?

Pitch black darkness. That was all the boy that had barely turned 8 could see; the ominous silence that filled the mansion was only pierced by the distant footsteps and shouts that came from the intruders who had broken into his home.

The boy was scared. While covering his mouth in fear that the intruders would hear him by the slightest squeak a silent stream of tears slid down from his eyes; he didn't know where his father, mother, or older sister had run of to... all he could do was hope that the distant screams that were immediately cut off didn't belong to any of his family members.

His older sister hid him in the closet of her room and had told him everything would be alright before leaving with no explanation whatsoever.

Why? Why had she left him alone?

She's dead.

Where were his parents?

They're dead.

Was everyone alright?

They're all dead.

No!

DEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADEADDEADDEADDEADEADEADEADDEADEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEADDEAD!

The boy shook his head furiously as those thoughts began to fill his mind. He didn't want to think that; he didn't believe any of that! They weren't dead... no way! They couldn't be...

"I smell the brat,"

Before the boy could react in any way whatsoever the door to the closet was ripped opened by one of the intruders; his eyesight had adjusted to the dark by now so he could clearly see the cat-like female who immediately grabbed him with one of her hands. The boy screamed, that was all he could as the female grabbed him out of his hiding spot and threw him to the middle of his sister's room.

All of the intruders where there, surrounding him as if he was some kind of cornered sheep and they the hungry wolfs ready to eat the defenseless animal.

The neko walked closer, he could clearly see her white furred tail lash around behind her. What terrified him the most was her eyes though... they looked like that of a cat, bright yellow and seemed to illuminate in the darkness of the room. Just by looking into them he knew he was going to die, right then there he was going to die. They showed no mercy in them, all he could see was the killing intent almost literally ooze out of them.

"You gave us quite a chase kid," she spoke as her lips began to form a smirk, "But its over, everyone's dead. Your mommy, daddy, hell even the servants are all the dead!" she started to cackle like a maniac when she finished her sentence.

The boy froze from pure fear; there was nothing that could be done now. All he could do was wait his imminent death... which the neko didn't seem to be in any rush to execute.

"You know how I killed your mommy?" the female had been strolling around the boy before asking the answer and stopping just to look at the kid for an answer; the boss had told them to kill everyone as quickly as possible so she didn't really get to enjoy the massacre as much as she had wanted to. All of the kills had been performed so fast that none of the victims had time to react! What was the point of that?

Seeing the expression of someone who knows they are about to die... that's the perfect treat for a psychopathic maniac like her.

When the boy didn't answer she got one of her fingers and did a slicing motion over her neck, "BAM! Beheaded!" she started to laugh harder, "Your daddy too! Oh, it was just soooooo easy! Seriously, too pathetic!"

"Naki, we need to get going" out of nowhere a voice spoke, it was one of the intruders and the tone made it sound like a male, "We need to find the vile with the blood and get out of here before the magic council arrives, like master said,"

"Oh shut up!" the female shouted, not even bothering to turn to face the grunt the neko continued to talk, "Who cares about the Magic Council! They are just a bunch of weaklings who can't do shit! I can kill them all if I wanted too!"

"Hey, don't you just ignor-" when she spun around to look at the poor soul that had decided to ignore her, Naki's her eyes grew wide from the scene.

There, on the floor laid the grunt's body with his head rolling right next to her feet. Before anyone could react a figure began to dash through the whole room, beheading all of the grunts as if they were made of paper. Once the figure beheaded the last of her lackeys, red eyes glared towards the neko before it dashed forward.

If Naki had reacted fast enough she probably would have easily dodged the incoming attack, this thing wasn't human but she wasn't either; but before her mind fully processed that she was being attacked her head had already left her body and was being thrown across the room.

...

"...Shit, this thing is strong. Better flee," the neko spoke as her head was currently in mid-air and about to hit the floor at any moment, seemingly not bothered by the fact she had been decapitated in a matter of seconds the headless body of Naki quickly jumped up and grabbed the head before making a hole through the wall of the room with a single kick and disappearing into the night.

The boy lay at the same spot he had been at for the past few seconds, eyes widened from pure fear. When the thing with red eyes appeared he felt something that he hadn't felt with the cat lady... and as soon as the red eyes turned to look at him every single part in his body was screaming at him to run away and get the hell out of there.

But he couldn't move, his legs had given up on him. The red eyes got closer, bigger, brighter with every step the monster took towards him and the boy couldn't think... to be honest they didn't look like eyes, they looked more like two orbs of red light that held no emotion whatsoever.

In a couple of more seconds the beast was only a few inches away from him. The boy closed his eyes, figuring it would now finish what the other one had started... but instead of his head being sliced off the boy was surprised that two arms held him in a loving embrace...

He could feel some liquid spilling from them and onto his clothes, most likely blood. The boy could feel the beast get closer to his ear and softly whisper into them some words,

"Are you okay, little brother?"

?

"RILEY!"

"GAAH!"

