Swords, Sorcery and Shenanigans- Self vs Self
Normally on a Saturday morning, Spike would be either doing some chores that Twilight had asked him to do or be rereading a few issues of Power Ponies just for entertainment purposes. However, this morning was quite different. Twilight had asked the dragon to make sure that Nicko, the guest they had over last night, was ready for the duel against Amy Anderson. This while she and her friends go check on the arena that the battle was going to take place. Still though, it was a little past 6:30am and the duel was suppose to take at 7 o’clock.
Where was Nicko, you wonder? Still slowly trying to wake up in the guest room as the rays of the rising sun start to penetrate his curtains.
“Nicko. It’s time to get up.” Spike told the teen as he opened the door. Nicko was still trying to adjust to just waking up, which was why he rose immediately when the dragon abruptly opened the curtains to let the light flood into the room.
“Oh god… Natural light!!!” Nicko reacted as he shook his head a bit so he could focus and sprung from the bed. That’s when he saw Spike standing by the window and then looked around a little bit. “Spike? Where’s Twilight?”
“At the arena where you and Amy are going to be doing your duel today. She told me to make sure you were ready before coming over.”
Just as Spike was finishing his sentence, Nicko turned to the balcony door and cracked it open to let the morning air in. It felt good to breath in fresh air to jumpstart his body and system. But something else was mixed in with the breeze this morning. Something… off.
Turning towards his gear inside the room, he strapped his bag on his shoulder and equipped his sword onto his back. He went back to the ledge and smelled the air again. “Something’s burning…”
“Burning?” Spike asked. “Like what?”
“Something tells me we’re about to find out.” The human told him. He now gripped the rails as he placed both of his feet on the edge of the balcony.
“What about breakfast?” The dragon said. “You can’t fight on an empty stomach.”
“Don’t worry, I got some things in my bag. Now, if you don’t mind me, I’ll be using the express elevator.”
That’s when the Rune Slayer pushed himself forward and landed almost fifteen below in a somersault before going out in a full sprint. Nicko was so much in a hurry that he didn’t even notice passing Princess Celestia, Prince Artemis and Gleaming Shield as he ran and use the environment around him to climb to the roof. Along the rooftop of the normal houses, the human had to be careful due to the building structure and the slanted tile roofs. One small step could lead to a big disaster if he somehow tripped. Looking upward, he now began to see a small stream of smoke rise from the east where he was yesterday with Leo. He now had to hurry.
For some reason, he felt like trouble wasn’t that far away.
Ponyville (five minutes ago)
Moments earlier, Princess Celestia had just arrived with her brother as well as the captain of the guard by train. The duel that they were invited to see was to be starting shortly at 7:00am. As they began to walk to the library though, Gleaming Shield began to wonder something. She had heard many things about Amy… But this “Nicko” boy was completely new to her.
“Princess Celestia, may I ask you something?”
“Hmm? What is it, captain?” The Alicorn asked.
“I heard that you personally were able to talk to the new human yesterday. The one named Nicko?” The Guard captain said.
“Ah yes.” Celestia nodded as they left the station and began to walk towards the Ponyville library. “He and I had quite an… interesting conversation yesterday.”
“Interesting?” Artemis asked. “How so?”
“Well, some of the things he said reminded me of Twilight in a way. For example, before I even was going to introduce myself, he already took a guess of who I was based on my appearance and you introducing yourself at the station, brother. He even was able to remember everything that occurred while he was on board the friendship express and save some of your men, Gleaming.” Artemis’s eyes widened at the mentioning of his name. This human did indeed sound… Impressive. “Still though, there was one thing that seemed… Strange.”
Both Gleaming and the prince of the moon looked at each other upon hearing that. They were puzzled by the Goddesses words. “What do you mean, your highness?” Celestia sighed, trying to think of the right words to best explain what she meant.
“Some of his body language was rather odd. His hands for example didn’t stay idle. Instead, he was clenching and unclenching them every few moments. Also, when he left his hands unclenched, Nicko was curling and uncurling his fingers in a motion that made me think of rolling waves. I asked if he was nervous at all and he told me that he sometimes feels like that when talking to new individuals that he had not met before.”
That was indeed strange. Gleaming Shield almost thought of Twilight being like that when she was just a filly. But this was a totally strange and different case. Twilight was only six when these behaviors occurred and was able to get over them as she got older. However, Nicko was eighteen. He was much older and still had these habits. What could’ve been the reason for that?
