Adahlia sipped from her can of soda and flipped the page of the book perched on her lap. Eyes scanning the page, she hunched over the book slightly due to the fact that her feet were propped on the leather ottoman in front of her.

Her door burst open and Eclipse came flying in. Adahlia slammed her book shut and slumped against the headrest of the swivel chair.

"He died . . . again," she said, moving so her neck was resting on the armrest, her knees hooked over the other side.

Eclipse came closer, walking upside down with the angle of Adahlia's head.

"Why do you read that book so often? You cry after every single time," Eclipse sat down on the now free ottoman. "Anyways, meeting in five. You might want to brush your hair too."

Adahlia straightened, "Why?"

"I mean if you want to walk into the conference room with a halo of hair, you're good," Eclipse got up and patted her head before exiting the room. A few seconds later, her head popped up in the doorway again and she added, "And maybe change too, Crescent isn't going to accept your unicorn pajamas."

She glowered at Eclipse and turned to her drawer to find a brush.

Three minutes later, Adahlia was running towards the conference room two halls down. She had exchanged her pajamas for a sleek black suit. It was a standard uniform for anyone in the gang so she didn't stand out . . . much. A single strand of her hair was dyed bright purple. It was a last-minute decision and had just happened. Eclipse had decided to dye her brunette hair completely black for better camouflage, but she decided to do the opposite and add a colorful streak.

It completely contrasted the muted colors of their base.

She skidded to a stop in front of the conference room. She smoothed some wrinkles that formed on her legs during the run and blew a strand of stray hair from her face. She schooled a neutral expression on her face before turning the knob to the door.

At the head of the table, Crescent turned to her and said, "Good, you're here. Sit down."

Adahlia took a seat towards the middle of the table and Eclipse walked in a second later to take the place beside her. Quickly, the conference room filled up with the long-term members of the cult.

The newer recruits were stuck with guard duty.

When the long table was filled, Crescent cleared her throat and whipped out a scroll of paper.

She slammed it on the table and unfurled the scroll. She pinned the two sides down with her hands and stood up, hunching over the map of Eyra.

Adahlia leaned forward to get a better glance at the map. There were red circles around some parts of the city. There were a lot of them. And there was one green circle smack dab in the middle of the scroll.

Cress nodded to the map, "Have you all heard the rumors? Attacks, scattered around the city. No one can find a trace of the murderer, bodies near unrecognizable."

A male named Recq on Adahlia's left raised his hand. When Crescent raised an eyebrow, he spoke, "What attacks?"

Cress sighed deeply and Adahlia was glad she wasn't on the receiving end of that stare, though it was clear on everyone's faces that this is the first time they'd heard about these attacks.

"Murders. I've circled all the major spots where these attacks have been centered around. Over one hundred victims." Cress glanced up at Eclipse. "You've heard about them?" Her friend slowly shook her head.

Recq hesitantly raised a finger, "What does have to do with us?"

Crescent shot him a saccharine smile. "Personally, I don't care for any of this. A few dead? No big deal. But it is when they've attacked one of my own."

Adahlia froze, scanning the room to spot the missing person. She saw Eclipse and everyone around the room do the same

"Have any of you seen Marli lately? No, exactly. Marli was attacked two days ago. I recently heard reports of a member who didn't come to the daily check-ins. And when I saw the footage on the news . . . well I know where they are now. They're dead. The murderers attacked Marli."

The color drained from Eclipse's face and she felt herself shudder with grief. Marli had been their friend. They had been one of the first people to talk to them when they joined the gang at age thirteen.

"Are we supposed to find the murderer?" Yirva peeped from the far end of the table.

"Do you not care for your fallen comrade? Yes. We start investigations now. Before we know it, another one of us will be dead and you will not come crying to me. Because I am telling you this now. Do not ignore me. The attacks are becoming more recent in correspondence to one another."

The downcast eyes of the group didn't dare meet the eyes of their leader. Crescent wasn't horrible, but she didn't mess around either.

She had not created this cult for the noblest of reasons but she had definitely done some not evil things with it.

