Welcome to Gaia! ::

Our story begins in the dead of the night. There is no moon in the sky and even the stars fail to announce their presence. All is quiet in the dark mountains of Romania. These mountains are known for shielding those who are not welcome in society. Rebels, outcasts, bandits…are among the few. Then there are the Others. Those whose names no mortal will ever udder, the very beings that dwell in every man, women, and child’s nightmares. Werewolves, Vampires, Witches and Wizards. These are the things of nightmares that hide deep in the Carpathian Mountains. But tonight we speak not of that, tonight we bear witness to a brutal and savage murder.

The still silence of the night is disrupted with the tiny whimpering of a small child. A cloud suddenly moves and the once hidden moon now shines its light on a grim and grotesque scene. The mangled remains of two corpses lie in pools of their own blood, a mother and a father. Both murdered trying to protect their newborn treasure, for on closer inspection, lying in the only spot devoid of blood, is the squirming body of an infant girl. Her name is Dakota, barely a week old and already an orphan. But alas, she is not alone. Her feeble whimpers have alerted her parent’s murderers to her presence. A small pack of twenty or so large wolves slowly emerge from the dark forest that lines the bloody clearing. Their leader, a large snow white male wolf, with a tattoo of a black pentagon upon his shoulder, trots to the small infant and sniffs her warily. He looks down at her coldly, no compassion whatsoever in his golden eyes. It was because of this…this abomination that he had to kill his only daughter, the baby’s mother. The child, the spawn of an illegal union between wolf and vampire. The first…and last of its kind. He’d come here to make sure of that. He snarled loudly, causing the infant to start crying in fear, the wolf doesn’t even blink; he raises his paw to her neck and prepares to snap the brittle bone there like a twig. But just as he is about to do so, a spine tingling snarl erupts from the trees and the entire pack turns to face the intruder. Where moments ago there had stood no one, now stood the unmoving form of a male vampire, his body tensed in a crouch, snow white fangs shining menacingly in the moonlight.

“Leave her alone, Demetrius.” He growls out softly.

The white wolf chuckles darkly. “And if I don’t, bloodsucker…what do you plan on doing?” He paused at the other wolves circled him. “There’s twenty of us and only one of you.”

The vampire took a warning step forward. “I wasn’t planning on fighting, Demetrius.”

Before Demetrius could react, the vampire shot forward, like a bullet from a gun, grabbed Dakota and disappeared into the dark woods. Leaving a fuming Demetrius in his wake.

I enjoyed the imagery. The way you described it, I could see the setting perfectly (for some reason in black and white, with the parent's blood as the only color, which was even cooler). I also appreciated the foreign setting. I'm as guilty of it as anyone, but Romania definitely makes for a nice change.

That said, the names seemed to contrast oddly. I know, it's a nitpick, but when put beside a werewolf named Demetrius, and knowing that the story takes place (or at least starts) in Romania, I sort of wonder why her parents would choose such a modern (not to mention American) name. Of course, there could be a reason for that, but it was poking at my mind so I thought I'd just say something.

And I have to agree with Saint: from "Werewolves" I was nervous. Maybe find a way to make them your vampires and werewolves, rather than just the vampires and werewolves we're all oh-so familiar with. Give a new take and all that.

Oh! I also really liked the omnipresent narrator, especially in the first paragraph. It made it feel like we started out around a campfire and sort of plunged into the story head on from there. Cool effect, if that makes sense. lol

Good job and good luck!
~Sunny