Sage Parker wasn't like everyone or anyone else, and he was reminded of this every moment of his life. Sometimes people would stare at him, or they wouldn't dare meet his eyes. To him, the latter was much worse. It was like they feared him, which he supposed they had a good reason to. He was poison, the very personification of it.
Of course, despite this, maybe even because of it, his father made him train with the other kids his age. In the Forest Tribe, you were encouraged to embrace your powers. Every child was taught about their powers in school. Some even went to special schools if they were particularly powerful. Powers were gifts, they said. That is, until Sage was born. Everyone had tried to convince his mother and father to teach him as little about what he was as possible. They had refused, of course, as every loving parent would.
That was something his parents had always done. They had always loved him, no matter how destructive he was. And he was destructive, in more ways than one. His poison was enough to kill, yeah, but so was his anger and resentment toward generally everything and everyone. They said his personality issues were because of the curse, which only made him hate it even more. He thought himself lucky that his parents hadn't thrown him out on the streets as a kid.
His mother would have a heart attack and die if she ever heard him say that last bit out loud.
Sage sighed. He wasn't the one who he should be pitying. The real person to feel sorry for was his mother. She had dealt with him his entire life, and he loved her with his whole heart for it. But maybe it would be better for everyone if he just left and never looked back. He had never caused anyone anything but grief.
He was brought back to reality when someone hit him square in the chest and knocked him backwards off his feet.
His head his the floor with a loud crack. Pain shot through his skull in dull fragments of pain, reminding him of the time he had stolen a bottle of his father's wine and downed it all in one evening. For a moment, he couldn't think straight, couldn't remember where he was. He couldn't get his brain to grasp reality. Then it all came back to him. He was in the training room. With the other trainees. Someone had just hit him. As he remembered this last bit, he exploded in a fit of rage.
"What the hell!" he shouted and jumped to his feet. It made him even dizzier than he was, but he didn't care. He could feel a thin trickle of blood running down his scalp, his neck, and into the collar of his shirt, dampening his already-crimson hair. His vision was kind of fuzzy, but he could make out a tall, blond figure standing in front of him.
Darius.
Sage had used to think that his destructive reputation would make guys like Darius run screaming. It hadn't quite worked out that way. Darius was the kind of person who liked to see how far he could push someone until they snapped, and Sage was known for his lack of self-control. Which made him an easy target.
Except that Sage could kill Darius with hardly more than a flick of his wrist.
It was that thought that kept Sage from hitting him back. He reminded himself that he was the one with the real power. Now all he had to do was remind Darius.
The other boy was still standing in front of him, a smirk on his face. Darius was only about a year older than Sage, but he acted like he was his god. He was tall, blond, and muscular, your typical little hero. And he was popular. Not that Sage wasn't well-known himself, but it was definitely in the wrong way.
Darius laughed. "What, aren't you gonna defend yourself, Freak? Or do you let your daddy solve all your problems for you?"
Sage didn't respond for a while. Then he grinned. It would have been a completely harmless, even friendly, gesture if it weren't for the fact that he had let his fangs slip out from under his gums. Consciously, he let his fingernails elongate into claws so they oozed poison. "My 'daddy' can't harm you in half as many ways as I can, Darius. I think you would even prefer if I let him deal with you."
Darius stopped smirking. He tried to his his discomfort with a nervous laugh. Sage realized that everyone was watching now, seeing how this would turn out, even the instructors. No one wanted to get close enough to Sage to stop the fight.
Darius fumbled for something to say. Finally, he choked, "You'd better watch your back, Parker." Then he turned and slinked away like a wounded cat.
Sage knew Darius didn't make idle threats. But he doubted that he could recover his wits soon enough to do anything at the moment. So he decided to let it go. He closed his mouth, but he still felt the fangs pressing against the inside of his lips.
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