The Creatures Series

First Dark

First DarkCreatures of the Dark

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##### First Dark #####

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This life I breathe. This hand I hold. Are those really mine?

"Haylen, wait up!" I shout across the hall as I run towards her. Haylen is my cousin, who's 5 years younger than me. Unlike me, she has sparkling blond hair that goes straight to the back of her waist like satin ribbons, and a pair of pale blue eyes that glint inside the border of her eyelashes.

"Hurry up, Centry. Catch me," she giggles playfully, full of energy even from the top of the stairs that leads to her room. Haylen is always known to be a very active and happy girl. Unlike me, she always takes things whimsically. To her, the world is just her personal playland.

"Wait for me," I beam, trying to balance her tone. My legs are long, so they give quite a lot of advantage in a situation like this. It is a good thing that all the hallways are as clear as a haunted house, or else this chasing game might be full of angry protests and possible curses. The adults are very fierce, so we kids always try to stay away from them as much as possible inside this huge manor.

The manor itself was built in 1803. It used to be part the enemies’ territory. However, a member of our clan managed to acquire it and build a manor on it. This manor has a mixture of Chinese and Japanese styles, making the place look beautiful with its red fences, brownish-gold wooden bridges, red sakura trees, and pale golden interiors. The manor has many pools in the back area, making a beautiful and artistic garden for it. Red sakura trees grow around the lands in the middle of the pool, which leave quite enough of space just for them to grow and never have any lack of water. There are always many flat bridges over the pool, so that they can connect different parts of the house.

Due to the number of members are in the family, the hallways are always full with pictures. They are always framed inside with beautiful and unique borders, although the form was never similar with each other. Since we are such a big family, the walls always hang with different faces, from those who are from our early ancestors, to the youngest generation now.

"Haylen," I call her name again, out of breath. I always feel tired when I do not use my other power for too long. I can still survive though. But I feel... weak.

I manage to reach the top of the stairs and on to the main lounge. I assume that Haylen ran to her room. So I follow her.

Haylen's room is located in the middle rooms. The rows of bedroom doors are like in an academy. She shares with another group of girls around our age. It can be a little bit confusing sometimes when you’re not used to the surroundings. Even for me, who have been visiting her for some time now, but I eventually find it, after pushing and breaking in a few wrong doors. Her room is dark, and the single pile over her bed indicates that she had fallen asleep due to boredom of waiting for me to come.

"Oh, Haylen." I unfold my arms after I shake my head. Walking to her sleeping figure, I tidy up the covers on her and kiss her forehead so that she can have a good dream. Walking from the room, I close the doors to welcome it in a complete darkness rest.

"What are you doing here?" A voice spat in disgust from behind. I turn around only to find Anthone behind me. The cold eyes behind those glasses are squeezing in anger. His arms are folding under his chest. His curly, chocolate hair is curlier than usual. While his clothing matched his eyes' shade: silverish gray.

Anthone is just one of the wizards who hate my guts. There are others, too, who like to play overrated pranks and hurt me. He's not one of them. But he's something worse. He can kill me without hesitation. He had said that before to my face once, when I was standing in his way. He plainly thinks that I'm just another hindrance that needs to be rid from the family tree.

"I asked—"

"I was just tucking Haylen in," I answer quickly, cutting him off before he can bore me with his repeating question. But this seems to trigger a heat of anger inside his ice-cold heart.

Why does everything I do always make him angry?

Fortunately he just gives me more cold stares, before he is out of my sight.

I let out a breath that I have been holding inside. What I don’t need right now is another conflict with any of my family members.

I head out to the common practice field, where family members usually practice their magic. But this place is usually only be visit by underage wizards, since we are the only ones who need to increase our skills the most.

The practice field is located near my aunt's room. She has a personal room that's separated from other groups or sharing. This is because she's one of the eldest of the Rainfolds' clan.

Aunt Marylin's room is my favorite place in the world. Her room is in the middle of the backyard pool, which reflects the outside walls of her room prettily. The only way to get in is from the long track of wooden bridges that connects near the back main door directly to her room. But it's more like a single, lone house in the middle of water. Around the house, wooden boards cover the bottom, with fences circling the place. The roof is in dark red; the same color as the windows and doors, while the wall is always golden yellow. Deciding that I need to take a visit before heading to practice, I knock first before I walk through the unlocked doors.

"Aunt Marylin," I greet her with a light bow and a smile on my bright face. Aunt Marylin, who is as nice as her house, is the nicest adult in the family that I know. Well, at least to me. Some adults in this family mostly despise me, like I had done something wrong to them that I couldn’t remember.

"Centry. Nice to see you this morning," Aunt Marylin sighs from her chair. She seems tired.

I walk towards the kitchen to pour a glass of tea and give it to her.

"Hot enough?" I ask.

She inhales the smell for a second. "Perfect as always." She smiles a little from her wrinkly face. Aunt Marylin is 68 years old, so there's no wonder in it.

"So..." I let my voice travel. "What happened to you?"

Aunt Marylin sips her tea once more before answering. "The same old story: Elders Council."

"What was it about?" I ask as I take a sit next to her.

"Oh, believe me, Centry. It's better if you don't know about this time's discussion. One thing I can say is that it was UGLY."

