Daughter of Morning

[The Crow]

An attack by the military on a small group of insurgents had led into mass nuclear war, and many of the children were infected from birth with powers from the nuclear radiation. As a result, all born into the world that showed any hint of power or abilities not normal were immediately sent out into the nuclear wastes to die. But one man didn’t die; instead he gathered and rescued all of those he could, and found one who could see into the future. She said, “Only whence those called The Daughter of Morning and The Leader of The Darkness meet shall thy sins be repented and ye who be worthy shall once again unite with the souled of those perished under cruel fates of undivine invention.” She died immediately after as she imploded from the mass of energy used for the prophecy…

The years passed and those small groups of people lived and prospered into a new race called the Genoa. They lived in small villages and each new generation one of every three children would inherit the powers brought on by the nuclear war so many years ago, four hundred to be exact, and these powers were as varied as the faces of the children across the planet. And across the world, were many small villages such as this as Nai, a village nestled in a cove of mountains and forest.

The village was always quite in the early morning. Here and there the Red-Winged Jack was heard chirping in the distance. An all clear for those in the village, a safe-haven for the Genoa’s, or those who had been affected by the nuclear wars and marked with a Zenserpens, or the Snakes Charm. It was two intertwined serpents of white and black, in the shape of a Zen symbolism of the yin and the yang.

Baldric, a boy of seventeen or eighteen, had one across his left arm just under the shoulder. The Genoa’s power varied between them. Baldric was a manipulator, he was able to control and affect fire and air. He could make a flame pitch black or bright green or make a barrier around someone, and inside would be as that of a moonless night or foggy morning, among other things. He was also a skilled user of the Tai Chi martial arts and also skilled in the Iaidô sword style. The mist was thick this time so Baldric was amusing himself by creating a barrier of air and condensing the mist around him and a group of chickens from the farm on a lower level of the city.

“ Are you having fun scaring MY chickens Baldric?” said a stern but kind voice behind him, like that of a mother or a preacher.
“Oh Madeira you scared me. I forgot you can move through shadows with your powers.” Replied Baldric jumping slightly.
Madeira was a slight girl around sixteen or seventeen years old. She was Baldric’s sister, although they looked nothing alike. She was cute with slight build, tan and had auburn hair. He was pale with silver hair the flopped around his shoulders. He was built and had eyes the color of blood rubies. He would get often get attacked because of this so, in order to protect himself from bullies who wished to kill him and his ‘demon’ eyes, he trained extensively in how to fight and master his abilities.

“Oh Baldric…” she said with a sigh, “what am I going to do with you?”
Baldric just smiled and motioned her to take a seat next to him. The sat there for a while just toying with the chickens until the chickens finally just gathered in a circle and hid under one-another. The sun was now high enough to thin the mist around the top of the village. A burly man walked down a couple of feet and called out to Baldric and Madeira to come in for breakfast. As they came in the saw Lang and Almena, Baldric and Madeira’s parents already sitting down waiting for them so they could eat.

“Baldric I have to go out to Toroth’s today, do you want to come?” said Lang through a mouthful of toast.

“Toroth’s? Isn’t that outside the safety zones?” asked Baldric in return.

Lang nodded and said that Baldric was now old enough to go out of the safety zone as long as he was with him. This caused Baldric to smile brightly and agree to go. They finished breakfast and Lang and Baldric went up to wash and gather what little items they needed for the trip. Baldric glanced around and decided to bring his practice blade and some healing herbs with him as a precaution. One can never be to safe in the wild outside the safety zone.

Baldric came back down and waited by the door as Lang came down with his sword and a couple other items wrapped in a sack. When he was asked, Lang just said it was some odd and ends for when they left the safety zone. They left the house and went down to the farm to get a couple of horses and a wagon for the supplies they would get. Baldric was hitching the horses to the wagon when he saw Lang coming in with the cows they would bring to Toroth’s farm.

