Hey guys, Saiba here! I'm sorry if I haven't been updating much on my other stories, but I recently got a really nice idea in my head that I've just been itching to write down. So, you'll be seeing some new characters in this story, hopefully you'll like (and hate) all of them. I really like the way this chapter turned out, and much to my surprise, this story is probably going to end up being longer than one chapter. Surprise, surprise. Anyway here is the story. Hope you like it! (Also please don't call the police on me cause this is actually really demented. And the future cover photo of this story is the main character.) Btw, there is harsh language. So if you can't stomach that, well... tough beans.
"Salven! Salven!"
Ugh. It never fails. Here I am, right in the middle of planning my revenge, when somebody has to come interrupt me.
My talons grinding ever deeper into the stone floor, I gaze back at the door to my room, desperately hoping the intruder will just give up and go away. Alas, my luck is not that great.
"Salven, this is your sister! You open this door right now!"
Sighing, I turn back the brilliant scenery of the land of the Ice Kingdom. Stupid Anya. I already knew it was you. Who else would it be, knowing what I'm getting myself into?
I can hear my sister's sigh of relief as the lock clicks open.
"I swear, sometimes you are just the worst older brother," Anya says as she slams the door shut behind her. "Do you have any just what- ack!" Her eyes widen as a silvery blur shoots past her, missing her head by mere centimeters. It is a kitchen knife, now buried several inches into the wood of the door.
I glower at her from across the bedroom. "And who are you to be ordering me around?" My claws bristle, and the spines on the back of my neck clatter as I shake with rage. "I seem to recall you were the one who told me to just 'get over it'? What makes you care all of a sudden?"
"Because," she starts, brushing pretend dust off her scales. Her pristine, grayish-white scales that should never, ever be caught dirty. "Using the Diamond Trial as a means of revenge is utterly insane! I guess Mom was right. The rankings really have gone to your head, haven't they?"
"The Diamond Trial is the only way to settle it fairly," I reply. "And this is not about what everyone else thinks. I don't give a crap what everyone else thinks. This is about Koda, and his stupid, selfish, 'I'm too good for you' act that destroyed our friendship!" I slam my talons into the floor. It hurts, but I can't seem to bring myself to acknowledge the pain. "Just because he got the top of the First Circle he thinks he can just… abandon me?"
"To be fair, Koda's only doing what you did to me when you were first." I look up to find Anya inspecting her claws, with a disdainfully annoyed look on her face.
"Yeah, but I never let it get in the way of our relationship."
"Uh-huh," She nods her head. Then she gets up and, much to my dismay, walks straight up to me and looks me right in the eyes. Metallic gold meets violet. She's smaller than me, but there's a feeling of strange vulnerability that leaves me paralyzed. "You're still his friend right? How can you still care about him and want to kill him at the same time?" She whispers.
I open my mouth to reply, but no sounds escape. Is… is that true? Do I really want to kill him? Koda's been a selfish bastard lately, but is death really what he deserves?
"I… I don't know…" I say.
Suddenly, I feel my sister grab my talons. "Wha… you're all bloody!" She yelps. I look down. She's right; there's red blood crusted all over the undersides of my paws.
"Yeah, well, what business is it of yours?" I sputter indignantly, yanking my claws away. I hurry over to the washroom as Anya looks around.
"Oh great… what happened last night?" I mutter curses under my breath as the blood is slowly soaked and washed off. "I woke up on the balcony…is there something else? I know I went out, but why…" My eyes widen, and I freeze. Now I remember.
Oh, shit.
The seal.
"Anya, don't go in there-" Anya cuts me off mid-sentence with a shrill scream, coming from the other room. Crap. I dump out the wash bucket and dry my talons with a clean polar bear fur, and peek my head out into the room.
Looks like she found it.
"This," she growls, holding up the severed head of a dead seal. All its teeth are missing, and its eyes have been clawed out, leaving two dark voids behind. Streams of bloody tears drip down the sides of its cheeks, staining the floor a gory red. "This is not normal."
