Unknown Bloodlines

Chapter 1

Swish ~~ swish ~~ swish~~

My thick, raven black locks swirled gently around my heart-shaped face as soft gusts of wind wound through the tall trees. No, the trees couldn’t be described with just the word “tall”; they towered towards the sky the way 20 houses built on each other would. In other words, they were gigantic. At that very moment I was hid crouched behind buttress roots jutting out of the ground. In my hands, a long bow was held poised, the string stretched taut as my eyes targeted the elk nibbling delicately at the jade green grass.
I exhaled and let the arrow fly.

Thwack~

The elk squealed once in pain, rearing up on its hind legs, the arrow sprouting like a sapling from its flank.  Forelegs hitting the ground, it took off at a slow, limping run, sounds of agony slipping from its throat. I smirked as I stared at it, not a tiny bit of compassion in my soul. I never was one to feel sorrow when death came to collect its debt. I supposed that was a trait hunters shared. Death was just a part of the circle of life; babies are born every day, people perish every day. When the old was too weak to carry on, the new would replace them. In my eyes, the elk was no more than an old machine that needed replacing and I was just doing nature a favour by disposing the old, wretched machine. Other than that, I was just a predator hunting down its prey. Sighing absently, I pulled another arrow from my quiver, and followed the trail of scarlet blood deeper into the forest. This time I would aim for its neck.

20 minutes later, I dragged the elk’s corpse in the general direction of my village. The velvety texture of the elk’s horns soothed my fingers, raw from shooting arrows in the make shift practice range in the backyard of my house and hunting. Dragging home a kill after half a day of hunting was a tedious job, unless you were a tourist on a hunting trip during open season. Sighing in boredom, my thoughts wondered ahead. I wonder how dad is handling his paranoia. Dad had been edgy and restless the last time I saw him, mumbling something about the calm before the storm. Mum wasn’t all that worried about him as I was, said it came with the job. I remembered the look of annoyed affection on her face when dad went into one of his rants about how the wall wasn’t as safe as people perceived. Yeah, my father was of the Garrison squad; one of the many soldiers who saw to the wall and kept up maintenance. Being on the Garrison watch also meant he was frequently at the walls and hardly home. Usually, I got to see him on the weekends, but if something crept up, I would not count on seeing him. To make matters more complicated, we lived in a village more than a few yards away from the walls, even getting to the city took us 2 days.

Dad hasn’t been back for the weekend, I wonder if everything’s alright. My father’s paranoia was eating on my nerves. News was slow to reach our village. I gazed up at the clouds and thought how the soldiers weren’t taking their jobs seriously. 100 years of peace and tranquility had made them lazy and convinced them the titans were never coming back. People had even begun to speculate those oversized cannibals were just a made-up story to ensure the power of the higher authorities. I bit my bottom lip as I contemplated that claim. The government lying on purpose didn’t seem to add up. After all, there were 50 meter walls surrounding the cities; Wall Maria, Rose and Sina. I read in ancient books, forbidden books, I might add that told of kings and pharaohs that had statues and gigantic structures made to symbolize their power and wealth, but none had described anything like the walls that surrounded our land…

Just then, I emerged from the break between these towering trees and came to the vast plain where our tiny village was nestled between the slight slopes and dunes. A few trees dotted the area while cottages frequented the green expense.  Villagers milled around carrying out daily chores as children frolicked.

“Ilolana! You’re back!” came a familiar voice on my right. Turning, I caught a glimpse of my brother, Sabien, sauntering up the nearby slope towards me. Sabien wasn’t much older than me; he was born a few months before me, which technically meant he was the same age as I. Despite the small difference between the months of our birthdays, we were as different as night and day. However, "different" was not a word used to describe our appearances. At the age of 14, both of us taller than most boys and girls in the village. We both had raven black tresses and our eyes were a startling blue; "bluer than the bluest sky" was what our mother called them. With our perpetually thoughtful faces and sharp minds, people always mistook for late-teens, instead of 14-year-olds.

Looking at Sabien now, with his eyes shining and a wide grin stretched over his face, I couldn't resist the smile that tugged at my lips. I love my brother, but I wasn't about to let that get to his head. "Where have you been, Sabien? Slacking off again?"  

Sabien laughed. “Is that how you greet your older brother? You sure have a lot of nerve,lil' sister. ”

I rolled my eyes and opened my mouth was a snarky retort on my tongue but he waved a parchment clutched in his hand. That immediately caught my attention. “A letter from Dad? “

“The message came this morning, some pigeon flew in our house and dropped off a piece of parchment. But I don't know what to think of it." At that point, his grin slipped a little as if he remembered something troubling. 

"What is it?"

Without a word, he thrusted the crumpled parchment into my hand. Giving him a puzzled look, I unfolded it and we both leaned over to get a better look, the elk long forgotten. 

My dear children, I don't have long to give you a lengthy explanation of what is happening. Just do as I say and leave the village. There isn't time to warn the others, just take your mother and go! 

Father

Reading the scribbled note, alarm bells started ringing in my mind. But they weren't pinging like crazy. I was still wondering if it was Dad's paranoia acting up again. But he couldn't have sent a note if it wasn't urgent. I reread the note twice and still drew a blank space in my mind. What was happening? Suspicion crept into my mind, but I refused to accept it. My hands started to shake. It can't be... It can't be... 

"Ilolana? Are you alright?" I looked up, right into the blue eyes so similar to mine. "You look awfully pale." 

I opened my mouth and closed it and repeated that action like I was a fish out of water. Of all the things I could do, convincing my brother was a tough job. That was a trait he possessed that I didn't. Sabien had always been the more stubborn of us two. He refused to believe tales and stories unless it was proven to be true. It made him hard-headed and guileless. I, on the other hand was persistent but not stubborn. Believing and trusting was simple for me. But for some reason, my instincts told me the note was true; almost as if it were stamped with a bright red TRUTH.

"Lana?" 

Rumble, crash, boom, boom~

Sabien's eyes took on a look of confusion. What was that? The rest of the villagers too paused in their activities. A puzzled atmosphere seeped throughout the village. The trees of the forest had started to rustle and shake, scattering flocks of birds into the sky and raining leaves onto the ground. Soon, animals of all shapes and sizes came running out of the forest, straight past us with fear etched in their eyes. Bewildered, I caught hold of Sabien's hand and pulled him aside as a herd of panicking elks stampeded past us. Screams and the sound of things falling over filled the air.  Then, over the cacophony of chaos, an eerie moan ululated from the depths of the forest, sending shivers down my spine. Squinting, I looked in the general direction of the sound and what I saw shook me to the core and my blood ran cold.

“Sabien?” I whispered as a huge leg emerged from the forest followed by it's body.