Author's Note: This is for NaNoWriMo'09, and will be updated as I complete the chapters. It's going to be very rough and dirty, so bear with me if there are spelling mistakes, bad grammar, or plot holes. I'm just trying to get 50,000 words out in 30 days. Come December, I'll come back and fix everything. Until then, enjoy my frantic typing!

Prologue

“Are we almost there?” Rilyuta asked, unable to keep the whining tone from her voice. It seemed that they had been walking forever, their old home a distant memory already. To a young child such as her, the week of wandering would seem very long indeed. She padded alongside her parents, her feet dragging and her head drooping. Her spirits weren't very high, and the low, mournful bellow from their farm mau did nothing to help.

Her mother glanced at her wearily, her gray eyes dull in the heat. “It shouldn't be too much longer, dear,” She said with a forced cheerfulness that even her daughter could see through, despite only being six years old. Rilyuta's father gave her mother a secretive look but didn't say anything. Even the mau seemed content to plod along quietly now, the baskets across her back quiet as well, though that was to be expected. Mrachi hens were usually silent, especially when they were caged up, as they were now, their cries going far higher then either the family of shralden or the mau carrying them could hear.

The tall yellow grass whispered against their hides as they walked, the drought taking its toll on the grasslands. It was still taller then Rilyuta, who had to jump to see any distance ahead of them. The game had been fun at first, but the novelty quickly wore off as nothing else appeared in her sight besides more grass. Instead she had taken to asking her parents what was ahead, though their responses were usually so dull that she ended up hopping just to make sure they weren't purposely not mentioning a herd of kee antelope or maybe even a hellishey on the prowl. But each leap left her feeling more and more dejected as her eyes fell on nothing but an ocean of grass.

Then her father suddenly smiled and nudged his wife encouragingly. “Finally, trees.”

Rilyuta strained her neck as far as it would go to try and see over the grass as her mothers eyes filled with relief. “Where? I don't see any!” She said, dancing on her feet in anticipation. She leaped ahead and her dark gray eyes widened at the glimpse of green in the sea of endless yellow. “Oh! I see them!”

She turned and grinned at her parents, her tail switching behind her in excitement. Her mother and father smiled back, the sight of trees wiping away the dark shadows of worry in their eyes. “Soon now, little one,” Her mother said, her happy tone no longer forced.

Rilyuta pranced around her parents and made the mau snort at her antics. She ignored the grumpy beast and twirled in celebration. Water! Finally, after a week of barely staying hydrated by eating certain underground tubers and fatty prey they could have a cool, refreshing drink of actual water.

Soon they found themselves on a game path, the tracks of many different animals beating the grass flat. More and more paths converged on theirs until they could all walk side by side, even the farm mau, without a single blade of grass tickling their undersides. The mrachi hens started to stir in their baskets, their keen sense of smell already catching the scent of water. Soon after Rilyuta and her parents smelled it. The mau tried to run ahead once she smelled it as well, but Rilyuta's father easily held her back, ignoring her deep brays.

Rilyuta's parents thrummed with excitement, their steps a little uneven as they held themselves back from running towards the water. It made Rilyuta run circles around them as she waited for their permission to run to the shade of the trees and the water that was hiding within the grove. The mau's brays become more distressed as the adult shralden leading her slowed, exercising caution. Rilyuta huffed impatiently and dashed ahead before whirling and looking back at her parents.

“Come on! We can drink!” She explained, much to her parents amusement.

However, the grasslands were not always safe, especially for a shralden child. There were other predators in the grass besides her parents, and while she was not yet old enough to fully understand this, her parents never forgot. As parched as their throats were, they would always put their daughters safety first.

“Patience, Rilyuta. We have waited this long for a drink, a few more moments won't hurt us,” Her father explained, scanning the area carefully, his wife doing the same beside him. The mau bellowed to show her dislike of being held back from the water so close by, a hen squawking her disapproval of the loud noises rumbling her pen.

Rilyuta pouted for a moment, sticking her bottom lip out. Her mother shot her a look and Rilyuta bowed her head in acknowledgment before trotting back to her parents and rubbing up against their legs affectionately. Her parents seemed to have came to the conclusion that the immediate area was safe because they look down at their daughter and nuzzled her lovingly.

