Author's Note: Hello and thank you for taking interest in my story! This series will be based off the origin story of my D&D character, and all the adventures she has before meeting up with her present day party.

I'd just like to point out that I'm an amateur writer and understand there are problems with my work. Please help me improve by leaving a comment about what I did well or what I could improve on.

If I can get at least five people who say they're interested in reading more I will write another chapter. Please enjoy!

The distinct, piercing cry of a rooster came through the open window. Kallista rolled over and pulled her covers over her head with an irritated grunt. She knew she would have to get up eventually but wanted to stay in bed all day if she could have. The rooster cried out again, "Shut up!' she screamed out the window. Five minutes passed, then ten, eventually her mother burst through the door. "Kallista, get up! Your father needs you outside." She ripped the covers out of her grip, Kallista groaned and squinted her eyes, blinded by the light shining through the window. "-and what did I tell you about sleeping naked? You'll catch a cold!" "Mother if it were any hotter outside you'd be able to cook an egg on the ground." Ignoring that last statement, her mother put the blanket on a chair just out of Kallista's reach and left the room, shutting the door behind her.

Kallista rolled over till she fell off the bed and onto the wooden floor with a thud, getting to her feet and stretching, she took a step forward and was immediately pulled back and fell on her butt. "What the-" Somehow her tail had gotten itself stuck under the mattress, she gave it a tug and it popped out, lashing back and whipping her in the face. She growled and fixed it, letting it go back to idly swishing back and fourth behind her. Grabbing her set of clothes for the day and scurried into the bathroom before anyone could see her in her current state. Now her family wasn't exactly wealthy, no one in Portsmouth was, but with recent developments in technology they could afford running water in their home. She turned on the shower and let it run for a moment while stepping in front of the narrow full body mirror she had begged her father to purchase and install. She wasn't half bad looking, she had her mother's bright red skin, not many Tieflings were fortunate enough to have such an even skin tone, as well as her father's ash black hair that fell just below her shoulders. She also had fairly large horns that came together in a slightly wide V shape, not her most feminine feature as she had gotten those large, man like horns from her father, but paired with her golden eyes and fairly athletic build from all the work she does around the farm; she figured herself a pretty strong, sexy young woman, twenty years young. She gave a smile and a nod to herself, quite happy with her appearance.

After the shower, she wandered down to the kitchen in a tank-top styled undershirt, a towel in one hand and her white T-shirt in the other as she toweled her hair dry and sat down. Her mother had set a bowl of oatmeal along with a few strips of bacon, an egg, and some water. She devoured the food and with a small burp, put on her shirt and walked towards the front door, "Thanks mom…" Grabbing her scythe, and shut the door behind her, squinting and covering her eyes to protect her vision while they adjusted. Her father was with the horse, tilling the ground. "Good, you're awake." He pointed to the wheat that was ready to be harvested. "Take your scythe and get the wheat harvested, then take it to the mill to be ground into flower. Sell a third of the product and bring the rest back. Depending on when you finish I might have more work for you." She sighed and grumbled something under breath. "What was that?" "Nothing Dad, I'll be happy to do it." She went over to the wheat field, it was a fairly large plot of land but she was quick with her Scythe, and she knew that if she worked hard, she'd have it all down and collected by three bells past noon. Staring at the field with a smirk and stretching her shoulders.

Kallista made quick work of the wheat, she was surprisingly adept with a scythe, going through the fields with speed and vigor, the crop falling swiftly and easily, it was as if she was dancing with the blade. Her father watched from a distance as she dashed around, he rolled his eyes but with a smirk. "Her methods are strange, but she does a damn good job."

After a break at high noon for lunch Kallista set back to work and finished an entire bell before what was predicted. Wiping her brow, she set her scythe aside as she finish cutting and stacking the wheat. "Dad I'm finished, I'm taking Max into town." Max was the other horse they had. She attached him to the wagon and dried herself off a little, she was getting quite sweaty from toiling away all day in the hot sun. Hopping on Max and riding across the small town to the windmill, she waved at some of townspeople who called out at her, the blacksmith, and the jeweller mainly. "Hey!" Kallista stopped the horse as the owner of the book store ran up to her. He smiled "Kallista, I have something you might want to see." She hopped down from the horse. "Like what Jayce?" Jayce gestured for her to follow him. Kallista sighed with relief as soon as she stepped inside the store. "Ahh… I see your latest shipment of cooling crystals arrived." He turned back towards her. "Yeah, I've got to keep my store comfortable during the season of fire. Keeps the customers coming in. Anyways come here." Jayce led Kallista into the back where he had a book with intricate designs all over it. Some patterns looked slightly demonic, others of fire. "Now I know you parents keep you away from magic, but you've also expressed to me your love of fire." Kallista had her eyes locked on the book. "—so yeah, here's a little something that might help you produce a flame larger than that of a candle." Kallista started to thumb through the pages. "Hellish Rebuke… Fire Storm… Flame Step." She looked through at more spells, enchantments and rituals. "Just make sure you don't burn down the house. Your parents will kill me if they if they find out you got the book from me." She gave Jayce a big hug. "I can't thank you enough. What do I owe you?" Kallista started to pull out a burlap bag with a few gold coins in it, Jayce motioned for her to put it away. "On the house, besides I don't think I'll be able to get anything for this anyways. No one here besides you is really into magic." Kallista nodded. "Thanks again, now I need to get going." Kallista snuck past Jayce's defences and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek to say thanks and jogged out, putting the book in one of the bags hanging off the horse saddle.