After they exited the safety zone of the village Lang told Baldric to head northeast to get to Toroth’s farm. They had not gone for more then 20 minutes when Lang jumped off of the wagon and motioned Baldric to follow. As he got off, a sharp wail came from the bushes behind him. He swung around grabbing his practice blade off the wagon and assumed the stance for fighting when Lang threw something at him. Baldric spun around and was amazed as a brand new sword landed in his hands. Just in time as a monster rushed from the bushes.

He twirled around the monster slicing at the monster as much as possible. It fell after a few good slices to the neck, severing it from the body. Baldric was panting from his first fight and the weight of the new sword he had. One more monster appeared as Lang sprang from where he was and thrust his sword through the eye. Coming back down, the monster gave one last attack as it bite Lang through the chest. Baldric cried out as he rushed to his father, but was thankful when Lang got up and said it would take more than a small bite through his armor to stop him.

Lang got back up in the wagon and collapsed as venom coursed through his veins from the bite. Baldric panicked and shouted hold on as he set off as fast as possible in the wagon. He arrived at Toroth’s in an hour and his father’s condition had taken a drastic downfall. Toroth came out and saw what happened gathering his herbs from the bag inside the house. Baldric explained how a monster plant bit him in the chest. Toroth breathed a sigh of relief as he heard that. The monster was called a night-flare, a monster made the same way as a Genoa was. The bite although not deadly would cause a human to flare up in the nigh and bed-ridden for days unless treated soon.

Baldric sighed in relief and went outside to practice with the new sword, which he now saw to be slightly curved with a notch in the middle for catching sword thrust and breaking the blade away from the enemy. He practiced the form ‘Heron Wading In The Shallows’ to practice his balance. Sometime in evening Lang managed to come out leaning heavily on a crutch. He gave out the names of different forms and Baldric would follow them. As sun set Lang began explaining why he gave Baldric the sword.

“You have come a long way since you were young haven’t you son. That sword signalizes you are a true Iaidô master. When we get back to the village I am going to suggest Master Hahn to test you to see if you are a master of Tai Chi. Until then get used to the weight of the sword. Since we will have to stay here the night I want you to pratice all of the forms for both fighting styles ‘till dinner.” Lang said proudly. He himself was Bladrics sword teacher.

Night came and Baldrics door burst open as lang told him to gather everything he had on him and crawl out through the back window. When Baldric asked why Lang told him to remember the old stories of war. Baldric was confused, but he left out of the window like he was told. He heard shouting and laughing from the front of the house and the barn was burning down.

Baldric sneaked in and quitely got on a black stallion trying to get free. Before he left Baldric freed the other animals as well. The last he saw was his fathers head getting cut off by the barn. He galloped back to the village, and was met to smoke and death all around him. He ran to his house, where his mother lay dead on the porch with her neck slit open. He snuck around to the back but could not believe what he saw. There lay his sister naked as the day she was born, with a large group of fifty or more standing and laughing at her like she was a common beast! He was about to run in to kill the men when a sharp crack to the back of his head knocked him out.

He woke up lying in a bed with his sword propped against the wall. As he tried to get up a rough hand stopped him. “Easy there laddie, I had to hit you pretty hard to stop you from doing a stupid act,” said a voice behind him. Baldric relaxed in relief as he recognized the voice.

“Father Abel you survived. Did any others? Wait… what happened to my sister!” Baldric shouted in fear. The last thing he remembered was she was cornered by a large gang of people. Then was darkness, nothing at all he could remember.

The preist looked sad, and for a while said nothing. Then he explained how the large group of people took her and eleven other girls with them, all of the same age and all beautiful. He said it was a gang who kidnapped and killed Genoa’s to sell the young females to harems for money. He explained how the ones they took naked were never sold, but kept for themselves instead.

The thought made Baldric empty his stomach over the edge of the bed. How could the priest know this stuff? Why would they come here. Why did they take his sister naked? The thoughts boiled through his head. It seemed he had spoken aloud though because the priest answered him.

