The land we inhabit now was not originally our home and the five tribes were originally one, led by the strongest and bravest chief we have ever known. At least that's what Krea, our tribe's Elder, told us when we use to gather around the flame during ceremonies. Our old lands were plagued by beings called Shades. No one speaks of them, and even mentioning them results in some sort of scolding: from mother, The Elder, the lady two homes over with eight kids. The only information I could gather on these beings was that they work for the Devil, shrouded in mysterious Dark power. They take the shape of a human by day but by night become dark shadow beings that have no face or shape to their bodies. No one would tell me where they came from, or why they plagued us so. Only that to look upon a Shade in their true form brought death. The war against them became so bad that our entire people left a paradise world and traveled thousands of miles to escape the darkness. And we wound up here, in a foreign land.
As the story goes, many of the women and children died on the journey over, leaving the majority of the men without familes. After the journey had been completed the strongest warriors we had got to take the remaining women and our tribe began rebuilding. But the Chief had become greedy without a wife to call his own, and impregnated five women of the tribe, women that belonged to his strongest men. These women were praised for coming out and speaking the truth. They could not disobey their Chief, but they were also faithful and loved their husbands. Soon after, the man that had led us to safety was murdered in his sleep and chaos over took our people. We split into five different tribes, one for each son, and each claimed their own territory. That was said to have happened a hundred years ago.
The story always peaked my interest but deep inside I always felt like bits and pieces were missing. Maybe they weren't lieing to us entirely, but somehow it just seemed too vague.
Koda, my best friend, and the prince of my tribe, was the descendant of one of those sons. It was said that I was to be his High Priestess when the time was right, when I become a woman and claimed my right to bear my own children.
That was my destiny. Right?
* * *
Her new found strength surprised her greatly. She flew through the trees with a speed unknown to man, faster than the hunters of the plains; her feet making no noise as they barely even skimmed the uneven ground. What had taken her almost an hour earlier that day now only took her half that time. Despite being pleased with her aquired speed, she found no pleasure in this particular run; a sense of urgency, the fear of war, the unwanted truth, and the uncertain future were the only things driving her forward into everything she feared. When Taiga finally burst through the tree line into the open fields of her tribe she came upon a scene out of her worst nightmare.
They were racing against time itself. Bodies of bloody and bruised warriors were facing off against mere shadows. Swords, knives, lances, bows and arrows.... nothing harmed them, ripping and slicing through what appeared to be translucent black fire. They moved identically to a human being, nimble and stealthy, trained in the art of killing. Taiga was rushing down the hill, head first into the fray. Every able bodied child had taken up arms, the enemy towering high above them, but they were taught to be courageous and slashed at shadowed legs to no avail. On she ran, deeper into the blood shed but no closer to the answer. It was a slaughter. They had no chance against something they didn't understand.
The closer Taiga got to the center of the village the more bodies she had to navigate through- the more blood shed she witnessed. The lady two houses down was wailing with the body of her youngest child in her arms. Taiga slowed to talk sense into the woman only to witness her decapitation before she could utter a word. There had to be a way. There had to be. And the only person.... the only person who had any information... any inkling of a clue what to do was her grandmother. Taiga kept running.
She ripped the door off its hinges and rocketed into the house, the force slamming her into the opposite wall with a thud. She only allowed a second to catch her breath, there was no time.
"Krea? KREA?" She was racing through the house, slower this time to avoid any more unnecessary collisions. "Grandmother? Are you here?" She stopped, giving up hope as she neared the last room. And then she heard it.
"Ta... taiga?"
Kneeling by the old woman's side she realised that their wasn't much time left for her. A wound to the Elders chest was free bleeding, it was a pure miracle the woman had stayed alive as long as she had.
"Did he... did he... find... you?"
"Did who find me? Please Elder, stay with me. I have to end this." Tears started to spill over. So much death and destruction. There was nothing left to save, and Taiga knew that but just one life... if she could save one life. "Who needed to find me?"
"K.. Koda. Did he..."
Taiga's eyes closed quickly as the tears came faster. Why...
"He's dead... He's dead, Elder."
"Don't be silly, child." Krea smiled softly before enduring an uncontrollable coughing fit. When it had subsided she took Taiga's hand firmly. "Aroko.... he is Koda. The Chief never... he.... never fathered.... a son...."
"No... what do you mean? Elder, please. What do you mean?" Taiga shook her frail form gently, but she knew the time had come. The old woman was gone.
And then she saw it, lurking in the doorway nearly invisible in the growing darkness of the night. She heard it laughing, a deep throated chuckle that sent chills down her spine. Before Taiga could rise to her feet it had a hand wrapped firmly around her neck, choking her as it slammed her body into the nearest wall. More laughing.... harder and louder this time.
Taiga closed her eyes and summoned anything that would give her the courage to fight, in this case it was the anger that answered her. When she opened her eyes again the Shade was peering into a dark blood red that had consumed her entire eye ball. The laughing stopped. She wrapped her hand around his wrist and squeezed as hard as she could and it dropped her with a shrill high pitched shriek. The sound brought her immense joy.
"A marked... how! Where did you come from?" It's voice, still deep, was somehow so much smaller now. Taiga smirked.
"I wish upon you an eternity of pain... now PERISH!" It's black translucent body turned a light blue hue as it caught fire and burned better than any wood she had even seen thrown into a flame. More laughter, but this time it was coming from the girl.
She walked slowly through her village, her eyes always cast forward in the direction she was headed. No more energy was required for her task. Any time she laid eyes on a dark shadowed figure they were consumed by the flame of hatred. It didn't take long for them to retreat from her lands and disappear into the night as if they had never been there to begin with. Taiga was left with only a consuming despair and the fire that was still burning the flesh of the dead around her. She sank down to the ground when her strength finally failed her, sheding tears of blood until the fire found her body and consumed her too.
* * *
Aroko stepped out of the forest with the light of the sun rise, his flesh a light mocha color against the soft hues of orange and red. His naked body moved bare foot through the wreckage, only ash and burnt pieces of splintered wood from what use to be the structures remained in the valley. He went straight to her body, her skin crisp and mangled where the flames had kissed her. She must have wanted death, for that was the only way they could've ever touched her. Bending down he picked up her body, now barely alive, and cradled her to his chest.
She wasn't allowed to die.
Not yet.
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