Until Overmorrow

Every night at midnight, the purple clouds came out to dance with the blushing sky. The soft sound of crickets provides the music, the fireflies provide soft lights around the Dubois Estate of Dubois France. Thalise Dubois, the 13-year-old middle child of Dubois Noble Family is asleep in her bed. Normally she is a heavy sleeper, but she hears strange rumblings from outside the estate. Soon the guards are shouting at something in the distance and her eyes open quickly. The commotion outside grows louder and although her window is mere steps away, she can’t bring herself to see what it is.

Then the wails start, so ear shattering they are heard clearly through her closed window. Panic stricken, she decides she rather not see what’s unfolding and instead decides to run to her parents’ room. As soon as she flings the door open, she freezes. Downstairs stands men with bloodied masks and in gray militant attire wielding daggers, swords, and clubs. As their eyes meet a deep voice bellows “the spare!?” The group start to rush the grand steps when her parents in their Chimera forms, 2 large bipedal jaguars each holding a short sword called a flyssa flies past Thalise to slow their advance. There are at least 15 invaders, but none transform. Humans: she realizes, and her panic starts to die down, they may not be a match for her parents.

Her parents were proficient with the flyssa but increased speed, strength, fangs, and claws also make work of the invaders. Her father deflects a dagger and claws one of the invaders masks which although made of the sturdy material anestite still gives under the pressure of his force and claws. She quickly looks behind her when she hears running feet. It’s her older brother ready to defend his home and his future legacy of being anointed one of the 6 Guardians. He transforms and manages only one strike before he is rushed by the crowd who now turn their attention to him. “Kill him!” a man repeatedly screams.

Thalise is trying to follow every move, swing of a blade or club, her parents focus start to shift as they try to shield their firstborn. For every second her mother or father glances away to keep eyes on her brother Kasabian it gives the invaders an advantage, a cheap shot, or just trying to rush past to get to her brother. A blood curdling scream is let out among the crowd. Soon one of the invaders’ hands were held high in the air grasping her brother’s tail. She screams at the sight. The sheer pain of losing his tail causes Kasabian to revert into a 14-year-old human looking boy. Her mother loses all focus and tries to shield her child and is overtaken by the mob then she hears her father’s human cry as he loses his form and is engulfed by the crowd.

Then everything falls dead silent as they slowly look up at Thalise. They have no reason to rush this time. Their dark eyes appear manic behind the mask, fixating on the trembling girl. Thalise transforms, she is not a very skilled fighter as she only had mandatory training and some specialized training by her grandmother. All she can think to do is cower, arch her back, bare, fangs, claws. They stop when they hear a cry, one man abruptly says, “The baby.” Damien! Her baby brother, barely 2, is away from the commotion in his designated nursery. The men start to follow the sound but Thalise screeches and start to quickly go to her knees and bows to them. Although Chimeras can understand each other in Chimera form, humans hardly do. Although every plea to spare him sounds clear to her the men can only make out a few garbled words. One of the men who may have been the leader points to source of the sound and start leading his men away. In an act of braveness she lunges only for one of the men to kick back hard, his heavy boot makes contact with her chest slamming her backwards, her head bounces on the ground as she is rendered unconscious.

Until her eyes open abruptly, and she is in her room. Thalise is frozen in her bed with the sun beaming on her, her muscles feel heavy, she is very clammy and just stares at the ceiling confused when a chipper voice gleefully yells, “One more day to Anointing day!” That was her mothers’ voice! She almost broke down crying as a rush of relief ran over her until a new sense of dread came. She wasn’t dreaming, she knew that wasn’t a dream because her eyes were blurry whereas in dreams she sees fine without glasses. Nor did it happen. Thalise realizes she had a vision.

Of the 6 Chimera families, The Leopard Clan was gifted with a heightened sense of intuition and use of the mind’s eye. Power, agility, flight and precision, were traits of The Dragonborn, Wolf, and Avian clans respectfully. Whereas fortitude and stealth were traits of the Ursa and Otter clans. Although their psychic abilities were revered at first, they fell out of favor with failed visions due to misinterpretations, weak minded seers confusing dreams with visions, and any charlatan with the faintest ties to the clan claiming they can do palm, tarot or crystal readings. This caused the public to doubt the noble family as more than getting lucky guesses and being joke fodder among the other nobles. Though Thalise ignores it all she is proud of her clan.

The morning is bustling as everyone is trying to get ready for their flight to America, where the anointing ceremony will take place. The practice came after the War of Absolution. It was believed first came creatures, humans, then chimeras, starting with the dragons and moving down to the remaining 5 families . Human and Chimera coexisted happily but remained separate. Until a human girl fell in love with a girl wolf Chimera. The human girl was already promised to another by her father and the union would continue to bring him wealth and stability. When he discovered them he took the wolf born out for a hunt under the guise of accepting the union. When night fell the father wanted to celebrate with a night of drinking in the woods and offered the wolf born more than her fair share of fermented honey. Often taking sips, telling long stories to avoid drinking, or teasing the chimera, she couldn’t dare drink more, a dare she happily took to impress him. Soon she felt too drunk, and the father suggested they rest and make the trek home in the early morning, she happily obliged.

