Have you ever heard of a human being born without a heart?

No?

Good!

Because I'm no human! I'm a proud half-demon. I was the firstborn without a heart.

A woman laid on a branch as she slept soundly as a Selcis was moving around below her, making the occasional demonic hiss. Its giant snakehead seemed almost too heavy for his small snake-like body, the only difference between his body and a snake's was he had two skinny arms.

Her eyes popped open. She yawned for a moment and took a good sniff of the air. Her nose detected where the Selcis was and she looked down determined to find exactly where it was.

"Hey! Don't you know this is my tree!" She shouted as she jumped down, the Selcis looked at her in confusion for a moment but returned to hissing. It tried to lunge forward, trying to bite her but she side-stepped away from him. Taunting him with a chuckle, as he tried to get her with his bladed tail.

"Time to say goodbye!" The woman shouted, pulling out her dagger to slice through the heart of the Selcis. She turned in time to watch as it seemed to evaporate into thin air, a piece of Selcis skin and a Selcis fang floating where it once was.

"1,250 Ales for the collection of 4 Selcis fangs and 10 chunks of Selcis scales." A large muscular man said. She noticed that his tan skin was darker around his forearm as he counted out the money in front of her. He put each coin into the bag before handing it over to her.

"Thank you, Mr. Frye." The woman bowed slightly before heading out of the wooden shop. She walked down the streets of the busy town, wondering what she would do with the rest of her day as she carried the bag of coins.

Walking by a group of men, they began whistling at her, making her sigh. Every day it seemed the same men always seemed to hit on her, even though she knew that physical attractiveness was in her favor but she hated the attention it brought her. She would much rather go in and out of town without being talked to.

"Crystal, why not go out with me tonight?" One of the men called out and Crystal stopped in her tracks.

"Sorry, Edimo! I can't attend tonight, I have a demon to hunt!" Crystal flashed a smug grin back at the man who fawned over her, his piercing light green eyes covered with desire. Although this was just all an act, she knew it was necessary to make him shut up.

"You told me that last time!" He whined, but Crystal gritted her teeth.

"And every time I prove that I was honest. Plus, you have a wife, Edimo. Don't make me have to tell her you're hitting on other women." Crystal turned away and started to walk off. His shouts of

protest made her sigh, at least now he'll stop for a while. She needed a break, the whole idea of 'love' made her frustrated. She didn't experience love, but the way it made the men around her act, she didn't believe she was missing out on anything.

"I'm so glad I don't have those feelings." Crystal grinned up at the sky as clouds passed by, showing the bright blue sky "Aren't you, papa?"

The men sat at a poker table, playing a round of poker as they chattered in the bar. The candlelit lanterns reflecting off of them in a golden glow.

"That vile demon will be killed tonight.huffed" ----- throwing out a chip, "I wouldn't even call it a

demon, at least demons have a beating heart that you can rip out."

"But if she never accepts, how can we get her alone?" ------ asked, following the previous choice

amount to bid, "Because we all know that she's got the best reflexes. So it's not like we can catch her while she's asleep."

"I say we strike her while she's drinking at the Tavern! When she's least expecting an attack!" -------- shouted, pushing his entire collection of chips into the center, "I'm tired of living in the same village as that creature!"

"And I'm tired of her taking all the Bounty hunts! It's getting harder to afford to feed the dog."

"That's it then. We'll strike tonight, at the Tavern." ----- stabs a knife into a picture of the woman with long azure blue hair and silver bangs on the table, before the winner was declared. All men but the one who won groaned.

"Well isn't it my favorite customer?" An old lady with a short cut jacket approached Crystal as she sat on one of the barstools away from the other towns.

"Yep, I'm here. Ms. Haigi." Crystal grinned softly at the old lady. Her head resting on her wrist and her other arm resting on the table. Her back bending inwards slightly as she relaxed.

"The usual?" The woman asked as she reached for a glass, but stopped as Crystal answered. 

"Uh… no. Could I just get a glass of Apple Cider?" She asked curiously, looking up at the woman who in turn smirked a little.

"Spiked or no?"

"No." Ms. Haigi nodded and walked off to get the glass for her. As she poured the apple cider, Crystal looked around, people were chatting, drinking, and playing games. Gambling their money and lives away like it was nothing. Her mind was at ease when she gave the air a sniff.

"Gunpowder?" She thought to herself before Ms. Haigi walked back to her.

"Here it is, Crystal. Now might I ask why you aren't drinking tonight?" Ms. Haigi asked curiously, noticing that Crystal was tensed up, her toned muscles tensed up.

