The New Beginning Update (Major)

A long time ago, Terra was called Earth. Some say that Earth was a better place. Others argue that Terra, and its ferocious control, is better off; that the people, the changed beings that now control this dying planet, are better off. The story you will have to discover for yourself; I will not tell you. I will, however, tell you my story; the story of a girl; a slave, a leader, a mother, a sacrifice. I am dying. These words that spill from my lips tumble over each other. To you, the reader, you will find no difference in the even spacing of these words on a page. To me, these are my last remnants on this land. I will not live to see the sun rise today. I will be gone. But you will be here, and so I will live on in you. I am Serpentine, child of Terra. This Is My Story.

Ravenna

It was the day of reckoning. An ironically bright, cheerful day, all things considered. The thin black blindfold they had used during transportation hadn’t been enough to shut out the awful piercing light, so alien compared to the dim awfulness of the dungeons. The courtroom was spacious, heavy oak panelling everywhere. Anyone else would have been intimidated; Ravenna was just bored. She stared out the window behind the judge, acutely aware of the hundreds of glares pointed at her back. It wasn’t her fault she was here, but the council needed someone to blame for her mothers crimes, and here she was- a perfect replica of the woman’s DNA, just as capable of performing the same feats as she did.
“Ravenna Morrigan, you are here before the Council on behalf of your mother, Crowessa Morrigan, who is responsible for the slaughter of clans Argayte, Shayana, Merideine…”
Ravenna let the Judge’s voice trickle into the back of her head. Everyone knew what her mother had done. Why did he have to read them out again? Weird creatures, dwarves; after the Mining law had been passed, they had seemed at a loss for what to do. Crime had hit an all time high. People were scared of going out of their own houses. Then everything had settled. Dwarves took up jobs in society. They completed tasks by running through every step, no matter how skilled they were in the task. Indeed, with a single minded determination. This one was no different.
“Other crimes include trespassing on the Holy Grounds with blood on her hands, and committing the sin of dimension-jumping, which is punishable by death!”
The crowd behind Ravenna murmured. There hadn’t been a death sentence in several centuries.
The dwarf opened his mouth to speak again when the door to the court room burst open and a harried looking elf rushed in. He ran straight for the ruling Council, oblivious to the guards who stepped forward, weapons raised.
He leant against the desk, and murmured a hasty sentence at the Judge, whose pudgy face drained of colour until he resembled an uncooked dumpling. He glanced at Ravenna, his eyes taking in her hardened features and torn clothes. Ravenna bared her teeth, and had the lazy pleasure of seeing him shudder, for, unlike her siblings, this badass elf took after mother in looks, a fact he was just about to realise.
Another ripple slipped through the crowds
“Remove the prisoner,” This new speaker was another elf, the only female on the council, “There is no more need for its presence.”
‘Its?’ ‘Its?’ A snarl ripped through Ravenna’s teeth. This arrogant creature was talking about her! She was not ‘it!’ She was Ravenna Morrigan, daughter of the most fearsome warrior of all time! She would not be trifled with!
Wrenching at the chains, Ravenna leapt towards the elf, taking everybody by surprise. Up until now, she had kept her feelings under control.
To give the guards credit, they were fast, but they were nothing to her.

Snake

“Bitch!”
“You can talk! How Dare you!”
“Darren was mine!”
“Mine? Nothing is yours you idiotic cow!”
Snake’s mouth twitched as she struggled to contain a smirk. It had taken no more than a whisper to set these two off. That had to be a record.
Under the pretence of examining a dinner roll for flaws, she looked up at the slave master, Matrius, who was seated at the raised dais, a clear reminder of who was in charge. His repulsive grey eyes were fixed unblinkingly on the squabbling girls, and his brown hands twitched and jerked over his plate, as if itching to clasp the whip holstered on his belt. He glanced quickly across the room to where Snake was seated. She dropped the gaze to the floor. Slaves weren’t allowed to make eye contact. Grinding her teeth in a useless attempt to repel the cold anger such reminders provoked, the roll dropped unnoticed to the floor.
A wave of movement from the head table signalled the end of the fight in the form of handlers closing in. Snake handed her tray to those on kitchen duty and skipped the line out of the expansive, echoing hall.
A quick jog across the dusty training yard took her to the slave quarters. These were a curious affair, with every slave’s personal quarters a cage built into the wall, barely large enough to lie down straight, and their meagre personal belongings stored in a single drawer above their heads. The cages opened into a large hall that looked a little like a house with the inner walls removed. It was comfortable enough; the floors were carpeted and the equipment was in good working order. But, like the metal bands around their wrists and neck, the fact that everybody there was a slave, a toy of whoever could afford to be their master, was never far from thought. At this moment, the hall was nearly empty, as most of the slaves were still back watching the unexpected and rather unorthodox evening entertainment. Only the few who had lost dinner rights in punishment or those who thought themselves ‘above’ eating with the rest, were still lingering. Snake’s lip curled at the thought- they would regret it in the morning, along with ‘Darren’ and his girls. ‘All for one and one for all’ was our warped training masters’ favourite punishment method.

