Disclaimer: This is my work and is therefore copyrighted to me. Please do not use my characters or my plot without permission. Mai Ling belongs to my best friend Megan and is hers by right. I take no credit for her. She has given me full permission to write a book based around her character.

Note 1: I apologize for the mistranslation, if it was a mistake, to the Chinese word Nainai for Grandma. If it is incorrect, please email me and I will change it. I did look it up from more then one source, but Its possible and I wish not to insult.

Note 2: I would love to get feedback. Flames are accepted but deleted. Constructive criticism is WELCOME! In fact, I push people to do comment good or bad. Just please, don't put down my work unless you can back it up. ^_^ Thank you.

Mythica

Prologue: From Life to Pain

© C.D. Hawkins 2008

In the dark of the night, a queer creature raced through the forest, through the debris and harsh thorny bushes out of terror for her life. Her heart raced uncontrollably and her breath came out in rash short hales as she slithered to evade the things she was sure she would die this eve If they caught up with her. At the piercing frighting howl of the wolfin that rose to the clouds, she slithered faster, ignoring the sharp thorns that cut into her flesh. She feared the wolfin as she feared the hunter that tracked her beside the terrible creature of the night.

Bursting through the trees, a dark clearing only lightened by the quarter moonlight came into her full view. She looked around for an opening in the earth, anything to hide her from the wolfin and the hunter she felt from the vary vibrations of the earth to be hunter who were dangerously close. Hey frantic eyes shifted through the field, desperation filling her thoughts causing her heart to beat faster then the beat of the humming bird's wings.

Her scream rose from her mouth when an arrow pierced her tail, dark emerald blood bubbled and flowed from the wound from where the arrow protruded from her flesh.

"The smell of blood fills my nostrils in bittersweet reality" came a deep voice from the tree line.

The wounded creature turned to fact the voice of one of her attackers. Not from bravery, but from terror. She wanted to at least gaze into the eyes of the ones hunting her before she became their victim. The other set, whom she knew to be the hunter, she could not see. However, the wolfin's fiery-red piercing eyes hovered amidst the tree line, seemingly dancing in a sway.

'Is this my end? Nainai, am going to die here?' the same creature thought, feeling her death coming on her like a fog.

The creature froze in fear as the Wolfin came into view. His large wolf-like body, covered in dark midnight fur, in size equaled that of a lion. Hi saber fangs, overlapping his lips, showed along with his exposed razor-sharp teeth in a fierce snarl. He moved closer, circling the creature in front of him. "Naga," he said, his words sounded more like a growl then an understandable language.

"Leave me!" the Naga called out, too scared to move.

The Wolfin laughed, its sound came out hoarse and course. "I'm going to kill you" he ignored the pleas from the naga before him.

The Naga slowly inched her way behind her, the Wolfin moved silently toward her with each slither of her body. 'I will die. Nainai, I don't want to die. Please, save me Nainai's spirit' she inwardly pleaded. Where could she run to? Behind her, she saw that the ground suddenly ended. Could that be a cliff? She looked at the wolfin, his red glowing eyes focused on her, a smirk across his snarled lips.
The Naga came to the end, a cliff's face lay a mere foot from where her position came to a stop. She looked over the edge. 'Should I jump then to die by his jaws?' she did not want suicide, but she knew she could not endure the evil of the magica that stood in front of her. She did not have time to decide, the wolfin bolted forward with the speed of the fastest than an earth cheetah, pouncing on her with all of his weight. She screamed as his claws and fangs sank into his flesh. Her heart raced, anticipating the inevitable. To her horror, with equal force of that of a grizzly, pushed with his back legs toward the edge of the cliff.

"When your dead, I'll feast on your flesh. I feel generous. Die swiftly little naga. I'm hungry" he said, pushing her off the cliff's edge and into the dark depths below.

The wolfin did not care of the hunter behind him as he approached and when the hunter stopped to look over the edge, a frown could be seen from beneath the brim of his hood. "Do not say one word human. I choose what I choose. I will dine on her flesh and you will have her fang as your trophy" he growled.

The hunter chuckled. "I wish not to provoke you. Do as you wish. As long as her fang is mine, I do not care of the method. Come. By the time we reach the bottom, morning will come and I smell a storm coming from the mountains" he said, adjusting his sword to the side. His crossbow, behind his back, shined dully in the moonlight before the darkened arrows coated with poison. Dressed in armor as black as night, his cloak swirled around him in the wind. A storm was approaching and he knew that his hunt was not over. It would be over, when all of the naga-kind became extinct from the face of this earth.

This is the end of the prologue! If you want to read more, I am working on chapter one! comments would be nice! Later!