1 Facing Fate

Olivia was a prostitute. It was just how she made her money. Sex was her life. Her love. Her everything. The cunning Vixen would often drug men she had sex with and steal all their money. She never liked birth control, and it showed.

She had over 24 abortions. Each and every baby, she showed zero remorse for killing. They were simply less than human in her eyes. However, one day, after having sex with a mysterious man and trying to get an abortion, it didn't work. Abortions, pills, she even tried to stab herself in the stomach to kill the baby, but nothing worked.

When the baby was born, she tried to kill the boy several times. He'd often scream obscenity at her own son while beating him, bruising the boy's dark brown skin. Still, the boy clutched his innocence. He still wanted the validation of his mother, but never got it. Every attempt was either met with a verbal barrage or several and painful beatings. She didn't even bother to name her own son. His birth certificate was blank where his name was supposed to be. Because that's what she thought about the little boy. A blank. A nobody.

Olivia's hatred grew with each passing month as the older the boy got.

Olivia had met a man one day. An up-and-coming rapper who she had a great time with. By her definition, "the best sex she ever had." It was so good, that she used the baby in her womb to trap the rapper into marrying her and birthed their daughter, Lulu.

After coming home drunk one night and losing a record deal because of a scandal, he tried to beat the young boy to death.

WHACK! THUD! CRASH!

These noises echoed through the house and woke the sleeping Lulu up in her room. The husband threw the boy into a draw, fracturing the boy's skull and spilling the utensils all over the ground. The husband charged for the boy. Out of fear and instinct, the boy gripped one of the dropped kitchen knives and stabbed the man in the liver, making him from to the ground with a loud thud.

Yoshi tried to run away. He tried to get his little sister and escape out of that place. But it was too late. Olivia had seen her husband's dead body. In a frenzy, she snapped at her already battered and broken son. She grabbed one of the knives and slit his mouth. The boy tried to cry in pain, but Olivia covered his mouth and stabbed him in the ribs again and again and again. All with a sadistic smile on her face.

She threw her son into a table he held onto his bleeding mouth and rib wounds. However, the boy had hit a table with candles on it. Two candles flew at Olivia. One hit her dress, and the other one, her hair. Olivia was engulfed in flames, and her screams only got more and more intense.

Another one of the candles slid by the boy's face, burning half of his cheek and half of his mouth. He noticed the whole room was getting engulfed in flames. It was hot. Really hot. Excruciatingly hot. So hot, Yoshi was about to accept the sweet release of death. But then, he heard something. Crying. A baby's cry.

Lulu was still in the house and the flames were advancing towards her room. The 6-year-old boy was far too young for all this, but life doesn't wait for anyone. However, he refused to let the life of another be snuffed out. Despite losing so much blood that most scientists would already consider him dead, he fought. He cringed on to life. He crawled his way towards Lulu's room. Every second, every millisecond, he thought he would faint. Though maybe he should just give up. But he couldn't. Not now, not yet, not ever.

He made it to Lulu's room, and thankfully the door was open. When he had gotten there, he used all his strength to get up. As he reached out for Lulu, he heard a crackling sound above him. It was the ceiling. Before Yoshi could react, the debris from the ceiling had come down on Lulu, killing the baby instantly.

The boy, falling to his knees, covered in the blood and guts of his little sister could do nothing but cry as the flames started to surround him. "Why God?!" the boy cried out. And finally, the boy collapsed.

But it wasn't the end. No. It wasn't even the beginning.

The next day, the boy woke up on a bed. "I-Is this heaven?" He said while grasping his head. He also noticed all his wounds were covered in bandages, though, he could still feel the pain in his face.

"Oh good. You're awake." said the voice of a man. The boy looked over and saw a man who looked to be in his 30s or so. He was wearing a nice suit and had jet-black hair. His eyes were a color of yellow the boy didn't even know. Though, it closely resembled gold. But what was more confusing was what was behind him.

It wasn't human, necessary. It was an anthropomorphic dragon woman. She was approximately 28 feet tall, sitting in the corner of the room. Her blue and white scales complimented her gorgeous figure and her purple dress. The boy had never seen something like this before.

The man tried to bring the boy's attention back to him. "Hey, bud. Are you feeling ok?" the man asked in a gentle tone.

"W-Who are you?" the boy asked, confused at everything that was happening.

"Oh, how rude of me. I forgot to introduce us." My name is Dylan. That is my wife, Willow. Don't let her intimate you though."

Willow crawled over to us on all fours, since she was too big to stand up in the room. "Dylan, honey, you know we can't take this one."

"Just give me a minute, sweetie. You won't regret it." Dylan responded to his wife.

This was all alien to the boy. He'd never seen a husband and wife treat each other like people before. Respect was always something void in marriage to him.

"What's your name?" Dylan asked. But the boy didn't respond. There was an awkward silence for a moment. "Right. In the house fire, I found your birth certificate. It was half charred, but I saw that you didn't have a name on your certificate.

"You were there?" the boy asked.

Dylan nodded. "Yes, I was. I got there soon after you fainted. I was there to spectate some Satanist activities, but they had already died.

The dragon lady had whipped her husband over the head with her tail. "Honey!" She yelled quietly.

"Oh... my bad. Well, the cat's out of the bag now." Dylan sat on my bed. "Here's the news. I have no idea what you went through in your past life. But I do know that your past life is over." Dylan grabbed a face mask to cover up the boy's slit and burnt face. "I'm offering you a second chance at life. A life you could have only dreamed of before. But I must warn you, this life will not be easy. You'll see and hear things that will make you wish you were dead. You'll face struggles and hardships you never faced before. However, the alternative is that we throw you onto the streets and let God decide what to do with you. Though, I doubt the streets are the safest place for a 6-year-old boy."

The boy had to ponder the words of what the man was saying. The boy responded, "I don't know what I'm getting into, but you saved my life. As long as I can help others too, I'm in."

Willow smiled. "He reminds me of an old friend. Maybe you were right, honey. But I have a question. What are we going to call him? Calling him 'blank' just seems stupid."

Dylan hopped on his wife's lap. "Why don't you name him? I named Melo after all."

Willow thinks for a second. "Yoshi."

"Yoshi?" both men said in confusion. Then, as if a light bulb went off in Dylan's head, he knew.

"Wait, honey, are you sure?" Dylan asked concerningly.

Willow hugged her much small husband close to her and kissed him on the forehead. "Yes, I'm sure."

"Alright. Yoshi it is, I guess."