Waiting until she was in a deep slumber. The father crept up on her, took his blade and thrusted it through her heart, shedding of Chimera blood by a human. A grave sin. To avoid capture he was going to make a large hole filled with posies to hide her scent. Cover it in rocks so animals wouldn’t dig her up and more dirt over her. The only thing he could not account for was the unseasonable rain that started a few hours after he started to hide the body trapping her scent in the air. When he returned during daybreak, he presented a phony story of the two of them splitting off to cover more ground but the chimera never returned and his long nightly journey to find her failed. A search party formed right away to find her and when they were led to where the campgrounds were the wolf born picked up her scent immediately. When the rouse was discovered the father’s story instantly change. Although accepting of the union he redrew his acceptance when she saw she was a drunkard who could not control herself. The Chimera refuses to let him leave without a yes, getting more aggressive and threatening. He claimed he feared for his life, and it had to be done.

His daughter had suspicions, but the Chimeras didn’t believe him at and called for his death for repentance. Being a prominent member of the community, the humans not only shielded him but believed him. There has always been a deep-seated fear chimeras would turn on them. Many animals in the wild do, and what is a Chimera but an animal with a human form. The grave insult to being reduced to an animal caused even more contention between humans and chimera. Humans felt they were the first thinking beings they should have dominion, chimeras felt they were a flawed design. These humans were more proficient with inventions they considered the chimeras stupid, but since they had limited survival skills the chimeras saw them as weak. Finally, his daughter, who tried to stay silent, spoke out on her father’s behalf defending his character instead, and saying in words only she believes him. When the chimeras heard they deemed it a betrayal.

They knew the wolf born as well and called of her of a kind and vivacious nature. She even shared with a few close friends that she might be moving out of the community soon and starting a new life with someone and the others assumed it was another wolf born. She was already preparing for the backlash of their union and was prepared for excommunication. Even if she didn’t get approval something like that would not stop someone like her let alone anger her. The times she did indulge in a drink it was just enough to make her dance silly, take on a dare or a laugh hysterically at everything. Her lover disregarding her like that sealed how the humans were viewed in their eyes. They could never love or care about us the same. They are a blight, and they must be eradicated and the War of Absolution broke out.

War lasted for several years and holding their own at first the humans started to be crippled by the chimeras. Lands were decimated, millions killed or imprisoned as slaves, resources and churches burned. Rebels consistently tried to make their way to the Royal Family who mainly dispatch soldiers near their own borders but let most of the populous form their own militia. The war looked as if it was won until one night in his sleep the firstborn of the Dubois family had a vision. He was standing outside and the everything including his home was destroyed. Everything looked dark until a glowing figure engulfed in light came to him. It levitated without wings and had glowing green eyes devoid of pupils. All it said was in a sorrowful voice “you were supposed to take care of them.” Soon a large fire surrounded it and spread out in many directions as it disappeared, while the flames started to engulf the world. Xavier Dubois felt he knew what it meant. It was God and a chimeras purpose was clear they were meant to help humans not harm them. They were there to protect this world. Xavier interpretation fell on deaf ears as he was barely 15 and it was from the mouth of babes. He tried again reaching the children of the 6 families and they banded together to stop the war, the first time they all came together. Since dragonborn were stronger they became the leader.

Through a series a letters they formulated their plan. The children ranged between 14-17 and for the most part not always supervised on hunts or traveling to different cities within their safe border. Each came up with a varying story of that nature to their parents and ran away from home to meet up. They went to various places ordering resources for those affected by war by flashing their royal seals or simply living in or staying near targeted areas causing commoners to fear attacking. The downtrodden humans immediately took their help. The war looked lost as much as some wanted to kill a royal in the beginning doing so now will bring nothing devastation. There might be a future for some, if they didn’t harm those kids. They constantly moved and when needing the assistance of a transporter most of the transporter stayed silent in fear. 6 people traveling wasn’t uncommon nor did they leave at the same time all the time, combined with their face coverings they could only suspect they were transporting the royals. Transporters being fooled would be forgiven but telling on the kids who will be next in line more likely won’t. They usually didn’t reveal themselves for a few hours and change their attire. That way it be harder to track which transporter was involved by time royal soldiers even got there anyway.

The parents were desperate to retrieve their young, but they were determined not to give up. If soldiers did catch up they were instructed to only escort not to detain or get violent with a royal. Which often through bloodies eyes and broken teeth they had to report the kids alluded them again somehow. War, although slowed, wasn’t over and the guardians came up with an absolution of their own or rather a bluff. If war wasn’t halted in 15 days’ time of receiving the letter they would all ingest poison and look over the humans in the afterlife. Though beliefs in a deity varied a bit everyone feared an afterlife. In little over a week war finally subsided.

When they finally received the official news they had resided in a place that had a beautiful field of bluebonnets and there they gathered to rejoice with many grateful humans joining them. There was a celebration for 3 days in the fields which later would become America before they returned home. They later became known as the guardians, and they and their firstborn continued the fighting group joining soldiers in missions or battles. They believed they were spiritually protected surviving every endeavor they embarked on. After that the world seemed to have the biggest prosperity boom. Inventions to make life easier came, perfect weather for crops, no famine.

At the end of his life Xavier was convinced of reincarnation and knew not only he but the others would come back as well. He often had a reoccurring vision of 97. Xavier died at 113. 97 years after The Guardians form and it was believed the great great great children born after his death were the next fated ones. The true bringers of peace and any firstborn born before can join the guardians of course but they weren’t the true fated ones.

Back at the Dubois estate this is what Thalise feared. Was it really her brother to be anointed or was it her? When her grandmother and esteemed seer herself finally arrives, the family is ready to go. Of course Grandma has to give her hugs and after hugging Kasabian she holds Thalise and freezes and Thalise feels it too. She starts to tremble, and her grandmother starts to tear up a bit.

Her brother isn’t going to be the next Fated One. She is.