-Chapter 1-
-You can't be serious-
"You can't be serious."
13 year old Scar had woken up that morning to the hissing and yowling of her adopted brothers, who were sparring, once again. Of course, they weren't a human girl's average brothers.
They were gnawers.
Scar had known nothing but her small family of gnawers as far back as she could remember. All her life, she had lived with Silvertail. Only recently, meaning a few months ago, had an addition been added to that small pair, Silvertail's new mate, Rageclaw, and their pups, Spikefang and Tearclaw.
She had never known why she had lived with gnawers, and she had given up trying to find out. It was pointless, asking Silvertail a question she couldn't—or didn't want to—answer. If Silvertail didn't want to do something, than may Hell unleash its claws on the one who forced her to do it. And Scar had learned that the hard way when she was younger.
But Scar was a tough, hard girl, and she stonily took anything Silvertail could dish out. When Silvertail was in a bad mood and took it out on her, Scar would come up with any random smart assed response from out of the blue that would eventually make Silvertail laugh so hard she forgot what she was upset about. Normally it was, "Scar, Russetclaw is a complete idiot" or something like that. And then she'd give Scar the look that plainly said, 'agree with me or I'll have your head'.
And to something like that, Scar would reply, "And I wonder what she thinks of you," or "Yeah, only a few more acts of idiocy and she'll match your record."
Of course, Silvertail never took any of this personally. And Scar didn't want her to. To be truthfully, Scar was very fond of her adopted gnawer parent. And Silvertail knew that. So, more or less, the two had gotten along famously for the past thirteen years.
And that was why she was so surprised when Silvertail said what she did that day.
"You heard me. Leave, or die."
Silvertail was glaring at Scar, her gaze full of a piercing hatred that the thirteen year old had never seen in them before.
"But…but where am I supposed to go?"
Normally, Scar would have fought back with an equally piercing glare, but she was just too shocked at the moment to do anything else.
"Oh, be creative. You'll think of something. You always do." She said mockingly. "Just get out of my sight, or I will kill you."
And the terrible thing was, Scar knew she wasn't kidding.
The human girl was a fair fighter. But her weakness was that she had never used a blade, which was the common weapon for a human. And she didn't think she ever would even if she had the chance. She preffered using her hands. She could knock an average gnawer out with just a couple of punches. But the problem was that Silvertail wasn't an average gnawer.
Silvertail had a strange quality that made it almost impossible to fight her and win. It seemed as though you were set to attack her in one place and then suddenly she was somewhere else, ready to pounce on you. And Scar had tried many, many times, when her anger had gotten the better of her, but she could never lay a hand on Silvertail.
Scar tried to pull herself together. If Silvertail didn't want her anymore, then she would leave. She'd be lying if she said this scenario had never crossed her mind before. But still…it was all so sudden.
"But…" her voice trailed off, and she looked at her gnawer caretaker, pleading for the first time in her thirteen years.
"Go!" Silvertail hissed again, and swiped at Scar with her tail. Scar glared at her, and, sending a few curses in Gnawer her way, ran out of the cave, the only home she had ever known. She was too proud to let Silvertail see the tears that were now streaming down her face.
"Where's Scar going?" Spikefang came up behind Silvertail, a puzzled expression etched across her face.
"Away, love. We don't need her." The silver gnawer hissed back as she watched the human girl round a bend and retreat out of sight.
Silvertail was reluctant to admit it, but she was actually a bit sorry to see the girl leave. She had sworn to herself shortly after receiving her that she would not, under any circumstances, become attached to that girl. But she had to admit, Scar had been an entertaining companion for the last thirteen years. She was already arguing with her little shoulder devil about the fact.
Stop it, Silvertail. You know how dangerous it is to become close to a human.
I know, I know.
The consequences could be disastrous!
Yes, yes. But you can't hide the fact that she was more than bargained for.
It's a good thing we got rid of her. We were this close to caving.
"How many times do I have to tell you, I KNOW!" she accidentally shouted it aloud. Her pups looked at her strangely. She just sighed and waved them away with her tail.
"Go on, leave." She hissed, and they ran out. Silvertail wrenched her eyes away from the cave entrance. She couldn't dwell on this anymore. It was time to plan the next move.
