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The Cursed Shadow
Ref. Pic.
The figure stops for a second and lifts her head to stare up at the moon. Perhaps if someone was watching her, right then and there, they would have seen something odd in those cursed eyes. Something that would have made them realize that they weren't staring at a monster that needed to be destroyed, but a poor, forsaken Lupess, who had, in turn, forsaken the world. They would have seen a shadow of a tear form beneath the moon light.
A cloud appeared suddenly, as if beckoned there by some unseen force, on this other wise clear night. The cloud slipped over the moon, cutting its light off from the world. In this world of shadow, the Lupess seemed to melt away into the nothingness. When the cloud moved away, the Lupess did not reappear. There was no trace of her either, leaving that someone, who might have been watching, wondering if what they saw was only a shadow in the moonlight . . .
My first memory was of my mother carrying me in a bundle. I had not yet opened my eyes so I only knew her for her scent. She was running, I know because I still remember the up and down motion. I could hear her heart beating madly. I could also hear voices, getting louder and louder. Than, my mother stumbled and fell to the ground. I felt my mother try to get up twice and my father's voice as he tried to help her. The next thing I remember was I being passed to my father and he started running, but I sensed something was wrong. Somehow I knew my mother was no longer running with us.
It was not to long before my father stopped running to. His heart beating like mother's had and he than shoved me into something, and left me. After my father left, I heard others running past my hiding place closely behind my father, then complete silence. I waited, waited for my father or mother to come back and get me. Little did I know that they would never be coming back.
Time past, it could have been hours maybe even a day that I waited there, and in that place I opened my eyes for the first time. I was in a stump, though I didn't know it at the time. I gazed around looking for my parents but there wasn't a living thing in sight. It is sad to open your eyes and there is no one to look at, no warm face of a mother or father or anyone at all, to gaze at. It was than that I felt loneliness for the first time. I snuggle close to my bundle, which in truth was nothing more than an old purple scarf, and took in the faint scent of my parents that still remained on it. (It is the scarf I have now, though I don't really know why I still wear it.) I continued to wait there as the air around me got colder and colder. It was at that time that, by sheer chance, someone found me.
When I heard the footsteps outside, I immediately thought it was my parents, but when the creature peered into the stump, the smell that came in was not my parents' smell. It was a brown Lupe whose face peered into my hiding place. He stared at me with surprise, then picked me up and took me to his home. He raised me, loved me, and named me, like I was his child but he didn't feel like a parent, he felt more like a brother. I noticed the odd about the way he looked at me, though. He almost never looked me in the eyes and when he did I saw a spark of fear in his eyes then he would quickly turn away. This would always confuse me and I asked him why he would look at me like that, he always changed the subject. Despite that I was happy, but that would soon end.
We lived in a rather small shack. My brother, the brown Lupe, set many rules, like "don't ever go outside.", "never get too close to the windows" and all sorts of stuff like that, didn't know back then why. I asked him many time why I could no do these things but all he would say was that it was dangerous. I was still just a pup than and I was in that stage were you did the exact opposite of what you are told. It was on the day I poked my head out the window after my brother told me for the millionth time not to. It was exactly like all the other days I had done this except for one thing, someone saw me. I had always seen my brother talking those outside, he called them his 'friends'. I had not seen him at first but when I did I smiled at him (you see I wanted friends as well) but he didn't smile back. He looked at me in utter terror and just before I asked him what was wrong, he bolted off. I was confused but I brushed it off as nothing, as many children do.
It was less than an hour later as I was playing there was a loud crash and a group neopets busted through the door. When the neopets saw my they said "There's the monster! Kill it!" They lunged at me. I screamed and tried to run away. Then, my brother came to my rescue. He attacked the strangers. He fought viciously, doing his best to protect me but there where to many of them. He took as many of them with him as he could before a lupe pinned him to the floor and sunk his teeth into my brother's unprotected neck. The lupe than turned his attention to me. I was shivering in the corner to shocked by what I had just seen to move. I stared at my brother's body as the lupe who killed him advanced on me. 'Why? Why did he do that?!' I thought 'They were the intruders! He was only trying to protect me! Protect me!' Suddenly a strong power burst inside me. A terrible pain in my heart combined with my hate bust it to a fiery rage that coursed though my veins. My strength, agility, and speed increased, but I lost control of myself.
