What Kiana had done was in the best traditions of the British Empire: she had simultaneously discovered

a species and gone to war with it. As Rieles sword arm began to ache, she cursed her inquisitive sister with the most colourful words in her vocabulary. With a sickening thud that was followed by a gut-churning thwack, Riele vanquished another of the strange beings that Kiana had freed from the dungeons underneath the ruins of the abandoned palace. They were the size and rough shape of humanoids, and as purely black as coal. The texture of their skin was that of coal as well, rough and powdery to touch. But to avoid the touch of their skin was a lesson quickly learned, as the powdery residue that they excreted was evidently a poison of some kind, and the poison was fatal. With another swing of her sword, Riele hacked at the creature who had sprung up with an impressive burst of preternatural speed and power towards her face. As it swerved deftly to the right, as to avoid her swinging blade, her momentum shifted her slightly to the side, and the sharp point of her sword only swipped across the side of the leaping monster. As if it had been decapitated, rather than simply cut, the charcoal monster fell away from her limply. Riele walked up to it, and raised her sword, prepared to deliver it a killing blow. Just as she readied herself, muscles tensing, skin tightening, heart beating faster, the creature groaned and began to shift. Rieles sword fell from her hands, narrowly missing the form of the dark haired, brown eyed, porcelain skinned boy laying on the floor, who had, only a moment before, been a slavering, red eyed monster, quite prepared to slaughter her. He groaned once again, confusedly, and began to roll over. Riele swallowed dryly. Oh, she said.

Le monster ^