Hearts of Fire

Chapter 1

Lone Wolf

A normal Monday morning. Nothing special just...normal. Koyuki hated Mondays, but then again, she hated every day.

Koyuki Honoka, age 17. She was fairly pretty. Pale skin and light freckles on her cheeks. She was, all things considered, normal looking, accept for one thing. Her hair, long and straight accept at the end where it went form straight to curly and it was white. Pure white hair, the color of snow. The very trait for which she was named, "Koyuki", meaning "pure snow". Her eyes were a deep, forest green. Emerald pools of sdness and if you looked too long into them, you'd go mad.

Her unusual appearance kept most people away from her, but her story was what really made normal people avoid her. Truth was, they were afraid of her, and people have a tendancy to hate and fear what they do not understand. Human ignorance, they're so simple-minded.Koyuki thought bitterly as she walked slowly down the street to her school. All the students at her school teased and abused her. And every day after school, a new group of people, be it girls, boys, even teachers on occasion cornered her somewhere and beat her within an inch of her life.

It wasn't that she couldn't fight back, though. If she fought back it would make things worse than they already were. And she hated every one and everything around her to the point where she was tempted to burn down the entire city. If things got any worse, she felt she'd end up doing it and that wouldn't help. Even Spirit World would have to get involved if they found out a half demon burned down an entire city.

Her father had been a Faerie demon. A member of a forest dwelling people that communicated with the nature around them. They found their true peace in the forest and saw nature as the purest source of life, truly untainted, no matter where it was. Their legends were that in ancients times, the gods had given each Faerie five forms that they were born with the ability to have, but had to earn over the course of their lives. When a Faerie was born, he or she was given a natural form. A body they could escape to in order to be one with the forest. As they grew older, they gained the ability to take on more forms. Koyuki's father was born with the form of a hare but as he grew older and stonger, he earned the form of the eagle, the stag, the bear and the wolf.

When he was in his early 20's, he left the Demon World and came to the human one. There he met Koyuki's mother, Naomi Hanajima, and they fell in love. His name was Kyoshiro, and he loved Naomi with everything he had, and when his daughter was born, he loved her just the same.

Koyuki had inherited her father's ancient Faerie abilites. When she was born, the first form she could take was that of a pure white dove. When she was five, she could take the form of a white cat with a dark brown tail and brown face. What would frighten most people, however, delighted both Koyuki's mother and her father. One of the reasons Kyoshiro married Naomi in the first place was because she did not fear his power. She accepted his demon ancestry and all the forms he took. So when her daughter could do the same, she felt pride and happiness for her child. "Koyuki-chan," her mother used to say," you look so much like me when I was your age, but I see more and more of your father in you every day."

Koyuki smiled sadly to herself, the only time I can hear her say that is in my memories now, she thought. Remembering fondly the happiness that she had once felt and knowing that she would never be that happy again.

Koyuki's parents had died in a fire ten years previous. Koyuki had been 7. She had walked home from elementary school, which at the time was down the street from where her home was. Only to turn the corner and find her house in flames. She ran inside shouting for her parents until coming upon their bedroom. The child screamed in horror as both her parents lay dead on the floor. Blood stained the carpet and it pooled around the still bodies as flames raged around them. The little girl fell to her knees and crawled over to her parents, crying over them and screaming for help, but no one came. As she cried, she saw a shadow move into the corner of the room towards the window. As it turned to jump away, it looked over it's shoulder and dark gray eyes with three slashes across the left one stared at her from under a black hood. She froze, as the crazed gray eyes looked right through her. Never before had she felt such blood lust.

The person looked as though he was about to head over to her, but a raven with blazing red eyes flew in and landed on the windowsill. It cawed at the man angrily, he turned away from the girl, reluctantly; and followed the bird out. She tried running after him but the ceiling, weak from burning, collapsed and trapped her under it.

It started raining not long after that, and the fire was put out, with help from the fire department that arrived shortly after it began raining. Luckily, Koyuki had not sustained life threatening injuries, but because of the burning wood that fell on top of her, a large burn scar was left on her back. She still carried the scar. A permenant reminder of what had happened all those years ago. Her parents, were taken to the hospital in body bags, and that was the last the little girl saw of them.

