Of Transformation & Chaos

“Stay here my love, they won’t find you as long as you stick to the shadows and make it to Aradia,” my mother whispered to me as I watch a fleet of fear flash through her eyes, before she puts on a brave face for me.

“Mother please, I don’t want to leave you,” I weep out as I clutch unto her raven feathered cloak, she was all I had in this life after the mortals killed my father and I could not lose her.

“I have to go love,” torpedo like tears fall down her face as she pulls my forehead to hers, whispering in my thoughts “I will always be with you my sweet daughter.” I silently sob as she pushes herself from me, using her telekinesis to keep me from following her back to the battle with man.

“Mother don’t go, you can’t leave me!” I shout as I watch her transform into a raven and disappear into the starless sky towards the castle. Falling to my knees, now given the ability to move myself, I wept into the grass for the loss of my one true protector, my mother. “Stick to the shadows,” I tell myself as I let my black opal hair cover me into the forever night.

The shadow realm is the only place that can protect me from man, for the beings that inhabit that plane of darkness are my salvation now. I began my silent journey, ignoring the burning feeling in my chest of my heart in flames.

My name is Evangeline Crest, daughter of Helena Crest and Dimitri Crest, heir to the throne of night. 600 years ago before the war, mortals ruled the day and were at a time very contempt with that, for their myths and legends foretold the creatures and beings that roamed the night world, were enough to keep them from prying into our business. The leaders of the mortal world and the leaders of the profane one met for a meeting held deep in a mystical sequoia forest at the 13th hour, both agreeing to a treaty between the man of day and beings of night, stating that as long as one from either side does not try to venture into the worlds of the other, then we shall all live safely. None of the individuals of night were surprised that it was man who broke into our world, ruining the treaty that was imprinted with a human soul and a profane one as the signature. The beings of night fought back as the individuals of day brought their bullets. I was a little girl at the time, only a few hundred years old, overhearing my father and mother-the king and queen of the night, hold meetings in our grand hall to the citizens of the eventide assuring them that our toughest warriors are on the defense against the world of man, for we had magics and charms that would surely win the battle, but little did we know that man had their own tricks as well.

Now in 2021, the war still ongoing and the Earth in shambles as the children of the night rose up ferociously to the battle with man. For every one hundred they take of us, is every three hundred we take from them; my father was within the first few hundred groups that stormed into the world of man and one of their toughest foes to take down, yet even he, the near immortal king of the night wasn’t able to fight forever. My mother was deeply hurt by the loss of him, for our kingdom was breaking apart as light was slowly seeping into our realm, forcing many of us to flee to Aradia, the eternal home of witches where we dance with Nyx and Hecate in the midnight sun. At some point the mortals invade our realm more, busting down our castle doors and flooding into our home with their tanks and weapons; we all fought valiantly as we flipped their tanks and phase shifted through their bullets, but still it wasn’t enough. I was about to open a portal to the underworld beneath one of their tanks until my mothers raven cloak covered my eyes as she teleported me to the edge of our vast forest behind our home.

“Mother what are you doing? We need to fight with the rest of our family!” I say as I turn on my heel try to go back to the castle.

She grips my shoulder with her inhuman strength and pulls me back as my kinky curly hair flops around, as I gaze into her deep emerald green eyes. Well you know what happens next, so here I am now, sticking to the shadows to the world of Aradia.

I passed by many creatures of the night world going the complete opposite of me towards the castle; this is just so unfair! I should be fighting with my mother, defending our world and protecting my fathers name, what would he do in my shoes? He wouldn’t back down so why am I letting my mother treat me like I’m 200 again, Nyx I swear I am almost 900 years old and she still babies me! Caught up in my thoughts, I didn’t realize a path of light opened up amongst the shadows between my world and of mans, causing me to fall into their toxic domain. Free falling from the dark and having my eyes adjust so painfully to the harsh light made me pray to Nyx that this fall doesn’t impair me to the point of being vulnerable to the mortal men of this world.

Landing on the rough terrain of some torn city, I realize that I am not nearly as hurt as I thought I would be from falling from that height, so immediately I jump up and survey my surroundings more, sending out my magical sensors to see if there are any mortals near me for me to eradicate, but I only felt one, a little brown girl with beautiful black eyes.

