• I’m on my way to the city of Balivia, my name is Sariana Stavers and I am the daughter of the once very powerful warrior Hasuto. No one knows much about me, they don’t even know I am the daughter of the great warrior. I am seventeen and have lived all my life wandering around this world trying to find a place I belong. So far I haven’t had much luck with that, everywhere I go people treat me like I am some filthy mongrel that has diseases of all sorts. It’s a pretty harsh life but I have grown fond of it. I can do whatever I want and I don’t have to be home by a certain time. Its a wonderful life and I have lived this way since I was 5. My father, warrior Hasuto was killed in battle against Lord Lexiam well at least that’s what I am told. It was a great and fierce battle against brothers, yes they were brothers. Once two loving brothers, one had plotted against the other so that he could take over the world and become the ruler of all. The other brother kind to everyone and would protect even the smallest creature. Of course they weren’t humans, they were born demonic vampires. Lexiam was born with the powers of mind reading and teleportation and Hasuto was born with the powers of speed and healing. The battle lasted days, but in the end Hasuto had fallen and Lexiam had become the ruler of this miserable world. That’s how my father died, I never knew him though. My mother was human, but my father still had fallen in love with her. Its amazing how two different creatures could come together and be at peace. She died when I was 5 and my father had died before I was born. That’s how I came to be wandering around this world everyone calls home. I am a demonic vampire just like my father. His blood runs through my veins.

    I finally had reach the city of Balivia, this is the great city of all the world because Lord Lexiam lives here. I walk into the dirty crowded town, trying to stay out of trouble. I never like causing trouble it just brings problems to everyone. The gate that I had gone through to get in was old and rusty. It looked like it hadn’t been fixed for years, I wondered if it still worked. The guards looked at me like I was going to be a problem, their glaring eyes staring at me as I walk by. To be honest they freaked me out, I hate being watched it makes me feel like I am the worse person that has walked this horrid planet. I set my hand on the handle of my blade that rested nicely at my waist. It was my fathers blade, there is a legend that has been told for many years about this blade. They say that it is full of powers that are beyond anything people can do. I’ve never seen anything special happen with this blade yet, but maybe something will happen in the future. I keep walking down this dirt road which led me to a general shop. I walked in because I needed to sell a few things I had stolen from some people. Yes, I know I said I don’t like being a troublemaker but I have to do what I need to do to survive.
    “May I help you, young lady?”, the store manager said looking straight at me. He was very muscular.
    I looked at him wondering if he was friendly or someone who would rip me off and give me an unfair amount of money for the items I had brought.
    “Um.. Well I was wondering if I could trade in some items for cash, can you do that?” , I said with a smile, still having my hand on the handle of my blade. I wanted to make sure I would be ok.
    “Sure, lets go over to the counter and take a look at what you got here.” he said, walking behind the counter.
    I walked over and placed a pistol, sword, pocket watch, ring, and a pearl necklace on the counter. He looked at all of the items one by one making sure they were in good condition. I had stolen them out of a camp that was in a forest. Pretty easy job for a vampire with speed. He finished up and had set a large amount of cash in front of me.
    “Here you go miss, there is three hundred dollars there. I hope that is enough for all of this stuff.” he smirked and went back to working, putting everything on the shelves.
    I looked at him in amazement I didn’t think I would actually get this much money. “Yea that’s more than enough.”
    I stuffed the money into my pocket and headed out the door. There must be an inn around here and a place to get some food, I thought to myself.
    I walked down this road and passed many shops, but none were inns or taverns. I felt a little scared in this city, for many reasons of course. One of those reasons was I had never been here before and the second reason was because everyone looked so unfriendly. I felt like at any minute someone was going to grab me, pull me into an alley, and murder me viciously. I know how to fight though, but I’m not that great I just know the basics. I had finally came to a tavern and was excited. I started jumping up and down while clapping my hands, people were staring from every direction. I decided to walk in before someone thought I was psychotic or didn’t have a brain. The tavern felt bright and lively, the walls were painted a cranberry red and there were wooden tables and chairs everywhere. There was even booths on the far wall. It had a nice cozy feel to it. I saw this very odd looking creature sitting at the counter. I had never seen someone like him before. He had furry cat ears that were a soft white color, he even had a tail. His hair was white with a hint of silver. His skin looked like porcelain, it was beautiful. He wore jeans and a nice black button up dress shirt. I walked up to where he was sitting and sat down next to him, trying not to stare so much at his ears and tail. The strange creature looked at me with a smile, not one of those creepy smiles that weird people give you but a smile that meant he was kind and wasn’t going to try and kill me sometime.
