Anima Blood
~ 1923 ~
Slowly creeping through a silent forest cloaked in white, a large Lynx stalked through her territory, scenting her next meal.
You, Feline of the Forest, Female of my Blood.
The lynx yowled as a large spear appeared before her nose, and the cat blinked large blue eyes onto the large man upon the horse before her.
I name you Homo Anima, a creature turned in My Name.
The lynx's form shivered, and then where the feline once stood a woman crouched, head bent, long curled blond locks tumbling to the ground. Slowly, the woman lifted her hands, staring at them in awe.
You have a path that resides among the Humans now. Go forth to my village of Nibelheim, Lady Strife.
~ 1967 ~
Bounding through the jungle, two wolves black as night raced as has as their legs could carry them, fighting against all odds to escape their attacker, the female heavy with cubs, her fur stained red.
Neither knew if their litter would survive, but instinct bid them run, live to breathe life into another generation.
Suddenly the air got heavy and both the wolves slowed to a stop, the male spinning around and baring his teeth, then suddenly dropping until his muzzle hit the ground.
Titan stood before them, and then hunched slightly, pressing his middle fingers against the two wolves.
His power exploded as the wolves shifted from animals to humans in the blink of an eye, the female now obviously pregnant falling onto the ground, curling in on herself.
You have one Child still alive. And He has a Destiny that will change this World as you know it. Care for this Son; raise Him like the wilderness you bled for, Clan Fair.
~ 1984 ~
Zack was grinning widely as he followed his mother and father through the jungles of his birthplace, enjoying the wind through his hair and the sharp stings of pain from the branches slicing his skin and letting blood fly.
This was life, all he knew.
"Halt!" the three paused, Zack's mother Frea tilting her head at the many men standing before their ramshackle home. "Are you the Anima Homo Frea and Jackle?" one of the men in deep blue asked. Zack watched his mother and father nod as he slowly crept closer, watching their backs. "We are the Army of ShinRa. As per law for all of the planet, every Homo Anima Kinst and Homo Anima Histo must be brought to Midgar for training."
"Well then, why ye talkin' t'us?" Jackle said, voice a low growl. The official turned his eyes from the parents to the child, and Frea snarled.
"Your son has the chance of becoming HAK or HAH." He said. "If this is true, then he must enlist."
Zack looked back and forth between his mother and father, having crouched the moment they stopped. He didn't like the looks of where this conversation was going.
"'m not goin' anywhere." He said simply, grinning widely with a few more teeth than necessary when the official turned to him.
"You are seventeen years old this past June, and show no signs of any transformation." Zack tilted his head, inwardly shaking his tail furiously. After his sixteenth birthday when he'd manifested physical traits like his parents once had, it'd only taken him a few months to learn to control the limbs, and when not to show them.
It was the enhanced senses he always carried that confused people.
"Yea." He nodded once, and then instinct took over as a bolt of Lightning shot though the air, landing where he once sat if he hadn't jerked to the side moments before it hit.
Frea snarled. "How dare you attack our child!" she said in outrage, voice a low hiss, crouching. Jackle remained motionless, head turned lightly to watch his son land back behind him.
The official simply raised a hand, casting Stopga. Against their wills, all three of the animalistic family froze in place, and the official walked towards them and pulled his knife free, unceremoniously cutting sliding the knife down Zack's back, uncaring for the blood that rose to the surface. Ripping the cloth apart the official pulled a gleaming red Materia from his pocket pressing it against Zack's lower back.
"Now, Titan. Show us your chosen of this world."
The Materia flashed a deep dark red before Zack howled, entire body erupting in pain as he collapsed to the ground, back smoking as the power from the Materia overrode the status spell.
The official gave the boy-child no mind. He found what he was looking for.
On the brunet's back lines gleaming golden against tanned skin; the symbols and seals identical to mark that bound his parents in human form glowing from the touch of the Materia as they emerged from tanned skin, the sweeps and lines drawn before their very eyes.
The Mark of Titan. The Mark of his chosen.
"And there's our proof. The boy will be taken with us." The man said, walking back to his soldiers. "ShinRa demands five years of service for each year it takes for you to learn what needs to be known to be a man worthy of working." The officer turned away from the boy, never noticing feral blue eyes glow enraged purple.
No, all he heard was a deep animalistic snarl of pure fury.
~ 1989 ~
My mother was horrified when I showed signs of the Anima Genes in my blood.
