Luka sat still on the shoreline; his pale-blue eyes unmoving as he stared at the blue pond before him with a makeshift fishing pole in hand. The sun comfortably shone overhead, glistening the water's surface quite nicely. From one end of the oval-shapes pond was a small but fast-running tributary, which continued on through another stream that exited on the other side of the small reservoir he was fishing from.

The pressure was on as behind him were two awaiting and hungry Monsters standing beside a pre-prepared firepit, the two of them having been watching him for over a quarter hour by this point. Time most certainly was of the essence, as soon the Monsters's unsatisfied appetites may cause them to become cranky.

Despite the fact that he had a quickly narrowing time crunch before Alice and Lime became irritable from their hunger, Luka did not allow himself to become nervous. The young boy had found in the past that he had more success if he remained calm and kept his patience. So, Luka kept the small smile on his face as he kept a finger on the line, watching as a pair of dragonflies chased each other across the pond's surface.

Then, a breakthrough occurred.

Twitch, Twitch, Twitch

"Ha-Ha!" Luka laughed as he yanked on the pole, having felt the string being pulled taut. The two Monsters snapped to attention as the purple-haired boy heaved a large salmon from the water before him! The fish flailed through the air and onto the shore, nearly crashing into the boy as it did. A large cloud of dirt was kicked up from the scuffle, lowering visibility all around the shore.

With a grunt, he leaped upon the flopping creature, pinning it to the ground. "O-Okay, here we go!" Luka grabbed a small rock and quickly smacked the fish on the head, behind its eyes. The salmon quickly fell still, having been stunned by the sudden impact.

"Huh, so that's how Humans fish..." Alice muttered, watching the boy drag the fish back to the shoreline to bleed it out. "...Seems uncivilized."

Lime, bouncing in place, exclaimed, "I know, I could've caught, like, five or six of those by now!" The smiling Slime continued to happily bounce in place, not noticing Alice slowly turning her face towards the smaller Monster. The look on the Lamia's face was that of disbelief.

"Well... why didn't you?" Alice asked. Lime's bouncing began to slow as her smile disappeared and contorted into a confused frown. "Ah, uh, I don't know." Alice put a hand up to her face in response to the Slime's uncertain answer, rubbing her currently throbbing temples in an attempt to starve off her growing headache.

Luka, meanwhile, briskly walked over to the firepit beside the Monsters and kneeled down to the wood. Alice peered at the boy, noticing some confliction on his face as he moved to start positioning the firewood.

Alice watched with mild annoyance as Lime started up her bouncing once again, bobbing over to the purple-haired boy. She wore a mischievous smile on her face, intending to take advantage of the situation to satiate her boredom. After all, even if this dinner was to make up for his unwillingness to her advances, Lime still figured that she could get a rise out of him.

'A little teasing never hurt anyone, just a show to go with the meal.' The blue Slime thought with a mischievous grin.

Luka, noticing Lime's approach, gave a brief smile to her before getting back to setting the wood. Lime folded her hands behind her back, purposely puffing out her chest while standing over the unsuspecting boy. Lime's green eyes scanned over the boy's handiwork, "You're pretty good at this, aren't you?"

Alice, having herself been distracted by observing the boy silently work, tuned back into the conversation.

Luka shrugged, "I suppose so, I learned most of this by just watching my Father when I was young. Though I feel as though I don't have quite as steady a hand." It was an innocent enough statement, though easy for the lewd Monster to turn on its head.

Lime giggled, leaning over deeply in a generous showing off her above-average bust, attempting to catch him off guard. "Ohhh, I'd disagree. You seem to be very good at handling your wood." The blue Slime winked a green eye, oblivious to the look of intense disappointment pointed towards her, courtesy of the current Monster Lord standing nearby.

The purple-haired boy continued on unfazed, not catching the double meaning. "I suppose so, though I don't have much experience. I figure my technique could use some work." Lime blinked slowly, not quite sure what to think about her misfire. Luka quickly stood up, dusting off his hands before heading back to retrieve his salmon.

'Huh,' Alice thought as the boy marched back with the fish in hand. 'Is he really just that clueless? One would think that a Hero would be more well-versed in such things, so they could at the very least recognize when a Monster is interested in mating.'

