Dawn's Light Part 1
By Kenshiro
I could see her shining brightly against an unfamiliar background. A friendly face with brilliant blue eyes. Warm smile. Soft skin. Looking at her conjured up every pleasant memory I've ever had. I held my hand out her and she extended hers. Then the light of warmth she seemed to be producing quickly turned into void of irreplaceable darkness. Suddenly, I was consumed by the darkness, being pulled back. The last thing I saw before I was fully encapsulated by the darkness was the glaring red eyes of the once friendly face stare at me. It was a dark look that it needed no words to express its intent, “You're nothing to me...”
And then I was no more.
And then I woke up.
I Stretched, brushed my short  hair back down on to my head, and looked around in my small little box that I called a room. I looked into mirror:
Short cut black hair that was spike around the edges.
Small rounded blue, that sort of had a sapphire gem glow to them.
Pointy elven ears. Rounded face with a small mouth..ah nothing changed from yesterday.
The sun flowed into my room from the window in my second floor of my small cottage.  I rolled down the thin white sheet the covered me while slept. I pulled down my short black tank top down over my sizable chest and started to roll over to the side of my bed when suddenly I started to hear the clanging of glass. At first, I thought it might be an intruder, and I reached toward my sword hidden under my bed. However, I soon realized that there was no immediate danger. I stopped reaching towards my sword and laid back. Soon I was greeted by a slender woman with deep long chestnut colored brown hair, slicked back behind her ears. She smiled with her gem colored eyes innocently at me. Her eyes were two completely different colors, the left was emerald green and sapphire blue. Her skin was a warm colored pink that just made you smile no matter the mood you were in. She wore large wooden brown plaid skirt with snow white embroidery stitched on the the edges of the skirt. “Morning Shelli!,” said the young elven woman, “I made you breakfast!” She held out a tray that was an arms length away from her. On it was food, in the loosest sense of the word: scrambled eggs that bore a sicking green tone to them, bread that had nice bed of green hair sitting on its wheat scalp, and juice that was so opaque I was afraid to ask what fruit it was (IF she made it with fruit today). A large bubble of gas arose within my stomach. Inside of the bubble was the nauseating taste of the “meal” I had from her from the other day. I gave a waining smile. “Dawn,” I told her, “You're are improving with your cooking.”  Her eyes lit up with joy and almost dropped her tray for joy. I swallowed hard as she pushed  the tray closer to me, thinking of an excuse to skip out on breakfast...
Dawn. To be honest, she is the only good thing that I have in my life. It was a shame that our first encounter was on the worst day of my life. Correction, the worst day of OUR life...
The events that led up to me meeting Dawn started way back when I was a young elven living at home...with my family...yuck. The world I live in is a tragedy in a one scene play that hasn't ended. Elves, humans, and other mystical races such as demons seemed to fight each other in wars that flare up like plagues. Hundreds of years ago, my family was renounced for their acts heroism and bravery  during the wars. However, throughout the years, those ideals were replaced with wealth and selfishness. The years of pompous living turn a once noble race into nothing more into a bunch of nothing decorated statues; siting around and motionless. Worthless. We lived in a small elven village that sat in the middle of the forest through an old trading route, with our mansion taking up most of the space in the village. I remembered the forest was full of trees that were so large and spaced out that some of the elves who lived their made homes in the canopy of them. When I was born into my family, I had an rebellious spark kindling inside me and that family would loved to extinguish. When I was young, I would talk to any humans that would come through our village and  played with the other elven children in the village, despite the fact that my father would threaten that he would kill anyone of the “common folks.” My father, as well as the rest of my family, hated to talk, see or help anyone unless the first words out of their mouth was “How much?” The only person seem to not care for my father's wrath was Liane, a female elf coming from a family of sages. She was two years older than me and would tell me everything about the world she knew from her parents (my parents consolidated their view on the world into one sentence: We are superior). It seemed the world would stop in it's tracks after she gazed at you with her sky blue eyes and long golden hair. I always admired Liane and her family. Where as my family were a static to one area, her family moved around constantly, and you could see that in her personality.  She stood up against my father constantly and treated like it was no big deal. I always remark to her that someday I and her were going to see the world and find adventure together. We got that wish...