“Well, at least he won’t be doing anything crazy like Amy-.”
Just as Artemis finished speaking, the three of them saw Nicko jump from the railing on top of the Ponyville Library and bursted forward in a dash of speed. The human looked like he was in a hurry. Like a pony who was late for work. Shortly after seeing him jump onto the roof and running forward again, Twilight had teleported right in front of the library. She was unaware of the three arrivals behind her and was talking to herself… again.
“Now then… All I need to do is find Spike, see where Nicko is and-.”
“And then what, Twily?”
The response made Twilight jump as she turned around. Her eyes widened upon seeing her sister and the royal siblings. “Oh thank the stars you’re all here. Did any of you happen to see Nicko?”
“Sis, he just jumped off of your balcony and ran. Probably towards the arena-.”
“Oh no no no no no no no. This is bad. This is bad. This is bad.” Twilight muttered. “We got a problem. A major problem.”
Back to Nicko…
The Rune Slayer was off to races as he finally made it outside of town. He was following the beaten dirt path that led to the small coliseum that the duel was going to take place and from what he could see, a pillar of smoke was beginning to rise… And as the old saying goes, where there's smoke, there’s fire.
And from he knew already, that fire was bound to be Amy.
‘Eris? Can you hear me?’
No response. What a bummer... Nicko thought that it must’ve been since she went home with her father the other day. Now he was seriously starting to worry that whatever was going on was not good. Plucking out a blue bottle from his bag, the teen drank a stamina potion so his legs wouldn’t have to tire out. Next, he did the quickest move he thought was possible to help get an advantage point. With a line of trees that stretched out to the battleground, the human hopped on them and used the big branches to propel himself forward.
Soon, he began seeing the crowd of ponies there and saw what was going on. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were there, Twilights friends were there along with Molly and Yuri, but no Twilight? That was not what caught Nicko’s attention though. What caught his attention was Amy dueling against another boy. A look alike that was an infinity sword, a warrior that had the magic to summon multiple swords at will. At first he didn’t recognize him, until he heard his voice when he parried Amy’s claymore and blindsided her with his second sword.
“What’s the matter? Can’t keep up?”
He knew that voice! Nicko definitely remembered that voice from before he came here. He had to make a move now. While Amy was on one knee and trying to get up, her attacker chose this opportunity to rush her. Now was where Nicko made his move as he accelerated forward from the treetop and put himself in between The Blazing Heart and the Infinity Sword.
“The hell-!?”
Nicko used his sword to deflect both incoming blades and then kick Amy’s attacker in the chest. As he skidded backwards, the Blazing heart pushed herself up and breathed a sigh of relief. “Honestly, I did not expect you to be the one trying to save my life.”
“Yeah…” Nicko retorted. “Mind doing me a favor?” That’s when Nicko conjured a small rune that pushed Amy off of the stage and crashed into Yuri.
“What the hell was that for!?”
“The favor I needed you to do was step aside.” Nicko told her as he set his bag down on the edge of the arena. Looking back at the teen on the other end and not noticing the arrival of Twilight and the three guests that were with her, he spoke again.
“Where the hell have you been, Anson?”
The other boy now stared at the Rune Slayer for a short few seconds before cracking a smile. “Nicko? Holy crap, am I glad to see you!!”
“Wait, you know this punk!?” The response came from Rainbow Dash, who was flying above her friends. Staying idle in the air and relaxing on a cloud.
“Of course. He’s my brother.”
The response had received mixed expressions from almost everypony present. Mostly, everypony stared in shock like it was a plot twist to a movie. Others though like Applebloom and her friends had numerous questions. The one thing that caught the brother’s attention was when the Cyan pegasus got off of her small cloud and landed near her friends. Something she said, to be exact.
“Wow… no wonder you too look almost exactly alike.”
Looking at each other, both Nicko and Anson chuckled a little as they had the comment set in a little. The Pegasus though, took it as an insult. “What’s the matter? Do you think I’m funny!?”
“No, it’s nothing like that.” Anson said, looking at his brother as he strapped both of his weapon on his back. “Nicko, would you want to explain this or should I?”
