Zion
Ethnicity/Language: Polynesian
Present day
Have you ever felt like you were walking but never getting anywhere? As if your legs and your body is moving but your mind is on standstill? The people around you continue with their lives and you are on the side line? I never was the watcher; I was the walker. I was the runner and I was the believer. A believer of life and that it truly matters. If only that were true, I know better now. I've grown, my eyes opened up to the truth. The truth of life not owning you anything, the truth of disloyalty, backstabbers and those that you would lay your life down ultimately turning away when you needed them the most.
My scars a grim reminder of how friends turn to enemies and how a lover became a stranger. A stranger buried 6 feet under the surface they once walked on. A ration for mother earth and a ghost of a memory I wish to forget. My knees that use to be on the ground and my neck bent turned to my feet firmly planted and my eyes gazing at the soul leaving its host. My sword crimson with the liquid spilled and their hair in my hand as I held the head of those, I once called family.
It's ironic how quickly a smile turns to a past experience, your laughter only a sound left unheard. The irony is that the smile for joy and peace turned to a smile for vengeance and superiority. The laughter turned to blades clashing and blood spilling.
I look down at the creature before me, an Orikari. He was a small male, smaller than most but he will do for dinner today. These creatures seem to be getting scarcer, strange considering they are not usually hunted. We on the other hand only hunt these beasts, their fur thick enough for bedspreads and coats for winter. Their meat tough but high in protein, a source we need the most when it comes to nourishment.
I took the creature by the ears and started walking with it dragging behind me. He was heavy, but lighter than what I have carried before. I estimate around between 150kg and 200kg for this one. I stare ahead, scanning my surroundings as I keep an eye out for any threats nearby. This male did not belong with a pack, I've been watching him for a few hours before I killed him. However, the Orikari is the least of my worries. The mafias see me as an enemy, not that I see them as anything better. We live by opposite sides of the law and we do not trust those working with the governments.
They are as foolish as the ones truly in charge. They believe that their rules and their system work to perfection. They do not even know about the breaches we have made in their cities and the camps we have invaded for supplies. Of course, killing is not an option unless it is our last option. But for some reason some of the members of the camps we have raided turned on their own people and started killing. We only watched in confusion as they slaughtered their families and their friends. I turn my back on those people and walk away from the chaos they themselves have started. They only prove my dislike for believing in trust and loyalty.
I have watched parents ripped their younglings' limbs off, I have seen lovers slicing one another with their blades. I have seen Flairs using their gifts to increase their number of kills and I have seen Mars crush others with their bare hands. The Flair 'protectors' of these camps were either too late, never showed up or died along the chaos. We never stayed long enough to see what happens to those left, to those that ran, to the soldiers doing their duty or when the donnas make their appearance.
It was only when we arrived during a camp in chaos did, we meet one of them. She had dark skin that resembled bronze when it shone in the sun. Her gift was yellow and she killed Mica for ripping a head off one of her soldiers. I never expected him to kill the soldier, she was protecting the camp and her own group. He made a grave mistake by assuming she was attacking them. He went for her head when he saw her too distracted by the chaos. He was arrogant and did not think before he executed. I always knew it would end up costing his life. Yesterday proved me right, I usually was.
Mica made another mistake, he laughed at what he did and he rubbed it in the donnas' face. I could see the yellow rising in her eyes and before I could comprehend what was happening, her blade pinned Mica on a tree by going straight through his open mouth. I could see the yellow surround his throat and the lava melt down his flesh. It was two seconds before his shoulders ripped themselves from his head, his neck no longer an existence. I have heard how powerful these donnas are and that their gifts were dangerous. I never truly comprehended how much until I saw her blade removing itself from the tree and land in her hand.
Sebastian, Mica's brother, stepped forward to kill her but I interrupted him. My hand preventing him to move any further, he will not win this fight. He would only fight with anger and his actions will not be logical.
"He had a big mouth and I told him it would get him killed. She only proved my point." Sebastian sighed, knowing I was right. He turned towards his now dead sibling and put a Vapour on his chest. He left without another word and I was left with the donna alone. She was angry, I could see it in her eyes. We barely exchanged words when her knife hovered a few centimetre from my head. I was about to leave but her arrogance and ingenuous made me irritated.
"I did not kill them! You did!" I could see the confusion on her face and I also noticed how she wasn't directly staring into my eyes. She could not see my face and her eyes was directed towards my nose. I am taller than what she most likely presumes I am. "Try not to be so gullible and open your eyes! You might just see the world for what it truly is."
