quizzical look,
“You babbling about some dragon, I think that story got to you.”
I sat up, looking around, My father