After that, Koyuki was put in foster care, but when she turned 12, after gaining two new forms, one of a samlon and the other a white-tail doe, she left foster care and struk out on her own. Determined to make her own life, and to one day find the cloaked man, with the gray eyes and scars. Who carried a red eyed raven. She knew he had murdered her family, and she wanted revenge.

Now she was 17 and had gained her final form, the wolf. The same form her father had.

Koyuki walked throught the school front gates and on to her first period class, P.E. Oh joy, she thought irritated coming up on the girl's locker room.

"Hey Koyuki!" Called an annoying high pitched voice from behind her.

She sighed under her breath.

Meroko Shirima, Koyuki's most hated person besides her parent's murderer since the third grade. Meroko and her four friends came up behind her and she started talking again.

"Today we're going to beat you so bad not even your mom will look at you... oh wait, she's dead!" Meroko and her friends began to laugh hysterically. Wow really? That's best they could come up with? Talk about pathetic.. Koyuki thought, seriously surprised that that was all they had to say. She rolled her eyes.

She didn't really care about the fact that her parents were dead had been so for such a long time, she was used to it. Ten years of living in a crappy old run down apartment and having no friends and everyone at school hating your guts can make someone pretty cold and dead inside.

She really did hate them. "Why don't you go be a bitch somewhere else Meroko?" She asked innocently as if she were talking to a friend about any normal topic. "Or maybe," she continued, "you and your friends could go to that fruity little hole in the wall, downtown. This place isn't your style after all. You whores would fit in a lot better in the red-light district than in this town, might even make you more popular." The five girls gasped and didn't say anything as they stomped off, and Koyuki smirked in spite of herself.

Heh, those idiot human girls are so stupid and desperate for attention they'll probably head down to that strip club anyway. She thought, cackling quietly.

She walked out after changing into her P.E. uniform. A large, gray t-shirt and short, navy blue shorts.

"Alright class!" Shouted Koyuki's P.E. teacher, "We have a jog-walk today. Seven laps for a D, ten laps for an A, now get going!" He shouted and the whole class groaned.

Oh great, what's next? Run eight miles straight at top speed in three seconds? Gimme a freakin break. Koyuki thought annoyed.

Today was just one of those days when you're hating life, and you think the world and everyone in it suck, all while mentally cussing out everone you come in contact with.

Koyuki was on her fourth lap when she decided to run along the grassy edge of the track. It was close to the fence that led to the park and was never maintained so there were weeds and long grasses everywhere. Plus the trees gave a comforting coolness to the runners, having to jog in the sun for an hour.

Koyuki was passing under a tree when a sharp pain shot through her leg and she fell to the ground with a yelp. It caught everyone's attention and they crowded around her to laugh at her so-called, "clumsiness", but they all stoped dead when they saw that her ankle was caught in what looked like a fox trap.

Not only did it hurt, but it made her extremely angry to think that some asshole, put it there. If it was for her, she was pissed, but it wasn't that bad, she could take pain. But what if someone else has stepped in it? They could be really hurt. She didn't like a lot of people, like if Meroko had gotten caught in it she wouldn't have minded so much, but she didn't like innocent people getting hurt. Still...

" I'm going to kill whoever put this here!" She yelled, and the kids took a step back. Koyuki's temper was legendary. Kids in schools all over the country had heard scary stories about a girl at Mahora High School who's temper was known to rival that of an erupting volcano. With rumors like that going around, which were all true by the way, people knew to get out of her way when she got angry. She didn't always fight back when she was getting ganged up on, but she'd been in her share of street rumbles and gang fights. She was no pushover.

Koyuki tried to pry the trap off her leg but it was no use. It needed a key, that or a lazer beam, and Koyuki didn't think anyone had one of those. The pain shot trhough and she winced, then stopped moving. Already she felt the warm sticky, wetness of blood seeping from the pionts where the teeth of the trap had cut through her skin. It's metallic scent filled her nostrils and made her feel a bit woozy. She never did like the smeel of blood, not since her parents' murder.

She shifted to a more comfortable position and winced again. She could feel the teeth scraping her bone as they dug deeper into her leg.

This is not going to be a good day.