This story is centered on one Christian Davis and his brother. We begin the story about a month after the first orientation at the DWMA as Christian was unable to attend due to family issues. Christian is easy going and a pleasure to be around, he comes from small town USA, and has a secret not even he knows about.
Hello, my name is Iroh. I am a young writer that does this in my free time in a way to keep my skills sharp. I will be posting these a chapter at a time until I get tired of it. The more people like it the more I write, simple as that. Feel free to comment criticism and praise in the comments as both are welcomed.
Soul Eater Rage
Normally one would think of intense boredom and misery when thinking of a new school. However to Christian Davis and his brother Brian it meant a new life. An escape from farm work and the black-hole that is their home town. Benton, Tennessee famous only for hard workers and whitewater rafting. Buildings dotted farmland and downtown consisted of; a bank, a florist, a sonic, and grocery store.
Christian and Brian had waited for seventeen years before finally convincing their parents to let them go to the Academy. With Brian's gift he and Christian had known many a ridicule. Christian had his face against the glass of the bus. The Greyhound's seats were anything but comfortable but he couldn't complain. Not that he liked it. It was just his nature. So he, with cheek to glass, watched the desert of Arizona go by. Kind of soothing actually. Brian sat behind him, his legs tucked up in the seat and his head laying on his knees. From this ball snoring could be heard. A pair of headphones hung from his ears. The heavy beat of Disturbed's Avarice was barely audible.
Christian possessed the build of a track runner, lean and muscular with a broad chest and toned legs. Years on the farm had permetanned his skin to the point that one would argue it was his natural skin color. One would also never guess the Chinese blood that coursed through his veins, from his mother, passed down generations until it rolled to a temporary stop within the one eighth of Christian's body, to be passed to his child and the next and so on. His skin nor eyes gave no indication of oriental descent. His black hair reached halfway down his ears before curling up slightly at the tips, and a dark scruff claimed his jaw line and upper lip. Hazel eyes set slightly deeper than most people, and thin, pale lips grouped with his father's thick, half-Russian nose completed the look. His attire matched his nature as it consisted of jeans, work boots, a dark blue plain t-shirt, and an unbuttoned white pen-stripe shirt.
Brian remained in the curled ball he had assumed. Unlike his brother, Brian possessed a much more muscular build, more akin to a college linebacker than Christian's track n' field physique. Like Christian, Brian's skin was tanned permanently to the sun kissed bronze that belonged to blue collars. Thanks to genetics, Brian's Chinese blood was slightly more pronounced than his brother, possessing slightly elongated eyes and a flatter forehead and cheekbones, as well as his father's nose. Thicker lips inherited from his mother and German ears from his father, topped with his mother's dark brown eyes. Both children would be considered cocktails of ethnic origins; 1/8 Chinese, 1/4 Russian, 1/8 German, 1/16 Cherokee, 1/16 Black Dutch, 1/8 Anglo, and 1/4 Irish, a true touch of everything. Brian wore denim cargo pants with a chain hooked to his belt loop and wallet, a t-shirt with Avenged 7x emblazoned on the front and a leather bracelet on his wrist bearing the RED emblem imprinted on the back side facing him, around his neck, he wore a Celtic cross on a length of paracord.
Christian let his eyes grow heavy and slowly drifted into a peaceful slumber, letting the gentle drone of the asphalt be his lullaby. Sleep greeted him with open arms and took him to his subconscious, he dreamed he was alone. Alone in an open space. Standing in a grassy field. Waist high and waving in the wind. A single tree broke the sea. An oak tree, standing tall. It reached for the clouds and beyond. Breaking the clouds at the top, breaching and flourishing for miles in each direction, its leaves sending shadows as far as the eye could see, and farther still. Hundreds upon hundreds upon thousands of branches varying in width and thickness. Some as big as cars. Some but simple twigs.
Suddenly a squall came. Wind, rain, and hail. Falling in solid sheets of precipitation. The tree swayed, buffeted by the storm raging around it. The branches whipped in cascades as the wind ripped through them. Leaves and debris flew all around Christian, soaking him to the bone. The whole of nature's wrath blew against the great tree. Until, finally. with a crack and an earth shaking groan the tree came uprooted. It fell. So slowly. In slow motion. To the ground. Inch by inch. Foot by long foot. Mile by unfathomable mile. Until it touched ground. The miles it had grown. So tall, so wide and grand. It meant nothing now, just rot. It landed with a ground shaking crash. Then came the other branches on top of it. They fell faster, much faster, driven by physics. They crashed in rippling succession, snapping and breaking in waves and droves. Christian watched as the once great tree became nothing but a great log, lying on the ground to be reclaimed by the earth. Within a year nothing would serve as proof of it ever standing. Then Christian noticed the root ball, so tiny for the tree, barely three yards across.
Then a sound was heard above the squall, chimes. Christian turned, and saw another tree. It was buffeted by the storm, rain and wind bending the branches on themselves. It stood, bending slightly in the storm, not much at all. A set of wind chimes hung from the lowest branch and now flew perpendicular to the tree itself, ringing high above the screaming winds. Though the tree bent it did not break, leaves and branches flew off in cascades, but the tree stood with its fruit hanging desperately to the branches.
