A new project

[Sparkfyre Lyras]

Feel free to post comments.

---------------------------------------


“Help… help me… please….”

The harsh, hoarse cry of a young girl, maybe nineteen, as she ran through the heavily forested lands along a small dirt path in the human lands of Satyr went, of course, unheard; she was being chased by seven strong men with axes and other such weapons, alone, and nobody was around for at least three miles. She had been speaking instead to the trees, in the futile hopes that a dryad or two might be there, but it was no use: in Moondane, a world full of demons, the country of Satyr was completely demon-free. It only held humans. Of course, she knew where the men who chased her came from; they were the remnants of the large war that had just ended suddenly a month ago; as the days grew on, less and less disturbances occurred. The war itself has consumed the entire planet, and it was for certain that the world would shatter beneath its might, but all of a sudden the two races of demons that had started it had just suddenly disappeared, and then it seemed as though all feelings of violence died out within but a few hours.

The young girl was running because the war had been going on for centuries; people like those chasing her had been raised on violence and it was the only path they knew. They were actually part of a much larger group that was right now attacking her village; she had run, instead of tried to defend it. She was a coward, a worthless, foolish coward, who couldn’t even-

The girl rounded a corner and ran into what at first she thought was a tree; she was knocked senseless for a couple minutes as she fell backwards on her rear in a daze. As soon as she realized what happened, she made a move to get up, but then realized it wasn’t a tree she ran into but instead another person. She was afraid at first, but then noted his completely outlandish clothing, and realized that the person in front of her was not only not a bandit chasing her, but was likely a demon instead. Quite often that was much worse- especially since he had three others with him, a guy with fiery red eyes, a green-haired girl, and an albino youth with white angel’s wings. There was no doubt in her mind that, at the very least, the white one was a demon.

The bandits skidded to a stop behind her, quiet, about twenty feet away as they noted the people standing in front of her; she hadn’t even taken time to get a good look at them, but from her few seconds of a glance, they all wore extremely tattered clothing, had numerous bandages on them, and were positively filthy, as if they’d been traveling in sandstorms and rolling in blood and mud over the past few weeks and hadn’t once taken a bath. They smelled like it, too. However, the girl didn’t dare take a closer look at them; she instead looked down at her bare feet, beneath her white silk pants and bright red shirt; it was disrespectful for a human to look a demon in the eyes, or to get up before given permission.

It seemed like forever, but was likely only about ten minutes, before anybody spoke, but it was the rogue mercenaries behind her that spoke first. “Oi. Demon. That girl belongs to us. Hand her over.”

The one she had run into spoke now; he had a rather honey-sweet accent, one that was definitely not even from this continent. He spoke with both a touch of authority and killing intent embedded in his voice; just by the first syllable alone she could tell he was as deadly as they come. His every word sent ice-cold shivers down her spine, because the voice was just that attractive to her. “I believe you are a bit full of yourselves; you would make demands of one such as I? This isn’t your territory, and the war is over. You are neither our equals or our peers.”

The lead bandit snorted. “Heh. You’re the one who’s full of yourself, you arrogant prick.” The young girl could hear him spit at the demons.

A different voice from the demons spoke now; judging by the irritated, red-hot tone, she assumed it was the one who looked like his eyes were on fire. “Spirit…”

“Easy, Enrique.” The first one spoke again, pronouncing the name En-ree-kay. “I'll handle this.”

“Yah, well, they’re pissin’ me off, so you’d better handle it pretty damn quick.”

The lead bandit laughed. “See, men, this is why demons is just a pack of stupid fools- they can’t even ever get along. Ten coin says they destroy each other.”

The first one, called Spirit, apparently, spoke now, with a lot more venom in his voice than before. “Enrique. Maybe you can help me with this one, then. What do you suggest we do to Russell?”

The bandit leader gave a snort. “My name’s not Russell.”

Enrique’s voice gave what sounded like a cold, cruel chuckle. “It is now, bitch.” Three things then happened instantaneously: was a ringing of steel, as if a blade were being drawn, a quick wind, and suddenly there was a lot of screaming, from several different people, and one person laughing, amidst the rustling of leaves and the sound of many blades slicing through flesh and bone. After a few minutes, it all died back down into silence, and there was a pause before the one called Enrique spoke again, chuckling as he did so, saying, “See? Your name was Russell- guy with no arms, no legs dangling upside down and tied by his parts to a leafy branch.”

“You really shouldn’t do that type of shit with ladies present, Enrique. It’s just not proper.” The speaker this time was a female voice, probably the green-haired girl, and it sounded as beautiful as a chorus of angels.