    “Are you new around here?”, he asked in a friendly tone putting out his hand.
    I looked into his eyes, very intrigued by his features. I reached my hand out and shook his hand, his grip was firm but his skin was so soft and smooth.
    “Yes I’m new, I just got here today. I’m still learning my way around.” I turned to look at the bartender.
    “Can I get a glass of ale?” I said to the bartender, he looked young and a little angry. He gave me a rude little smirk like I had done something wrong. I began talking to the fascinating creature again.
    “So what’s your name and what kind of creature are you? I have never seen someone like you before. Is there any others like you?” I got so excited I just started rambling and asking questions.
    He started laughing and almost fell off his chair, backwards. “Man, you ask a lot of questions and hardly give any time for me to answer in between each one.”
    “Well, its just I’ve never met someone like you before so I’m curious.” I gave him a friendly smile and shut my mouth so I could hear what he had to say.
    “Well to answer your first question my name is Shiro Nemeko and I’m twenty.” he picked up his glass and took a sip, then began answering my questions again one by one.
    “To answer your second question I am a neko, which is a half cat half human. That’s why I look human, but have ears and a tail. Nekos’ hardly exist anymore there may be 5 to 20, but most likely I’m the only one left. I’m not sure though but I haven’t met another neko yet. Hopefully someday I will meet more creatures like me but for now I’m the only one. Its not so bad but sometimes I feel lost in this big world because I can’t relate to anyone usually.” he let out a long and heavy sigh.
    I could feel his pain that he had been going through, even though I’m not the only one of my breed I feel like an outcast most of the time since I have been wandering around my whole entire life. I’ve never had a real home I have always been moving from city to city, but here I have family even if my uncle is evil.
    “So what’s your name?” Shiro asked finishing up his drink and signaling the bartender to give him another.
    “Oh, my name is Sariana and I’m seventeen. I’m a demonic vampire, not a very rare breed like you.” I laughed softly, but was annoyed that I hadn’t been given my drink yet.
    “Um, hello bartender?” I said very rudely since he was being rude for not giving me my drink yet. “Where is my drink? I ordered it a few minutes ago and I still haven’t gotten it. Everyone else has been given there drinks so why haven’t I been given mine?”
    The bartender then threw the drink at me, now I was wet and very annoyed. Shiro just sat there in shock at what had happened. I swear his mouth dropped to the ground, just like mine did.
    “What is your problem! All I wanted was a drink!” I jumped on the top of the counter and grabbed him by his neck.
    “I wouldn’t do anything if I was you, young lady.” the bartender smirked and threw me into the window shattering it into a million pieces.
    I lay on the ground in the middle of the broken glass. I could feel the pieces jab into my skin like sharp little daggers. I saw little drops of blood sneaking out of my skin and onto the ground.
    “I warned you, didn’t I?” he slowly walked towards where I laid helpless.
    I tried to get up stumbling every time. Then I saw Shiro run to me, he picked me up and then walked over to the bartender.
    “How dare you treat a women like that! Do you have no respect for anyone, all she wanted was a drink and then you had to throw it at her? What kind of monster are you?” Shiro walked away, carrying me in his arms.
    The last thing I saw before everything went dark was the bartender smirking at me like he had accomplished something far greater than what you would expect.

    I woke up that morning having a slight headache and much pain. I couldn’t remember much about what had happened or why I had so many little cuts everywhere on my body. The only thing I could remember was meeting that fascinating neko named Shiro. I looked around the room but it was hard to see because the curtains were still shut. I could make out a person sitting in a chair near a fireplace, no wonder the room felt so warm and cozy. The figure looked familiar but I couldn’t tell since there was hardly any light in the room. I sat up and tried looking closer. I slowly crept out of bed and walked towards the door trying to be as quiet as possible.
