Alyssa, Sister of Night

"You had to feel the force earlier in the mount right?", said the older man behind the bar.

"Anyone like us could have felt it on this island.", said a woman dressed in knight's armor with a sword at her side.

"Whatever it is has a target on its head.", said the man while counting the coins in the wooden barrel, which was on the counter, "Are you done for the night Alyssa?".

"You know I start at the real night?", she said as she took a sip from her wood goblet.

"Hunting at midnight is not safe.", he pauses hoping Alyssa would respond, "You're out, would you like another?", he asked.

She looks up and sternly says, "I will not get drunk in this place again! And I am fine, strong because of this sword. There are no other viable jobs for women.", She says as she starts to look back at the men who fell asleep whilst drinking. Her sword was made of silver and shaped like a katana.

The clock strikes midnight and the church bells ring as the drunk men are scared awake and Alyssa turns back to the older man.

"Let me just clean and pack up.", said the older man as he finished categorizing the coins.

He went in the back and put all of the wooden goblets and plates into the sink to be washed. He looks through the back entrance's blinds then goes back to the dining area. Alyssa is at the front door pushing out all of the stumbling drunks. As one of them yells, "You. . . You can't pu. . .sh me out, you are not the owner.". Alyssa looks at him and says, "Yeah but I got more power then you.".

The older man rushes out and yells, "All of you out!". Then he ran over to the front window and flipped the open sign to close. Alyssa and the man look at each other and nod their heads simultaneously. "Are you sure about this one?", the man asked while his hand was touching the front door knob. Alyssa looks down at her feet and responds, "I know you are worried about this one but we'll be fine.". The man looks up at the roof, sighs, then asks, "What are we looking for?". Alyssa pulls out a partially ripped and folded piece of parchment, then points to the image in the middle. "That's what we are looking for: a stereotypical witch looking lady or a large raven.", she looks at the distressed face of the man and then continues to speak. "I know that frightens you but we have to.". "But if we run into a witch what'll she do, cook us alive, eat us, or burn us?", says the man. "You're overreacting, we'll be fine.".

Both of them walk outside with the man going first walk out into the night. Within one glance at the full moon the man's face started to break, morph, and elongate. Fangs grew from his canines, his back morphing with a cracking noise, and he bowled with pain until he was truly a wolf again. Alyssa hops onto his back and they ride west into the western forest. When they reach the edge the trees speak through the midnight breeze. The man now wolf starts to growl as they approach, Alyssa calmingly starts to pat his side. The now wolf's eyes glow orange in the now dark forest. Alyssa's eyes turn to a magenta, as they slowly seep into the forest. Their eyes reach a small cottage in the distance with smoke flowing out of the chimney. Whimpering starts from the wolf, as they begin to get closer, as they creep towards the cottage a branch snaps underneath the wolf's foot, and the sound of a moving bird whips by them. The bird lands upon the cottage. Alyssa hops off the wolf, slides her sword out of her sheath and stabs it into the ground. The sword is black, made out of dragon skin instead of steel and has glowing red writing carved into the blade. "Stay.", Alyssa demands whilst pointing to the dirt in front of the wolf. She walks up to the cottage anxious trying to strike a deal with the witch. When she approaches the door the large bird is stalking her every move, when she comes face to face with a human skull, she jumps back, realizing that the skull is a door knocker. She grabs it, swings it, to knock, watches the skull shatter as it touches the door, and a crackle comes from inside. The door opens and a gray haired, hunched over, elderly woman opens the door. The witch crackles again saying, "Hmmm a visitor.", as she looks back into the cottage and continues, "Don't worry, don't worry I have plenty of those things. Would you like to come inside?". Alyssa looks back at the wolf as he sits silently, with a mask of despair on, and she replies, "I just have to ask you one thing", as she pauses and looks up at the large bird, "Is that your Manananggal?". The witch looks up at the bird and then over the shoulder of Alyssa and replies, "Manananggal are not controlled", the witch pauses allowing Alyssa to give off a sign of partial relief, "But I don't share my food with the Manananggal.". The bird quickly detaches itself from its torso tear and partially dragging its bloody torso off the cottage, it springs and takes flight at the wolf. The witches wand whips out immobilizing the wolf as Alyssa screams. The Manananggal tears a bite through the wolf's stomach, but in a flash Alyssa is off the cottage porch holding her sword and piercing it through its chest mounting it to the ground. The witch throws a spell at Alyssa pulling Alyssa to the witch, and at the same time Alyssa drags the screeching Manananggal through the ground mounting it in a spot further away from its torso. A cold and bony hand is felt on Alyssa's neck. Then a dagger is suddenly upon her throat but Alyssa swiftly guts the witch's stomach open with a dragon tooth. Alyssa's feet roughly hit the ground as she stumbles. She then grabs the witch, dragging her into the cottage and entrapping her into the iron furnace without a wand. Alyssa ransacks the combards searching for salt, finds a small barrel full, runs it out to the torso of the Manananggal and spreads it on as it screeches in pain. She then runs over to the body, slices through its throat and spreads more salt on the detached neck.

After a second or two to give off a sigh of relief and runs over to the and drags him cottage as he whippers. Alyssa starts to break down as she holds a soon to be corpse in her arms. The wolf morphes harshly back into a human as he howls in pain, but then fully human begins to relax. The man begins to speak in a harsh whisper, while spitting up some blood, "Joshua.". Alyssa puts her head closer whilst wiping blood from his face, "What?", she asks quietly. He slowly tilts his head up so they are face to face, "My name, Joshua. All these years and I've never told you. I am sorry.", he says as his eyes start to tear. Alyssa moves her eyes up, then back down at Joshua and says, "No I am sorry for what happened to your family sixteen years ago.", as they both start to quietly weep, but then Joshua's eyes start to slowly close. Alyssa lays down the now corpse.