I attacked the lupe, sinking my teeth in him and digging my sharp, thick claws into his face. Stunned, he stumbled backwards into the other pets. I let go of the lupe and attacked the others causing utter confusion. I moved in and out so quickly they did not know what was going on, but my new power was short lived. One minute, that's how long my rage lasted, then it just disappeared leaving me defenseless. In the last seconds of the confused I fled out the broken door. They quickly regained order and cased after me, led by the same lupe who killed my brother and whom I had scared for life.
I run, but I could hear them caching up to me. It was then that I tripped. I knew it was the end of me. I watch in horror as the lupe came out of the brush and his eyes feel on me . . . then pasted by me like he hadn't seen me at all! He began to search around, sniffing the ground and studying my tracks, obviously still looking for me. The other strangers came but it seemed like they couldn't see me either. I looked down at my paws and was shocked to find it not there! I was confused but I stayed quite. More than once I was almost stepped on, and more than once their muzzles came so close I could see their fangs. In the end they left. The second they were gone I ran for it, not willing to stay and let them find me.
I spent days wandering in the woods. I jumped at every sound, convinced that at any moment that scared Lupe would jump out at me. It was on the eighth day of my wandering that I found I could not go on. I had not eaten anything since I fled and was too weak to move. I laid for a long time, how long I don't but at some point I must have passed out because the next thing I know I was shaken awake. I didn't open my eyes but I knew I was somewhere else. This place smelled different somehow and it was cold stone under me, not grass. I was shaken again and heard someone talk to me, but I couldn't tell what they were saying. Then some food was shoved into my mouth and I devoured it. After a bit more food and some water I opened my eyes. In front of me was a full-grown Halloween Kougra and a Darigan Lupe and Lupess about my own age. We were all inside a large cave. "Look!" said the Darigan Lupe, "She's one of us!" The Halloween Kougra nodded and said. "I expected she was." I had no idea what they where talking about, but I would soon find out.
I recovered quickly with the help of my two new friends, Ton and Tooma, the twin Darigan Lupe and Lupess. Cen, the Halloween Kougra, taught me how to fly, and how to use my disappearing power, which turned out can only work when I'm in the shadows. I became very close to all three of them, they were like a family to me but I never told them about my uncontrollable rage it's a scary thing to lose control of yourself, I stupidly thought if I just ignored it would go away. Why would I be afraid of something that had saved me? Well, the thing is, I heard a story of another creature with an uncontrollable rage from my brother. When that creature's rage rose up he would kill anything and anyone, including his friends. The story ends with the creature going completely mad and never returning to sanity. The creature killed everyone in the area and my brother told me the creature was rumored to still roam around killing anything he finds. Yes it is one of the myths parents tell to their children to keep them from wandering out at night but all myths are based in some truth.
I eventually found out how I was like Cen, Ton, and Tooma. It was because we all shared the same curse. This curse could be seen in our eyes and anyone who did not have this curse would be filled with fear and hate and more than likely, want to kill us. The curse was also genetic so it passed from parent to child. I was young and hopeful, back than, and was sure that if my adopted brother was able to over come the power of the curse we could convince others too. Of course this could not possibly work because anyone we met was usually to busy trying to kill us to listen.
Cen, Ton, Tooma and I were not the only ones with the curse. There were about two dozen others that shared the hidden cave with us, we just were the only ones who stuck to gather. Everyone else kept to themselves, and really you couldn't blame them, most of them had a far worse life then me. Their insistence on being alone left them vulnerable, though, those with the curse were often attacked by the lupe I had scared and his group. All those who faced them alone died, our numbers never when down much, though, new neopets with the curse showed up all the time. Yes, we were attacked to, in fact he seemed to hunt us more than others. We all survived, though, because we worked together, but, as it always is with me, it didn't last.
The Cursed Shadow
To be continued . . .
