War in the Shadows

Chapter 1

I don't remember much of my childhood. Only a few fragments. I remember small buildings carved out of rock, the bio-luminescent flowers that lit the ceiling of the caverns like stars, the cheering of those who lived here as our guardians paraded through the town to remind us that we are protected and safe here, and a library that was home to a girl. In fact, mostly all of my memory's have her in them. I can't remember her name or her face, but the rest is still perfectly clear. She was a 6 year old with shoulder length brown hair and she was very fast. Her clothes would always end up getting torn and dirty somehow. Ether by climbing a tree and scraping her nee, exploring the cavern walls for little hiding places or running through the forbidden forest under the east central formation of our kingdom. I remember being the little troublemakers of our town. The 6 and 8 year old thieves who would always find a way to slip through the hands of the Falkorien on patrol. Hero's to the people who were poor that received the things we stole. The towns people named us the twin dragons. The girl represented the fire dragon, optimistic, energetic, brave and reckless, while I represented the ice dragon, cautious, calm, calculating, and logical. This amused the Falkorien soldiers and it became a game for them to try and be the first to catch us. I can't remember if they succeeded or not. As I said before, i only have fragments of my past. The only clear memory is the one that I wish I didn't remember at all, and where I lost everything. This memory, is when the Antumbra, beings infected by the plague of Casimir, attacked and destroyed my home. I had fallen asleep waiting for the girl to come back to our hideout in the library and was woken up by an odd smell that is difficult to explain, the sound of the emergency evacuation sirens blaring. I guess the smell could be described as a minty smoke sent. I didn't realize what the smell was at the time, but it will be forever carved in my mind that this smell meant danger at best, and death at worst. Not just any death tho. A horrifying, agonizing, painful death that cannot be predicted. Casimir's curse. The plague with no cure, no escape, no hope for survival. I may have been ignorent to this fact, however when I left the library where the girl and I lived, saw the blazing onyx flammes and the chaos around me, the panicking people screaming in pain and terror, I knew that I wasn't safe. I noticed falkorien soldiers were barking out orders and evacuating people, avoiding those whom had purple and black markings on their skin. I followed them to the evacuation site hoping the the girl was already there, revolted at the fact that we couldn't do anything for all these people who were being abandoned and left to die, especially since one of them could easily be her. I immediately crushed that thought and picked up my pace. When I got there I looked around more and more anxious and asked people if they saw her, but they all said no. I kept looking desperately, but I wasn't finding her, I couldn't see her, and with horror I realized, she wasn't there. I turned to our town now engulfed in smoke and fire with a level of terror that surpassed any before. I broke into a sprint, frantic to return and find her, but was grabbed by the back of my shirt. The Falkorien who grabbed me pulled me back and told me not to return, I wasn't going to listen. I struggled to escape her and finally managed by headbutting her nose and breaking it, causing her to yelp in pain. She dropped me and I started running again, however the other Falkoriens were already waiting, alerted by their friend's yelp. The Falkoriens tried to calm me down but I wasn't having it. I kept telling them to move, over and over again. That I hade to save my friend. I had to save her. Then, one of them knelt down in front of me and wrapped his arms around me. Thinking that he restraining me, I tensed, yet he didn't move. I stayed still, surprised and confused at what the man was doing, and then it hit me. He was hugging me. I started crying, the contrast of emotions overwhelming me. I had to go save the girl! I didn't want to move. She needs me! I'm scared. She could be hurting or stuck somewhere! "I have to save her." I whispered hopelessly. "I have to try" I was losing hope, I felt exhausted, and even if they let me try, what could I do? The whole town was blazing, that haunting minty smoke smell ever present in the air around me. The man sat back and put his hands on my shoulders, looking straight into my eyes with his own, and said the words that still haunt me to this day. "She's dead." After that I just cried, looking at the blazing inferno as loneliness and grief drowned me. I didn't turn my eyes away, not once. Which is why I noticed that as the onyx flammes became nothing but smoldering ashes, unnatural shadows were rising and slipping away. They were the Antumbra. That is when my hatered for the Antumbra was born, and I was going to annihilate every last one of them. I was going to even if it kills me. They were all going to die.