Awaken

Grandma's History Lesson

The trees reached toward the moon with both full bodies of leaves and barren claws. Leaves littered the ground and crunched once walked on. At times, the trees looked as if they were bending towards us, other times a small rodent would race across the ground, sometimes getting snatched up. The wind blew past us and our hair flew with it.

We had been walking for a little bit when we heard the flapping of wings and a giant gargoyle landed in front of us. It was much bigger than the gargoyle guarding the queen. It had horns on its nose and eyebrows, with glowing yellow eyes and spikes on the shoulder and thighs. Its bottom fangs jutted out of its mouth, and it looked angry with all of its wrinkles and green skin. "What took you all so long?" It hissed.

"Sorry?" I questioned. "I can only travel at night."

"No, you misunderstand, I am asking the Prince," it growled. "He took quite a long time to collect all of you and claim you, Dragona. He knew your were his a long time ago, but refused to claim you."

" I was being considerate to the rest of the Council, and it's not unusual for a Royal to use a servant as their place when the meetings are always drab," Nemesio replied.

"Hmph," the gargoyle grumbled, "Let's go, Keys. I'll take those of you who can't fly."

Bastet just clasped her hands together, then slowly spread her arms a part, until they were in a horizontal line. Wings from her shoulder blades, a tail from her lower back, and two horns on the side of her head erupted from her body. Her nails grew out, long and razor, her eyes looked more snake like and she grinned, revealing eight fangs, four on the bottom and four on the top. Her tongue was long and forked, it danced over her lips, "I think only the Prince needs a ride."

Crescent's body became smaller and pointed, skin grew, connecting her arms and sides. Her legs and feet shrunk to non-existent, and everything became a bony color. Her nose became upturned and pink, fur started to grow and the resemblance to bat was soon realized, only her eyes remained the same. 

"Actually, I can take him-"

"No you will cause too much attention to be drawn to us," The gargoyle snapped. "You will ride with me, the Prince may use his shadows to follow us."

"Sure, ruin my fun," I muttered grumpily and climbed on the grumpy creature's back.

"You will use your transformation someday in the future," It offered in a somewhat nicer tone. "The Witch of Blood Magic ensures it. . ."

"What's your name?" I asked, as we began to take off.

"Fossil, the first of the Stone Guardians," Fossil replied, and we were up in the clouds. The stars seeming close, like glowing fairies. "Technically, I am a King in my own right."

"Well, nice to meet you, your Majesty," I chuckled as we flew forward, the others a little ways behind. The tops of trees speeding past us, while just beneath, I could swear I saw the darting of a black shadow. It was a long and mostly ride to the Witch's house, but once we were there, it was nearly sunrise and I could feel my skin sizzling.

I hissed in pain and Fossil chuckled darkly, "Just in time," then dove down, going through the ground, just to find an underground hut surrounded by water and woman with snow hair. She wasn't old at all, she looked young with mono-lid eyes that spoke to her power. Her baby face was sweet and innocent looking. She stood only an inch higher than I and wore a blue, loose, Grecian gown. "Welcome Keys."

Behind her and and the water, the stalagmite and stalactite house was shaped. Jutted and pointy  with glowing green lights, and small cave like openings for  windows. It was beautiful and etheral. The earthy browns and greens reflected the soundness and sturdiness one would expect from and underground place. The surrounding water gleamed and reflected the green lights, a rocky bridge lead to the entrance and was fixed to the right of the witch.

I got off of Fossil and Nemesio erupted out of my shadow on the ground. Bastet and Crescent flew to the ground and landed gracefully. "Grandmother!!" The Prince grinned and went to embrace her with wide arms, she smiled and side-stepped.

"Ah Nemesio, so much for visiting, right?" She sneered. "Well, aren't you going to introduce the others?"

He rolled his eyes and pushed the hair out of his face. "You know I was busy with the politics and such," he smiled, "Anyways this is my mate, Onyx, and the other two lovely ladies, Bastet and Crescent, also mates. Bastet is from the Noble family Succuba, Crescent is from Dracula, and Onyx is from-"

"Dragona," The witch cut him off, "Yes, I can smell it off of them." She eyed us all, curiously. "You may call me Circe, the eldest of the two Fallen." She headed toward the bridge and we started after her. "I'm going to tell you all a story about what you are getting yourselves into. I expect no interruptions and careful thoughts, Fossil will make sure none of you get lost in these tunnels. Understood?" We nodded and she waved her hands, opening another entrance, deeper, into the ground where the walls were coated in moss and lightning bugs were the only source of light in the damp place.

"Long ago, before the humans knew of our existence and the countries fought over power, there were the stars. They ruled over specific places and had their own realms. When humanity was created, some of them gave the stars names and called them gods and other such types of deities.  There were Greek gods, Egyptian gods, Nordic gods, Chinese, Japanese, Nigerian, Arabian, Indian-! You get the point, anyways, as time went on, religion became less important and science was all they cared about, it was a magic they understood and could perform easily, yet as they went on, they became greedy and hungered for power over each other. The results were the World Wars.

"Now the stars were upset that the humans continued in this pattern and created guardian angels to try soothe things over, however it did not bode well, so the guardians decided to create an apocalypse. Earthquakes, fire storms, floods, hurricanes, all types of storms raged over the planet and humanity was cut down. In this time, the first two guardian angel sisters wished for companions of the romantic kind, but they were sworn not to take any, as they were to be neutral and a tool for all of the stars. Of course, this did not happen. One fell in love with the embodiment of the gods of death and deception, the other with life and nature. 

"The two told each other and no one else but soon they became pregnant and both gave birth to twin daughters. They were cast out immediately and kept from their lovers, their children torn from their arms until they were older, each with its own patron god or goddess. The four children were the first of the mer, nymph, undead, and were people. 

"The price of these children being born with such power was the eternal struggle to become the top of the food chain and control the human population. Once the offspring had reached their peak the Daughters of the Fallen were to enter and eternal slumber until the god of life and the god of death finally broke free of the others magic. Once free the Daughters would awaken and challenge each other to be champion of the world and allow peace to rein or raze destruction upon the stars if they join forces, but once the end has been realized the Fallen and their lovers were to die, leaving the rest unknown." She cleared her throat, "That is the story of the Fallen, and why you are here. You will be helping break free the god of death so my daughters will rule once again. I am not sure if the last half holds any truth, but my children need to rise, and I want my love see what has happened in all of these years. I want revenge, and you all will help me deliver it. The time of the stars has ended, they are cruel and judgmental beings, and it is my turn to make them realize, that my sister and I will not be pit against each other."

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Well, this was rather informative, wasn't it? Pretty interesting right? Do you guys think the second half of the story is true? Do you want a grand war of the magic races or a war on the stars? Do you think the stars were right? What will happen next?! AH, I'M SO EXCITED!!! I hope you all enjoyed this chapter! Please remember to rate, comment, and share everyone! THANK YOU!!!!

-EmpressVampira