Blood's Veins
Chapter 1
"Running Away"
A dank room. A depressed girl. A degraded holo-recording. All three are relevant. All three are part of one another. The red haired girl delicately opened up the top of the charcoal colored, box shaped holo-recording. A flickering, blue sphere of light emerged from the box. A twitch of static, and it formed the head of an elder male humanoid. He had a bushy mustache, sunk in eye sockets, and hollowed out cheeks. The male held a nostalgic expression. He began his elegy.
"Throughout history, the legend of the Seventeenth Spirit, the Spirit who guards me, The Wise Psychic, has been hailed by many as the one who rose up and led its Brothers and Sisters to conquer the infected planet of Tohjo. The spirits of the damned came to Tohjo to lament and unleash their bottled up hatred. Their presence was slowly tainting The Seventeen Spirits' planet. Something had to be done." The same image of the male's head, with three purple tattoos on his face, round spectacles, and short, gray-purple hair was speaking in a somber tone.
"The 'Spirit War' began."
"The Divine Spirits' morphed into their creations: The animals of Tohjo. With their new forms, they fought and drove off every spirit of the damned. The planet was now free to live in peace...skrzzt…" He paused.
"Peace..."
"Peaceful memories are becoming more difficult to remember. It's been about…one-hundred-and fifty five years since the humans first arrived—and told us the truth. The good days were filled with laughter around the fire pits in the Great Village of Fire, and spending the evening with your friends on the ridge overlooking Otanak. Yes, those were the better days. Now, since their arrival, our existences are apparently less than insignificant. We throw those who have tried to revolt into the fire pits of the Great Village of Fire, and they make us walk off the great ridge overlooking Otanak into the valley of death if we "slack off" our duties. Peace: It's slowly being forgotten. More and more Tohjoians are being raised in this hell rather than living the life I did. Remember this, my daughter when you read this—if you read this, never forget the past. Once we forget, it will forever be lost forever. We cannot forget what peace is."
"I know you are still very young, but I know there's something very unique about you and the way you think. You inherited something, something we, as a race, need more of: Courage. I do not know where it came from but I believe this to be a sign from the Great Spirits. They don't confuse us without cause. I know you are destined to become something far greater than what I accomplished in my years. My daughter, forgive me for not seeing you grow up, but I will soon pay for my actions as an activist for our freedom. I am sorry, but this is the world we all live in now. You will become the Tohjoian I could never become: Our savior. I know it's you…The Brazen one whispers it to me. Goodbye, Scarlet: The Flame Wielder." The recording ended. The man gazed off into the distance with an expression of great sadness and regret. Bolded letters replaced the man's face, and were voiced over by the same male.
"With regret,"
"Your father, Perceptor: The Astute Psychic."
Perceptor's face blinked off into the darkness the little girl was engulfed in. She stared at the tiny, holo-recording in the blackness. The five-year-old Tohjoian had reddish, shoulder length, wavy hair. She had round eyes, with dark red irises. On her cheeks were the two flaming, scarlet tattoos that marked her as another being watched over by the Great Spirit of Fire. She wore a dull gray jumpsuit that had a simple black utility belt. On both shoulders were vivid yellow patches of eight-pointed stars. The patches were the simplified symbols of the Holy Gods the Tohjoians' worshiped.
The girl regarded the black holo-recording with curiosity. She never met her father. Could she be certain this so called, "Perceptor" could be her father? She did not know, nor will she ever find out. This man's head was paraded around the Otanak reservation—on a stake. He was the first example of the seventh lunar cycle in the year 2649. The humans kill Tohjoians' if they act out of line or do something "bad", like spreading the talk of revolution.
Revolution. This man talked about revolution, freedom, and…death. He died because of what he believed in. He spoke of her becoming more than him…would that mean she would live? The girl did not have any more time to think about all her questions. A wave of light washed around her figure, destroying the darkness.
"Scarlet! Scarlet get your ass in here now!" A silhouette of an imposing male appeared behind her. He had a thick tail tipped with a live flame. Scarlet quickly hid the holo-recording behind her back and stared wide-eyed at her Tohjoian arboretum leader: Vahlnyc (He had a terribly scared face from when the humans threw him in a lava pool on the outskirts of Otanak's reservations), "You stupid kid, come out of there! Some humans are here to see you."
"Yes, sir." Scarlet whispered. She scrambled onto her feet and ran past Vahlnyc. She hid the holo-recording in one of her pockets on her utility belt. She did not have to search for her human visitors for long, because a group of three humans were waiting idly in the main lobby of the arboretum she lived in. There was a gigantic, convex pane of glass on the shanty, metallic ceiling that extended farther than the eye could follow. The three humans were amusing themselves like drooling babies by looking up through the pane of glass, and watching the flock of tailow and swellow pass overhead.
