Ideas and Rejects

Prequel to Shadow of Beauty

A/N: I know I should be writing the next chapter to Light of My Hearts but I've been wanting to write this little prequel to Shadow of Beauty for awhile. PrpleLily sends me lots of good vibes and prompts for extra chapters/scenarios so thanks for feeding my creative fire!

WARNING...this has gore and violence and is also pretty angsty. Just warning if you are sensitive to this.

Blind Rage

100 years ago...

It was a late fall afternoon and the sun was shining. The cool crispness of autumn had begun to nip the leaves and transform them from spritely green to fiery colors of orange, yellow, and red; life burning away like a phoenix to be reborn next spring.

Kendrick was following after his father in the canyons to the north of their mountain home. He was presently one hundred-seventy-three years old, an older teenager by giant standards and nearing the age of venturing out and establishing his own territory. He was almost as tall as his father and had been growing rapidly. His face had begun to grow faint facial hair which he fervently hoped would fill out like his father's thick beard. Alec told him to be patient. It was rare for a male giant to be smooth faced after two hundred years.

"Look here, son." Alec pointed to a particular banding in the canyon wall.

Kendrick moved up behind his father.

"What do you see?" he asked the teen.

Kendrick gave a puzzled squint, "I...don't know."

"If your eyes don't know..." Alec prompted.

"...ask your nose." Kendrick filled in the blank then scented the rock wall, "It's a vein of silver."

"Very good." His father smiled, pulling out a chunk of metal fashioned into a chiseled hammer. "Think we'll get that."

It was a pastime for both father and son to hunt for ores and other natural riches. Kendrick had already amassed a collection of his very own that he hid in a separate place than his father's. Alec let his son share in his findings. (His hoard of gold and ores was already substantial.) Neither of them really spent any of their riches save for gambling games with Alec's gnome friends. It just seemed they couldn't help themselves when it came to finding and collecting the valuable resources. Together, they stood side by side and worked on chipping out the silver.

Kendrick all at once caught the scent of humans coming from atop the canyon wall.

He sniffed and lifted his head from his digging, "There are humans somewhere nearby."

Alec smelled the air and nodded, "Several. They're probably traveling across the plain at the top of this canyon."

The younger giant moved, acting like he wanted to see what his nose told him.

"We won't bother them." Alec stated firmly. "Most likely they won't even know we're down here."

Kendrick frowned but nodded, resuming his silver collecting.

When they finished, they moved along, walking unhurried through the canyon. The granite walls were very tall, even taller than the two giants but gradually it became shallower as they neared the end of it that opened into a rocky plain that separated the mountain range and the North Woods. Soon their heads were level with the top of the canyon wall. Alec slowed his steps, scented, then squinted, but seemed to dismiss his action and kept walking.

Kendrick turned and smelled the air too when suddenly sharp burning pain hit his cheek and his brow. He flinched with a snarl, hand coming up to swat away whatever hit him. But he was instantly distracted when his father's anguished scream echoed all around him.