"Misao look look!" I hissed excitedly trying to keep my voice down, we were in the forbidden forest once again. Fireflies danced around the focus of my attention.

"Oh wow, its so pretty" my best friend Misao grinned and walked closer to the glowing flower. We both stared at it in amazement, it was easily the most beautiful flower in this forest. The fireflies danced around us, and I felt myself smile, mesmerized.

"Kaoru what are you doing?!" Misao gasped as I reached forward to touch the flower.

"We must show the elders, they are sure to know more" I whispered in awe, becoming more attracted to the beauty that stood rooted to the ground.

"Kaoru leave it! We aren't supposed to even be here, we will surely be punished if we are discovered" Misao pleaded and pushed me away from the glowing flower. I fell back a few steps but my gaze didn't leave my target. I wanted it.

"Go" I whispered and I could have sworn a warmth was pulling me towards the flower.

"Don t be a fool Kaoru, the gods of this forest must not be disturbed" Misao growled and I turned to look at her and she was glaring at me.

"Alright" I nodded slowly realising how serious she was, and as soon as she turned her back searching the dark forest for predators and walked slowly forwards, I turned and quickly swiped the flower ripping it from its root. I threw it into my fur coat hiding it inside my furs and quickly cleaned myself of the dirt that sprinkled the dead fur. Misao hadn't noticed a thing, and I smirked excitedly, I couldn't wait to take another look at it.

"The forest is quiet" I muttered as we walked back to our village.

"Too quiet" Misao frowned and I noticed she was incredibly tense. I looked out into the black heart of the forest and felt myself shiver. It was always cold in the forest, that's why me and my people were forced to were the skins of dead animals, it kept us warm, and alive.

We were a race of half human half kitana. Humans, the wise bare skinned creatures that were close to extinction, and Kitanas the courageous animal of the forbidden forest. We were Hynians.

I had never seen a human before, but I had once run into a Kitana, and I was blessed to find that it knew of the blood we shared, we had the same long mane of sapphire hair, and the same sparkling blue eyes, and the same pointed ears, but the rest, we were completely different, I could only guess what a human looked like.

"The sun has set, we must hurry" Misao muttered and I glanced to her, she was walking quickly, I knew she was desperate to leave this forest into the safety of our village.

Suddenly I gasped out in shock and Misao spun around hissing pulling her claws out ready to strike, I stared at her with wide eyes and she quickly walked around me searching all around ready to kill whatever had frightened me. But it was neither animal nor beast. I slowly let my eyes fall to my chest where I had hidden the flower I stole, and was shocked to find it thumping against my chest, it was beating, like a heart.

"We must move, we are almost there" Misao was in no mood to ask about my sudden shocked state, instead she walked faster.

I was glad when I saw the opening to the forest and the flickering light of the village fire ahead. But I was totally unaware of the piercing amber eyes that followed me.

"Misao, Kaoru where have you been?!" our village chief demanded as we entered the village, shutting the gates behind us. Once again, he stood there by the roaring flames that warmed out small village.

"We got lost, the river took us far out father" Misao bowed, I knew she felt ashamed at having to lie to our good chief, we all called him father, he earned the name.

"The sun has set, you know it is forbidden of you to go anywhere with no guiding light" our wise chief frowned.

"We are sorry" and with that we were excused. I quickly left for my hut that I shared with my brother Sano and his wife Megumi.

I was grateful for the silence I was welcomed with upon entering the warm hut. They must have both gone to bed, so I quickly ran to the kitchen, grabbed a bowl and filled it with water. I ran to my room in the small hut and settled the plant into the bowl of water next to my bed of fur. I smiled at its beauty, it was still glowing but I noticed a slight flicker in its glow. I softly touched one of its silky petals and frowned, 'why is it beating?'.

My senses shot up and my eyes widened at the sound of the watch tower bell banging loudly. I heard my brother and sister in law scramble from there sleep in the next room.

"Kaoru!" Megumi shouted and I threw the flower under my furs along with the bowl soaking myself in the process.

"What's going on?" I asked nervously as Megumi pulled me out of my room. We walked out of the hut to find the banging of the bell still pelting in our ears but louder.

"ALL MALES REPORT TO THE GATE!" A bulky hynian shouted above the noise of panic.

"FEMALES RETURN TO YOUR HOMES" he finished. Megumi was shaking, I could feel how afraid she was when she grabbed my hand and pulled me back to the hut. I knew I should have just entered with Megumi and waited for the commotion to die down, but I didn't, I turned my head and looked up at the watch tower, and I instantly felt sick to my stomach, I could taste the bile that rose in my throat and I prevented myself from throwing up. I will never forget the sight of the village guards head swinging from the bell.