One unfortunate day, when I was about 15, my family refused to help out a large human colony wanting seeking shelter  and protection from a band of marauders that were following them. The maunders attack the humans colony relentlessly, kill many within the colony. The remnants of the colony riled themselves up and came after us. Their numbers were few, but it was enough to ompletely catch the village off guard. They wasted no time in killing every elf they saw insight. I wanted to fight them but I knew nothing about fighting and after seeing my family ripped apart by...well, I hid within a secret chamber in my room that used to be an escape passage during the times of war. I sat inside the nook in total silence. I listened to the grim chaos. I smelled the smolders of the fires and felt the heat from my mansion being set to blaze. It was a few hours before a unsettling of mist of silence settled in the area. When I exited the nook, I found that my mansion was now an amalgamation of its former glory. The smell and sight of smoldering ash was present, and the bodies...gaping holes through their flesh like hunted animals killed and left to cure. I looked at all of the familiar faces now permanently frozen the expression they had before they were killed. I felt the tears in my eyes, heavy and salty, roll out while standing over my dead family. Suddenly, a warm hand touched my shoulder. I looked up and found Liane standing over me with tears in her large blue eyes. She picked me up off of the ground and hugged me tightly. I quickly wrapped my arms around hers, feeling her warmth. We were the only two survivors...just us two... After that day, we both agree to leave this place and to take care of each other. During that time, we saw the world but never forgot what we saw on that day. As we saw the world, Liane worked on her magical abilities while I started to train to live up to my warrior heritage. It was long and hard. After traveling for three years, we decided to part ways to develop our talents but promised to meet back at our village two years to properly honor our families. Time passed and I hadn't heard anything from Liane. During that time I became a mercenary, so it was hard for me to just stay in one place at one time. One night  I was staying over night at a really shoddy inn, when I awoke to find a rolled up piece of parchment with my name on it. It was from Liane who finally said that she was waiting for me back at my village,  and it was time to finally honor our families...
I had been walking by foot at least a month back to my village. It had been so long since I stepped on this land, so every step felt kind of fresh to me. Large grass lined the flat plans gave off a healthy green glow. I could vaguely remember this place (my family forbade me from leaving anything father than the edge of the village). After walking for a few hours, I stopped sat on the soft grass on my hands and knees. I adjusted my armor which was a strange hodgepodge, each with it is own tale: a large sliver breast plate from a royal knight family, thin aluminum gauntlets taken from a master thief, a rusted fault from an ancient order, light metal boots crafted from the armor of fallen mages, and a sword bolstered at my side once yielded by father. I looked up at the sky that was colored in a gray overcast. I sighed and thought it was probably a good idea to move a bit faster in case it rained.  I picked myself up and began to walk at a faster pace. As I was looking around on the almost baron plain,  I suddenly felt a cold chill running down my spine. I quickly moved my hand towards my sword and turned around. Nothing was behind me. I slowly turned back around and found a large forest has sprung up. The forest of was very thick, each of the the trees colored in an sooty black, with branches that jutted out like spikes on a morning star. I looked up to try and find the canopy of the forest but was greeted by a circling flock of birds who were circling a large cloud formation with a gaping hole with red light flowing through it. The light was touching down directly in the middle of the forest, almost beaconing for me to find it.
Home, sweet home?
I steady my had over the sheaf of my blade and continued forward. The deeper I ventured into the forest, the less the light came through the canopy. The few strands of light that did flow through pierced the canopy in a way that it formed an artificial night sky full of burning red stars. I could feel my heart dance in my chest. I heard the pounding even through my ears. Suddenly, I realized that the loud beating noise I was hearing wasn't from me. I looked ahead and saw a large aura slowly lurching towards me. I wasted no time in taking out my sword and pointing it towards the aura. As the aura   approached closer to me, I could make it out much clearer. It was large suit of armor, almost half the size of the trees that surrounding it, but it had no living thing moving it from the inside. A dark aura seemed to be supporting and controlling it from the inside.  The armor was guiled in a heavy dark silver color adjourned with foreign symbols. Its helm was two large horns with hellish red glowing eyes looking dead at me. I could have tried a diplomatic approach toward the situation but it was a giant living suit of armor. Something told me that wasn't a diplomatic geist possessing the armor. I ran up to the armor and attempted to pierce it with my sword. I swung my sword using every fiber of my living being and...grazed it. I swung and swung repeatedly. Still nothing but light marks on the demonic suit of armor. After giving the armor ten consecutive strikes, the stress from my attacks echoed onto my sword. My sword finally gave way with a loud crack that reverberated off of the proximity of the trees that surrounded me. Hundreds of years smithing were put into that sword and it broke in less than a minute. The armor wasted no time to relate. It quickly balled up one of its iron fist and hurled it towards me. Time suddenly became a passive object, slowing down to a lull. I could hear the wind breaking as the fist continued down its path for me. I felt the pressure of the fist press up against my body even though the fist was still inches away from me. I could even read make out the markings on the armor itself as the fist came within a few tiny inches of my stomach. The armor bore many languages on it one of was an old elven language that I only knew a few characters enough to make out the word.
The word said “fear.”