“Snake, back so soon? You must have swallowed whole.”
Snake turned slowly. Behind her, Wolf, one of several male slaves who hadn’t yet been sold, lounged in the doorframe, arms folded as if he owned the room. His watchful gold eyes were on her.
“Well, you know what they say…’ she began, “Snake teeth are for striking.” Flashing her own in a grin, Snake watched his face, adamant to catch a reaction in his careful expressions. All slaves learnt soon enough to adopt a ‘poker face;’ Wolf’s was better than all but Snake’s own. It had become a game between the two, whose was the best.
“Striking indeed,” Wolf murmured quietly.
The end off his sentence was accompanied by a muted thud; the sound of something incredibly heavy falling a distance away. The sky able to be seen out the doorway shivered, an unidentifiable ripple shuddering across the surface. There was a moment of silence, where motion hung suspended. The air was thick with a suffocating feeling; an unseen pressure tugged at the bodies in the room, before everything relaxed. A lazy summer breeze floated its way past Wolf, toying with the hair hanging loose at Snake’s waist. The other slaves continued on as if nothing had happened; conversations picking up from crazy places where they had dropped. The only other person who seemed to have noticed the change was Wolf in front of her. There was now an affected casual stance in place of his relaxed easygoing, but a terrifying hardness to his face that had not been there before. The skin around his mouth was pulled tight, and his bronze skin seemed to suck in the surrounding light, turning it into something else. His eyes were still on her face, but now they were searching for something unknown. An odd expression flitted across his features, gone in the instant it came, and he smiled; a false, uneasy smile. His eyes flashed in triumph.
“What’s wrong, serpentine girl? You look at odds with yourself.” His voice was wrong. The normal soft tones had taken on a harsher quality, as if there was another voice hiding inside him, and they were both speaking at the same time.
Snake blinked, the skin on the back of her neck suddenly crawling. She was trembling like a bird as the hunters drew in. A deep sense of unease was tying a complex knot under her ribcage. Snake smoothed her shaking hands down the sides of the long blue dress she wore as an unsellable slave, hiding them under her sash. She smiled up at Wolf, who was eyeing her with concern. The strange light to his skin, and the power on his face was gone.
“Nothing more than the damn heat on a summer’s night,” she drawled lazily. Wolf matched his grin to her own, and then glanced out the door before ducking in behind her.
“If I were you,” he murmured so quietly she almost missed it, “I would stay inside tonight,”
Snake stiffened. She hadn’t imagined it. Something wasn’t right. Automatically, she turned towards the door. Wolf grabbed her arm in alarm, but she stared out into the deep purple light, her mind running into overdrive as connections were formed and broken in her thoughts. She turned back to Wolf, and glared into his face, all smiles gone.
“What’s going on?”
It came out more hostile than she intended, and Wolf smirked down at her.
“How would I know?” he asked, “I just use my senses,” leaning closer to her, he murmured, “and you should too, little Snake. Be careful what you poke your tongue into.” With that, he turned deeper into the room and walked off, leaving Snake silhouetted against the darkness, seething and confused.

Falling; hurtling towards the ground. A shriek of glory clawed its way across the darkened landscape. Animals sounded their distress; little children woke crying and gasping into their sheets. A shadow began to take form on the furrowed hillside, growing larger and larger. Nearby dogs began to howl. A horse somewhere kicked at its stall,

A horse somewhere kicked at its stall, screaming in distress. Snake woke with a start. Around her, confused questions from the other girls filtered in through the cacophony of noise coming through the open door. The nearby stables, and beyond that the kennels, were vibrating with noise. The room was lit with an ice blue glow from the open door. Leaping out of bed, Snake ran towards the door, only to be stopped in her tracks at the sight that beheld her.
The sky was alive. Pitch black clouds were lined by the same brilliant blue that filled the room. It was writhing, twisting, bubbling, churning, yet the air was dead; flashes overhead revealed eruptions in the clouds, sending light raining upon the city below. On the other side of the courtyard, a blue wisp floated down to alit on the roof of the stables.
They began to burn. Flames licked their way over the wooden beams, green in the light from above. The shrieks inside took on a desperate note, accompanied by steady thumps as the terrified beats tried to fight their way free.
Snake didn’t give it a thought. She was halfway across when a great boom rattled the landscape, and the air around her rippled and shrieked. A man began to shout behind her; Snake turned automatically. Wolf stood in the doorway, his features terrible and frightening in the alien light. His lips were moving. Down, they said; get down. Blind fear slammed into her mind.
Snake tried to run. The very air had turned to treacle. Pure heat screamed into her. Wolf’s face was blocked by an awful white light. A burning smell crackled in her nose. . Pain coursed down her spine.

The world went black.

