Myra had already hidden three of her better looking dresses, some silver coins that she had secretly saved up, her mother's woolen shawl and her father's old pocket watch in the church's red room three years ago.
It was on April's fourteenth birthday, her aunt had hosted a party at home and had invited some of her close friends. That day had left a lasting impact on young Myra's memory. When she had made a mistake of accidentally breaking a vase and her aunt had openly whipped her for ruining it in front of all the assembled guest.
That very moment Myra had made a firm decision to leave her relatives house and live somewhere far on her own without having to be a burden to anyone. She was no fool to leave without a proper planning, she had made arrangments all these years for this particular day. But instead of leaving quietly as planned, the difference here was that she was kicked out.
Before leaving Beth had made sure to teach the girl about the importance of saving money. She had thought her to value it, even if it was a single nickle coin and not to spend money on unwanted things.
Myra clearly remembered her saying, "My dear, Money isn't everything, but everything needs money. Make sure to save up enough for you to survive alone in this harsh world", six years ago, before quitting her work. Myra was forever indebted to Beth for her words of advice and concern.
Sometimes her uncle would give her a penny or a two if he was in a good mood to buy something for herself without her aunt's knowledge, and she would save that up too. Even though uncle Ravin acted aloof and cold everytime when she was around, somewhere she knew that deep down he did care for her, maybe even pitied her a little.
By now she had thirty seven silver coins and around sixty copper coins, which was more than enough for her to travel to another village and to rent out a small house. With this much coins she would be able to live comfortably for two weeks at least, that is if she is careful about her spendings.
Quickly packing all her stuff, she wore the pink charm stone around her neck for the first time over the years believing that it would protect her from any possible dangers and made her way out of the abandoned church.
According to her father's pocket watch, she still had forty five minutes until three.
Roaming around the village for one last time with her heart feeling heavy. There were soo many unspoken emotions welling up inside her
Having spent most of her lifetime in this village, leaving it forever was the hardest thing to do. She was taking a huge leap of faith, wanting to settle at an unknown place filled with strangers. Hoping to start a new life there and the thought of her future itself made her want to curl up in fear. But she had already taken a step forward and there was no point in stepping back now.
"I can do it!" she said to herself loudly, trying to motivate herself "C'mon Myra, everything will be alright".
By the time she had reached the trasportation office, there was a carriage waiting for the passengers to board on. A coach man stood near the door. Myra went to him and showed the reservation receipt and paid him before entering.
There were three people seated inside. Two men and a woman. One was a young vampire man in his late twenties and the other two seemed to be middle aged human couple.
Myra sat at the far corner, on the opposite side facing the already seated passengers. Placing her small jute bag on her lap, she clutched it tightly.
The women smiled at her as she sat while the other two men ignored her, smiling back at the woman Myra turned her head to look out of the window.
Ten minutes later, an ori-blooded young vampire lady stepped in and sat next to her, followed by a falseborn demon.
Just like the vampires, Demons too are of different types, based on their nature and birth.
Trueborn demons are the most strongest class of creatures living. Almost all of them belonging to this class are super rich and are greatly respected in the society. They have a really long lifetime and are born with unique abilities. These type of demons are usually fair skinned and are good-looking. If not for their orangish gold eye color, one would not be able to differentiate between them and the ordinary humans.
Next standing class, are the Falseborn demons. Unlike the Trueborns they aren't that good-looking. Usually almost all of the Falseborn demons are dark skinned and are born with one or two tiny horns on their head. They are stronger when compared to an average vampire or humans but weaker when compared to Trueborns or Pureblooded vampires.
The last and the weakest class of demons are the Pseudoborn demons. If one of the parent is a demon and the other is a human or any other creature, then the offspring born will be a Pseudoborn.
Exactly at three, the coach men started riding. Everyone inside the carriage were quiet for a while, nobody bothering to interact with one another and Myra was comfortable with that, as she was lost in her own thoughts.
The vampire lady next to her decided to break the silence by asking, "Does anyone here have an idea about how long it would take for us to reach the capital?"
"We'll be there in about three hours time if the carriage doesn't stop anywhere" replied the human man and the vampiress nodded, inching slightly towards Myra.
Myra could tell that the woman was feeling uncomfortable being seated in the middle that too next to the demon guy, whose large self was occupying most of the seat, squeezing her in between. Myra moved a little, sticking to the side wall of the carriage, to make space for the poor vampiress.
"Is this your first time, going to terracotta?" asked the human lady trying to make a conversation. Myra tilted her head to look at the woman to check if the question was directed towards her but it wasn't.
The human lady was looking at the vampire girl beside her. "Yes, I'm visiting my sister there" replied the vampiress.
Then the lady turned to look at Myra, "What about you young lady? Are you going there for the first time too?".
Myra simply said, "Yes!" giving her a polite smile.
"Then you both will love it there. Me and my husband go there often to visit our daughter who is married to a well off family there" started the human lady to have both the vampriess and Myra nodding their heads.
"Oh! I'm polly by the way" she said extending her hand towards the vampiress.
The vampiress beside Myra hesitated before shaking hands with her. "Jessica" she said in a grim tone.
Usually humans and Vampires don't get along that well. Humans are looked down upon every time by the higher class people. But this human lady in the carriage didn't seemed to care about her being in a lower status.
Then polly turned towards Myra looking at her expectantly, "I'm Amyra" she introduced herself.
The ladies had a little decent talk for a bit, about the weather and food an all. Polly initiating the conversation most of the times.
After a while, Nobody had anything interesting to chat about and everybody went silent retreating to their own thoughts.
Myra hoped that it wouldn't rain that day as it would hinder the journey. She expected to reach there before it turned too dark so that she could find a decent inn to stay at that night.
Time passed by, and her back started aching sitting in the same position for a long time, and the road they were travelling through was quite rough.
Peeping out of the window, she saw that they were passing through a forest area. Thick trees were on either side of the road. The demon guy and the woman named Polly were fast asleep in their respective seats. Both of them snoring lightly.
Everything was fine until the carriage stopped suddenly in the middle of the road, jerking the passengers off their seats. Myra's hit her head to the carriage wall by her side.
"What happened?!" asked the human man looking around anxiously.
The Vampire guy peeped out of the Window and shouted out at the coach man. "Excuse me? Why did we stop?" to get no reply.
They were still passing through the forest area, and Myra started to feel uneasy about it. Something is not right, she thought.
"Lemme check!" said the demon guy in a grumpy hoarse voice, and was about to get out of the carriage when the Vampire man who was looking out of the window yelled.
"DO NOT OPEN THE DOOR!! WE ARE UNDER AN ATTACK!"