.The Child Of A Goddess.

-3-

Amata's POV:

I backed away from her as she slowly got revealed from the darkness, and what caught my attention first was how the chains wrapped around her.

Two chains, each holding one of her legs to the ground by her ankles, two more chains with one around each wrist and holding her arms out at shoulder level, one chain around her hips, one around her stomach near her ribs, and... One was missing. I saw seven while coming here. This is just six.

I saw a heptagonal pattern around the ceiling; each place a chain came from had a number and a specific minimalist drawing, and the number four, with a wolf drawing on the chain, was hanging, resting on the ground with its end like ripped apart.

"Seven drawings for the seven chains for seven races: dragon, vampire, dwarf, werewolf, angel, demon, and elf~. The werewolf chain is now gone~. You awoke your first hidden powers, and you've become closer to setting me free~!!!" Her bone-chilling laugh echoed through the room while I was lost; seven races? Set free? Hidden powers? No piece of the puzzle clicked yet. "So~ what will you do now~?"

I stared into her death, bringing red eyes as I slightly shook even if I tried not to.

Her most eye-catching feature was the red lines and markings running down her skin, from her face to her hands, with the softest glow to them. Her attire was light leather brown with red markings, and she had a hoodless red cape on.

Her hair was short and black, along with the tufts of fur around her wrists and neck, and she also had wolfish features, ears, and a tail.

I closed my eyes, hoping for the feeling to stop, and after a while, it did, but when I opened my eyes again, I was horrified.

A whole field of dead bodies... Left and right... Even the wind blowing past wasn't loud enough to blow the thick silence away.
It soon started raining hard, drenching me in water in a few minutes, making my clothing and hair stick to my skin as I was shocked and immobile.

I looked down wide-eyed at my shaking hands covered in blood, and I started gagging from the coppery taste in my mouth, throwing up on the ground, coughing, and trying to spit out the blood I knew wasn't mine from my mouth.

I stood up shakily, looking back at my hands. My fingernails had become black claws, same with my feet; fangs were sharper, strange red markings running up my arms, stomach, upper body, and face visible as I looked at my reflection in the armor of a dead vampire.

My ears had changed to wolf ears; I also had a tail hanging still right now, as red as my hair.

"W-what's going on?" I shook... Feeling and knowing I was the one that killed all these people, I just knew, as if the moon goddess herself wasn't letting me think otherwise.

"W-wh-- dad!" I looked around fast, instantly finding the hill, and ran over. Even my speed changed with my body; I was much faster, and when I took off, the ground broke under my feet, so my strength also got enhanced somehow.... but how

"Dad!" I fell on my knees at his side, mouth open in a slight smile as tears of relief fell as he was awake and looking at me now. He was alive. "I thought you d-died on me! I w-was so scared! L-let's get you patched up... Y-you did tell m-me always to have a f-few bandages tucked in m-my quiver." I was sniffling like a little kid.

"A-Amata... My dear pup... I'm really sorry, but that's impossible... I'm dying right now, and nothing can stop that."

"W-what?! Don't joke with me!" I tried to pick him up, but he grabbed my arms to stop me, held my hands tight but gently in between his own, and kissed my bloody knuckles without a worry while I was crying in sorrow but relief at him being alive now. "D-dad, you can't say t-that, you can s-still be saved." He passed a hand on my cheek and kept it there. I took one of my hands out of his hold and grabbed his hand.

"I can't... The day I decided to take you as my daughter meant I would die when you were ready."

"B-but I not ready for anything! I'm not a master hunter! I can't cook to save my life! I'm not even an adult yet!" I half yelled at him while sobbing loudly, deep inside knowing he was right... But why?

"You might not be ready for those, but I meant when you are ready for your powers." I was shaken since he said something similar to the wolf woman I had just met.

"W-what kinda of powers?! Why did you say the same a-as her?!"

"Her? Ah... It seems you met your wolf... Or beast as your mother called it... Her..."

"I-I don't understand anything anymore!"

"Amata dear... 17 years ago, I was traveling to the town we live in, alone unlike what I told you before... I then heard the cry of a child... A baby... I followed it in a small clearing; nature itself surrounded the baby to keep it safe; the trees pulled their leaves away to let the warm sunlight warm the child, their roots making a small doom of protection around the baby... Grass grow smooth and thick for the child's comfort, and animals of different size come to watch the small life... And then there was a spectral woman... The most beautiful woman anyone could ever lay eyes upon... But she was none corporal, a ghost, a specter, getting more visible as I got closer to her and the child... That woman is our creator. I was blessed by being able to lay my eyes on our splendid moon goddess... Her voice was all around me, not coming from a fixed point... She said she couldn't take her children continuing these wars and falling like flies on the battlefield and that she had sent this child to our world to stop it... That child was mighty. She sealed her powers up until she was ready to learn to use them... She also said if I were to take the child in, I was to teach it the world's rights and wrongs of the world, but I would need to give her my life when the time had come for the child to continue her road alone."

"D-don't tell me..." I was shocked out of my skin.

"Yes, Amata, you are that child. Your destiny is to stop these wars; you are to do it... I... love... you..." His eyes closed slowly, with a tired smile gracing his thin lips.

"I love you too, so please stay!.... Dad! I don't know how! Dad, you must help me! Tell me how! I'm not ready! Dad! DAD!!" I screamed as he closed his eyes, his face relaxed, and his grip slacked with his other hand slipping out of my loose hold that held it to my face.

I stared without a word, with eyes going wide as tears continued cascading from my eyes.

"... A-ah... Aaah......AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!!!" I screamed from the top of my lungs, gripping my head tightly between my tensed-up shaking hands. I screamed louder than the rain and thunder. I screamed at the sky in pain; I screamed until my voice abandoned me, and I had no tears left in my body.

I didn't notice at first, but over the time I talked with Dad and the time I stopped screaming, my nails turned back to normal, and the red markings I could see faded. I have no idea if those on my face did or didn't. My ears turned back to normal, my fangs went back to their original size, and my tail was gone... But to be honest, right now, those were the least of my worries.

I couldn't take it... I fell to my side in the mud next to Dad while facing him, staring with half-closed eyes and a blank expression on my face.

The only sounds being the rain, thunder, and wind washing over the bloody field of the dead.

I closed my eyes. If only death could take me away right here and right now... But even so, I wished this. I knew that wouldn't be possible...