Split in Two

Chapter Three

It was midnight in the palace, and Sworium had fallen asleep inside Gerana's room. Gerana was roaming the halls, guard free. She had a question at the top of her mind ever since she had the thought of becoming queen. She was going to go to that secret room by the far side in the dining room. What was in there, what could possibly be sitting on that pedestal. Her father's crown. Maybe that was what could be so special, that nobody could enter. She was going to find out what could be inside. She ran as fast as she could across the dining room halls to get to the door. It was a door made of gold with a sign that said "DO NOT ENTER, " but Gerana obviously didn't care about the sign. CreAk. She slowly opened the door. On the pedestal wasn't her father's crown nor father's strongest assistant, It would be her own! On the pedestal, it said Gerana's crowning tiara, DO NOT TOUCH, April 21. Right now it was October. "That meant next year when I become thirteen on February 9,  it will be two months later until my crowning for Dark queen." She would just have to keep this a secret that she saw this, as if this never happened. She looked around the room. Pictures of her father being alive, lots of them. He didn't look too happy. Gerana just started wondering "How did her father die?" He would just keep quiet and not say a word every time she had asked before. She kept looking. Treasure boxes and all sorts of magical artifacts. Shelves of all sizes. Hidden papers sealed underneath desks and shelves of silver and bronze. Gerana came here for something interesting, so she tried to pull the papers out from underneath the furniture. As she rummaged through the papers she found her father's plans for the ceremony. Maybe something like a feast or a celebration, but what he planned as the dark king really matched his title. Something completely opposite of Gerana's plans. An attempt to kill. She couldn't tell what else it said, the ink was smudged and a tear cut right through the paper as if it was a stopping point for Gerana to continue. A period at the end of a sentence. She would have to figure out who this was and save them. What if this person wasn't someone else, it could have been her father's plans to kill her! That's only what she would expect, especially from a cold-blooded jerk like him. He locked her up in a room for years, only until she understood darkness. Used her only as a tool to kill. When she was the queen of darkness she would have better plans. She would show him how to use his five lives until she was free.

...

For hours all Gerana would think about was her father's plans, but she wasn't surprised. He would probably want to keep his power all to himself, that is what Gerana would expect living with him for years now. Now it was Gerana's chance to taste some of that power. No obstacles can get in her way. She skipped breakfast so caught up in her thoughts, she went out into the forest, deeper this time. Gerana felt bloodlust, so she went for training with Sworuim. The usual, living her boring everyday life, she would just have to tweak her schedule just a bit, add some other plans in. It was very misty that morning. The mist moved along with the cool breeze. That sent chills up Gerana's spine. Obviously, she wasn't scared she was prepared for anything to happen. Her bright silver eyes glared ahead sensing a new area of the forest. The ground was very moist and mud reached up to her knees but drowning Sworium. Then she would have to carry him the rest of the way. The mist started to get thicker and it got darker and darker. Gerana pulled out her blade and continued. A booming rose from up ahead, slowly getting closer to them, three pairs of huge eyes glaring at them. She walked towards it very confident in herself. The mud got thin enough for Sworium to stand, so he jumped out of Gerana's arms ready for what was to come. Sworium growled heavily at the creature ahead of them and sniffed the air. It seemed to be a familiar scent to him. He ran towards it. A Cerberus, of the enemy pack. To be more specific the leader of the enemy pack. Sworium's pack split in two because of the two leaders. They were both overwhelmed with power, and so they split ready to fight for power the next time. Sworium's killing instinct rose and Gerana ran to his side. Sworium knew it's weakness, aim for the center head. But it wasn't too easy, why would he be a leader who was weak. You could never guess what the enemy could do. Gerana tried slicing at its paws distracting it. It made a huge wound, but no distraction. It sliced with one of its paws at Gerana, but she evaded the attack, leaving an opening for Sworium. He shot out from behind, sliced the center dog until it went down. The dogs on the sides were dragging the center dog along slashing at them until they hit. Surprisingly they slashed Gerana's side with all the power they had left and collapsed. That was an unexpected twist of events.

...

Gerana returned to her room with Sworium and brushed her fingers through her hair. It was long, black, and silky. If it wasn't for her eye messing up her face with the scar cut across it, she would love her look. As she was brushing through her hair her fingers stopped midway, not on purpose. She walked over to the mirror and thought, "Perhaps a giant knot got caught in my hair. But that couldn't be, her hair was as soft as silk. She looked into the mirror, paused for a moment and then shrieked. She felt her scalp once again and looked into the mirror in disbelief. Devil horns sprouted from her head. Curled and black.

"It looks like I have a ram's head!" She yelled angrily. "What more do I need?!" This was the same as Gerana's hair growing black, she had sprouted devil horns and then she'll have to deal with the third stage. She sighed heavily and then looked behind her. Sworium grew tremendously! He was the size of a pup and now he was the size of an adult wolf! "Must have been the training Gerana thought." She placed her sword inside her closet drawer until she saw the word war fade away and instead engraved into it said "Find Her". "Who could "Her" possibly be?" Gerana couldn't take all of this in at once. Her head started pounding like a drummer or when she was really angry and she pounded the wall as hard as she could. Her vision blurred and she fell to the ground.

The moment Gerana opened her eyes she realized she was in the palaces hospital wing, a crowd of beasts circling around her including her father who seemed pleased. How could he seem pleased at a time like this?! Even her hospital food tray had the words "Find her" indented into the thick plastic!

"The second stage huh," he said with a smirk printed onto his face. "Well, you still got one more."

"What?" Gerana said gasping for breath. She had no clue about these stages.

"Well, you wait and see."