A VOW TO KILL

October 1819 The night air was thick with smoke and the screams of victims. There was chaos everywhere. The village was on fire and lifeless bodies littered the ground like a battlefield. And perhaps it was more a battlefield than a village. Her father had ordered her to hide. He had pushed her into a tree house hidden 90 meters above ground, tucked between the eucalyptus trees. The natural smell of the trees helped camouflaged her scent, making sure they did not notice her. She did not dare to move or make a sound. Fear alone was enough to paralyze her, but what she saw also made sure her limbs froze. Another scream pierced the air, and she covered her ears, but she could still hear them cry and scream. Her enhanced hearing could hear them take their last breaths. She heard them gurgle as blood filled their throats and they drowned in their own blood. Worse, she saw it all. From the height of the tree house, she had a view of the entire village. She had a front-seat view of all the horror. They had ambushed them, those lifeless vampires had descended upon them at a lightning speed. Vampires were the fastest of the paranormal creatures, and they had used their speed to their advantage. Her people hadn’t stood a fighting chance despite their own strengths and advantages over their attackers. She was a dragon, and so were her people, the oldest of the paranormal race. They were feared for their strength and even though they had never taken action against others; the vampires hadn’t wanted to be overpowered, so they had hunted them down one village at a time and annihilated all the occupants before going in search of the next village. They attacked when not expected and in great numbers. The coordinated blood suckers ripped the dragons' hearts out before the larger beasts could even shift and fight for their lives. Dalinda was the daughter of the Dragon Alpha and her father had risked everything to hide her in the tree house before he attempted to defend his village. They had already lost her mother in the attack twenty years before. Dalinda had been but an egg by then. Her mother had given up her life to save her. And now she watched with a feeling of dread in her bones as her father did the same thing. She could see her father fight. He unleashed a trail of furious fire at his attackers, but the vampires were too fast and too many. Some vampires were not too lucky, though. The fire engulfed them and they screamed and burned to ashes within seconds. But the rest escaped and attacked randomly, taking down dragon after dragon. They had outnumbered them and ripped the hearts out of half of them before the alarm was even raised. Dalinda was consumed with hate and she wanted to go down and help her family fight, but her father made her promise she would not move, no matter what. That promise was put to the ultimate test when she watched her father surrounded by the vampires and they attacked. Their claw-like nails dug into his scales and he twisted and turned, trying to shake them off. He blew out flame after flame, but it was futile. They worked together and the last thing Dalinda saw was her father’s heart being ripped out of his dragon’s chest. She let out a silent scream and closed her eyes, refusing to see anymore. The image was burned into her brain and hot tears rolled down her face. She had respected her father’s wish and now he was dead. Consumed by so much pain and anguish, Dalinda lost consciousness. Her body lay limb up in the tree house, hidden away from all the horror beneath. Once the Alpha Dragon was taken down, the remaining few dragons that were still fighting got disoriented. Losing their leader seemed to have taken the fight out of them. In a last act of bravery, the last five dragons surrounded their fallen alpha and began to breathe out enough fire to completely consume the entire village. The vampires had no choice but to run. The village and all that had been, burned to ashes. Not a single trace remained to tell of the former occupants of this peaceful small village. When Dalinda regained consciousness, that was what she found. Ashes and nothing but burned memories. Except the memories in her mind did not burn away. She remembered everything that had taken place. But now the pain in her heart was hardening and numbing. She walked away from the solemn sight. Reality throbbed at her temples. Dalinda was now a rogue. She had no family, she no longer had a home. All she had was bitter hatred and painful memories.