Chapter 3

It was early summer; the wind had shifted, coming from the North. It had been a cold summer for them, though the Kinjirareta desert wasn’t ever really cold. It was the largest desert on the eastern side of the world and also held the Mizukori capital.

The girl before Kianna couldn’t have been more than five, showing no outward signs of being anything but Desh. But her eyes had mana around the blue iris, flecks of gold shimmering beneath the surface. She was something special, but Kianna had never seen her before.

Outside the palace, the sounds of fighting could be heard. The little girl had been told to stay behind, hide herself away and wait until the fighting was over. But she was curious, even as her companion and Kianna protested. Younger than the girl beside her, the Tigoren growled and clasped the girl’s sleeve with her beak.

“We have to go! It isn’t safe here.” A chirp echoed inside both their heads as the little girl started to back away from the door while unfamiliar voices echoed outside.

“I just want my Mommy.” The girl responded outloud, looking to the Tigoren beside her. With the front half of a bird and the rear of a rear of a tiger, she was white with black stripes. Those wings on her shoulders weren’t big enough to carry the girl, let alone fly, but that didn’t stop her.

“We have to go Tae!” That voice came more urgent as the girl hopped up on the Tigoren’s back, the little one carrying her clumsily towards the rear balcony. There beyond the palace wall was freedom and safety if they could make it. Behind then, the door was being pounded on, the crowd chanting and screaming behind it.

“Safir, I’m scared.” Tae hugged her friend’s neck, tears running down her cheeks as that mana swelled within her. But that Tigoren only watched with those golden eyes as the door creaked under the force behind it, they wouldn’t have a choice soon.

“She’s too young.” Another female voice, somewhere off in the distance. This one was familiar yet new, a voice Kianna had heard a long time ago. “She won’t make it without you to guide her. I’ve seen it as they’ve spoken to me and I only wish you could be born sooner to know it. I can’t help you anymore, but once you’ve come into your own, you’ll see the truth. I promise you Ilia and Iluxia.”

The doors groaned as they finally gave, bursting inwards with a tidal wave of people. Safir jumped in that moment, her small wings faltering with the extra weight of Tae. They plummeted to the wall below, to be trapped between the castle and the wall with no way out. Tae screamed as her body pulsed with that golden mana, making her eyes change color. Dragon’s gold, Kianna thought dimly as she watched the girl sprout black wings, carrying them just far enough to get over the wall and to the dunes beyond.

But it would cost her dearly to use such a gift so early. Safir hit the sand first, throwing Tae farther ahead as she stopped short. The confused shouts of angry Desh behind them fading, questioning if they had been there at all. Tae muffled her screams as pain lanced down her back, those black wings still there. Her eyes glowed golden with a tinge of red, tears flowing freely down her cheeks. Kianna sat atop the wall itself, watching them from above as the crowd appeared not to see her, a ghost in this dream. Confused, she watched the Mizukori called Tae as she sobbed quietly while her companion comforted her.

“Tae! Calm down, you have to relax and think.” Tae sniffed, turning to look at the Tigoren who shook off sand from her feathers and fur. It was with effort that Tae stood, the wings unbalancing her while the pain made her clench her fists. “We have to find a safe place.” It was the first time they had been outside the capital, the desert before them a wasteland with no water except for the capital’s oasis. Maps on her father’s table came back to the young Mizukori, while a plan formed.

“If we can catch a ride on a caravan, we can escape here without them seeing us.” Safir nodded and started towards the North side of the capital, away from their home. They stuck close to the wall, using it as a barrier between them and the harsh sun above as well as unfriendly eyes. It would be hard not to mistake them for what they were, especially with the black wings her mother and father had.

“Mizukori...” Tae said out loud as the warmth of the sun seemed to give her some strength against the despair in her chest.

“Don’t think about it, I’m sure they’re fine.” Safir swatted Tae with her tail, nuzzling against her hand soon after. But Tae remained deep in thought, looking up at the walls she had always seen from the safety of the palace. Her tears stopped as the pain subsided, but her heart broke.

“I thought the Desh loved us. We aren’t cruel Safir. Mama and Da was fair, always fair.” Safir rubbed her side against Tae, thinking back to her own family. They had been with Lord and Lady Mizukori when the fighting started, as well as her brother and sisters. If it hadn’t been for Tae’s older sister taking Melody, Safir would be there now too.

As they walked in silence, Tae continued to look up at the wall and then ahead of them, those black wings folded against her back finally. Once a Mizukori came into her abilities, she could never be fully Desh again. They hadn’t guessed she would be only four hundred and forty though. Safir was only sixty and not full grown either, having been Tae’s constant companion since she hatched. They were supposed to learn to fly together, but that wasn’t for another five hundred years.

Now things were out of balance, the Desh overthrowing their Mizukori lords by force. As Safir looked over to Tae, she turned to look back at the wall. Mizukori were the byproducts of a dragon and a Desh, the go between half breeds that were supposed to keep the peace. But because they lived much longer than the Desh, they seemed to be immortal. This had angered them, causing this frenzied uprising.