“I could kill you.” I say with stubborn defiance.

She stared at me with fear while clutching her heart shaped locket, covered in dirt from head to toe, trembling before me.

“I’m not scared of you” She says while hyperventilating, slowly she raises her small hand up to point behind me.

Turning around, I see what she is staring upon and oh my dark goddess, I would have never thought that a creature like this was roaming free in this shattered world.

“Don’t. Move.” I say through clenched teeth to the girl behind me as I can practically feel her fear rolling off her in waves.

A creature of old legend, a merciless monster who knows no meaning of good and evil, a sphinx. Her long neck snakes out as her fangs protrude from her mouth ever elongating, dripping with venom, her long viper tail hisses at us as I hear the little girl whimper behind me.

Straightening my stance, getting ready to mutter an ancient spell that would at least give me some leverage against the beast, I feel the little girl clutch my thigh from behind me, burying her face into my leg.

“Don’t let it get me!” She screams out, causing the creature to lunge at us.

Throwing my arms up, I create a psionic shield around me and the girl while the creature claws viciously at it.

“This won’t hold long, so when I tell you to run, you will run, okay?”

She nods harshly as I get ready to take the creature head on when the shield inevitably breaks. Getting in my stance, I summon my dark armor, taking a deep breath and shooting myself at the creature like a shotgun, whilst screaming out “RUN!” to the little girl.

The creature almost gave me a fatal claw blow that I dodged, but I maneuvered around it first attacking the viper tail it had, to throw off its equilibrium. It screeched out as I incinerated the head of the tail, with one swoop the creature through me across the terrain as I collide into a broken-down building window.

“That all you got huh?” I ask mockingly as I stand back up. The sphinx hissed violently at me as she lunged at me again, running straight into the invisible valerian portal I created to Elphame, the land of the fairies.

“Have fun dealing with the queen of thy name there little sphinx!” I shout out as I slam the portal shut and disassemble my magical armor.

From behind me, I can feel the little girl come up and hug my legs. I would’ve never thought mortals are capable of feeling anything besides fear and hate, but what I felt from her was complete adoration.

“Thank you,” She mutters into me while wiping her tear stained cheeks on me.

“You are welcome, what’s your name?”

“Victoria,” She says while gazing up to me.

“Well Victoria it was a pleasure to meet you, but I’m afraid that this is the last time you will ever see me.” I say while beginning to walk away from her. Just as I thought I had finished our conversation, she slaps my thigh from behind and I turned around so quickly that a cheetah would’ve caught whiplash.

“What do you want Victoria?”

She makes a come here gesture, in which I lean down to her height.

“My mommy says that a locket like mine only belongs to those with a strong heart and yours is the strongest I’ve seen…far stronger than mine,” Victoria says sadly as she slowly hands me her necklace.

“Victoria I can’t take this, where even is your mother?”

“She died.”

A sharp pang of pain hit my chest as I immediately thought of my mother sacrificing her life for me.

“Victoria, are you all alone here?” I say in a slight worried way, for she is very young and with creatures like that sphinx roaming this apocalyptic world, she could find herself in worse situations than this one.

“I’m a big girl! I am 6 years old, so that means I can handle myself,” She says a little to giddily for the setting we are in at the moment.

“You are a big girl, but you shouldn’t be alone here.” I say while trying to reason with her.

“I have to be alone, my mommy always talks about independence and I have to be that!” Even as she speaks, she tries to shove the locket into my hand.

I gave an exasperated sigh “Victoria, would you like to come with me? Just until I find you a suitable shelter with more of your kind.”

“I would love too! Only on the condition that you wear this necklace.” She says with finality in her tone.

I nod in agreeance as I move my curly hair out of the way for her to clip the necklace on me. It sat perfectly in between my collar bones, a gorgeous silver gleaming in the sun.

“Let’s go, if creatures like that can come out during the day, then I can only imagine what creatures would come out when the sun is gone.” I hold my hand out for her to grab, and then we begin our journey to a safe haven for her, then onto my journey to Aradia.