“Alright, we can go. Stay close though, just in case,” Her father said, as she squealed gleefully and started towards the treeline. “We don't know who owns this land.”

Rilyuta made a noncommittal noise as she sped ahead, her parents calls of warning barely registering as the large trees loomed up in her vision. They looked so out of place in the large yellow grassland, and yet Rilyuta knew that their being there meant that life sustaining water was very near. She knew she wouldn't be allowed to drink until her parents figured it was pure, but just being able to see it after so long without it would be fulfilling to her.

She arrived at the trees first, glancing behind her to make sure her parents were close behind before plunging into the cool shade. These trees were the first healthy ones she had seen in a long time. Even the ones from where she had come from had been sickly, their leaves turning putrid colors while their trunks and branches twisted unnaturally. The trees weren't why they left though. Her parents said it had been something in the water. Rilyuta hoped there wasn't anything in the water here, though the strong, sturdy trees reassured her.

They were thicker then she had first thought, their branches intertwining high above her to form a natural ceiling that allowed very little light to reach the ground. Giant ferns unfurled their leaves across the groves bottom, and moss grew wherever the ferns didn't. Bird song filled the air, and she could hear small animals scurrying through the underbrush and up in the treetops. It was like stepping into a tiny corner of paradise.

“This looks promising,” Her mother said from behind her, startling her so that her hair stood on end and a sound not unlike a squeak escaped her. Her father chuckled and stepped past the two of them, the mau seeming to have resigned herself to following him at the pace he set rather then attempting to rush ahead. After smiling apologetically, her mother followed.

Rilyuta trailed behind, her eyes darting up and down and side to side as she tried to take in all her surroundings at once. She caught glimpses of strange little animals with glowing appendages on their foreheads, as well as what appeared to be tiny, strangely colored kee antelope jumping in the treetops.

“Can we stay here?” She asked, her voice awed.

“If we can,” Her mother said. “We still don't know who owns it.”

Then the ferns and moss and trees parted, and they found themselves standing before a large pool of water. The mau brayed and pulled against her lead again, and this time Rilyuta's father allowed her to go. Rilyuta and her parents watched in silence as the mau ran into the water, much to the displeasure of the mrachi's on her back. She stuck her snout in the water and gulped noisily, the mrachi's beaks clapping together as they too drunk their fill, the woven baskets floating on either side of the mau.

“Is it safe to drink do you suppose?” Rilyuta's mother asked her father.

“The wildlife doesn't seem to be infected by the demons,” He said, looking at the mau as she swam around happily. “It worries me that we haven't seen anyone else though. Especially in such a terrific area.”

Her mother nodded, and Rilyuta began to worry. “Are we going to be able to drink?” She asked, ducking her head when both her parents turned to look at her.

Then her father smiled. “Yes, go ahead little one.”

Rilyuta whooped happily and took a running leap towards the water, the sound of her belly hitting the water loud in the tranquility of the tree grove. She gulped down several mouthfuls of water before she resurfaced, panting and beaming up at her parents, who smiled at her from the shore. “Oh, it tastes so good!”

Her parents took turns drinking, one keeping watch while the other drank their fill. By the time they had all swallowed as much water as they could, the mau had gotten tired of swimming and had clambered out on the other side of the pond. Rilyuta's father called for the mau before pulling a face that made Rilyuta giggle and ran to catch their mau.

Rilyuta climbed out of the water as well, shaking off beside her mother, grinning impishly as her mother chided her. It was then that Rilyuta noticed the eerie quiet that had crept over the area, broken only by the sound of animals off in the distance. Rilyuta's mother noticed too, and moved to stand protectively over her daughter.

“What's going on?” Rilyuta asked, looking up at her mother. Her mother shushed her and narrowed her eyes, her nostrils flaring and her ears pivoting wildly as looked around. Rilyuta's father had disappeared into the trees after their farm mau.

Several tense moments passed, with the two of them desperately trying to see through the trees, hoping to catch a glimpse of Rilyuta's father. A growl emerged from the brush beside them, and Rilyuta caught only a glimpse of green before something collided with her mother. Her mother cried out in surprise, the attacker riding her back in a flurry of teeth and claws as they both disappeared into the trees with a crash.

