Earth Master

Prologue II

*Prologue II

Moonshade explained the mystery -that Madame has never dared to ask for years- behind their sudden arrival to the orphanage in the middle of winter, even though he knew Aurora would not be happy about it. As far as Madame knew, Moonshade was a demon and his parents did not die in a natural way, but she never asked about them. She despised the whole demon genocide action taken by the masters and therefore she helped Moonshade hide as she hid the doctor years ago before that.

The Doctor came to this town when he was a young man and found refugee in Madame's kindness. He was the first demon that Madame got to meet, since they did not have much demons in their small town. Before meeting him, she thought that all demons were savage creatures with an ugly appearance. However there was nothing savage about this man, if anything he was quite timid and fainthearted, and he was also easy on the eye.

It was about the time that the Head army started raiding demon boroughs and killing or capturing all demons for being a part of the conspiracy against the Head city kingdom, the doctor has fled to this town. Head city was then and still a big and powerful city with high walls surrounding it, but what made it special was that all of the masters lived there, except some who refused to work for the kingdom.

Every year four new masters were chosen by the Spirits of Fire, Earth, Water and Air as a celebration of the arrival of the new seasons. These people were chosen originally to protect the nature and serve it. The newly chosen masters would travel to the Head city and learn the ways of being a master. However lately the masters, with the leadership of the King, had decided to use their spiritual powers for wiping the world out from demons, who they had found harmful to the balance of the nature.

Demons, in fact opposite of the masters who were chosen by the great four Spirits at a young age, had their powers from birth and they were earthly creatures rather than spiritual. Every demon, depending on their strength had an amount of 'sha' energy flowing in their bodies. Masters got their energy from their surroundings whereas the demons used the energy within themselves. People had known better than to mess with a demon, because the legends would tell that once a demon got angry it would not calm down until he killed everyone in his sight. A part of Madame had believed that too back in the day before she met the doctor, who had a godly gift of healing ability.

When the kids first appeared that night when the earthquake took place, the doctor noticed the 'sha' energy flow in Moonshade's body and instantly picked up that he was a demon. But the girl had a different type of a weak energy flow in her body, that he was unable to identify when he was healing her. He kept on coming and examining the little girl long after she was healed completely. Finally some time later he recognized this different energy as the 'qi' energy that was unique to the masters, but he kept this information to himself.

Over the years doctor had become a mentor for Moonshade, as he taught him how to control the energy flow within him and how to hide himself among ordinary people. Even though he himself was a healer demon, he passed on everything he knew that could be used in a combat to Moonshade and inevitably he became a father figure for the boy.

His relationship with Aurora was different. He knew that she was a master but could not make sense of it, since the masters were chosen among young boys and girls of age fourteen or fifteen. However she was only seven years old and had weak 'qi' flowing all over her body. It was a year later that he understood her unique energy when Moonshade finally told him about the fact that Aurora also being a demon.

It was not that the girl was a weak master, but her excessive amount of qi was cancelling out with her natural sha energy. The doctor was the only person who knew about her true nature until Moonshade explained Madame that day. Madame only knew that the girl was a master and the boy was a demon, she would not think so much on it and therefore she had no idea that Aurora also had demon blood in her because such an unheard thing it was:

...A demon with master powers.

Thanks to the doctor who helped Aurora block her sha energy over the years, no one else found out about her being a demon, but he was not able to help with her master powers. She experimented and learned to use them all her own. She would wander off to the woods where she felt the strongest and try to feel the whole forest. She could close her eyes and see all the trees, all the animals living in those trees and would feel a great deal of joy.

Ever since Aurora heard about the Head city, she wanted to go there to learn master martial arts and also to meet the masters, but because they were not old enough to travel, she never brought it up. Since Moonshade was now sixteen and they had more control over their powers, she thought it was time for them to go. Moonshade in fact did not want to go there, he would much rather find a demon hide-out and join forces with their resistance against the Head city. He could not bare with the idea of living side by side with masters everyday but also he could not send the stubborn Aurora all by herself.

Now in Madame's room, he thought it was his last chance to change Aurora's mind. He asked her how they were going to explain the arrival of a new Earth master when the master for that year had already been chosen.

 "I'm gonna tell them that I'm the chosen Earth master from eight years ago." said Aurora.

 "But that's the friggin truth!" responded Moonshade while putting his hand on his forehead, implying that she would be making a huge mistake.

 "Because it's the truth that it's the safest thing to do. Let them figure out why a seven year old child received a master's power, not my problem. Let them contact the Spirit world if they can to ask the Spirit of Earth... Would love to see that."

"And why did you come so late my child, they will ask." asked Moonshade faking the voice of an old man, "Your answer?"

 "I wasn't old enough to travel so far away, I will say" answered Aurora laughing. "The bottom line is I am a master, as suspicious as it might be they will welcome me, they simply have to."

 "I still think we should go to a demon hideout and unite with--"

 "And what, wait for a master troop to come and kill us? We have a chance to go to the Head city, the Head city! We have a chance to meet the men from eight years ago. I'm tired of discussing it already. I am going and you are coming with me, as soon as possible. I won't have it any other way." said she and left the room angrily.

She left to find the doctor while Moonshade stayed to talk to Madame...

*End of Prologue II