    “Where are you going?”, the figure said looking straight at me with a smile. I finally could see who it was, sitting in the chair was Shiro.
    I walked over to him and smiled. “Oh I was just leaving, thanks for helping me last night but I should be on my way now.”
    He tilted his head, “It was no problem, That guy had some issues. I’m sorry I wasn’t that much help though, but fighting isn’t really my thing.”
    “It’s alright, I’ll take care of him later. I don’t understand what I did wrong. I mean all I did was ask for a drink.” I sighed and looked at the ground.
    “I just got here yesterday and people already hate me, its sad.”, I started thinking to myself after I had said that. It’s odd that the bartender would do something like that, unless he knows me somehow.
    Shiro stood up and walked towards me, “So your leaving already? I want to take you out for breakfast.”
    I looked at him in shock, “You don’t hate me and you want to take me to breakfast? Wow.”
    He smiled and started laughing, his laugh was so adorable. It wasn’t one of those weird goofy laughs but a laugh that made you smile and want to laugh too.
    “Of course I would like to take you to breakfast, unless you don’t want to that is.”, his smile turned into a frown.
    “No that’s not it at all, I would love to go to breakfast with you.” I skipped to the door and opened it with a huge smile on my face.
    He walked over and out the door, grabbing my hand. I couldn’t believe it, our hands were together. Guys had never treated me like this, especially not taking me out for food or holding my hand. It felt like a dream or maybe this was all a trick to get me to feel comfortable and then once I was, he would try killing me. I kept thinking about what his kindness meant, if it was good or bad. We headed out of the inn and walked down the dusty road.

    It was the same road as the one I first walked on. Then farther up the road was the tavern, the one I had been thrown out of the window by that weird bartender. It gave me the chills just thinking about it. I started thinking to myself about what had happened the night before. That bartender did look a little strange. His hat pretty much covered his face so really, he could have been anyone walking around. Maybe he’s plotting to try and kill me again. There is no way I could recognize him. Oh well I won’t worry about it, my new friend seems strong maybe he will help if that bartender came after me again.
    We walked into the same tavern and sat down at a booth in the far back corner of the room. I checked around for that odd bartender but I didn’t see him and even if he was here he may not be wearing that hat.
    “So Shiro if you don’t mind me asking, where did you come from and what happened to your family? If you don’t want to answer it’s ok I just find learning about new people interesting.” I half smiled at him, hoping he would answer my questions so I could learn more about him.
    He got quiet and looked at the table, he started to twiddle his thumbs. After a few moments of silence he started to speak.
    “It’s cool I don’t mind answering your questions on one condition.”, he smirked and looked at me with this evil looking grin.
    “So what would the one condition be?”, I said curiously trying not to look scared, swallowing hard.
    His grin turned into a smile and he relaxed his back and slouched. “You have to tell me where your from and what happened to your family. So its answers for answers, what do you say?”
    “Alright, you have to start though.”, I smiled and stared at him happily. I was so excited that I got to learn more about him, but knowing that I would find out more information made me think about what happened to his family since he said their weren’t a lot of nekos left.
    Shiro looked a little scared at first, he started fidgeting again and I could see he was nervous.
    Is it really that bad? Maybe he’s just a little shy about his past, oh well he can take his time. It’s not like I have anything else to do. I gave him a smile and relaxed, laying back into the booth and laid my hands on the table.
    “I was born in the city of Velinan, it was a small city. It’s far away from here, hidden in the majestic forest of Kinova. It was a nice place to live in, only nekos lived there. I loved living there and everyone was so friendly. There was even a river with a waterfall that flowed right near the city, but then Lord Lexiam came into power.”, he paused and then sighed.
    “Oh and about my family, well I was walking back to our little cottage that was in the poorer part of town. I heard screaming and shouting coming from inside my home. I ran to the door and opened, finding a horrific scene. There was dark looking people in my house, I couldn’t see who they were that well. I knew they weren’t good though I could see it in their dark red eyes. They started slaughtering my family in front of my eyes. I couldn’t believe it, so I ran up to one and started beating him up. He threw me into a wall and I was knocked out. Before my eyes closed I saw them kill my little brother. I saw blood go flying everywhere .”
