Ghenyus are gifted, not evil

“A Ghenyu is a race of highly evolved humans that are often believed by most normal-bred humans to be demons cast out of Hell. They are mainly thought of that because of their extremely keen sense of smell, hearing, sight and special abilities and talents to run twice as fast, lift inhuman weights, and transform into monstrous creatures that were named their “True Form”. They also have magical talents according to a certain element they were born under and are extremely weak in any other elemental magic. But because of so much gift and power, they often have to go through rigorous training to learn how to control it properly in order to avoid insanity. Since normal humans wouldn’t understand the power they hold, the training is left with powerful and balanced sorcerers.

Because of the danger Ghenyu’s can be to society, they are thrown into the lowest class doomed to die on their twenty-first birthday until they complete the training and get a Citizen’s Amulet to finally become a trusted citizen. But even then, racism is still plentiful in most of the world.

One Ghenyu, though, will stand up to all of it….

… For the better or for the worse of mankind”

Quoted from journal of the Highest Elder of the Academy of Black Wing

Chapter 1

-- Walk in the Wild Woods of Sendra --

A woman the age of twenty stood in a well living village with a bag full of different foods in her hand. She had walked by a mirror and noticed that the new outfit she had bought looked very good on her, which was something most clothes didn’t do. But as she examined the light green tank top and grass green windbreaker capris and how fitting they were—and how they matched her pale green eyes—she smirked a bit mockingly. Women were supposed to wear dresses all the time unless their dress would interfere with doing well in their occupation so in those cases women were excused from dressing according to the rules... Or at least, the dress rule applied in this particular place.

She had forgotten which towns applied that law but it wouldn’t ever matter since her job required her to be prepared for anything at anytime and anytime means even when taking a bath or after retiring. Short hair was normally required since it could get in the way, so she got past that rule by tying her light brown hair into a bun and hiding it under a backwards cap. She hated short hair and didn’t like dresses all that much either. If she were able, she’d ban short hair for women and buy men’s clothes since they felt more comfortable, but since no one would agree to that law and no one would ever sell her that unless she paid some guy to do it for her, it would be impossible.

“Master!” someone shouted from a distance.

She turned herself around, gaining a serious expression, only to see a white haired and silver eyed man running towards her in white sweatpants and a loose tank top with buckle sandals, wristbands and a strange metal choker. She smiled seeing the familiar person but as soon as the guy caught up to her, in only a few seconds and panting slightly, she realized he had been running around for at least a half an hour looking for her.

“So, Teague,” she started with a chuckle. “What’s wrong now?”

He smiled happily and laughed, “Aw, shucks, nothing. I just wanted to tell you I found a boat person who wouldn’t mind lending you a boat so you can go to the untamed forest of Islet Sendra.”

Her smile faded into a surprised, almost confused, expression so his smile faded too, only his face held pure confusion that you’d normally see on a little boy.

“You… did want to got there tonight, right? Did you change your mind?”

She smiled again then pat his head, “I’m just surprised you went out of your way to do that for me. I think if you pass like I know you will, Ghenyu trainers will be throwing themselves at you to get you as their assistant.”

His grin returned too, but now his cheeks tinted red slightly and his eyes closed like he was a giant puppy getting his desired attention.

“Now that’s just flattery,” he answered.

“I know you love it.”

The big, black, scaled creature looked down at the squealing forest tiger hare that was trapped in the wooden snare he had built, with pity filling his red-brown eyes. He hadn’t eaten in awhile and he was hungry, but he let out a slight growling sigh realizing watching it squirm was making him lose his appetite, so he walked up to it on all four, despite the opposable thumbs, and carefully freed the creature.

The hare was injured and was limping meekly, making him realize it was going to get eaten if it was left like that, so he laid down his big lizard body and gently caressed the creature as he wrapped some medical herbs around the wound. Once treated, he placed the creature down and guided it home.

He walked calmly around the forestry and took a drink from a small pond that was there, ignoring his monstrous reflection since he didn’t realize how terrifying he looked or that it was strange for most of the planet’s inhabitants. He was a lizard the size of a polar bear and hardly ever walked on only two legs, but since he had no wings and he had fox-like ears, he couldn’t be a dragon or just an oversized lizard since a regular lizard didn’t really have ears or opposable thumbs. Dragons normally had wings anyway. He didn’t know what he was, so he never thought about it.

The large scar on his back was his only proof of the hard life he lived, although he found his lifestyle quite enjoyable.

After numbing his hunger with water he started a trot towards another trap he recently heard snap up something. Thankfully, it was a goatox instead of a harmless creature. It had gotten caught in a triple snare, so three of its legs weren’t usable, leaving it defenseless. A goatox was a very mean, territorial, and selfish little creature that had the nimble shape of a fox but had goat horns and hooves. It was snarling at him with a nasty look so he took the moment of its immobility, took a strong hold behind its ears with his sharp, carnivorous fangs, and quickly snapped it’s neck.

