The day after Leila finally managed to defeat Alistor and free her kingdom from decades of tyranny, she went for a walk in a nearby forest. The celebrations have been going on and she needed some quiet and distance from all the people thanking her. Not that she wasn‘t happy, it just was a lot. 

Her arm still hurt where Alistor managed to slice through her armor, probably overpowering all the other aches all over her body, and all the celebratory noise and smells and lights made the nausea and vertigo she got as an aftereffect of a nasty psychic magic hit even worse. She was sure the peace and quiet in the forest would help her start processing what had happened the day before.

All her life she had been prepared to fight and defeat the evil king. Years of study and training, all in secrecy, always afraid that Alistor would find out before she was ready. But the prophecy was clear: she would be the one who would free everyone. The child born with the marking. 

Leila held up her hand. For the first time in her life, she didn‘t spend the morning covering up the light parts of her skin. Most of it was the normal brown, but all over her body light skin was drawing a spotted pattern. The marking. And yesterday she finally had accomplished what she was born to do. She can still see and feel how she rolled to the side when Alistor was about to put the pointy tip of a long candle holder through her. He had gotten her backed up against a window in the high tower. It was pure luck that she managed to get out of the way, and even more that the candleholder tip managed to pierce through and destroy the window. And Alistor, not catching his balance in time, fell through it to his death in the dark waters of the river below. With the speed the water rushed through the sharp boulders at this part of the river, there was no way he survived. And even under other circumstances, she did manage to wound him a lot more than he did to her.  He surely only ran on anger at this point and would have died after killing her either way. 

Still, the image of him falling and crashing into the water would be something she would never get out of her mind. Whenever she closed her eyes she saw him falling. 

Leila shook her head in an attempt to shake off the memory, immediately regretting it when she was hit with another wave of nausea and vertigo. She reached for a tree to hold on to and stabilize her while she waited for the feeling to subside. Concentrating on her breathing she stood there when something in the corner of her eye caught her attention.

A fox was hiding in a bush, focusing on something. He was apparently on the hunt and whatever he found would be such a good lunch that he didn‘t acknowledge Leila's presence. She straightened back up to see over the bushes what the fox had spotted. 

There in the middle of a grass patch lay a pile of black feathers. A crow that must have gotten hit by something big. Instead of following the outline of its body, many feathers stuck out in all kinds of directions. Its wing was bent in a way it should not be possible and so did one of its legs. It looked a mess and like it was already dead. But when looking a bit closer Leila could still see it breathing. 

Without thinking, she sprinted to stop the fox, who started moving faster towards the crow. She stepped in between the two animals and screamed at the fox to go away. Startled, the fox stopped in shock, and seemed to think about whether this was worth the fight, but then decided against it and ran away.

Leila turned and cowered next to the crow getting a closer look.

„Hey, little guy. Don‘t be scared.“ she said in a soft voice. The head of the crow moved and a black eye that was slightly clouded looked at her. This close she could see that some of the cow's feathers were actually white and it wasn‘t just a reflection of the light. It looked almost like her skin. 

Leila didn‘t know why, but she had the urge to save this bird. She had taken a life the day before, and no matter how bad Alistor was, he still was a being created and valued by the gods. Whenever you take you also have to give is the rule of the gods. So saving the life of this crow hopefully counts as payment for the life she had taken.

Carefully she scooped up the bird, trying to move it as little as possible to avoid hurting it more than needed. The crow had closed its eye again, not protesting. It seemed like it had already accepted its fate of dying. Leila continuously talked to the bird in a calm voice all the way back to her home, hoping it would understand her intention and stay calm. 

At home, she lay the bird on the soft surface of her couch. The bird wasn‘t moving and its breathing was shallow. It also now seemed to be unconscious. Leila was worried that any help was too late for it, but she would try her best. 

First, since it was unconscious and therefore wouldn’t feel the pain, she checked for the obvious injuries, reset the wing and leg to be all lined up again, and fixated them with a splint, wrapping it to stay in a fixed position. Then she checked for more injuries. It had a bleeding wound that looked deep, but might not have hit any organs. She cleans it as best as she can and then wraps it up to stop the bleeding. 

Aside from treating all obvious injuries, she wasn‘t sure what else to do, so she just did that and then positioned the bird in a way she hoped would cause the least pain and let it sleep, checking in on it every so often, making sure it was still alive. 

When it was awake it would need to eat and drink, so she prepared food for it to be easily digestible, hoping that this would work similarly in a bird than it does for humans.