"You can't be serious."
Jett had woken up to the rush of wings outside of his bedroom window. It had been Mercury, the messenger bat. And the message he had come with had been a surprise indeed.
Jett was a relatively normal fourteen year old Underlander who lived a relatively normal life. He had dark violet eyes and slightly wavy silver blonde hair that came down just past his ears. He was an only child of two respected soldiers. He had battle training four times a week, and a bond named Mars, who was a big black bat with white ears.
Little didn't he know that his life was about to be changed by a girl who could only consider herself half of a human.
At first, Jett had laid in bed longer, not really expecting Mercury's message to be for him. His parents often received important notices, and they were never targeted at him directly. So he was faintly surprised when he heard his mother's voice calling him out of his room.
With a sigh, he got out of bed and slipped on his sandals. He ran a hand through his silvery hair, stretched, and pulled aside the curtain that separated his small room from the rest of their stone apartment.
And then came the news.
He had listened to what Mercury had to say, jaw dropping with every word. Then he had turned to his parents.
"You can't be serious." He repeated.
"She has nobody, Jett. You heard Mercury; she was found alone in a tunnel and brought to Regalia. Since she is still underage, at thirteen, they must find a home for her."
"And since when have we been open to housing rats?" Jett contradicted.
"She is not a rat, Jett. She has been raised by them. That does not make her one."
"She might as well be." The fourteen year old grumbled. "They have probably taught her to despise humans just as they do," he mumbled. "An outcast among her own kind."
But there was nothing he could do to change his parents' minds. He had been born into a family that was cursed with unbelievingly pitying minds, and there was nothing he could do about it.
Except become even more upset.
"Jett, I talked to Pervett, and you are permitted to miss training for the day to come and meet Scar." His dad reported, a few hours after Jett had received the news.
"Scar? Her name is Scar?" Jett burst out. "What did I tell you? She might as well be a gnawer!"
"But she is not, Jett. It is just a name. Now you must meet us in the High Hall in an hour."
"Fine." Jett rolled his eyes and left the house. Seconds later he was airborne, on Mars's back. His bond always knew when he was needed.
"You heard?" Jett asked him, reclining into the deep black fur of his bat.
"Who has not?" Mars answered simply. "It is not everyday that a human is raised by gnawers and then returns to live with her own kind."
No, it definitely was not. And that was the bad thing about it. Everyone knew. And that meant Jett would be the target of everyone's taunts. Not that he really gave a damn what everyone else thought, but now he'd get more attention than he had bargained for.
"No, definitely not," he replied, somewhat desolately. There was a long silence between the two, as if they were both lost in their own thoughts. But it turned out that Mars had been listening.
"Do you hear that?" he prompted Jett.
Jett listened.
In Regalia, it was not hard to overhear another's conversation. People here talked very loudly to their friends, and sometimes, strangely, even to themselves. And that was why it was easy for Jett to hear the conversations of the citizens of his home city.
'That gnawers' girl arrived today.'
'I wonder where that gnawers' girl will be staying.'
'I sure wouldn't want that gnawers' girl staying with me."
Jett groaned. "Oh, that is fantastic. Just brilliant. Gnawers' girl. I will be 'Gnawers' Boy' by next week."
Mars tilted his head slightly. "I doubt it will come to that." He paused for a second, thinking. "But if it does, we could always throw them off like we did at last month's Arena Event." He gave a subtle 'huh huh huh' of laughter. Jett couldn't help but smile as well.
"That was classic." He agreed, brushing his hair out of his face.
There was a sports event in the arena scheduled monthly in Regalia, and everyone over the age of twelve could participate. Within their age group, of course. Mars and Jett had been playing in the event of last month, and Jett had accidentally fumbled the ball and dropped it—and Mars had been too distracted to catch it. The pair had been the target of insults for days by their fellow teammates until they had gotten them back with a trick involving a rock, a rope, and a large heaping of shrimp and cream sauce.
"Yes, it was." Mars bobbed his head a few times, and they both grinned, immersed in the memory. It was silent for a while.
"What do you think she will be like?" Jett asked quietly, breaking the silence.