Dragging the Manananggal head further into the dark forest. Alyssa for the first time since midnight gets some peace and quiet while in the forest. She hears a stream to the right of her and she moves forwards, as she gets closer the moonlight shines off the cool stream. Once at the stream she sets down the Manananggal head upon the soft grass, she feels comfort as a butterfly with white wings gently rests on her hand. She puts her hands into the stream fetching for anything to eat when a frog leaps from the stream and in the air catches itself on a dagger through its side. Blood sprays and softly hits the butterfly, its wings now tainted. Alyssa slices off its head, throws it back in the stream and as it drifts away, she tears through the frog, just leaving bones. She turns back to the Manananggal's head as it tries to slowly crawl away using its sharp, large tongue. She purposefully walks over and stabs her sword through the tongue and the beast lets out a squeal. She rubs salt on the ends of the tongue that have been detached, then throws the detached part of the tongue by the stream. She picks up the head and finishes her walk through the forest which ends at a cave. The cave is carved into a side of a mountain, filled with darkness, Alyssa creeped in with the bloody Manananggal being dragged across the rugged rock. The carved caves move far back into the mountain and shadows dance on the back wall. Voices squawk across the walls echoing through the cave.

As Alyssa is about to turn left to where the shadows seem to be coming from, a shadowy figure drops from the roof of the cave, Alyssa jumps back dropping the Manananggal at her feet and shouts out, "The sword is the path to the light!". The figure that dropped from the roof stood up, turned around, dragged Manananggal further into the cave, and said, "Come in.". Alyssa follows the figure deeper into the cave and as she walks out of this deep tunnel, she is blinded by the fire in the middle. A group of women dressed in black and gray coats stand around the fire. "You're late.", said a woman sitting on a stone throne with one skull, which both have long canine teeth, on each arm. Alyssa walks up to the throne and looks at the person sitting in the throne, "I am done unless we start doing more for the common people!", yells Alyssa at the person sitting on the throne. The person sits up and as she does you can see she has short black hair, red eyes, is around six feet tall, with pointy ears and is unusually thin. Then the person stands up and stares with a look that gives out despair and anger to the whole room then says, "Do you know who I am?". Alyssa looks down at the floor in fear, "You are Zala the Queen Monster Hunter.". Zala then smirks, "And who am I to you?". Alyssa looks up into the smiling face of Zala, "You are my boss.". Zala then puts her finger under Alyssa's chin and pulls her up, "Then follow me.", Zala said sternly. Then Zala pushes her throne to the side and as the rough stone scratches across the ground, a dark underground staircase emerges. Zala stepped down into the dark stairs, all the way down the stairs there was a man behind rusted bars with a woman standing guard.

"Do you know who that is?"asked Zala as she pointed to the man.

"No. . . no I don't.", replied Alyssa as she walked close to the bars. The room was dark but a torch flickered and showed slight light on the man's face. He had black hair and dark skin, and his eyes were purple. Alyssa's eyes shot open, "He is one of the generals. He is part of the H.E.F.T.". Zala lowered her arm and looked at the torch, "Yes, he is Kai. He is the man from hell, part demon, part dragon, and part human.". Alyssa looks back at Zala, "But how? How did you capture him? How is he part demon?". Zala started walking closer to the rusted bars and spoke, "He grinded one of the shards of the power orb into dust and drank it. He drank the demon orb.". He tried to stand up but his chains starched against the floor and pulled him back down, "Did you smell that Zala? There is another Osmund in the country.".

"No there can't be, I thought they were all killed off in the raid of Port City.", Zala started walking up the stairs, "I have a task for you Alyssa, after this one you can quit, if your half human blood really wants to help its people. I need you to find that Osmund."

"The Black Knights will be after him soon, and so will I after I break out of here.", said Kai as he started moving around in his chains. His eyes begin to glow brighter.

Zala and Alyssa hurry out of the prison and close the door. Zala begins walking back to her throne room, "Alyssa your last mission is to find Osmund and to give him to the Water Witch in the lagoon."

"I accept this quest.", said Alyssa as she began to walk out of the throne room.

When Alyssa was out of the cave Zala opened the door down to the prison. Zala reached the last step and stopped.

"Why are the Osmunds so important?"

"Because they are dragonborn and because they have the only dragon skin blade."

"So the Black Knights need that blade to complete their collection?"

"The Gold Knights will get to him first.", says Kai.

"Who are the Golden Knights?', asks Alyssa.

"The Sand City royal knights.", says Zala, "Sand City is the capital kingdom of the desert to the south."

A frigid wind whipped by, it blew out Zala's torch. Kai's chains rustled as the room began to glow a dim purple.

"I knew there was a halfling in here.", starts Kai, "I can smell the halfling the one you brought down with you. How much of her blood is tainted?"

"She is no longer with our group and doesn't intend on stopping your plan.", says Zala

"I need her out!", snaps Kai.

"Ok she is leaving now.", starts Zala, "Alyssa you can find your way to Sand City and save the Osmund boy."

Alyssa leaves the prison as Zala and Kai talk about the elven and H.E.T.F alliance.