Doctor/Flashback)

“When will it be ready?” The queen asked coldly. “Your majesty, things like this take time” I said an old doctor, in worried spurts. “Seeing how I have never preformed on a human before” “It worked on animals it can surely work on this damn child” she snarled. “I want it read soon, the prince is a mischievous child. I should know.” She laughed. “He takes after me.” “Of course my queen it will be ready within days” I said bowing low. With a nod the Queen left the dreaded cellar of the palace.

     Taking care of a child was more difficult than I thought it would be. But it proved to be exciting. Like the boy was my own, I only wish I didn’t have to do all this to him. All this prodding and poking.
     “Doctor”
     “Yes my boy?” 
     “What is my purpose?” I paused and looked away.
     “To serve the prince” 
     “Can I meet him?”
      “Not yet, son. Not yet” I said solemnly. There where too many tests. Too many things to do before making sure he was safe to leave my sight. As a result of the many tests and serums I’ve given him growing up his eye color has turned an irregular golden color. It almost glows in the night. I have much to train and teach this boy before he meets the prince. 

(Billie) “W-why do you a-always do that?” I asked nervously. “Do what?” Dante asked. “W-walk be-be-behind me, y-your not my s-servant any-anymore. We c-can be j-j-just f-friends you k-know.” I said. The boys face lit up. A look of almost shock and excitement at once. I chuckled. Mother really did hit the the lottery, this kid was weird. Walking side by side we followed a river that went out of the kingdom and into unknown territory. I was nervous but Dante made me feel safe.

    A whistle? No, it sounded to clean, I looked at Dante and his sword was drawn. He pushed me behind him. 
   “Show yourself!” Dante yelled. Something rustled in the trees. But by the time we looked up. It was too late. A net dropped. Dante cut through it but they reached him before he could escape. And knocked him out with the blow of the butt of a sword. 
  “D-Dante!” Why was I so useless?

(Slyder) “This is a bad idea” Fyn said for the hundredth time. “Oh my snails! Shut your frickin trap. I told you already we’ll sneak up on them. They’ll never see it coming!” “Oh I think that boy Dante will, there’s something off about him. I don’t like it” “You don’t like anything but my cooking Fynnie” the giant rolled his eyes. “I just don’t see how a big old giant like me could sneak up on anyone, the princes royal Knight or not” “Royal Knight? Where’d you get that? He’s just a silly boy will a stick” I hissed. “Perhaps, but he sure does know how to use that stick” i sighed in annoyance, we had been following them at a safe distance for and hour now, maybe two. “Alright here’s the plan” I said. “Shhh, Sly get down” Fyn pushed my head down and we hid behind a fallen tree. It stank like rot. That’s when we saw them. “It’s the Hallium group. They’re taking the kids!”

Panting, I bent over, my mask fell off and my hood was down. “Look what you did!” The lizard yelled grabbing my shirt angrily. “Y-your s-soup w-was g-good” I said in shame. She loosened her grip slightly and her hazel eyes softened. Dante pushed the girl off me. “It was?” She asked trying to act semi-interested. I nodded. She scoffed. “You’d say that, you’ve probably never had anything elegant in your life you little scoundrel” she hissed. I would have argued other but I was too tired. “Now what Sly?” Fyn asked. She shrugged, tears almost escaping. “Y-your u-upset about s-soup? I m-mean no o-offense, b-but c-couldn’t you m-make m-more?” I asked “You don’t get it do you?” She growled, “that competition was our ticket to finally opening…” she stopped talking and turned angrily. “Forget it, you wouldn’t understand.” She said solemnly. “Come on Billie, we should go” Dante said. “Wait? Billie? Now that I think of it you look familiar.” Fyn said. I scanned the ground for my mask while covering my head and eyes with my hood. Dante grabbed my arm protectively. It made a shiver run up my spine. “That’s right, your the murderer prince” Slyder said, crossing her arms. “Say that again” Dante said getting in Slyder’s face. I pushed them away from each other. “It w-was an a-accident” I said. She smirked looking me up and down in distaste. “Here’s a thought, you want to become king right? What if we helped you and you help us get a restaurant?” Fyn asked. “W-woah, woah-h, I d-don’t w-want to be-c-come k-king at a-all! W-why can’t y-you j-just get a rest-restaurant on y-your own?” I asked. She scoffed. “You really don’t know anything little prince. No one likes nomads, they think they’ve dangerous or thieves! When they just don’t want to be tied down. And on top of that I’m a beast-hybrid.” “I d-don’t see a p-problem with a-anything you j-j-just said-said.” I said. She chuckled. “That’s why you should be king” she mumbled. “Fynnie’s right, we have connections we could help you become king. I’m return you help us. If you think about it, it’s an awful deal for us but it’s worth it.” “Y-your not l-listening, I d-don’t want to be k-king!” I said. “Don’t you care about the kingdom, clean up the mess you made! The kingdoms in shackles because of you.” Sly yelled at me. Dante looked pissed. “I’m not s-suitable for-for t-that r-role, what do y-you c-care about the k-kingdom all you c-care about is w-winning a s-stupid comp-competition!” I yelled. “At least I’m not a murderer!” She hissed. Storming off dragging Fyn with her.

