Halves

Prolouge: Encounter

      Tine skidded to a halt before a creek. He looked around at where he led himself and threw back his head in a moan. He brought his head down and looked behind him.

        "Wrong place," Tine muttered. He turned back around and let his breath out. "I think I lost it but-" Tine stopped and lowered his eyes. "It caught up," he breathed. He spun around, facing the dark, wooded forest.

        Tine's heart sped up as the silence stretched on. His eyes skinned up and down the long line of trees for an idea of where his pursuer is.

        Suddenly, a low growl came in front of the boy.

        Tine's eyes shot straight forward, wide with surprise and fear.

        The boy slowly started to back up towards the water behind him and make a run for it, when the creature decided to show itself. It jumped out from the cover of the trees and threw itself at Tine.

                     

                                  ~*~



        The Dark stood off on the other bank, opposite of the fight. It could see the sightless eyes of the White shimmer with delight as it knocked the messenger, called Tine, to the side like a toy. The Dark smirked as the boy stood panting hard.

        "What weaklings these Halves are," a worn voice beside the Dark spoke. "Don't you agree Soln?"

        Soln sighed, his eyes still on the activity on the other bank. "Why are you here Relen?"

        "Well, I thought I should see how you and your White are handling the Half," Relen replies.

        The boy leaps at the beast and places his palm on the misshapen face of the White. He speaks a few, fast words and a flash of orange light explodes from the boys' hand. The White roars with aggravation and pounces Tine.

        This is pathetic, Soln thought. His brow furrows as he watches his White slow with exhaustion.

        "Your White seems to be having trouble," Relen remarks thoughtfully. Soln could hear the smile in the other Dark's voice.

        I cannot let this continue, Soln angrily thought, I will not be looked down as low as these weak Halves if we don't succeed this time.

        Soln chuckled. "My White likes to mess with its...food, let's just say." Soln collected himself and stepped forward to give the command to stop. Something clasped his shoulder. The Dark stopped in mid-sentence of his command.

        Relen breathed heavily behind Soln. "Soln you are still as blind as a White. Don't let your anger override you motive," the Dark says between his fangs. Its hand slides from the younger Dark's shoulder.

        Soln shakes his head and chuckles softly.

        "You speak as if you are wise, but you are as blind as I am old one. Look at your hypocrisy!" Soln remarks curtly. You are the one who lets you anger take over from the motive! Now leave me to my business," Soln adds. He waits and hears the other Dark curse and senses his aura disappar.

        "Now I can concentrate," Soln says softly.He raises his hands and starts over of his spell.

        "Kaven la aven tal folel sor."

        He falls silent and drops his arms. Suddenly, there is a crackle and three dark, long spikes materialize out of the air and fly towards the White.



                                  ~*~



        Tine leaps back from the White as something hits it.

        What the heck, Tine thinks. Who else is here? He looks in the direction that the attack came from. The Half picks out a lone figure coming from the trees on the other bank.

        A  whimper followed by a growl, comes from behind him. Tine glances back at the injured creature lifting itself on its four legs.

        He sniffs the air for a sign of familiarity, but finds none. Why didn't  I sense him before, while fighting? he thinks.

        Tine straightens his back and lunges at the mysterious figure. He grabs its shoulder and digs his newly extended claws into it, getting ready to toss the figure when something enters his body.

        Tine releases his hand and stumbles backward. He looks down at his hand. Then looks up at the figure and back again. His vision starts to swirl and go red. He starts to panic. He looks up at the figure, and his panic turns to rage.

        "What have you done to me!" he screams. He could feel his mouth tingle with the change, wanting to be free. He lets it, all the way.

        Tine's incisors grow longer and pointy. His arms get hairer with dark orange fur as his muscles and skin rip to grow twice as big.

        Tine groaned in both pleasure and pain. It feels good to finally stretch my full length, Tine thinks through the cracking of bones and the sprouting of fur.

        The supposed Half uncurls his new form and glares up at the figure. His three tails whip in excitement as he readies himself as the figure calmly walks toward him.

        "Well," the figure says, "apparently my White has been pursuing a Full, not a Half." It stops about five feet from the Full.

        Tine growls in response. He looks the stranger up and down. It stands about six and a half feet with dark gray skin and eyes that glow red with a black insignia as a pupil for each eye. It also wears a black cloak with a hood, Tine notes.

          Hmm, Tine thinks. This is my first encounter with something like this. He looks up and finds the stranger doing the same as he was.

