On a cold, misty, November night, when the moon did not shine, there was a woman cradling what look like a bundle of clothes in her arms. The woman appeared to be only in her late twenties, her hair was as black as night, her eyes the color of the ocean. She was running through the forest, in what seemed to be, terror. She kept looking over her shoulder while running, holding onto the bundle for dear life. But it seemed as if nothing was pursuing her, onlookers (as if there would be any) would see a terrified woman holding something and running from an invisible pursuer. Many would think her mad, but this was not the case.

She was most indeed running away from something, something that most would think never existed. They had already gotten her husband. He told her to go on while he tried to hold them off for as long as he could to give her time to escape. This noble deed turned out to be done in vain. He was quickly slaughtered, and his body unceremoniously flung aside. Now the woman was running for her life, knowing she was going to be demolished just like her husband. Why would she keep running if she knew this? She kept running for as to put as much space between what she holds most dear in her heart and the hunters. On and on she ran this time not daring to look back. Strangely, (seeing as how both eyes were in front of her), she tripped and twisted her ankle on a mangled root of a giant oak tree. Knowing she couldn’t go on she waited fro them to come.

The woman didn’t have to wait long, the hunters came. Out of the darkness a most oily, sinister voice said, “You know you do not have to perish, you have a choice.” Many other unseen beings chuckled at this comment as if they knew what the outcome of this encounter would ensure.

“Right, like there’s any point negotiating with your kind,” the woman spat at them.

“Whatever do you mean by that?” the oily voice said in a mock hurt voice. “We are noble creatures, and we value honor beyond all other means, we give everyone options, they don’t all have to die”, he continued in a slow, drawn out, get-the-concept tone. The others continued to stifle their laughter, but one could not suppress it any longer and was keeling over, laughing. A high mistake that was, and for that he paid the price.

You could hear the rustling of the leaves as one of the creatures swooped down on him, and from the anger and ferocity in the voice, was most likely the leader. For he said, “HOW DARE YOU LAUGH WHEN IM TRYING TO PERSUADE A PERSON! WHERE WERE YOU WHEN THEY WERE HANDING OUT THE BRAINS?! LOCKED UP IN THE HYENA CAGE?! HMM?! ! YOU HAVE CAUSED ME TROUBLE LONG ENOUGH!” Without even a chance to apologize or grovel, all you could hear was a grand slashing noise and a thud of something really heavy hitting the ground. All other stifled laughter had ceased. “As I was saying, you see we are noble, honor-bound creatures, so you have nothing to fear.” said the oily voice with the air of someone who has never even killed a fly. There was more laughter, but it wasn’t coming from the dark place where the creatures were at.

“Wow! Is that how you’re planning to “persuade” me?!” the woman said while laughing yet managing to keep that mock tone in there as well. “You speak of honor and of giving everyone a chance, yet I’m failing to recall a very recent event, in which you slaughtered my husband? Tell me did you bother to sully your mouth with the same highly ludicrous fairy tale that you just presented to me?” At this he did not reply, so in the silence she continued, strangely with the same mock tone and laughter. “Let us both presume that I already know what those options are and only one looks appealing to me, but wait a minute how would I know….hmmm” she then put on a mockful thinking expression. As if a light bulb went off in her head she exclaimed, “I know! Mayhap its because it’s the same thing you always say, in fact the same exact thing you said to mum, word for word,” “Father.” The silence continued but seemed to be drawn longer, as if time itself has stopped to sink these words into their skulls.

Apparently, her “father” had finally found the use of speech again. “How long have you known, and who told you? You were never supposed to find out about it before the day I would come back for you, my daughter.” The woman flinched at the last word he spoke. Dropping everything of mock and laughter she said quietly and crystal clear,

“I have known about it since birth, it was dear mum who told me.” Shocked silence followed these words once more. “She was shocked at what she had done, having a child with one of your kind, so she told me ever since I was born to expect this once I bore my own child. You did the mistake of telling her what you were going to do, how foolish love makes oneself, don’t you agree?” Although she could not see him she could feel the furious vibes he was giving her, rising with every word she spoke. “Then she told me this wonderful thing to recite when that certain day would come, and only to recite it on the night when no moon would shine upon the grounds, the one following the birth of my child.”

Regaining speech once more, he merely uttered, “But….but… but…she…she would never do that to me. I loved her, cared for her, gave her protection. She couldn’t possibly have done such a thing…”

“Oh ho! Looks like your assumptions turned out to be faulty, because she did and made sure she did.” He seemed to be uttering something but it comprehended not. “Looks like you won’t be able to carry out the “royal” blood line ever, for I have chosen my option,” At this he uttered what sounded like a cry of a wounded animal. “DEATH!”

“NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!” was the clearly audible cry that he now gave out.

“Oh yes father, I will never be one with your kind, and by the order of your kind when one has chosen the path of death, you have no choice but to do the honors of doing their last request.” They were closing in on her, slowly though for they had to for their master’s sake. “By the by, in case you were wondering what that ingenious little thing she taught me to recite? It goes like so,

THOU SHALL NOT HAVE MY BLOOD PRECEEDING ME, IN THIS LIFETIME,
THOU SHAN’T HAVE THE ONE TO CARRY OUT THE BLOODLINE, IN THIS LIFETIME,
THOU SHAN’T BE ABLE TO TURN HIM IN THIS LIFETIME,
THOU KIND SHAN’T TAKE HIM TO YOU IN THIS LIFETIME,

IN GIVING MINE LIFE I PROTECT HIM FROM HARM,,
IN GIVING MINE LIFE I PROTECT HIM FROM HARM,
IN GIVING MINE LIFE I PROTECT HIM FROM HARM,
THY PROTECTION SHALL LAST TILL HIS 17TH YEAR,
AS I WILL IT, AS MINE RIGHT, SO MOTE IT BE!