“Aw, shove it, Jess. I do it all the time; never seemed to bother you before.” There was the sound of metal sliding into metal; Enrique was probably putting his blade away.

“Dumbass. It wasn’t me I was referring to; I’ve done much worse than that myself. If you haven’t noticed, we’ve still got company present.”

“Jessica’s right, Enrique. Calm yourself.” This voice was the last male’s, the white-winged angel’s; it sounded both strict and full of authority, moreso than that of Spirit’s. Like Jessica and Enrique, his voice was beautiful, as if it were that of a god’s.

“Luke.” Spirit spoke this time. “I’m the one in charge. I will handle this. Besides, I gave him the idea, and she didn’t see anything anyway. Enrique, take the bodies away and burn them; Luke, go with him. Jessica, I want you to scan her, see if anything’s wrong. After that, we’ll head for wherever the rogues were from. I do not think they would have come alone.” The young girl could hear a lot of commotion going on around her suddenly, and felt a warm, soft light flood all over her, peaceful, gentle, and it could only be that of a healer’s magic. She had felt some before, but never this strong; also, this one felt like it belonged more to the woods and the earth, rather than to a spellcaster. When all the noise died done, the warm feeling left her.

“She’s all right, Spirit. She’s just exhausted. I’ll start asking the trees for directions; we’ll find out where she came from, and how many assholes are left.” There were footsteps as the green-haired one- probably a dryad- walked off, and the young girl heard the one she had run into- the one she hadn’t gotten a good look at- kneel down in front of her. His hand, surprisingly gentle and rather tingly, as if it were charged with electricity, as he tilted her chin up toward him, to meet his eyes, directly head-on. Most demons only did that if they were planning on killing you later, and she immediately began trembling and trying her best to look away. Finally the hand left her chin, as it was probably now level with the demon’s gaze, and she heard him chuckling.

“You think I’m a demon, don’t you?”

The question surprised her, both because he had to ask and because the tone he asked it in implied he wasn’t. Accidentally, she looked into his eyes, and would have looked away, instantly, when she realized her mistake, if she had not realized his eyes were bright banana yellow, with dark cat-slits in the middle of them.

“Well, technically, you’d be right, but I don’t consider myself one. I’m not going to hurt you, and would prefer it if you stood up. It’s rather annoying, having to bend down like this.”

He stood up, and the young girl, a bit unsure of herself, took a couple seconds before she decided to do the same; then, she went to look up at him, but realized the demon was exactly her height- and she was just under six feet.

He didn’t seem to notice, or even care, and merely asked, “What’s your name?”

“Um… Lilith.” The young girl, Lilith, knew better than to deny a demon the answers to their questions; to do so was death.

“Spawn of Devani. You’re still scared. I told you I’m not going to hurt you; what the hell, girl? Can’t you trust me?” The yellow-eyed man dropped his head, shaking it and sighing. “Honestly! The world is completely mad! People don’t even trust random strangers anymore! Sheesh!”

At that moment, there was a rustling in the trees, and the other three all came back. There was a tower of smoke from the direction they had came, and the smell of burning flesh clung to the white angelic one and the fire-eyed one like glue. It was Enrique, the red-haired one, who spoke first. “Burned the bodies, like you asked; found out where girlie-girl is from, too. There’s a whole mess of jag-offs there, too, just ripe for the kill. Looks like they’re remnants of an army; they’ve got all the peaceful folk rounded up like cattle in the center of the town. Looks like a real redneck, backwoods place, too; real boring, like. Can’t we just skip this one? One or two missed fights every now and again won’t hurt shit.”

The white angel, Luke, smacked Enrique on the back of the head. “Dumbass. The point of cleaning up the backlash warriors from the war is to bring peace to the world. It’s not supposed to be fun; it’s supposed to be work. Get your head in the game, and let’s go. We have to kill them all, or innocents are going to keep getting hurt. We made that clear to you when you chose to stick with us; if you didn’t want to help, you should have gone with Sahdow.” Luke and the green-haired dryad girl, Jessica, turned down the path Lilith had come from, and began walking. Enrique rubbed the back of his head, sighed, and started after them. Lilith then turned to Spirit, to see what he would do, and all of a sudden felt a fist collide with her stomach; she saw black, passing out, and the last words she heard were two people in the distance doubling over with laughter and Jessica yelling, "Sprit! What the shit! You're not supposed to hit girls!"

