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Some people strive to be greater. They work until their backs break, pushing themselves to their limits to achieve something out of their reach. Those people know the hardships of life, and that success isn’t easy. But for other people, they will never know that struggle. For those people, they have everything set out in front of them within arms reach. People born with silver spoons in their mouths, and fire in their fingertips. People like the Pyros. Kid’s like Jared.
“Aim for the chest! Quick before he kills you!” a stern and angry voice shouted from across the sidelines. A scrawny ginger-haired boy flinched and brought his hand back getting ready to throw. A small ball of flames held in his hand as he used the powers given to him by his bloodline to make flames from nothing. He readied himself and swung his hand into the front of him, releasing the ball. The flames exploded by the impact of another, much large flaming object. The impact was so close, the boy was forced back and fell backward to the ground. He sat there and looked ahead of him to the other side of the training field. Beyond the flames eating away at the grass, he saw another boy of the same age. This other boy who shared the same blood, and hair. This other boy is known as Jared.
Jared laughed at his smaller cousins lame attempt at an attack. They’d been training and fighting each other for years, and Jared wondered how his cousin Bullet still had any hopes to beat him.
“Start taking your dad’s advice Bullet or you’ll end up burnt to a crisp!” Jared shouted, and created another ball of flames in his hands, ready for another round. Jared’s uncle stepped onto the field.
“That’s enough for today. Bullet get yourself off the damn ground. Don’t stay down in a fight unless you’re dead. Go back to the town and to your studies. Jared, come with me.” Jared’s uncle scolded Bullet, as is always did after training. His uncle was a General in the Guardian military, a rank given only to the strongest most powerful guardians. General Pyro was a man of pride and was determined to get his only son Bullet or Jared, the son of his late brother to someday take over his spot. Jared showed excellent potential in both his strength and elemental abilities. His son, however, didn’t look so promising.
Scuffed up and covered in soot, Bullet made his way back to the town, the looming feeling of failure resting on his shoulders.
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(switches to first person, Jared’s point of view, to test which POV I prefer)
I was always so delighted when my uncle would praise me for my hard work during training. I always let his words fuel my ego. I really thought I was the toughest back then. Everything’s easier on the training field, especially when your opponent is weaker than you. Poor Bullet didn’t stand a chance, and there were many nights I’d hear his father lecturing him in the study. It’s crazy how times change. If anyone knew how pathetic and cowardly Bullet was, they’d all laugh in his face. He’d become the laughing stock of this bar.
We went for a walk, my uncle and me. I remember watching the breeze shift the branches of the pine, and noticing how they creaked softly as their trunks swayed. My uncle spot but never looked at me. He kept his face forward and chin up.
“I think you’re ready for the academy,” I remember him saying, and I got that feeling in the pit of my stomach when something doesn’t seem right. No words came from my mouth for a long time. Nothing scared me more of going to the academy, than saying no to my uncle. Chewing the inside of my cheek, I mustered up the courage and spoke in the softest voice I could. My voice might have squeaked a little from both puberty and fear.
“No.”
If I was a bit wiser, I would have known to run at that moment, but no. My uncles head turned and he gave me this monstrous gaze as if I insulted his mother. How he didn’t hit me is beyond me, because nothing ever seemed to stop him before.
Something did change for me at that moment though. I spoke up against my uncle for the first time and went against his wishes. That was something I was too scared to do before, but I did, and I survived. Let’s say I started to get cocky, and from then on I started to speak up more frequently. Whether it was over the academy or something small like using the proper silverware at dinner, I would start these arguments. We bickered constantly, like crows. It was mostly verbal, but I can’t say I didn’t throw a chair or two to be dramatic and get my uncle fuming. It was a great feeling. Having that power over him to make him break that poker-face he wore so often. My aunt was powerless and had to endure our fights. Bullet would hide in his room to avoid us.
The fun that came with picking fights quickly faded as soon as it came, and I really started to detest that man. It became a chore to have to interact with any of my family because they all felt I was more troublesome than I was worth. That’s when my plan started to form. I was going to run away(how original I know).