(Slyder) “Come on, I’m not giving up yet.” I said. “We’ll what do you propose we do?” “We’ll take those kids, he doesn’t want to be king? I’ll force him to be” “That may work against us” “He’s just a kid it’ll be fine” Seems like a lot just for a restaurant Sly” “It’s not just the restaurant Fyn, I just want to live life without being chased every second for doing things I didn’t do” “But we did take those groceries” “I was going to buy that” I said. “I’m tired of being treated like this. Come on” “Great on top of being thieves well also become kidnappers” Fyn mumbled. “I don’t know about that human boy, he’s as good as those guards with a sword, perhaps better” “We’ll catch ‘em off guard” I said deviously. Fyn sighed. “Your gonna get us killed” he whispered.

(Dante) I watched silently as Billie rubbed his face, he was still pissed, who wouldn’t be? The fire crackled sending sparks into the darkening sky. I was tired, angry, and in pain from a large burn mark on my back. It was recent. I was just glad Billie didn’t quite know what happened. I sighed, how where we going to get out of this. I doubt that the Royal pain my ass Mortimer would let me reason with him. I knew Billie didn’t want to be king but I had to follow the Queens wishes. I wondered if I’d be able to find that giant and lizard again. They said they had connections, I wondered if they were even telling the truth. I looked back at Billie, he was falling asleep sitting down. I smiled. Then quickly shook my head hoping the pitter patter would go away. But it never did.

(Slyder’s prospective) They never trust a Nomad.

I sighed while I carefully picked ten perfectly round potatoes and placed them in my bag. “Sly, the recipe calls for eleven” Fyn announced glancing into the bag. “No! Eleven is too much ten is just perfect” I said annoyed. The giant, Fyn rolled his eyes. “You and everything being perfect” he muttered. I ignored his comment and continued picking various items and placing only the best and most perfect looking in my bag. The overcast weather this evening did nicely to hide us in the shadows of the market. Never trust a nomad they all say. I did carefully to hide my drown scales and coal-colored horns that bent around to my ear like a goat. Humans never took kindly to beasts I thought placing a juicy looking onion in my bag. “Thief!” My head spun to find a guard pointing and yelling at us. This is why I hated this kingdom. No matter what you did, if you where a beast, a nomad, or anything else else unpleasant to the eye we were cast out like animals. “We should probably go, Sly” Fyn said getting ready to bolt when I did. “Good eye mate” I followed my companion through the streets dodging guards and common folk. But this was why being nomads was so fun.

   Fyn did all the chopping, which he always did since I hated getting my hands dirty. I read the recipe for the forth time making sure we had everything.
    “This’ll be the best yet Fynnie. I said excitedly storing a pot or boiling water with fruits and fresh vegetables all cut neatly into perfect sized cubes. That’s when I spotted it. A potato cut to large, I spooned it out quickly and threw it away. 
    “I would have eaten that Sly” Fyn said in annoyance.
    “Nonsense!” The soup had to be perfect, beyond perfect it had to exceed everything else that would be presented tonight. I took out measuring cups and put in salt and other seasonings. Than tasted it with a spoon. 
     “More potatoes and perhaps another onion, but the long ones not the round” I said excitedly. 
     “Coming right up!” Fyn said with pleasure. I didn’t need anything else, I didn’t want anything else, my life was perfect, with Fyn around and are perfect soup. Maybe, just maybe I could show the world I was worthy of having my own restaurant. 

