PATH OF THE STAR HUNTER

′′ Here are the dresses you ordered last time, it will be good to have them right now because winter is near. ′′ Said the man in charge of the tailor shop.

Thanking the tailor, I paid a hefty amount for a couple of sets of winter clothes, normally the prices wouldn’t be that high, but I always buy clothes made from the best materials for Sasha and myself; Besides, even if we live in the forest, as women we still want our clothes to be as beautiful as possible.

In any case, money was never a problem even for a novice alchemist, much less an alchemist as experienced as me, to begin with, even selling only some of the leftover magical materials that I collect over the course of the year would be more than enough to make a small seam; as a little side note some of the dresses made by the tailor were actually made with fabrics made from magical materials that I supplied myself.

Being that one of my last errands to do, I put everything in my enchanted suitcases with gravitation, after all a delicate lady like me would not carry all these things herself, on the way to the place where I told Sasha to meet me I saw a little candied fruit stand, remembering how much my little girl likes them, I came over to buy a good quantity of them.

′′excuse me ′′

BOOOM !!!

The thunderous sound of an explosion cut my words in half, I quickly turned around in the direction of the sound of the explosion, and instantly I could see just a hundred meters away a gigantic column of smoke coming out of an alley along with some occasional flames.

I barely saw the fire and I felt my heart clench with intensity, the fire. . . the fire was a pink kind of color, I knew that color like no other, it was the same as the color of Sasha’s eyes and it was the same color as the fire that came out of her every time she was injured.

.....

′′ Sasha ′′ As soon as the name of my little girl left my lips, I ran at full speed in the direction of the fire, I was afraid to find her injured or something even worse.

Upon reaching the place, I saw some people looking from afar at the source of the fire and there was my little girl, surrounded by that vermilion fire like a protective ring, Sasha was lying on the ground apparently unconscious, but that was not the worst; the worst thing was that among the flames you could distinguish several small, completely charred corpses.

′′ Sasha ′′ Repeating the name of my beloved girl, I hurried to the flames without thinking twice.

A single wave of my wand summoned enough water to quench the flames, but also created a gigantic amount of vapor that covered the area in an instant, as I passed by I did my best to ignore the charred remains of what appeared to be a group of children and ran to where Sasha was.

Without thinking twice, I took my girl in my arms and taking advantage of the steam curtain, I brandished my wand a second time, causing a current of wind to take Sasha and me along with our things and fly us out of this alley.

After that I did everything I could to get out of town as soon as possible and flee in the direction of the forest, I don’t even look back once in the whole flight, but I didn’t need it, we were barely a couple of hundred meters away from the exit of the town and I could see a cavalry unit come out of it in our pursuit.

But this was not a problem for me, even though I carried Sasha in my arms, now with enough time and my wand in hand I gathered a vast amount of mana from the wind and by the time our pursuers began to gain distance, everything that they saw was a small whirlwind taking off and flying into the distance at a speed they could only dream of achieving.

We were soon home, by then the continued use of an escape spell like that had me dramatically exhausted, but I resisted the exhaustion that ran through my body and rushed to take my little girl to the small room that we use as a medical room.

After laying Sasha down I had the opportunity to see her carefully the various wounds in my girl became evident, she had two strong blows and cuts in hers before an energetic and adorable face.

I wasted no time and immediately began to wash her wounds and to apply a very powerful healing balm that I saved for dangerous situations, maybe it was an exaggeration for this kind of wound, but I did not want Sasha to have scars on her beautiful face.

Once I treated the wounds on her head, I proceeded to remove her clothes and check the rest of her body. . . Seeing the small and delicate body of her yet to develop full of bruises and scratches broke my heart. It took me half an hour to review and apply medications to all her wounds, seeing her full of bandages and medicinal balm, I could only keep my doubts until Sasha was willing to tell me what happened.

(Sasha POV)

The fire, the screams of pain and agony, the scenes of those children I used to play with become nothing more than ashen remains. . . all of this became a recurring nightmare.

Some months had passed since that day, after the first few weeks I was able to sleep without waking up in the middle of the night screaming, I also began to eat better after being scolded countless times by my mother.

The words came out of me for the first time in a long time two months into that day, but even to this day I still haven’t talked about what happened, mom insisted a lot on knowing, but all I told her was that the children were hurting me; not that I wanted to hide anything from her or even that there was something to hide. . . I just didn’t want to remember.

I never went to town with mom again, she even had to dress up when she went and avoid visiting any acquaintances in the place, mom never again insisted on knowing what happened, I guess she was smart enough to draw her own conclusions.

One night while we were sleeping together, I plucked up the courage to ask.

′′ Mom, am I a monster? ′′ Even with all the courage I had gathered, one could not help but make my eyes water when I asked.

Mom seemed puzzled for a moment at my sudden question, but in just a few seconds tears began to fill her eyes, before answering my question the first thing she did was take me in her arms and give me the warmest hug I have ever had.

′′ You are not a monster Sasha, of course, you are not, you are my beloved daughter, the sweetest, most beautiful girl who has ever stepped on this world there; never say again that you are a monster. ′′

′′ But I’m not human, am I? ′′

She seemed to hesitate for a moment, but still holding me tightly she proceeded to kiss my forehead and answered with so much love that it was almost overwhelming.

′′ No, you are not human, you are something much more special, you are Sasha Kor Ignis; my little rose born of fire. ′′