Love
Friends
enemies
Likes
Dislikes
Array's Link
Quilt
I reach my early teens about the same time a terrible disease struck our area. It killed some but not many. Well I caught it for a sort time and in that time I realized how much I really liked Ton. He stayed by my side wile I was sick, only leaving to help the others find food for me. Well, when I got better Ton and Tooma got sick, so I did to Ton what he had done to me, but I never told him about my crush. (Of course I helped Tooma as well, I mean she was my best friend.) It was around the time they were getting better when things took a turn for the worst.
I was in a hunting party with Cen and two others when the scared Lupe and his group surrounded us. Cen had broken a wing in another encounter with the scared Lupe a wile back and the other two didn't have wings so we were in a little bit of a pickle. We probably would of stood a chance, though, if those cowards with us hadn't of tried to save there own skins. They broke of running in two different directions and were killed easily, leaving Cen and me to fight alone. The enemy closed in around us, we took a defensive position at each others backs. Cen turned to me and said "Array, two of us alone can't beat them, fly for it." "No!" I said back "They kill you." there was a pause then Cen said "I know . . .". The way Cen said thoughts two words shocked me. It sounded like he was looking forward to death. Cen then jumped forward, directly if front of the scared Lupe! Cen stared into the face of death. Then, he kicked a huge amount of dust into the air. Cen had used this before, you memorize were the enemy is standing before you kick up the dust so wile their trying to figure out were you are, you know were they are. Unfortunately I had no time to do this so I stood in there, confused, until I heard the words "I'm sorry." behind me. I whirled around just in time to see Cen staring down at me with sad eyes before he hit me over the head and everything when black.
I woke up with a pounding headache and a horrible smell in my nose. I recognized the scent as that of a plant we often used to hide our own scent. Hide . . . It suddenly hit me, what had happened, and what Cen had been doing when he knocked me out. I jumped up, ignoring the pain in my head, I had to find and help Cen. I found Cen only a few feet away, dead. He had been the closest thing to a father I ever had, I couldn't believe he was dead, I would not believe he was dead. I rested my paw on his shoulder and shook him, trying to wake him from a sleep I knew he would never wake from. He did not move and he was icy cold. I collapsed onto the ground sobbing, still unwilling to accept his death. I laid my head on his lifeless shoulder, still sobbing, and begged him to get up. You might think it odd for a Lupe to cry over a Kougra but in our group species did not matter, in the end we were all outcasts of the world.
After a long time I though of the one who had done this to Cen, the scared Lupe. I hated that Lupe more than anything. I wanted to kill him, rip him to pieces. I felt that hate rise in me, I felt that ferocious rage swell up in me like it had all those years ago. Suddenly I was frightened, I took hold of that hate and wouldn't let it go, I still feared losing control. When my rage subsided, I gathered myself up and ran back to our secret cave. Unfortunately I made a huge mistake, I didn't cover my tracks. I could flown as well but I was in too much pain and could not think clearly. When I returned, Ton and Tooma were joyful, they had thought I was dead. They asked where Cen and the other two were. I raised my head a little more into the light and they saw the marks my tears had left and they knew. Without a word to anyone I retreated to the farthest corner of the cave and laid down, Ton joined me. He said nothing just laid down beside me, Ton was the only one back then that could comfort me at a time like that. Eventually I fell asleep beside him.
I woke hours later to the sound of the alarm howl. Ton and I jumped to our feet just in time to see the howler, Tooma, killed by the scared Lupe. He had found us and it was all my fault. We all fought hard but two-thirds of our numbers had already been killed in their sleep. We were trapped by the very cave that had kept us safe for so long and the torch's light kept me from disappearing. I watch as others of my kind were slaughtered and I knew they didn't deserve that. My rage rose but I held it back, I didn't want to hurt Ton or any of the others. The battle raged on and we were obviously losing. The scared Lupe fought his way to me till we were face to face. I am not I good claw to claw fighter, I specialize in the quick attack. I move in and out and dealing terrible damage to my opponent with my large claws and teeth, wile stealthily avoiding their attacks. Unfortunately I was pinned against the cave wall and had little room to move. I tried to beat him but he was far stronger than me, he pinned me to the ground and just we he was about to end me, Ton came out of nowhere and tackled the scared Lupe. "Run!" he yelled, but I wouldn't. I was not about to leave the last person who meant something to me. Then all of a sudden the scared Lupe rose up, and before I was able to do anything he killed Ton. It happened so quickly I didn't know what to think or do, so I did what Ton had told me to. Ton's interference had left an opening for me. I ran out of the cave and took flight.