(Billie) Nervousness plagued my stomach, going out in public was just too difficult these days, especially now that I’m the most wanted person in the kingdom. I repositioned the mask for the one hundredth time. I followed closely behind Dante, who also wore a mask. We had bought them off some hybrid foxes. I stuffed my hands in my pockets last night had left me sleepless. Thinking about all the events leading up to now. I wish I could remember everything. I knew Dante did but the huge scar on his back told me to keep quiet. Like all the scars he had I was sure I was the one who had made them. Stumbling into the streets of Dalium we noticed a sort of event taking place. The smell of soup filled my nostrils, and hunger possessed my body and mind. Before I realized what I was doing was speedily walking in that direction. It must have been a contest, several soups where placed on a table and passerby’s would taste test and leave a vote. I got in line, my stomach roaring. I took a small bowl-too small- and spooned soup into it. I front of the pot of soup stood two strange looking people. One very large and tell, his buzz cut hair complimenting his strong jaw line. The other a lizard of a sort with brown scales and pretty blonde hair, horns that twisted like a cinnamon bun. They watched nervously as I took my mask off to taste the soup. It was wonderful. The my taste buds danced to a song of glee. I had never tasted something so incredible in all the days in the palace. I spooned some more into my bowl when a hand firmly gripped my arm. I looked up to see a caste guards. “Murderer!” He screamed. I ripped away from his grip and ducked under the table. The guard flipped the table with ease spilling all the soups. The lizard girl let out a cry of anguish, I really did feel bad. The guard really didn’t have to be so dramatic in flipping the table. Sword drawn the castle guard got ready to pierce me through the heart when Dante came crashing through. With the elegance of a knight he pared the guards powerful lunges. I slipped the mask back on, jumping over the table and running into- the lizard girl? She still looked stunned by her precision soups scattered to the floor of the kingdoms streets. A few more guards came running at us, now yelling at the lizard and giant too. The four of us bolted away all four being caught up in a mess they hadn’t been apart of. Except perhaps me. Who was probably actually a murderer even though I fiercely denied it.

BOOM

          BOOM!


                           SHHHHHHH!



   I plugged my ears and closed my eyes. Not again, it was too much for me to take. The bolts of lightning and thundering rain. 
  “Billie? Are you alright?” Dante asked with a rhythmic quake in his voice. Must be cold… or sick I thought. The dark rocky walls above us sheltered us from most of the noise and all of the rain. But it was freezing inside. 
   “Y-yes D-d-Dant-e” I emitted tiredly. Speaking was too troublesome for my liking. Rocking back and forth with my ears plugged I supposed I looked as though I’d have another episode. I cursed silently remembering the last that left a permanent mark on Dante’s left forearm. Dante sat next to me and put his arm around my shoulders trying to comfort me. I shrugged them off and looked away still shaking. He was such a kind-hearted, perfect human being, but I couldn’t stand being touched. And I never understood why he persisted on doing so. My wrinkly oily burnt skin- or lack there of-was such an alarming event that it made most shutter. This boy was weird for sure, he looked a little sad at my refusal but than smiled looking off in the distance, hugging his legs. We sat silently shivering. I miss the summer. The summer when everything felt safe. When I first met you.