Rilyuta screamed and called after her mother, the sounds of fighting growing louder. She tried to move, to go find her father so he could help her mother, but her feet remained firmly planted as she trembled and whimpered. Her mother cried out in pain and then there was silence.

She waited, her ears straining to hear so much as a sigh. Then the scent of blood reached her and the world spun around her, colors washing together as she fought not to pass out. She collapsed onto the ground and slowly the world righted itself, though everything was still horribly wrong. Shaking, she stood up cautiously, ears swiveling as she searched desperately for some sign of her parents.

Time seemed to drag on endlessly. Birds hesitantly started singing again, and somewhere in the trees the farm mau bellowed. Barely managing to keep her on her feet, Rilyuta opened her mouth to call out for her parents when the ferns nearest her rustled loudly and the stench of death curled around her in a sickening caress. All at once she hunched over and threw up the entire contents of her stomach, the acidic bile steaming slightly where it touched the moss beneath her feet.

A horrific scream bore into her skull and she screamed back, her eyes watering as the sound seemed to find its way deep within the soft tissue of her head where it bit like a thousand stinging insects. Her eyes stared sightlessly at what had been her meal earlier on in the day, her mind completely enveloped by the demonic cry.

She took no notice when the sound finally stopped, the ghostly echoes still reverberating through her entire being, her eyes still unseeing. Her sides heaved as she drew in air to continue screaming, only to find that her throat had constricted and nothing more then a croak escaped. Sides lathered with sweat, she stood and stared before her, her eyes glazed over in shock. The flickering light around her went unnoticed, even as it began to dance and twirl around her static form.

It took the golden light hovering a hairs breadth away from her nose to chase away some of the fog clouding her mind, and she blinked long and slow at it a few times. Confusion flickered across her face, and the light flared in brightness, bringing her out of her daze. Rilyuta frowned and tried to swat at the small flickering light, only to find her hand unable to grab it. Her hand remained frozen in the air a few inches away from the softly glowing light, held back by some unseen force.

As soon as she realized it, her hand pushed past the invisible barrier and brushed against the light, which felt as soft as a downy feather. Immediately thousands of lights blinked into existence, and Rilyuta found herself surrounded by them as they danced and careened around her in a wild frenzy, completely blocking out everything else from her sight.

A small part of her mind wondered if she was dead, but the majority of it was held captive by the swirling lights. She could feel them brush against her, as soft as an insects wing, warm to the touch. What she didn't see was that wherever they flit across her form, something odd was happening. Her very skin was changing color, the change spreading like a leaf caught on fire. Her dark striped hide steadily became a pure white that was nearly luminescent in it's beauty, shot through with narrow stripes of light blue that mimicked the effects of light shining through water.

The process was slow though, and when she finally did notice, the patches remained no bigger then a small stone, though there were several spattered across her body. As she watched she could see the white areas expanding their size steadily, and a whimper escaped her throat. Then, just as quickly as the lights had appeared, they vanished.

Rilyuta stood frozen for a moment in the dark shadows, blinking as her eyes quickly adjusted and she could see once more. The grove was alive with sounds once more, yet Rilyuta had never felt so alone as that moment.

An enraged bellow came from behind her, and she started running before her mind had fully registered the fact that she was reacting. Ferns slapped her face and sides as she ran, the crash of her pursuer following close behind loud in her ears. A high-pitched whine came from her mouth in a steady stream, her distressed cries seeming to only fuel the one chasing her. She could feel hot breath on her hindquarters, the smell of fresh blood and death wafting over her in a nauseous wave. She tucked her tail between her legs and sped up to a new speed she had been unaware she even had.

However, she was just a child, with short legs and an even shorter stamina. A hand clamped around her hind leg and she was forced to a painfully immediate stop, her chest hitting the ground only moments before her chin. Dazed, she blinked and lifted her bruised head to look around, her vision rather fuzzy.

