The window creaked as a cool late morning breeze snuck inside the small bedroom. The curtains fluttered slightly, hitting the old wardrobe standing next to the iron wrought bed where a small girl was soundly asleep. A young woman quietly folded up some spare clothes and placed them on the nearby stool before climbing onto the bed.

«Rise and shine sweetie… The whole day will pass if you keep going. » A sweet, familiar voice stirred her from her slumber. She awoke to find the gentle, loving smile of her mother looking back at her from the edge of the bed. Her mother leant closer and kissed her on the forehead.

“I thought you wanted to join us picking apples today?”

“Just a little longer?” She mumbled, closing her eyes once more.

Her mother laughed. «No. Get up or get tickled… Wasn’t that how you woke us up yesterday? »

«Muuhh… Okay. »

She sat up in her bed and yawned, rubbing the night from her eyes. Her mother dipped a cloth in the small bowl by the bedside and handed it to her. The water was cold, but after the initial shock, was a nice contrast to her warm bedsheet.

I fixed that hole in your tunic for you, and added a little length on your sleeves.”

«Give me ten years, and I’ll be taller than you are Mama! » She declared with as much pride as she could muster. Her mother smiled and she could tell she had something on her mind.

“Can we braid your hair today? You look so lovely with one.”

“But Mama…» She began to complain.

“Please? » Her mother pleaded. She did not really like to have her hair braided, but her mother found great delight in doing it. Seeing the option for a bargain, she nodded.

“Can we trade? Braid for apple pie?”

Her mother’s face lit up and she vigorously nodded. «I’ll even make whipped cream, since you remembered to suggest and ask, instead of demanding.”

“Yay! You’re the best Mama!”

“Come and sit over here then.”

She shifted onto her mother’s lap and leant forward to let her mother have better access. Her mother began gathering Mariel’s hair together. Her mother began creating her favourite braid on her child. Her mother told her how she admired the strength and colour of her hair and how she wished she could try it.

“No Mama! No way! You’d look terrible with crimson hair!” Mariel giggled.

“You think? So? Ribbon? Clip? Colour?”

“Mm… You choose! You always know what fits the best!”

Her mother thought for a moment, and decided on a white bowtie with golden trim.

“There, why don’t you take a look and see if you’re satisfied?”

Mariel turned her head, looking at her mother’s handiwork. She brought the braid forward so that it rested along the front of her shoulder.

“You’re just adorable!” Her mother’s maternal feelings made her instantly melt at the sight of her child looking so pleased. “Let’s head downstairs and have some breakfast! Those apples won’t pick themselves.”

They headed downstairs and ate breakfast together, while her mother reviewed Mariel’s homework. A normal day usually consisted of helping out around the house, working the forge with her father during the afternoon and studying theory and etiquette with her mother in the evening. Her father worked as the local village smith, repairing tools and occasionally joining in on keeping the dangerous wildlife in check. Her mother had recently been hired as a handmaiden in the city castle, and so spent most of the daylight hours away from home.

Outside in the garden, the boughs of the apple trees were laden with sweet, ripe fruit. Mariel’s father Arwaro was busy fixing the wooden ladder and so did not notice until Mariel had thrown herself around her father’s neck.

“Good morning Gemstone!” Her father grabbed hold of her and threw her into the air four times to her shrill delight.

“Please dear! Be careful!”

Arwaro threw Mariel up extra high, and stole a kiss from his wife’s lips before catching his child on the way down.

“Don’t make me repeat myself… She’s our precious child, try to be more considerate!” Her mother pouted. Her father nodded and put Mariel back down on the ground.

“Now that we’re all here… Let’s begin!”

“Now remember Mariel, the lowest branches only!”

“But Mama! I’m a whole year older now!” Mariel began protesting, but her mother cut her off.

“I get scared to death whenever you climb these trees.”

Arwaro got up on the ladder and lifted Mariel up onto the lowest branch, and hung a basket from one of the smaller branches.

Mariel felt slightly insecure as she sat on the branch, but the sheer excitement of being so far up had soon erased her sense of dread. The first apples were soon in the basket, big, ripe and tasty looking.

Her mind drifted towards the taste of a warm apple pie fresh from the oven.

“Gemstone? Focus, can you reach those apples over there?” Her father pointed to a dozen at the end of the branch.

“Sure thing Papa!”

Without any problems, Mariel had soon picked the apples she had been asked to pick. Her father took the basket and lowered it down so Serin could bring them inside.

“This ladder is way too short…” Arwaro took a basket and hung it on a branch higher up.

“Okay Mariel, go a little further up…”

“But Mama said...”