Day One
I planned it for… a week? Maybe ten days? First I needed to get out of my house without being caught. Then I had to sneak past the many homes of the people in our town. The biggest challenge was getting past the shields. The shields covered the entire perimeter of the town, in a dome-like shape. The shield was created to keep out weaker monsters like werewolves, goblins, fairies. Someone like me or a human can pass as they please. The issue is my uncle’s ability to sense anything entering or exiting the shields.
Nothing a little sleep potion couldn’t help me with. I would describe the escape, but honestly, it was really underwhelming, and I want to get to the good bits, bare with me they’re coming.
So there I am, outside the shield on my own for the first time. To my right is open plains leading towards the river, and beyond that, more flatlands as far as the eye can see. To my left, woods. Not just any woods, however, these are Outsider woods. The perfect hunting grounds for ghouls and monsters alike. As kids we were always told never to enter the dense woods or vampires would snatch us right up into the trees and eat out our eyes. But when I looked past the trunks of the trees, and beyond their hanging branches, I saw no difference within those woods as I did in the woods within my town. Walking out in the open would heighten my chances of being spotted by my family. The trees at this moment were my safe zone, and into their darkness, I went.
The second I stepped past the first few trees, I could feel a shift in the air, but nothing strange enough to scare me off. This haunting presence looms over you with every step, and no matter what, you can’t shake that feeling that someone’s watching you. It must have been a good twenty minutes of walking in the dark, hearing an occasional howl or cry far off before I encountered my first outsider. Before I even saw this ugly bastard, my lungs filled with this heavy air that smelt oddly of roasted ham at first, then sulfur. Put off by the stench, I glanced around for the source and my eyes meet with two small blue eyes no more than thirty feet from me. At that moment I froze, I had no Idea what I found, or in this case, what found me. This beast of an outsider had the head of a man with large horns coming around its head, attached to this long hairy snake-like neck leading to the body of a bull. I’ve seen a lot of ugly outsiders in my life, but to this day nobody comes close to that beast.
At this point, I feel my eyes getting heavy, and I’m soon telling myself that I can’t close my eyes. I can’t let sleep take me. This isn’t right. So before I get knocked out by the breath of the beast, which I later learned is called a Catoblepas, and took the liberty of nicknaming Cato, my hands create flames. I was a tough kid, according to my training. However, the moment I got my powers to activate, I felt this bone-cracking impact in my abdomen. Before I knew it I had flown back and crashed into the trunk of the tree behind me, breath completely depleted from my lungs. After taking that hit from Cato, I couldn’t fight the drowsiness that his breath caused me. Keeping my eyes open wasn’t my worry anymore. My worry was that I was going to die. Not even a half hour of freedom from my old life, and I’m going to die. That beast had no mercy, and his ugly face moved its way towards my limp body ready to eat me up like a snake. And that’s the end of my story. I soon died after entering into Cato’s esophagus, luckily dying while in a deep sleep…
I wish. I’m not that lucky. No, I didn’t die that soon. Someone had other plans for me.
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(Switching back to third person still figuring out where I want to go with the POV)
Jared felt the hot breath of the monster on his face, and the feeling of his lungs crying for air as they were forced to take in the poison. Jared’s eyes closed, unable to fight off the sleep much longer. He fell further and further into this peaceful state, not quite the death he imagined.
“That one’s mine onion breath,” was the last thing Jared heard before sleep took him.
When Jared came to he was being carried like a sack of meat over someone’s shoulder. A groan came out of him as all the pain in his back and abdomen started to come back. The person carrying him stopped walking. Jared looked over to see his capturer. He was met with the orange eyes of a dark-haired man. The man looked a bit rugged with a five o’clock shadow.
“Uh… hey?” a small croak of a sentence came from Jared’s mouth, and he realized how thirsty he was. The man immediately put down the kid when he saw he was awake. When Jared was steady on his feet the man start then began to walk away, no longer wanting the responsibility. With further inspection, Jared noticed the man had blood all over the sleeves of his dark brown leather jacket, and flecks of blood on other parts of his clothing. Glancing down at himself, he saw that he too had blood on him. “What happened? Is this mine?” he wondered to himself.
The stranger kept walking but Jared wasn’t about to let him go that easily without answers.
“Where are you going?….What happened last night?…. Who are you…” every one of his questions was unanswered, and Jared began to walk after the man,”HEY! Answer me! Who are you?”