A familiar leg stuck out from the ferns, and Rilyuta stared at it for a few moments before realizing that it was severed. The fact that it used to belong to her mother only served to make her stomach do a weak flip-flop, the shocks of the day already wearing her down. A low hiss from above made her shiver slightly, but she could barely find the will to look. Even so, her eyes fell on the two large hands on either side of her, noticing with a detached part of her mind that all the claws had been ripped out of the fingers, leaving nothing but ragged wounds. She couldn't tell the color of the skin for the blood caking them, and some strange part of her mind wondered how he could have done any damage without claws.

Then one of those hands wrapped around her head, and the large thumb claw swung into view, curling around her throat, slicking her with cooling blood. She cried out and struggled against her captor, her vision getting blurrier as she writhed, her nostrils full of the scent of death, and it seemed to cling to her tongue and throat.

She found herself lifted off the ground by the hand around her throat and head. She suddenly felt very small and insignificant in the obviously larger beings grasp. Her eyes watered as her body started complaining about the insufficient air supply it was receiving, so that when she finally could see the one who had caused her so much grief, nothing more then a blurry green form was visible to her. Then her vision went black.

“What have we here, shi?” A male voice said.

Rilyuta then realized she hadn't passed out, as she had first thought. Rather, it seemed as though her eyes had stopped working for the moment. The mans hot breath wafted over her, causing a shiver to race up her spine, which elicited a chuckle from him.

“Why, it's just a little girl,” He said, his voice full of sickeningly sweet charm. He sat back on his haunches so that he could run his other hand through her short mane, petting her obscenely as he crooned. Rilyuta didn't dare move, her bladder already threatening to spill from fear. If she could see him, she would have quaked in terror. As it was, the stench of him was bad enough.

She had no way of knowing just what held her and stroked her in a mockery of gentleness and caring. Could she have seen him, she would have known that he was a skliden, which was a sub race of the sithra, just like her family was, though they were shralden. He was like no skliden she ever would have seen before, however, as he was deeply infected by the demon that lay within the polluted water.

His sanity was as normal as his appearance, which was to say, not even slightly.

The skliden's abnormally long tongue laved over Rilyuta's face, smearing her with blood and saliva, his breath gagging her with its foul stench. He hissed, saliva and worse spraying over her, which was her only warning before she was thrown away from him, landing in a patch of ferns that thankfully cushioned the impact.

What she couldn't know is that her father had appeared on the scene and had jumped atop the large skliden's back, ignoring his own wounds to attack. Which was a miracle on its own, seeing as how at least two of his limbs were broken and his bottom jaw seemed to be ripped off, which would explain his silence. He recognized Rilyuta despite the fact that her coat had completely changed color now, leaving her a brilliant white other then the streaks of the lightest blues that barred her hide.

The sounds of fighting kept Rilyuta from falling unconscious, and now that the skliden wasn't holding her up by her throat, she expected her eyesight to flicker back into existence. Seconds ticked by as she waited, laying panting on the ferns as she listened to the sounds of teeth and claws ripping into flesh, a fine tremble wracking her body. Something flew over her, the passing air ruffling her fur as she found herself pelted by something wet. Her white coat was now marred by the blood droplets that covered it, and the shadow of the skliden fell over her clueless form.

He stood over her, oblivious to her wounds in a way that Rilyuta's father hadn't been. The skliden's infection made it so that he needn't ignore his wounds at all, for as far as his nerves and mind were concerned, he was untouched. The blood dripping from him may as well have all belonged to those he had attacked.

“That was very naughty, shi, very naughty indeed,” He purred, reaching out to grab Rilyuta once more. Rilyuta shuddered and scrambled away, wishing her eyesight would hurry up and come back. The skliden snarled loudly and pounced, his hands coming down on her tail as she cried out desperately.

“No more!” She cried, digging her claws into the ground as she tried to get away. The pressure on her tail didn't lift, nor did it increase. The least of her worries was a broken tail, however, so she spun around, and blindly attacked the hands pinning her. He baby teeth barely made a scratch on his skin, and he sneered before using his hand to push her face into the hard ground, the scent of moss filling her nostrils.