Luka then carefully placed the now deceased fish across a tree stump, now ready to begin preparing the fish. Luka pulled out a small knife from his bag, holding the item tightly in his left hand. Luka trembled slightly, a slight hesitance in his eyes as he stood there. Alice noted his distress with a bit of curiosity but said nothing as he began cutting off the head, tail, and fins of the fish as Lime rounded to his side with determination in her green eyes.

Luka began running the knife across the skin of the fish, cutting off the scales. Soon enough, he started to cut open the fish at the stomach.

Alice raised a hand to her chin, trying to figure out the boy in front of her. Since meeting him, he seemed like a walking contradiction. Despite his somewhat meek demeanor, he was making the effort to do this despite the fact that he was obviously not entirely comfortable with it.

The boy started to remove the fish bones, something Lime took particular notice of. "You knooow..." The blue Slime inched closer, "...I love a good boning myself." Luka, not missing a beat, replied in earnest, "Really? I guess boning is fun, but I prefer the actual cooking over preparing the meat. Seasoning is a very close second."

Lime's very body seems to collapse, all energy evaporating from her at the second unintended deflection. Luka glanced up from the fish as he heard an actual laugh come from the otherwise silent Alice. It was a surprisingly charming noise, and Luka couldn't help but smile at the sight.

'Strange, she was so hostile at first, but now she's actually very pleasant...' Luka tilted his head, '...Perhaps she really was just that hungry? I mean, I get somewhat onery when I haven't eaten, too.'

Luka glanced back at Lime, who was now sulking as she crawled away to the other side of the firepit. 'Even Lime seems different than when we first met. She's less aggressive than before, though I do wish she bounced less. It's so lewd.' Luka, now finished preparing the salmon filets, went to start the fire so that he could finally cook their meal.

He glanced upwards, noticing that the sun was slowly falling closer to the horizon. '...It seems like Alice and I will have to set up camp here, too. Oh well, I don't figure we'd get much farther in our travels anyway.'

Once the flames had risen, Luka started to rummage through his bag to retrieve his seasonings, a determined smile on his face as he made his selection. Alice, in particular, watched closely as the boy started to put the finishing touches on the salmon filets. He hummed happily to himself as he brought the cuts to the wide pan he had already hung over the growing fire. He managed to drop the meat into the pan, a satisfying sizzling erupting from the skillet.

In an instant, Lime jumped back to attention, her eyes glittering with happiness. "Yayyy!~" The Slime somehow bounced with more vigor than ever before, the intensity of her body's movement bringing a fierce blush to Luka's face as he tried not to pay the act any attention as the blue Monster chanted "Fish! Fish! Fish!" to herself.

Thankfully, Alice came to the boy's rescue by asking him a question. "Luka, you said before that you've cooked for most of your life?" The young Hero nodded, "Y-Yes, since I was a very young." Alice nodded slightly, shifting closer to Luka's side of the fire. "Really? Why is it that?"

The purple-haired boy's eyes lost some of their luster, his gaze turning to the flames crackling before him. "I l-learned early so that I could help my M-Mother around the house more. Sh-She..." Luka paused, raising a hand up to his head, gently tugging at his hair. "...Well, th-there wasn't anyone else around to her other than me, s-so I did what I could to make things easier."

The Lamia felt a pang in her chest at his words, thinking back to what she had overheard him saying at his house before he had left. 'He must've been very close to his Mother, from the way he speaks of her.' Alice had an interest to dig deeper into the subject but decided to leave that for later.

Meanwhile, the filets of salmon crackled as the boy quickly flipped them over in the pan. "Pura, Pura!~" Lime exclaimed happily as the fish reached the apex of its cooking time. Soon enough, Luka was able to take out the fish and deposit them onto two awaiting plates.

"Ta-da!" He presented the food with hesitant flare, holding them in outstretched arms. Alice, to her credit, gracefully takes her plate with both hands and moves to recline back on her tail to eat her food. Lime, on the other hand, recklessly grabbed the fish with her bare hands.

The other two watched as the Slime left the plate and utensils behind, opting to instead swallow the entire thing in one bite! Alice turned away from the sight, a sour look on her face as she tried to force the image out of her mind and tend to her own meal. Meanwhile, Luka stood frozen in place, positively aghast at the absolute mauling of the seared salmon.

