Finding Our Roots [A BeyBurst OSMP AU]

Prologue

In the North East, far from the seas, a mountain of two peaks white with snow stood proud. At the foot of the mountain, a river with clear sparkling water flowed from its caves towards a lake a few miles away. Beautiful as it may, under its waters there was no sign of life, its currents too strong for any fish or weeds to thrive.

As dawn rose, a splash sounded as the body of a young child was thrown into the river. Unlike human children whose skin was of peach flesh, the sunlight touched iridescent turquiose scales. Once he gained consciousness, the child did not wade the waters with two legs, but with a beautiful turquiose fish tail whose black striped fins glided across the river in such a way even the best of swimmers in the human population would not dare compete against it.

The young merling rose his head above the water, narrowing his eyes at his companion who stood at the riverbank. "Was that really necessary?" He grumbled, pertaining to his less than graceful fall to the river.

"Sorry," Shu heaved, his lips quirked upward in amusement as he held his hands... errr, paws on his hips, catching his breath. Even a trained fighter like him who was used to using a fair amount of physical activity consistently was bound to get tired, especially if it meant having to carry someone in his arms. "Let's camp here for now, hopefully the hunters won't be able to sniff us out."

By hunters, Shu meant hybrid hunters, and by hybrids, he meant the two of them, whose physiological and biological makeup deviated from that of a normal human. Depending on where you are on the map, hybrids were treated ranging from being worshipped to being alienated, and occassionally to being sought to slavery and beaten to death.

None of these less stellar methods were done any less by the rumored evil organization whose tales terrorized young hybrids and humans alike. What child would not cower at the knowledge of their friends being caught for money, for slavery, to be beaten to death and pitted against each other for entertainment?

Not Shu, no doubt. He searched for the organization himself, fought tooth and nail with beings twice his size, and earned his spot as the organization's best fighters. It had been a simple quest to be stronger, tired of being punted to the ground by the same periwinkle-flamed blaze who repeatedly mocked at his origin with that shark-toothed grin on his face.

He did all of this, at the cost of leaving his friends and old life behind.

"Shu?" Fubuki's voice called out. His long white ears stood up, and he was back into the present. "Is everything okay?"

"Yes, of course." It was now.

While he had been stuck underground, his friends left to find him. Heh, talk about loyal. They found him, his master had been in the mood to humor them, and so he let them in.

"Come back to us, Shu. Please."

Ashtem kicked them out before Shu could answer back.

It was then that Shu saw the organization not as the pillar for recognizing strength as it appeared to be, but as a place where beings such as them fall to their deaths.

Shu escaped the Snake Pit. The Snake Pit has been looking for him since, almost in return.

His reunion with his friends had to be cut short, but they all agreed to one thing. "Don't let them see you, stay hidden," they collectively told him.

But when others weren't as lucky as him in hiding or fending the hunters off, how can he not lend his strength to help them out?

Which led to his predicament now.

"Shu!" Once again, Fubuki called, in a more urgent tone. He looked up from the flint and steel in his hands, to the merling who waved a hand around as he swam nearer.