The Reflections Saga - The World Through the Mirror

Part 1

One cold evening as moonlight fills the streets of Rome, the mournful whistle of the wind echoes as the patter of footsteps sneak through the air. Two officers are currently on patrol maintaining a watchful eye on the streets as they pass a darkened ally, they chat amongst themselves whilst on listening to the strange silence that covers the area. A pair of eyes watch from the alley, and after the area is clear a stout ragged figure emerges. A boy clad in rags with a tangled mess of black hair and emerald eyes that seam to shimmer in the moonlight. He notices the officers and slinks away to another alley out of sight, the cold stone stinging his bare feet with each step. The rustling of stray cats ferry the boy to the silent streets of the Vatican, he wanders aimlessly, before finding himself at saint Peter's square. He begins to scout for a location to sleep for the evening. He tucks himself away behind a pillar in one of the colonnades of the square so as to not draw attention to himself. He settles down on the ice cold stone to falls asleep. The cold air of the night closes in around him as he sleeps making it uncomfortable and near impossible to bare but he tries. The wind whistles and whispers a harsh melody of sorrow as it torments the boy, but that voice of pain is shattered by an ungodly thunderous howl. The boy jumps to his feet and peers past the pillar to see two figures crash to the ground in the middle of the square.

They stand opposed as one of them calls out in a strange language, suddenly a circle of symbols begins to form around the square as the two figures clash. One of the figures doesn't seem to care about it surroundings whilst the other is trying to limit the damage they cause. As the bout rages on the boy tries to sneak his way to the edge of the square to avoid being seen or injured, but he reaches the edge of the circle as it completes and a barrier prevents him from leaving. He ducks back behind a pillar for safety and observes as the bout continues. A voice echoes over the ferocity of the action, "It is done!"

Now both figures have the same reckless abandon for their surroundings. They drift closer to the boy and he is able to make out faint details about the two figures in the moonlight. The one appears to be a large lion, and the other is some large humanoid creature with large wings. The humanoid gets thrown towards the pillar the boy is hiding behind, it stops itself before colliding with the pillar. The lion then proceeds to breathe fire at the other who blocks it with its wings. The boy decides to hide deeper within the colonnade to stay as far away from the fight, he looks out and the flames have stuck to the floor and with this he can clearly see that the lion is in fact a chimaera with the second head of a goat and the tail in the shape of a serpent. The second figure is still a mystery to the boy as the bout continues. The humanoid gets in close to the chimera and heaves the creature over its shoulder towards the boy in the colonnade, a sound the boy can only describe as creaking rock is heard with every motion of the mysterious figure. As the chimera crashes through pillars bringing the ceiling down on top of it. The boy flees from the crumbling structure out into the piazza.

The humanoid figure spots him and calls out to him with a gravelled tone, but in an instant, the chimaera bursts forth from the rubble and spots the boy as an easier meal than the thing it has been fighting so far. The chimaera begins to charge at the boy, and the lion's head jaw wide prepared to devour the smaller being, but before it can reach the other creature intervenes by catching the jaws of the lion. "Run you idiot get out of the way," commands the figure now standing defensively in front of the boy. The boy then runs to the other colonnade to hide away once more. As the chimaera pushes its opponent back, it feels a sharp pain surge through its body. In one swift motion, the other creature had dislocated the jaw of the lion's head. A shrill cry of pain can be heard throughout the square. The goat's head begins spewing flames in retaliation, but they are blocked by titanic wings once again. Now engulfed in flame the humanoid seems trapped as the chimera swipes at it with its claws and strikes from the serpentine tail. The boy bellows out towards the chimaera and its attention is averted for a moment, it begins to make its way towards the easier prey once more, it pounces but is stopped dead by the figure holding onto the serpent's body. It begins to swing the chimaera around and releases it towards the obelisk at the centre of the piazza.