I wake up in the dirt.

My eyes flutter open, having lost any sense of continuity. One moment I'd been walking through the fire and the next face down in the dirt. I could smell grass, nightsoil, and the pervasive scent of smoke.

My stomach clenched, as close to starving as I'd ever been. It was worse than the night outside the farm; I doubted I had more than a few hours, maybe two or three, left to me. Any attempt to use my power would likely leave me a minute from my demise.

I wasn’t that same boy, though. I'd changed, grown maybe, and it only took a moment of resolve to stand. I looked around, finding a small household in the gap between the trees. It was a reasonably sized abode, surrounded by a picket and accompanied by a shed and an apple tree. I was behind the house, near a tall and narrow structure; the scent told me it was an outhouse.

At a guess, it was the home of a woodsman or an apothecary; they were often solitary occupations, one by necessity and the latter by superstition. Common folk didn't like things they didn't understand, something I knew intimately, and that often took the form of magic and medicine and monsters. Sometimes those fears were justified, often they were not.

I wondered idly if I could have remained as unjustified threat, if I'd ever really stood a chance of living a kind and peaceful life. I had gone too far by now for that option to even be considered, but I figured there was no harm in wondering. I chuckled as hunger wracked my body.

N_o, _I thought, Idle wonder could be fatal in my condition.

Now was the time to act. Take the risks, follow through with them, and move.

I broke from the cover of trees into a grey morning. The smoke cast a veil over the sky, leaving only the faintest hint of the sun. I could taste the smoke, and all scents became muted and indistinct. I crept to the wooden wall of the house, noting small windows denoting two floors. I could hear a dull sound from the front of the house, like splitting wood, and I caught a different sort of smoke. There was a thick pillar in front of the house, far closer than the dark smog on the skyline and thicker than the haze that hung around the house.

I considered my options as I reached the rear corner of the house; I could sneak up behind whatever was causing the sound. If it were a woman, then I could easily end my damned hunger. I could try to break into the house through one of the windows, though I lacked the tools to do that easily. I could also get myself ready, and make a noise so that my prospective target would come searching.

I weight my options for a moment, and then I acted.