Like raiding the house of Morray Reiser, the thief who steals from low-income families, that wasn't bad. But the reason for their raid was not so honorable. Reiser had a debt still owed to Cress and she couldn't wait for the check for much longer.

There were a lot of mixed feelings with this group.

Crescent let the map curl back up and she set down another scroll, this time of the injuries of the fallen people.

"Dismembered, chunks missing. This is the work of a sadistic human." Someone sitting near Cress blanched at the drawing and Adahlia kept her eyes trained on the wall behind Cress. It was an unspoken rule that no one looked their leader in the eye without being addressed. But you also couldn't look away and be deemed as a weakling. 

"Marli was in similar shape. We need a team out scouring the streets for information. Witnesses, family members, any similarities between the victims. Anything. The city is offering a ten grand reward for anyone with information on the beast."

Ah, the real reason for this sudden change in direction. Crescent didn't really care for Marli, but she just wanted the prize. Honestly, Adahlia wasn't sure how she didn't realize this before.

Recq cleared his throat and Crescent turned to him. "Uh, what's the green circle on the old map for?"

Crescent sighed, "Finally, someone asking good questions. There was one person. One person survived an attack. We have him downstairs in rehab. I was going to explain him later, but thank gods we have a smart person on our team."

As if on a secret cue, a knock on the door sounded. One of their nurses was supporting a battered up male. His face was bruised, both eyes surrounded in purple and a lip still bleeding. His arms and legs were covered in bandages and he seemed to be missing a finger.

But what surprised her most was the delicately pointed ears peeking out from beneath the blood-encrusted dark hair.

His dark eyes were haunted and his coloring was a bit muted. Like the attack had stolen every bit of life from him.

The nurse guided him towards an empty chair near the door and the male took a while to sit down. The nurse said to call him if anything went wrong and promptly left the room.

"What's your name?" Cress asked, her hand was poised over a sheet of paper, pencil gripped in her fingers.

"Z-zadyn," he replied, talking around the split lip. Crescent started scrawling on her paper.

"Do you live here?"

"Yes." The sound of graphite scratching against paper started up again. Cress continued asking questions about Zadyn's whereabouts on the night of the attack and found nothing out of the ordinary. He was at a friend's house when he smelled strong rot. Seconds later, a dark figure jumped into the house through a window and the sound of shattered glass masked his roar of fury.

The monster jumped his friend first, going straight for the throat. They started tearing him apart, chunks coming off him.

That gave Zadyn the chance to run. By the time he slipped out of the house, his friend was dead.

But that still didn't explain the bruises.

"Then?" Crescent prompted. Zadyn lowered his gaze and continued on with the story.

"I ran out of the house and I was nearly down the block when I smelled the beast behind me. I knew Cam was dead by then, so I kept running. They followed me and when I was turning a corner, they jumped me too. It felt . . . bony and muscly. It was weird. They had a cloak on, but that didn't mask the musty scent. And well . . . it did this to me." Zadyn extended an arm and pointed at the white bandage tied around it.

"So, did you only live because it attacked your friend first?" Crescent asked, noticeably a tad gentler, noting who she's interrogating and what would probably happen if she pushed too hard. Zadyn breaking—in a bad way.

"No, I swear it looked into my eyes and kind of just backed away. Not before mangling me, but it didn't kill me," Zadyn shuddered. Cress glanced up at this, her pencil pausing above the paper.

"It left you?" When Zadyn nodded, the intense scribbling started up again.

Everyone else at the table stayed quiet, knowing the significance of this investigation. Crescent continued asking Zadyn about more trivial things now. His friends, hang-out places, and his daily habits.

Most of it was boring and not very interesting, but one thing did stand out. Zadyn was an artist. 

Soon, Crescent's ever-flowing questions stopped as she paused to ponder something.

"Do you think the murderer was human?" she asked Zadyn.

His eyes widened and he glanced at everyone around the table for the first time. His eyes met Adahlia's and she silently urged him to answer.