The fist connected with my body, transferring an overwhelming amount of force with it. It flung me right into a tree, jabbing one of the branches through my flesh. I laid at the base of the tree impaled with a wooden spike through my body, while coughing up blood. I tried to pull the spike out but the more I tried, the more energy expended. I began to breathe irrationally...my mind...flashes of conciseness...the armor...closer...Death's hand was now caressing me in its embrace, now,  I just had to wait for it to take me where my ancestors lay...Then, out of nowhere, a brilliant blue light appeared. It shined with a friendly and blue glow. I could vaguely make out feminine silhouette from overwhelming blue light. The silhouette held out its hand towards me, willing me to do the same. I was breathing hard, still coughing up blood, but I slowly willed my arm off of the ground towards the silhouette. I was fading fast but I finally touched the blue lit silhouette. The light quickly overtook my body and I found myself suspended in midair. There was nothing around me except the intense blue light and silhouette. I coughed and forced out a sentence towards the silhouette.
“Who...ar...ou...?”
The silhouette walked towards me and gently touched my hand.
“Take good care of her....” It said. Then the silhouette turned its back on me an walked away. I tried to reach out towards it but something was pulling me back. I felt a cold shiver on my arm and looked at it. A strange metallic colored liquid had ensnared it covering it, pushing off my gauntlet. I tried pulling it off but I was still too weak. It had already coated the rest of my body producing a vivid array of feelings, first like a trickle, then an unbounded river flowing in emotions. When it covered my feet and legs, it seemed to tickle me in a childlike manor. The sound of the armor falling off my body echoed  in the infinite blue void that I was inhabiting. It crawled around in between my thighs and buttock. It caressed me like lover's touch, every wave pleasure like a perfectly shaped key fitting into a lock. As it crawled up my hips and over my chest, it seemed to dance along every line of my body. Finally, when it crawled up neck, over my mouth and nose, stifling my ability to breathe, the gravity of the situation started to sit in. I tried with all my power to panic, but something willed me not to. It covered my large elfin ears, my sharp narrowed eyes, and finally under my scalp, between the short stalks of my hair, leaving me in a state of total sensory deprivation, with a maddening silence to the entire world...
“JUMP!” Something shouted at me.
I found myself flying through the air, jumping over the large living armor, landing behind it. I was back in the forest, staring the down the back side of the armor. I was alive, my wounds completely healed. I quickly scanned my own body, it was now encased in a silverly second skin. Speaking of seeing, I couldn't believe what I was seeing. I could see the entire forest in a strange diluted white light. The large piece of armor had a strange outline with a red circle pulsating in the middle of it. Suddenly the armor became aggravated and attacked and that mysterious voice spoke to me again.
“DOGDE!” It commanded me. The voice was coming from inside my head. I quickly followed its command and quickly dodge the armor. “AGAIN!” It screamed at me and I dodge again right before the armor launched another attack, jumping through the air, and landing on a tree branch high above the armor...
It was anticipating the attacks, I thought to myself.
“ATTACK! ATTACK!” It shouted at me.
“With what?” I said out loud. My attention quickly shifted to my hands that were overcame with a tingling sensation. I watched as my sliver hands began to loose their shapes and reformed into large sharp twin blades. I never seen swords that was so sharp in my entire life. I gazed deeply into them, looking at my new face for the first time. It had no external openings yet I could still breathe, see, hear, and speak. It gave a vague outline of my face and where my noses,eyes, and mouth were placed. My brief moment of vanity was interrupted with the large armor charing at the base of the tree I was perched on. My head tilted down towards the armor and I focused on the large red spot on the center of the armor. Then things started to make sense.
“Attack,” It said at me in a surprisingly calmer tone.
“I understand,” I replied in a calmer tone. I jumped down towards the armor with the swords at I my sides, increasing my speed. When I was a few feet in front of the armor, I drew my blades, and aimed towards the red glowing sphere at the center of the armor. I pierced the armor directly in the middle of its abdomen, straight through the red sphere. The sphere quickly dissipated into smoke. I flew right through the armor and landed gently on the other side. The armor suddenly heaved over before falling to bits and pieces becoming an empty shell. My blades reformed back into my hands and I felt the skin receded back into my head. My vision reverted back to the normal view. I took in a deep breath, even though I wasn't out of breath. I looked at the tree I was slammed into, the bark of the trunk was pulled apart by the impact. My armor lay in a pile with a pool of blood still fresh siting right next to the branch that impaled me.
I did it.
I jumped for joy, laughed, and screamed at the top of my lungs. I nothing made sense but I didn't care. What just happened was totally bad-ass! It was cool! It was...what was it then? I finally calmed myself down and tried to figure out what happened. It was then I remembered the words of the silhouette woman....
“Take good care of her....”
Is this thing “her”? I looked down at my hands, hoping “her” would speak up and tell me what was happing. Suddenly, I felt a suddenly burst of energy within my legs.
