Createrra

Chapter I: Part I

"Theo, dear. Come sit down." The woman pat the seat beside her. "Come, come here. Let me tell you a story, my child." 

The small boy picked up his toy rabbit, running over to his mother to sit down. He held his rabbit in his arms, looking up at his mother. The room was faintly lit with a crackling fire, and the noise of hail could be heard outside.

"Ready?" The boy nodded. "Let me tell you the tale of Createrra, dear. A long, long time ago, this land used to be many separate pieces, and the planet used to be known as Earth. Humans, just like you and me-" She pointed at her son's chest, "-used to thrive in beautiful, huge cities. We only inhabited the land with animals at the time, these creatures were food, companions, and friends. However, although we thrived, we were sinful. The poor and the oppressed wanted to be equal, yet the middle and the rich wanted more for themselves. Although this negativity fed our God of Chaos, the Goddess of Peace believed this could not go on much longer. They bickered for day and night, until finally settling on a decision. The God agreed to stop the humans, but the Goddess had to allow him to create his own chaos. That's- oh, I see. All you needed to fall asleep was a boring story. Goodnight, dear Theo."

"Theo." The voice lingered.

"Theo!" It got louder. The young adult opened his eyes, sitting up. He felt a pulsing pain in his head, and the lights within the tent nearly blinded him. 

"You can't just keep passing out like this, human." The tusked creature growled. He had a crown of horns, and scales coating parts of his body. 

"Apollo! Go easy on him, you've been making him work all day." The shorter, chubbier man with wings barked in response. "Of course he's going to pass out-" He whispered, "-Humans are a lot weaker than most of us." 

"I'm not being lenient for him, Julio. His brother is our enemy, and we're putting ourselves in danger for housing him. I don't care how pathetic his muscles are, if he wants our protection, he can do some fucking work around here." Apollo pointed at Theo as he rose his voice, his long elf-like ears flattening to show aggression.

"You're really perpetuating that obsidian dragon stereotype, Apollo." Theo groaned as he focused on his surroundings. That made a growl rise from the dragon's throat. The front of the tent opened to show a tall, skinny man with black claws and a pointed, arrow tail. 

"Apollo, the supplies are.... ready, right?" His voice was quiet and soft. "The others are here to stock up. Apparently the weather up north is even harsher than past years." 

"Yes, yes, it's all ready. Theo, do you think you can help me and Takashi? We're simply carrying boxes, do you think you can handle that?" Apollo sneered at the human.

"Yeah- Yeah, I can handle that." Theo nodded.

The three exited the tent, stepping into the snow. The surrounding land was primarily barren snow, except for the tree line to the south. The weather was clear today, but that's not generally the case. Considering they live within the Northern Territories, the clear weather is a miracle. The three trudged through the snow, going towards the storage tent. The storage tent was beside the sleep tent, and behind those two tents was the Captain's tent. Two clan members stood guard at his tent, nobody was allowed in there without permission. Apollo and Takashi grabbed rather large boxes of supplies, while Theo grabbed the smallest of the bunch. They navigated towards a large wagon, which had two people beside it. They were wyrms, yet they chose to show themselves in their humanoid forms. One had arms formed with ice, while the other had arms formed with rocks. Theo pushed the box onto the wagon, before looking at the two wyrms.

"Oh, you two must be the far-northerners! I'm uh- Theo. Nice to meet you?" Theo smiled nervously, holding out his hand. The frost wyrm stared blankly at him. 

"Ah- I'm sorry. Jinkyu isn't well versed in the human language yet, I'll translate for you." The terra wyrm turned, speaking what must've been wyrmish to Jinkyu. Jinkyu suddenly nodded and smiled, shaking Theo's hand. He looked over at the other wyrm, responding to him with the same tongue. "Jinkyu says it's nice to meet you as well. I'm Callan, by the way." He grinned.

"So... you two live further north? What's it like up there?" He tilted his head. Callan turned to translate once more for Jinkyu.

"See, Jinkyu knows much more about the North than I do. He used to be one of the wyrms in the mountain range." He stood and listened to Jinkyu, nodding. "The farther you go, the harsher it gets. Jinkyu says even for a frost wyrm, staying in the mountains was more comfortable. He might have thick skin and a large coat of fur, but even wyrms like him get cold."

"Theo! Stop slacking." The dragon barked. Theo ran over, following Apollo and Takashi to the storage tent.

As night fell, the three finally finished loading the wagon for Jinkyu and Callan. The wyrms agreed to stay for the night, heading to the mess tent with the other three. The same, chewy, salt-cured meat and tough, root vegetables was being served up that night, and the mess tent was rather loud and busy. Theo sat down with the others, visibly anxious from the noise. 

"Hey kid, you okay? Dakota and I heard you passed out durin' work again. Apollo isn't being too harsh on you, is he?" The siren across from Theo spoke. He was capable of being on land due to having the magical abilities to gain legs, but considering he was a tropical siren, he was bundled up in a large, fur coat. Even then, he was shaking from the cold.

"I've been as harsh as I am on everyone, Hau. I treat everyone equally-"

"Yeah, with equal hatred." Dakota laughed. Apollo growled, baring his teeth.

"Boys, no fighting." Hau joked. "Anyway, we should get to bed soon, especially you two." He pointed at Theo and Apollo with his fork. "Didn't boss tell you to take the newbie out on patrol tomorrow? That'll be fun."

"Oh like hell I am. You know the Western Clan's been inching way too close to the border, and I'm not going to be held responsible when this pathetic child gets himself killed."

"I'm eighteen!" 

"Whatever, as I was saying, I'm not going to let boss tell me what the fuck to do when it comes to the human. For fuck's sake, he's even a sad excuse for a human! If boss has an issue with that he can tell me face to face, but it'd be a miracle if he left that tent of his."

"You really shouldn't be talking like that-"

"Oh really? It's not like he has the magic to see what's going on. And what's he going to do if I leave the human here?"

"I don't know, Apollo. What do you think I'll do?"

Apollo and the others on his side of the table turned. All but Apollo bowed their heads in respect to the kirin in front of them.

"Aarav." Apollo snarled, giving the kirin a death-glare.

"You will be taking Theo to patrol tomorrow. I'm trusting him with you because you know how to handle intruders. Understood?"

"Aarav-"

"Are we clear, Apollo?" Apollo flinched slightly, before backing down.

"Yes- Yes, sir."