Reaper's Rose

Chapter One

The city I lived in was small and lowly populated. Not surprising since I presume not many humans would prefer to live in a city with a creature like so. I'm honestly not sure if other places on Earth have reapers or if any disappeared considering I don't have an interest in stepping away from my expectations.

Because of the low population I don't have to reap many souls on a daily basis. Although a child was soon to wander into the forest and injure himself, so I awaited his presence. Sitting in a tree I traced swirls into the trunk of a tree with my index finger, creating burn marks.

Children often wander into the shallow parts of the forest to play games with one another so it's more common than not that they come close to their end. The sounds of children's laughter follow the dense forest and their giggles rang.

I slid from the tree branch and as my cloak hit the ground black smoke rose enough to cover my body. My hair stretched around my body turning to fur and my physical form altered to a large black wolf. The smoke slowly dispersed and I slowly stalked close to the trees to spot and wait the children. Two young boys walked out from a large tree chasing a small brilliant blue butterfly. The older one was running and jumping to catch it while the small one giggled and chased it with a stick.

I followed their pace following behind but keeping my distance. They approached a small creek and they both slowed down and looked for a way to cross to pursue the butterfly. The older one smirked and ran across the slippery stones with the smaller one cautiously stepping across them.

"Ha, stop being a baby and hurry up, we might loose the butterfly!" The older one called out, he turned his head to laugh at his younger brother. He reached the end but karma quickly caught up with him. He tripped on the final stone. Timed seemed to have slowed down as the child fell forwards, his temple smashing into a large boulder in front of him. The small one not far behind screamed and scrambled to get to his brother.

His brother now still face into the now blood stained grass, motionless. He cried out his brother's name while constantly shaking him,"Blake!, Blake please wake up, Blake!"
I couldn't help but mutter to myself, "kid, don't shake him, he isn't waking up". I had already made my way towards them and the spotlight turned to me.

I approached the boys, the small one still screaming and wailing. Close behind them I growled in a deep tone to scare off the young one so I could finish this. The small boy looked in my direction but he didn't run. His bright green, red stained eyes just stared at me. They were full of distress and fear. It wasn't his time so I could not remove him with force, I just hoped my presence would scare him off, so I continued to move closer. My amber eyes trained on him while I let out a sharp bark.

His bright longish red hair danced in the wind covering his eyes and getting caught in his mouth as he gaped at me. Tears streamed down his face, my bark made him jump and snap out of his daze. He stood up in a protective stance in front of his brother, holding his stick in front of him like a sword.

I'd applaud him for his bravery but he was in my way. Still getting closer the boy quickly grabbed his brother and pushed him along with himself into a burrow under some tree roots.

I was starting to get annoyed and I ran towards the hole. I began to snap and snarl at the children some more, I could not hurt the small one I don't know what would happen to me if I disobeyed natural order. The small one started to scream and cry one more, but this time he screamed for others, which only meant more trouble for me.

"Papa! Papa!" Great... I could hear men shouting in the distance and the ground shook as several men raced in our direction. I knew if I wanted to finished this job had had to do it now and fast. I stretched my snout into the hole and grabbed the boy's pant leg pulling him out, he squealed and trashed at me his finger nal caught my cheek and gave it a deep wound.