Chapter 1
Unexpected Allies
::Jasper Panthera::
It was before even even I was born, they had come with the intention of take over.
They were neighbors, your family, your friends, or your lover, even. They called themselves "Souls" and they took us humans as hosts.
I was only ten years old when my Daddy started acting funny, he had gone to visit Aunt and Uncle Piroza, they had not returned calls in a bit.
Then it was my younger brother, Hamjata, he had strange glowing eyes, and a talent for mathematics in which he never had.
When Mama noticed the strangeness, till one night Mama woke me up with a packed bag for me, and the keys to her car. Mama had pushed me into her car, drove through the night without Daddy or Hamjata knowing, both of them asleep, and unknowing.
Mama had taken me to Grandpa, a jolly old man with more paranoidness than anything else anyone knew, he had been in the army for so long till his bum leg couldn't keep him going anymore.
When Mama and I stayed with Grandpa Panthera for almost three years before Daddy found Mama at a store once, I was just a few rows back when Daddy found Mama. Their conversation was odd.
"Honey, I should've known you would be here. Where have you been?" Daddy said with a voice of weariness.
"I don't know what your talking about. I told you in my letter, I needed some time away from "us" till I could figure out what to do." Mama spoke dismissively picking up a few cans of chili, while her other hand seemed to motion to me to stay put.
"I know you said that, but I wasn't expecting you to take Jasper with you! Hamjata and I were worried. Most of all you missed Anita and Adam's visit." Daddy whispered argumentatively. Mama looked at him with unreadable emotions passing her features.
"I'm not to sure you truly worried about us, Frerin. I think you were more worried of the visit you were so excited about. I know what you truly are, and I don't think your name is really Frerin, Frerin." Mama spoke carefully as she voiced her true feelings, "I don't think even you realized I knew. I don't know who you are or why you chose to have Hamjata either, but I refuse to be apart of it."
Mama's eyes were ablaze as she spoke those words, Daddy looked very frightened when she spoke to him. Daddy would have never been so fearful of Mama, but in that moment that was not Daddy.
And before anyone knew it, Mama started screaming, screaming at Daddy in the middle of a store. People came running, and pushing Daddy back when Mama screamed, "Help! Help! Get him away from me!" she would scream as she threw herself on the floor, and injuring herself to make it look like Daddy did it.
When chaos broke, Mama was surrounded by people as they tried to help her, and Daddy was taken away. When I was said and done, Mama had left the store with me in her arms and a kart full of food that wouldn't go to waste.
Daddy had disappeared, we had watched him drive away, but not without the fear of him coming back set in our minds. When Mama, and I finally left for Grandpa, we were hidden in a secret bunker, as I had said, Grandpa was more paranoid than anyone would possibly believe.
It had not taken long for them to get to Mama though. Mama needed to leave since she was so sick, we could not help her, Grandpa and I remained however. Mama said she would be back, but she never came back, at least not by herself.
Grandpa had taken one look, and handed me a book of all the places he had gone to. Places with people who were just as paranoid as him, people that could help. Grandpa barricaded the door, and began packing up anything and everything I could possibly take, after living with Grandpa and Mama for so long I had learned many things, and one of those things was how to survive with almost nothing.
Once I had enough packed, Grandpa handed me his most special AXMC long range Sniper rifle, a silencer with a vector, his precious reloading kit for bullets to be made, and enough ammunition to last me a long time.
At fifteen years old, my Daddy and brother had been taken over by aliens, and my Mama was either taken as well or dead. My Grandpa had a shotgun in hand, and the amulets of his patron and deity gods, Kratos god of strength and power along with Ares god of war and violence.
At fifteen years old, my family was either dead or taken over. My Grandpa had grabbed a little paint box and began the ceremony of gods, painting intricate designs into my face as a form of blessing.
This ceremony was a symbolic testimony of right as an adult and the gift of who my patron and deity might be. A way of right as a member of the Panthera Clan. Being blessed with your Patron and Deity gods or goddesses.
It was a hurried ceremony, where I had received both my patron and deity, and Grandpa had handed me a smaller book with the directions to another secret place that held all the instruction and learning of the Panthera Clan.
Grandpa must've known we would never meet again as he handed me the amulets of my patron and deity. It is tradition for the eldest member of the Panthera Clan to make the amulets of the next in line as head of the Panthera Clan, and the eldest members job to teach the next in line all about their duties.
A tradition I swore to follow the moment my Grandpa handed me the amulets and the small book. I swore I would continue the Panthera Clan legacy, and carefully teach those chosen as the Panthera Clan members the way of the clan.
The day I last saw my Grandpa as I escaped I could still remember the sound of the shotgun as my Grandpa had shot the flammable stove in the underground bunker, assuring both his death and any trace of me being followed.
