Sky-Cross

Chapter 1 Katana stepped out into the cold air and down the damp porch. She always went this way, her parents never knowing of her night activities. She kept going, down the driveway, down the street, and into the dense forest. Her parents had forbid it, but she went anyway, casting aside tales of children who were never seen again, and great beasts that lived inside the woods. The land belonged to no one. There had been an old astrologer that had lived in the heart. No one ever saw him, nor knew if he was real. Katana had been there before. She had found the bones of the old man piled in a heap in his lounge. She hardly cared. she was never really afraid of death. It was just another part of life. She loved his extravagant castle; tapestries hung from the ceilings and expensive furs draped across chairs. It was katana's secret castle in the heart of the forest. She was drawn to it every night like moths to light. What did stand out to her was how manny candles the old man had around. There were thousands. So many she had thought that all the castle would be in the light, as if he was afraid of his own shadow (but that idea was preposterous, so she cast it aside). She dared never light one though, they were all melted to stubs. She kept going now the moon rising and rising in the night. After a few minutes or so she reached the gates to the castle; stopped, looked around, and followed the iron gate around its perimeters for a few minutes. Then she came to a small opening covered with brambles and vines, tightly twisted into netting and carefully parted the vines and brambles until small hole appeared underneath the iron fence. It was easy to get through because it had been dug out by some sort of large animal, or dog. Once katana had gotten through, she continued over the lawn, overrun with weeds and holes, being careful not to trip. She then fit through a broken window, which she had been responsible for in previous years, and made her way down the hall. The living room was deathly silent, and the old man's bones had been rearranged, by some raven katana thought to herself. She sat alone. Then realizing her hands were numb from the cold, she got up and decided to find a blanket. After not much luck, she decided to explore the up stairs, a place she had never gone to due to its eerie darkness. The candles melted to stubs were fewer here, and she couldn't shake that feeling like she was being watched. On and on the stairs went, so dark now that she was feeling her way up them. It was like a string was tugging at her waist, dragging her up the stairs. She heard something, turned around, and found nothing. Se stopped, cool air locked her legs, darkness swirled around her. She was at the top of the stairs now. She stood, and waited. Someone, or something was watching her, she could feel it's presence becoming stronger. Something in the blackness moved. It was big and bony, all that Katana could tell. But, there was something off about it. It stalked its way around her, then back into the room. It course hair brushed against her leg and all she could do was hold still, and calm herself from screaming. Then, it spoke. "Don't be afraid child. I'm here to protect you." Katana was terrified. "Pp protect me f f from what? She was so scared she could hardly speak. The creature paused, shifted itself, then opened its eyes. Katana stared. They were a pair of blood red spheres, with small black slits for pupils. More silence followed. Katana wanted to say something, anything at all, but fear wrapped its hands around her throat and she couldn't speak. The creature just stared. It began again, "They are coming. You mus-" then, there was a flash of light, the sound of tumbling bodies and someone yelled "run". She ran, ran as fast as she could without tripping. "Stop!" The creature cried, "Come back my child!" She would never comeback. The thought. She should've listened to her parents and now she was going to be eaten and never be seen again. She was one of the missing children now, never to be seen again. She descended faster and faster, until the world met Katana's face, and she rolled down to her destination. She tried to get up and winced, then continued to the broken window, all the while limping and tiring. It was the most beautiful window she had ever seen and it meant a chance to survive. She climbed through, her foot dragging on the ground. Katana looked around. Nothing out of the ordinary, just fresh dog tracks. It was very late now and she knew she must get home to safety. Then, as she began to head towards home, a blood curdling scream rumbled through the mansion. Se didn't look back, only ran as fast as her feet would take her. She jumped downed trees kept over streams. The forest fueling her to carry on, to survive, like instinct. She reached the edge of a clearing then heard another disturbance, Wolves.

U<U I've finally finnished all my main character designs for my Sky-cross comic, so I'll be starting the actual writing soon, I'll probably post some of the stuff here, and I'm doing a different beginning, so just bear with me here.