During her training, healing was an important part. She was prepared for a long fight where she might end up having to flee injured and be able to get herself stable and healed up on her own if necessary. Surviving was the most important goal. She was the only one capable of defeating Alistor and if she were to die, all hope would be lost. At least that was what everyone always told her. And she had to use those skills multiple times in her life. Often due to her own mistakes, but she had gotten attacked by followers of Alistor before. None of them knew who she was of course, but some of them liked to terrorize people for fun in their free time and she had been the target multiple times. She was glad that at least her healing skills would still be useful even now that she fulfilled her destiny. At least one thing she could still be useful for.

A weird noise rips Leila out of her sleep. It took her a bit to orient herself. She had fallen asleep watching the crow. 

The crow!

She looks around and finally notices the bundle of feathers in front of her. The crow was awake and looking at her. 

„Craw!“ it croaked weakly. 

„You are awake! How are you feeling? I tried to treat your injuries as best as I could. It will take a while, but I think you are going to be ok.“

The bird tilted its head but fear was still in its eyes. It seemed to understand though, that she had helped it. 

„You must be hungry! I prepared some food for you.“, she continued, getting up to get the bowl and gently put it in front of the crow. 

It watched her every move and only when she retreated some distance away from it did it check what was in the bowl. It must have been really hungry for it immediately started eating.

„Don‘t eat too fast.“, she says, but smiled, glad that the bird showed this much energy. It looked like it would be able to make it.

While the festivities were still ongoing and talks were held about the future of the country, Leila mostly focused on helping the bird, rejecting any other responsibilities. People tried to get her to take leadership. She was the chosen one, the one who freed them all from tyranny, after all. But she didn‘t want it, never really wanted it. She had done what was expected of her and now all she did want in return was to be left alone.

The crow was seemingly feeling better every day, recovering from its injuries without complications, and so was she. She had given the crow the name Pepper.

Soon the people had decided to be governed by a group of representatives. There were discussions about who the representatives should represent, but Leila didn‘t pay much attention to any of that. She spent her days with Pepper. They went for walks in the woods, read books together, and spent their time enjoying the peace. And she talked to it a lot. She told it about her life, her destiny, her training, her fears, and the guilt she felt despite knowing she did the right thing. 

When the crow's injuries were finally fully healed, she removed the splints and Pepper moved its wing cautiously. 

„You might need to train it until you can fly again.“, she explains.

The crow comes closer and rubs its head against her to express its gratitude. She strokes gently over the soft back and white feathers. Pepper has been molting, allowing the damaged feathers to be replaced by healthy new ones. Leila also has gotten used to seeing her true skin color. The light patches on her face and her hands have become familiar and she has grown to see them as part of her instead of the curse that had forced her to become a murderer. She often wondered if Peppers's life had been more difficult due to his feather colors. She wanted to ask, but the bird wasn‘t able to answer her. Though in her mind, she saw it as a sign that the two of them had found each other. That they were meant to help each other. All her life she was trained to harm another person. She felt like caring for the injured bird, allowing her to lean into her nurturing nature, had healed some of the damage her life before had caused her inner self.

Daily she trained with Pepper to strengthen its wings. When they went for their walk it sometimes started to sail to the ground, wings stretched wide. And it started to be able to jump higher and higher. Leila enjoyed seeing the birds progress, but some pain inside her made her feel sad at the same time.

The day Pepper would be able to fly again was coming closer and she had no idea if it would stay. Of course, she wanted Pepper to be free, she would never force it to stay with her. But at the same time, she didn‘t want it to leave. She didn‘t want to be alone.

And then the day came. Leila had expected it for a few days now, but that day Pepper, for the first time, flew away, out of her sight.

They were on their walk in the forest and Pepper had stayed on her shoulder until they reached a clearing. She had brought a blanket and some food for a picnic. The bird had hopped around collecting some acorns. And then it had looked up as if it heard something. She saw something in its eye change and then it hopped up, spreading its wings and flying higher and higher until it was above the trees. Without looking back at her it flew away, vanishing behind the trees. And Leila just sat there on the blanket looking after it and feeling a deep sadness overwhelm her.

Pepper flew, following the call. It came out of a cave. The crow was still not strong enough for long flights, but it reached the cave only when its wings started to feel heavy. It landed and carefully hopped into the opening. 

Inside there were a handful of hooded people that surrounded a fire with a cauldron above it. They chanted some incantation. 

One of them noticed the bird and gestured for everyone to stop. The crow just sat there, watching the people. They all turned and immediately formed a line in front of the crow, bowing deep. What seemed to be the leader said without looking up: „Master Alistor! We have been waiting!“

Where there was a crow before there now stood a man with long black hair that showed white streaks. 

With a deep voice, filled with anger he replied: „You didn‘t come to find me. I nearly died!“

But then a smile showed on his lips. „But I got lucky and now have a way of getting rid of that girl and take back the power I deserve.“