Netherkin

Chapter Six

Stella feels at peace, gently rocking up and down from some unknown source. then consciousness hits her like a bag of bricks and completely shatters her peace. Her head feels like it's going to burst with intense throbbing pain. Why won't it go away? What could have caused this? Her muscles feel all twitchy and stiff as if begging to be used, her whole body feels uncomfortably warm.

Another intense wave of pain slams into her head and her eyes jolt open, now a blood-red.

She looks around and sees that she is riding piggyback style on Rain as he slowly trudges forward through a forest, carrying her. Instead of feeling happy or relieved looking at her friend she feels angry. Really angry. He had caused this. He was the reason everything had fallen apart. He and his stupid human armies had not done enough and now Ender is razed. Despite everything she had done for him, he had done nothing for her. Had he ever even said 'thanks' and meant it? No. He had let her get stabbed by that dagger, it was his fault, he was weak. He did not deserve to call her 'friend'.

He had used her. Stolen the glory she deserved. There was no good reason or really any why she had been chosen by the matriarch. He'd been chosen and he can't even protect himself? Pathetic. She had a better claim and deserved every bit of it! But ohhh was he going to pay. He was going to pay and it would be glorious.

She takes him by surprise and tears at his back with her hands and somewhat sharp fingernails.

" Stella, what are y-" He's cut off as Stella hops off him and then shoves him off a short cliff, the bottom only about 10 feet from the top. As Rain falls, he drops his sword and the giant greatsword on his back comes loose dropping too. This makes her smile, he would be easy prey.

She hops down the cliff landing on all fours before standing back up again. She glares at Rain. " I'll rip your heart out and eat it for what you've done to me." She thinks murderously.

"Stella what's happened to you? It's me, Rain! your friend!"

Stella hears him but her animal brain doesn't register what he's saying as words, it just all sounds like noise. Her mouth can't quite form words either.

She approaches him, but stops halfway there, the throbbing head pain back full force. The sides of her head erupt with fierce fiery pain as two rough red horns start growing through the sides of her head. Two of her teeth also elongate into fangs.

Rain's eyes gain a sad look as he comes to a realization. "Oh no. No! NO! Not you Stella! Not you too! You were one of my only friends left, and now you've been taken by everything we swear to destroy."

By the time Rain finishes what he's saying, Stella's transformation is complete. She now has two rough red pointed horns jutting from near the top, but still on the sides of her head. The horns are a bit under a foot tall. The hat she was wearing has been forced off her head and is now laying on the ground.

She emits a menacing growl as she shows off her new fangs and then sprints towards Rain. All of her grace as an enchantress is gone as she closes the gap to Rain, her movements feral. She starts swinging her fists at Rain rapidly. He catches one of her fists but this just leaves him open to a sucker punch straight into his stomach. He doubles over, but quickly recovers.

To hurt him makes her happy, satisfies her bloodlust temporarily. She needs more. She needs to hurt him more now, at this very second. A new wave of anger surges through her and she notices she has untapped power. She siphons flame from her blazing core and her palms light on fire, the fire not hurting her in the slightest.

She starts rapid-fire punching Rain. He manages to dodge most of the hits, but she's moving too fast for him to dodge them all, the punches leaving burn marks on his skin. She gives one last superheated punch to Rain's abdomen, really giving him her all, sending him flying backwards.

To see him sent sprawling gives her joy, to see his sad, solemn face makes her happy. Only a few seconds after recovering, as if to spite her, his eyes light up and he smiles. Why is he smiling?! This simply won't do. She's gonna enjoy wiping that smile off his stupid face.

Rain grabs two items out of a side pocket on his pants and pulls a book out of his back pocket as she starts charging towards him. He looks unsure of himself as he starts frantically flipping through the book and then starts chanting. She lights her palms back on fire as she charges him, getting close. The items and Rain's hand start to glow.

She has closed the distance and is about to give him a blazing uppercut when a pure white beam of light blasts out of the book and hits her square in the face. She stops moving forward and the miniature flames on her palms go out. She feels like ice cold water has been dumped on her head, she feels woozy, unbalanced and stunned.

Then the cold starts seeping into every part of her and turns blazing hot with searing intense pain. Her body feels like it's on fire and her head feels like it's going to explode. She simply can't take this much suffering at once and start screaming a very loud piercing, near-ear splitting screech full of anger and pain.

She starts blindly flailing her fists around trying to relieve the pain. She feels her heart drop when her fist connects with something and she hears the 'thump!' of a human body hitting a tree.

Right as she feels like she's going to pass out, The pain vanishings just leaving her feeling sore. She opens her eyes and looks around, seeing Rain, One of her only friends left, slumped against a tree covered in cuts, bruises and burns with blood trickling out of his mouth. The Wither spell book and an empty shattered vial laying near him.

Had she done this? Why? Why would she fight her best friend? All she remembers is passing out from the dagger, intense anger for some reason with little tangible memory and now. Tears sprang out of her red eyes as she realizes what she has done. It feels like everything is being ripped away from her.

She really hopes he isn't dead. She would never be able to forgive herself. She really wants to help but then she hears the quiet pitter-pattering of two humans footsteps approaching her location. Why can't she hear that? Doesn't matter now. Where is her spellbook? Maybe she can do a spell real quick- her spellbook isn't anywhere near. She tries snapping her fingers. Oddly enough nothing happens. Her spellbook always comes flying when she snaps her fingers! What the heck is going on?!

She can see the humans in question now as they have just appeared from behind the tree line. One is male, one is female. Both have grey skin and their dark eyes are full of malice. They are both holding weaponry.

She doesn't know why they look so angry but she does know she needs to get out of here. So she swallows up her guilt, pain and questions and runs, embracing her animalistic urge to escape, feeling dead to the world. 

(Sorry this took so long to come out, but here it is and I am really proud of it! I personally think this is one of the best chapters I have ever written! Tell me what you think.)