The church bell rang six times; Kallista had a big bag of gold coins hanging from her waist, and sacks of flower in the cart Max was pulling. The sun was starting to set and Kallista let out a big sigh of relief as it started to get cooler. She was almost home as the sun went down completely, all that was left was the glow of the sun over the horizon, she could still see though, as Tieflings excelled at seeing in low light. She stopped in front of the house, putting Max back in his stable. As she started to unload the flower, a sharp pain shot through her like a bolt of lightning. She stumbled forward a little but caught herself. A terrible headache began to overwhelm her. Stumbling through the door she fell to her knees, looking back out and up at the moon to get her bearings, but no moon stared back. Her mother and little brother ran up to her when they heard the sound of a body slumping to the floor. Her mother was in panic "Kallista!? What's wrong dear do you have a fever? Hit your head?" Kallista was too light headed to respond properly. "H-Headache…" Closing her eyes she blacked out, the last thing she heard was a growl and her mother screaming.

Kallista found herself sprawled out on the floor of the living room, she was soaked to the bone in sweat. Her head was booming and she couldn't find the strength to get up. Inhaling deeply, she gagged as she got a lung full of a horrid, indescribable smell, almost making her throw up on the spot. Her eyes burst open and her heart skipped a beat. She wasn't soaked in sweat, it was blood. Her hand clasped across her mouth to keep herself from screaming, and the harsh taste of iron filled her mouth. Looking down her white shirt was blending almost perfectly with her skin color, she had more dried blood in her hair and all the way up from her hands to her elbows. Staring at her hands she started to shake, holding onto her left shoulders, the dried blood crumbling and floating down to the floor like miniature sheets of paper as she shifted. At that moment Kallista noticed the strand of flesh that was resting on her shoulder. She reflexively whipped it across the room. At the same time getting a quick glance of the room. It all started to stand out, the blood splatters on the walls, the ceiling, and the chunks of flesh and crushed bone on the floor. There was a head. Her brother's head, Kallista couldn't hold it in any longer and screamed at the top of her lungs, shutting her eyes tight. Slumping to the floor beginning to hyper-ventilate till the world faded to black.

It was evening out when she sat up with a pained groan, only being able to tell because of the sound of crickets in the tall grass outside. She still had her eyes shut and didn't want to open them, she might not ever, not willing to ever face the horrors that were just past her eyelids. Kallista couldn't quite understand it, but even with her eyes shut she still had some sort of sense of direction and depth of field. Almost as if she was seeing through sonar, relying completely on the remaining four senses. She could see the world around her in outlines without color but still with great detail. She looked down at her hands, the blood was still there but it was unexplainable how she could still notice it.

Still feeling a little light headed she wobbled and leaned against the wall while regaining her balance, breathing deeply in a pointless attempt to calm herself. "Easy Kallista, you only… murdered your entire family…" Almost throwing up once more after finishing that sentence. She leaned back against the wall with a sigh, furring her brow as she felt a pair of lumps under her shirt near her shoulder blades. "The hell…?" She reached back down her shirt and felt something soft and… furry? Kallista rushed over to the bathroom and slammed the door shut. Standing in front of the mirror she stared at herself. She could easily point out the smallest details about herself, the only difference being the contrast of black, white, and greys that made it possible to tell colors apart, like the contrast of the blood on her hands and her skin, as the blood was a dark grey, but not as dark as the red of her skin. Kallista slowly pulled her shirt off and set it aside, then did the same with her undershirt. She turned around and looked over her shoulder, finding two small wings, resembling those of a bat, sprouting out from between her shoulder blades. "Those were not there yesterday morning…" Perhaps she should have been slightly more alarmed about this, but they have a certain appeal. Regardless, she'd have to keep this a secret.

A few bells had past, the smell of death and decay was flooding the house and Kallista opened up a window. She had been leafing through a small collection of books that her father kept in a locked cabinet, or at least used to. Most of the books were useless, but some were on the subject of magic, and one was a larger, ornate book about her family tree, she had always asked her father if she could read through them, but he would often avoid the conversation or change the subject. Now she had all the time in the world to read, but set the book aside for now.