The man stopped yet again in his tracks, and kept his back to the kid,”If you don’t shut up, I will find another catoblepas to eat you. Keep up or I’m leaving you behind, we need to find shelter until night.” After saying what he had to, the man continued his walking again. Jared wasn’t sure what to make up this man. He didn’t think humans lived in these woods. The man did save him when he very well could have mugged or killed him while he was passed out. The fact that this man seemed so mysterious was enough to get Jared to make up his mind and follow.
They walked in silence for a long, awkward amount of time. Jared spent this time observing the stranger from behind. He looked pretty normal, other than the bloodstains. He also noticed the man had a belt equip with many small throwing knives. The man needs a weapon of some sort to survive in here, so it wasn’t off-putting, but how could those tiny knives take down that beast from last night?
The man finally began to speak,”Delta.”
“Is… that your name?” Jared responded after the man stated that word so randomly.
“Who are you?” the man asked.
“My names Jared… Pyro… The Generals nephew.” After Jared said that phrase Delta looked back at him, and the faintest smirk made its way to the corner of his lips. Jared didn’t notice.
“No shit. You have that royal blood in your veins. I wouldn’t tell that to too many people. Guardian souls are worth a good deal around here. From now on you’re a human, nothing more. I’ll be sure you’re souls kept in good hands.”
(First person)
Delta told me more about the monsters, which he referred to as outsiders because they preferred that term. Outsiders are a mix of people, animals, and creatures alike that were cast out by guardians centuries ago for being a threat to humanity. They don’t rely on money as currency, although I later learned Delta was loaded with coins. Instead, they trade objects, labor, weapons, alcohol, an arm, and leg, really just about anything. I talked a lot about my training and my town. He seemed very interested in it, especially when I talked about my escape. Delta knew about my town, but never went into it. He said he didn’t like being around crowds of people.
When I asked him about himself he sort of closed up or stayed vague. What I learned about him was that he was retired, which was very odd because he didn’t look a day over thirty. Now he free-lanced, doing odd jobs here and there. He had a little sister named Echo who was waiting for him at their shelter in another section of the forest. Any memory of the rest of his family was gone along with the memory of his childhood, but it didn’t seem to bother him.
I felt bad for the guy. He seemed very lost in this world, and for some reason, he was dropped into the outsider world. It made me feel a little guilty. I have everything this man doesn’t a home, a family, powers, worth, and yet I walked away from it. Delta knew this, but he never called me stupid, he didn’t seem jealous, to him I was just some guy. He didn’t even see me as a kid I don’t think.
One Month
After that day I traveled with him all over the woods. He taught me how to fight in a different way than what my uncle taught me. I experienced so many things with that man. I was twelve and here I was following this guy and barely knew, around a land I knew nearly nothing about. Every few weeks Delta would drop me off somewhere safe, and leave for a day or two, but never discussed why. It happened so rarely that I didn’t think about it too much. He brought me out drinking to these shady run down pubs, introduced me to plenty of older women, and got me caught up in a few good bar fights. We went on like this for months, traveling, drinking, sex, fighting, over and over to different locations. During those exciting months, I still knew very little about the man I was accompanying. At this point, I was having too much fun to even think about home. The outsider life was so much more carefree than guardians structured way of living. It wasn’t until I met Delta’s sister Echo that I started to learn more about him.
That night that we arrived at his “home” if you could call it that. He set up a camp in a cave that was well hidden behind branches. I wasn’t too thrilled to sleep in a cave since we were sleeping in cabins and bars for eight months now. Out of the branches came this girl, who at the time must have been sixteen or so. Delta’s a very normal looking guy, so when I saw his sister, I was understandably thrown off. This girl had brown cat-like ears sticking out of her black hair. Her eyes were big and white, no iris or pupil, just white. Her skin was covered in this short tan fur, and she had a tail swishing behind her. She looked like an Egyptian goddess having a face of a feline but the body and clothes of a human. At that moment I was beyond confused about how this cat-thing could be related to a human.