With that last bit of the recitation, she laughed, not a cruel laugh, but the laugh one makes when triumphant. The hunters had finally reached her, and she continued to laugh. Only when the laughing ceased did the inevitable was admitted. Faintly, you could hear sobbing. It was coming from the hunter on his knees. If one was to have seen (the ones besides the trees for they see and hear everything) the events that had happened, they would think he was in mourning for his daughter. How very wrong that assumption is. Yes, he was in sorrow, but not because of his daughter’s death. It was because he now realized the truth about the only woman he had ever loved; it was because she betrayed him. So now, not only does he feel the hole in his heart where his love for her was kept, but betrayal was in that hole as well. And his hope, his hope of one of his “royal” blood taking his place when the time comes, to continue his names rule had evaporated and was gone forever…..


Or so he thought…

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Far, far, away, lay a sleeping baby boy, with no idea of what has happened to his parents, or what will be in store for him later as he grows up. He was found by two strangers on the outskirts of the woods in a tiny hole in the ground while being carefully covered by leaves. The strangers took him inside their own home, layed him down in a basket, and examined him to make sure he was still alive. As they did so they recognized whose child it was and immediately gathered a few of the men from the town to search for the parents.
After four hours of searching, they found them, and it wasn’t a pretty sight. Both bodies had deep gashes across the neck, the torso torn form the rest of the body, legs missing, and strangely no blood, not one drop of blood remained. It was as if someone had drained it all out. Stranger still, both the facial expressions were happy, as if they were laughing as they were dying. Nothing, not one bit of it made sense to anyone so it rose many questions.

“Poor lad” said a male stranger’s voice, “Both parents, were killed in the same way but different places, it’s a miracle the lad is unharmed, but strange he was so far away from either of them and he looks to be about one year old.”

“Yes ’tis a miracle for a one year old all alone, but what is going to happen to the boy? He has no parents, and no orphanage is going to take to him for what his mother was, for they fear the boy will turn out the same as her kind.” said a female stranger’s voice. “Even if she was half, the boy still could be one of them.”

“Oh yes, I’ve been pondering the same question myself.” said the male voice. “What’s even more peculiar is the way his parents perished; could it be the doings of her kind?”

“ Most likely, but that suspicion must never be voiced to anyone else again, surely they will think that themselves, but soon it will pass, and they will go back in their ignorance pretending that it was just a wild animal that did it.”

“Yes, you are correct as always my dear,” said the male voice. “But the question still remains who’s going to take him in? No one will want him, and we surely aren’t taking him.”
At that moment when he said that the door burst open and in came a woman and she said, “The boy is to be left with me; this matter was prearranged by the parents themselves.”

“The coffin maker is to take the boy in?” said the male voice in disbelief as if it were some sort of jest.

“The coffin maker has a name thank you very much, it’s Viola Reed and yes they boy is to be left with, and raised by me.”

“What did you mean when you said the matter was prearranged by the parents?” said the female voice.

“That is of no concern to you, I am to take him in and raise him, and seeing as how I already have two children of my own , Caleb and Darian whom of which are around the same age as the boy, am completely apt of raising this child also.” Viola said as she pointed to where the child slept.

“How can you have two boys if your husband died while you were still with child, and how come you didn‘t bring them with you as evidence seeing as how no one has seen these children?” asked the female voice who seemed to be mixing two and two together a lot faster than her husband.

“They are twins, identical to the last hair on their head. They are at home being watched carefully by the dog whom of which has been trained to guard and watch anything I tell him to. The reason why no one has seen my children is because unlike some people, I don’t shout at the top of my lungs to anyone that can hear about , about my personal life seeing as how its personal, Gamma. Baffled, Gamma did not say a word. Viola continued, “Now, enough of my personal life, you have wasted enough of my time, and it is time that I take the child to his new home.”

No one stopped her as she made her way to the basket that held the boy. She took the boy out of the basket and cradled him in her arms so as to make sure he still slept. Slowly she walked out the door and onto the dirt path. She walked and walked, past where there was no dirt path left, past the remaining houses of the bunched up town.

Eventually she spotted a house in the middle of the vast countryside with a river not very far behind it. She made her way to the house. As she opened the door she said, “Kalcifer, I’m home.” Then a slightly big dog, (looks like a lab mixed with something unknown) came walking up to her. “

How are the boys?” Viola asked the dog. The dog layed down on the ground and feigned sleep.

“Oh good their asleep” she said understanding Kalcifer’s movement. She walked over to the open bedroom doorway, with Kalcifer walking behind her and neared the cradle where the boys slept. As she did so the boys woke up, when they saw their mother they stood up in the cradle leaning against the bars smiling at her.

Then she said, “Hello boys, meet your new brother.” As if they understood her words they looked at the boy and smiled. Knowing that they were going to get along she walked over to another crib and placed the boy in there.

Softly she said, “Welcome to your new home, Demitri Ilias.” she kissed him on the forehead , did the same to her twin boys, and walked out the door closing it behind her, leaving Kalcifer in there to watch them. She leaned up against the door and whispered, “You’ll know the truth someday about what lies ahead of you Demitri, but for now I think its best you live your life freely without that burden on your shoulders.”
Demitri turned over in his sleep, unaware of anything in the world.