wanted to proudly share her success with her mother.
"It's enough Ailana. You forget every task I give you. Your little brother is even more of a help to me than you.", Said her mother reprovingly. "You are no longer a child. You too can get married in two years." Her mother sighed depressed, her anger was haunted. "Be sensible. Some young fellows have already got their eyes on you. And your future husband wants a woman who can lend a hand and nobody who can read them a few letters. ... They want a good housewife." Pause and finally averted her gaze from her daughter's now sad face and looked at the stove.“A housewife who stokes the stove,” her gaze wandered to the uncleaned dishes, “preparing the food and feeding the chickens.” The black-haired woman sighed again before going to the iron stove. She leaned down and took some logs that were stacked next to the small stove and placed them in the small opening of the stove. Finally she took a little dry straw from a basket next to the logs and lit it on a candle. She put the burning straw in the opening of the stove on the logs. She kept her eyes on the flames as she added dry straw at irregular intervals to keep the flames up.
Ailana looked sadly at her mother. It was obvious what her mother thought of her father's idea of ​​bringing education to his children. Her father used to say on this tiresome subject, “There will come other times when you will need knowledge and education.” It was his standard answer when her mother tried to talk him out of his plan. Ailana couldn't imagine what other times he was talking about. She had never spoken to him about it either. It was only important that she could satisfy her thirst for knowledge.
“Ailana!” She was torn from her thoughts. Her mother looked at her with concern with her dark eyes. “Please feed the chickens.” It wasn't a request, it was a request. “Yeah, I'll take care of it right away.” No, her mother would never understand that her reading and writing was extremely important. Sighing, she closed her book at this fact.
She had left the simple wooden house with a quick step. This was surrounded by some trees, which gave the residents of the house a pleasant shade in summer. Immediately behind it stretched a dense forest and behind this one could see a mighty mountain range. From her house, however, one could not see these huge mountains. The forest was too high and too dense. Nevertheless, Ailana knew exactly in which direction the mountains were. She knew her forest pretty well anyway. As a small child, she wandered around a lot and would have gotten lost at one point or another. But she hadn't fallen on her head. So she climbed a tree to get a better overview of her situation. It didn't take long then and she knew her house very well within a certain radius.
A grin crept onto Ailana's face, oh her mother scolded her when she saw Ailana climbing up trees. 'Like a boy,' her mother had said. Well, maybe it would really have been better if she had turned into a boy. She sighed. Men have so much more freedom. A woman is expected to get married and have children soon. But Ailana didn't like that very thought.She would love to wander around, see foreign cities and countries. Perhaps by ship across the ocean and to the edge of the world. Her heart leaped with excitement at the thought. What a bold idea. Unfortunately impossible. Impossible because of their gender. Sighing, she walked past her house into the thick forest. The chickens, she couldn't forget them with her fantasies, otherwise a thunderstorm would break loose!

>> Chickens ... forest ... screams ... >>

* Flashback end *

She'd been lost in her past for just a blink of an eye. A movement, she thought, had gotten her out of her thoughts. But everything around her was still frozen. Her gaze was still fixed on the blade, which was only a cubit wide from the defenseless man.
The scene in front of her frightened her terribly. Her body felt strangely heavy, almost as if she had lead in her feet, arms - just everywhere. They didn't want to take their eyes off the deadly point of the blade. The fear was too great that she would run away if she took her eyes off the knife.

... But ... what was that? Was she just imagining it, was the blade moving again? No, her eyes were probably just fooling her ... or not? Her heart began to beat madly with new ones. It couldn't be ...

... the dagger he ...

... stirred again.

He moved almost imperceptibly, but nonetheless inexorably. Almost so slowly that it was almost invisible to the naked eye. Time didn't seem to want to stand still any longer. The rigidity gradually crumbled away.