With that said, I turned again and left without sparing her another glance. She had an attractive face and her curls reached just past her shoulders. She was strong and with her accent I could tell that she was the donna from the British mafia. She was smaller than I expected a donna to be. Her head probably reaching 1,60 metres. Her ability was strong and deadly, but even from this short interaction I could see its flaw. Her gift seems to only reach others with her blade, her hands maybe too. If she was any good as everyone rumours them to be then her knife and hand combat should be her best. She would have trained the most with those two. Her strengths most definitely and her weakness most likely anywhere else above her shoulders or below her waist. Hard to kill, but easy if you know what you're up against.
As I walked away, I was slightly disappointed that her knife did not reach my skull. I wanted death more than anything and would gladly accept it from someone as deadly as her. Don't get me wrong, I will never take my own life. I wished for a death well earned, or at least executed by someone with the right reasoning. And from her point of view, I am certain we were the killers of her group and the camp. That is enough reasoning for me to kill someone. If only she knew how wrong she was then maybe the world would be bearable.
My walk was fast, my long strides making up for the time. As I enter our temporary camping location, I drop the dead creature at Desta's feet. He was more of a carver and his hands more skillful when it came to skinning it. With paws like his, I am surprised with his delicate movement and that he seems to cut with perfection. It is probably his swift paws that make the ladies come back for more. He was tall and strong, but he was a flirt and would never have the same woman twice. The days never went by without a young Flair asking for him. He would never say no to those opportunities, I have even caught him in his tent with four women at once. Do not ask me how he managed that, I would rather not like to know. Don't get me wrong I have had my way with a few Flairs before, but that was on rare occasions and usually at a brothel. I never brought them with me and they never came asking. I make it perfectly clear that I do not want their attention nor do I need it. My hand works efficient enough if I feel like it.
"Zion! You are just in time man." Desta says as he smacks my shoulder.
"Do I really want to know? Every time you want to show me something it involves whores in a bed." I say with disgust.
Desta may be a flirt but he was one of our best warriors. Me and Desta have been friends since we were nine. Him and his brother found me wandering the streets covered in blood, not all of it was mine. They took me in and his mother cared for me until the day of my tenth birthday, the day our planet became a divided world. Desta is the only one that knows about my past, he made his mother and his brother promise to not go to authorities back then. It was a secret kept between the four of us. His mother died a year after the world changed and his brother was killed in combat only a few months ago. Desta's heart was still in pain and so was mine, we were all brothers. Desta buried his pain with booze and women while I buried mine with hunting and fighting. Nothing unusual for either of us.
"Alright fine I won't ask again. But at least drink with us tonight? The moon is full and our eyes opened to live another day." He says while shoving a bottle in my hand.
"You need to stop with that spiritual bullshit, it's annoying." I said as I take a swig from the bottle and sitting on my ass for once while staring at the bonfire before me.
"Man, you need to lighten up!" Desta laughs and takes a bottle himself. "If you need me, I will be busy carving that beast you so somberly brought to me."
I was use to him being a sarcastic asshole and he was use to me being a brooding prick. It was our way of talking. I would not choose it any other way.
I took a strand of material tied around my arm and used it to fasten my hair in a low bun. A few strands hung around my face, my scales on my forearms glowing in the light from the fire before me. I placed my sword next to me and removed my rings from my fingers. My hands reached for the piece of rope that held my hood and cape around my shoulders. As I removed it, I folded it neatly and placed it atop my blade. My daggers were in my waistband and I took a cloth from my pocket to clean them. Placing the now clean dagger on my robe I stood up to wash out my cloth when I heard it.
A scream of a Flair that ran out from the woods. She was covered in splatters of blood, definitely not hers since she seemed to look unharmed. That was until an arrow came piercing through from behind her and flew straight through her head. Whoever drew that arrow was strong and it went through the girls' head and kept going. I was the only one slightly in front of the Flair and caught the arrow with my right hand just as it was going past me.
I stared at it and realised that it was an energy arrow. This was a Flairs weapon, but it had no colour to it. Only a Flair would be able to use this arrow and her colouring would have showed. This arrow was black and no other colour surrounded it. It was devoid of any energy and yet it moved in my hand as whoever shot it summoned it back. I opened my hand and the arrow flew back to its owner who now stood by the edge of the woods. The older Flair had no colouring in her eyes, she looked ordinary, she looked normal. And so did the other six Flairs that emerged from the woods behind her. They each moved their hands and weapons as they conjured their gifts, but none of them had colouring.
In fact, the only way you would prevent yourself from calling them human would be for the fact that one had horns on her head, another had a tail like a lion and another had wings that made her fly and levitate above the others.
"Well, this is new." I said and all of their heads turned to me, founding who they came here looking for. "Fuck."