The hat band

5-minute freewrite for today's prompt

I have a hat to cover my horns. It is not perfect, and in fact it is too small. At the back of the hat, where my horns wind forward, then up, then back, to reach its width, there are two small holes. But it does not worry me, as the hat band covers them. Or it did not worry me. Last night, as I made my way into the inn where I sleep, there was a special event. A bard was singing, a man and a woman were playing a board game, and a crowd was watching them, loudly cheering and clapping to the rhythm.

A half-troll opened his arms too much to clap and his long sharp nails cut and ripped away the hat band, leaving the small tips of my horns uncovered. No one noticed but me. I felt naked at once. There was no way for my hat to fully cover my horns. Someone was bound to see what I was. If I went to pick up the band, I would bare the back of my head to everyone around me. If I went to my room, I would not find anything to cover myself except a hood, making me even more suspicious. If I slept and waited till everyone left? Perhaps in the night, but the bartender never sleeps, he would see me alone, he would be able to focus on me.

I could back away and run into the night, or I could steal a bigger, broader hat. But then someone would notice, wouldn’t they? I was trapped, and the night beckoned me. “Run away”, it said, “run away, tiefling! Let them never find out what you are, stay in the dark, mysery and loneliness are nothing next to death”