[Sparkfyre Lyras]

Because it would take too long in the actual story, here’s the descriptions of the characters. Also, keep in mind that their world is a mix of medieval and modern; they don’t have things like guns or computers but they do have things like modern-day clothes and electricity (in some parts of the world).

----------------------------------------

Spirit- Spirit is 5'11" and has bright blond hair, shoulder length, usually brushed and tied back in a ponytail. He has bright yellow banana-colored eyes with cat-slits instead of pupils, and his skin type is Caucasian. He has no hair anywhere on his body other than his hair and his face; his eyebrows are black. He usually wears a loose black t-shirt with the icon of Yin-yang on it, black and white surrounded by grey, and some blue shorts that extend down to his knees, and some sandals he never seems to take off. He's quite skinny and scrawny- only about one hundred and fifty pounds, tops- and has a bright red cloth wristband on his right arm, which he never takes off or moves. Also, he has a large number of piercings all over his body.

For tattoos, around his neck he has a black almost-full circle ring with several triangular patterns around it, looking more like a tribal tattoo than anything else. Also, his entire back is covered with one singular, massive tattoo- an immensely beautiful picture of a cosmos scene with the back as a purple sky, and a black dragon set amongst the stars, of the chinese type. He only has one scar- directly over his heart, where there is no other word for it; he had been stabbed there, quite deeply, at least once in his life. It's old and faded, but there is no mistaking it for anything else.

He seems to have an ungodly amount of piercings and jewelry all over his body. The largest is on his right cheek, where a large black metal reverse pentagram in not only somehow magically attached to the skin, but seems to be bolted into the bone as well. From his left ear dangles a small silver skull with rubies as eyes. He wears three rings, two on his right hand, one on his index finger adorned with a sapphire and on his middle fixed with an emerald, and on his left there's a third set with amethyst. All three rings are made of pure gold; and said to be indestructible, as they're the tools of his summoning arts. He also has a small silver chain bracelet with a sword pendant on his left wrist. Around his neck, he wears a chain of silver with a topaz snake pendant at the end of it. On his left arm, he has small silver hoop rings pierced into the skin in a straight line straight down the arm.


Enrique- His eyes are completely bright red- they look like they’re on fire, inside his head. His hair is reddish-black and loose all over his head, around medium length; he has a bit of similar colored stubble on his chin and pure black eyebrows, but like Spirit has no other hair anywhere on his body. He wears a gold chain necklace with a flame pendant at the en of it; he wears black jeans that end just above his ankles, a plain red shirt, and brown sneakers. Around his waist he wears a green dragon-skin belt, with a red sword sheath on the left side, a rapier in its place, made completely of silver except for a ruby in its hilt. He’s very tan, from working with fire a lot, but has no burns. He looks about eighteen. He can sometimes be quick to anger, and at the moment is only sticking with the group so he can kill things, and because they’re his friends.


Luke- Luke might be called an albino at first glance; he’s the tallest in the group, and six and a half feet, with pale white skin, and always wearing a white business suit- white button up shirt and everything. He has some very fancy white shoes, the only person besides Enrique to actually wear proper footwear, although he doesn’t wear socks. He has two large white angelic wings coming out of his shoulder blades, and both his hair and eyes are pure white. He looks to be around twenty-one, and always somewhat serious and sober. He looks like an angel to most people.


Jessica- her hair is long and green like leaves, down to her waist in a braided ponytail; she is extremely beautiful and has a kind and often innocent-looking face. She goes around barefoot, with a long green skirt and a deep green short-sleeved blouse, with bright green normal-looking eyes. She always seems to have a smile on her apple-colored lips, and always carries a bow slung across her back but never any arrows. She looks like a dryad to most people.


Lilith- Lilith is the same height as Spirit, and quite beautiful, even for a human, like a model; however, she’s never found anybody she likes. She’s always been obsessed with stories of demons; however, in a country of humans, those are far and few between. She has long shoulder-length black hair and ruby-red lips, naturally; she’s quite skinny, and at the start of the story wore a red shirt with white pants and no shoes. Hers is the only outfit that really changes. Also, she has no fighting skills whatsoever.

[Sparkfyre Lyras]

“You know, it’s a real shame. She was really pretty. We should have done more.”

“Enrique, we knocked her out and tied her to a tree to keep her out of the way while we purified her village of the bandit scum. Besides, that was a week ago. Let it go.” Luke sighed, bored at having the same conversation for so long now.

“Yeah, but, she was really cute. We couldn’t have at least felt her up? I mean, seriously, we’re going to be doing this for a while; we can’t have some fun while we’re at it?”

