Disclaimer: See chapter one.

A/N: Feedback much needed here. I know literally nothing about the first slayer – there's so little canon about her, so I'm just going with imagination. Correct me if you find anything erroneous.

Mischana

Girl

Sun rose every morning, and set again at night.

When I was a child it seemed like a miracle. Something wonderful, a gift to man, to make up for the hardships we suffered. I never thought the cycle of the sun would be something I would grow to fear.

I grew up in the Sahara; part of the Kabila tribe. The Sahara was not the dry desert it is now, it was vast grasslands; crops and animals were plentiful, and my people were happy.

When I was very small, I knew nothing of the terror of the world.

As myself and the other children of the tribe grew older, we heard of the secrets whispered by the elders; rumours of the dark beings which swept our land by nightfall, claiming members of the tribe for their own. The elders were adamant that they could solve the problem, that other tribes had been decimated and yet we stood firm. The elders began to train themselves in the magicks of the earth; but all the while, the droves of dark beings inched closer and closer to our homestead.

Despite the warning of the elders, some of my peers took upon themselves the task of ridding our tribe of the threat.

This was the first night of my life in which I experienced fear.

XXXXX

'Sineya, are you coming?' Uzuri said, pulling me by the wrist, bidding me to leave my hut and venture out to the moonlit night.

I shook my head. 'Uzuri, no! The elders say there is no need for us to involve ourselves.'

Uzuri laughed, it was a smooth sound, like birdsong. 'We are all going, you cannot stay!' she tugged my arm, and I unwillingly stood up. Uzuri and I were born at the same time and had reached womanhood together, but she was much stronger than I at that time.

'Who is going?' I hissed. 'Khairi? Akida? They are children!'

'They lead us! Akida will be elder one day!' Uzuri insisted, dragging me to the wall which protected our village, where we were to meet the others.

I viewed the group by the wall. There were six of my friends there, people I had lived my whole life with. Kito, tall and muscular, Sauda, devastatingly beautiful, Khairi, who always hungered for adventure, Jabari, who was fast becoming the best hunter in the village, though he was young. Akida stood proud, the oldest of us all, and his sister, Kamaria, who clutched several long wooden sticks. These six people had been in the world for a very similar amount of time as Uzuri and I. We were still so young, and our faces were steeped in shadow.

'Are we ready then?' Akida asked Uzuri, anxious to be out on the plains, fighting the dark ones.

Uzuri glanced at me. 'I couldn't convince any more,' she said to him.

'I cannot come,' I said desperately. 'You should not either!' I grabbed the front of Akida's robes. 'Do not lead your friends to their deaths!' Akida regarded my thin hands clutching his garment with confusion.

'Jabari stepped forward, and pried my fingers from Akida's chest. 'If you are not courageous enough to help rid our village of the plague of dark ones, we will leave you here, and claim the prize for our own.'

I stared up at them, and sank to my knees. 'Do not go; you will not come back.'

'We will return, and we will be honoured,' Kamaria hissed, her high voice piercing my mind. I closed my eyes and prayed to the Gods that they would heed me.

I opened my eyes when I heard movement in front of me; Sauda was kneeling to face me.

'Sauda, please, stay,' I whispered. Sauda shook her head.

'I want to fight, to save our people. We will see you, Sineya,' she said, as she kissed my forehead and stood once more.

I watched, helpless, as they left without another word, and then I ran to the hut of the elders.

XXXXX

The three elders of our tribe sat in stony silence as I told them my story. Rahidi, Enzi, and Asili, whose names meant much more to the tribespeople than mere titles. Rahidi meant 'wise counsellor,' and so the people saw him to be fit to rule. Enzi meant power, and the people sought this for protection, and so Enzi was granted a place as an elder. Asili meant beginnings, the source; a deeper meaning which transpired to be of much more importance for myself than for any of the other villagers.

'We must pray for their safe return to us,' Asili said calmly, when I had finished.

'What?' I cried. 'No! We must go after them! They do not even know how to defeat the Dark Ones!'

