Chapter I - The White Rose

BANG!!

chk chk!

"This will be the end of you, White Rose."

Chk!

The sound of a gun reloading echoes briefly against the cliffs, in a yawning canyon for those unfortunate to fall into the dark waters of the river below.

The sound of a sharp blade lightly whistles in the air as it is drawn out of its sheath. The moonlight bounces off the gleaming silver metal, softly illuminating the face of its wielder.

While the identity of the mysterious White Rose was concealed behind a well-crafted and designed fox mask, cold hardened pale turquoise eyes gleam with flecks of gold, framed by long strands of snow-white hair, flowingly blowing in the light breeze. A white floof of a tail flicks, agitated.

Whilst bearing a worn and battered white dress shirt, a plaid school skirt, and dark knee-high stockings, the female points her blade menacingly at her opponent.

"I will not fall by the likes of you, not today, not tomorrow, not anybody."

The masked man's grip on his weapon wavers for just a moment, before tightening and aiming the barrel of his gun at her head, backing up onto his ledge.

He sneers, "Not when I am done with you! Little girl! I will show you what happens when you mess with the big guys...this ain't like any of your pretty little quests with petty little monsters...its WAR."

BANG!

The shot was fired.

But instead of her head, it hits into the cliffside right behind, a weak point in the wall of stone.

The blast loosens a small part of the rocks, and the stones shift before collapsing forward, sending up a cloud of dirt and debris.

The thug lowers his gun, squinting to see his target through the haze of dust.

"Heh...no one could've survived that rockslide..."

A shadow passes over him, blocking the moonlight from his vision.

"...eh?"

The fox-masked female brings down her hilt to the man's head. He crumples instantly and falls to the ground, knocked out cold.

The girl huffs, sheathing her blade, "Amateur."

A slow clapping follows, and a figure emerges from between the trees, a wolfish grin on his face.

The fox-masked female looks taken back for a moment, eyes widening slightly before the figure fully coming into the moonlight. And she looks away, a slight relief in her eyes.

"Alpha."

The male figure smiles kindly, his wolfish features strange to anyone that doesn't know of their kind.

A demi-human.

"The White Rose is blooming with potential...you have done well." He said, his golden eyes filled with pride. "You have gone far since that day I have taken you in, this mentor is no longer needed."

His ruffled ash-brown hair blows slightly in the breeze...

"...Alpha is too kind. I still have much to learn" said The White Rose.

"That is true. But it is time for you to go on your own learning path no?" He responded, "Everyone learns differently, you can forge your own road into the future...with or without my guidance now."

The fox-masked female's ears twitch, but did not look into his eyes, she stares at the night sky, her mask obscuring her expression.

"....."

Nothing but the whisper of the wind and the soft rustling of leaves in the breeze can be heard, the pensive silence stretches on, a strange peacefulness in the quiet night.

"Only time will tell."

She turns to him, a hand resting on the hilt of her blade.

"I, the White Rose of the White Fang, will carry my duty till my death."

The figure walks over to the body of the now unconscious thug, bending down onto one knee to examine his face.

He swipes off the thug's mask, eyes cold as his gaze sweeps over his body.

"Theo was never good with one on one battles by himself", he closes his eyes with a sigh, before throwing the thug's body over his shoulder with ease.

He looks back once at her, "It was never your duty my little raven, but your sense of justice and compassion", he smiles, "Your future is yours to shape, but no matter what, don't ever forget."

His words stop there, leaving an unspoken question hanging in the air.

'Forget...but forget what?"

He walks off into the trees, his form fading under the darkness of the forest, not to be seen afterward once again, little to our knowledge.

...

"...Don't forget..."

The White Rose whispers to herself, "The Blue Song."

She blinks, confusion momentarily clouding her eyes. She shakes her head, running a hand through her silk-like hair once, blinks twice, then looks back at the stars again.

She laughs softly to herself, "Life isn't fair, so you just play fate's game, until the stars themselves rewrite your destiny..."

She looks to her hand resting on the hilt of her blade, "...but only you can decide the path you take...no matter how easy...how rough...with each closed door, opens another...only you...in the end, can change your fate."

...

"...There may be truth to those words...but, until then. My fate is still to be seen, like many"

"CA-CAW!"

A cry rings out into the silent evening, and a small rain of white feathers fall softly onto her, as a blur of white crosses the corner of her vision.

When she looked, a faraway shadow of a winged creature flies away, the moonlight seemly to catch onto its feathers as it becomes a blur in the sky, mixing in with the stars.

She then notices a black cylinder on the ground next to her, scooping it up she pops it open and pulls out a rolled message.

Quickly skimming it, the lower quarter of her face that was visible, twitches slightly, the corner of her mouth dips just a little, a small frown.

An unseen object falls from the opened cylinder in her hand, clattering onto the rough ground with a clang of metal, drawing her attention to the disc-like shape of the slick black design of the object.

She kneels, taking the disc into her hand, a small blue light in the middle glows softly in the dark.

"So the mission had begun."

She looks right at the full-moon, cold determination filling her eyes.

"The last enemy to defeat, to fulfill my duty...."

...

"...and complete my vengeance."