I sigh. "I was hungry," I mumble, walking up to her. "Put it down, will you?"
"HUNGRY?" She yells. "There's blood and guts all over the walls and floor in there. You weren't hungry. You mutilated that thing. You killed it and brought it back, and tore its body to shreds because you were angry!" A loud 'plop', and the head is now on the floor, staring up at me with its toothless smile.
"How much have you been using your magic?" Anya questions.
I stare at her, confused. "What?"
"Salven, don't play dumb with me. No one else may know, but I do. You're Animi. Now how much do you use your magic?"
I scoff. "You backstabbing bitch. I told you not to go snooping around!"
Anya's eyes go wide with outrage. "Bitch? I'm trying to HELP you! Don't you know how dangerous that Animus magic is? You can't go wasting it on stupid things! In fact…" She stomps over to my bedroom door, the knife still planted firmly in it. With a little difficult, she wrenches the utensil free, and holds it up. "You enchanted this, didn't you?!"
I fling my right paw up, and the knife slips out of Anya's grasp. Then, like a pet, it floats over to me, and comes to a stop hovering above my palm. "What I do with it is none of your business! It's mine, and I'll do as I please, thank you very much!"
Anya shakes her head. "You're such a hard case," she says. "Koda was right. You are an asshole."
Snap.
Suddenly, Anya realizes that she screwed up. She bites her lip, scolding herself for revealing that little detail. It's too late, though. "Salven, I'm sorry, I didn't mean it-ack!" Her body freezes, the cold sensation of Animus magic whipping through her. Even though she strains herself to move, she quickly finds it to be impossible.
"Oh, Koda said that?" I say in a sing-song voice.
"S-Salven... Please stop…" I flick one of my talons, and her body turns to face me, her limbs moving with the rigidness of rusted metal as she tries to fight the magic.
Anya's violet eyes are filled with fear. It makes me so… happy.
"Koda, Koda, Koda! You're not really here for me, are you?" I try to cover a snicker with my claws, but it just ends up sounding muffled. Anya looks so scared! How funny! "You don't care what happens to me. You just want to make sure Koda comes out alive!"
"You stay away from me," Anya gulps. I just pad up to her slowly, my shoulders rocking back and forth with each step. Back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. Maybe I look like some kind of predator. And Anya's my prey!
"Well, I guess if you don't care what happens to me, I shouldn't care what happens to you. It's only fair, right? Ha ha!" My voice cracks at the very end. I take a long minute, staring at the silver knife in my claws. I look up, only to find Anya watching it with wide eyes, and breathing like air has suddenly become a luxury. I laugh some more.
"I wonder if that beauty is more than skin deep…" I whisper.
I reach up and cup Anya's cheek with my left paw. She lets out a cute squeak and slams her eyes shut. "Aww, scared are we? I'm only trying to have fun Anya."
"Fun for you maybe," she says through gritted teeth. "Killed by my own brother… I must be the luckiest dragon alive."
I frown. "I'm not going to kill you."
She huffs. "I get the strange feeling that your definition of that differs from mine…"
"Does it?" I cock my head, thinking about it. "Well it probably doesn't matter anyway. Now let's see if you taste as good as you look."
Suddenly, here eyelids peel back, revealing an expression of shock. "What are you-"
Fwish!
"Eep!" Anya cries as she spazzes out in panic. Blood is already starting to trickle down from the cut the knife made on her face, mixing with the fresh tears sprouting up from the corners of her eyes. 'Now, now,' I tell myself. 'Don't break her too soon.'
"Yes! Cry for me, my pretty sister!" More laughing. My chest is beginning to ache.
I lower my arm and the knife to eye level. There's a large smear of blood on the blade, and it shines a shade of deep blue in the early morning light.
A delicious shade of blue.
"Heh heh," I giggle, smiling at it. I slip the knife I my mouth and lick the dark liquid off of it, until it's clean enough to see your reflection. "Hmm… it's fruity," I murmur, thoughtfully tasting it.