"Hahaha, wow!" Lime laughed, a look of bliss on her face. "That's the best fish I've ever had!" Luka gave half a grin, the shaky smile being the best reaction he could give under the circumstance. He tried to ignore the sight of the dissolving filet he could see in her translucent skin. "E-Eh, I'm very happy that you enjoyed it, Lime."

Naturally, the blue Slime bounced as she slid to the boy, catching him off guard with a quick hug. "I did, I did, thank you! I'm definitely not hungry anymore! Unless, of course..." Lime released him, a suggestive glint in her eyes. "...You have anything else for me to swallow~"

Luka shook his head, "Not really, I only made the two filets after all. And I'm not sure Alice is willing to share." Lime's face twitched with annoyance, not quite grasping the depths of the purple-haired boy's innocent aloofness. From behind Luka came an aggressive cough courtesy of Alice, who had found a bit too much amusement in watching the energetic slime be rejected for the third time.

"Okay, okay, I get it! Keep your pants on, then!" Lime turned away in a huff, slinking off into the forest.

Mouth slightly open, Luka watched in bewilderment as the Slime quickly left the small campground. "G-Goodbye then, Lime!" Luka called out, giving a small wave to the disappearing Monster. He stood there for a moment, not quite sure if he was technically successful in befriending the Slime.

"My, my, I'll have to give you credit on two fronts, it seems." Luka glanced back to Alice, who seemed to be quite satisfied with the food so far. The boy gave a soft smile at the sight as the Lamia continued. "I had some doubts about your talk of not seeing Monsters as enemies. However, I can now tell that you, at the very least, do truly believe that."

Luka paced over to the fire, watching it crackle and pop wildly. He shrugged, "I do believe it. If I can, I'd like to talk to more Monsters. I want to find some way to find an understanding between our races. I know it could happen!"

Alice shook her head, swallowing another piece of salmon as she did. "It isn't that simple. Not every Monster you find will be as easy to sway as a Slime. Their kind is famous for having minds that are as easy to mold as their bodies, other Monsters will not be as easy to convince."

The Lamia lifted her fork, gesturing to the boy pointedly. "After all, you merely bargained with this Monster so that she wouldn't look to you to feed. Odds are, she will eventually find herself not satisfied with regular food and will start craving a mate."

Her tone turned absolute, "Monsters can only go so long without breeding, its more instinctual for us than it is for Humans." Luka took in the words with great interest, wanting to understand the issue from the perspective of a Monster.

Alice shrugged, cutting one of the last bits of fish from her filet. "The stronger the Monster, the worse the cravings. A very difficult issue, considering the fact that there are much more Monsters than there are Humans. And then you have to consider the fact that stronger Monsters desire more seed. Much more."

Luka grimaced, figuring by himself how much of a problem this really was. 'I didn't realize how complex this would get. Though it makes more sense for why Monsters so frequently ambush traveling Humans.' As awful as it is to think, it wasn't illogical. There was a limited number of eligible Humans to go around, so Monsters took what they could get so that they could reproduce. Which is why many of them used ambush tactics and tricks to obtain a Husband for themselves.

However, rationalizing it in that way made him feel a bit sick.

Alice took note of the pained expression on the boy's face, "I do not mean to overwhelm you, I just want you to know what it is you are up against in your little quest here." She raised her fork up, a piece salmon on her silver utensil. "If it's any consolation, the other credit I must give you is that this may be the most flavorful salmon I've ever eaten in my life."

Luka raised his hand, giving a shaky thumbs up. "Th-Thanks."

He quickly dropped the hand back down, letting out a long sigh. 'That definitely puts things into perspective. I have a lot of work to do if I want to bring peace to this World...' Alice's voice broke him from his thoughts, "Are you not going to be eating yourself?"

The question caused Luka to jolt, a sudden realization hitting him like a wall. 'Did, did I not leave any for myself!?' He thought while placing his hands on his face, groaning in frustration at the blunder. Raking his fingers down his face, he glanced over to Alice with a look of disbelief.

"Eh, it seems as if I forgot to cook some for me..." He stood up, walking over to his backpack to search through it. "...Well, I-I should have some jerky left, at least. Th-That'll hold me over until tomorrow, I think." Alice watched as the boy pulled out the meager remnants of what constituted as the boy's emergency rations. She looked down to the remaining half of her filet, debating to herself.

