Power of the Zega

Chapter 2

I was pretty sure I was dreaming. I squeezed my eyes shut and opened them again, only to find the Alpha still standing there, smirking. “Done wishing?”

Woah. If he wasn’t evil, I would have a crush on him. His voice was smooth, like water cascading over rocks. His pelt was smooth, and black blended gently into blood red. His eyes were a beautiful green, but the left one had a scar straight through it, covering his pupil completely.

I glanced past him to see if the rumors were true. His scythe-tail gleamed, bloodstained. I whimpered. They were true. He saw my fear, and his tail twitched. In an instant, the cold, bloodstained metal was buried in my neck fur. “This is the Bearer…correct?” he asked.

I scowled. “The bearer of what? Fur?” I replied sarcastically, rolling my eyes. “Silence, you fool!” one of the guards piped up behind Alexian. A look of displeasure crossed his eyes, and the cold weight of the blade disappeared from my neck. Suddenly blood was everywhere, and the guard crumpled to the ground.

Dead.

“Stand up,” Alexian ordered calmly. When he saw I wasn’t obeying him, he bared his teeth and let loose a low growl. I boldly looked into his eyes and rolled my own. “Oh, what are you going to do, kill me?”

His growl turned into a chuckle, and the edges of his mouth spread into a wide smile. “You wouldn’t believe how tempting that is,” he said. “But, I would like some fun with the Bearer before she dies.”

The heck? Bearer? Why did that sound familiar…? “Well, you’ve got the wrong wolf,” I said, getting up on my paws. It hurt to stand, but I did it anyways. I wasn’t going down without a fight.

He looked taken aback, then glanced at my forehead with interest.  “If I have the wrong wolf…” he started, then circled me, “…then why do you have royal blue fur? A weird tail? The Symbol of Eclipse? Just like the one in the Foretelling.”

By the time he had made a full circle around me, and paused in front of me, I was shaking, eyes wide. No…he’s joking! He does this to every Zega he kills! Just plays with them!

But I knew this wasn’t a cruel joke. My reflection haunted me: I was abnormal, with a blue coat, strange tail, but most of all, a cursed mark on my head.

You are special, Mom’s words echoed in my head, your destiny is great. Far greater than anything you can find here.

“You’re beginning to understand,” he noticed, a gleam in his eyes. “I would like you to live, but…you haven’t given me what I wanted. We’ll just have to drag you back to the Alpha’s Pinnacle.”

No way was I going with this handsome creep! I growled at the advancing guards, and swiped at them, drawing blood. They backed off, scared.

“The hard way it is. Go find her house, and her friends’ as well. They’ll have to be killed in front of her.”

Hell no.

Nobody, and I mean, nobody, messes with MY friends.

I felt the air around me tingle with an electric feeling. The temperature dropped, and it grew dark. The ground shook. Suddenly, there was a bright silver light…

And as soon as it had started, it stopped. But the scenery had changed completely.

Every guard and Imperial Hawk that had been standing around me was dead. The alleyway wasn’t crumbled and rusted anymore; it had been returned to its former glory, lines along the walls pulsating with blue light. The street and walls were white.

Unfortunately, Alexian was still standing, but he looked like he had been hit by a dragon. Both of us were panting, me from exhaustion, and him from Lupus-knows-what. Then he sighed, stood up straighter, and smiled a smile I was getting tired of.

“I got what I wanted; not only that, but I found your fatal flaw.” He turned, and began to trot away, admiring the walls. He stopped when the white alleyway met the crumbling part of the alleyway. “I’ll give you until sunset to leave the city to begin your quest,” he said over his shoulder. “I will give you as much time as you need to train. But in the meantime…” he smiled again. “I’ll keep a little prize for myself.”

He vanished into thin air, a small gust pushing me back. I checked the sun.

Five minutes.

I jumped up onto a building, and bolted to my house. The sun was already sinking behind the buildings in the west. You couldn’t see the West City, unless you were at the top of North City’s Alpha’s Pinnacle. But that didn’t concern me. What did Alexian mean by “little prize”? I got a sinking feeling just thinking about it. What is that freak gonna do now?

I would find out sooner than I thought.

I burst into the opening of my house, yelling, “Mom! Mom!” But instead of the larger shape of my mom, a smaller, sleeker shape emerged from my room.

It was Joltix, my best friend.

“Crescent…Alexian came…me and Kiba tried to stop him. But he said it was part of a deal… What was he talking about, Crescent?” she asked.

I told her everything, from the running, to the light, to the alleyway being restored, and the quest. She got a determined gleam in her eyes that I knew too well. “No,” I said. But she would badger me until I said yes. “Crescent, we’ve trained together our whole lives. Who would be better watching your back than me and Kiba?”

I sighed. She’d won the battle before it had started. “Fine,” I said, “go get ready and meet me at Kiba’s.”

She nodded excitedly and bounced off, not making a sound or disturbing the air around her. She was a ninja, I swear. She looked nothing like her parents: she was silvery gray, with seven black markings down her back, and a tuft of black fur that ran along her spine. Her tail-tip was black as well. Her parents had taken her in, with no idea on her heritage.

Kiba’s house wasn’t that far. When I got there, he was standing outside. He was a bit bigger than me, and his fur was brown, with lighter brown underbelly. He had strange black markings under his eyes.

As soon as he saw me, he rushed to my side. “Crescent! I’m so sorry- me and Joltix tried all we could…” I cut him off. “It’s okay. Look, Alexian is forcing me on a quest, and Joltix is making you come.” I would fill him in on the details later.

I thought there would be trouble when his parents walked out, but they just said, “Go.” Kiba nodded, and hugged his parents wolf-style. Joltix finally appeared when Kiba had said his goodbyes. “My parents wouldn’t let me come, so I had to sneak out,” she said. “Besides, maybe I’ll find my actual heritage! Oh, so exciting,” she exclaimed.

I sighed. “Everyone ready?” My friends nodded. “Then let’s go.”

That’s the beginning that leads into several near-death experiences, travelling all over Armork(our fair, ruined country), getting a scar, meeting ancient dragons, finding a strange lover, fighting a lion in a coliseum (like the one in Rome), discovering my powers, finding my father, all topped off with the ultimate betrayal and victory. And more, trust me.

Could it get any better than that?