• The sun sank beneath the earth as an ivory moon crawled above the horizon shadowing the forest below in darkening cold. A young girl ran joyously along a wooded trail; she was still enriched with the innocence of her early life. Echoes of her laughter pulsed through the surrounding trees, but an ominous quiet remained. The wind blew softly, but did not whisper, the leaves fell but did not stir, and animals were silent in the chilling dusk. She was too young to feel the eerie stillness of the forest around her and continued to frolic amongst the forest floor. She was a girl of blue eyes, and ebony hair that fell to her shoulders. Her pale white dress grew dirty as she sat weaving her fingers through small strands of moss, winding them around her hand.

    A beautiful voice suddenly broke the silence, a familiar cry beckoning the girl to return home again. Hurriedly she rose to her feet and dashed through the trees. The way home wasn’t far and soon enough she could see the large boulder that marked the end of the trail. Beyond there was a small circular meadow that lay in the middle of the vast wilderness. She nearly walked into the clearing, but her keen sense of smell caught a peculiar scent drifting on the soundless breeze. It made the hairs on the back of her neck rise, her nerves began to quiver, and a chill crawled up her spine. Her observant eyes suddenly locked onto a figure slowly slinking into view from the shadows of the trees a short distance away, it was a slender and tall man that wore thin and flexible ebony armor; a sinister cloak trailing behind him. It moved as if it might have been alive, but it could have been a mere illusion. His face was angular, beautiful but deathly pale with short black hair. She immediately knew he was no ordinary man, for a sword rested in a sheath at his side.
    Her instincts took over as she ducked behind the boulder, to hide from this predator. She peered around from behind the granite, and watched as he approached her home, which lay nestled in the meadow. His features, everything about him made her want to scream, and a tiny buzz in the back of her head warned her that this man was somehow familiar, but how could she not remember a man so terrifying?
    It wasn’t his garb that grabbed her attention, maybe it was the slow deliberate way he walked, as if stalking a lesser creature, or how leaves made not a sound as his footstep crushed them. He seemed to be a shadow; existed but was silent, and there were only two colors of him that weren’t black, his ashen face, and his eyes. She would never forget his eyes, they appeared to be able to murder a person with a mere glance, and made her blood freeze, and her heart completely ceased beating when his head turned her direction; his eyes were crimson, and filled with endless hatred.
    There was a pause in his stride. He seemed to be looking directly at her, eyes piercing through the rock. Hours could have passed as he looked into her deep sapphire eyes, and then a menacing smile appeared on his face, revealing daggered ivory teeth. He looked away quickening his pace towards the house, and rapped on the door thrice.
    After a moment it opened and light shone out into the meadow, illuminating the man. The beautiful woman that stood in the doorway froze, her emerald eyes wide in terror, the golden hair that cascaded down her back rippled in the light.
    “Athromay how good to see you again…”

    His pale hand suddenly clenched her throat, she gasped struggling violently but it was futile.
    “I suggest you come help your wife Tanek, she may need it.”
    A captured scream rose from the woman’s throat as he pushed her into the house and out of sight of the little girl. The meadow was suddenly filled with the sounds of breaking glass, and pleas of mercy. Her heart pounded in her chest, threatening to burst. Natural instincts told her to flee, but she ran to the house, her fragile hand shook violently as she opened the door.
    Blood covered the walls, a thick trail led upstairs where the struggle continued. She could hear the shouts of her father, and a metallic clash echoed to her ears. Swords.
    She heard her mother beg,
    “Zelthan please, don’t do this Zelth-”, she was cut off, as there was a thud against the wall.
    The child found she couldn’t move; her body grew numb as she began to go into shock, too horrified by what she heard. She stood unmoving in the doorway, until it had become quiet. Without realizing what she was doing, she slowly began to walk up the stairs, oblivious that her shoes trailed through blood. When she reached the top of the staircase she turned and approached the door that was at the end of the hall.

    The door was cracked slightly, just a light tap of her fingers and it opened, and suddenly it seemed as if the world had stopped, her breath caught in her lungs, for crouched over her mother was the man, blood gushing from his lips.
    She said nothing and could only watch as he drank the blood from the still corpse, her mother’s eyes were wide, her jaw hanging slightly open. A glance to her left and she saw her father was face down in a pool of blood only a few feet away. The man feasted taking a large bite into the flesh of his victim’s neck. His eyes were closed, hence why he didn’t detect the witness standing in the doorway.
    The scream that had been buried in her throat suddenly released, as she cried in dismay. The man jolted, startled, his head whipped upward as his eyes met hers. Blood ran down his neck sinking into his black clothes. The red of his eyes intensified as he snarled viciously. His cape suddenly unfurled before her to be revealed as two large wings. They spread fully opening and then wrapped protectively around their master. He never looked away from her, and she could hear bones crunch as his fists gripped onto her mother’s body. For a moment she was petrified, but she managed to break free of his gaze as she scrambled down the hall, tumbling down the stairs. She heard footsteps were on the wooden floor above, but they were calm, as if the monster had all the time in the world to catch his prey, in fact he did… he let her escape that night.