The Lamia glanced back at Luka, calling to him. "Give me the jerky."

Luka recoiled, having just pulled out the meat. "H-Huh, are you going to eat this, too?" The Monster Lord huffed, "No, I'm making an exchange with you. Give me the jerky, and you take the rest of this." She extended the plate of fish towards him.

His face lightened as it grew a thankful smile, "Thank you, Alice. That's very kind-" Luka's travel companion cut him off by quickly swiping the jerky away and shoving the plate into his temporarily empty hands. "-Do not thank me yet." She said, some annoyance in her voice before snaking away.

"I'm only doing it so that you keep your own strength up. If you keel over from malnourished after the first day, then I'd really would've wasted my time here. That," Alice raised her jerky-holding hand, "And I was really looking forward to finishing that salmon. So, I expect something even better tomorrow as compensation!" The Lamia bit into the jerky haughtily, wishing that she still had the salmon.

If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"I-I appreciate it all the same." Luka replied as he sat cross-legged on the ground to begin his meal. Alice gnawed in the jerky, watching the boy remove his gloves. She took note of the fact that this was the first time that she had seen his actual hands. Like the rest of his body, they were smaller than average and pale. Something that caught her golden eyes was the silver ring that sat on his left hand's pointer finger. Not being familiar with Human customs, Alice asked about the item.

"Why is it that you wear that ring on your finger?" Luka paused in mid-cut of his food, contemplating how to answer her Alice's question. "It was my M-Mother's ring, I wear it now as a way to hold onto h-her memory. Like a keepsake of sorts."

Alice hummed, watching him systematically cut the entire filet into small pieces before even giving himself a single bite. 'Strange. I can feel something odd radiating off of it. I can't quite place what it is, though.' Curiosity left over from earlier came to the front of the Monster's mind again, spurring her to prod further about the boy's history. "How long has she been gone?"

Quickly, almost too quickly, Luka answered. "F-For about four years now. Sh-She, uh..." He stopped, a reluctant look on his face. Telling the Lamia that his Mother had been killed by a Monster would probably cause unwanted tension, something he'd really rather not have happen. "...She meant a lot to me. My Mother raised me for half of my life by herself."

Alice simply nodded, "I see." She took another bite of jerky, contemplating what he had said. 'Funny, I wouldn't have thought we'd have that much in common...' The Monster Lord glanced up to the sky. The sun was due to set in what seemed to be about two hours. "You may as well set up the rest of your camp here. Nightfall is drawing near, and it is unwise for a Human to be out without shelter when the Moon comes out."

Luka hummed, looking up to the evening sky. "Huh, I guess you are right. It is getting late." He began to eat a bit more quickly, not wanting to attempt to set up camp blind.

Not long after he had finished, he started to fix up his tent. It was a small, green-gray thing, only fit for a single person. Rolling it out, he grabbed the various pikes and poles to stand up the tarp. Alice, as to be expected, watched while offering no help with the process. Though, she did add her own commentary. "I'll be honest, I halfway expected you to not have one of those. How exactly did you fit such a thing in that small bag?"

Luka shrugged, "I just did what my Father had shown me. It's been a while, but I remember quite a bit of what he taught me." Unseen by Luka was the darkening of Alice's eyes. "So, you say that your Mother is gone. What of your Father?"

The young slid the small black poles inside of the tarp, avoiding eye contact with the Lamia purposefully. "H-He died when I was just eight. I..." Luka paused, trying to reign in his own emotions. "...I don't know much of what h-happened. The only thing they had found of h-him was the sword I carry now. But since he was t-traveling at night b-by himself..." He trailed off, not completing the explanation.

"He was probably taken by a Monster." Alice finished for him.

Luka flinched, "Y-Yeah, probably." Alice crossed her arms under her chest, "There is no need to censor the truth around me. Being a Monster myself, I am aware of how many befall a similar fate. It is by no means uncommon." She paused, staring off to the side. "If he was traveling at night, he must've been a Hero, right?" She couldn't help the venom that came out when uttering the title. Though, she found herself caught off-guard by the purple-haired boy's answer.

