He swallowed the last bite, then fell to his knees, screaming in pain. It felt like his entire body was covered in flames! He screamed again, looking around. He vaguely saw the black forms of people, almost as if they were shadows. He saw them speaking, but while he couldn't hear what they were saying, they seemed to be referring to him and the fruit. He screamed a third time, this time making the shadowy figures jump and rush over. He thought they were going to help, yet all they did was grab the fruit and the bowl, shouting silently to one another and running away as quickly as possible, fruit bowl in hand. Only one stayed, a girl of about fourteen. The shadow girl seemed to take pity, walking over and placing a mirror in front of him without a sound. She turned, apparently having heard something, and ran after the others. Sirius screamed a fourth and final time, falling face first to the soft forest floor.
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Sirius opened his eyes, looking around. He was laying in the forest, his head throbbing and his back aching. He moaned and stretched, looking at the world through one eye...
...and finding his other eye giving a similar, albeit very shadowy, image. He gasped, feeling something, or rather two somethings, move on his back. He looked back, not sure if he wanted to know what the things were, to find two black, bat like wings. He could feel that his teeth were sharp like fangs, and he had a long tail that resembled the tail of a scorpion. His skin was a dark red, almost black, and he saw his demonic features easily in the mirror. His left eye was black, the whites of the eye having become orange like flames and the center of the eye a bright red. He had a long, curved, bone white horn on the right side of his head, right above his green eye. He screamed, the sound like rough metal scraping and he heard the sound echo in the forest, where it shouldn't have, followed closely by screaming.
"No, I can't have been that loud!" He gasped as he ran home, planning to grab what he could before the townspeople came looking.
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He had grabbed a cloak, some food, his notebook, a few pencils, some ink, a quill, and some water. He looked around for anything else, and his eyes aligned on the note from his parents, the only memento he had of them. He grabbed it and put it in the back of his notebook and ran for the door even as he heard the mob of angry townspeople arrive. He stopped, put on the cloak, put the notebook and writing tools into the hidden pocket he had found in the back of the cloak, and left. He walked into a crowd of frightened and determined townspeople.
"Sirius, do you know what caused that unearthly screech earlier?" The mayor, Kyle, asked. Kyle was strong, tall, and noble, what every boy in the town aspired to. He had a tremendous hatred of anything unholy after his mother was killed by a demon.
"No, I have no idea." Sirius responded in a voice that he barely recognized as his own. It was deep, rough, and had an unmistakable evil to it. Unlike the rest of the villagers, Kyle seemed to notice.
"Hey Sirius, what's wrong with your voice?" Now that he mentioned it, most of the villagers noticed as well.
"Why are you wearing a hood? You always said you hate hiding your face." One of the villagers said, reminding everyone of the fact and convincing Kyle that you were hiding something.
"Sirius, pull down the hood." He said, reaching for the hood of the cloak. Sirius backed out of reach and responded with a simple no.
"Why not? What are you hiding?" Kyle asked, sending a wave through the crowd.
"I'm not hiding anything." By this point, no one could hear him, and someone managed to get behind him and pull down the hood. The entire clearing silenced instantly as everyone got a good look at Sirius's new face. Kyle seemed particularly unhappy, his normally peaceful and kind features twisted into the most hideous scowl Sirius had ever seen. Finally, Kyle spoke.
"Kill the Demon!" The cry was taken up by every person in the crowd, spreading and becoming louder every second. Sirius turned and ran just as the crowd surged forward. He ran for the forest, sure no one would follow. Unfortunately, nearly everyone was caught up in the excitement and anger of the chase and simply ignored the trees and lush foliage. Sirius ran as fast as he could, wings and tail trailing behind him. He felt someone dive and grab his tail, slowing him enough for the others to catch up and grab him. Kyle walked up and stood barely a step away, looking Sirius in the eyes, green and red alike.
"We will not tolerate demons among us!" He yelled to the crowd, electing cheers.
"We will not allow the demon to hurt innocent citizens!" The crowd shouts increased in volume.
"We will kill the demon, using whatever methods we need!" The shouting reached a peak, hitting pitches that no one in the group but the newly transformed Sirius could hear. The people reached for Sirius, trying with all their might to tear him in half.
