Rainflower Amongst The Embers

Chapter Four-Daemoth

Soft feet slipped across dark, mossy earth. The person wore a flowing black cloak, their face hidden by the hood. They were barefoot, though it seemed as though they wore nothing under the cloak. 

The pale gray skin of their arms and legs was on display, glinting every now and then when they passed a patch of glowmoss. 

They ducked behind a tree, even before the loud snap rang out. Something heavy was walking towards them, the heavy, thumping footfalls rattling the very tree they leaned lightly against.

The damn beast would wake the entire forest, and then what would they do? The weren't able to fight off that many at once.

A snuffling shadow passed the tree they hid behind, groveling in the dirt for a moment before collapsing into a thousand pieces and melting back into the ground. The cloaked figure poked their head out from around the tree, pulling down their hood.

Their skin glinted with every little bit of light that darted around the clearing, whether it was from glowmoss or from a little flare-bug flying past them. Long, pale white hair curled behind them, almost reaching their waist in a braid.

Their eyes were fully black, the pupil drowning any color that might've once been present in past generations. Long, shimmering black eyelashes ringed the dark orbs; fluttering as they glanced around the clearing.

They tentatively stepped forward. Their bare feet were met with stinging, acidic earth. They quickly pranced across the clearing, driven by the pain reaching through the toughened soles of their feet.

When they landed on the other side, they began sprinting. Their cloak flew out behind them, revealing snapshots of their body here and there. They wore a thin black band around their ribs, and tight fitting underwear-like shorts of the same material.

They were male, their chest almost unnaturally smooth and flat. Small talons emerged from his bare fingers and feet, not like the curved weapons of the beast from before but small claws like a house cat's.

Similar protrusions of bone snared his cloak in places along his spine where the sharp bone hooked the fragile material. The talons themselves were onyx in color, the same as the boy's unnatural eyes.

He darted along, swiftly vanishing into the ethereal, eternal night without so much as a sound. And in the sky above him hung a massive shape, gliding along the currents of wind spiraling lazily through the air. The shadow-beast tilted its head as a smaller shadow perked up on its back.

Its rider angled their head, their features hidden by the shadows dancing above the two. Their mouth quirked into a vicious smile, the only feature visible due to the brightness of their gleaming white fangs.