• Prologue-
    A.D. 1720

    “HELP!”
    A relatively large man is running through a forest, constantly looking back as if something is chasing him.
    “HEL-oomph…”
    He falls down in the mud, panting heavily, as if he had been running for a while. He looks behind himself as the dark figures start to catch up. He tries to get up, but falls back down, finding that his leg has broken in his fall. He starts to try to crawl away, but the figures are closer now. He tries to get off the path and hide behind a tree, but his leg starts to bleed heavily, leaving a trail. He tries to stop the bleeding by cutting off circulation, but it starts to bleed more, drawing in bats, which start to claw at his face, seeming as if they have purpose.
    The forms are almost upon him.
    The tall man’s brown hair falls in front of his bright green eyes as the dark forms gather around him.
    “You have escaped for the last time, liken…”
    “We have no patience left…”
    “You will not be going back…”
    “You are to die here…”
    The figures smile at the man showing their blood-stained teeth. The liken spits in their faces. They just stand there and smile.
    “I might die here…” he says as hair starts to grow all over his body, “But I will take a few of you down with me!”
    Where the meager man once leaned against a tree, now stands a large silvery-haired bear. Towering over the abnormally tall figures, a great twelve and one-half foot, he charges into the nearest figure…


    I wake up in a cold sweat; bloody liken bodies surrounding my body.
    “Goddamnit…Not again.”
    “Ahh…Houg you’re awake!”
    I spot a recognizable figure walking, no, floating towards me.
    “Yes, Kul’lask. I am up,” I say to him scowling at the nickname.



    Chapter 1-
    The Start of Something New

    Walking out of the battlefield, still rubbing my head, I ask Kul’lask, “So I passed out again, huh?”
    “Yeah,” he says. I run my hands through my thick brown hair, searching for any bumps.
    “I gotta ask Tulnal why this is happening.”
    “I doubt he knows.”
    “But he’s our scholar, right?!”
    “Yeah, but…”
    “But what?! Will he not know because he despises me?! All because I’m the first and only Halfer in this colony?!” I yelled it a little too loudly. Kul’lask stops and turns to me, his blood-lustful eyes turning their usual deep red, his silvery hair that is usually parted ever so slightly to the left, falling down in front of his face.
    “No…not because he despises you… but just the opposite. He fears you because you are unknown and unpredictable,” I notice that his teeth are clenched, a sign of his growing anger towards the comment, “We still don’t know what your body will do…Even after over a hundred years.”
    “Is that so bad?” I ask starting to walk away. Kul’lask starts a hard walk, catching up to me.
    “Well… Yes and no…” he says, pausing, “It is good for our enemies because they don’t understand what you will do…But bad for us…”
    “Why?”
    “Well… If you become a health issue,” I squeeze a chuckle in after that comment, “So we do not know if you might blackout in the middle of a battle between us and those nefarious were-rats…”
    “Whatever…” As we walk, we pass the Hall of Ancients, our gathering area. Kul’lask stops near it.
    “I will still go and ask him about the strange dreams.” Kul’lask sighs and shakes his head. “Well…When you’re done the Captain wants to see you.”
    “Sure, sure.” I say walking past him.
    “Better not keep him waiting… You know how impatient he is…” He leans against the great wooden door of the Hall of Ancients.
    “Yeah… Just tell him I’ll be there when the moon is at the three o’clock.” I turn towards him, walking backwards.
    “I will….” He sighs and opens the large wooden door to the Hall of Ancients. “Just don’t be late…”
    “I won’t.” I start to turn and walk away.
    “So he says.” Kul’lask puts in a laugh and walks into the Hall of Ancients.