"I just want to keep an open and clear mind tonight. Although I'd love to get a little tipsy," Crystal said with a sigh, "Tell me, Ms. Haigi, do you own any guns? I've been smelling gunpowder and it's kind of alarming."

"Guns? Dear-y No! I wonder where the gunpowder smell is coming from." The room grew silent, and Crystal couldn't help but feel eyes on her. She felt like she was prey, and it started to get on her nerves.

"Yes, Ms. Hiagi, me too. I feel like I'm a prey item being hunted. It's any moment now-" As Crystal spoke, a bullet shot past her head and busted a bottle. Spilling the alcohol all over the floor. Crystal paused, Ms. Hiagi standing there, her eyes widened to as big as they could go. Her body started to shake before she collapsed onto her knees.

Everyone's frightened whispers reached Crystal's hyperactive ears before she sniffed the air again. A familiar scent, one she hoped she wouldn't smell for a while, but as she smelled it, she could smell the fresh gunpowder.

"Trying to kill me and scaring half the village are two different things, Edimo." Crystal said, her back still facing towards where the bullet came from, "I'm guessing they're offering a lump sum for the head of the half-demon with no heart?"

"They want it nice and pretty too," Edimo said as he stepped closer, aiming his gun up to her back. Everyone on edge, some on the defense of Crystal and some silently hoping he would fire his gun. Crystal sighed before speaking up.

"Don't take another step, Edimo." Crystal said in a slightly threatening tone, "Come on, we've known each other for a while now. I even hunted deer for your family during the winter. Are you so cold-hearted to forget all that just for some money?" She tapped on her glass of apple cider before lifting the glass up to her lips and took a drink.

Edimo seemed to let up a little, lowering his gun as he thought about it.

"Because you take another step and I will kill you." Crystal said, finally staring back at him. Her Ice blue eyes stared at him with the intent to kill, giving him a chill down his spine, "Because you thought you had me in your trap like some prey, but you forget that I'm the embodiment of a tiger. You can only trap me if I'm unaware."

Edimo's hand started shaking as he tried to aim his gun at her, "I have to kill you! I'm sick of seeing you around here!" He stepped forward to try to steady his hand, the gun blocking his vision of Crystal, and attempted to step forward to shove the gun onto her forehead when a sharp pain shot through his body.

Crystal's blue hair flowed in the air in his vision, and her knife was buried deep into his stomach. The sharp pain exploded within his body as the point on the blade seeped into his blood.

"I tried to warn you, Edimo..." Crystal pulled the knife out, making blood spurt out from the wound, and Edimo collapsed to the ground, "I won't be sticking around for long." Crystal walked past the man choking up blood as three other men ran up to him to try to help him.

"Crystal! Don't leave, you can stay and these criminals can be locked away!" Ms. Hiagi tried shouting, but Crystal closed the tavern door behind her. Looking out over the small village, most in the Tavern when the fight happened.

Looking back to see Edimo's wife and child rushing to the tavern with another man, she decided to walk down the dirt path as fast as she could, hearing the distant crying of a woman and a child.

"There's no mistaking it now... They know." Crystal stared up at the moon as she reached the edge of the town, her ice-blue eyes being encapsulated by the moon's glow, leaving a very long shadow behind her. She tilted her head down, a melancholy smile painted across her face, "I feel almost robbed, how could the gods curse me? I feel like I'm owed..." Her melancholy smile fell, now a frown set upon her lips.

"Why should I show mercy when they showed nothing but hatred?" Crystal turned to the village, "From the beggars to the lord. They all despised me." Crystal walked up to a hut that had a lit torch in a torch bracket, ripping it out of it.

"I hope they all burn." She then proceeded to set the hut ablaze and tossed the torch into a pile of hay, the fire that erupted was bigger than she expected. She stood there, watching the huts all catch on fire, feeling the heat on her skin as she awaited the satisfaction she desired. It never came, and out of frustration, started to run off.

Her feet hit the ground in repeated steps, as she sprinted for the forest. Leaping up into the trees and launching herself further. She stopped momentarily mid-air to look back, seeing the large pillar of smoke fill the sky.

"I'll collect the debt this world owes me one way or another!" Crystal shouted, seemingly at the pillar of smoke, "Even if I have to go kill a thousand men, I will earn myself a beating heart!" Her shouts seemed to echo off of the trees. Her body was shadowed by the moon before she returned to jumping from tree to tree.

She would find herself a beating heart, even if it killed her. To prove to her mother, her father, her brother, that she'd be even stronger than all of them with one than she was without one. For she wished for nothing more but to understand the true feeling of love and hate. As to why they were so powerful to control one's thoughts and actions.