The skliden laughed mockingly and pushed down on her head so that bright shining lights erupted in her vision. Her heart leaped into her throat as she imagined that perhaps her sight was returning when the lights disappeared one by one and she was left in the dark. It was then Rilyuta realized that maybe, just maybe, her eyesight wasn't going to come back. Maybe she'd have to live in the darkness for the rest of her life. Assuming she lived that long, she reminded herself as the skliden's long tongue washed over her face once more.

“No more?” he asked with a snarl, thumb claw once more resting against her throat as he nuzzled her in a sickening mockery of affection. “Shi, we haven't even begun.”

Rilyuta closed her eyes and sobbed, shuddering as the skliden's tongue licked off the blood congealing on her coat. Had she known it was her father's blood she would have been even worse off, but as it was she just wanted this nightmare to end.

The skliden started humming, in a skewed rendition of a lullaby that Rilyuta recognized, and she opened her eyes to give him a horrified stare. Her sight was just as dark with her eyes open as they were closed, and the implications were not lost to her. The skliden seemed oblivious to her gaze as he finished cleaning her, leaving her fur sticky with his saliva and her parents diluted blood. She smelled no different from him now.

Content with his work, the skliden's jaws closed on the scruff of her neck and she found herself hoisted in the air. Squirming only served to make the teeth in her skin dig in deeper, and she yelped as his canines cut into her. She panicked, the thought that the taste of her blood would send the skliden into another frenzy; she kicked out, trying to make the larger sithra release her so that she could attempt to flee once more. Her aching muscles and battered body were in no condition to be running, but escape was all that mattered. Right after surviving.

The skliden growled and tightened his grip on her neck. Rilyuta arched back and cried out as more of his teeth bit through her flesh. She slumped, panting and sobbing, dangling in his mouth as he walked. He started humming again.

She didn't know how long he walked for, with her unable to do anything but hang passively from his jaws, but it was long enough that the liquids on her dried into a matted, flaking mess. She didn't think the grove was large enough for them to still be within it, but the skliden could very well just be walking in circles. She had no way of knowing, and she hated it.

The temperature began to get cooler, and it took a few moments of panicking for Rilyuta to realize that it probably just meant that the sun was setting. Her thoughts of being taken into a deep underground maze of tunnels was just her irrational fears projecting themselves. She was about to brave asking the skliden where they were going when she was dropped. Before she had the chance to scramble away, he pinned her with one large hand.

“I can smell you, shi,” He called out, and Rilyuta had one confused moment of wondering how unstable the skliden truly was when the she caught the scent as well. She lifted her head and looked around, straining her ears to make up for her eyes uselessness. It didn't smell like anything she had ever encountered before, but the hisses and snarls from the skliden told her it was either her savior, or something even worse then her current captor.

They were out on the open grassland, far away from the grove where Rilyuta's parents corpses lay. The skliden tightened his grip on the young shralden as his green eyes swept over the tall yellow grass, nostrils flaring and tattered ears swiveling. He knew that someone was out there, but the wind wasn't strong enough for him to pinpoint their location.

A deep growl rumbled from his chest and his tail lashed behind him in annoyance. Movement to his left caught his attention, and he narrowed his eyes as a small sindjh stood up, now visible from the tall grass. Sindjh were the other sentient race, though to most sithra they were known as hunters. They lived alongside the sithra despite being half their size, and most of the times conflict was nonexistent.

Except times like these.

“Let the little one go!” The hunter demanded, crossing her arms across her chest menacingly. The skliden couldn't help but notice the large sickle in her hand.

He snarled and tightened his grip even further on Rilyuta, making it very hard for her to breath. He didn't notice, but it effectively kept her from being able to cry out or speak at all as she had to focus entirely on drawing her next shallow breath.

“She is ours!” He spat.

“You can understand me then? Perhaps you are not as far gone as I feared,” She said, the last murmured more to herself then to the skliden. Her dark eyes flicked from the skliden to the young shralden pinned beneath his large hand and she gave herself a slight shake, wielding her weapon expertly as she drew cautiously closer to them. Her eyes were continuously drawn to the white shralden; such a color was simply unnatural. “Is she baalin too?”

The skliden didn't recognize the word, and the hunter was getting too close for his comfort level. He puffed up the pouch on his throat, a mutation that served more then one purpose. For now it made him look larger and more threatening to the small hunter, but if she continued to approach, he could spit the stomach acid that gathered there at her. His excess saliva dripped from his jaws to land on the ground with a soft hiss as he glowered at her.

