An overcast of depression was ready to cast its overbearing hail over Petora. The murky clouds formed a pact between the Petorians, an agreement of formality in the hopes that they could protect their humanity whilst simultaneously, destroying their humanity in the face of unforgivable immorality.
"The coast is clear. Everyone, lines in single file! Huddle huddle! Pace! Pace!" Chrishern shouted commands to the rest of the children as he smoothed his airy black hair with red palm oil.
"Show no worry, the second you do, it's toasts for us," Lorry said, ever the non-worried sort. He cleared his thick black hair away from his face.
"Hold hands at all times, no one is getting left behind," Suleng said, clearing the wispy bangs of her black hair.
"And no one dies today. No one. This year, we'll be the ones to get the presents we deserve, not them," Kiyo spoke quietly but fiercely, fixing the pins in her black hair.
"Don't show fear, remember, smile like you're evil dolls in a dollhouse." Nina walked down the lines and brushed her bushy hair as she did so.
"Also, look dazed, super dazed, and crazy, super crazy," Linde added, sporting a large afro.
The first six were all ten years of age, dressed in red clothing. The army of 25,000 children before them were also dressed in red with white face paint. They stood on the shores of Lake Lerato, the largest freshwater lake in Petora. The clouds could be seen shimmering on the surface, just as the clouds continued to gather in the dreadful sky.
It was the day of despair that every child and parent feared the most. Christmas day, the same day the Petorians suffered their worst, demoralising defeat at the hands of the deranged Xantris a year prior.
This time, the children were prepared. The courageous infiltration and stealthy scouting by the first six served them all well in ascertaining the fundamentals of Xantris's blood magic and how it could be neutralized.
They all raised their hands in the sky and shot red crafted sparks in the air that exploded like the festival fireworks in Namjin. Then, they sang for Lala's day of birth, calling for her mother and all her children.
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"Lala, la - la, lalalaaa, my Prince, Amyr Ramsis, this is it, this is finally it," Xantris sang her daughter's tune, dressed in her black enchantress gown with long red scarfs, her U shaped necklace and curved teeth earrings.
Prince Ramsis stroked her long, messy and curly black hair absentmindedly as he watched 3,300 hot air balloons approaching from Metro. Xantris decided to up the scales from the previous year. Instead of 23,000 children, she requested to have 33,000 tortured and conditioned.
They stood on the roof of Renero and Minaleese's home in the dark forest. The light green leaves whirled around them in eddies of wind.
There was fondness in Xantris's honey brown eyes and happiness in her innocent smile as she waved at all her approaching children that had gathered to play and sing for Lala. Her black widow tattoo on her forehead bled from when her own Xoxo tribe marked her.
On one particular occasion, she caught Renero staring at her in the distance after she had escaped death from Minaleese. Ramsis had taken Xantris away, but there was something Renero had said to her, something that was doused in disgust, disappointment and desolation.
~~
"Xantris, you disgrace our spider deity of tricks, Anansi. I had a good friend once, Zanzi. He was very tall and dark skinned with bun dreadlocks. Zanzi was quite the trickster and joker, always pranking others and making us laugh in the name of good as though he was Sanka's living descendant. He would always bribe and sell us stories, and we, being the fools we were, would buy them because his stories never failed to be comedic and awe inspiring."
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Finding Contentus
FantasyWhat does it mean to Find Content? This is the question that Genesia, for "New Beginnings" and Neosa, for "One Sanctuary", seek to answer. As identical twins, and as survivors of their gifted race of supernatural humans known as Racaans. In one da...
