Disclaimer: Typical, I guess. I don't own ADJL, the Huntsclan, or anything of the sort. Only Kara.
Chapter One: Something Missing…
They say life is like a dream, blissful and heavenly, but they just don't know. Sometimes, when a person wakes up from a dream she thinks about how awesome it was, but then two seconds later, she can't remember a thing about it. And that's just how I feel about my life; I can sense that there's something I'm missing, but I just can't put my finger on it. Every time I come close to remembering something – something possibly important – the memory fades away like the mist.
But there is a lot that I do remember. I have a name; it's Kara, or Huntsgirl, I guess. I remember training back at the Huntsclan academy with my best friend, #74. Back then, he and I were still novices, me being #73. I was eleven at the time, I think, and a bit pale and a little shy. My first real memories were from the Academy, too. I remember being in a small room, sitting quietly and peering nervously around, though I'm not sure how I got there. Then a big man came in; he was well-muscled and wearing some sort of creature's skull around his head. I was scared of him at first, with his aggressive stance and his cold gaze, but he was able to calm me down. He told me that my parents were killed by dragons and that he had brought me to the Academy to raise me. I thought he was lying; surely if something like that had happened, I would have remembered. But I didn't, so I just left it. He went on to show me something on my wrist: a little dragon wrapped around my arm and stretching to spread its wings on the back of my hand. I thought it was rather pretty at first and chuckled a little, but the man slapped my hand, growling that it wasn't funny. He pointed to the birthmark and told me that it meant that I was 'one of them'.
It wasn't until later that I learned what 'one of them' meant. Apparently, my birthmark was called the 'mark of the Huntsclan' and that it meant one thing: I was born to slay dragons. It made sense, too; dragons killed my parents, so it must be my destiny to take my revenge and slay them. Simple enough. That was easy to accept. In the next few months, since I was too young to begin learning any physical techniques, I began to learn the history of this Huntsclan I was a part of.
Over a thousand years ago, magical creatures wreaked havoc on the earth under the rule of a single dragon, known simply as the Dark Dragon. Three great warriors, Adelmar the Noble, Aiolos the Quick, and Sophus the Clever, stood up to the Dark Dragon and, after many long moons, were able to defeat the vile creature. They took an oath over the dragon's slain body to rid the world of these unnatural beings, from leprechauns to ogres, and especially dragons. Adelmar, Aiolos, and Sophus were the first Huntsclan masters, and after their deaths, the Old Huntsclan emerged to follow in their footsteps.
The Old Huntsclan carried out the wishes of the three masters for thousands of years, until one day when one of their own betrayed them. This happened just before I was born. The Old Huntsclan was devilishly close to realizing the goal we all work for; the Huntsmaster then was in possession of thirteen Aztec Crystal Skulls and could use them to irreversibly wish for the destruction of all magical creatures. But just as he was about to make his wish, The Betrayer stunned him and instead wished for the destruction of the Huntsclan. Our predecessors were all vaporized by the power of the skulls, and the Huntsclan was left with only two apprentices who had resigned to save their own lives.
Traitors though they were, these two apprentices were able to keep alive the traditions and memory of the Huntsclan until a new generation was able to take up the mantle. Nine years after The Betrayer's wish, the New Huntsclan was born.
I found myself initially questioning this whole reality. I would have been nine when the New Huntsclan appeared and I just couldn't believe that an entire organization like it, not to mention the magical world, could have been formed without the world knowing about it. News should have gotten out, and I would have known about it if it had existed. Or maybe I did know…I'm not sure. And that's what convinced me: if I couldn't remember enough about myself, I didn't think there was any way that I would remember something like the Huntsclan.
And did it really matter anyway? I didn't know much, and all that I was completely sure of was that I was…here. Here, at the Academy. Maybe this strange man, the Huntsmaster, was telling me the truth. Maybe my parents really were dead. Maybe…I really was born to slay dragons.