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the-one-of-tales · 1 month

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This is the prologue of one of my stories that I'm writing on. I hope I can post it on here. I can remove it if not. Please give me opinions if you like but be gentle 😂🙂 ##############

The Fire

The flames were strong and whipped at him as he cradled his little sister in his arms, shielding her from its heat. His eyes were locked on the bodies that lay before them, both of them looking peaceful, albeit bloody with both of their hands extended out to one another as they lay in crumpled forms on either side of the only exit they had. Even in death; his parents had tried to help one another.

Closing down the tears that threatened to expose themselves, he stroked Iliana’s hair slowly, trying to soothe her while he figured out what they were going to do. He needed to protect her more than anything else in this world now. No matter what it cost him.

Gripping her harder as the flames licked at them once more, he knew he had to move. Ignoring her tiny cries and pleads for air, he rolled them out from under the oak table and flinched as his arm became exposed to the heat. He turned his back to it to shield Iliana once again then struggled himself up onto his feet, the coughs attacking them both as they were embedded by the smoke of the fire.

“Nath..an...uel,” she coughed, her tiny voice timid and obstructed by her difficulty to fully breathe. He held her firmly and stroked her hair once more, not saying anything as he was not sure how he would sound with his own emotion as well as the smoke. She was trembling but gripped onto him tightly and he was glad of this for fear he would drop her at some point.

He fixated his gaze on the door then and noted the flames were spreading and wrapping around the door frame. They needed to get out now. Ignoring his urge to rescue his parents’ bodies after he had saved Iliana, he rushed towards the door then, jerking to the right slightly as the ceiling began to cascade onto the floor where they had just been, almost striking them down. Forcing his own fears down deep inside, he threw them both through the warmth and rolled, suppressing any flames that may have caught them before he released his sister and let them both breathe in some air.

She lay at his side, her tiny frame shivering as she coughed into her hand and looked at him with their inherited, moonlight, silver eyes. “Mummy...Daddy.” Her face was dirty with soot like his own but her skin was unharmed unlike the side of his arm and back which stung slightly with the burns.

He pushed down the lump rising in his throat and pulled her into a protective hug once again as he whispered in a smoke clogged, shaky voice, “It is just us now, Ili. I will protect you forever.” A single tear ran down the side of face as he closed his eyes to control his emotions. Ten years old or not, he had a five year old sister to look after now. He had no time for his own feelings at the present time. That was something he would work on when he knew they were safe and well.

Once he was calmer, he held onto Ili and gazed around at all buildings around them. Every single small, white stoned house was in flames and bodies were spread out around them, each one, bloody or burned but dead. He couldn’t understand how the pack had came into this type of attack. The Lupos pack here had never harmed anyone or gone out of their way to be a problem to anyone else in their life. Was this the foul play of the Mages? As the thought struck his mind, his silver eyes flashed then flared into a sparking gold colour and a low but young growl escaped him, from somewhere deep down inside of him. He hated the idea of violence just because of what you were.

Feeling Iliana tense against him, he forced himself back to the current situation and kissed the top of her hair before he picked them both up and carried her through the debris of the attack, taking in every detail and becoming angrier with every sight he saw.

He moved them towards the forest entrance and stopped as he saw a small number of living people from the pack standing at the gate; some of them less harmed than others. The black clad men were clearly responsible for all that had happened in the village as they were shackling and kidnapping every one of them. They were dressed all in black and moving shackled fellow members of their pack towards a large black van.

A man stood regarding the others as they did this, a tall white haired man who had it brushed back and held by a black ribbon. He was dressed more chiefly than the rest and his hands were clasped behind his back as if he were assessing the way these people were being apprehended. Another growl escaped from Nathanuel’s throat, this time out of anger for his village and how things had turned out. He began to back away with Iliana when one of the younger girls, Sabrina stumbled slightly as a man pushed her towards the van and happened to look up at that point and see him. “Cova! Help us! Please!” she cried, causing everyone there to focus their gaze on the young boy and girl.

Cursing inwardly, Cova moved then and began to run, only to cry out in both pain and surprise when a whip latched around his ankle and brought him and his sister down hard. He landed on, Iliana who whimpered and trembled under his slightly larger form. Cova snarled like a dog being held captive and whirled off his sister then to try and remove the whip from his ankle, only to be dragged, cursing and threatening right across the grass to the foot of the white haired man.

“Run, Iliana! Get yourself to safety!” he screamed, only to grimace as the older man bent and gripped him under the chin and forced him to look up to him. Breathing hard and looking back at the man fiercely, Cova snapped, “Let us go, asshole! You have no right to do this to us!”

The man smiled at this and looked up briefly to nod to another man who went forward and grabbed Iliana who kicked out and yelped as she was brought towards the other captive pack members. The man then looked down hard at Cova and said, “You have some confidence in you, boy, I’ll give you that but you have no idea who you are dealing with right now. I am of a noble family whereas you are just a Lupos pack who did not adhere to the rules. You have no higher rank so you will come with us now and do your service or I will end you all. Do you understand what I am saying to you?”

Struggling to break himself free, Cova was enraged. Snarling so loud it was practically a howl, he pushed against the man who now had him pinned down by the middle of his arms and rattled himself over and over. Realising he could not break free of this man’s strength, his eyes flashed with loathing as he growled, “Let them go! We do not need to follow anyone’s rules. We are free!” before he spat in the man’s eyes.