          It looks at him and opens its mouth to speak. "You are probably wondering who and what I am." It smiles and rows of fangs show themselves, white and sharp.

          "I am a Dark, whose name is Soln," he states. "Even though you shouldn't need to know this since your going to die now."

          Suddenly, there's a sharp pain in Tine's lower back, right where his death mark is. His vision starts churning with different colors as like before. The pain grew and suddenly shot to all parts of his body.

          Tine looks up at the smiling Dark and lunges. He doesn't make it far as he gets knocked aside by the recovered White.

          I can't die now....I....just.....can't....Tine wearily thought as he struggled to get up. His vision turned red and filmy.

          The White casually started to walk to the the half-dead Full.

          Tine growled deep in his throat and collapsed back to the leafed floor of the woods.

           

                                  ~*~

          Soln strode toward the body of the messenger.

          "What a shame. I was hoping this was going to last a bit, but he was being too hasty."

          The Dark bent down over Tine, now back in his human form and grabbed a handfull of his light brown hair. Soln lifted Tine's head and looked into his sightless brown eyes. He frowned and let go of Tine's hair to stand up. The White came over to its master, looking hungrily at the extra meat.

        "We are done here White," Soln said. "Now we must find the other Halves and eliminate them." There was a slight pressure change and the two creaturs were gone, leaving the body of the messenger behind.



Chapter 1

           

          What was that? ViviAnna thought as she looked out her bedroom window, into the dark woods where she heard the sound.

        "It was probably a coyote howling or something," she said aloud. She glanced at her alarm clock. 6:30. Might as well get up, she thought. She stretched and swung her legs over the side of her bed. As she was standing up, she jumped from another howl from outside. She let out a deep breath.

                    Huh...I'm just paranoid...



                                  ~*~

          Coming down the stairs in a hurry, ViviAnna ran into her father, going up the stairs. Her father gave her a strange look and said,"Whoa, watch where your going dude!"

          ViviAnna then gave him the same look and replied, "Sorry, dude. You should've of seen me coming down here. Or heard me." She added going into the kitchen. ViviAnna heard him mumble something about crazy teens and their brains. Old people thoughts basically.

          "Do you need a ride from your most awesomest father V?" her dad yelled from upstairs. Pushing the microwave button to start her Pancake-On-A-Stick, she answered, "No! I'm good!" Then added, "Is awesomest even a word?"

            She waited for an answer, but instead got a beep from the microwave. She turned and yelped as she saw her father blocking her way to her food.

            "Well, I believe it's a word," her father answered, not moving. He used the servant stairway didn't he? she thought angrily. ViviAnna scowled at her father in silence as he slid out of the way of her path, chuckling. She got her breakfast and got to work eating it. She glanced up at her father and getting ready to go back to her food, notices her dad's attire in horror.

            "What is that?!" she says in disgust. He was wearing a green T-shirt, accompanied by a wool vest (with a peace sign pin), dark brown pants, with moccasins...Whoa...

              Her father looked down with a confused look. His head snaps up, eyes smiling. He holds up a finger and says, "I knew I was forgetting something!" He rushes into the other bathroom and comes back, holding a green bandana with white peace signs spread out on it.

              ViviAnna's eyes grow huge. "Oh god," she mumbles. She stands quickly with her half eaten breakfast, and leaves the room.

              "Hey! So what do ya think of my outfit?" he called from the kitchen.

              ViviAnna paused for a moment to think of what she should say, but her father beat her to it.

                "Ah, I see!" he came into the room, a smile hidden in his salt and pepper beard. "It's so radical, your speechless! Ha, I knew it!" His deep laughter filled the house, his light blue eyes sparkling with tears of laughter. ViviAnna just had a look of confusion on her face. Wow, I can't believe this old hippie is my father, she thought, then added, but I still love him.

                "I'm going to get some excercise by walking to school, so see ya!" ViviAnna exclaimed while zipping up her backpack. She was half-way out when her father grabbed her hand and slipped something cold into it.

                She started to open her hand to see what the object was when her father said, "House key. I'm going to work overtime tonight and mom's not getting back 'til around one in the morning. So, I thought you'd like to get inside the house." He smiled and pecked her on the top of the head.

                "If that's what you say old man," ViviAnna says, walking off to the sidewalk. She looks back to see her father gone, with the door closed,

                  Gone like he was never there she thinks, walking.



                                        ~*~



                  The walk to school is refreshing-and helps her mind clear. The trees shade her from the morning light, bringing a slight chill to her skin.