Two out of the three were obviously not military personal, for they were dressed in a semi-formal manner. One human was a male, dressed in a black button-up shirt, a pair of black slacks, a red tie, a pair of black shoes, and a black jacket that fit snugly on his chest. The other human was a female. She was dressed in a light purple blouse, a tan skirt, a pair of white knee high socks, a pair or black three-inch heels, and a brown jacket to match her skirt. They both were wearing breathing masks that were attached to a tiny cylinder of oxygen the two humans slung across their backs. The human who was part of the human galactic military, carried a submachine blaster rifle over his right shoulder. He was in a full, armored body suit. His black helmet had a pane of tinted glass covering his face. The male and female (she guessed from previous visits of humans), were here wanting to adopt one of the younger Tohjoians in the reservation. The humans always try to take the young Tohjoians away so they can be raised in, "their true ancestral roots" as the they call it. From what she deduced, she figured they were here for her. I don't want to go…I want to be here, where daddy lived. He isn't daddy, and she isn't mommy! They need to go AWAY!
Scarlet continued her mental temper tantrum as she trudged her way to the trio of humans.
"This is his daughter?" The male asked his wife in a disgusted manner, "I expected her to be older. I don't know if we should do this now, Jean."
"Quiet down, James. She's only a little one. I don't see why not? Excuse me, sir, but when can we sign the papers? I'm starting to feel a little sick from all this Carbon Dioxide. I want to leave soon." The woman was addressing Vahlnyc, who had silently appeared behind Scarlet's tiny form. He blocked her only way of escaping back into the darkness, the comforting darkness of her tiny living quarters.
"Just follow me to the front desk; I'll fish them out for you. Scarlet," Vahlnyc violently turned the girl around by her shoulders, "Don't fuck this over for me. If I fill your case out with no problems, I can finally kiss this planet and every bastard on this planet good-bye!" He released his grip on her and just glared menacingly down at her, "do not move from this spot."
"Yes, sir." Scarlet quietly replied. She watched the "Big-Bad-Mightyena" (as the other's called him) rush towards the front desk where the two humans were waiting impatiently for him to find the "adoption papers" for her. She grew antsy. She did not want to go with those two humans back to where ever they came from. She had to get away from them. One thing was stopping her: A human soldier, an armed human soldier. She looked at the soldier for a moment, and then at the pair of humans that would soon become her new parents. She saw they had almost completed the two paged adoption form. She returned her worried gaze at the soldier once more. She stared at his rifle. No one can replace mommy and daddy.
Scarlet clenched both her hands and eyes tightly shut, and concentrated. She imagined the animal in her head. It had a pointed snout and a rounded body with multiple openings on its back to spray out fire. Cyndaquil. Scarlet's head elongated into a pointed snout, while the rest of her limbs shrunk into little stubbles of what they once were. Her dull jumpsuit was replaced by bluish and cream colored fur. She transformed into the animal in less than half a second. The soldier did not notice the girl transform into the mouse-like creature. GO AWAY!
Scarlet's back on lit up in flames and let out a shrill cry. The soldier only had time to turn his attention to the flaming mouse when it attacked him. The mouse let loose a ribbon of fire that engulfed the soldier. She did not glance at the man when she dashed between his legs, and out of the arboretum. The soldier screamed in pain as his armor melted on his skin. He was trying to remove his helmet, but it had already melted onto his face. He flailed about the room as the humans and the Tohjoian gazed at the man in horror. The oxygen tank on his back was exposed, and the flames swallowed the tank. It ruptured. The human's misery was put out quickly when his oxygen tank exploded-along with his entire upper body.
Scarlet heard the explosion, and upon hearing it, she pushed herself to go faster. If anyone caught her now, she would be killed. She did not want to die. Perceptor told her she would become greater than him. She pressed forward towards the forest and mountains that were a few miles north of the reservation. She weaved in and out of other Tohjoians that were out and about in the open space. As she wove in between their legs, they responded with shouts of anger and surprise. Meanwhile, a team of six human soldiers had finally responded to the explosion and were quickly panning out, trying to find their culprit. They were shoving any Tohjoian in their path, on the ground asking them if they knew where the mouse had run off to. Scarlet continued to sprint towards the forest; towards freedom.
Then she heard gun fire. She skidded to a halt and looked over her shoulder. Tohjoians were screaming and running around frantically as the six soldiers were shooting everyone in their path. She witnessed their pleas of innocence, before a quick squeeze of a trigger silenced them forever. She cried out and continued her desperate escape. She did not want to die. She had to live. Tears welled up in her eyes. She did not mean to kill the man; she just wanted to get away from the humans, from Vahlnyc, from—everyone. Now, if she were to return her home, she would be killed by the humans or by Vahlnyc—whoever found her first.
"The forest will protect you…come to the forest…" She heard a voice whisper in her head.