   “S-stop f-follow-I-ing m-me!” I yelled trying to hide under my hoodie. The boy looked at me wide eyed the. Locked down at the stick I was threatening him with.
    “Are you planning to murder me with that?” I rolled my eyes.
    “L-leave!” I yelled. The boy didn’t budge and for a moment all that could be heard was the song birds in the trees and the frogs in the pound. 
     “But I must follow you sir. It is my job” the black hairs boy said with slight concern in his voice. 
     “I-I d-don’t nee-d a b-baby s-sitter!” I yelled trudging off into the forest. He won’t be able to keep up with me, not at this pace. But every time I turned there he was. His expression hull of curiosity and enthusiasm. He watched me in wonder. I rolled my eyes I hated being a focal to everyone’s eyes. I momentarily thought about gouging out his stupid golden eyes and hanging them from a tree. I ran until I had no breath left and plopped down into a field of blue and yellow flowers. 
      “T-there! H-he d-definitely g-got l-left I-in the d-dust f-for s-sure!” I said between pants. But surely enough the boy sat down next to me. 
      “Ugh” 
      “Pretty.” He said. They where flowers, of course they where pretty. But when I looked over he was starting at me. 
       “H-huh?”
       “Your eyes, they’re pretty” he said with a smile that made my heart do unwanted flip flops. My eyes? Surely he was joking. Who could like blackened eyes with red pupils. I looked away trying to cover the atrocity with my hoodie. 
      “I’m Dante” he said sticking out a hand”
      “Billie” I mumbled. Dante took my hand and shook it. I nearly screamed, crawling away. But the golden eyed boy just started in confusion. Most people hated touching me, they where to scared to even look at me. This boy was so confusing. First he comments my eyes and then shakes my hand? 

A few years passed and Dante never left my side. Which honestly was extremely annoying. I guessed my mother hit the lottery in finding the only kid In the kingdom that didn’t find me repulsive. I hated being indoors and hated the castle even more. My mother, the queen wanted me to stay indoors more and never go outside. No wonder, who wouldn’t. My father died shortly after I fleas born, my mother always said the plague got him, but the townsfolk have a different story.

It was getting late and my mother was brushing my long black hair, while Dante watched patiently. That’s when it happened, a harmless cough at first. That quickly turned into hacking. I spun around in horror to watch my mother’s elegant body turn frail in minutes while blood was coughed up. “M-mother!” I screamed holding her body tightly. “Don’t… worry my son. Dante, will protect you. This isn’t your fault… don’t let anyone tell you otherwise” “M-mother p-please!” Her body grew cold and her eyes glazed over with nothingness and rolled out of here skeletal frame. My stomach lurched and bloody tears fell from my tired eye sockets. The plague got her just like my father. Dante reached down to comfort me, but I lashed out at him leaving a slit on his cheek and a small trail of blood. Dante’s facial expression remained the same: that of deep worry. Mortimer, the royal guard burst through the door with a sword drawn. He took in the scene, and stared at me with more hatred than anyone I’d ever seen. “What did you do!” He screamed pointing the sword at me. Dante stepped in the way quickly. “It wasn’t his fault!” “It’s always his fault you stupid boy! That boy is a curse! The queen should have had him executed at birth! He killed both the king and queen now! Probably on purpose” killed? How? I didn’t do anything, did I? “It’s not his fault he was born a disease!” Dante yelled. Those words struck like a sword to the heart. “W-what?” Tears ceased to follow and my body felt as if it where on fire. Still holding my mothers dead corpse. I felt dizzy and all I could see what blue… blue? What was it? I couldn’t remember but the screaming that followed made me sick.

Stop! My brain screamed. Pulling me back into the dark cave with the sound of rain.

Watching her deterioration made me sick, she wasn’t my friend anymore, she was a dying creature. She wondered lost, eyes drifting and thoughts wondering off. Her body no longer an appropriate home for them. Her skin grew a fine flurry coat over it, a last ditch attempt to keep her warm, only highlighting how sick she was, how where there should be skin there was an absence. It was so so quick, one month was all it took for her to be bed bound. I look into her eyes, but she’s gone, there’s just ana now.

Soulless creatures bred from hell.

Their spirits tainted by extortion.

Skinless beings - flesh does melt.

Hides are tattered by instruction.

Quickly sprinting through the shadows, from crude dwellings and cruel gallows.

Traveling beside the hounds of hell.

A wretched finger hits your doorbell,

“My name is Steve. I'm with the IRS!”

(I'm sorry if you work for the IRS. That must suck. 😉 - Jkjk. I know you gotta make a living.)

