Mark had been living on the streets for about a month now. You wouldn't believe how comfortable the streets had been for people like him, homeless.
People saw him as a person, they treated him with respect and they tried to take care of him...
'Haha... I wish that were the case...' Mark thought to himself as a punch went into his gut. He fell onto his knees, vomit now coming out of his mouth, emptying his already starved stomach.
"Know your place, disgusting human." The Animen in front of him spoke, staring down at the boy kneeling in his own puke. "You shouldn't even be allowed to breathe the same air as me, yet I am graciously giving you an opportunity to be useful to me."
Mark looked up, vomit clinging to my chin, only to see the eyes of an Animen with a lion's mane. This Animen in front of him was one of the Nobles of the city. He was right, Mark shouldn't be breathing the same air as him, he should have been at the other side of the city, away from the human houses.
"I came looking for a mate, but when the one I chose rejected me I needed to let off some steam." The lion said looking down at the human still on his knees. "Don't worry, you will get something from this, you won't walk away with nothing." The lion spoke with a grin appearing on his mouth.
The lion pulled back his leg and aimed for Mark's stomach again, this time he used his boots with metal spikes on them to make it even more painful. As soon as his stomach and his boot connected he felt a searing pain in his stomach and a warm feeling trickling down onto his battered legs.
"So, that's all it takes to break a human? You people truly are pathetic." The lion spoke once again, turning his back to walk away. "Your gift is that you get to live. Do with that what you want."
Mark barely caught his words as he walked onto the main street, not once looking back.
'So... what's going to be... for dinner today?' He thought to himself as he tore his shirt to make a bandage. This has become an almost daily occurrence for him that he just had to move on.
He walked away from the main street and headed further into the dark alley, limping and holding his punctured stomach, as to not lose any more blood.
In the distance, he could see the dumpster he had been calling home for the past month.
'No place like home...'
Before he could even get in, his legs gave in underneath him, and he fell face first onto the ground by the side of his home.
'So... Has my body finally given up on me...? I don't blame you... I would have done the same...' Mark's final thoughts as his vision started fading to black. 'Who knows, maybe I can get reincarnated like those books I used to read...'
Before he knew it, all that was around him was darkness. mark couldn't hear anything or feel anything, it was like he was in a void.
One thing did happen while he was there, a flashing light appeared in what he assumed was his vision. It expanded and turned into a box with text in it. He could only read one line before he lost that light as well...
[Congratulations! You have been Marked!]