Born of a demon of fire that fell in love with a mortal woman, Talcan has always been a bit… different.
Almost three decades ago, a fire demon named Mordenoth walked into a small village. He was looking for a little, snack; preferably something in the human or medium game category. He had no idea he was about to do something good for the human race.
It was around dawn, the dew glistened on the grass in the early morning light. Mordenoth entered the village, the twigs and leaves crunching under his every step. He noticed a young lady hanging clothes on a line that stretched from a house to a nearby oak tree. He thought she looked like a pretty good appetizer, but then she turned around.
She was the most beautiful woman his pitch black eyes had ever fallen upon. She looked to be about twenty-four. She had long black hair and blue eyes that to him resembled the sky itself. She was afraid at first, she started to back away. But as he spoke to her, she forgot her fear.
"Please, do not fear me beautiful maiden of the human world. I will, no, could not harm such a beautiful creature as yourself."
He took a single step forward; she did not move. He advanced toward her and took her hand. He gazed into her eyes, and she into his.
"My name is Mordenoth, please be not afraid of my appearance, I am a demon of fire. But you and your friends and family have nothing to fear from me; that is, if you be my bride."
"My name is Cecilia," she said, "and, I will be yours."
And so it came to pass a son was born. He was given the name Talcan. He appeared human, but you know what they say about appearances.
TWELVE YEARS PASSED
Talcan's father took a human form in exchange for never returning to the demon world and became an accountant, his mother became a housewife, and they moved about half a mile outside a major city limits. Talcan went to school with normal humans and grew up like an average kid, never being told of the secrets of his origin.
When he was twelve, he had a lot of friends, but his best friend was Yokano Morzany, the son of a CEO of one of the biggest electronics companies ever. So, naturally, Yokano always had money at hand. They always walked halfway home from school together (halfway there they had to go separate ways to get home).
One day, when it was time for them to go different ways, they walked for three minutes before Talcan heard a scream. He ran back from their departure point and headed down the route Yokano took home every day. He saw shadows from a nearby warehouse and ran into it.
He saw a teenager of about eighteen beating up his best pal. Without thinking he ran at the teen, just to get a busted lip and thrown to the ground. Yokano had a black eye and blood coming from a gash on his left arm. Talcan got up and charged at the teenager again, and once again, to no avail. Talcan became enraged and consumed by fury.
Ten minutes later, the teenager was on the ground. He had a broken leg, a broken jaw, and was badly burned in some places. Talcan didn't remember a thing, and Yokano was out cold. When the teen came to in the hospital two days later, he couldn't recall anything either. Talcan did remember one thing though; a flame.
Two weeks later, Talcan finally mustered up the courage to ask his parents about the strange occurrence. When he got home from the park and decided to ask them, he found his mother, best friend, and what appeared to be a demon, on the floor of the living room, dead! (The only way for a demon that takes a human form to revert back to their demon form is through death) He was horrified! He looked at the demon because something caught his eye.
On the demon's right forearm was an inscription: 'Talcan, if you're reading this that means I'm dead. I was your father in life. Look in the bookcase, to the book I would never let you read, Demon's Door, and read it'
He slowly crossed the living room floor until he reached the bookcase. He looked at the book, entitled Demon's Door, and picked it up. It was a journal of his parents meeting and the past twelve years.
Talcan's head was swirling and he couldn't stop thinking about everything he had just taken in in the past few moments. The more he thought about it, the more he wanted to stop thinking about it, and the more he tried to not think about it, the more he thought about it. He stood frozen, not a single muscle twitching, for about twenty minutes. But to him, every second seemed like an eternity.
Suddenly, the whole house went cold and a message appeared on the wall in a black that was blacker than pitch:
'Talcan, I killed you're parents and best friend. If you want your revenge, come to the burned down farm a mile and a half outside the city.
Demon of Darkness,
Gandallion'
As he was about to run straight for the burned down barn, the book dropped to the ground. As he reached to pick it up to put it back on the shelf, he noticed that the spine of the book had slid down some revealing something metallic. He picked up the book and slid the fake spine off and an iron key fell into his hand. On the inside of the fake spine of the book it said: to the chest in the basement.
Talcan ran to the basement and put the key in the lock of a big chest and turned it. It opened easily revealing a sword. Talcan picked up the sword and immediately noticed it was light for its size. He saw a letter underneath where the sheath had been. It read:
Talcan, I leave this to you, my sword.
It is called the Shadow Dragon Blade
and was forged two-hundred years ago.
It has a powerful dragon demon locked
inside by the seven red crystals on the hilt.
The six small ones hold his power while
the seventh crystal secures the dragon itself.
Use it well my son, and never forget
that your mother and myself both love you.
Your Father, Mordenoth
He drew the sword and gazed upon the black dragon depicted on the blade. He got a strange feeling as the sword started to glow. It was accepting him as its new wielder. It was over in a moment and Talcan felt kind of powerful. As Talcan looked at the sword, he felt like it was a part of him.
Talcan put the letter in the book and the book in his room before paying his final respects to the deceased and left his home. He headed south, for he knew exactly the abandoned farm Gandallion was talking about. It was a mile away from his house, yet strangely, when he got there, it seemed he had only walked about a quarter of a mile. He shrugged this off, thinking that he hadn't realized it for his thinking about the day's occurrences.
He walked inside the charred remnants of his childhood playground that had burned down two years ago. He saw only the shadows of things not consumed by the blaze. Still he searched, his eyes darting this way and that looking for the one who had killed the three people closest to him.
"I knew you would come, young Talcan." came a voice so ominous that it made his blood run cold.
"Wh…Where are you? Show your self Gandallion!" Talcan shouted, trying to remain calm.
"Now, now, little Talcan, don't you have anything else to say to your fathers old pal?"
"You…You were his friend, and you betrayed him?"
"No, he betrayed all of demon kind twelve years ago when he married that, mortal woman."
"He fell in love, is that a crime?"
"No, but going against every law of the demons by marrying a human is. I would have killed him the day he took that human form, but then I learned about you, and I was going to wait until you were older and stronger to try to test your potential, but then I learned of that little incident with the teenage human two weeks ago. I figured if you got that mad if someone threatened one of the people you care for, then what would happen if I killed them all?"
"You want to see my power, well, too bad, I'm going to kill you first!" Talcan said as he unsheathed his sword and charged at Gandallion.
Gandallion easily evaded and slashed at Talcan with his claws, one making a slice on his left cheek, from the side of his nose to his cheekbone. Talcan felt it, but was too consumed by rage to care. He kept slashing and slashing at the demon, but to no avail.
"Oh come now, where's that raw power you spoke of?" Gandallion taunted.
"Right here!" Talcan cried as flame shot out of his body surrounding him.
Talcan called forth more flames that he shot at Gandallion, most making their mark. Gandallion was weakened, but still had some energy. And with that final bit of energy, he made another slash at Talcan, and again, made its mark, and, once again, on the left cheek. This one crossed the first on the left cheek slicing from where the jaw hinges to about half an inch from his mouth.
Talcan used the rest of the flames surrounding him, compacted them into a ball of flames, and hurled it at Gandallion. Gandallion still had some life energy left, so Talcan picked him up, held him by the collar, and said some final words. Then, he shoved the blade upward through Gandallion's skull. It was over.
The next day, he was sitting against a tree in his old back yard. He was remembering everything that had happened the day before. It seemed so far away, but the cross shaped cut on his cheek reminded him it was real. As he was about to doze off in the early morning sun, he remembered his final words to Gandallion, "You took the life's of the three most important people in my life and in the process destroyed mine. Now I'm gonna return the favor!"