“Tell me another story Nona!” Lily cheered from her spot on her grandmother’s lap. Her grandmother rocked with her in front of the fireplace in the living room. Her chair was next to the window where the curtains were letting in the full moon and bright stars of the night air. “The only other story I have is a scarier one.” Her grandmother said, kissing the top of Lily’s head. “I’m too braved to be scared.” Her grandmother paused for a moment. Lily knew, even at her young age, that truth always sprinkled in the stories, but she could never seem to get enough. She wanted to know them all. “Centuries ago, when Kings and Queens ran the lands around us there was one monster that no one seemed strong enough to stop. They sent soldier after soldier, knight after knight, warrior after warrior to find the beast. But every nest they found was empty, every hole in the ground led no where, every house it tried to hide in was left with nothing but the bodies. There was no home to catch because this created needed no home. What it didn’t carry with it, it didn’t need. But that is before the witches decided to step in.” “Witches!” Lily threw her arms in the air cheering. “They knew this creature was dangerous. It could tear through towns in the night faster than anyone could stop it. When it came for you, it was said that all you could see was the shadow right before it pounced. The creature was rabid for the death and destruction it could cause. So, the witches made a plan. They decided to trap the monster. When it came for the next village, they would be read. Each night a group of witches stayed up all night, waiting for it. Then one very cold night, it came. All they heard was the scream of people and the rapid shadow moving through the light. The witches gathered, chanting their spell. The monster tried to attack but the witches were fast. Slowing the creature down to see its skinless body, long claws, larger teeth, and red eyes peered into them. It was small in size but large in its terror. The new young witch screamed out of fear giving the creature time to pounce. It fed on their friend and the witches strength grew from their grief and the knowledge that if they failed, they would be next. They slowed its heart until it curled up dying on the body of its last victim—“ “Mother!” Lily jumped being torn from her grandmother’s story to the loud sound of her mother’s voice. “You are going to scare her!” “She’ll be fine because…?” Her grandmother look at her. Lily smiled, reaching in her shirt to pull out the large red crystal hanging over her neck. “I have my protection charm!” Her grandmother smiled at her. “And with that, no one can get the young witch.” Her grandmother leaned forward, pressing another kiss on Lily’s head.

She’s always trying something new, but she gives up quickly. She moves from one thing to another, like a humming bird flitting among the flowers. She moves from one place to another the same way. When things get hard, when something goes wrong, she doesn’t feel the need to apologize or fix it. All it means is that it’s time for a new place and new people and new things to do.

Poised in the underbrush, he finally found the chance to eat. The old man had his spear at the ready, he willed himself to not miss. Hunters his age are rare, rarer still are those with all their limbs attached. His time moving across the southern desert has weaved cracks in his dark, dehydrated skin and threatened to burn it away like fire.

As he looked at the small duckbilled reptile grazing in the reed bed he took quick glances with his eyes at the surrounding tree line. He never forgot how the bladed teeth of a young carchar almost snatched his head in a moment of distraction. He can never forget this, for the devilish beast did take his scalp. The turban covering the hunter’s head has kept the exposed tissue safe from the elements. A little magical healing never hurt either.

It was a constant reminder on every hunt he went on. Be it for food or contract, decisions had to be made quickly. For when his prey spots him, he has less than a second to decide the cost of committing to an action or letting fate take his life.

The little duckbill perked its head up for a brief moment. Turning left it sees nothing but the field of ferns it had been snacking on, to the right in the tree line stood silence. A sudden object soon came flying from the trees. Before the animal could blink the hunter’s spear had landed a direct hit into its skull. The soil was stained with blood and brain matter as it collapsed to the ground. It is a good day to be a hunter, but if he’s not gone soon it may be better to be a scavenger.

He walks around like he owns the world, like the sphere sits in the palm of his hand. He walks into a new town every week, gets what he desires, then leaves. No one knows why he arrives, nor why he leaves so quickly; but everyone noticed. He would buy the more peculiar things, a flower pot, a plastic bin, a dog leash; nothing he bought ever had any correlation. He would waltz into each store and scurry out, and peaked everyone’s curiosity. But by the end of the week he disappeared without a trace, only to show up in a new town and do it all over again.