“I’ll keep you safe, don’t worry.”

With some reluctance, she climbed higher into the tree, and passed down the first apples she encountered. She was really high up, and could see far in every direction. A thought struck her, and she wondered what might be beyond the horizon.

She spotted a group of three boys approaching. They were talking loudly amongst themselves, and as they reached the garden Mariel shouted a greeting to them.

“Look! It seems demons can climb trees!” The youngest boy pointed and the other three laughed.

“Hey boys, be nice.” Arwaro commented with a stern voice.

Deep inside of Mariel, the boy’s comment hurt her deeply. She was no stranger to the comments, but they all hurt her somewhere deep down. It was no secret that she was different from them, but no matter who, nobody except her family, would recognize her.

Swallowing her pain and reminding herself to be strong like her parents, she quickly pulled in three of the biggest apples close to her and offered them one each.

They nodded and she dropped the apples down to them.

The three boys caught their apples, and took a bite. Immediately their faces twisted and contorted from the sourness of the apple’s juice.

“Eww!” A collective moan of disgust emerged from the three.

“The demon’s cursed the apples! Get her!”

Before either Arwaro or Mariel managed to react, the three boys had taken aim, and thrown the apples back up to her. The first missed, but the second and third apples hit her square in her face. The shock of the moment caused her to lose her grip and fall backwards.

“Mariel!!” Her father shouted, and screamed as she saw the ground come closer at a terrifying speed.

Thud!

The impact was not as bad as she had expected, but still hurt. She opened her eyes, and found that she was on the ground, but that her father had taken her fall and was holding her tightly.

Her father panted and groaned. “Hahh… Mariel? Are you okay?”

The reality caught up to her, and tears started flowing freely down her cheeks. “P-papa!” She could not hold back, and began to cry. Her father closed his arms defensively around her.

“Mariel!?” Serin appeared in the doorway and came running over. “Mariel! Are you hurt?!”

“Thanks for the concern…” Arwaro groaned.

“This was your fault to begin with! Don’t think I didn’t hear you, stupid husband! I can’t believe you!”

Serin knelt beside them and gently stroked her daughter’s head.

The three boys had run away as soon as they had seen her fall.

With Mariel inconsolable, Arwaro carried his distraught daughter inside, and left her there in the care of Serin, while he put on his cloak and went to speak to the boys’ parents. A long time went by before Mariel managed to calm down. Her mother had kept her close the whole time.

“Mama… Do they hate me because I’m a demon?” The question made her mother bite her lip while making a complicated expression. “Because they don’t know you… And because many adults of your kin have committed horrible crimes…” Serin talked in a hushed voice.

“So that makes me bad too?”

“No. Mariel, no it doesn’t. Rather the opposite, it makes you even better, since you would never do the same things they have.”

“Mmh…” She nodded.

“Sweetie, it was very generous of you to offer them an apple… What you did says a lot about who you are as a person. Generous, kind and cheerful, these are traits you must never let go of. Promise.”

“I promise.”

“Hey… How about I go prepare a bath, and we can practice braiding for the rest of the evening?”

Mariel’s eyes lit up, and every sense of sadness disappeared into thin air… The evening looked to be a memorable one.

Mariel fell asleep halfway through the lesson. With no further reason to keep her, Serin carried her to bed and soon returned to their living room. A few moments later, Arwaro returned. He entered the living room and took a seat opposite Serin.

“I…” He began. “I went to the parents and talked to them. They gave me the usual they didn’t know.”

“…”

“Also…”

“I can’t believe you…” Serin mumbled.

“Hey. Our daughter needs to grow up. This is nothing! What will happen when she grows up? If we’re not around for her? Out there, Imperial hunters are hunting down and executing her kin…”

“That’s not the point! How could you let her climb so high!? She could have died!”

“I was right there for her!” Arwaro protested.

“And what if you didn’t catch her!?”

“I did catch her!” Arwaro stood up abruptly, his chair tumbling behind him.

“She’s asleep upstairs!” Serin whispered in an angry, but hushed tone.

“Look.” Arwaro righted the chair and leaned closer to Serin. “I love our little miracle as much as you do, and I want her to grow up… But the world won’t be fair to her… If we continue to keep her on the ground… How is she going to ever want to reach for the sky… Silly wording but you get it right?”

“But she’s only a child… She’s fragile.”

“You were a groomed nobleman’s daughter… Mariel is the child of two warriors… She’s hardy.” Arwaro paused briefly and sighed.

“And that’s why I think it’s important to start early… I only want what’s best for her…” Arwaro groaned. “I wish Traren was here, he could’ve told us what to do…”