Half-Bloods R • 1: Fallen World

C • 1 : Teeth through Flesh, Flesh through Teeth

Deep in the earth, in a fortress of endless brightly lit halls, a young girl ran barefoot, chains rattling. She quickly turned down a corner, the air passing through her dark-brown buzz-cut hair.

A group of soldiers, all clad in black armor made to withstand both bullets and magic, ran after her.

Suddenly, the chase came to a halt when the small girl in a white dress bumped into a woman with a grey cloak over her shoulders. The woman had a bright smile that warmed the young girl and simply pulled the girl behind her.

"So," the woman began, her brown hair glowing purple at the ends, "Which one you child-chasing shit balls wants to die first?"

None of the soldiers moved. Then one of them slowly raised his rifle and aimed it at the woman's head.

A new voice suddenly arose, "I'll go first."

A man in white armor came from around the corner. He had deep blue eyes and brown hair. An emblem lay on his shoulder pad, just barely visible beneath his cape.

The girl's eyes went wide, an agent had appeared. Not just any agent either, no this was the one that had killed her parents and taken her from her home. Seeing him, tears immediately flooded her eyes.

The woman suddenly had a shift in her aura, what was calming was now a violent feeling that the girl couldn't quite grasp. Was it anger? No, desire? The girl suddenly realized the feeling. Hunger. Strong insatiable hunger. It may have terrified her more than the agent.

Even the woman's smile seemed to change despite never moving. Her eyes and the X's on her hands began to glow like a sunlit field of bright violets and the feeling of hunger increased.

The woman, after a second that felt like minutes, finally spoke.

"Vaelan, we got an agent."

The room went dead silent, the agent took a single step, and a massive shadow formed behind him. The agent and soldiers spun around as the girl watched wide-eyed.

The shadow wrapped around the soldiers and agent. Everything was silent for another few moments and the shadow lifted, revealing a wildly tall man standing over the dead bodies of the soldiers and holding the agent by his throat.

In the girl's eyes, this man was the most horrific and somehow most calming creature she had ever seen. His aura somehow carried the malice of sixteen violent people as well as his hatred yet despite the aura, he seemed so serene and calm somehow, as if not a problem in the world could exist around him.

He too was draped in black armor, lighter than that used by the soldiers, but still protective. He had a mass of black hair tied up and six small black horns reaching out of his forehead.

"Elizabeth, get the girl to a safe place, then rendezvous at the spot we scouted earlier," the man's voice was lighter than she expected, it wasn't deep or scratchy, it was smooth and just as serene as he appeared.

The woman, Elizabeth, whose eyes were filled with purple energy that made her seem young, guided the girl away, "Come on. Let's get you out of here."

A large ring of violet energy, big enough to fit even Vaelan in it, formed in the air, in it sat the outside world, sunshine and all. A sickening crack echoed from behind her, the girl turned her head back but Elizabeth stopped her, "Don't look back. What's back there isn't good."

But it was too late the girl already knew, the agent, her brother, was dead.

Elizabeth led the girl through the portal and into the city where the sound of cars driving past and people walking by struck the girl. For the past five years, she had known nothing but the walls of the facility, now she was free, but it meant nothing without her family.