"Just stay here Kaoru"Megumis shaken voice didn't help my nerves.

"What's going on" my voice shook.

"I don't know, but im sure it will be dealt with, we just have to stay he-" she was cut off at the sound of a piercing scream, it was a deep painful scream. I stepped back and winced as my claws dug into my soft human skin. Something was out there. Megumi was rooted to the floor, her head concentrating on the flap of material that was the door to our hut. I could have drowned in the silence that followed the scream. My heart was banging hard in my chest.

"Kaoru stay here" my eyes darted to Megumi and saw her edging towards the door.

"Don't leave me" my voice quivered, I couldn't get the picture of that mans head dangling from the watch tower bell, there was a monster out there, and I didn't want to be left alone.

Me and Megumi both screamed as the flap was threw aside and Sano entered with blood splattered against his face. Megumi ran towards him and flew herself at him, but I just stayed rooted to the floor.

"What's out there?" Megumi whispered gripping hold of Sano.

"There is no time to discuss anything, we are leaving, pack everything" his voice was threatening, he had obviously witnessed something he didn't want to share with us. That thought scared me more, knowing he was keeping something from us, knowing it would frighten us, it meant there was something to be afraid of.

"I don't want to go out there" I bit back the tears that begged to be free, that got his attention.

"Tonight Kaoru, we leave tonight" his voice bit back, not at all encouraging.

Megumi quickly caught on to his demanding words and was immediately throwing equipment together and tying them together with string and fur, but I didn't move, I couldn't, and Sano just glared at me.

"Kaoru its nothing we haven't dealt with before" he lied, I knew he was lying, because he turned his back to me. He started helping Megumi get things together.

"Who screamed?" I asked. Sano stopped and dropped his head, he breathed a painful sigh.

"We killed it" he lied once again.

"You killed what?" I asked sucking in a breath.

"Does it matter, its dead, but we must move, we don't know if more will follow" he kept his back to me as he muttered his lies. I hadn't noticed them pack everything so quickly, I didn't want to be left behind, that thought shook me from my spot and I dashed to my room, I didn't care about anything else, I had to protect that flower.

"Kaoru come" Sano growled as he hovered at the entrance to my room, he hadn't seen me hide the rare flower in my furs, I rolled my furs up and tied it together, hauling it onto my back.

I held me breath in anticipation as we left the hut, and my eyes darted all around me, expecting something hideous to jump out at me, but it didn't, and it scared me more, knowing something was lurking in the shadows, knowing of its advantage over us, I felt my knees give way but Sano caught me.

"Get a grip of yourself Kaoru" Sano hissed at me.

The villagers quickly gathered closely together and in single file we left the village and headed to our sister village on the other side of the forbidden forest, we were planning to walk around, and it would take a good few days.

"Kaoru" Misao quickly ran to my side, not caring of the break up of the formation of the line.

"Misao" I gritted my teeth forcing back the tears as we hugged each other.

"Did you see it?" Misao asked fear evident in her midnight black eyes.

"You did didn't you" I replied pleading with my eyes for her to tell me more, she knew something I didn't.

"Its eyes Kaoru, it has ice cold amber eyes" she gripped the fur wrapped around my body and she went off in the daze. We carried on walking with the group.

"What did it look like?" I asked after I felt it had been an eternity of silence.

"I couldn't see its face, only its eyes, but they were enough, I didn't want to see any more" she winced, its eyes were obviously haunting her.

We carried on walking around the edge of the forest, keeping close together and fighting against the bitter cold wind that forced us to slow our pace.

"Its after something Kaoru" Misao spoke out when we had stopped for a rest, the elderly where struggling to keep up.

"How do you mean?" I asked as I sat on a cold rock and rested my tired legs.

"Its eyes were searching for something" Misao looked towards the forest keeping her eyes strained for any sight of the monster that had attacked out village.

"Sano said it was killed" I muttered low enough for only Misao to hear.

"It escaped any harm, and it is following us" she whispered back not once looking at me, she was too busy looking out for it.

"What does it want?" I asked, Misao shrugged, her guess was as good as mine. I jumped in surprise as I felt a thumping against my back, it was the flower again, it was beating once more.

I was unaware of the danger I brought to my friends and family, unaware that I was carrying the very thing the beast wanted. Unaware of the silent oath I had made by picking the rare flower.