Chapter one: Night Lurkers.
He jumped up out of his seat, panting heavily. His eyes were wide with fear and the surroundings were dark. He looked outside the window; the sky was black with no sign of stars or the luminous moon. He was in his family home in the Country Tyrone, like many he lived in a secluded country-like area with only a few neighbours. His family were all asleep in bed, though he must have fallen asleep while watching TV.
He started to relax again, half wondering what had made him jump in the first place.
But then the feeling returned to him. He felt a creature outside. A powerful creature, it lurked underneath the shadows of the great oak tree in the front garden. His eyes narrowed as he concentrated on getting a clear image of what the creature was.
It was different that the beasts he had seen before, and he had seen many in his short life.
He had nicknamed them the Night Lurkers, and so far he had fought off the different ranks. The first time he was attacked by them, it was night as always, that was the only time they came out. Those creatures had been small, but had large mouths filled with viciously sharp teeth and small fast legs. He named those 'Shadow Hounds'. The second, third and fourth time he was attacked with a mixture of those creatures and the second ranked creatures, the Shadow Cadets.
They had more of a humanoid appearance, though they were only the height of perhaps a three-year-old toddler. They had large glassy-like eyes, short arms ended with sharp claws, longer legs and feet also ending with long claws. They had been much more difficult to destroy than the Shadow Hounds had been.
The third ranked Night Lurkers he called the Shadow Captains, he had only fought two in the last year. They both had stood five ft tall and had broader more muscular builds; they had the most human-recognizable features of all. Their eyes were smaller but still had an empty glassy look to them; they no longer had long sharp claws on their hands. Instead by their sides they bore twin swords, each black but glossy, shadows rippled around the blade.
His battles with those creatures had lasted many hours, and through them he unlocked more of his own powers. The powers he had always had but kept secret, afraid of being branded a freak of nature. The power's he used resembled those of a dragon.
In his battle with the strange Shadow Hounds he continuously threw fire at the creatures, in that fight he unlocked the fire claws that he now found necessary to fight with, without he would lose.
The third time he was attacked, he unlocked another flamey-trait for use in battle. While his eight fingers and two thumbs were dangerously clawed and scaled, he found he not only had better control over his fire, but he could also use the power of electricity to literally fry the opponent.
In the first battle with the Shadow Captain's, he unlocked his greatest powers of all that confirmed him to have dragon-powers. His wings.
While they drained him of energy faster than his claws had, he used them frequently to quickly destroy the Night Lurkers. They sprouted from his back with a single thought, each wing was as wide as his own body was long and each wing was three quarters the height he was. He himself was almost six ft in height.
But this particular Night Lurker had a different feel to it, from the others he felt extreme anger, but from this he felt sheer hatred and power.
He walked to the door, his body shook slightly. This creature, whatever it was, terrified him.
He opened the front door of the house and closed it behind him, willing his family to remain asleep while he fought. He then saw the creature; it had moved from the shadow of the tree and now stood boldly in the centre of the drive. It was taller than the others, it stood almost seven ft in height, its head apparently covered by an old style 50's black hat. It wore a long tattered cloak that flickered mysteriously around the creature despite the obvious lack of a breeze. The Night Lurker made a growling sound and raised its head enough so the boy could see the creature's razor sharp long and disgustingly yellowy-green teeth.
Then it ran at him. The boy cowered slightly but flicked his fingers, a ball of fire curled around his hands as they transformed into the dragon-like claws. Each finger elongated and grew green, the fingernails lengthened, became jet-black, extremely thick and sharp.
The creature was upon him in seconds, he felt its hot and sour breathe against his face as he struck up, the claws ripping through the creatures black skin. He heard it howl in apparent pain, though he was sure the others inside the house couldn't.
He spat at the creature, though the spit was not saliva, it was a smaller ball of fire than crashed into the creatures face, knocking it far backwards and onto the lush green grass of the garden lawn.
As fast as it had fallen the creature rose again and removed something from the eerie cloak, a long thin object with a terrifyingly sharp edge. Shadows curled around the blade, though it was impossible to see in the pure darkness of a cloudy-skied night.
The boy could only see through the darkness because of his supernatural eyes that he had always had, being born with them.
Within seconds the creature was upon the boy again, lashing out wildly with its unusual blade. Using his own great speed he countered and moved through every blow, easily reaching the creature again and ripping through its torso with his own sharp claws.
His claws blazed and rippled with fire just as the blade rippled with shadows. The boy was also slightly unnerved by how easily he seemed to be winning. Had he merely grown this strong? Was this some sort of test? Those questions raced through his head.
The creature rose again but did not race at the boy as blindly as he had before. The creature let out a howl of displeasure and pain and a pair of wings sprouted from its back with a hideous ripping sound. The wings were short and unnatural looking, with thick rim but paper-thin membrane connecting each fold of the wing.
The wings flapped and released a powerful gust of tainted air, more powerful than the boy anticipated at any rate. He was blown back and hit against the wall of the house, the house which was covered in small jagged stones and white washed.
He gasped in pain as his back was pricked by the sharp stones, small as they were. He stepped forward and lost sight of the creature. That caused him a slight panic so he instantly revealed his owns wings, which instead of ripping from his back like the creatures had, seemed too simply grow from the flesh itself.
With a gentle flap he jumped into the air, he steadied himself and looked around the perimeter of his house, he felt the creature's presence, but could not pinpoint its location. He saw a flicker of movement and instantly shot a fireball at it, he heard the familiar screech of pain and the creature burst into the air. Its way of flight seemed clumsy and dangerous to its own well-being. The boy felt extremely confident in this battle. Apart from the creature's endurance and speed, it had desperately weak attacks, he was still slightly unnerved by the evil sense he got from it.
The creature shrieked horribly and rose into the air, some of its skin glowed ember red in the dark night.
It looked dead ahead at the boy, its eyes clouding over and becoming pools of darkness. Its body straightened slightly and it became even taller, the wings expanded slightly and from the air itself the creature drew a new sword. It was more of a broad sword used to deal massive damage.
In a flash the creature was behind the boy, the sword flashing through the night sky and it slashed him across the back. The left a gash running straight down the boys spine, though it didn't cut deep enough to hit bone. The boy yelped in pain and suddenly fell to the ground, crashing ungracefully and resulting in more pain. His wings retracted and disappeared into his skin, his clawed hands reverting back to their normal stage.
The Night Lurker seemed to grin and it dived at the boy in a swirling motion with its sword stretched out at his head. The boy fell unconscious as the beast descended upon him for what surely would be the final time.
But the beast never made the final blow. A woman ran in front of the boy, her hands ice-like claws and she struck upwards; creating a massive spiked pillar of ice hat tore the Night Lurker to shreds. Her black long and slightly curly hair fell past her shoulders; she looked down upon the boy sadly.
He was knocked out cold.
"Ah Tyler, you almost won …" she sighed and sat down on the tarmac beside the boy, her hands changing shape, yet not reverting to their usual size. Instead of her hands becoming covered in ice, they became covered simply in water. The water had a very blue mystical tint to it, as if it bore magical properties. Which it did.
She turned the boy over and looked at the long wound running down his spine. "Well this shouldn't take too long to fix with my healing."
She ran her hands the full length down his back, a veil of water clinging to the wound. The water glowed slightly, she repeated the process many times, each time the water glowed brighter, sinking into the wound itself. After more than ten minutes of healing the wound was gone! Though the skin was slightly pink and tender. The girl grinned and turned the boy over again, if a stranger saw them together they would have called them brother and sister.
But they were more than that; they were twins.