As they neared the north gate, Tae watched as one last caravan full of half breeds was let through before the gates closed while the Desh chanted behind the walls. Tae dashed out as they were getting ready to leave, checking supplies too frantically to see two creatures stowing away. Among the debris and scattered belongings they hid as the Shala desert lizards began to pull the caravan. They were on a sand board, pulled along the dunes by two eighteen foot long, four feet high at the shoulder black Shala. The walls were built of the same board with a canvas top, usually connected to two or three similar ones that the Shala pulled.

This particular caravan was pulled by a team of six Shala with ten sand boards connected by ropes. Each one held something different, food, clothes, trade goods and the Shala-Desh, waiting for their shift to pull the sand boards. They were shape shifters, with tanned skin like their Shala form’s underbelly, black or tan hair with crimson eyes. They stood about six feet tall, with black lizard tails and scales along their shoulders, collar bone and down their spines, they were intimidating. But most were friendly to the royal family, but they were still cautious. Fear made all creatures, Desh or not, enemies in times of war.

While Taevra and Safir escaped, their families fought back the Desh. Lord and Lady Mizukori had gone ahead to try and calm the masses, refusing to change from their Desh forms to show they meant no harm.

“People of Kinsha, whether Desh or otherwise, I speak to you from my heart. We are all children of Shakeer, so why are you unhappy my brethren? Please calm yourselves and speak with me like equals!” The crowd of Desh grew restless as they began to shout profanities, drowning out Lord Mizukori. The word monster kept getting thrown out there as they threw things, fruit and other objects while he tried to calm them with words still.

“This isn’t working.” Lady Mizukori growled under her breath to her husband, feeling the Tigoren beside them becoming uneasy. Safir’s mother watched with cold golden eyes as the Desh came closer to the platform, clicking her beak. Angel looked to her mate and son, Ket and Kaleb who stood beside Lord Mizukori.

As the crowd grew bold and surged the platform, they were forced to fight. Above, Melody hovered with their elder daughter Kayli as she shouted something over the din. Lady Mizukori paled and lost herself to her dragon in rage and grief while her husband looked on in horror.

Kianna had read the stories about the Mizukori who were gifted with shapeshifting only in times of emotional trauma. They could never shift back once they did, becoming dragons who went crazy from the power. Lady Mizukori had known the risks, as did all Mizukori. They kept only their claws, wings and horns, but becoming a full dragon was taboo. But as Kianna watched the regal lady shift into a full grown black dragon, the crowd screamed, being crushed beneath her weight. Lord Mizukori looked to Kayli, knowing what had set her mother on this path. Taevra was dead and so was Safir.

Angel had leapt into the fray, tearing apart Desh beside Lady Mizukori, rage fueling her talons and jaws while Lord Mizukori and Ket tried to protect them. But it became increasingly difficult as the masses surged, pushed forward by a cloaked figure. Even as they melted before her dragon fire, they kept coming.

“They did nothing wrong! They were children!” Lady Mizukori roared around a mouth full of teeth, taking up most of the square with her bulk alone. The sandstone cracked as her fire touched it, but she continued to set fire to anything that came near her, swatting aside Desh like ants.

Lord Mizukori tried to comfort her, but she only snarled at him while her grief took over. Bodies of burning flesh piled up as she mourned her youngest alongside Angel, but the Desh kept coming. Each wave was another scratch, another slice and more charred flesh. Ket cried out in pain as an axe found itself in his side while Angel avenged him, but as Lord Mizukori was healing him, arrows sprouted from his chest.

The two went down together while Angel and Lady Mizukori went another round with the slowly advancing army. Kaleb fell to a sword wound as Angel took an arrow soon after, collapsing beside her son.

“Don’t avenge us and don’t come back here Kayli. Go as far as you can and find peace before I destroy us all. Take Melody with you and find happiness.” Lady Mizukori struggled to make sense to her daughter, her mind a haze of anger and grief. The Desh around her turned to stone as she guarded her family, the carnage that was her legacy piling up around her.

It would take three days to bring her down as Kianna watched with horror, unable to change anything though she tried. Before they desecrated her family, she turned them to stone with her last breath, crushing them beneath her weight before she too became stone. It was her last resort as the ground beneath her gave way to the caverns beneath the city, the catacombs her people were buried in. Down into the darkness they fell, the dust that her family had become as her body broke into a million shards of sandstone.

Cheers erupted above as the remaining Desh were victorious, having driven their evil overlords from the land and killed them. Half breeds weren’t allowed to remain in the capital it was declared by their new ruler, a Desh with a crooked smile. Kianna shook her head as she was pulled away from the gruesome scene, thankful it was over.

Kayli and Melody had fled into hiding during the battle, but that was not where she was being pulled to. It had been three days since Taevra and Safir had fled the capital, having not been discovered while they cowered in the caravan.

It was night when she stopped, Tae and Safir eating things they had stolen from the caravan stores, the news of the capital falling being spread to every small settlement in the desert. Many turned and headed north or west, away from the carnage. None knew about Lady Mizukori or that she fought so valiantly for them or that any of the royal family had survived. But even if Kianna wanted to tell them, she couldn’t.