Stray fire kicked up dirt around her body. The humans had finally found her. She wanted to look back and see how close to her they were, but the voice once more appeared, "No, don't look back…Run…Run to the forest…It will protect you…" Stray bullets were zipping past her like zubats from hell, but she was almost at the forest edge. She was going to make it. Then she heard faint whistling noises. They were faint at first, but grew into a cacophony of deafening whooshing noises. The ground erupted all around her in bright geysers of yellow and orange. White smoke filled her lungs and choke her. She was so close to freedom…
"Do not give up, be courageous…Use your powers to escape—now!" Of course! How could she have forgotten about those? She tapped into her mind once more, and imagined she could travel as fast as lightning—her body reacted with her thought. She gained an incredible burst of speed, and blasted her way into the forest. A mortar shell landed where she would have been if she had not used her powers to sprint as fast as the wind when she did. She did it! She made it to freedom!
The trees passing by looked as if they were overgrown cousins of the ferns found on Earth-when they still existed. She scrambled through the fallen trunks of the trees that were the testaments of their lives, and dashed through the thorny shrubs that dotted the forest floor, and skipped through the shallow creeks that were engraved into the soil. Scarlet never looked back, she kept on running. She was running away from the pain, the suffering, and the death. She had to get as far away from the Otanak reservation as she possibly could. She was so engrossed with her thoughts she was not paying any mind to where she was going.
SMACK!
Scarlet tumbled backwards into a dead fern-tree trunk. Her head throbbed with pain, and she started to cry once more. She held her head with her tiny stubble arms and dared a peak at what she smashed into. What she saw took her breath away. She ran into the feared mountain guardian. The beast was the living embodiment of solid rock and steel. Its armored body was black as night. Its steel head had two fearsome, pointed horns on top an equally frightening set of jaws that could bite through diatanium. The iron beast also had a thick, segmented, black tail that could snap a Tohjoian in two. Two, beady, but brilliant blue eyes stared her down. She was frozen to the ground, unable to move from sheer terror.
The beast lumbered its way towards the terrified mouse. With every step the beast took, it shook the ground around it. Her heart was racing. It wanted to jump right out of her chest and run away from the monster. Her mind was screaming at her to run away, but her body did not comply to its demands. The beast stopped its advance only feet away from her body. A low growl escaped its vocal cords. Its blue eyes narrowed into slits, and it released a deafening roar that echoed for miles and miles into the forest. Scarlet cried out as loud as she could with streams of tears running down her face. Despite her disastrous escape from the reservation, she was going to meet her doom from the hands of Tohjo. She felt her heart sink not because the monster raised its clawed arm to strike her down, but because she let her father down. She just knew that man in the holo-recording was her father, and he needed her to succeed in what he failed. The monster's claw came down upon her body. She closed her eyes and accepted her fate. She would never become the Tohjoian her father expected her to become. She waited for the beast to deliver its final blow. She waited some more...Nothing happened. Huh? She opened her eyes. What she saw blew her mind. The beast was frozen in mid-strike. It could not move. Then, it's body was lifted in the air and tossed towards the mountain. The monster's cry faded into the wind as it vanished from view.
Scarlet saw what saved her life: It was another animal, but it was not as fearsome as the mountain guardian. It had green "hair" that covered all of its face except for the animal's bright, red eyes. It had a pure white, flowing gown that covered its slender, green legs. The strangest aspect of this animal was a light red horn that seemed to impale the animal. Scarlet stared in awe at the graceful animal. The elegant animal gazed at her in a curious manner. The psychic wielding animal dainty glided toward her. Scarlet tried to crawl away from the animal. She still did not know what its motive was for saving her, but a voice—the same voice that guided her to the forest in the first place spoke to her once more, "Fear not, young Tohjoian, I will not harm you. I am the guardian of these woods. I protect those who need it, and you my child, needed it."
Scarlet blinked and whipped away her tears, "Thank you…uh,"
"Gardevoir."
"Gardevoir. Thank you, Gardevoir."
"You can no longer go back to your home. These woods will be your new home now. Come with me, I will help you become acquainted with the forest and its inhabitants. If you wish, you may revert to your true form. We are not afraid of our own brothers and sisters."
"Okay…" Scarlet's body grew back into her humanoid form. Gardevoir extended out a hand to the girl. She looked at the forest guardian once more in the eyes. She saw peace. Peace… Peaceful memories are becoming more difficult to remember... Daddy… She accepted Gardevoir's hand. The forest guardian led the small Tohjoian deep into the forest, unknown and uncharted to humans.
"You are a special girl, Scarlet. You have been chosen by the Divine Spirits' to lead your people to revolution. You will become the great leader of Tohjo…but you must train your mind and body first. Nature will help you with your training. You have a long path ahead of you young one. Until you are ready, you will remain here in the forest with your brothers and sisters…The fate of this planet is in your hands now."
Scarlet did not fully understand what Gardevoir was telling her, but she did understand this: She was not going to let daddy down.
A/N: Yay Chapter 1 is complete! :D I'm really excited for this story and I'm hoping to update sometime by Christmas (along w/ my TF fic as well, A Life To Live).
Anyways, I wish everyone happy holidays! :3 Please R&R! :)