Hana’s 18th birthday began with a downpour.


    She was about halfway down the mountain trail when she stopped for the night. Two days had passed since she had been summarily exiled, and the anger coursing through her body had not yet relented. The Village Council had given her a generous set of supplies for the journey to Porrezan, but other than a few minutes to write a letter to her parents, they had not allowed her any additional time to say a proper goodbye to the only home she had ever known.


    And so, instead of an anxious night spent in her warm bed waiting for her Trial to begin, she was alone in a cold tent, the wind howling outside. At some point, she drifted off to a dreamless sleep, only to awake early in the morning to the pitter-patter of rain drops sounding on the canvas walls. The gentle timber soon gave way to a deluge, and Hana debated whether to strike camp now or wait for the storm to relent.


    She chose the former, not wanting her only shelter to be soaked through for days on end. The elements battered her as she trudged further down the slope, but Hana supposed this day was always going to be an arduous one. At around midday, the sun peeked out from behind the cloud, and she quickly made a fire using the dry kindling in her pack, only for the heavens to open back up and soak her all over again.


    Finally, as night fell, the rain stopped. Hana withdrew a scope from inside her cloak, trying to locate any signs of humanity in the forest that brushed up against the mountain. But all she saw through the glass was darkness.


    A salty meal of smoked meat later, and she was ready for another horrid day to be over. But her body was still shivering and her stomach was still growling, and the last thing she wanted to do was lie down and let her anguish overtake her.


    She lit a tiny fire and took out a map of the lands beyond the Valley, hand-drawn by the 17th Librarian, according to the messy signature in the corner. Her studying was cut short, however, by tiny drops of rain splashing against the parchment. Hana looked up at the sky to confirm that the storm had returned, but was only met by the sight of the glittering stars and an unusually full moon. It took her a moment to realize that the drops were not from the rain, but from her own eyes. With no one to shame her into silence, she let out a guttural cry that echoed through the wood.


    Although it felt good in the moment, Hana regretted the outburst almost immediately, when a slime bear emerged from the brush. It looked like a regular bear, if a regular bear had globs of green mucus all over its body instead of fur. Hana knew of the creature only from a bestiary in the Village library, as such disgusting animals were not something that ever made their way into the Valley.


    The bear began sniffing frantically, leaving green slime everywhere as it moved closer to Hana. She contemplated a dozen different ways of dispatching it (except using the Bane), but before she could make a decision, the creature caught her gaze, staring right at her with disgusting dark green eyes, its mouth full of razor sharp teeth.


    Hana reached for her pack in a panic, but the first thing she felt was that stupid sword wrapped in its stupid cloth sack. Her fingers fumbled, looking in vain for the set of throwing knives she knew were also inside. Night’s End, her own would-be sword, was still a dissembled mess, tucked away at the very bottom. She had planned for another season of tempering before she was going to attempt the runecast that would have imbued the implement with ability to blot out even the darkest of nights. Of course, that plan, like so many others, was forever lost to her. Instead, she had resigned herself to merely attaching the hilt to the blade at the first smith she came across.


    After what seemed like an eternity, she finally managed to pull the largest knife free. It probably could have killed a were-hawk, if her aim was true, but Hana doubted it would have much success against the mucus-covered monstrosity on front of her. But what other choice did she have?If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    “Back, back!” she cried out, waving the knife in quick arcs through the air. The bear regarded her with a look of curiosity, as best she could tell, because its face was hardly a measure of simplicity.


    But then it pushed itself up onto its hind legs with a graceful speed Hana didn''t think it was capable of and scrunched its nose before letting out a blast of green disgustingness from its mouth. The first shot extinguished the fire, the second Hana sliced through at the cost of the snot covering her strong hand, leaving her defenseless against the third, which hit her square in the chest.


    “Ahhhh!” she cried, trying to keep her balance. She staggered backward before regaining her composure, as she had been trained to do.


    Breath in, breath out.


    What is, is.


    What will be, will be.


    Those were the mantras that had been drilled into her head over countless hours and countless months and countless years. Except that as soon as she took that first breath in, the putrid smell of the slime reminded her that it was a lie. It had always been a lie.


    She had played the part of the dutiful daughter of the Valley, done everything and more that had been asked of her, and in the end they had tossed her out like tepid bathwater just the same.


    “I’ve had enough!” she screamed. She didn’t care that her shout might attract another slime bear or something worse. She didn’t care that she was covered in disgusting globs of bodily excrement. She didn’t care that there was a good chance she wouldn’t even make it down the mountain at all. All she cared about, in that moment, was unleashing her rage.


    And that was what she did.


    The pent-up emotion flowed out of her like the gushing hot spring water that poured out of the mountain every spring, and for the first time in a while, Hana felt at ease with herself and the world.


    In that moment, she didn’t notice the eerie glow emitting from her pack, or from her own body, for that matter. All she noticed was that the bear finally had a look of fear on its miserable face, and she was going to press the advantage.


    Hana took a few steps back before breaking into a run, and just before she reached the creature, she bent her knees and launched herself into the air. She collided with the bear’s midsection and swung her knife arm upward, slicing off a piece of slime that she hoped was at least one of its ears. The animal roared in pain, swinging its body violently from side to side. Unfortunately for Hana, she remained stuck to the bear, like a helpless hungry little cub being carried along in the forest.


    With nothing to get purchase on, it was only a matter of seconds before the slime bear decided to redirect its fury onto the idiot girl who had thrown herself into its grasp. It was then that, against all better judgment, Hana surrendered herself to the mercy of the wild. She let her body go slack, she exhaled all of the anger inside her, and she waited for the next hard swipe of the bear’s paw.


    But it never came. Because the next thing Hana heard was not the growl of the animal’s voice, but a boy shouting. It wasn’t so much a shout, more like a request, that the bear let her go. If Hana’s face hadn’t been stuck to the slime, she would have laughed. Except that a moment later, a clawed hand was pulling her free and depositing her on the ground.


    She gave the bear one more look, but it immediately tore off into the woods from where it came, and Hana turned to face her rescuer.


    He looked to be not much older than her, with a light scruff covering the bottom third of his face. He wore a simple red cloak, which stood out against the dark green of the forest, and his hair was messily unkempt but in a deliberate sort of way. And hooked to his belt was what appeared to be a sword, although the cloak was covering its hilt.


    “Hi!” said the boy.


    “Thank you,” said Hana, finally feeling her heartbeat slow down to normal. “I thought I was a goner.”


    “I barely had to do anything,” said the boy. “I think you tired it out with all your flailing.”


    “Hey, I had a perfectly good plan of escape, if you must know.”


    She didn’t appreciate being chided by the stranger, but she really couldn’t complain, as he had just saved her life.


    “I’m sure,” he said.


    “I’m Hana, of Bevellar.”


    The Elders had impressed up on her to never reveal where she was actually from, lest word spread throughout the Continent about the young exiled girl from the secluded Valley. Maybe on her journey she would actually get to the visit the great City of Passage, that separated the the eastern and western spans of the Continent. But for now, she was content that her new “home” had not engendered any reaction from the boy.


    “Nice to meet you, Hana. I’m Mati.”