“Enrique. We’re the good guys, not the only slightly better guys. It’s out of the question. No.”

“Besides,” Jessica added the comment, “we’re only doing this until Spirit’s useful again.”

Spirit, walking ahead of them on a crisp, cool forest path in a country far from the one they were in a week before, stiffened slightly. “I am plenty useful already. I’ve told you before I don’t need your help; if I really need to, I can fight myself.”

Luke, Enrique, and Jessica were all quiet for a moment, and then started laughing, making Spirit really annoyed. “Oh, come off it, Spirit!” It was Jessica who spoke first. “You’re useless right now! You can’t even move your left arm anymore, not until you get used to those things being there. You can’t do shit with them there; face it- you need us right now.”

Although Spirit couldn’t see it, he knew exactly what she was referring to: the series of separate chain links now embedded as piercings in his left arm, all the way down in a straight line from the shoulder to the wrist. Because of them, his left arm was now hanging down at his side at all times, as if dead.

Enrique snickered. “Yeah, man. I mean, seriously- I didn’t think you Wraiths were stupid enough to add so much weight at once. What, are you on crack, or just stupid? Each one of those links weighs, what, fifteen pounds? And you’ve got twenty-five of them; that’s three hundred and seventy-five pounds. You don’t even weigh two hundred; not only that, but that thing on your face weighs five hundred, right? With the other shit, too, you’ve been carrying around near nine hundred excess pounds. If it weren’t for your heavy aura powers, you’d not even be able to move right now. Tsch! And you didn’t even add one for poor young Rose, either, man. Prick.”

Spirit stopped dead in the road suddenly, turning around to face the other three, eyes closed. “I don’t have one for Rose because she’s not dead.”

Enrique gave him an amused link. “Effectively, she is.”

Nobody saw Spirit move; suddenly, Enrique was twenty feet back, gasping deep for air, eyes wide, his head having been slammed into the trunk of a tree hard enough to split the tree in two. Spirit’s hand was around his throat, and his eyes were bright, glowing red. “Enrique, I swear to Ishiki, Rose is not dead, and if you ever say that she is again, so help me god, I will tear you apart, limb from fucking limb. Are we clear on that?”

Enrique didn’t answer, but Jessica and Luke were looking at him with bored, unamused eyes. “Spirit, let the poor idiot go. If you kill him, we leave, and while you may not like or want him nearby, you do in fact still need us regardless of whether or not Rose is still alive, and Enrique does have a point. In the type of sleep she’s in, she’s as close to death as you can get without being actually deceased.”

Jessica yawned and continued where Luke left off. “Besides, if you kill him, we kill you or find a way to do it, and rip out each of those damn Penance Markings after you’re dead, and then we’ll crush them into little tiny pieces. Even with your left arm being useful, we can give you trouble, even if in the end we’ll be annihilated; however, without it, you’ve got no chance. Let him up, please.”

It took Spirit several long minutes, but, suddenly, his eyes stopped glowing red and faded down to orange. Letting go of Enrique’s throat, he stepped back, and growled, “I swear to god, Enrique, I don’t like you and am so damn close to killing you right now it ain’t funny. However, I like Luke and Jessica, and since you’re they’re friend, it’d piss them off if I did kill you, so I’ll let you live. However, you seem to have forgotten you’re beneath me, and you have no actual worth or value here; you’re just a tag-along. If you ever piss me off like that again, your life is forfeit; in my eyes, you are nothing more than filthy scum who isn’t even worth being stepped in.” Sprit swirled on one foot, then walked forward until he was next to Luke. “Well?”

Luke shrugged. “I have nothing to say about it this time. He deserved it. When a weasel bites a snake, he has to expect that snake to bit back.”

Spirit almost snarled with fury. “You’re too damn soft, Luke. According to Wraith Law, what I just did requires execution. The reason you failed in your little rebellion escapade is because you were raised far too soft. The reason your society- nay, any society- is flawed is because our ideals are boss. You fail, Luke.”

Jessica snarled and nearly shot forward to smack him. “Spirit! Honestly! What the hell! You’re seriously comparing us to a civilization you were only a part of for five years?”

“Wraith years are longer than yours, so in human years it’d actually be closer to fifteen.”

“I don’t care! You really think you should still be judged by the crappy legal standards of a dead race?”

“Yes. And what was so crappy about it?”

“Well, let’s see, I’d say it was those damn Executioners. Commit a crime, no matter what it was, you die! Theft? Dead. Assault? Dead. Sleep with somebody’s mate? Dead. Lie? Dead. For every little thing, you killed people!”