"One cannot be certain, until they meet her." Mars answered. Jett sighed. He hadn't really expected his bond to be able to take a guess anyway.
"I guess not." Jett agreed reluctantly.
For a while, they just flew through the tunnels surrounding the city, as they commonly did when they went on aimless flights. Jett was just dreading the moment to come when he would have to spend the next two years with, until he turned sixteen and was of age to leave home. Even then, though, he didn't think he'd be entirely rid of her.
It was not for at least a half hour until one of them spoke again. It was Mars.
"I believe it has been nearly an hour since we left. I had better get you to the palace."
Jett nodded glumly. "Yes, you are right." He sighed. "Let us go."
The pair flew back to the city in silence. Jett was already imagining what Scar would look like. Definitely pretty primitive. Her clothes would probably be made of gnawer skin, and her hair would probably be all tangled and ratty. If she even had hair. How was he to know that she hadn't been forced to chop it all off? He gave a small snort of disgust at this mental image. Mars turned his head around and gave him a questioning expression. He just shrugged.
As they neared the palace, Jett's stomach sank with every beat of his bat's wings. Of course, Mars would probably not stick around. Jett didn't really mind. He'd tell his friend about her later.
Within a few minutes, they came to a landing. Mars quickly said goodbye and said he would talk to him later. Jett groaned after his bond left. How was he ever going to get through this?
Meanwhile, Scar was being escorted to the High Hall by a pair of Underlander guards, who, to her entertainment, were keeping their distance from her and occasionally shooting each other nervous glances. She would often glare or growl at one of them, and they'd promptly scoot away even farther. It was actually quite funny. The cowards.
She had made the journey from the gnawer lands to Regalia with ease. Her bare feet were just looking a bit pale, and she was a little bit hungry, (though she was not about to admit that to the Underlanders, as they probably didn't even prepare meat rare enough to fit her taste) but otherwise, she was okay. The only thing that still ached after a short rest was her heart.
She had stopped in a tunnel near the human city, having nowhere else to go. To her dismay, a couple of scouts had found her and brought her to the city. She had just shrugged and went along with it, although not hesitating to torment them with glares and growls that she had taken to using whenever anyone bothered her.
When she had arrived at the palace, the young Queen Cecile (who rather resembled a porcelain doll) had asked her many questions that she answered with either annoying one word answers, such as 'yes', 'no', or 'maybe', or else, to Queen Cecile's absolute irritation, in Gnawer.
And now they were going to drop her to some random family, in a random house and a random room with random people. She had never lived with a human before. And she absolutely didn't want to start now. But there was nothing else for her to do.
They finally arrived at the High Hall, and Scar crossed her arms and shut her eyes. She was not, as they said, going to 'come quietly'. She was determined to show the stupid imbeciles who were dumb enough to want someone like her living with them that she didn't like the, not one bit. And then maybe they would kick her out and she could make her own life, somewhere far away from anything. Perhaps in the Dead Lands, that would be isolated enough. That way she would never have to deal with misleading rats who called themselves your caring guardian or humans who didn't know a bad girl when they saw one.
She almost laughed out loud as she heard the guards' whispered arguments, but caught herself just in time.
"Make her open her eyes, Julius!"
"No, I will not! She will growl at me again!"
Scar couldn't help it. Even though she knew it meant showing vulnerability, she gave a snicker. They were so idiotic!
Only that turned out to be fatal to someone who desperately wanted to be excommunicated.
"Ah, so she does smile." That was a man's voice.
"It is okay, you do not have to fear from us." And that was a woman, in a tone that was probably supposed to be sympathetic and caring. Ha!
"Jett, just come over and introduce yourself." The man spoke again, exasperatedly.
"I do not want to." A boy spoke this time. Well, at least he obviously had some sense. If Scar was in his position, she wouldn't 'introduce herself' to a girl who looked half-wild for all the good fortune in the world. But despite his refusal, she heard someone walking over anyway.
Scar couldn't help it. She opened her eyes and found herself face to face with a boy who looked to be around fourteen. And he looked like he didn't want to meet her any more than she wanted to meet him. They both spoke at the same time.
"You can't be serious."