The now acidic saliva was barely missing Rilyuta's head, and the sindjh seemed to realize the danger she had put the child in. She stopped approaching and stood a few feet away from the sithra pair. “Is she infected?” She tried again.

Huffing, the skliden deflated and swallowed back his bile, unable to talk while the pouch was full. “No, she is special.” He said, glancing down at her to stroke her head tenderly. “Aren't you, shi?”

Rilyuta was barely conscious from the lack of oxygen, and the skliden seemed to finally realize that something was wrong, as he cried out and let go of her. She gasped as she could finally breathe properly, her lungs burning at the sudden intake of air. She lay there panting, unable to even think of escaping at this moment. Besides, this strange smelling person would save her. They had too.

Making distressed noises in the back of his throat, the skliden scowled at the hunter, quickly pinning the blame on her. It was obvious that while he wanted to attack her, he didn't want to leave the child alone. He shifted from side to side, his long tongue falling from the side of his mouth as he thought, curling around itself like some sort of worm or tentacle.

The sindjh was unimpressed by the display. She transferred the scythe to her mouth before dropping to all fours and disappearing into the long grass.

Rilyuta was still trying to relearn how to breath when the skliden picked her up by the scruff of her neck again and took off. She whined pathetically as his teeth reopened the wounds that they had made before, but the pain was no different then the dull throbbing roar of the rest of her body and so she paid it little attention. Instead she occupied herself with trying to figure out what was going on. She didn't think that the skliden had killed the stranger, because she hadn't smelled any fresh blood spilled. But then had the stranger left her alone with this crazy man?

Then the skliden bellowed in pain as the hunter leaped from the grass and opened a long narrow gash in his side with her scythe before disappearing back into the cover of the grass. The action caused him to drop the shralden he carried, and Rilyuta hit the ground hard, unable to even utter a pained grunt as the air was once more knocked from her.

This threw the skliden into a panic as he hastily searched for the little girl, cutting down large swaths of grass with his long curved thumb claws. He sounded more and more desperate as he cut down another clump only to not find her. The hunter took his preoccupation to attack again, her scythe biting deep into his hip, eliciting another scream of pain and rage from him.

He lashed out, catching her across the chest with one of his thumb claws, and he cried out in triumph as her scythe went flying out of sight. The hunter screeched and clutched at the deep gash that cut across her chest, blood streaming over her fingers. The skliden towered above her with a threatening smile on his long, narrow face. “Leave now, shi, and don't bother us again.”

She snarled but turned and dropped to all fours, running off into the night, limping due to her injury.

Relieved, the skliden resumed his search for the shralden girl, finding her quickly. He nuzzled her, looking concerned when she gasped in pain. “You are hurt?”

Rilyuta was very hurt, but miraculously she hadn't broken anything and the internal bleeding wasn't fatal. As much as she felt she was going to die in that moment, she would be fine after a few days of resting. The skliden licked clean the wounds he had inflicted, humming softly as he worked, one hand stroking her comfortingly. Despite herself, Rilyuta found herself relaxing, too exhausted to fight anymore that day.

“Why?” Rilyuta asked in a small, pitiful voice. “Why are you doing this?”

The skliden didn't answer right away, instead finishing his duty of washing her. Once he was done, he nuzzled her affectionately and lay his large head gently beside her, green eyes staring at her with a surprising emotion in their crazed depths – compassion. Rilyuta couldn't see it, nor would she understand it even if she could.

“You are special,” He said simply. “So Nrathshtil will take care of you, shi.”

Rilyuta couldn't understand his logic. He stood then, and she whimpered, fearing for his teeth in her neck once more. Sure enough, she found herself once more dangling from his mouth, though the wounds only flared up briefly in pain before dulling to a soft ache. They were on the move once more.

She found herself falling asleep in his grasp despite herself. The way she figured, she would be able to escape tomorrow. With that thought at the front of her mind, combined with the steady rocking and Nrathshtil's humming, she drifted into an uneasy sleep.

Everything © Hilary Francis

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