“HAVE TO GO! HAVE TO GO!” The voice in my head said. With that remarked, the sliver skin over took my head again, and my body quickly turned then took off running through the forest.
“Whoa! Whoa! Where are we...I...what's happing?” I franticly shouted at the skin. The forest became a gray blur as I quickly moved through the trees. I never felt or seen anything moving this fast before. At times I would be forced to jump, and I felt that I was flying through the air like a bird gliding on invisible wings. I dodged the branches without stopping even stopping for a second, even charging through some branches. In fact it was almost like the trees had their branches out to try and stop me on purpose. Finally, the trees started to thin out and part way revealing a shocking image. It was my old village, still in ruins.  However, an artificial mound laid in the ruins, exactly on top of where my family's old mansion used to be. On top of that mound was a large castle, built with stones in a foreboding ashen color with green light emanating from it. The castle had two large towers with iron bars on it and a mammoth iron door with large scratch marks on it. The circular cloud formation with the red circle was situated right over the castle. The birds that I saw circling the large red circle were large crows. Very large crows, so large, that you count each feather on the wings and you could see the poisonous green eye staring at you.
And I was running straight into it.
I tried my hardest to resist but to no avail. I ran up the mound and started to climb up the face of the castle, towards the windows. The skin seemed to have an extensive knowledge of this castle because it seemed to find every stone and every nook that made climb into one smooth motion. In no time flat, I had found myself on the edge of one of the windows of the tower I had climbed. My hands quickly grabbed the bars and pulled them apart. I pulled bars apart like it was soft cheese and passed through the hole I made with little effort. When I landed into the room, the desire to run stopped, and I laid sprawled out on the floor. I looked up and was greeted by what I thought was a woman holding a lantern. Instead I found a rather short yet busty woman wearing a frilly maid outfit with a white-and-black bustier with a matching check board mini-skirt and black-and-white adornment. She had cherry wine red hair was swirled into two bouncy spring-like ponytails and playful red eyes that seemed to hide a hidden desire. She wore long wool-like socks adorned with black bows near the near the kneecaps. Her feet had no shoes on them but had long well groomed toenails painted in a plum color. However, the thing that I remember the most about her was the fact she had two small coal black bat wings and a thin licorice colored tail with a heart shaped pointed end.
She was a succubus.
The lantern that she held in her hand was a jagged glowing yellow stone encapsulated in a glass container.
“Hi!” She said in strangely chipper tone. She then unhinged a latch on the front of the a container and let the intense light from the yellow stone shine on me. The light was so bright, even my second skin couldn't stand it.
“BRIGHT! BRIGHT” It shouted in my head,  “GET OFF!” The skin suddenly lifted itself off of  me and leap off of my body. I was now completely naked. Suddenly I was over came with fatigue and passed out. The last sight and sound II noted was the succubus maid giggling lightly at me.
I then woke up. Man, this unconsciousness business is annoying.
I found myself laying on a bed, surrounded by the ashen colored stone,a old  and weathered  wooden door ,and still without any clothes on me. I looked around the room and saw a table with clothes on it. On the table, I found an ugly sleeved baby pink dress (To me, anything pink is hideous) with a matching set of undergarments.  I looked around the room hoping to find another clothing alternative but I found nothing else. I sighed and started putting on the clothes. When I finally had put on the dress and the undergarments, I was greeted by knock at a the wooden door. The door rudely open and I found the succubus maid staring at me again.
“Hi!” She said again in her chipper tone, “The mistress is ready to see you!”
“Mistress?!” I said in a distraught tone. I wanted to scream at her and ask what was happing to me. Where was that skin? Where are we? She turn towards me and just tugged on one of the sleeves of my dress out of the room.
“Come, come now miss.” She said in a rude tone, “SHE doesn't like to wait.” The succubus pulled me down along winding flight of steps.
She, I thought, could that be the person I was supposed to take care off?
The succubus stopped at a ledge in the staircase and continued to pull me down a narrow hallway. Finally the succubus pulled me toward a room at the end of the hallway. The room was a large library with a jade green fire roaring out from the right side of it. At the edge of the the room was a figure wearing a large blue robe and a hood over their head
“That will be enough Mari,” The hood figure voice said, “You may leave.”
The succubus gave a pleasant laugh. “I live to serve, Mistress!” She said before she walked out of the room with a skip in her step. I looked over towards the mistress and balled up my fist.
“OK 'Mistress,'” I said in a demanding tone, “What is goin...” My words were cut short as the hood on the Mistress dropped revealing  a tall thin, elven woman with golden hair and deep blue eyes.
“L...L... Liane?!” I said in bewildered stutter
“Hello Shelli,” She said in a warm tone, “We need to have a talk....”
Continued in Part 2