After that he got the corpse out of the snares and dragged it back to his eating spot in the middle of a Stypher field where he had started a fire before going to retrieve the food. There, he used his large claws to slice open the stomach and remove any organs, then skinned the dead animal. After removing the poison gland from the heart, he cooked the organs as he divided up the flesh, then threw that on too.

He looked at the bowl-shaped rock where the organs were, and seeing that all the juices had drained through the fireweed straw into a smaller wooden bowl, he took the dried up, shriveled body parts and cut them into strips. He then put them in a sorted straw bag. As for the juices, he took out a bottle that was full of the same stuff and poured it in there, then tucked away the stash in the same handmade pouch made of Stypher grass. Stypher grass was a long, flexible yet sturdy grass that gave off a very strong odor perfect for covering up the smell of blood or cooking meat, which was why the pouch was made of it and why he chose to eat in a spot surrounded by it.

After a few minutes the meat had been cooked so he cooled the fire and started to rip the food off the bone with his teeth as he held it tightly to the ground. Soon he found that the food was eaten and there was nothing but bones and the skin he had shaved off neatly. He yawned but then got a drink of water and started to prepare the skin to add to his sleeping spot, but once he had finished that, he took the skin and cleaned off bones to his sleeping spot to add it to his personal things.

After walking through some more Stypher grass, he came to a place surrounded by organized bones and skin padding. He had managed to build himself a little bedroom out of the things he could find. Using the bones he had collected over the years and Stypher grass around him, he had framed a chair, tanning chair, bed, a hammock-like bed, pillow, and a few mini type drawers, then used the skins and furs he had gathered over the same amount of time as cushioning for his beds and chairs. There was even fur carpeting. When rain or some sort of storm was predicted he’d set up his snail serpent tarp like a tent and since the rug and stuff was over one big rock he didn’t have to worry about his flooring getting wet.

Snail serpents, despite their name, were very hard to catch, so whenever he went fishing for one he’d have to use all the tricks he knew, and that’s how he had managed to gather enough scales for the tarp.

His nose was sharper than anything. He could always smell when rain or a storm was coming even when in the odorous field, but every night before going to sleep and every morning when waking up he’d take a quick walk to get away from the smell to see if he could smell rain in the air.

Today he smelt no rain or storm so he was happy that he’d be able to gaze at the stars as he fell asleep, but then he started to get to work on finishing the table he had began awhile ago since now he had enough parts. It seemed only like a short moment before it was finished, but it had taken a while because now the sun was down, leaving nothing but stars in the sky since it was a night of the new moon. So, he completed the day with finishing the decoration on his things with the horns he had achieved. Now his bed and everything was softer than ever, and everything had spikes, furs, or skulls decorating them, so with that done and out of the way, he went for his nighttime walk routine to see if he’d detect rain.

He was out of the field in a few moments, but he waited a couple more minutes of walking before sniffing the air since he believed the Stypher odors numbed the nose after an hour or so. He reached the shoreline that was a ten-minute walk to his sleeping and eating spot, but then as he sniffed the usual, good-weathered salty air, he noticed that a strange contraption was beached on the sand and a bit lopsided.

Now curious, he approached it slowly, wondering what it was, noticing it looked like a giant bowl that was an elongated, oval shape and ended at two tips on opposite sides. Sniffing it, he smelled something unfamiliar. A scent of a strange creature trailed away from it inland, and the actual wood-like substance was from an odd smelling tree.

After following the creature’s scent, he realized it was headed towards his sleeping spot, so he jolted forwards with his ears back, realizing that if some animal figured out where he slept then he’d be in danger of being killed himself. Only a second after purging into the forest line, another strange scent hit his nose, but this one smelled distinctly like a strange kind of blood. He heard something coming from the side, but the heaviness of the footsteps was heavier than anything he’d heard before, so he stopped where he was and stared intently, his heart pounding and natural instincts screaming in terror that he needed to run, but… his curiosity was holding him back.

At that moment, he suddenly felt tremendously threatened so he shot his ears forwards and snarled, bearing the fangs that had easily broken a neck of a strong-boned animal. Out of nowhere, this dark blue furred creature three times his size leapt out of the shadows at him, snarling ferociously and knocked him through a tree. It took a moment for him to get over the shellshock of the attack, but once he started to push himself up, the beast with blood red cat-eyes smirked, bearing the insanely blood-drenched fangs and chuckled a bit sadistically.

“I thought I smelled another pathetic Ghenyu. You’re pretty brave for a pipsqueak, I’ll admit, but foolish to think that you’d be able to stand up to someone who stands taller than you do!”

It bellowed monstrously, but then realizing that the “pipsqueak” was back at his feet and staring emotionlessly without a word, the grin shrunk a little.

“You aren’t scared of me?”

He didn’t respond.

“Can you even talk?”

