Tribble sat in a pool of water as her fellow villagers threw plods of mud at her hair, jeering at her as they laughed.

  “Bloody hair!”

  “Bleeder!”

  “Demon!”

  The children shouted words that Tribble had heard many times over, and the sting of them had long since dulled to an annoyance. She had lived with this hair on her head for all her life, and the red eyes that accompanied her, the same red that no one shared on the entire moon. Supposedly, her mother and father did not share her strange quirk either, but with both being gone due to the war, she couldn’t confirm that herself.

  Instead, she was left in this village that turned on her as the war grew more heated. With everyone’s white and brown hair, anything different was seen as a bad omen in their village, and it took a great deal of wit to keep the village from outright killing her at first. She made herself useful doing chores, fixing things, and keeping her head down.

  Sure there were some good folk who saw the treatment and helped her when they could, but the village chief and his boy would always remind her she wasn’t welcome.

  No one wanted his ire directed at them.

  Tribble didn’t really blame them though, they were just cowards who couldn’t stand up for themselves. Rather than stop someone from being abused, they would rather hide and pretend.

  It didn’t bother her anymore.

  Still, even she felt lonely after the idiots had their fun and walked away, and a small part even missed them despite the fact that they never showed her any affection.

  I must be really desperate, if I even miss their barbs and insults.

  She was thirteen now, and the war had finally reached Cerula causing a great deal of problems as the Verdant Hood cut them off from the homeworld. The ports were preparing for sieges, and the villages, the ones who could make it, were already beginning to evacuate.

  Not her village though, let it never be said that their chieftain was wise.

  It did however make the man more paranoid, and with that paranoia and the thought that he would lose his power, he took to demonizing Tribble even more.

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  That was the day she had found it.

  She was being chased by the goons and their leader Esak, the son of the chief, when she stumbled upon a grove. At first, Esak tried to grab whatever was there, which looked like some kind of weapon. The thing outright attacked him, chasing him off and leaving a nasty cut across his arm for his trouble.

  Tribble couldn’t help but smirk at that, served the bastard right.

  Still, that left her with the strange thing, and she couldn’t help but be curious about the sword that was just sitting there on an altar.

  Its blade was strange, wavy, and undulating. It could have been a sacrificial dagger if it wasn’t as tall as she was. What was even stranger was the pull she felt when she looked at it.

  She’d be the first to admit it, but after all the abuse and trauma she had during her childhood, Tribble was pretty sure something was wrong with her. Why did so many villagers hate her? Why did the red hair she have seem to make them so on edge and so mean towards her?

  This blade though, it felt right, like it was meant to be in her hands. Again it was probably the brain damage, but Tribble took the blade in her hands as soon as she was certain the bastard son of the chief was gone.

  The blade responded to her touch, and Tribble felt a rush of energy slam into her body. Her mind opened, her body responded, and a flood of mana pushed into her veins, forcing open all of her channels to the point that she felt like she might explode. Rather than do just that though, the mana compressed into her flesh, breaking her body down and building it back up in the most amazing and painful way possible.

  She screamed for what felt like hours until the feeling subsided.

  Afterwards, she was taller, lankier, and stronger. Everything about her body was enhanced, and the pitiful magic she could not touch before was now flowing through her, desperate to answer her call.

  Tribble felt alive, strong, and free for the first time in her life.

  The sword came to her hand, filled to the brim with her power as she casually slashed the thing in an arc, severing a few nearby trees.

  “This is insane…”

  She returned to the village, ready to show off her new power to the people who dismissed and abused her.

  Much to her dismay though, the place was overrun with Verdant Hood, who had taken that moment to capture the entire village.

  There was one thing they didn’t count on though, and that was Tribble’s pettiness for wanting to show off her new strength!

  She slashed her bloody edged sword, ready to face the scaly beings as they rushed her.

  “Come at me, let's see who's the strongest!”

  Thus began the legendary journey of the Bloody Elfari.

  But that story is for another time.