Riley fell off his bed and onto the wooden floor of his room, his head taking most of the damage as he awoke from his deep sleep by the sudden shout. Immediately getting up Riley's onyx black eyes scanned all over his small room before they fell onto her.

Standing a few feet away with an innocent smile on her face and hands crossed behind her back stood Mordred, her ruby red eyes looking up at the older male as she awaited some sort of response from Riley.

Normally the male would scream at anyone who dared wake him up... but a part of him was a bit thankful Mordred had screamed right into his ear and gotten him out of that dream. Surprisingly he didn't remember what it had been about,

"Riley, are you fully awake yet?"

"Uh..." the male paused for a moment to let out a loud yawn before continuing, "Yeah, I am now"

"Good!" Mordred clapped her hands in delight, the young girl looked oddly happy, "So you have 10 minutes to get dressed and do all your morning business! After those 10 minutes are over I expect to see you at the guild hall," with that she exited through the only door in the room before disappearing into the building.

Riley groaned in annoyance," Oh yeah, I'm working for this kid now,"

Mordred V. Harmonia; only 14 years old and already running an official mage guild. All that Riley knew about this kid was that she wasn't a native to Fiore... what country did she exactly from he didn't know, but her mage guild Victory Tree got officially approved by the Magic Council a few weeks back and was as of now looking for members.

After recalling everything he knew about the strange kid Riley had already finished putting on his uniform; it consisted of a white dress shirt which had a red tie hanging off from the neck area that went beneath his black button up vest. The male's bottom wear were some black khaki and a pair of brown dress shoes.

As of right now he was combing his ear-length chocolate hair. It was actually useless to even try to calm down his hair, many have tried it but none had ever succeeded. Riley's hair always looked almost as if he had just gotten out of bed... messily done and spikes going all over the place.

"Wild just like me!" Riley grinned as he put down the hairbrush. Many people would find themselves frustrated by a hair such like this one, but the black-eyed male was quite proud of it. In his view his hair perfectly displayed his rebel like nature, refusing to change to please people and never taking crap from anyone.

'Then why are you working for a brat like Mor?'

Riley rolled his eyes, "Life debt, that's why me," the nineteen-year old was very aware that talking to yourself wasn't normal, but there was no way in hell he was going to see someone about it.

'I'm not you, fool!' Unlike always in which the voice sounded so emotionless and stoic that it was impossible to tell, this time Riley found himself a bit surprised when the voice sounded a bit like a girl.

The light-caramel skin male stood there for a few seconds, an unreadable expression as he thought over what had just happened, "... Mor is driving me so nuts that I am starting to imagine her talking to me inside my head,"

Yup, that was it.

Riley decided to leave his room before Mordred threw some fit over him being late, so without anything else stopping him the male walked over towards the door, opened it, and began to make his way down the large corridor after closing his door behind him.

The thought of being part of a mage guild had always excited him ever since he was young; to be honest even if he was here because of the life debt he owed Mor Riley couldn't help but grow a tad happy whenever he walked into the guild hall.

It wasn't huge, but it seemed so elegant like something only the rich could afford. The walls were painted black with some gold designs streaming across them and the floor was made out of some very good quality wood.

There were 6 large tables in total, half of them where on the left side of the hall and the other three where on the right; each table could hold about nine people. The bar was located all the way at the end of the hall, and the entrance to the guild was on the opposite side. Fairly large windows located on a high spot on the walls let out some sunlight which lighted up the place.

Yup, happy.

"Hey waiter!" he heard Mor calling to him from the bar.

Any sign of Riley's good mood was gone as soon as the fourteen year old girl called out to him. Waiter, while it annoyed him whenever he was called by that name it was his job here in Victory Tree... a waiter, sometimes a cook or bartender. Because Riley didn't know any magic he couldn't become a member of Victory Tree, like Mor had asked when she saved his life. So instead he became... this.

The black eyed male walked over to where Mor was sitting down at before speaking, "What is it, Mor?"

Mor shook her head at that last part, "It's not Mor, mongrel! It's master, mistress, leader, take your pick!"

Riley sighed tiredly, "What is it... mistress?"

The fourteen year old nodded her head, "Better," she got up on her chair and patted Riley on the head, almost as if he was some kind of dog before speaking, "Anyways, have this place shining before our people arrive! You know, like every morning!"

"You say people as if you have a lot of members,"

"We do!"

"If that was true then we wouldn't be in danger of getting disbanded by lack of members," Riley reminded the young guild mistress of the news the officer from the magic council had brought in yesterday, "We need at least 10 before the end of the week,"

Mor groaned in annoyance as soon as she was reminded about that, "Yeah..." she seemed a bit troubled for a few seconds, but any sign of that was gone in a matter of moments, "Anyways, get to work Riley!" with that the young teen got off her chair and made her way to her office.

Riley grabbed a nearby broom and began to sweep the floor, yup he was janitor too. Luckily nobody would be arriving in a while... or that's what he hoped.