Nicko sighed. Looking back at the crowd, he noticed the expression on Twilight’s face change a little. Earlier, she looked like she was studying and trying to figure out a mystery. Now, her face lit up, her eyes widened and her jaw dropped a few inches. It seemed like she was the only one to figure it out because everypony else was either confused or came up with a weird theory on how some evil pony cloned Nicko in his sleep. When things got a little out of hand, that’s when he told them.
“We’re twins.”
Now everypony’s expression turned into Twilights. As for the girls though, only Molly and Amy were surprised. Yuri? Well… that’s the thing. When she wasn’t working as a maid before she got fired, the young girl was working at the orphanage on the side. Though she never really met them, Leo had told her a lot about the two brothers. Therefore, when she saw the two of them by each other, something clicked in her mind that told her it was the twins that Leo was talking about.
Shortly afterwards came a fury of surprise comments and an onslaught of chatter from the Pinkie Pie department. Anson and Nicko, while the others were talking to Pinkie, used this chance to talk to each other.
“So… How’s life?”
“Alright so far. Fought some Outlaws in Appleloosa yesterday and met somepony named Braeburn who told me that his cousin in Ponyville named Applejack could help me somehow. What about you?”
“Met two musicians named Vinyl and Octavia, woke up in this world’s version of Hollywood called Applewood, freed a train from a bunch of psycho bandits.”
“Why do I get the feeling that most of the towns and cities in this world are puns off of places back home?” The Infinity Sword asked.
“You tell me.” The Rune Slayer responded. “I was suppose to duel Ms. Firebreather until you did a number on her.”
“No wonder why she was here.” Anson chuckled, putting his arms behind his head in a relaxed pose like Sora in Kingdom hearts. “She must’ve mistaken me for you. You must’ve been eager for a fight if you want to go up against someone who goes off like a dynamite.”
That comment gave Nicko an idea. Looking over, he saw Amy trying to be attended by Applebloom and her friends; calling themselves “Cutie Mark Crusaders field medics!!” It looked like Amy was in no condition to fight. But he knew someone who was… and it turns out that person was actually right next to him.
“Hey Anson?”
“Yes Nicko?”
“Remember when you and I use to duke it out back home?” Nicko asked. Anson’s reply was a nod, but then a grin of satisfaction when he realized where he was going with this. “How about we see who is the strongest between the two of us?”
“Oh hell YES!!” Anson’s reply led to everypony looking at the two of them in confusion.
“Change of plans… Today’s main event is a friendly competition between brothers… Heaven or Hell…” both brother said in unison, standing about 50 feet between each other. “LET’S ROCK!!!”
Both warriors unsheathed their weapons and charged at one another, crossing swords for the first time. The collision of their blades let loose a massive shockwave that could be felt for miles. Up close, it almost knocked Rainbow Dash off balance in the sky and everypony else (including Celestia and Artemis) had to hold their ground. One thing did surprise them though that was different from Anson’s previous fight with Amy. Earlier, the twin sword warrior was able to get the upper hand on her with his speed as well as his strenght. However, both him and Nicko were evenly matched and the Infinity Sword wasn’t able to get any openings no matter what angle he attacked from.
After the first clash, Anson was the one who went straight on the offensive. Using both of his swords, he tried striking his brother with brute force, but only missed because of either a well timed block or he was able to dodge just in time. Nicko was even able to parry his brothers two blades with ease. Anson grunted a little as he gritted his teeth. Pushing himself backwards into the air, he threw his second blade straight at him. As the blade soared in the air, Nicko noticed a Sigil come from his brothers hand.
“HARSH CHASER!!”
When the blade collided with Nicko’s weapon, it didn’t deflect like how the Rune Slayer thought it would. Instead, it stuck to the sword as he faintly saw a magic line attached to it. When the warrior noticed Anson pull his arm back like he was playing tug of war, Nicko lost his footing and got pulled towards him.
“Dammit! Not again!!!”
Closer the Rune Slayer was to the Infinity Sword now and he was using the moment to strike and break his defense. Not this time though. No way in hell was Nicko going to try and escape again. Within striking difference, Nicko pulled off the unexpected.
He gave Anson a fistful of fire directly in his face. “FALCON PUNCH!!!”
The fist struck his brother along the jawline and made him fly backwards in the air. But when he landed, The Infinity Sword only had a small bruise that barely inflicted any damage. But still, Anson did not plan to go down without a fight. Getting back up, he charged forward and began to cross swords with Nicko again. Their blades continued to clash until Nicko was caught off guard and Anson stabbed him in the left shoulder.