When my eyes would slit when I wanted to see farther while fishing for dinner.
When I became stronger after I was first targeted by the village bullies; strong enough to not return home with a single broken bone the next time the five boys ganged up on me.
When claws instead of nails grew from my fingertips for the very first time.
I really don't understand why she deluded herself in believing I might not have it. With both her father's mental changes and my father's father's physcial attributes, there was no doubt I'd show the changes his ancestry bred true.
I looked at my hand, nearly as white as the snow around me and as delicate looking as the rest of me. A flex of a muscle deep inside and sharp claws emerged from under my human nails. I turned my hand slowly, and sighed, bending my fingers until the hardened nails could touch my palm. My claws.
And just like me they looked delicate and soft, the claws themselves translucent under pink nails. For all they extended an inch from my finger tips. I turned my hand and curled my fingers inward, letting the claws click against each other.
I turned my body slightly and started scratching the tree I sat under, sighing. If I don't take care of them the claws underneath will start to hurt something fierce, and I get agitated easily from the slow burning ache. I shook my head, biting on my bottom lip, careful not to nick myself with a fang. What I knew to be strangely large lynx ears sat on my head, bent back to hide them in my hair. Luckily enough my lynx ears were nearly the same shade as my hair, thus hiding them is simple.
Not like there was a human close to my location for miles.
Along my spine a downy coating of ash blond fur decorated my skin, the same color my Grandmother's coat was, or so she said. On the skin of my back, barely visible even to an Anima's inhuman sight was the physical manifestation of the Spell of Odin that changed my Grandmother, decorating my skin like a light birthmark on my back.
Grandmother Strife was a beautiful ash blond snow lynx. She used to tell me it was Odin himself that told her she had a greater future among the humans, and blessed her with a human woman's body.
ShinRa calls people who have been changed like her, Homo Anima. HA. Human Animal.
Grandmother then met a man - my Grandfather Strife - a man with a cat's Attributes. A cat's mentality. A man with no surname, wondering the world after he'd been abandoned by his family.
She helped him understand the inside of his own mind, while he taught her how to be human.
The spell that decorates my back was once on her own, locking her in that human mortal form. That's why she believed I could reclaim the shape she lost in the past when her own son, while being like me, didn't have the seal.
But one day - even though she was 100% human until her dying day - she was punished for her birth.
Mayor Lockhart learned that she was born an animal and had her publicly executed when I was nine years old.
I remember the day, Grandmother bound to a pole in the center of the village before the water tower was erected, covered in blood with the liquid dripping from everywhere, father on the ground at her feet.
When it regestered that Father had his lynx ears and claws out, but still died ... I knew they'd died because of what they were, not what they did.
I've hated Saul Lockart since that day. A hatred that only grew when I saved his daughter's life, and was punished for it.
That's what started the bad blood between the Strife and Lockhart families, a blood feud.
Grandfather Strife has golden blond hair still to this day refuses to grey or whiten with intelligent slitted cat green eyes. Physically, he's completely human just like the day he was born, but inside him - in his mind - the instincts and personality of a cat prevailed.
He will never have claws or whiskers, the ears or the tail of a cat, but when he jumps from something, he always lands on his feet. His hearing is superior to a normal human and he is much stronger than them too. He doesn't seem to have aged a day from the earliest memories I have of him.
People like Grandpa are called Anima Kinst. AK.
And just like the Histo, there are those who gain the attributes after puberty, whenever they hit it. They're Homo Anima Kinst. HAK.
I blinked my eyes and rubbed then lightly, feeling the back of my head begin to burn.
Grandmother had explained this to me.
Because she was an animal turned human, her children - and even her children's children - we all had the chance of becoming a reflection of her. A being able to go from human to animal. However, because of the spell in our blood - and on my back - we could also change back. That was our strength.
The longer I continued to keep the Lynx' genes active inside me, the more of a chance I would transform into a Lynx. If I'm strong enough for such a transformation, that is.
People have been able to before. Those born of the HA have a chance to be able to delve back and transform. They are called Anima Homo Sapiens.
I stopped scratching the tree and stretched briefly, humming at the pleasurable burn in my fingers before letting my eyes slip shut, delving into the part of me that held my control over which self I am. Always careful, I let the golden thread that personified my Paternal line slip away, and then laced my fingers through the silver thread that connected my body to my Maternal line.