Ravenna

Pain; lots of pain; Ravenna came too in a filthy cell… again. She smiled grimly, cracking the bloody mask that had dried on her face. A rat sniffed at her foot, and she kicked it away, slamming it into the opposite wall, a familiar hot fire spreading up her leg. Ravenna barked a laugh into the mouldy straw, and pulled herself upright.
A knot on the back of her head throbbed dully. That must have been the blow that gave them the advantage. She worked her way down, tallying up her injuries, reliving the fight.
It. Was. Beautiful;
A ripped ear coupled with a pair of stunning black eyes; dislocated fingers and shoulder from throwing a guard out the window; there was a hand shaped bruise on her chest, and a boot imprinted across her lower back. Three parallel scratches across her stomach were going to scar beautifully; broken ribs, a fractured foot, and other assorted cuts and bruises.
Morrigan would have been proud.

The rat she had kicked squeaked quietly in distress. Ravenna picked it up; she had shattered one of those oh-so-fragile ribs. The creature would be dead soon. It was a fine rat, well proportioned, but most importantly black. Ravenna sighed. A bird would have been preferable, but a rat would do.

The guard posted outside felt, rather than saw, the flash. His iron-shod shoes thundered down the stairs, rattling the crude bars that framed each wall. If the prisoner was gone-
She was there. The elf girl was facedown in the straw, her face hidden; sleeping, probably. Cursing, the dwarf spat towards a rat that had skittered out of the cell to see what the noise was about. The vermin glared at him in a ratty way, and bounded into the blackness.

Ravenna passed through every cell, searching. The malcontents she saw through sharp rat eyes were mostly dead or close to dying. Wails and shrieks echoed in every hallway.
The halls she skittered across were mostly empty of guards, who preferred to stand outside in the cleaner air. There was nothing down in these dungeons that could threaten their control… except her of course. Ravenna stopped dead, claws scratching at the concrete floor. She had reached the end of the labyrinth. The black iron seemed to seep all light from the surrounding air. A sense of dread began to form, an almost physical blackness around her mind. She knew with awful certainty that the end of her search lay behind the door.

Snake

Snake blinked blearily and glanced around her. What she could sort out of the blackness wasn’t much; she was inside a hospital; her head pounded in time to the heart monitor. The room jumped a few times, before settling, letting Snake view her blurry reality. There was no mistaking the foul, burning antiseptic stench, or the rustles of nurses outside the room. Her room was a plain, stinging white, without even a window to break the monotony. Padded Velcro wristbands secured her body to the bed in the place of her technologically advanced metal bands, but a ring of ice around her throat signified that it wasn’t all gone. It felt like a slug had taken residence inside her mouth.
Snake groaned, sinking back against the scratchy pillows. Every part of her ached... tentatively flexing her fingers caused iron needles of pain to shoot their way through her body. She winced. Lying still would do for now.

She let her lead filled eyelids sink shut. On their backs, blue fire still rippled through the blackness. The echoes of terrified screams sang in her ears. The room flew into focus again. So, sleeping wasn’t an option.

Gingerly, she turned her head to look at the heart monitor that was beeping away beside her. Snake could have been wrong, but the date was three days past what she thought it should be. Three days? A lot could have happened in that space of time. Her blue robe was draped over the end of the bed, so at the very least she hadn’t been sold.

The door opened a crack, enough to let the head of a wide-eyed nurse through. The other girl stared at Snake like she was the animal she was named after. Snake looked back dully. The head disappeared, and a clear, high pitched voice could be heard,
“She’s awake, sir,”
Footsteps could be heard.
“Let me pass.”

Ravenna

It had taken every ounce of will Ravenna had over the rat to force it through the door. If the creature had not been weakened by its play with death, she might not have been able to do it from that far off. But she had, and looking back she almost regretted the decision.
Bodies, hundreds of rotting, stinking bodies, had been thrown carelessly into piles around the room. At the far end of the immense hall there had been a dull glow, and a monotonous growling as the huge fires fed on the carcasses of the deceased prisoners. The walls were stained, with blood, soot and assorted excrements that even her rat body cringed from. The floor Ravenna assumed had once been marble, to go with the pillars and walls, was now covered by a mat of brown filth. Now and again there was movement among the corpses, as the tiny slaves bred for this one purpose pulled away another body, to strip it of clothing and valuables, and then throw it on the fire to burn out of existence. Among these agonised faces lay the one Ravenna hoped, yet dreaded to find. Hopefully, the men had recognised her importance. If they had, Ravenna assumed that she would have been taken close to the fires, where there were more watchful eyes to guard the broken and empty body.
The rat took off, skittering over the mountains of dead. The lifeless souls glinted in its dark eyes, and several of the pitiful slaves watched it go by, as silent as those they worked over.
It seemed as if the hall would never end. After a while the dead faces had blurred into nothing; Elves, dwarves, sprites, even the occasional centaur; every one the same. Each body was just another unnamed wreck, lost under the sea of death that festered under the cold, brutal halls of the Council. They would pay for this.