“I was not always a priest you know, I was once an orphan sold into slavery for one of those gangs. It was awful, I would have to wait outside and hand them whips or rags to wipe themselves up with. You could hear the women screaming. Finally one day I couldn’t take, I grabbed a knife and killed the gang. It was a small one of six or seven people, but it was still a lot. That is how I got this scar across my back,” said the priest showing a sinuous scar from shoulder to shoulder in a V across his back,” after that I couldn’t live with myself. One of the women however, took pity on me and told me she used to be a nun. She taught me the faith and showed me a way to live with myself.”

“I see,” Baldric said with a sigh, “is there anything we can do to rescue her? What about getting horses and raiding there camp? Or sneaking in and slicing their thoughts? Anything!” Baldric finished with a cry.

“I’m sorry there is nothing we can do, unless you can kill fifty or more people with guns before they kill you.” The priest replied solemnly.

Baldric walked out of the hiding place breathing in deep and exhaling slowly. He went around back and saw what was left of his village, and sat down and cried. The memories of what happened would haunt him forever it seemed. They were so vivid it was as if he was reliving them just thinking about it. He could remember his father’s last words as he jumped out of the window. “I loved you as if you were my real son.” That shock was still reverberating as the priest came back around.

“Father, am I really Lang’s son?” Baldric said sobbing. He couldn’t believe it.

“No my son, you are not. I do not know much, but I do know that you sister knows the full story.” The priest said back, a little abashed and Baldric knowing the truth. “All I know is that you showed up on Lang’s doorstep five years ago with no memory whatsoever of who you are. Lang cared and taught you everything you know, even gave you a false identity. He loved you like a son, and Madeira even more. She simply adored everything about you, and if I did not know any better I would have said she loved you.”

Baldric just stared off into the heavens as the priest spoke, hearing yet at the same time his words went unheard. Finally, something he really wanted to hear came out. “Will you say that again Father?” Baldric said

“Oh, I just said that when you were found you had a sword with you, and you were wearing nothing but blood.” The priest said back, still unsure of how okay Baldric was. “You were shivering and repeating heir to the darkness over and over again. Many thought you had gone crazy while lost in the wilderness. That was why you were always picked on, that and your unique body, with the red eyes silver hair and pale bodies.”

Baldric waited for the priest to finish before going inside and buckling his sword and grabbing a dougi-obi, his belt of Tai Chi mastery. “I am ready for this, but I will not wear it until the scum that kidnapped Madeira is dead. Then I will wear it and do a little research on as to what this darkness is.”

It was not until the next day did Baldric find the gang nestled in a crag of rocks. Baldric waited until night to enter the camp, using the moon as a guide he crept up behind the guards and slit their thoughts one by one with no sound except for the gurgling of men choking on their blood as they died for the merciless killings they performed. Baldric continued on and finally found a small… pen, for there was nothing else to call it, with the kidnapped women in it, as well as others from other towns. Baldric looked through as he released them but Madeira was not among them. He directed them off to the priest’s house, and went along. The camp was calm and quite, almost blissfully peaceful as the guards were dead and no one new the wiser. Suddenly a sharp scream pierced the cry from a nearby tent where most of the gang seemed to be. Baldric sneaked up behind a tanned guard, roughly his height, in grey full body armor. He died of decapitation as Baldric took his armor and hid the body. He snuck inside and silently dispatched the gang one by one until maybe ten were left. Finally the leader turned around and with his eyes closed called out to the gang, “Hear me my good fellows, we have killed and sold Genoa’s across the land far and wide, but never have we come across one so pretty as this one.” He flurried up a hand, moving a curtain and pulling back a cloth to reveal Madeira locked in a cage. As he was bending down to unlock the cage, Baldric eased out his sword again and slew two of the men. The leader straightened and looked over to see most of his gang dead, with Baldric killing yet another two. The leader yelled to kill him, but with seven men holding daggers and Baldric grabbing the sword off of his fresh kill, it would be no contest. Baldric leaped over the dead bodies and plunged his swords the heads of two men, and pulling them out slit the throat of a third. Blood gushed over him as he laughed madly in a dance waving through and dismembering and killing the rest until only the leader remained.

