1.

What destiny has been brought upon me. I tried to outrun it. Or so I told myself. But this new destiny that I had not chosen, a destiny that so many thought unsuited to me, has given me myself. And so, the running has stopped.

I was 14 when the war was declared. A war I knew nothing about. The news of such war meant many things to different people. In my village war was nothing but a disgraceful event that brought misery and hunger to our lands. Took away people's sons, husbands and fathers, leaving the hard work of a sunny day to women and children with hands unused to such tasks. It only meant crops would rot without being sold, money would be taken but not paid, and the overall awareness of death in the air. Sad eyes, grey hairs and wrinkles a common look. Tired mothers, lonely lovers, helpless children. And yet, with all the misery in the air, the women and children of my village, didn't desist in my ostracism, making sure no person would give me a hand to hold or a bread to chew on. As always, I remained alone, and the people, who I would've assumed had enough to bare with their own tragedies, found time to spare in making sure I remained that way for as long as they could. 

Every day I had to worry as usual to feed myself, and to achieve this I had to work harder than the strength I had, but the problem was, that even though I despised my people for the looks they gave me and the words they whispered around me, when they were famished, I was even more so. So, even though I hated to admit it, my opinion of this war was shared with the people of my village. The same people whose thoughts and opinions had brought me such misery before and still so. 

That day was a lucky day, I had just returned from the woods and I'd hunted a rabbit. Not a very fat one and illegally taken from noble property, of course. But a lucky day it was. The rabbit was cooking in the fire I'd just built in the outskirts of my village when I heard a noise. I reached for the knife I'd stolen a year before and put out the fire, quietly sneaking to where the noise was coming from. As I approached it I realised it was a whimper, a girl's whimper, I reached her and she turned to look at me abruptly. She was waring a dark cloak, her hood over her head. And under it was a pale face, with dark shadows accentuating her sunken cheeks and the rings under her eyes. The only colour she had was the red of her eyelids and the blue of her eyes. Her eyes were bathed with salty tears, blue eyes like turbid oceans with glistening waves of salt waters. And they looked frightened. And familiar. 

An image popped in my mind, like a dejavu but not quite. Had I lived this before? But it was I that was kneeling with grey ropes, baggy eyes and sunken cheeks, and it was this girl that was standing before me, with something in her hand. She looked at me with the same blue eyes only a shade lighter, kneeled and then ran away. This image in my head is as blurry as my sight was the day I saw it. And in that blurriness the floor had a bread bun. The girl let out a noise, another whimper, bringing me back to the present time, and as she did I saw those blue eyes, frightened looking at my hand like I had looked at hers. Only in my hand was no bread, it was a knife. Realising her fear I shrugged out of my fighting stance, put the knife back in my pocket and looked at her with my hands flat in front of me. 

- Hey, it's ok. I was just on guard, it's ok, I'm not gonna hurt you.

The girl looked at me, her frightened eyes wanting to believe me but not daring to do so. As I took a step closer to her she shrieked, moving away from me and making me stop on my spot. I stood there thinking of what to do to make her trust me and then left. Coming back seconds later with something in my hand. I kneeled down and offered it to her. She got scared when she heard me but quickly looked at my hands and jumped to grab the rabbit leg I was giving her. She grabbed at it fiercely and savagely chewed on it, unaware of the world around her, my presence included. The hood over her head dropped as she did so, showing off her ruffled light brown hair. I let her keep on eating and sat a few steps away from her, my back against a tree and biting on my own rabbit leg. 

I heard a noise and turned abruptly, getting my knife out, to find her looking at me, her eyes wide open and surprised. I looked at her neck, where my knife was pressed and quickly moved my hand away.