Delta wasn’t good at introductions and dropped me off and said he’d be back in a few weeks. So I was left with Catgirl in the middle of the woods, having no idea what to do. The worst part was that there was no booze or sexy women. There was only Catgirl. Echo really wasn’t bad. She was a very talkative and playful girl who acted a little young for her age. It’s like she never really grew up, and now that she had a friend around her age, she just wanted to play. It was like I had an older sister. She was an outsider though, and you could tell. Although she was very happy and cheery with me, some of the things she’d say or do made me remember she’s not so innocent. A pastime of hers was snatching birds and cutting off their feathers and torturing them because she claimed she “liked to hear them sing”. Echo was a messed up kid, I don’t deny that. However, before sunrise when we were going to bed, we had many deep conversations.
Echo explained to me how since she was very young, Delta would leave her in this tiny cave for days at a time while he would go do work. As she got older, days turned into weeks and weeks into months. I had no idea until then that Echo was all alone for every second me and Delta were out having fun. Even though Delta would leave her, she still loved him, but it was probably stockholm syndrome. She told me she was adopted by Delta, and she was the one who referred to them as siblings first. That explained a lot. Echo too didn’t have any memories of her real family. I was so intrigued by these two, and their relationship. I wanted to know what happened to her parents, and how Delta got possession of her. Surely she wasn’t as dumb as me to run away. Within a few weeks, like he had said, Delta returned, dropped off some supplies for Echo, and took me with him to our next adventure.
After that day I traveled with him all over the woods. He taught me how to fight in a different way than what my uncle taught me. I experienced so many things with that man. I was twelve and here I was following this guy and barely knew, around a land I knew nearly nothing about. Every few weeks Delta would drop me off somewhere safe, and leave for a day or two, but never discussed why. It happened so rarely that I didn’t think about it too much. He brought me out drinking to these shady run down pubs, introduced me to plenty of older women, and got me caught up in a few good bar fights. We went on like this for months, traveling, drinking, sex, fighting, over and over to different locations. During those exciting months, I still knew very little about the man I was accompanying. At this point, I was having too much fun to even think about home. The outsider life was so much more carefree than guardians structured way of living. It wasn’t until I met Delta’s sister Echo that I started to learn more about him.
That night that we arrived at his “home” if you could call it that. He set up a camp in a cave that was well hidden behind branches. I wasn’t too thrilled to sleep in a cave since we were sleeping in cabins and bars for eight months now. Out of the branches came this girl, who at the time must have been sixteen or so. Delta’s a very normal looking guy, so when I saw his sister, I was understandably thrown off. This girl had brown cat-like ears sticking out of her black hair. Her eyes were big and white, no iris or pupil, just white. Her skin was covered in this short tan fur, and she had a tail swishing behind her. She looked like an Egyptian goddess having a face of a feline but the body and clothes of a human. At that moment I was beyond confused about how this cat-thing could be related to a human.
Delta wasn’t good at introductions and dropped me off and said he’d be back in a few weeks. So I was left with Catgirl in the middle of the woods, having no idea what to do. The worst part was that there was no booze or sexy women. There was only Catgirl. Echo really wasn’t bad. She was a very talkative and playful girl who acted a little young for her age. It’s like she never really grew up, and now that she had a friend around her age, she just wanted to play. It was like I had an older sister. She was an outsider though, and you could tell. Although she was very happy and cheery with me, some of the things she’d say or do made me remember she’s not so innocent. A pastime of hers was snatching birds and cutting off their feathers and torturing them because she claimed she “liked to hear them sing”. Echo was a messed up kid, I don’t deny that. However, before sunrise when we were going to bed, we had many deep conversations.
Echo explained to me how since she was very young, Delta would leave her in this tiny cave for days at a time while he would go do work. As she got older, days turned into weeks and weeks into months. I had no idea until then that Echo was all alone for every second me and Delta were out having fun. Even though Delta would leave her, she still loved him, but it was probably stockholm syndrome. She told me she was adopted by Delta, and she was the one who referred to them as siblings first. That explained a lot. Echo too didn’t have any memories of her real family. I was so intrigued by these two, and their relationship. I wanted to know what happened to her parents, and how Delta got possession of her. Surely she wasn’t as dumb as me to run away. Within a few weeks, like he had said, Delta returned, dropped off some supplies for Echo, and took me with him to our next adventure.
Bonus content
Bonus Art:
Extra content involving characters like Echo, and Bullet.