“You really thought you could get away with taking a devils sister? I would laugh at you but I fear you will not live to hear me.” Baldric said calmly, with blood dripping down his blades and armor, al the while a crown wings and tail slowly appeared made of black fire and shrouds of darkness.

“Oooohhh my GGGOOOOODDDD!” stammered the man as flames engulfed him. Baldric leaned over casually as if to kiss the man before ripping out of the man’s throat with his teeth. Baldric began to drink the blood pouring out of the man and laughing maniacally.

What seemed like hours passed and finally Madeira was pulled out of the cage and given Baldrics old un-bloodied clothes. They were leaving when Madeira burst away from Baldric screaming at the top of her lungs. As Baldric turned, one of the bodies he had hidden fell forward onto where he was. He laughed as he pushed the body off and ran to Madeira. When he caught up to her and told her what happened she turned around and pointed shakily to where three men were running just behind Baldric.

The men quickly wrapped Baldric in a net and carried him to a tent. They each took turns torturing Baldric, until finally he passed out. They brought in Madeira soon after, and forced things to happen to her between the three of them. Madeira cried and cried as a man lay beneath her, a man was forcing her mouth onto him, and the third man was enjoying himself with her from behind. Baldric awakened just as they finished with her and split her in half. Baldric roared at the men and made them explode from the inside as he desperately sought to free himself. When he got over to Madeira, she was already dead. Dread gathered up whatever armor and weapons he could throughout the camp and left back to the priest’s house.

He got there and the captured women screamed and ran from him. He was still dripping in blood, and every few seconds let off a maniacal chuckle. That, and he had dozens of weapons on him. The priest came out and announced that this was the man that had freed the women, and they slowly looked out at Baldric. He let out a small boo, and again they screamed. This time however, it was because Baldric’s injuries had taken a toll on him, and he had passed out onto the priest.
“He sure does seem to get a lot of injuries, doesn’t he?”

“… Yes he does. I am just glad I could help after he saved my life. I wonder what happened to him though, he looks like a mad-man.”

Baldric did not quite recognize the voices, but one was definitely a women. Baldric stirred and tried to get up. Soft hands pushed him down gently, and a soothing voice said to him, “I am sorry but not yet. You are still weak and need rest.”

Baldric managed to move his mouth enough to mumble about him being blind. Her reply was that she had bandaged most of his body, and that a small group of the captives had gone out to find herbs and other medical supplies from the camp. They had found his sisters body and buried it, and burned the gang’s corpses. She said they came back jumping at shadows about his work.

Baldric would probably have to stay in bed for weeks. That was not something he wanted to do, so as soon as the door shut and everyone left, he got up out of bed and slowly made his way across the room, only to fall sideways against a chair. This had made a ruckus outside, and immediately, three of the women he had rescued threw open the door to see what had happened. Baldric had managed to fall on his back in the middle of the room, with his clothes folded neatly in the corner and the blankets all on the bed. Luckily for him however, by this time he had passed out.

The women were quite embarrassed and worried, but even more so when the priest and the nurse that had bandaged Baldric came in. “I told him not to get up. Well at least he is out of it right now, so girls help me get him back into bed.” She said it with an exasperated sigh. The girls only giggled and the comment. It seemed that she would have to do it by herself as the priest had sneaked out of the room quickly after Baldric was found.

A week later Baldric awakened. He hurt and there was something warm pressing on his face. He groaned out and the nurses said in a slightly embarrassed voice, “Oh! You are awake, that is good. I was beginning to get worried for a moment. You should be able to see now, so let me get something to cut it off.”