He didn’t respond but then lowered his head and narrowed his eyes, starting to snarl again, so the grin of the giant beast just returned twice as wide.

“You don’t understand a thing I’m saying, do you?” it chuckled and got into a stance ready to attack again. “Well, then you’re lucky, pipsqueak, you don’t have to hear me taunt you before your demise. You’re mine, pip—!”

He suddenly ran at the bigger creature with a nasty snarl, not letting him finish and jumped at the back of the head, clamping his fangs down tightly, but the creature suddenly started thrashing about it’s head trying to get him to let go, smashing him into several trees. He just bit down even harder from the pain though, so finally it took it’s large clawed hands and started trying to rip him off, but despite the pulling, he just locked his jaw in place refusing to let go. It roared one last time, now engulfed in pure rage, and gave one last final tug but its hands slipped, and its claws ripped open his back, chest, arm and a leg. He felt himself giving in to the pain so as quickly as he could, he mustered up the strength he had left, jumped back, then charged at its neck, swift enough his body was encircled in a shielding, and he ripped right through the beast’s throat.

As soon as he touched ground after the leap, he stumbled all the way to the stopping point, barely able to stay awake. He saw the giant creature fall to the ground, dead before it even knew what happened, but remembering the other strange creature in his forest, he somehow got to his feet and limped on, barely able to stay at his feet because of the hideous wounds.

After stumbling along for a few minutes, the odor of Stypher grass hit his nose full force making him extremely woozy, but he still managed to limp on towards his sleeping spot, ignoring the blood gushing out of him.

His vision was getting hazy quickly, but then only a second later, the Stypher grass stopped, and he came to his sleeping spot… only… what was that strange creature doing? It was a women wearing a backwards cap, hiding the light brown hair in a bun and dressed in a fitting green tank top and windbreaker capris. Why was this strange… yet… familiar looking creature going through the delicate drawers and bags?

Remembering that was trespassing and that this creature wasn’t from around, he felt angry and threatened at the same time, so he growled as callously as he could, snarling and lowering his head down, but when the creature looked over at him, her light green eyes didn’t hold the slightest fear and her expression was completely calm, so he tried growling louder.

“Poor thing,” she cooed softly. “You won’t last an hour with wounds like that.”

He felt his growl lessen and his anger and fear turning to sorrow, but he quickly ignited the anger and leapt at her, fangs drawn and ready to tear her apart—only for her to get in a stance in a split second and, with a blade of light consuming her arm, knock him to the ground onto his back with a painful yelp.

She got out of the stance seeing he didn’t even have the strength to snarl anymore, so she walked up to him and stood at his head, now looking down at him with pity.

“I’m sorry this happened to you. You Ghenyus have the worst of luck,” she stated quietly. She pointed a palm down at his head, staring into his dying eyes, pleading for death. “I know you must be suffering, so I will release you from your pain. Light of Death, I bring you forth to—”

“Please…” he wisped, surprising her. “… Step to… the side… I… don’t…” he took a deep breath, trying to get rid of the blood filling his throat. “… want to die… just yet….”

She nodded and stepped to the side so after a few minutes he managed a weak lizard grin and got on his stomach, but then slowly crawled onto his bed and laid on his back again. Once more he stared up at the sky for a moment, now with a smile.

“The stars… are beautiful tonight…” he wisped, closing his eyes.

She walked up to his bedside and pointed her palm down at him again, “Light of Death, I bring you forth to take this…”

His words strangely rang in her ear…

“The stars… are beautiful tonight…”

She suddenly stopped and checked for a pulse, but when she found he was still alive, instead of killing him, she took the Stypher grass from beside her and took out a long needle from a pouch at her side. She put the grass in through the needle and cleaned everything with a bit of alcohol then started stitching his wounds shut.

It took a good ten minutes, but seeing he hadn’t died she murmured “Phoenix of holy fire, cry your tears on these wounds, and heal.” Then after the blood wasn’t gushing so much, she decided to cast one last spell to keep from freaking out the boat Master, so she put her palm to his forehead, muttering, “Ghenyu of a lost forest, conceal the monster and release the man.” So now having a man instead of a giant lizard, she smiled at him sleeping and carefully lifted him onto her back.

With everything taken care of, she started off towards the beach where the boat was waiting for her, but once she got in and shoved off the beach, she took the pillow and couple fur blankets she had taken from his sleeping spot and carefully made him a bed.

As the summoned waves pushed them carefully back to Sendra, she thought over what she was doing. This was obviously not the regular, average Ghenyu, being alone on a small island like that, then thinking on when she went to kill him she had suddenly felt a very strong potential resonating from inside him.

“This one doesn’t have to die or lose his mind,” she told herself out loud.

She looked down at the man sleeping more peacefully than at first and smiled again. She ruffled his short black hair and chuckled.

“You and Teague, huh? I suppose the fireworks have just started.”