She stumbled on her footing, her feet embracing one another and sending her face first into the ground. Gravel rushed into her lungs and stained her taste as she coughed and attempted to stand once more. A hand gripped her from behind.

“You’re the Baneswings’ daughter, aren’t you?” came the scratchy voice, hoarse from the mere pressure of speaking. The clawed hand dug into her arm as it pulled her upward. The talons drew blood.

“Speechless, dog?” The beast’s figure towered at a daunting height of ten feet, its hands consisting of four fingers, one acting as a thumb. It had legs with two joints instead of one, the second below the knee. Its lower leg stemmed out from the second joint that bent back behind the calf, and it had three wide, flattened talons branching from its foot. A small tail swung thickly from the bottom of the spine, stuffed with muscle and holding little mobility. It held no pupils with the rice-shaped eyes, a glowing red casting light upon the creature’s triangular face. Two sharp ears sat like horns on the edge of its skull and were restricted from moving. A sickening, shark-toothed smile crossed the being’s facial features, well passing the limits of its eyes and spreading back to its ears.

“But then again, you can’t see me, can you?” It knelt down, hot breath chilling the young girl’s form. The eight year old grabbed the forked tongue that came lounging out of the jaw, and jerked it forward. The beast grunted, using his hand the size of her body to stabilize himself from the sudden strength. The eight-year-old’s brown hair fell around her soft face, framing the black sash that covered her eyes.

“Darksider.” She hissed. She gave a sadistic, taunting grin. “Daddy’s going to kill you.”

Chapter 1 —>