“No need. It is already off.” Baldric said, ripping the gauze away from his head. He left the one on his body there because the flesh was still tender. When he removed them he found out what had been pressing his body quite quickly. At least a dozen or so of the women he had saved were asleep on him, each with a flower or heart or something of the sort with them. Baldric was careful not to wake them since he had ripped the bandage off with getting up.

He lay there for maybe half of an hour when the women started to wake up. They saw him awake and started to blush. It might have something to do with him still undressed under the sheets and the women were all sleeping on him. Either way he managed to get one to gather his clothes for them and they all turned as he dressed himself. He got up and quit shakily managed to use the women as a crutch and exited the room. He found himself in a hall completely white with three doors. One he was sure would g outside the other to the priest’s room.

He decided to go right and found he had left the building. The sun was bright out and he was blinded as his eyes were suddenly exposed to intense light. He turned back inside and with his eyes watering made his way to the left and into the priests room. The priest came looked up and could not stop a relieved sigh from escaping.

“Praise thy holy father in heaven for letting you live. I thought you were going to die Baldric.” The priest said hugging the wounded hero. He noticed all the women Baldric had saved have migrated into his study with Baldric. “Now ladies you have to go. I need to talk with him alone for now.”

The girls made no hurry of their exit. As they left, the priest closed the door and motioned for Baldric to sit down. Baldric sat down, but before anything got started his first words were about the weapons and armor. The priest stopped mid sit and stared and Baldric before finally pulling out a very large chest from the wall and an even larger chest from the other wall. Inside were all of the armor and weapons Baldric had collected.

Baldric had an idea upon seeing all the loot. He would raise a gang that would rival any others, and in the process become rich and famous for saving other Genoa’s! He would have to have a base of operations, and someone to forgive him for what he was going to do. “Father I was thinking about the other Genoa’s, and I want to rescue them. It will most likely be bloody and I would need a place to plan and think. If I can rebuild the chapel and town, will you stay here with the women to lead it, I will even keep my group separate of the other’s quarters if you wish it.”

“Yes it would be nice to free the others who are like us, but I do not think it will be so bad as to separate your ‘band of merry men’ with the rest of us,” the priest said, laughing at his own joke, “ and I would not mind the women staying here as they are a great help. Yes, yes, I can see it now we rebuild the town, and grow the crops and gather some animals, put the barracks for the defenders near the entrance to the village, and have the chapel moved to the very top of the town. It will be a great town, and as it grows into a city we will have more room to spread by building a wall around the edge of the forest doming us in. If we continue to grow then we will clear some of the forest, I personally know the forest stretches from hear to over five thousand miles away covering almost the entire continent.” The priest finished smiling as he thought up how to build the village.

Baldric finished with the priest and slowly went back outside. The sun no longer hurt his eyes. Baldric scanned around. Everyone visible was a woman. A sharp tug on his sleeve made him look down, where a little child was holding out her arms as if wanting to be held. Baldric picked her up and set her on his arm with her head on his shoulder quite easily. He started to walk around when someone shouted out a cheer. Soon everyone was chanting his name, and there were more tugs on his shirt. Looking down a group of children was gathered around him.

“Big brother, will you play with us? We want to play tag but the grown-ups say we can’t because it is dangerous.” The kids looked up at him as though they saw the world in him. Baldric could not help but to smile gently and nod. He set the girl down and said he would count to twenty before chasing them. The kids ran laughing when a woman came over and laid her hand gently on his shoulder.

“I am truly thankful that you saved me. If you ever need any help, like a shoulder to cry on, I will be there. I am going to start supper now, it will be done in about an hour.” The woman replied. She was in her early thirties and had a motherly smile.

“Thank you. I will see you at dinner.” It came out a little strained. She must have seen his sister’s body. That, or the bodies of the men he had killed.

For what seemed like hours Baldric played with the children. The children were still innocent to him. They were not creatures to know murder or killing, but the type to know happiness and trustworthiness. The hour ended and Baldric huffed it up to the dinner table with the kids on his arms. The dinner was stew, with fresh bread and wine to wash it down with. All was steaming and looking very good.