I was not the only one to escaped. There were two others who I met with after the slaughter, a Darigan Kougress and her son. I didn't know them but they were nice. The kitten seemed to admire me, why I don't know. He knew I was sad and he often tried to cheer me up. I came like that little the fellow in a short amount of time, he reminded me of Ton.
On the fifth night after the slaughter I returned to the place where we were hiding after a long walk alone. I found both the Kougras dead and the unmistakable sent of the scared Lupe all over the cave. My rage took hold again and this time I welcomed it. I turned to the direction of the scared Lupe's pack and took flight. I remember very little after that, mostly only screams and the taste and smell of blood. My clearest memory is that of my fight with the scared Lupe. This time I had plenty of room to move but the scared Lupe was no weakling. His claws and teeth found their way into my flesh many times but he was never able to keep hold. We fought a long time, dealing each other terrible wounds but in the end the wounds I dealt him were greater. He never stopped fighting till the end, though. The scared Lupe was a warrior, that was for sure and even though I hated him, I had to respect the him some.
I stood over the scared Lupe's body, triumphant, I had avenged my fallen friends and family. Then a young Lupess came running out of the shadows yelling and screaming at me. Tears were streaming down her face as she beat her paw against my chest. She was weak and not a threat at all, but her pain caused my heart to ache. For the first time I lifted my head to see what I had rout. What little rage I had left faded as I stared the bodies that littered the crimson stained ground. I looked again at the Lupess sobbing as my feet, she was perhaps only two or three years younger than I was at the time. 'What have I done?' I thought to myself. I had taken everything away from this child, just as everything had been taken from me. The scared Lupe could of very well been her father and some were in that mess could be her mother, her siblings, her friends . . . How revenge could ever be sweet, I will never know. I couldn't take hearing the poor girl cry anymore, so I spread my wings and took off. As I left the Lupess yelled something, I couldn't hear what she was saying but I got the idea. As I flew on I became aware of the large amount of blood I had lost in the fight. My head began to spin and I rapidly started losing altitude. I half landed, half crashed near a cave. The same cave were Ton and Tooma died. I stumbled in. I fell down in the same corner where Ton and I had been five nights ago and waited for death. My wounds were terrible and I should of died, but I didn't. I just laid there, thinking of everything that had happened in my life.
There were no bodies left in the cave, probably because the villagers had taken them all out and burned them, but I still could point out the spots where an innocent had died. I laid their thinking of them for what I believe was days and then I started to think of myself. I wondered why, after all this time, I was still alive. I was not just thinking of the wounds I had, but of all the other time I came close to death as well and how every time my heart had been broken. I seemed so lucky, if you could call it that. Then it came to me, I was cursed. Yes, I was cursed like Cen, Ton, and all the others, but I, unlike them, had another curse, one that caused everyone I cared for to die wile I was forced to live on. How did I come to this conclusion? I guess it was in my blood, like it was in one of my parent's blood and one of their parent's blood and so on. Perhaps it was even in that creature in my brother's story's blood, perhaps I was related to him. I stared into the darkness of the cave, thinking. The torches that had once light our cave had gone out days ago and as I sat in the perpetual darkness I sort of melted into it. I didn't even think of disappearing into it, it just happened, like the first time in the woods. It was so easy just to fade away. Then, it struck me, I was made for the shadows . . . no, I was a shadow. Not darkness, for darkness in content with what it is. A shadow, the off shoot of darkness that wishes to touch the light but never can. I got up and stepped out of the cave. The moon had just gone down and the hole world seemed ruled by the shadows. This was my world, I could never touch the light again, I could never feel or love again. I ran of into this new, lonely world I was a part of. Now it was just me, DarkArray, the cursed shadow.
(If you read my hole story, I thank you for taking up your time. I worked hard on it and it probably took you along time to read. Thank you. P.S. If you find any mistakes in my story or something that dosen't make sense please tell me.)
I loved once, a long time, but he's gone . . . Their all gone now . . .
Dead
The world
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