) --- The Prince. The Drana. --- (

Prologue.

"Taya!" His dark, deep voice cried out in what could be agony. I barely heard him as I ran away from the gate. He would always be on the other side. I would always be here, having to choose. I finally chose. It was never easy being a Drana, having to put up with crap that you had nothing to do with. But it was part of me it seemed. I would always be fighting for a cause I didn't care about. I would always have the fingers point at me. It would always be hard, that was obvious. But not anymore.

I leaped into the Dark Forest with only two things on my mind: the fact I had left the only man who could save me behind, and that I would die tonight. It was a dark night, there was no moon. No stars. There weren't any clouds to cover them. It was Soul night. A night to let your soul take control. That was what I was doing, I guess.

A branch from a tall, disturbingly scary tree scratched my arm as I ran by. Not only did it hurt but my lungs burned, too. Touching the cut, I felt blood drip down. Oh no. I kept running despite my dizziness from feeling blood. I was shaking with fear and something else that had to be sadness. I would miss him. I couldn't even think his name. The boy who I left behind would survive. That was all that comforted me.

My stomach began to knot as I thought of the last time I saw the thing I was running at. It was long ago. It's green eyes never really left my mind through out the years. The knowledge that it had no emotion or pity was not a comfort. It would kill me. It would torture me slowly. I was the last of my kind and it would kill me with satisfaction that it had won the war.

My own father would meet me and he would kill me. I would die at my father's sword. The emotion of grief filled me and finally started overflowing. I almost turned around as my chest started to glow. No. I was going to finish this last thing. I would end the murdering. I would fulfill this last, seemingly meaningless, task. I would die and the council would end the the murdering, and everything would be at peace.

I was a lily of the shadow. A Drana. A beast.