Ailana had to realize bitterly that she couldn't fix the blade of the undead in a rigid position only with the help of her gaze. So the blade moved relentlessly towards the man. At first so slowly that Ailana thought her eyes were playing a trick on her, but the speed of the knife accelerated almost every moment.
But she wanted to help this man who was actually unknown to her. More innocent people shouldn't have to lose their lives! For just a blink of an eye, her gaze slid from the weapon of the undead into the eyes of her fellow sufferer in front of her. When their eyes met, her racing heart stopped for a moment. Inconceivability spread inside her.

How could his eyes radiate such equilibrium?

Why did his face have an incredibly relieved expression?

He ... was mad! Clearly!
His lips formed an almost unrecognizable smile, which was only followed by an equally short nod.

The whistling of the wind through the rotten treetops

Nod?

He nodded

... He nodded to her?

>> What the ... <<

But suddenly she sucked in air between her teeth, startled. It was completely absurd and made no logical sense to the question of why.But, he hadn't gone mad and he was no longer absent in spirit, at precisely that moment the man in front of her was in his right mind. His smile and nod, just a gesture for…. You, who should only convey one thing to her: It's okay!

Wins of people

This realization literally killed her. But she understood that in a strange way it all made sense.
It was okay that he was going to die here. Ailana shouldn't worry about him. She should have hope, hope for a better tomorrow. His eyes signaled a certainty that told her that she would survive this ordeal today. But this realization confused her.

Cool north wind that blew through her hair

>>… But why me? <<

Clashing armor

A moment, not what feels like a second.

A sea of ​​sounds

There they were again all the noises and the deep pain in their soul that mercilessly carried them back into this here and now. She felt all the terrible feelings again, which did not allow her to think clearly. She breathed the musty air and tasted the haze of the gray mist. Then she knew - time had caught up with her again. The world had started turning again.
The moment of certainty not to end up as a tree ornament was forgotten. The man's smile had disappeared, instead he seemed now to be far away again. The time passed for her with incredible speed. The dagger that floated to its target just a few moments ago now rushed down like lightning fast and relentless on the man's neck.

A figure approaching the horizon.

Every feeling had returned with terrible ruthlessness. She felt the deep lump that constricted her throat and made her breath difficult. Fear ran through her whole body, an unpleasant goose bumps spreads inside her. The sounds echoed in her head like the mountain echo. A confused, jumbled, repeating noise. She could not hear a single sound clearly, could no longer think clearly. But despite the many impressions around her, she still couldn't take her eyes off the horrific spectacle in front of her, which made her blood run cold ...

Galloping hooves in the distance

... and let their breath catch.

Lashes those who cut the air

The silver blade went through the man's neck, a horizontal, narrow cut cut through his throat. Hardly a blink of an eye later his dark red sap of life flowed in streams from his wound.

horses confuse

A choking and rattling noise could be heard before the man could no longer control his body, it sagged forward and finally fell over to one side.Calls in a foreign language

His eyes slid into the void, while a huge pool of blood spread around the dead body.

Grinding of sand under runners, ...

He was dead. Another victim of so many who had to die today ...

... when an undead knight brought his horse to a halt at full gallop.

Ailana looked dazed at the figure lying on the floor. She still couldn't take her gaze from his eyes. His pupils looked into nothing. She should have had the urge to scream out loud, get up, and run as far as she could take her feet. But she couldn't do anything like that, because she suddenly felt so empty. She felt no fear, no cold, no sadness. Her whole body felt numb. In her ears she only heard the rush of her own blood, which almost completely masked all other noises around her. She was like in a trance, like paralyzed, far, far away ...

The undead guard who had just slit the man's throat wiped his blade clean on an old rag. The remaining undead looked questioningly at the just arrived, also undead knight. He had just dismounted from his horse and was gradually walking towards the first two guards. The undead knight wore a higher level of armor than the guards who had taken on the chore of killing humans out here. The knight came to stand next to the man's corpse, he only looked at it briefly and seemed annoyed when he turned back to his comrades.
His armor creaked and clanked with every move he made. A long sword graced his right side. He completely lacked hair, as well as ears and nose. Instead,