    His face became pale and his eyes swelled up, tears fell from his eyes. I could see all the pain he has been suffering from. I stood up out of my booth and sat down next to him. I hugged him tightly, I could almost cry because he had been going through the same thing I have been going through. The only difference was is that I didn’t see my family die. I would have been devastated. My mother meant a lot to me.
    “I’m so sorry, no one should have to go through that.”, I laid my head on his shoulder very gently.
    “It’s alright, now lets change the subject shall we? It’s your turn.” he gave me a big smile and wiped away his tears.
    I let him go and sat back up, I smiled softly and began to tell my tale. I was a little afraid though because my uncle must have had something to do with the death of his family. I felt miserable but kept a smile on my face.
    “Your right, well I was born in a small city called Yari, its not that far from here. I never knew my father so I couldn’t tell you what had happened to him. I was about five when my mother died. She fell very ill and the doctors couldn’t do anything about it. After she had died I left Yari and just wandered around doing whatever I pleased. I’ve had a pretty boring life since I’ve always been alone but it’s alright I suppose. No one bosses me around or tells me what to do.”, I couldn’t believe I had lied. I never lied at all in my life and now I’m lying to a guy who seems to be my friend. I had to lie though because my uncle had something to do with his family dying. If he found out he would want to kill me, I was sure of it.
    “Wow, you’ve been through a lot yourself.”, he gave me such a caring face and I knew that he wasn’t just being nice because he had to. I knew that we were now friends, there was no denying it. He knew exactly how it felt to be alone in this world, not having anyone to go to. We needed each other because we had no one else. I still couldn’t believe I had lied to him.
    Man, if he find out who my uncle is I will be dead. My uncle has caused so much pain for everyone and I’m related to him. I wish I wasn’t and I wish my father was lord not him!
    I felt the tears run down my pale face, I had to get out of here. I didn’t want him seeing me cry. It was a sign of weakness and I couldn’t feel vulnerable and weak while I kept this secret. Shiro turned to look at me and I knew he saw me crying.
    “What’s wrong Sariana?”, he looked at me curiously, leaning in to hug me.
    Before he could I got up and ran out of the tavern, but in the corner of my eye I saw that mean bartender. I knew that I had to get out of there even more than I needed to before. I ran down the long dusty road and ran past the inn. People were staring at me and I didn’t care I just needed to get out of there.
    “Sariana! Come back!”, I heard Shiro say, while he chased after me.
    I didn’t say a word or look behind me. Nothing could stop me from running away. I ran out the rusty old gate and headed for the woods. Shiro was yelling some more, but I didn’t hear anything I was too far away. I ran through the trees trying not to trip and fall over tree roots. Pictures of my uncle murdering my father and Shiro’s family went through my head. How can someone be so mean and cruel to people? I didn’t want to be related to someone so evil. I was kind besides the stealing part, but that was only for surviving. My uncle didn’t need to kill people to survive, he only did it to stay Lord.

    I slowed down once I reached a clearing. I was in a cemetery, not just any cemetery though. This one was special and it gave me peace. I walked slowly through the cemetery admiring its beauty and tales of sorrow and misery. I finally reached the back of the cemetery, there was a willow tree and the branches blew in the wind so beautifully. Under the willow were two graves, they were my parent’s graves. I laid down in between them. This was my sanctuary where I could calm down and relax. It was a place I could be happy. I felt bad for leaving Shiro back in Balivia but I needed a break from life.
    “Hi mother and father.” I said quietly.
    “Yesterday was horrible, but I met a new friend and his name is Shiro. He’s a neko, I never even knew that type of race existed in this world. He has a tail and ears just like a cat. I know we will be great friends, the only thing that could ruin that is the fact Uncle Lexiam had killed his family. I lied to Shiro though, I didn’t know what else to do.” I started to cry, my tears fell into the snow that laid under me.