His gaze drifted back to Crescent, "I'm not sure. It had a human-like physique and felt like one beyond the fabric. But, it eats it's victims. I'm not sure that's completely humane."

Cress hummed in thought and flipped her pencil over her ear and started reading over her notes.

She started skimming and read aloud the important facts, "Muscly-build. Slender. Fast. Strong. Cannibal. Ok . . ."

Adahlia's thoughts were racing as she followed along on Cress's verbal brainstorm.

She slowly raised her hand and waited for Crescent to notice her. Normally, she didn't speak during meetings. She only observed. And for good reason, most people don't notice an observer.

Crescent glanced up, "Yes, Asteria?"

"I don't believe the creature is human," she started, trying to sound professional and like she knows what she's saying. "Humans can't do what Zadyn described. And they would get sick if they ate other humans raw."

"What are you implying?"

Adahlia slowly thought over her words, wanting to sound credible. She knew she was on to something, but she didn't know how to explain it without sounding like a child. "I-i've read stories, on human-eating monsters. Deep in the pits of hell—"

Crescent held up a hand to stop her, "Are you saying we're dealing with a mythical creature?"

"No . . . but the creature doesn't sound human," Adahlia slowly thought over everything again. Maybe she was being ridiculous.

Crescent was clearly thinking the same thing because she replied, "Do you hear yourself? This is the mindless rambling of an imbecile. Does anyone actually believe her?"

A sweep of Cress's eyes around the table confirmed what she wanted to hear. But Zadyn, not knowing the rules of the cult, raised his hand.

"It doesn't sound impossible. No human could have destroyed all those victims, let alone bite into human flesh with their human teeth," Zadyn explained. Adahlia froze in her seat. She had just remembered that Zadyn wasn't human either. He understood how drastically different they were, despite her many attempts to act human. Crescent has to realize the same thing.

But she didn't show it as she sneered at them both, "You're both idiots. What other creatures out there are similar enough to humans to blend in but not mortal?"

The answer was staring at her very face, but she ignored them both.

"Fine, if you want to ramble about this not-human nonsense, you can. I'm sending you both to a city in the south, I know another lunatic who will keep you company. I won't have two raving idiots trying to convince my gang that the murderer isn't human," Crescent bared her teeth at Adahlia.

And she saw pure hate in her face. Adahlia hadn't known that Cress hated her. Maybe dislike, but not hatred. And she had a vague clue why. It was the fact that Adahlia had been gifted special powers while Cress remained unremarkable beyond the fact that she was part fae on her father's side.

"You're sending me away?"

"Yes," Crescent seethed. "I will not allow your disrespect. Pack your bags and take Zadyn with you. I have no more need of him. You will go to Gwydion and his stupid training center and behave."

Adahlia clamped her mouth shut and nodded stiffly.

Cress sighed, "Meeting adjourned."

Adahlia got up and watched everyone file out. Eclipse sent her a sympathetic look but followed the others out in case Cress didn't appreciate their friendship.

Soon it was only Crescent, Adahlia, and Zadyn in the room.

"Do not share your theories with anyone, understand?" Crescent held Adahlia's gaze as she swept out of the room. Adahlia slumped back into her chair and pressed her forearm against her eyes.

She sighed and sat up. She turned to see Zadyn looking at her.

"Why did you agree with me?" she asked. 

"Because I agree with you," Zadyn said simply. Adahlia gave him a contemplative look and walked toward his chair. She glanced at his wrapped limbs and offered an arm to help him up. He grabbed her wrist and tried to pull himself upward.

His legs were wobbling when he finally stood up and his knees almost buckled as he took a step forward.

Adahlia frowned, "Do you need help?"

Zadyn nodded. So she wrapped her arm around his waist and helped him get steady on his feet. When she felt like he was balanced, she took a step forward, forcing Zadyn to move forward as well.

Their progress was slowed as they made their way to Adahlia's room, Zadyn's limp increasing and his gait becoming even more unsteady.

"Almost there," she said, hissing through her teeth and Zadyn leaned on her to take another step forward. She had realized that she was carrying more than half of his body weight a while ago, but she held her arm firmly as he slowly crept toward her room.