He screamed with rage, fear, sadness, pain, and more, putting all his strength into staying together. He felt the hundreds of people beginning to, quite literally, tear him in half. He reached deep inside himself for some kind of deep reserve of energy, sure he would find nothing and die by the hands of people he had once known.
Yet he did find the strength and, shouting with determination above the screams of the crowd, pulled in with his arms, his legs, his wings, and his tail. The people tugging on his limbs screamed in terror as they were pulled off the ground and slammed into one another, many falling unconscious and the rest too stunned to stand. Sirius bellowed with all the air in his lungs, releasing a horrible sound somewhere between an animal growling, a human screaming, and metal being scraped with a second piece of metal. Many people collapsed in pain, the noise literally scratching their eardrums. Those who remained standing ran, leaving more people than Sirius could count laying on the ground, unconscious. Kyle was the only one still standing, his face red with pain and anger, his blade raised. The sword was a beautiful thing, a mixture of holy silver and the hardest steel in the land, it could seriously hurt any unholy being it touched, even with only the slightest touch. It was called Silverfang, and was the most powerful holy sword in the land. Sirius turned and ran a second time, trying to escape to the cave that all the people seemed to think contained some sort of monster. He had gone inside countless times, memorizing the tunnels and searching for this so called monster. He had never found anything, but perhaps he could lose Kyle in the tunnel systems. He reached the entrance and dived inside, barely avoiding a deadly sweep of Silverfang as it whizzed through the air. The blade smashed against the tunnel wall, knocking loose a small avalanche of pebbles. Sirius ducked under a second swing of the silver sword and tackled Kyle, pinning him to the ground and knocking his blade out of reach outside the tunnel.
"Why can't you just leave me alone?" Sirius shouted, a tear in his human eye, a spark in his other. Kyle glared up at Sirius and punched him in the face, hurting his own hand.
"Because you are a horrible, unholy creature! My mother died to one of your kind, and I will never allow that to happen to someone else!" He reached up and grabbed Sirius's horn, pulling hard. It felt as if he were about to loose his horn! He growled an animalistic growl and pushed Kyle back, scraping the man's back on the rough stone of the cave. He backed deeper into the cave as Kyle grabbed his sword.
"What have I ever done?! Nothing!" Sirius dodged to the side, barely avoiding Kyle's murderous overhand swing. Kyle shot him a look of pure hate.
"But you will do something!" He screeched, swinging his sword and barely missing Sirius yet again. "Your demon blood will compel you!"
"I only gained demon blood today, and that was by mistake!" Sirius jumped over Kyle's sweep and hit Kyle's hand with his palm, forcing the hand open and causing the sword to fly across the room, embedding in a wall. Kyle dived and rolled, standing and pulling the sword with all his might, yet it didn't budge. He growled and pulled his steel dagger from his hip, swinging at Sirius. Sirius dodged blow after blow, the moves fast and perfect. If anyone had seen the fight, it may have been described 'as fluid as any dance', yet no one was watching. Eventually, Sirius did a back flip, knocking Kyle's dagger out of his hands with his feet and stopping next to Silverfang. He grabbed it in both hands by the leather handle and pulled, grunting with the effort. Finally, the blade came free and Sirius pointed it straight at Kyle, who froze.
"Just leave me be!" Kyle then proceeded to do something Sirius would have thought insane: he grabbed the sword by the blade and pulled it out of Sirius's hands. He flipped it around, brandishing it expertly.
"The blade doesn't cut the skin of a holy being." Sirius narrowed his eyes.
"But you are getting tired, and I'm not, probably because of my new demon blood. Face it, I was a better fighter as a human, and I'm doubly so as a half human. You can't win." Kyle growled angrily.
"I may not be able to kill you, but I can bury you!" And he turned, running to the exit and slashing at the walls with his blade as he went. Sirius began to follow, but the tunnel collapsed before him, trapping him inside and Kyle out. Sirius sighed deeply. He would be left alone, probably until the end of his days. He walked back, moving to the deepest part of the caves, and lay down on the rocky ground. He ate the food he had packed and drank the water, then began writing in his journal. Eventually, he lay down the journal and went to sleep.
Choice 1: Choice 1: Many years pass, Sirius only conscious enough to write in his journal on occasion, his demon blood giving him extremely long life and no need for food or water. He remains mostly asleep until he meets a girl named Myra.
Choice 2: Reader's Choice.
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