Chapter One

Chapter One

 

 

The voice of the strange woman that looked like the lady my mother had killed when I was four filtered through my groggy mind. The sun filtered in the only window I had in my minuscule room. My small window was nested high in the far corner of the ebony shaded room. I couldn't help wondering why I had a crazy dream like that, but I didn't have time to think about the dream for, as always, I had things to do.

 

On a side note, the window was where my mother had reluctantly put it when I was two years old. She did it because she was tired of my ghastly childish whining about the fact that there was never any light in my room.

 

"WereCats are not supposed to like the light for it is the stuff of the goody-goods bed-time tales of those who wish to rid the world of what they wrongly call evil", or so my mother whispers in my ear every time I wish to see the light of a coming dawn.

 

My mother constantly reprimanded me when I talked of subjects that the goody-goods called good, which according to my mother were actually the things of pure unspeakable evil. The subjects of love, the Goddess, light, the existence of spirits in all living things besides us, and even the so-called harmless act of sharing were condemned where I lived and considered acts of blasphemy. My own mother followed this rule to a tee, and by following these rules she loved no one except herself. She raised me to think like her in very much the same ways, but still I tried to keep to my own ways of thinking.

 

"Maney, get your lazy behind downstairs already, and cook me up some fresh rabbit stew!"

Kaia's booming call ricocheted all the way upstairs to my bedroom.

 

I would soon be expected in an act of non-chalice to hastily get dressed in whatever clothes I could afford or find (which wasn't much). After that I would be expected to go hunting and kill innocent rabbits for breakfast for my mother and me. In a world of true good, but as my mother would say, it was my duty to serve the dark Goddess, and be an inexplicable slave to those who cared for me in this powerful world of good.

 

"Coming, oh Queen of Akeiante!"

 

I hollered the title of Queen downstairs, for according to my mother, it was forbidden in The Creed of the Dark Goddess to call one's caretakers- mother and father. The titles one must call his/her parents are as follows- king or queen.

 

I meandered over to the miniscule closet in the northwest corner of my room and shuffled through an array of gothic styled dresses, the traditional Cat Creature garb, and casual clothes for nights out in town. That is- if my mother ever let me go. I finally found a dress that I liked that had ripped long sleeves and was an almost gray in color- for unlike my mother I found black a depressing color. On my grimy white dresser in the closest corner of my room rested an elliptical shaped cracked and dusty mirror.

 

I peered into my reflection in the gilt-framed mirror. Two chocolate brown eyes gawked back at me with sheer vanity, though not nearly as bad as my mother's was. I had dark, ebony hair that was coveted by my mother who had light, snow colored hair that constantly reminded her of the ugliness of light. I never did get why she was grossed out by light or light pastel colors, which I found that I rather enjoyed much to my mother's dismay. The girl that was me in the mirror had ruby red lips that were almost full. The only major flaw I had was the fact that I had a nasty scar over my left eye. It was a jagged scar that I had received as a four year old child after seeing Kaia kill a woman who looked like me and called me her daughter. I had asked Kaia the age old question of why and also who my ever-too-absent father was, and she had scarred me forever, by slicing open my forehead with her viscously sharp claws.

 

With my wild, curly hair finally combed I reluctantly marched downstairs and out the creaky old wooden door of our tiny abode to fetch the Queen some fresh rabbits. I liked meat, but strangely unlike the rest of my race I preferred too much on the delicacies the goody-goods called Night Berries (which are similar to your blue berries). My mother despised all fruits and vegetables, and forbade me to eat them in her house thus forcing me to eat them on my daily morning hunts.

 

The sky outside was a beautiful…errs…vile sunny day; which despite the fact that my mother would have called it dreary, it was good for both rabbit catching and berry hunting. I hastily transformed from human to cat in the prickly bushes surrounding my residence. Hunting as a human is useless, and their guns and bullets are like feathers compared to our arsenal of weapons and defenses. My cat form has always been prettier than my mother Kaia's form of an albino Leopard. Kaia says I am gifted by the Dark Goddess to have the coveted form of one of the most powerful beasts in the history of WereCat forms- the black tiger.

 

Scents of prey filtered through my highly intuned feline nostrils allowing me to pinpoint exactly where the horde of fresh young rabbits would be. Sure enough, two female rabbits were dumb enough to get caught in my ambush and it was as easy as going to the grocery store to go and finish them off. After that I headed back into the cramped little shack we called home, and dropped the two rabbits on the breakfast table for me and my mother.

"Good job, Maney, now go to your room and study the 'Book of Dark Magick and Herbs' while I make us some long awaited breakfast," Kaia spoke in her usual bossy tone she used whenever she thought I needed more training in the field of what most considered 'Black' or 'Dark Magick.'

 

I really was intending on studying my book that was currently stuffed in the bottom of my closet, when I small scrap of paper that looked like a birth stamp filtered down from the top shelve in the closet that I never even touched. Nothing could prepare me for what happened next, but I must say as soon as I read it the dreams of a women telling me I was key to save all or that I was her daughter and not Kaia's suddenly clicked into place.

 

'Maney Anika Wyernn born the 25th of Denacho (December) to Krystalleta Wyernn and the deceased Denoxi Wyernn.'

 

The birth stamp had a picture stamped on it as me as a baby, but how could this be when my last name was now Avalonte? Not only that, but Kaia always said that she wasmymother and that together one day we would both rule side- by- side. This couldn't be happening, not now, not at all! And why did she have a birth stamp of me in the first place, and why did the birth stamp say that today was my 16th birthday? My birthday wasn't until tomorrow, and my mother would have told me if it wasn't.

 

Yet it was, which explained the strange dreams Cat Creatures usually got on their 16th birthdays, but what about the dreams stating specifically about me bringing the forbidden G-word to all? I was not good like all the goody-goods, or was I? Did this mean Kaia was wrong about the world? Or did it simply mean I had a great destiny to fulfill?

 

Whatever the case I was sick of Kaia's never-ending lies at this point, so I quietly grabbed as many clothes and necessities as I could. With neither a peep nor a sound I made my way out the door, and out of my screwed up life. Yet, unfortunately one can only run, and never hide from the unending turmoil, and in my case prophecy filled life.

Author's Note

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