The entire crowd of both enemies and captives froze in horror as the man let out a raging cry of his own and backhanded Cova hard, causing his head to snap to one side with the strength of the blow. Iliana wailed loudly and reached out in mid air for her brother while the other man held her tightly and prohibited her leaving him.

The world circled wildly in front of Cova’s star crossed eyes as he stared at the nearest burning house and tried to bring the fight back to himself. He had to save Iliana. He had to save the clan survivors but he also needed to get away from this man. There was a darkness inside this man and Cova could feel it shining out from him as he glared down at him with an arrogant scowl that proved just how powerful the Lord thought he was.

Wiping the spit from his eyes then gripping Cova by the throat and choking him slightly, the Lord bent closer and whispered, “You should do as I say or suffer the consequences, boy.” As he tightened his grip on Cova’s throat, causing more stars to appear once again, he looked to the man who held Iliana and ordered, “Slaughter the pup. She is weak and there is no use for that with us.”

The other man looked troubled by this order but began to reach behind him to remove a blade from the back of his belt. Cova’s fears overrode his anger then and he screamed and thrashed madly while the Lord held him down with a cruel smile. Iliana gazed at the man and the blade as it slid closer to her and began to kick at him, screaming also while those who were shackled beside them struggled slightly to break free as they didn’t want this to happen. She was a child after all. This was harsh, even in the soldier’s eyes. The other man gripped her by the back of her wavy hair and tilted her head back, exposing her throat and aiming the blade slowly over it, guilt flickering in his eyes for a second before he went into an automated, dead, expression.

The asshole was going to kill his sister. Unsure of what made him think as he did, Cova was sobbing freely at that point as he said, “Stop! Please don’t! I’ll do whatever you want. Just…please don’t kill her. I’ll follow the rules and do whatever you want…just don’t kill her. She doesn’t deserve it.” He saw some of the pack members silently resent his words and he did too but he couldn’t think of anything more than saving Iliana. He had to do this.

The Lord’s eyes glimmered with success at that one comment so he raised his hand for the man to stop just as the blade was ready for Iliana’s tiny throat. The man returned his blade back to the belt and hastily held Iliana in a one person lift as she crumpled into a faint out of the tension of it all.

Crying silently under the man’s stronger form, Cova felt like everything he had done had been pointless and he had just sold his soul as well as the rest of the surviving Lupos pack to a man who would use them all to his advantage, no matter how it affected them in the meantime. He knew he had to protect Iliana but was this the right way to do it by selling the pack to this ruthless man? Cova’s father had been their Alpha and now he knew, they would feel that his son had failed them. The worst part of it was; he felt he had failed them all too.

The Lord looked down at the broken boy below him and his smile widened at this. He had broken the Alpha side of him by threatening the sister and that would be to his advantage as he trained them to follow his laws. He was the Alpha now, not the boy and he would always make sure Cova was always aware of this. Looking down at the broken boy, he stood, turned and focused his gaze on the beaten clan. “Do you now see why the Lupos must be trained and controlled? You have caused so much destruction for your freedom that you don’t see what you are truly meant to be. You need to be ready for the Mages and their control. You think I am bad but you would have received far worse from them if they had been made aware that a Lupos clan had been let out, alive and free from control. We are not safe when not working together and some day, you will see this. Now let us move on from this with the new life in our eyes. One that is steady, not without rules and safe for us all.” He saw them grumble amongst themselves within the group and looked down at Cova who merely stared blankly up at him and was unsure about this but knew he had not lost. The Lord had won this battle.

Forcing Cova to stand and tossing him into the pack who moved away from him, causing him more hurt than they would ever realise, the Lord regarded them with a dominant stare. “This is the start of a good dictatorship between us, wolves. You will be educated to become strong and help me keep the strength of our side of the world without fail. The Mages will not have the upper hand to beat us down and with that, we can even consider bringing them into our world.” Stepping back as the other men moved them all harshly into the van, the Lord looked to Cova as he was shackled and his malicious grin widened.

Moving to the boy slowly, he stared down at the youngster’s glaring form and murmured, “Welcome to the world, boy. I am Lord Thaddeus Van Der Vries and you are in my world now so will learn quickly how to play by my rules. Or...suffer the consequences as I said before, boy. No more Alpha but me and let’s never forget that, shall we?”

Cova bit his tongue to stop himself throwing back a response and watched as the Lord ordered the men to put Iliana in the front of the van with himself. He closed his eyes and prayed to the Higher Powers to give some peace to Iliana through all of this. She hadn’t matured enough for her wolf traits like Cova had been and he didn’t want her to go through that alone. He would follow the rules accordingly and do what needed to be done to keep his sister with him. He glanced back briefly to the collapsing village they had once called their safe spot and home and let himself weep in silence for it all. Nicholai Cova had been a strong, confident and fair leader of the pack with love and respect for all of them, especially his deal wife, Karine and his two loving children. No one felt unsafe around him and now, they were captives and it was all Nathanuel Cova’s fault.

As they turned the corner away from the ruin, Cova let himself curl into the corner and closed his eyes. One day he would make amends for all of this he had caused. One day, they would be free again and he would never let them be taken like this. One day, even if it was several years from now, he would get his revenge.

#writing #creative writing #own stuff #own story #fantasy #werewolves #witches #fiction

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