As suddenly as it had begun, the rain ceased and the sky was clear. Christian slowly walked to the tree and felt it. It was solid. Standing tall and proud. Full of life, and vigor. Then the ground gave way, dirt falling away and revealing miles upon miles of roots. Roots extending in every direction, mirroring the first tree's branches underground. Twenty feet tall with a root ball miles wide, the reason it didn't fall.
"Christian." A thump on the head. Christian opened his eyes to see Brian standing in the aisle, his arms above his head searching the overhead bin. "We're here." Christian yawned stretched as far as he could in the confined space, his dream already fading to naught but mist. These dreams were normal, an allegory, always a riddle, he stopped trying to figure them out while he was still young.
"We have arrived at Death City, we are now unloading marked luggage and ask that those departing exit in a quiet and timely manner." Brian tossed Christian his bag and took his own in his arms. "Come on."
Christian gave a slight grunt as he stood and exited his seat, and stood among the six others exiting with him. They exited the bus in seconds and stood on the sidewalk. Christian reached over and grabbed his duffel bag and suitcase, as Brian did the same.
The air was hot, hot and dry, arid and stale. The sun above smiled at the scene below, the city with the DWMA as the crown jewel. Huge, that's a word to describe it, the Academy. For the next few months it would be their home, if they're lucky years.
Before them stood the grand staircase leading directly into the academy. Around them a collective scattering of houses and other leisurely businesses such as cafes and restaurants. All, in their own manner, scattered around the base of the great academic building. "That's a lot of stairs." Brian mumbled under his breath, Christian grunted in agreement.
Without speaking a word Christian sprinted ahead of Brian and started running up the stairs. Brian smiled and accepted the informal challenge to a race, he sprinted ahead of his brother in moments. However, the eighty pound advantage over Christian almost immediately took its toll. By the time he was a third the way up the stairs he was heaving with each desperate breath. On the other hand, Christian sprinted by Brian barely halfway up the steps. Unlike his brother he was merely sipping air in short controlled breaths, compared to the guzzling gasps coming from Brian's mouth.
Minutes later Christian stood at the top of the stairs, his arms above his head and his back slightly arched. At his feet Brian lay on his back gasping for air, face red with heat. "You're not human you skinny bastard." Christian smiled and picked up his bags. "Control your breathing, that's half the battle."
Ahead of them stood a young man with cyan hair. "COME ON FIGHT ME!" He called to everyone and none in particular. "All at once, everyone of you! I'll beat all of you to a bloody pulp!" He called. "There's only room for one Star here and that's me, BLACKSTAR!"
Christian shook his head and turned towards the door heading toward the dorm rooms. "Come on Brian, let's find our room." Brian watched for a moment before reluctantly turning away and following his brother. "If he's here when we get back, we'll fight him." Brian perked up at that.
After a few minutes of walking they came to their dorm. An sixteen by twelve box, with a section cut off for the kitchen and a small single bedroom with two twin size beds and a single bed table sitting between them. The bathroom was nestled neatly in the corner with a diagonal wall separating it from the main room. Nothing fancy, merely a single toilet and matching sink with a standalone shower. "Our own bathroom, that's rare." Christian remarked as he walked toward the center of the room.
"No dishwasher, and that's a very small fridge." Brian countered.
"You've never stayed in a dorm room have you?"
Brian shook his head in negative. "This is spacious, I stayed in a dorm at MTSU during a workshop. Four guys in a room as big as this commons, it was a blessing just to step out of the door." Christian walked to the closet and opened it to reveal two separate hanging racks and a dresser in the bottom. "It even has decent storage."
Brian went to the bedroom and took note of the three drawers on the undersides of the beds. "Just claim a bed for now, toss your crap on it and we'll head on down to see if that kid is still talking big." Christian called from the kitchen.
Ten minutes later they stood in the courtyard once again and listened to the constant ranting of the cocky young boy. Christian silently watched waited until finally a student walked up to him and accepted his challenge.
The kid cocked back and laughed heartily before calling his weapon to him. She timidly walked to him. She was beautiful, by Christian's standards at least, a tall Japanese girl sporting a slit dress and a choker, and her long black hair bound in a tight ponytail. She reached the boy and assumed the form of a kusorigama. The next minute, Blackstar stood worsted by the unfortunate spear meister.
"You ready Brian?" Christian asked with a smile. Brian cracked a similar smile and nodded enthusiastically before assuming his weapon form. Brian's weapon form stood at six feet even, a black pole four feet long ornamented with gold ribbons and emblazing resembling a dragon head with its mouth swallowing the base of the two foot blade. The blade itself was cold steel with silver etchings extending from the mouth and mimicking flames licking the edges. A glaive, as it commonly referred to, is in essence a sword on a very long pole, and his brother is one of the only Glaive masters in existence. "I'll take the bait!"
Blackstar had a gleeful shine in his eye as he turned to accept the challenge. "Who are you?" He shouted, "Haven't seen ya around here."
"I got in late, missed orientation, but remember me, not because of what I say, but what I will do." With this Christian swung his Glaive at Blackstar in a high arc, stretching his nine foot reach as far as he could. Not at all to Christian's surprise Blackstar caught the blade on the sickle part of his blade and wrapped his chain around it. "This will be fun." Christian said through a reptilian grin.