Young Writers Society

Wandering in the wheat fields that surrounded the tiny village was a wonderful pastime. Especially at night, when the entire galaxy seemed opened up before her. Looking up, she thought about the life that lay ahead of her. A farmer, or a farmer's wife. She was only seven, and already thinking about it all; she would make flour from the wheat, listen to her husband complain about not having enough money and about taxes being too high, and she would bake bread. Just like her own parents, she would have children and grow old watching them grow up. The dullness of her future prospects sickened her to her core. It wasn't that she resented her parents for birthing her into such an awful place; it was that she felt regret for something unfinished. Something not yet completed... a failed goal that ate at her, even though she had no idea what it was.

"Anita! Get yer' scrawny butt back in the house, ya' mangy rat!" She heard her father cry out into the night from their cottage home. It was likely that he had checked her room and found her gone; he would probably whip her again for sneaking out. Why did he bother? He hated her anyways; why not let the wolves take her?

Anita only barely glanced behind her at the single lantern that marked the position of her home with its tiny flame. Pushing short blond hair out of he eyes, she sighed. She felt a strange emotion create a pit in her stomach, as if she was saying goodbye. Shaking it off, she turned her gaze back around in front of her.

At first she thought it was her eyes playing tricks on her in the darkness, since she had just looked directly at the lantern light in the distance. However, as her vision cleared and became accustomned to the enveloping darkness--which seemed to be getting darker by the moment--it became evident that it was no trick. A tall, wavering figure stood tall a few yards in front of her, stalking toward her in a cat-like way. The figure, judging by her sillouette, was a woman. Something was wrong with her form, though. For one, where her eyes would be, there was a faint silver illumination. Secondly, her gait seemed too fluid; she was much too flexible.

"Anima," the figure rasped, her voice hissing like a dragon's steaming breath.

"A-Anita," the girl stuttered, eyes wide as she gaped at the figure. Every time she blinked, the woman seemed to get several feet closer. "My name is Anita." Steadying her voice, the girl controlled her expression to 'wary' instead of 'utterly shocked and terrified'.

Anita held back a shriek when the woman lifted her left arm, raising her palm to face Anita. A tattoo was painted on the center of her palm, the ink glowing bright silver. The woman's eyes widened, the silver on both her palm and in her eyes glowing brighter. Anita soon found herself blinded, falling backwards onto the ground.

"Define thy soul," the woman hissed. A sharp pain erupted behind Anita's eyes, and then all over her body. She felt herself scream, but heard nothing. Nothing but a roaring rumble echoing around her like an angry storm.

Anita was dully aware of the fact that she couldn't move her limbs; that she could no longer suck in air to her lungs; that her eyes were plastered open and her vision blank white. A strange feeling was running through her veins, almost resembling a galloping horse made of lightening. But that was preposterous, even for a child. Simply preposterous.

*****

"My Lady, I must admit I am slightly confused at your anger," the woman was bowing at the waist, her face hidden from sight. The Queen liked to think the woman was cowering and frightened, but the truth of the matter was likely the opposite. She could almost feel the wretched scientist laughing her trousers off, and all at her own personal expense.

"You left me. For three months. Alone!" The Queen raged, standing from her seat on the throne to stomp her foot childishly. She knew she was only making things worse, but Evora was so... so... irritating.

"I left you in your highly guarded castle with a Reaper, three advisors, and a heavily guarded bridge that connected one side of the city and the city gates to another side of the city and your castle gates. I left for three months, which is about a third of how long I usually leave. And, like I said before, I left you with a Reaper, three advisors, and... and a butler and a hoard of guards?" Still bowing, it was plain for all to see that--judging by her quivering back--Evora was holding back amused chuckles.

"Gladys betrayed me, my Reaper went after her, the bridge got destroyed, and... and you didn't come back! I'm having to deal with a plague that everyone won't stop whining about!"

"Hmmm... Now, let me give you a reply to each and every one of those statements one at a time, and all in order. Listen carefully: Is that my fault? Is that my fault? Is that my fault? Also, is that my fault?"

"You bloody well believe it is!" The Queen howled, thumping the back of Evora's head with her fist.

"How very un-Queenly of you, my Lady," the scientist said in her know-it-all manner, her crisp and unknown accent pouring over her words.

"Oh, just rise already. And explain yourself, blast it. Where were you?" The Queen crossed her arms over her chest, pouting. It had been a stressful day, full of attempted food-poisoning, strange dreams, and an army of ever-complaining peasants.