"H-Honestly, I'm not really sure." He lifted the tent up with a grunt, just barely being able to get the poles to line up correctly. "H-He was gone from the house often, usually for weeks. My M-Mother never really told me much of what he did, just that he had to travel for his work. A-And he would never talk to me about what he did for a living. Instead, we'd do stuff like this when he had the time."

Luka crouched onto the ground, lining up a small mallet to the tops of the ground pikes. "I-I always assumed that he had been a Hero, but I couldn't tell you for sure. I had asked my M-Mother about it before, but she just got upset. So I never asked again." The young Hero hit the pike on its head, hammering down the metal with considerable force. It seemed as if the line of questioning was starting to distress him some.

Alice slithered closer, "Well, I'm sorry to hear of your loss." Luka stopped mid-swing, looking to the Lamia with surprise. "Oh, uh, thank you?" He didn't mean to say it as a question, but to hear the Monster actually have some sympathy towards him was unexpected.

Alice picked up on this quickly, "Why are you surprised? Do you think Monsters have no empathy for such things? We have families just the same as Humans, the pain of losing a parent is just the same for us." Her eyes glared at him with accusation.

Luka stammered, not wanting to offend the Lamia. "N-No, no, it's j-just..." He placed the mallet down, facing Alice with a confused look. "...Why are you acting so nice now? I-I don't mean to offend, but you were very m-mean to me when we first met, s-so hearing you say these things now is somewhat bizarre." Alice became silent, her face softening just a touch. She turned away, staring into the forest.

The Lamia gave him this much, "Well, you seemed quite immature and somewhat dumb to me at first, though I see now that this isn't completely the case. I still think your ideas of coexistence are doomed to fail, but I think I understand you better, if just a little bit."

She offered nothing else, remaining faced away from the boy. He watched for a couple more moments before slowly crouching back down to the ground. 'I still don't get this Lamia. If she thinks what I'm doing is dumb then why is she still around? Is she really just that curious about me?'

Luka gave a short and humorless chuckle, 'Either that, or just finds me funny. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.' He hammered away at the first pike, moving around the tent as he continued to set it. On the final pike, he found that he couldn't keep the unasked question to himself. He had to know why she bothered sticking around.

"Hey, I know that I've asked you before, but you haven't given me a straight answer yet." Luka said as he crouched down to the ground for the last time, mallet in hand as he started to question Alice. "Wh-Why did you come to the Ilias Continent?"

The sound of Alice's large tail slithering across the ground came to his ears, the Monster drawing near as he started to nail down the last pike. "That's simple, I wanted to travel and see the World, so I left Hellgondo earlier this week, and now here I am."

Luka gasped, nearly hitting his hand with the hammer as he missed the metal pike. He stood up quickly, facing the Monster with full attention now. "Y-You came all the way from Hellogondo!?"

It came as a shock to the boy because of the sheer distance between the Ilias Continent and Hellgondo. They were quite literally on opposite ends of the known World! That, and Hellgondo was where the Monster Lord's Castle was located, naturally making it the place where some of the strongest Monsters in existence lived, including the Monster Lord herself!

"Yes, did I stutter?" Alice asked bluntly. Luka, ignoring the slight, stepped closer. "Seriously, you traveled all that way in just a few days!?" Alice rolled her golden eyes, "Yes, yes, I did."

Luka became silent, his confusion growing by every passing moment, just who was this Monster? 'To go that far in so little time, that's insane! But, why go directly to the Ilias Continent if she wanted to see the rest of the World? Would it not make more sense to see all of Sentora first? Unless...'

He eyed Alice cautiously, '...Unless she was a part of the Monster Lord's army and was sent here to scope out the Human cities in preparation for an invasion!? Oh by Ilias, I hope not!' Suddenly, the Lamia began to giggle to herself, turning away from Luka. There was a sinister edge to her laughter, something that sent a chill up his back.

"Wanna see something cool?" The abrupt question tripped up the boy, who watched as Alice spun back around with surprising speed. In her hands was a book. A very old looking book. Alice's face held a very wide, exciting grin. She practically shoved the book into his hands, earning a quick grunt from the boy. He looked over the small black book's cover. At the top was a small, faded title.

The Traveling Guild's Tour Guide

[World Traveler Edition]

"Eh, a guidebook?" Luka asked with a bit of surprise.