Another two bells had past. Using what she could remember from the previous night, which was next to nothing, what she had gathered today, along with a few key snippets that she pulled out from the books on the arcane arts. What all this boiled down to was simple, but as soon as it dawned on Kallista she felt goose bumps ripple across her skin. "A curse… why am I cursed?!" She shouted out, voice trembling in her panic. Who or whatever that had somehow placed a curse on her, must have let it lay dormant for years, this was again deduced from her earlier readings, a book on arcane curses called this ailment "Demon Spawn". Its symptoms being feral behavior in the afflicted, but only on new moons. Kallista leaned back against a wall and pulled her knees up to her chest and stared at the ceiling. "Alright Kallista… lets go over things one more time. I've been cursed with something that has lain dormant inside me for years, no idea how long exactly. On the new moon I turned crazy and… killed my family… there is no known cure and I'm supposed to stop ageing…" Something snapped in the back of her mind, all the supressed feelings of pain and sorrow flooded out like a river dam bursting. Eventually Kallista slumped over, crying herself to sleep.

The poor girl was plagued with horrible nightmares that night, visions of herself slaughtering her family mercilessly, them begging for her to snap out of it. Dozens of slightly different scenarios played in her head, making her unsure of which one was what actually happened, she could never be sure. The only details that really changed from dream to dream were her methods of slaughter, each one making her more and more frightened of herself. Each vision depicting Kallista with large fangs, talons replacing her fingernails, and the miniature batwings on her back replaced with full sized demon wings.

She jolted awake as the rooster outside cried out. Kallista found herself drenched, jerking up slightly before noticing it really was only sweat this time. Kallista forced herself up and dragged her feet over to the bathroom, taking a cold shower to try and snap to alertness, possibly to calm her nerves as well. It did little to help, but at least she was awake, clean and out of bloody clothing. Leaving the bathroom, the smell of death had subsided slightly, but still assaulted her nostrils as she shut the door behind her, causing her to jolt a little. The living room was still showered with blood and body parts. She knew she couldn't hide this forever, within another day or two people would start questioning her family's absence and possibly come looking for them. She could only hope that if there was any screaming that night, and there probably was, that it wasn't loud enough to attract the attention of the neighbors. Still, she was more concerned about the safety of others, rather than her own. What set off her attacks? The book only said new moons, but she couldn't be sure it was the only cause, it made sense to her that getting angry might provoke a similar response, but she wouldn't be testing that theory anytime soon, hopefully.

Another day passed, Kallista had spent all her time with that pile of books, as well as the one Jayce had given her. She learnt two things that day; while going through her family tree there was written documentation of a rather unsettling event that had taken place while her grandparents were still alive and young. It spoke of a conflict between her relatives and a certain unknown order of mages. Whether this had to do with her affliction or not was uncertain. Furthermore she had spent a good portion of the day improving her basic mastery of fire magic. Having managed to reliably conjure fireballs, and set things on fire by pointing at them. Although she still needed a lot of practice to become truly comfortable with these abilities, and possibly learn more. Eventually the chirping of crickets alerted her to nightfall, Kallista turned in for a proper nights rest, knowing that starting tomorrow and her life would get a lot more difficult.

She dreamt of nothing that night, except for a vision of the starry night sky.

The next morning everything was a blur. She rubbed her eyes, but still didn't open them. It was becoming almost second nature to keep her eyes closed. Kallista had a pretty good picture of what she had to do. Maybe, just maybe that order of mages that her grandparents had some sort of running into with had something to do with all this. It was a long shot, but she needed somewhere to start, and had no other leads. "That settles it." Kallista prepared a knapsack with a few basic necessities: A bedroll, some food, three books along with a vile of ink and a quill. One being the book on her family, the book on fire magic, and last an empty journal for anything she needed to write. She topped it off with a water-skin, the sack of gold she got for selling the sacks of flower the other day, and a map that she had marked one specific location on. Setting the bag aside, she put her Scythe next to it, taking that along should her magic ever (and probably will) fail her. She had searched for any kind of armor she could find in the house, but came up empty; she lived with a family of farmers, not fighters. Kallista waited for a good portion of the day, running through her plan over and over again in her head and trying to relax. Dusk fell and she gave herself a reassuring nod. Kallista threw on her knapsack and over that a burlap cloak, it wouldn't keep her warm but it would keep her dry in the event of rain, not that cold temperature was really an issue this time of year anyways. Taking her scythe, Kallista took one last look around the house, and at the decaying remains of her family through her new lease on life. "I will avenge you all… from myself… idiot." Leaving the house she conjured a fireball in her right hand and lobbed it through the window. The inside quickly went up in flames, followed by the rest of the house.

Turning away and pulling the hood of her cloak up, she quickly ran into the night, away from Portsmouth, away from her old life. The only thing left outside the house, far enough away so that it wouldn't catch fire was a note, on it written. "I'm sorry—"; a tear had visibly stained the bottom corner. With that, Kallista was gone deep into the nearby forest, her old life left to die and shrivel into ashes into nothing as the fire roared.

"I'm sorry…"