“In doing so our society had no crime. Also, no criminal ever got away, due to the Executioner talent of reading minds. It was much more flawless and effective than your foolish systems or courts and lawyers.”

“At least we gave people a second chance! You really think somebody should die just because they commit a crime? What crap is that?”

“It was to prevent repeat offenders, and deter those who would otherwise have committed crimes. In essence, only one hundred and eighty-two criminals ever had to be killed by executioners. Out of over three thousand Wraiths made, close to a thousand killed, I would say our crime rate was very low. One hundred and twenty-five of those criminals led a rebellion; subtract that, and you only ever had fifty-seven people out of over three thousand that committed crimes. Less than two percent.”

“I don’t care! That was in the past. So’s your race. Wraiths are dead, and so is their stupid justice system. Get over it; you’re not dying today. From now on, you live by our rules, idiot. Get used to it.”

Spirit turned to face Jessica. “Interesting you feel that way, Jessica Lillyetta. Let me ask you this: do you think somebody should be killed for leading an unjust massacre of a race, killing them off just because they existed to rival yours?”

“Of course!”

“Then kill Luke.”

Jessica paused for a moment. “What?”

“Sins of the fathers pass onto the sons merely because of bloodline traits. Rose said it herself, once- his ancestors destroyed my race simply because they existed. By logical reasoning, because his ancestor is not alive any longer, and as he still shares the same DNA and thus the same judgment of other races, he should die in order to make recompense for the devastation of a race that did no others any harm. Or is that flawed reasoning? Because that’s what your kind thought of mine; one that escaped from us Executioners attacked a god, and thus we all must die for it. Even though we didn’t know the perpetrator was still alive, nor did we have any connection to him, we were all killed for it. Is that just?”

“That isn’t the point, asshole! This isn’t the same situation; just listen and-”

“Hold on. Interesting topic you just brought up. You’re right, it isn’t the same situation. And yet you’re about to yell at me because I don’t see Enrique or any of you as an equal. Don’t try to deny it; I can see it in your mind. But, listen to this first, will you? Although you’ve been sent into exile, you still have others of your race with you, and the main part of race is still alive as well. You had a chance to fight back, too. You’re just merely banned from your home world, which still exists; you’re also not a slave. Your friends were all killed for a just reason.

“Me? My entire race was killed, my homeland turned into a snowy, mountainous wasteland, myself sent into exile in another world as a slave, all my friends killed for no reason whatsoever, and I was alone. For a few over six hundred thousand years. With the threat of death hanging over me. Just over a month back, I had to kill the last remnant of my old life, and the one bit of happiness I’ve found? It’s gone. Tell me, why is that? Why is it you should get to have your friends and your race, your hometown still intact? Why is it you should have your freedom? Hmm? Are you better than me?

“Sahdow certainly thought so; he blamed me for bringing the rest of the survivors from a situation you created into certain death, and yet four of you, and one somewhat- you all survived. You saved countless lives. Me, I only had to take them. Go ahead, be like Sahdow- so ahead and think that you’re better than me. Your race is all-important; your fifteen hundred died fighting for a cause, defending themselves; that makes them more important than the one thousand civilians who died without a fighting chance, without even doing any harm to anything or anybody, unlike you, who led a rebellion; how is it that fifteen hundred men who tried to kill many are better than one thousand peaceful Wraiths who just wanted to be left alone? Go ahead; go to Sahdow; you agree with him, right? We aren’t gods, and thus we’re just poor, stupid animals for the slaughter, just for fun, for your race’s amusement. Personally, I disagree; I believe we are on the same level, but I am the one who’s suffered far more. I told you I was willing to forgive you if you helped me with the clean-up of my world; in exchange, I am giving you freedoms I hadn’t. But that just isn’t enough, is it? You’re better than me, and deserve those freedoms more than I did, right?

“Well, let’s review- I, a Wraith, not a god and therefore a lesser race, saved the life of several gods and goddesses, was sold into slavery at the start of my exile. You, a god, led a rebellion to try and destroy other gods just because you didn’t agree with their ideals, and you deserve to get to go free, no repercussions, at the start of your exile. Bullshit. I think we need to take a break for now- or, at the very least, I need to take a break from you.”

Without even pausing to listen to anything they had to say, suddenly, Spirit was gone, off to who knows where.

Luke sighed, crossed his arms, and looked directly at Enrique. "See, that's why I told you not to mention Rose at the start of this. He's just going to get all moody over it."