Alice nodded enthusiastically, "Yes, it is a forbidden book that shows everything about the Human World!" Luka raised an eyebrow at the statement. 'Forbidden book? I'm pretty sure I saw one of these at the town library last week. Though that one was the Ilias Edition and didn't look nearly as dilapidated as this one.'

Luka scanned through the Table of Contents, reading the various titles. 'Well, it does seem impressively thorough for a tourist book. The pages are kinda hard to read, though. How old is thi-' He flinched, finding the print date at the bottom of the page. "Wh-What the!?"

Luka met Alice's now quizzical face, "Th-This book was made in 867! It was printed over five hundred years ago!" The Lamia's eyes widened a bit as she leaned over the book. "Really? Huh, I thought it seemed a bit out of date..." She trailed off, her face scrunching up in thought. The boy's blue eyes nearly rolled in his skull at the statement.

"A bit!? This thing can't be accurate, I mean..." Luka looked at the "World Map" page, reading over the listed cities. "H-H-Half of these cities don't even exist anymore! Look!" He exclaimed, turning the book around and pointing a finger onto a page. Alice peered down to what he was trying to show. At the tip of his finger was the name Iliasville.

The purple-haired boy shook his head, "No wonder you and Lime got the name wrong, Monsters must've had the name mistranslated for at least five hundred years!" The boy missed the heavy doubt etched on Alice's face as he quickly turned the book back around. Luka turned around, his aghast look turning into interest as he continued flipping through the ancient book.

"Well, either way, this is a very impressive piece of history. This is priceless!" He remarked with a smile.

Suddenly, Alice's large red tail flew into his view, wrapping around the book and pulling it from his hands. "And, it is also mine. Don't forget that." Luka looked at the Lamia, somewhat annoyed at having the book ripped away from him so rudely. Alice, book in hand now, slithered past Luka to a nearby tree. She began to climb it, effortlessly sliding up its face until she reached one of its lower branches.

"Anyways, I'm getting tired." Alice said, coiling around the branch. "Try not to be loud, I don't like to be woken up abruptly."

The boy brushed his hair from his forehead, scanning the sky just to notice that the sun was now unseeable, only its dying rays remaining in the sky. 'Oh, she is right. I need to get ready myself.' He began walking back to his tent, waving back to his strange travel partner. "Goodnight, Alice."

Luka received a muttered "Uh-huh" as a reply, which was more than what he could've expected, as their relationship was still shaky at best. Dipping into the tent, he began preparing his nighttime schedule.

----------------------------------------

Breath in.

Her small body fell out limply with her face pointed towards the awaiting ground. She landed forehead first onto the cold tiled floor with a sickening thud. She opened her mouth to cry, but nothing came out but strained gasps as her head throbbed in horrible pain. All around her was commotion, and she could hear pained screaming coming from above.

A voice much too calm for what was going on broke through the undertow, "Silence the Mother, her noise is breaking my concentration."

Breath out.

With some effort, her eyes opened, and she could see vague images through blurred vision. However, she felt the blood before she could see it. She weakly lifted her head from the ground, seeing a growing river of dark red flowing on the ground around her.

A second voice, strangely distorted, rang out. "Master, the MotHer is losing blooOOd fast. She will not bE able to survivE much longer, I fear."

The same emotionless voice from before replied, "I am not worried about the Mother's life. She has served her purpose. All I need is for her to be silenced."

Breath in.

Blood. That was what that was. It was everywhere. It was coating her body. It was caked in her hair. The metallic smell was nauseating. But she still couldn't cry. Nothing came out but her wheezing as she fought to breathe. She struggled to move her small, newborn limbs. But all she did was shake.

Breath out.

She felt herself being picked up off the ground by two cold hands. Something crackled in the air, and then the screaming faded into weak sobs before they too eventually faded away. Her Mother had just died.

She was taken across the room and quickly deposited onto a small table. She trembled, the pain in her head and the chill in the air shaking her body.

Exhale.

"Radio, come over here. We need to test the Daughter quickly, I'd rather not waste my time here longer than I need to." She couldn't see the face of who was speaking, but she hated it.

Expell.

She felt a hand as cold as the air place itself on her chest. She feebly squirmed, trying to pry the hand off of her. "Stop it." The voice commanded. She looked up, her pale blue eyes trying to see who this cruel woman was, but she could only make out her ghostly white skin.