Thirty minutes later, Zadyn was propped up with pillows on her beanbag chair.

She moved around her room, throwing anything she deemed worthy enough into her backpack.

So far, she had two pairs of clothes and some packaged food.

She rooted through her room, looking for anything good enough to take with her. She found some more packaged foods like the grilled cheese sandwich and some canned corn.

"Why do you have food in your room?" Zadyn asked.

"Look, do I judge you for your choices? I like food, ok?" Adahlia dug through a pile of clothes on the foot of her bed and she kind of felt bad for Zadyn who was witnessing her tearing her room apart and throwing half of the clothes in his general direction.

"Screw this," Adahlia muttered and gathered every single dagger, knife, and weapon in her room.

"Is that a . . . morning star?" Zadyn asked, noting what she held in her hands. Adahlia nodded, swinging the spiky ball on a chain for him to see.

"How many weapons do you have in here?" he asked. Zadyn surveyed her room as if trying to spot any more weapons she could potentially turn on him.

"You need to be prepared or you'll die. I think I have two swords, an ax, and maybe a can of mace? Oh yeah, I think there's a taser in here too," Adahlia replied. "Though I don't think I can fit a long sword in my backpack." Zadyn raised an eyebrow.

"Wait, I need my dual broadswords," she ran to her closet and started throwing out more cans of food. She found her black sheath at the very back and the two swords were sheathed in them. "Ok, great."

"Do you need anything?" she asked Zadyn, strapping the two leather sheaths to her back. She finally gave in and tied two more black sheaths to her thighs so she could store more daggers.

She also checked the small compartment in her black suit for the vial of poison for emergencies.

"No, I think you brought enough food for the both of us," Zadyn motioned to her almost full backpack. She glanced at the black bag, only half stuffed.

"You're right," she said and threw in more packaged food and bags of cheese.

Zadyn seemed to choke on a snort.

Adahlia surveyed her wrecked room and then her now-full bag. She glanced at Zadyn and threw in some bandages and ointments into her backpack. She walked back to her closet and found another scabbard. She took out two more daggers from her drawer and threw the sheath at Zadyn's feet.

She walked over to him and helped him back to standing.

She handed him the sheath and he quickly tied it on. Then he took the daggers and slid them into the leather.

She surveyed him and her normally useless brain had an idea, "Do you want to piss off Cress?"

Zadyn raised an eyebrow and she ran to her closet and came out with a pair of sparkly purple scissors. She found an old leather sheet on the floor and started cutting out two long rectangles. When she finished, she put the scissors in her sheath and held up the two strips of leather.

She tied one of them around her head and let the two loose parts hand from her temple and tied it similarly on Zadyn's head as well, except the leather tassels were hanging off the opposite side of his head.

"Great, now we're ready. Leather buddies," Adahlia said, flipping her hair back behind a shoulder.

"Leather buddies?" Zadyn asked incredulously.

"Ok, fine. Maybe 'Dagger-Wielding Maniacs', DWM," Adahlia restated.

"Why does that sound like you're saying 'don't worry, mom'?" His face was slightly amused as he sat back down because his legs started trembling.

"Mythical Besties?" she tried again.

"You're not good at naming things are you?" Zadyn started rubbing his arm and Adahlia noticed his missing finger.

"Fae Rangers?"

He sighed and nodded and Adahlia thought that was the best name she had ever come up with. He was right, her imagination was limited in naming things, but the name seemed fitting. Well, for now.

"Fae Rangers assemble!" she held her hand out and Zadyn rolled his but placed his hand over hers. Their hands shot in the air and she grinned, "Now we're ready."

january 29, 2022
𝖙𝖊𝖊𝖍𝖊𝖊, 𝐁𝐚𝐢
© azalyme ₂₀₂₂

[ this chapter is dedicated to my friends who may or may not have influenced this chapter : rowan for giving me motivation to write and my other friend, miss chopsnip, who sadly just lost her brother, mr. snipchop. rest in peace you lovely purple scissor. and of course some other friends <3 ]