Rising out of her bow, Evora smiled brightly at her Queen, flashing pearly whites. Her forest green eyes were alight with excitement and energy, and her flawless skin was red and rosy from happiness. Either she had made a discovery of some sort, or she was about to make a very uncalled-for joke.

"I was across the planet, observing the Latfina Doryllia reserve."

The scientist sounded ecstatic, so it must mean something important. The Queen, however, was not in the mood to play guess-and-guess-again.

"What is that, exactly?"

"A reserve for naturally-born dragons and other such creatures, traditional tribes and clans, and the occasional nonhuman being. A place where they can live without fear of being moved, harmed, or killed. We all desire a place like that, you know; however, not all of us find it." Evora raised her eyebrows and gave the Queen a pointed look. Her Majesty decided to ignore the scientist, flicking her hand so that she would continue speaking. "Right. So, anyways, I was studying a particular clan of Base Luminex--an unnatural, test-tube born species of Luminex--when they sort of found me. Well, it was more like a scout found me watching the clan and took it the wrong way."

"You were taken prisoner?"

"No, not really. I mean, at first they were going to skin me up and hang me out to dry, but then I flashed my Silver Card," Evora took out a silvery 2x3 inch card, likely made out of silver, and showed it to the Queen. Gold and black printing on both sides of the card signified the rank and power of the card; scientists like Evora relied on varying types of cards such as this one to gain access to research information and observation sites. Basically, the more elegant the printing and the more expensive the material of the card was, the more access one had. The Queen had never bothered to ask Evora when or how she had gotten her Silver Card, or why, and it remained a sensitive subject. Evora had always been tight-lipped when it came to her research--and her personal life in general--so the fact that she was telling Her Majesty anything at all was a miracle in and of itself. "After that, everything was fine. They let me go and went from cannibals to intellectuals in an instant. Amusing, really," Evora shrugged.

The Queen, interested now, sat back down on her throne and gestured for Evora to have a seat in one of her advisor's chairs that rested on either side of the throne. Seating herself and straightening her coat, Evora smiled at the Queen again before continuing.

"As it turns out, the allegedly 'mindless' and 'incompatible with society' Base Luminex species had created their own government system. They have a tri-leadership base that has an astounding purpose: there's one leader for laws--which includes health and safety, one leader for financial concerns--including things like money coming in and money going out, and one leader for public concerns--education and the development of the clan, basically. Then they have one ruler with the highest rank possible; this leader rests above the tri-leadership but has almost no influence over what happens to the clan. This top-ranking leader is always female, and is basically just a breeder; kind of like a queen bee in a hive."

"How do they choose the next top-ranking leader?" The Queen leaned forward in her seat, suddenly interested. The queer manner of this government system had her intrigued.

"Well, if the Hivra--which is what they call that top-ranking leader--births a boy, then the child is raised to the age of seven at a distance. He usually doesn't come near the Hivra at all during that time, and is raised by the tri-leadership collectively. At the age of seven, the boy is put through a series of vigorous tests of strength, intelligence, and energetic power; if he dies, he dies; if he lives, he becomes an official citizen in the upper class. The strange thing is that these male children will develop different bodies than other males that weren't born from the Hivra. You'd have to see it to get it, really." Evora shrugged in an uninterested manner, but the Queen sensed Evora was either amazed or frightened by what she had seen. She would have to look into it later. "Anyways, if the Hivra births a girl, then the child is raised to the age of eleven at close range. She stays close to the Hivra, and is trained by both her and the tri-leadership. Born and raised to be the next Hivra, in a way. At the age of eleven, the child must go--alone--to a sacred, unknown location and learn from whatever 'spirits' and 'energies' are there. Sounds like rubbish to me, but they believe it. When she returns, she is supposedly much older mentally, but her physical body remains unchanged. Her body doesn't age until she kills the current Hivra, at which point she begins a slow aging process. The Hivra ages about 15 times slower than humans, meaning her average life-span--considering the fact that she is killed halfway into her life by her female child, if she has one--is about 750 years."

"I see." The Queen watched Evora carefully, noting the fact that the scientist was now flipping through a small leather-bound notebook she had retrieved from her coat pocket. "Evora, what does this have to do with us?"

"Oh, it wouldn't have anything to do with us if I hadn't noticed an interesting fact. See, I had the honor of speaking with the current Hivra of that clan. Her daughter had just returned home from her journey to their sacred place; the girl had the brightest silver eyes I've ever seen, with long black hair and fair skin. However, in a portrait of the daughter that the Hivra showed me--a portrait painted before the daughter had left--the child had dull blue eyes. This child left the clan a human," Evora paused for dramatic effect, her expression equally theatric. "And returned a Reaper."

