Crimson Wonderland

Before the wall had been built, Thomas Adiar enjoyed crossing the border with his friends every day. He knew the humans feared him; with his pointy ears and glowing eyes, who wouldn't? Nonetheless, he loved witnessing the sunset humans got to experience, different from the magical splashes of light he saw from his window. One afternoon he had bought a new saddle for his stallion and had ridden all the way to the border. The wind whipped his raven hair left and right as he got closer and closer. He had completely forgotten the warnings his mother had given him. “Never cross the border,” the woman had begged him “Never speak with a human and never fall for one” she had spoken with such a serious tone that he had debated if he should leave or not. As he got closer to the little bed of aid love, a flower which had been created by an infamous warlock, he began to notice something. Something was different, oddly different. From the forest beyond the border, he could not hear a sound, as if it had gone still. His stallion began to pull itself farther away from the little flowers, and as he heard the singing of bows and the sighing of arrows pierce the air, he shot a warning to the sky. His magic erupted into tiny little particles of red and orange, and it rained upon the people whom idly strolled through the streets. Men and women, both, began preparing for the assault. Thomas rode back as fast as he could, his fingers tightly woven into the stallion's hair. But when he went up the stairs of the watchtower, his steps becoming slower and slower, he noticed that it had been too late. Raging flames crept along the forest floor like thick slime, the flames devoured everything in their path. The flames danced and whirled as if they were as mesmerizing as the blue sky. Screams poured into the streets, composing a song of fear and death. And he, from up there, he could only watch as his life began to be ripped apart. By dusk, the ash, and dust began to settle. Slow, he had realized, too slow. The flames had been weirdly troublesome to extinguish. Had the humans used magic? Where the forest had been, only dust and ash remained. And that very Spring, they began building the wall. Brick after brick. Soon after, Thomas Adiar became a Duke and for centuries and centuries, his golden mana ran through the veins of every Adiar heir.