"HerE, Master." A small blue-green blur popped up in her peripheral, handing the taller woman something.

Exhale.

Suddenly, she could see the item being pointed towards her. It was a syringe. "Hold her arm down, I don't want any fidgeting." She felt a small pair of hands hold her right arm down, and very quickly after that, the syringe was plunged into her arm. The needle was quickly removed, the process having only lasted a few seconds.

She saw the vial of blood, her blood, be taken away by the pair of hands that had held her arm down. "Test it immediately, I want to see how much of what got into her DNA."

Expell.

She heard a quick humming noise, followed by a short period of silence. "Master, it sEemS that the girl's DNA is fivety peRcent Human aNd fivety perCent Monster."

Another silence follows, but this one is much more prolonged and much more tense. Eventually, the other woman spoke up again. "That is... upsetting. No Angel genes at all? That makes her a failure. She would only be able to be a pathetic mimic of what Luka will eventually be capable of doing."

The second voice asked, "What wiLl we do wiTh the babY, then?"

The other woman scoffed, "Prepare a room for her, I suppose I will have to find some other use for her."

----------------------------------------

Doppel opened her eyes, forcing the memories out of her head. The girl didn't know how long she had been there. All she did know was that it had been for all of her life. It was the only room she knew, other than the one she had been born in.

The young Hybrid squirmed in place, pulling her small legs up to her chest. Her pale blue eyes looked about the small white room, for no other reason but to keep from losing herself in her thoughts again. There were multi-colored blocks laying on the ground, pathetic excuses of toys left for Doppel to entertain herself with. It had been a very long time since she had ever even touched them.

She never got anything more after these trinkets, other than the bare essentials in the form of bland food and lukewarm water. The passionless meals were so nauseating that Doppel would often avoid eating until her stomach hurt so that at least she would have the satisfaction of quenching her afflicted starvation with a full stomach.

Doppel glanced to her left, looking at her currently unmade bed. In the past, she had made an effort to straighten the sheets after waking. This was abandoned quite recently, however, as the purple-haired girl found that she no longer cared about maintaining any cleanliness in the small, padded room. This was much the same for her toys, as she had given up organizing them long before she had given up amusing herself with them.

She idly lifted a hand to her head, tugging at some strands of mangled up purple locks. They were horribly knotted from lack of maintenance, as she had never been provided a brush. Early on, she had simply used her fingers. Though as time went on and her hair grew longer, that simply became not good enough. So, Doppel pulled thread from her bedding and used it to put her hair into twintails as a haphazard solution to that problem.

Not that it did much to make her feel that much better.

Squeak

The purple-haired girl jerked, ruffling her sorry excuse of clothing as she did. Her eyes found the door of her room, the handle of which was now pointed down. This was not something she had ever seen before, as the door had not been opened for as long as Doppel could remember.

With painful slowness, the door actually began to open.

Bit by bit, the darkness in the doorway widened, and the young Hybrid felt as her heartbeat pounded like a drum in her chest. So many times, she had fought to pry open the door, but her efforts had always been for naught. But now that it was actually happening, Doppel felt a twinge of unease.

Then, a pair of bright Magenta eyes shone through the darkness, their intense gaze drilling into her. The purple-haired girl found it difficult to breathe as the eyes stayed locked on to her.

Without warning, something flew from the darkness, having been tossed by the owner of the Magenta eyes. Doppel flinched, turning away from the item as it fell on the padded ground with a dull thud. She looked down, her eyes widening at the sight.

On the ground was a very large knife. The blade curved upwards at its end and was longer than her forearm. The grip was a simple black and had no guard to protect the wielder's hand.

"Take it." The command was uttered briefly uttered by a raspy, yet feminine voice. The girl looked up to the hardened gaze of the creature in the doorway. Shakily, she crawled to the weapon, grabbing it tightly in her left hand.

"Follow." The eyes in the doorway vanished, and the girl heard as the unseen creature stepped away.

Quickly, more so than Doppel ever had before, the purple-haired girl jumped up and ran to the door. She was scared of whatever had just appeared to let her out, but she was absolutely terrified that it would keep her locked in that room forever if she didn't come with it.

Although, compared to what was in store for the young Hybrid now, staying in that room forever may have been the better choice...