MONARCH - Discontinued

Prologue

Ava didn't like the wastelands. Of course, she didn't get to choose where she lived at all, but she and her brother could barely walk any further when they finally accepted that they had to settle down. Across the sea there were forests and mountains, not simply just grass and sand.

"Zitiánoi can't be choosers," is what Kerá would say, and even if Ava agreed to that saying, she knew that there were better options if the two of them could've been a little stronger.

         Kerá is 18, 14 at the time when he and Ava ran away, and Ava herself is 13, 9 when Kerá decided he wouldn't stand for their family anymore.

Ava was glad they left, because if they didn't, she might've ended up like her sister, Sydney. Though sometimes Ava forgot she had a sister, and the girl couldn't be more ashamed.

Ava knew that there was no point of remembering Sydney, but she was one of the many reasons Kerá and Ava decided to board their's father's ship and run. Now Ava and Kerá lived in Tison Village, a small town in the Parthevia Empire.

Ava's attire wasn't special. She wore an Arabian outfit (basically Alibaba's) with a dark blue sash hanging like a satchel across her torso and chocolate - brown boots.

There was only one thing that stood out, and that was a necklace that she had stole from a merchant, the first crime Ava ever committed, and never planned to commit again. It was a butterfly's wing, it's outer edge black with small white dots while the rest was a bright orange with black lines reaching out like branches.

In one of the orange parts that was outlines by black - the smallest on the top part of it's wing there was a hole that was outlined, taking place of the orange metal. A Monarch Butterfly's wing, as Ava proclaimed it.

Her hair was a few inches below her shoulders, usually in a ponytail - even if she didn't know how to put her hair in a ponytail and always asked her brother - and could only be described as brown auburn.

Most of the compliments Ava had ever received was because of her hair, brown of all different shades and shined red - orange in the mornings and sunsets, sometimes golden or blonde. Her eyes were something you had to pay attention to to actually know the true color.

Ava knew it, they were gray, not light or dark, just an in - between gray, but everyone Ava had ever met told her they were blue. Ava's main knowledge to human emotion is eye - contact, and she thought they could realize it by now, but no, they're blue.

On rare occasions her eyes would be called green, which Ava could only shrug her shoulders at. Her mother's eyes were green, but Ava didn't care what color her eyes were, as long as they represented power - which is another story for another time.

         Best thing though, is that Ava wasn't entirely human. Soft, pale yellow ears stuck out of her head, dark purple tufts that looked like feathers atop them.

         She also had a tail that you normally wouldn't be able to see because of her outfit, but it was slender, the same color as her ears and the same purple feathers on the tip.

         Now, currently, Ava was trudging behind Kerá as he did his daily run.

Ava didn't care enough to try and catch up, only attempting to interest herself with the sand and stone beneath her boots and the scarce people scuffling around her. Ava might be a little overdressed for the heat, but Kerá was inevitably worse.

Ava brought her gaze up only to automatically land on the Dungeon beyond the houses around her. Baal, she believed. It lied on the border of the Parthevia Empire, surrounded by water. Ava had to admit, it was a sight for sore eyes. She's always wondered why, or when, or how it came to be.

Interest spiked inside of the girl, but she's always held back from going there, because her brother always refused. Ava wished she knew why, but the girl didn't press further.

Kerá been getting these letters, telling him to join the army and conquer Baal, and well, this was the last day Ava would see Kerá for awhile, or even at all. Sighing to herself, Ava stopped walking, not caring how far Kerá was bound to go.

She was aware it was dangerous; people went in there and never came back, but hey, if Kerá's going in there, he's probably never coming back, and if Ava doesn't have Kerá, then the girl doesn't have anything.

A plan she's thought over millions of times entered her brain before she even realized it. When she and Kerá go back home, tell him she's going for a walk, get into the Dungeon, find out what's inside.

Simple.

Ava didn't care if she died, she just wanted to see something people haven't before. "Ava!" The said girl snapped her head around to look at her brother, who was already running back to the house. "Coming!" Ava replied, her urge to run kicking back into gear, following her brother with her ears twitching.

***

"Hey Agóri, I'm going for a walk." Ava said absentmindedly as she attempted to tie a belt around her waist which had a sword tied to it. Kerá, luckily, didn't look up from the food he was preparing, his black ears almost structurally identical to his sister's folded back in concentration, "Just come back before the moon." Ava nodded and walked out.

See, easy.

Kerá had trained her to use a sword, until she accidentally broke the wooden one she was using and now the girl trained with an actual sword. Kerá was a little motherly (even if the stubborn mule wouldn't admit it) and wanted Ava to know how to defend herself, and well, Ava was born with natural instincts on how to fight, twitching just at the thought of moving with a weapon.

Her weapon was actually handed down from her father's grandpop (great grandfather) and had this weird white symbol on the head of it, an eight - pointed star. It was made of some bronze material and curved lightly, and hilt rough black leather.

Ava stepped out onto the open sand, muttering, "Kalós, I'm coming Baal."

PS, Kerá's full name is Kerási Agóri, also Greek for "Cherry Boy." (Acording to Google Translate). Their mother is Greek while their father is simply American, or whatever they call this language in Magi. And also, Ava can speak Greek, and I'm relying on Google Translate because I'm not cool, so if I get it wrong, sorry.

Zitiánoi - Beggars
Kalós - Alright