“Gah!!”
A few of the spectators stared in horror as The Rune Slayer tried to hold his ground. He was beginning to bleed from the shoulder Anson struck him in and slowly tried to pull the blade out despite his brothers grip. Nicko felt the pain course through his left arm, but used the right arm that he held his sword in to knock his opponent to the other end of the arena. Still though, Anson used his powers to resummon his second blade, abruptly pulling out of his brothers arm and seeing it lay limp along his side. A new guest arrived at the arena. That new guest being Leo at the time the weapon was yanked out of his arm.
“Looks like Nicko is fighti-. Oh dear god!!”
Nicko just gritted his teeth as he dealt with the pain. With the arm he could move though, he went into the bag on his shoulder and grabbed something out of his bag. A moment later, he actually looked like he pulled out a small jar filled with blood red liquid that resembled blood. breaking the seal open with his teeth, he splashed the contents on his wound, gripping a little at the searing pain as his arm was getting fixed. Soon, his left arm was good as new as he tried moving it and was able to do so successfully.
Anson himself stared blankly, baffled by what just happened. “What the hell did you just use to fix your arm?”
“Healing potion. Not the strongest of them, but at least it gets the job done. Stings like applying rubbing alcohol though.”
“Heh… I knew for you to be resourceful, but this is not what I expected.” Anson spat at the ground and rubbed his foot before charging back at Nicko. This time though, he attacked with the same movements, but a different outcome.
“SWORD BLASTING!!!”
The attack first started with Anson striking Nicko in the chest with his weapon, but then was followed by when he had summoned three more swords to continue his attack. Nicko blocked the first two blades, but the third struck him across the waist and was too close to becoming a hamstring injury. Still standing his ground, Nicko tried in stride to make a strong comeback, but Anson was still able to hammer him with more strong attacks that continued to bombard the Rune Slayer. His feet was even beginning to make the plywood of the stage slowly crack.
“Still standing strong!? Well, that’s going to change right now!!”
Anson’s words couldn’t be more true. With a vertical swing, the same sigil that Nicko saw before began to glow again. This time though, he saw the sigil again in the air as he looked upward. He couldn’t believe what he was seeing. A huge sword that looked exactly like his secondary weapon. Nicko knew what this meant. But he couldn’t believe that Anson would try something this reckless to win a simple grudge match.
“Anson!! Are you freaking insane!!?”
“This is a free for all, Nicko. No holding back.”
The weapon slammed on the battlefield as Nicko dodge rolled away to avoid the sword. What came next though was what Nicko was mostly worried about. Twilight herself began to worry a bit once the inside of the big sword began to crack open.
“EVERYPONY, GET TO COVER!!!”
The Rune Slayer’s warning was followed by the Infinity Swords shout of the skills he pulled off. “BLADE RAIN!!!!”
The crack in the huge blade soon broke free as thousands of swords began to swarm the battle arena with an intent to cut anypony too close to ribbons. Twilight was quick enough to cast a shield before anypony got seriously injured, but her biggest concerns were now on Nicko caught in the middle of the storm of swords. She saw him as his clothes were beginning to tear to shreds as dust began to rise and distort everyponies vision. Even Molly with her Dynamo’s and gadgets can’t see from the events that were going on. However, everypony could still see Anson and he looked like he expended his energy.
“That does it I guess…” The warrior said as he slowly was going to leave. Then he heard something… Something coming from his brother. He could faintly see him still standing as his half shirt was torn to shreds and he was covered in slashes and dripping in blood. But something was off about this.
That’s when he saw the Red Aura glowing around his body as he was still standing…
“Anson!!!” Nicko’s Way of the Sword had just kicked in and now he was enhanced with the Spirit of Destruction. Before his brother could even think, the Rune Slayer went at him.
“You have to be a major jackass to pull off that hyper skill and not know how it could hurt everypony that was watching this fight!! Now it’s payback time!!!” Nicko and Anson clashed again, but this time things were different. When the Infinity Sword thought he struck him, the red aura released a shock wave that knocked him off his feet. Nicko only needed one chance to put an end to this brawl and now was when he got it. He conjured all the power he could muster and chucked the ball of magic into the air. When Anson tried to move towards him, he began to float upward like gravity had been turned off. Twilight now noticed that Nicko’s sphere wasn’t any ordinary sphere.
