Origin of the 12th

Chapter 1: The Prince of Jericho

The door fell open and two men walked in. There were two people in the house, a woman and a little girl. The men grimaced slightly. They didn't want to kill either of them, but their orders demanded that they could not take adults prisoner. As one of them raised his sword, the woman screamed, but the child made no noise. Her eyes flashed with interest as the steel struck and the woman collapsed. The men noticed a glowing insignia of the number 12 on the child's neck, hidden under the long hair that matched the liquid on the ground. Bleeding on the floor, the woman reached out to the little girl. As the child crept closer, the woman whispered these words.

"Beauty is convenient, but intelligence is essential. Remember that, Katrina, even though you are a girl."

Those were the last words that my mother had spoken to me before the slavers of Jericho had dragged me off. I was thrown in a cart and moved to the great city. The great wall was still under construction, but it towered over any in the land. There was a slight opening hidden near the brothel neighborhood that I made note of. The car eventually reached the bustling central marketplace and the prisoners were unloaded. The slavers were soon auctioning off the prisoners of war as slaves and the marketplace was filled with buyers. I have blood-red hair and blue-eyes, features that were extremely exotic for the area, so I was confident that I would be bought on the first day of selling.

Sure enough, I was immediately purchased by a wealthy man for 50 pounds of gold. "This girl is gonna make me mighty important. The first slave of the new horde." the man chuckled as he took up my leash. As I was led to the fool's manor, I managed to pick up a small weed without being noticed and hid it in my crimson hair. This would help me if I needed to kill the man, but I hoped that I wouldn't need to.

Unfortunately I decided that I needed to at the moment in which we arrived at the man's home. The man was clearly a drunkard and a womanizing glutton, clearly a master who would tear me apart later in life. "Alright listen kid. I'm gonna be at someone's house today, so make sure you know your way around by the time I get back." The man said before leaving to indulge himself in prostitutes. Disgusted, I decided that I would minimize my time under this idiot by killing him as soon as possible.

At the moment of his departure, I quietly dashed to where the man's wives slept. Using the weed, I slit their throats, aiming for the intersections between the cells. Even though these women had done nothing wrong, their execution was necessary in order to obtain what I needed. Taking one of the bodies out, I quickly dismembered it, and took the juices of the stomach before they ran dry. Identifying the most sickly sections of blood, I took them and merged them with the stomach acids. The resulting substance was a deadly poison, one of instantaneous death. I took care to properly hide all five bodies afterwards.

I went to make some bread, taking the substance with me. While the bread was baking, I slathered it with the substance, taking care to position it for the most immediate consumption. As a last touch, I took the most aromatic hormones from the corpses as well as the most fragrant perfumes that were in the house. After placing the bread at the front of the door, I hid in the fireplace as to be out of sight, but still able to watch the door. I was confident that the man wouldn't be able to resist eating it. It's only natural. Men cannot resist food, just like pigs.

It was night when the man opened the door and saw the bread. He immediately picked it up and ate it voraciously. The instant that he finished, he fell over dead. Even though the whole process was quite crude, I had to chuckle a bit. That fool never stood a chance.

I emerged from my hiding place and ran out the door. The moon was high in the sky, so the possibility of guards was very unlikely. All I had to do was get to the opening of the wall that was under construction and I would be free.