My sister grimaces. "You're sick."
"If that's what you believe," I say, waving the knife around. "Now sister, since you seem to be so intent on figuring out what I'm thinking, I thought I might give you a look. I mean you've always wanted to see inside the mind of a true Icewing-"
"Oh, Ok," Anya cuts me off. "So now I'm not a 'true Icewing' just because I'm a hybrid? Do the Nightwing genes taint my blood or something?" Her claws flex in the anticipation of ripping me apart. "Mom would have your head if she knew what you were doing."
"Then we'll just have to keep Mom out of the way, won't we? Do those mind-reading powers of yours still work? I just need to know if you haven't somehow lost them from pure incompetence." Anya doesn't answer. And that look of silent resentment is really starting to get on my nerves. Luckily, it will be gone soon enough, replaced by one of pure unadulterated pain.
"Guess we'll have to find out," I shrug. With another short motion of my talon, I force her to raise one of her claws up to me.
I smirk at her. It's a sadistic smile, and I like the way her confidence is instantly crushed as soon as she sees it. "Sweet dreams," I whisper.
Then, I snatch up her claws and clasp then between mine, and let all the violence and gore I've ever wanted flood my mind.
All my thoughts of killing him.
The reaction is instant. I watch with pleasure as Anya pales, and her face goes completely blank. Her eyes roll to the back of her head, and she begins to quake violently.
"Oh, Koda… I can't wait for the day I get to show you how much I love you." I close my golden eyes, and my imagination shows me the scene inside my head.
Blood.
Gore.
Imperiled screams coming from everywhere, crying out in terror, hoping for someone, someone, someone to save them, save me! Save me! Save me, by the moons, save me!
And he's there, too.
"Hello, Koda," I laugh. "Hello, hello, hello!"
His face is one of pure fear, pure delicious fear. It's so intense I can almost taste it.
"S-Salven, please… please don't do this to me. I-I don't want t-to die…" He says.
Oh, Koda! You can hardly get your voice out! How cute. I really like the way you keep stepping back, too. Like that's going to help.
"I'm afraid it's already too late for that, Koda," I reply, frowning. "You had your chance to save this friendship, but no, you gave it up for fame! For fortune! And now you want my mercy? You selfish, shit-licking pig." Just listening to him wail is almost enough to make me vomit.
"Salven, please, I can fix- Ack!" A trail of blood streaks through the air, following my claw from the path where it sliced Koda's throat.
As if he's surprised, Koda shakily brings one claw up to feel his neck. Each beat of his heart sends blood flowing out of the cut. He grabs at his scales, trying to keep the wound from spurting, but instead just ends up smearing gore all over himself.
He coughs, sending up a spray of blood, and finally collapses. "Saal…venng…" he tries to talk, but it's difficult to do when choking. I walk up to stand in front of his crumpled form.
"Should have thought about it beforehand," I say, frowning at him from above. I extend one of my claws, the one I used to hurt him, and put it directly over his head. The blood on it slowly collects at the tip, and falls off, drip, drip, drip, right onto his face.
It only takes a few minutes. His empty stare is fixated onto me, unable to me moved, to remain for all eternity.
I laugh, and grin crazily back at him. "See, Koda? Isn't being dead so much better? No more pain, worries, or judgmental dragons to worry about. Just peace."
Just. Peace.
I open my eyes again.
Looking down, I see my sister, Anya, laying on the floor in front of me. She's still alive; her chest rises and falls with soft breaths. Lucky me. A dead sister is terribly useless after all.
I turn back to the balcony on the far side of the room. It was morning, but now the sun is beginning to set at the edge of the horizon, casting all sorts of warm color over the glistening white hills and mountains of the Ice Kingdom.
"Whelp, looks like it's time for bed," I chirp. With a huff, I sling Anya over my back and carry her to her room.
As I leave the room, I glance back at my sister one last time.
"Good night, Anya," I whisper, and close the door.
"Sweet dreams."