It was a black hole. Created by his runes.
“What the hell are you doing, Nicko!?!”
“Well, since you like summoning swords so much, I thought I would give you a treat with some of my own.” When Anson reached the sphere, the surrounding area turned into a floating rune cage as he was imprisoned inside. Then, Multiple blades created by rune magic surrounded the floating cell on all sides, causing everypony to stare in awe and also shock by the raw amount of power the human was drawing forth. Even the Cutie Mark Crusaders themselves watched as they were spellbound by the might he was putting into it.
“Oh… Oh… Oh… snap.”
“SHINING RUNE BUSTER!!!”
“Oh man, it’s even got a cool name!!!”
All the blades created by Nicko’s Rune magic now converged on Anson’s small prison, striking multiple times as they crashed over and over. As the cage dissipated, the Infinity Sword soon crashed down as the Rune Slayer slowly walked over to him. When he was nearby, the teen crouched on his knees. Putting two fingers by his neck and waiting a bit, The Rune Slayer breathed a sigh of relief.
The royal siblings now noticed something from Nicko. Despite being in a fight to the death with his brother, he still didn’t go full throttle on his power and used too much. Artemis saw it as a way to show that Nicko cared for Anson. Despite being a pain in the ass to each other, they were still family. And family matters…
“So brother… Did you learn your lesson?”
“How the hell was THAT suppose to teach me a lesson!!?”
“With great power comes great responsibility?”
“ … Oh, what the hell? Whatever works.” Staggering to his feet, Anson was assisted by his brother as they walked out of the battle arena and back to where everypony else was. Laying him down, the Rune Slayer gave his brother what looked like a blue Powerade bottle, only to have what looked like a recycling symbol on it. It was a complete recovery potion and the teen insisted on having Anson drink it so he would be back to normal within a short timeframe.
He did so and (after some time) was back to his usual self. If you consider usual being a mash up of both Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash when it came to his personality. The human had to spend a few minutes apologizing to everypony for being Reckless near the end of the battle involving his Hyperactive Skill.
“So Anson… Mind explaining to me the story of where the hell you were all this time?” Leo grunted, trying to get under his skin.
“Yeah, That might take a bit of time…” The teen told the Reckless Fist as he sighed and sat down. Anson suggested for Everypony to get comfortable first before the Infinity Sword start his story.
“It started early yesterday. I was found unconscious by a buffalo named Little Strongheart, who brought me to somepony in the town of Appleloosa named Braeburn. He was concerned that I might’ve been suffering from heatstroke and brought me inside his house to lay me down and cool me off. I woke up a few hours later when he was trying to see if my condition had improved. I wasn’t hot or burning up (no pun intended), but I was more confused on where I was.
Braeburn took some time to answered my questions before he had to go check on the town’s crop yield for the upcoming harvest, so he left me alone so I had some time to adjust to my surroundings and also my current position. That’s when I found my bag, skill book and almost enough supplies for me to travel for quite some time. My skill book allowed for me to use the powers I demonstrated earlier in my bout with my brother. Still, my time alone only lasted for about fifteen minutes when I decided to walk outside and see what the town looked like. When I came on out, everypony was rushing inside their homes and locking their doors.
For a minute, it was because I thought they were afraid of me. Turns out I was wrong. It was because of a gang of outlaws that strolled into town and wanted to treat the place like they owned it. So I did the only thing I could think of… Beat the living crap out of them. Once that was over though, I thanked Braeburn for his hospitality in letting me stare there for the time I was there and he thanked me for helping the town. Before I left, he told me that he had a cousin in the Town of Ponyville that might help me out once I arrived. So, I crashed here and when I woke up the next morning, I found Ms. hothead wanting to fight me.”
“Hey, in my defense, I didn’t know that you were a completely different person until after Nicko arrived!”
“Really now?” Nicko folded his arms as he looked at the Blazing Heart. “You didn’t take into account the difference in clothes?”
“For the record, Rarity could’ve made you some clothes for the event.”
“What about him holding two swords or summoning other blades?”
“Learning some new spells?”
“I’m a Rune Slayer, not an Infinity Sword.” Nicko sighed afterwards, facepalming himself. Either Amy was having side effects from the Cutie Mark Crusaders medical treatment or she was brain dead.