Instantly the hard shelf of claw underneath my nails changed to the feel of hard permanent claws on each finger. My ears had shifted back to alongside my head, moved again, this time becoming even larger than my lynx ears.
I know the ears are a pale pale blond, almost white in color. No way could I hide those in my hair like my lynx ears, even if my hair seemed to lighten a shade when in this form.
I felt my body shift in place as bones in my hips and legs changed slightly, becoming denser, loosing speed. I grabbed onto the ground, feeling the changes flow up my spine.
It always felt weird, going from one set to the other.
Not that I'm supposed to be able to anyway.
I opened my eyes to muted grays of the canine sight, black and white everywhere. I slowly took in a shallow breath, mentally preparing myself for the rush of smells.
A wolf's nose was almost overwhelming, but Grandfather Ash taught me well.
Grandfather Ash - my mother's father Ashton Bulvia - is a snow wolf, his hair and eyes white as snow since his birth near fifty years ago. He was born from a man and woman who both were Homo Anima, and because of that, he is Anima Histo.
Anima Histo - a human with animalistic parts from birth. AH
Grandfather Ash has a wolf's eyes, white grey though they are, and the fangs. Tucked away in long white hair are a wolf's ears, and the fur on them are softer than you'd think. He let me touch once, though when I rubbed them he started to growl softly.
His claws like a wolf can't retract, but are a lot easier to manage, though he's not allowed to hold things too delicate.
However, compared to the Homo Anima Histo like myself, Anima Histo are weaker. They have limited control over the animal instincts that come with the parts.
Homo Anima Histo. A human born completely normal, but then gains the physical features of the animal in our blood during puberty. And Homo Anima Histo are considered the strongest of the Anima because we can control when the ears or claws show. We could walk among the humans and they'd never know we're different.
Until you get one of us pissed off enough and we shifted right before your eyes.
That's why ShinRa created a separated branch of the ShinRa Military for the Homo Anima Histo, and the Homo Anima Kinst. Times in the past show that we're too volatile without training to live normally amongst humans.
I let out a slow breath, flexing my claws.
Mother … despite her blood, seems completely normal.
When I was born, I was normal too. As I grew up, Grandpa, and Gan-papa Ash thought I'd be Homo Anima Kinst, but Grandmother knew from the start.
But she and Father, a Homo Anima Histo as well, both were killed when I was nine.
Then puberty hit three years later, and I realized the threads inside that were HAH.
So I can shift.
But, I've had animalistic attributes for some time now. I just -
A noise to the left of me cut my train of thought off cold and I let my body revert to human once more and couched, letting my pupils shift.
Fifty meters ahead, a man with ShinRa logo on his arm was stumbling along the bush of the mountain, looking for something. A blink had my eyes human again.
ShinRa. Here? Why?
Do … do they know about me?
I can't go to ShinRa. Ma needs me by her side, and Gan-papa Ash, Grandpa, and Gran-mama still have too much to teach me. I'm not going anywhere.
I quickly started forward, still at a couch. Even completely human I was fast, faster than most could ever believe and soon was close enough to hear the man clumping along in the snow.
Once I got downwind of him I froze, fighting back a snarl.
Kinst, though the strength of this senses I cannot tell Homo or not. A large predator based Kinst by his scent and bulky frame. Fuck.
I backed a step, but then heard the howl of Nibel Wolves and spun about to see one already in the air at me. I immediately went down and pulled my lynx claws forward, slitting the wolf's throat the moment it was close enough. It fell to the ground with a whimper and I licked at my claws, letting my eyes shift back once more.
The soldier made a strange sound - probably heard the commotion, damnit - and had begun to run down the mountain. Scowling, I spun on one heel and started towards him. At the last moment I darted up a tree and let the ShinRa lap dog deal with the wolves, leaping from one tree to another back towards the Village.
Five minutes to the village and I dropped from the tree, shifting to my human self and tightly locked away my core.
I don't want to shift just because I'm pissed off, they would kill me for it.
But even though I locked away the HAH abilities, I still had a very advanced sense of smell, and the scent of fire and smoke overwhelmed everything.
What … is going on?
Animal turned human- Homo Anima
Human born with animal parts (ears, tail, claws) – Anima Histo
Human born with animal attributes (strength speed ect) - Anima Kinst
Human who gains animal parts during puberty - Homo Anima Histo
Human who gains animal instincts during puberty - Homo Anima Kinst
Human who can transform into animal – Anima Homo Sapiens