"Ha!" The Queen snorted, leaning back into her throne, exasperated. "Evora, you bloody well know that it isn't possible for such a thing to happen. You're either born a Reaper or you're born something else; you can't just switch between the two."

"But she did! Isn't it fascinating?" Evora giggled like a child, clapping her hands with excitement. "Think of the possibilities--a human gone Reaper! I wonder if the child chose which species of nonhuman she became... Also, on a similar note, this clan of Base Luminex appeared to be more in-tune with the nonhuman species. They have more information on behavior and customs than all collective human knowledge on the subject. Of course, when I was reading their manuscripts, I noticed an important fact: the clan doesn't call nonhumans 'nonhumans'."

"What do they call them, then?"

"Exerntians, my Lady. They even have sketches and paintings from thousands and thousands of years ago; pictures from 15 thousand years ago depict winged humans--with wings both white and black--more beautiful than anything you've ever seen. Along with them were beings with silver eyes and long claws, humans who could morph into any creature at any time, and mysterious hooded figures that appeared to be controlling metals." Evora studied the Queen's face as she said this, but Her Majesty's expression remained stiff and void of emotion. "Move forward to 10 thousand years ago, and these 'Exerntians' have taken places on our planet as both gods and leaders. Five thousand years ago, pictures show a Reaper," the scientist paused, this time because she was uncomfortable, "...dressed in black. The Reaper was killing off other Exerntians; the legends from this time state that the Reaper was punishing those of its own kind for specific crimes. A few main offenses that were punished were an individual attempting--knowingly or not--to create a disaster, cross-species breeding, killing innocents needlessly, and something called Shadow Stealing, whatever that is."

"Why were they punished for cross-species breeding?" The Queen asked, puzzled. "Nowadays it's outlawed, but why then? Is there a danger behind it or--"

"It is simply cruel to the children." Evora cut the Queen off, her face subtly warning Her Majesty to back off the subject. "It's nothing of your concern; all I was saying was that I found out more about these 'Exerntians' and am studying the information I collected, I found a possible human-to-Reaper transformation, and that I apologize for being absent from the castle for so long. Now, if you'll excuse me, I must go and find a cure to this plague everyone's been babbling about." With a final bow, Evora left the Queen without being properly excused. The Queen let it go, however, as she was too stunned at all of the information she had retrieved.

A Reaper in black, killing off its own kind for the sake of justice? That legend was just that: a legend. There was more to it, she was sure of that. In the meantime, that vast array of information had made her forget to mention her own Reaper in Black problem to Evora. The Queen had a feeling it would be hard to find the busy little scientist for a few days, and sat back in her throne, ready for the wait.

*****

All was silent in this Place; the blackness that surrounded her was enough to drive many insane, and that wasn't even including the piercing soundlessness that weighed the air down. This Place was only for the strongest. This Place was only for her.

Leaning her head back, she parted her lips and felt a slight breeze drift across her face. Bright silver eyes cast drowning beams of miniscule light into the gloom as black wings erupted from her upper back. Charred feathers drifted around her, partially blocking the sight of long, silvery claws forming at her fingertips. She felt her metal rings and necklace quiver and jerk about as they came in contact with a flowing power so strong, it caused the blackness around her to contract in pain.

You have fought too many wars.

You have taken too many souls.

You have angered too many people.

You have played too many roles.

She lifted her arms up as her bones began to break in a symphony of sickening crackles. Her body reformed slowly into a large, lumpy creature as her mind created the image of an animal in her mind. The energy around her went into a frenzy as it sensed a nearby vessel--her chained body--to house in.

You shall threaten your enemies.

You shall kill your closest friends.

You shall force your plans to work;

Any means to all possible ends.

The darkness began to warp and twist, buckling impossibly toward her. Power, black as tar, poured over her and absorbed into her skin. The massive amounts of pain she felt were just a dull, distant sting as her mind lulled itself into a coma-like state. She felt a rumbling growl start up in her throat as her new body formed, the sound shattering the silence like a rock to glass.

You consumed all of that power;

Took for granted every breath.

Now you have your throne...

The woman opened large silver eyes and opened her mouth to release a shattering roar. The darkness enveloped her completely as she took the form of a dragon-like monster, her wings spreading viciously, making a ripping sound as they tore through the blackness.

"But you also have your death," she hissed, chuckling as the rip in the blackness revealed a weak barrier. Behind that barrier was the web of Times and Places. In one of those Times and Places, she would find Larana. And once she found Larana...

Well, that was a thought too nasty to give a voice.