“Hold on a sec,” Applejack cut in afterwards. “Who was the pony that Braeburn told you about?”
“Somepony that goes by Applejack.” Anson replied. After a few minutes, something clicked inside his head. The mare who asked him that question had the same description as the pony that Braeburn told him about the day before. “Just out of curiosity, would that happen to be you by any chance?”
Applejack nodded as she adjusted her hat. Before she could say anything though, a letter appeared right in front of Celestia and Artemis. It wasn’t from Spike since it appeared in a flash of light instead of a green flame and it had a royal seal from Canterlot on the scroll of parchment.
“A letter from Canterlot at this hour?” Artemis questioned as he looked at his pocket watch from his left jacket pocket. It was only a little after 8 o’clock. Who could be in such a hurry to send a letter to Princess Celestia and in such urgency as well. It was a mystery until Celestia opened the piece of parchment and began to read. Moments afterwards, her eyes widened just like the look on everyponies face when Nicko got shanked in the shoulder. Something major must’ve happened for her to be like this.
“Everypony… we need to go to Canterlot now.”
“Wait, hold on a minute!” interjected Nicko. “Who sent you the letter.”
“Noblehorn.” came The Alicorns reply. “There has been a series of robberies conducted by swarms of changelings over the past few hours with their recent one being in Vanhoover. The only thing that they’ve stolen though has been large amounts of spellshards.”
Now Anson looked at his other human companions in complete confusion. “Uh… don’t you mean “El Shards” by any chance? You know, something like these?” The Infinity Sword rummaged through his bag and soon brought out a fistful of red El Shards of the fire variant. “We would use these to acquire El essences that we use for our Hyperactive skills.”
“No no no… Spellshards are different.” Twilight now spoke. “Spellshards are crystals filled with different varieties of magic that are used to power up multiple types of machinery and used for other purposes as well. They’re like batteries, but with a reusable source of energy and no need to take them out in order to replace them. Different colors can be used for different types of machines. I know that they’re commonly used at convenience stores like in snack and soda drink machines to provide flavor and taste.”
Nicko started to get a feeling that whatever these crystals were suppose to be, it reminded him of “dust” from Rooster teeth’s popular web series RWBY. Leo had thought of the same thing and asked if they could used for other purposes as well. The follow up reply was not pleasant as Artemis told them that new guard tactics included the use of spellshards and that they were mostly used by races that weren’t completely familiar with magic. It made everypony now worry about what could the changelings be using these for.
“Artemis, talk to the head of the guard and tell him we’ll need three carriages to take all sixteen of us to Canterlot as soon as possible.”
“Wait, aren’t you forgetting somepony?” came the question from Scootaloo as they helped Amy get back on her feet.
“No, I’m not. I’m sorry girls, but this is a conversation that all of us need to talk about on our own. It’s an adult conversation.”
“Aww…” Applebloom complained, before the Cutie Mark Crusaders were given some words of encouragement from Molly and Yuri. The carriages arrived shortly afterwards, with 5 passengers taking up each car and one having six with the inclusion of Spike. As they went off though, someone was watching them as they soared. A girl with mismatched eyes, black hair and look almost similar to Yuri. Again, almost… this girl now had a two headed spear and wore a different kind of fox pin in her hair and now she channeled her power to awaken her ascended fox form with nine tails, fox ears and red whisker like scars across the bottom of her face.
“Well, this is getting interesting. But no matter how far you keep Amy away from me, I will get her Yuri. Just you wait...”
Then, the Fox sniffed the air as she felt something. The presence of two new but powerful entities. It wasn’t anything like the boys that arrived the day before, but for some reason, the two red haired boys felt somehow connected to this new pair. The Little Specter licked her lips as she smiled a devilish grin of satisfaction and ran through the forest that led to the castle. To her, she was no longer chasing humans in a flying cart like it came straight out of a Hercules movie. She was chasing prey. Powerful prey that could put up a fight. The girl never liked it when the prey she was hunting never put up a fight at all.
But she could deal with the two twins later. Now, her main focus was on her older sister. As she ran through the trees, the animals and creatures of the forest ran away in fear because of her presence. In their eyes, they did not see a human. They saw a predator on the prowl. A serpent in the grass. A serpent with demonic eyes with a shade of Jade.
End Chapter 5
