Prologue - Screams in the Night
"It's a terrible, bloody massacre..."
Finally, someone had spoken.
Meruko Shang could do nothing but nod his head in disgusted agreement. Before them lay a hellish scene of blood and body parts that would haunt their dreams for years to come. The gruesome sight had left his limbs numb as his mind tried to process what he saw before him.
"They must've been from that foreign merchant ship that wrecked off the coast a few miles up. Look at them both, skins are whiter than rice. They most definitely are not from here." muttered Meruko, lifting his torch to better survey the bodies. The pieces appeared to be what was left of a man and woman.
"They probably wandered the forest for days, searching for help."
"Yeah, but then what happened?" questioned another man. "What could've done this?"
"Looks like wolves." came another's reply.
"That's nonsense!" retorted Meruko, "We don't have wolves this far south."
"Then what do you think happened?" snapped the other man indignantly.
Meruko shrugged and began to inspect the bodies.
The people of Tumiére had been awakened in the early morning hours of a still darkened sky by terrible, dream piercing screams shattering the cool air. The sounds seemed to have come from somewhere on the edge of the forest that bordered their village. Startled from their sleep, the men had quickly rallied, arming themselves with pitchforks and torches before heading off to investigate the disturbance.
Unfortunately, they had arrived too late.
A slight twitch of the woman's hand caught Meruko's eye. "By the Sea, this one is still alive!" he shouted, quickly kneeling down to help the bleeding woman. She was barely clinging to life, gesturing wildly towards her bulging abdomen.
"She's pregnant!" Meruko swiftly tore off his shirt and tried to stem the bleeding from the worst of her wounds.
"Quickly! Let's get her back to the village!" ordered one of the other men. They all sprang into action, carefully picking up the bleeding woman, focusing all their attention on not jostling her damaged body.
In their haste, they failed to notice the many pairs of slanted, yellow eyes hiding in the darkness, watching the villagers from behind the trees.
***
"We will have to work quickly if we are going to save the baby," explained the midwife, hurriedly cutting away what remained of the broken woman's clothing. "We can't do anything for the mother, and we will have to cut the baby out. She hasn't progressed far enough into her labor, and she doesn't have the strength to push. If we want to give this poor woman a chance to see her baby before she dies, we will need to act quickly. She is fading, we only have a few minutes left before she passes."
They began to separate mother from baby, slicing open her abdomen with a serrated knife. The woman awoke from her dying coma to scream out her suffering. She coughed as blood began to seep out of her mouth, but she remained still so as to not endanger her baby.
At last, a small boy was nestled in the midwife's arms. She gently brought the baby to the mother's face so that she could see that her child had arrived safely. The foreign woman choked out a few words, spraying both midwife and baby with her blood as she desperately tried to communicate her wishes.
And then, with one more shuddering breath, the dying woman at last slipped into her final sleep. Death embraced her quickly after her eyes closed for the last time, ending her agony and reuniting her with her husband.
***
"Meruko, we can't let the elders sacrifice him to the Sea Gods. Look at him, so tiny and soft. He needs someone to protect him." argued Shria, cradling the newborn baby boy.
"I know my love," answered Meruko, trying to comfort his wife, "but it isn't up to us."
"Nonsense! You go to the council and tell them that we will take him!" she whispered harshly. "Look at him! His hair is so beautiful Meruko; golden, like the sun. And his skin is so smooth. And oh, my love...look at his eyes...He is the most beautiful baby I have ever seen. He is going to be great someday, I promise you. I can already tell that he has an important destiny. He was meant to be mine!" she ended fiercely, stroking the babe's already long tresses with tender, loving fingers.
Meruko observed the pair of them closely. He knew that dreams of motherhood had long since faded from his wife's mind after years of failing to produce a child, but could now see that they once again had awoken with an intensity that stirred his very soul. Seeing his wife there, cradling the foundling child, he knew that she was right; the child was meant to be theirs. Meruko pledged right then and there, that he would be the one to protect this baby.
"But what of his birth parents? Do we ever tell him the truth? He will know that he is not born of us." Meruko asked.
"No. We will tell him that the sea claimed his parents. The truth is too cruel, too violent." Shria answered.
As the new family huddled together under the golden light of the rising sun, a lone wolf's howl rang through the quiet little village; sounding almost as if it were a warning battle cry, foretelling of dangers yet to come.
YOU ARE READING
Warrior of the Stars- Book one of the Jay Shang Chronicles
Fantasía"Eventually, they formed their own great race of people, formed from citizens of many different countries. All of them, identifying as Kimanche - Chosen of the Gods..." Jay Shang has always been a foreigner among his people, an oddity whispered abou...