    As I walk into Tulnal’s lab, the smell of sulfur and burning skin overwhelms me. I start to become nauseous.
    “Where’s your…UHM…trash can?!” I ask trying to hold back my vomit.
    “Next to you!”
    I turn to the trashcan and heave into the trashcan. The smell of sulfur blocks out the smell of vomit. A relatively short man, by vampire standards, walks up to me holding out a pill. I look up seeing he is wearing a mask to block the smell himself.
    “Here. Take it. It will make you feel better,” I look at him skeptically, but I start to dry heave.
    “Give it!” I snatch the pill and choke it down. After a few seconds of gagging over the trashcan, I finally turn around sitting next to it, still not used to the stench of sulfur.
    “Can’t have you vomiting in my lab,” he chuckles.
    “I hardly think that is funny,” I say looking up to him from my sitting position, “and what in the nine hells are you doing in here?”
    He looks at me in the usual Tulnal way with his silvery eyes, a way that makes you feel as small as he is. “Must you know?”
    “Yes.” I look at him coldly with my greenish-brownish eyes.
    “Since you MUST know,” he scoffs, “I am trying to find a new fabric. One that will withstand the heat of white flames.”
    He turns away as soon as he notices that I am still staring at him.
    “What do you want? Or are you just here to bug me as you usually do?” he asks me from behind his back as searches through his library.
    “In fact, I came to ask you why I keep getting these blackouts…”
    He laughs. “Do you seriously think that I know?!”
    “Yeah…I mean you are the vampire scholar here.” I say with the tone of someone that has just been asked a stupid question.
    “Well I don’t…” He takes out a book and opens it revealing a bloodstained page filled with Ancient Dæmonic writing.
    “Well then you might be able to explain what the weird dreams mean…” He turns around to face me.
    “Again… I don’t know why you…Wait…What dreams?”
    “I really can’t remember, but every time I have them, I seem to wake up in a cold sweat, most of the time screaming.”
    “Can you tell me about them?” He starts to look at me as if I actually had importance in his life.
    “No, not really.” I start to think hard about them, the first time I have done so, “All I remember are tall dark figures…they have a kind of vampiric sense about them…but not a lot… and they’re chasing a liken…”
    “What type of liken?”
    “Sometimes it’s a were-bear…” I start to scratch my head, “Sometimes it’s a were-wolf… But they’re extinct right?” Tulnal just stares at me, mouth agape showing his reddish teeth. “Right?”
    “Get out…I have work to do…” he says as he turns around searching through the book in his hands. I notice one of the headings reads ‘The History of Liken’.
    “What about…”
    “NOW!!” He whips around and stares at me. We look at each other for a few seconds and I stand up, brushing dust off of my pants.
    “Okay, Okay…”
    I step out of his lab and he slams the door behind me.
    “What did I say?” As I walk away I hear a series of loud thumps and the rustle of old papers from behind his door.


    Taking the eastern path, I walk to the Captain’s house. I look up and notice I still have about fifteen moon places before I have to get there. So I walk a little slower.
    When I get to the Captain’s house, I notice the door is slightly ajar, and there is a rhythmic breathing from inside.
    “He’s asleep…” I mumble to myself.
    I knock on the door and shout, “Captain!”
    I hear him falling off his all-too-small bed and a series of curses in Dæmonic. “Who is it?” I snicker in spite of myself at scaring the Captain.
    “You wanted me, sir?” I yell to the house.
    “Yes, yes. Do come in!” I hear the shuffle of feet and the zipping of clothes. I open up the door fully and walk in. The Captain’s normally tame bluish hair is going savage, and even though his uncovered eye is fully gone, a memoir from a war long ago fought, I still feel it searching me for a flaw of some sort. His scar of an upside-down cross is right under his other eye, partially covered by his wild hair. He stands up showing off his large build, he looks down to me, being a full foot taller than me.
    “About the battle earlier…”
    “You can’t blame me. I can’t control when I black out!” I start to freak out, thinking he will cut me down.
    “Hey… remember who you’re talking to…” He stares me down, making me feel small than I am. I feel a great presence pulling me down, I struggle against the pressure. “You need to watch who you’re killing when you are in those battles; we almost lost two of our own by your hand.” I feel the pressure lighten a bit, but it still becomes a struggle to stand.
    “I am sorry…” I bow as low as possible in front of him, “It will not happen again…”
    “See to it that it won’t…” The pressure drops and it doesn’t become the struggle it was to stand. He looks down on me and says, “We have another battle we are currently planning to fight in the west. We will need you to get there and clear out as many were-rats as possible… You will be briefed on this…”
    “SIR! We have a problem,” A scout runs into the house interrupting our conversation, “You need to come quick!” The scout says something to the Captain that is out of my hearing and, possibly, my understanding. Throughout the conversation between them, the scout never lets his vision wander away from me.
    “I’ll be right there.” He sends off the scout and turns to me, his eyes showing great importance and stress, “Pressing matters require me… We must continue this elsewhere…” He grabs a nearby jacket and throws it on his back. He rushes me out of his house and runs after the scout, seeing as the scout is almost out of sight.
    “Damn…” I looked up to the sky and noticed that the moon was at the four o’clock, “Time moves fast…”
    I walk home, always looking to the sky, wondering what will become of me in the future.


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