Aunt Marylin is very likeable when she wants people to feel that way about her. Her specialty is in mood control, after all. But with me, she doesn't need to manipulate. We are as good as we are. We can communicate fluently since we like the same things and think the same way. So when she says that she doesn't want to talk about it, I try to cheer her up with something else.

"Did you notice that lately, the red sakuras have been harvested from fruits?"

"Really?" She asks in curiosity.

"Yes! But it's in the same color, so it's hard to spot. It also looks like a berry, very small and round. You need to look very carefully before you can spot it. And it doesn't seem that every tree in Rainfold manor harvested the red fruit," I explain.

"So, have you tasted it yet?" She asks, definitely interested in the new topic.

"No. Not yet. I'm not really sure if it's edible," I answer while thinking about it, "It might be poisonous."

After some chat with Aunt Marylin, I finally mention to her about me just dropping by before practice. After bidding my goodbye, I head to the practice field. My teammates are waiting for me in there while practicing their magic.

"Macko! Ginnie! Freadly! Latherine! Hendrick! Laurant!" I greet them one by one as I wave my hand in their direction from afar.

"Centry! Come join us. We were just talking about the Yitzh Champion," Ginnie waves back. She just hits a flying fireball that's heading towards her direction before turning to me.

Yitzh Champion is an annual competition, held by the government of magic in order to make the younger wizards participate in the international worldwide game. Any kid from age 13 to 17 can join the game by groups. Each group must have 7 wizards from the range of appointed age. The winner of the Yitzh Champion will not only gain the most valuable prize, a magic artifact, but also gain the title for the year’s strongest wizards. This is why there are so many wizards who are interested in joining this game.

But because of the vast number of interest, comes the hard chance of actually winning this. Still, my friends doesn’t lose their passion for entering this championship as one group.

“Really? When is it going to be held?” I ask.

“June 4th, 2 weeks from now,” answers Hendrick.

“That’s a really close deadline.”

“But it’s not impossible either,” adds Latherine.

“Besides, I already entered our group,” announces Macko.

“WHAT?!” We all yell in unison.

“Calm down guys. They accepted us.” Before any of us have the chance to ask why he didn’t tell us sooner, Macko says, “I just got the letter of acceptance this morning, which is why I was only able to tell you right now. But it looks like even this is not the perfect timing. Chill, okay?” He looks at us one by one. Coincidentally we are already lining in a circle. “I know we’re gonna win this. Together. So let’s practice our coordination,” he says to all of us with optimism.

We all got affected by his spirit soon and vibrantly takes each of our positions.

“Let’s start!” Macko, our leader, announces.

The clash of magic begins.

Fire smashing to ice. Earth colliding with tornados. Light tries to emerge with the living. Each is trying to devour the other. No matter how small, no matter how weak. Every power is hungry. We will never rest until we find the weak spots of the others. Each changes their opponent by lashing out attacks to other elements. Coldness will try to freeze the air. Earth will try to swallow the heat. Light passes through all the solid attacks. Only I stay in neutral.

“Come on, Cen. Show us what you’ve got,” teases Laurant in his combat mode.

“Yeah, Centry. Show us. Or are you afraid?” The others echo, but I never let them get to me.

I’m still waiting for the perfect moment.

They are attacking each other, trying to find a hole in others’ powers. The first to go down is Latherine, whose flowers got burned and destroyed easily by our friends. She’s walking towards the resting seat right now. The second one, despite his arrogance, is Laurant. Ginnie managed to trick him into burying himself in his own dirt with her wind. The third is Hendrick, whose fire eventually freezes by Freadly. Now it’s down to the last four, as the losers take their seats in the resting room, whether they like it or not. That’s the deal. You get knocked down, you stay out. Until the next group’s practice.

Finally, three of us have gone all-out. Then suddenly, as if they’ve plan their tactics, Macko, Ginnie and Freadly start to attack me at the same time. I am rained by the light, wind and ice. Not a very good combination though, as their elements go right in the same line. They attack me brutally and without any second thoughts to hold back. That’s another deal. Never hesitate on attacking in group’s practice.

My main move now is dodging. I move to sides, jump and squat. Then when I have no any other choice, I flip. Literally. I move my upper body to the back in an attempt to avoid Macko’s vital light shot. I push both of my hands up to support my body before my head can be crushed from the hard surface of the ground as a cold force tries to hit my upper body. I let my body fall forward as I let my legs swing to what’s in front of mine now when Ginnie’s wind passes through where my legs once stood. In three seconds, I’m already standing straight, ready for more attacks.

Sadly, my friends have already lost their breaths and energy due to the previous attack they launched at me before. I take that as my chance to hold them back with my hands, blocking their energy to flow out by pressing the parts where they usually flow. It only takes me about five other seconds to completely stop them. I can hear Latherine’s, Hendrick’s and Launrant’s cheers and clapping hands from behind as I land my other three friends on the ground. Lying tiredly.

“Always as persistent as ever,” Macko breathes.

“Why can’t you show us your true power, Centry? Like the rest of us?” Ginnie asks.

We all might be cousins. But each of us has different kinds of powers. This is due to the fact of having mixed ancestors. Each of our earlier ancestors married different power holders. Each has at least one that came from different clan as a member. We come from many different genes. That is why even though we are still blood-related, our powers are very variant.

“No. I don’t want to really rely on my powers too much,” is my answer.