Rahidi bid me to calm down. 'We cannot go after them. We have not strength enough yet.'

'You are leaving them to die,' I said quietly. It was not a question. It was a statement of fact. A realisation that the elders were not what I had always believed them, to be. I stood up to leave, when Enzi's voice halted me. 'We will have news in the morning, Sineya, do not fear, but go back to your home and sleep.'

I turned my back to them. I felt my features harden as I felt hope flee my mind. By the time I had returned to my hut, my face had softened and hot tears were coursing over my cheeks. I lay on my animal skins, the opposite side of the hut from my parents, and I tried to rest.

XXXXX

The next morning, I woke slowly, dreading the day to come. I made my way to the communal garden where the tribe gathered for meetings or recreation. It was very quiet.

There was a clearing in the crowd, and I made my way towards this gap, when I heard the first voice I'd heard all day.

'Kito!' I yelped, as I reached the clearing, overjoyed that my friends had survived the night.

Kito turned away from the elders; turned to face me. I withdrew in shock. Kito's handsome face was ruined. There were rips in his robes, and he was stained with blood. His arms were shredded, and he was paler than I'd ever seen him.

'Sineya,' he whispered, 'you were right. We should have stayed.' I could only look on as my friend stretched what was left of his face into a bitter smile. He gave one last, shuddering cough, spraying me with his blood. He fell to his knees, and lay on his side on the ground. I took him in my arms, supporting his head, and his dark eyes, haunted now, sought mine. Then he was still.

I stayed like that for an immeasurable amount of time, before turning my blazing eyes to the elders. 'The others?' I asked coldly. I knew the answer.

'Kito was the only one to return,' Asili answered, his voice hard. 'They were decimated.'

I felt my mothers' arms around me, pulling me away from Kito's body. I was taken to the river and instructed to wash. Then I was left alone.

I was drenched in the blood of a friend, and it would not be the last time.

XXXXX

Much later, I was still sitting in the sun next to the river, my face black, but my mind as busy as it had ever been. My friends were dead. I had never experienced loss before. Now seven people whom I'd know my whole life were gone forever. I had been told stories of the paradises people entered when they left our realm, but somehow I could not make the memory of Kito lying in his own viscera shift into him being welcomed into heaven.

'Sineya?' A voice called. I slowly drifted out of my musings, and found myself facing the elders.

'Yes?' I answer, shielding my eyes from the harsh sun.

'Come with us,' they said in unison, and I followed.

They led me far from the village, to a place where there were hardly any plants, and water was scarce, the sun was so bright here I could hardly see; it was a relief when the elders led me into a dark cave buried beneath a dune. As I waited for my vision to return to me, the elders led me to the centre of the cave, where a strange swirling pattern had been etched into the rock. The heavy robes of the elders made noises as they swept the hard ground beneath them.

My sight swirled back into focus. I looked at the elders; they were draped in shadows.

They each picked up a long wooden staff from the ground, and began crashing them to the ground in a steady beat. I stood with my back to the wall, a strange feeling solidifying in my stomach. Vines burst from the stone and snaked around me, binding me to the ground, chaining me to the earth.

Enzi knelt to the ground and picked up a small, black, wooden box.

I struggled against my bindings, helpless to free myself. 'Why?' I cried desperately. 'I am just a girl!' I began to sob, the vines cutting into my flesh.

'This is why we have chosen you, Sineya,' Asili said softly. 'You are just a girl. You have instinct already, and unfulfilled potential surrounds you.' He accepted the box from Enzi, and came closer to me.

'Potential?' I screamed at him. 'What are you doing to me? You are the elders!'

'We have been going by another name for some time now, girl,' Enzi said coldly. 'We are the Shadow Men.'

'We've honed our powers,' Rahidi said. 'And we know the way to defeat the rising dark.'

At those words, Asili removed the lid of the box, and a thick black substance flew out of it, neither liquid nor gas. I screamed silently as the blackness descended into me and filled me up.

I became limp in my bindings, as the power took hold of me, and began to transform me, and the Shadow Men watched, and waited.