A True Beginning (Excerpt from Shenyo's Life 1)
#1 of Shenyo's Life
(Author's Note! This short little story is about how Shenyo meets Sakura, a far while back into Shenyo's past. One could call this an excerpt from his life, so I think I will! Also, this is the first story I've ever put up anywhere!)
The pain was something he could deal with. He had been dealing with it his entire life, in small and large doses alike. The cuts would heal in moments, the whip marks in mere minutes. The beatings would only last so long, until they were tired of punching and kicking one who did not react. However it was nights such as this, the cold, freezing rain creating ice upon his bare metal cage, that was not passing fast enough. The pain was persistent, and there was not enough room to exercise to warm up. Not that he felt much like moving.
If they had not tied his tail to his body, things would be different. If metal gloves had not been placed and tied upon his hands, he would certainly be free. The problems would not leave however and to make matters worse, he was naked as to show everyone who passed by just what he had for a body.
Shenyo was an oddity and he knew it. Sometimes he was proud of it, sometimes not. With the body of a human, yet the ears of a cat on his head and a tail normally flowing behind him, he was labeled most often than not a demon. The fur was a beautiful reddish-orange, covering every inch of his six foot tail, along with the ears placed on the top of his head. Those large, pointed ears generally kept themselves nestled within his hair, also of the same color, but in his wet state they had no where to turn for protection.
A crack of lightning lit his body for a few moments, showing his athletic build. There were some muscles, but he had a slender, runner's frame as opposed to that of a body builder. From his perspective, it was wonderfully deceiving.
The fact that he had no bruises, scars, or ugly marks of any kind on any inch of his body raised his price significantly as a slave. The strange species made it skyrocket. The traders made a poor choice however, and overpriced him even considering those traits. It was because of this that he spent the last three weeks stuffed in a cage with little food or water, and with the blood of several guards on his hands.
It was this night in particular, under these terrible conditions, that something surprising happened. A carriage clearly owned by someone noble or simply wealthy showed up, followed by several more carts to carry slaves. Even to Shenyo's eyes it was an oddly large amount of transportation, which meant whoever was doing this wanted to buy a lot of slaves at the same time.
"Strange..." Shenyo commented softly to himself. What is? The voice replied. "Doesn't it seem like they could take everyone if they wanted? There's so many of them." Shenyo spoke back, causing the man nearby to smash his stick against the bars of the cage.
"Shut up in there! Best behavior if you want to get out of the rain!" The large, overweight man yelled. Shenyo merely rolled his eyes, waiting for the voice to continue speaking. Of course, as usual, it did not.
Shenyo could remember the voice from as early as he could remember, which was not very far. It had only been several centuries since the accident, and at that time he was in his late teens. At current day, he judged himself to be around the age of three hundred or so, yet had barely aged a day since. Since that day, the voice had been with him. It rarely spoke, but it certainly did cause problems.
The voice of a woman wrenched him from his thoughts, the smell of flowers forcing itself into his being. Shivers attacked his spine and lifted his spirits a little.
"Little one? Are you there?" The woman's voice cut through the storm, delicate fingers waving at him to try and capture his attention. A giggle came after. "There you are. Did you enjoy your trip? Tell me what your name is, you're an interesting little creature."
Shenyo's eyebrow raised suspiciously of her, and with a little bit of offense. "Little one?" Shenyo replied, looking over the hooded woman. She was much shorter than he was, it was obvious. She was also one of the people who had come from those newly arrived carts and carriages.
"Yes, little one, do you have a name?" She asked again, her voice soft and sweet. The man touring with her spoke before Shenyo could.
"He calls himself Shenyo. Of course names can be changed. This one is a rare breed. He hasn't even been beaten by our men. Soft and delicate, this one is." The older, but better dressed man lied as he held an umbrella over the pair.
In an instant a deep growl came from Shenyo, eyes glaring at the man. "Come in here and say that. I fucking dare you." His teeth were bared, and it was clear he would be ripped to pieces if those bars weren't between them. Of course, they were, and the man only laughed.
"He needs a woman's touch is all, he doesn't like men it seems." This was only evident due to no woman working at a slave camp. If one was to be found, it would be in a cage, not looking over one.
The woman turned to speak with him further, and Shenyo began to tune the two of them out. Despite the interesting experience something else was catching his eye. The people who had entered with her, they were all over the place. Turning around completely and looking through other cages, there was not a single area that didn't have at least one of them.
"Hey, are you going to-" Shenyo began to speak out to the woman, stopped as her hand whipped upwards with a dagger, catching the man in the throat. Tearing it out the other side with a splash of blood upon her cloak, she screamed as if she were being attacked, a piercing noise.
The sudden scream caused the other workers all along to lose attention to who they were talking to, and were caught off guard as all of the hooded figures struck simultaneously. There were few yells, and those that managed to avoid a fatal first blow soon found themselves surrounded and struck down without mercy.
Shenyo took it all in, and the sudden silence that fell over the camp. Then he began to laugh, causing the woman to look back to him curiously.
"Something funny?" She asked curiously, turning back fully to him.
Shenyo merely grinned to her. "You did exactly what I was thinking about doing, if I ever got these gloves off." He replied, raising his hands up to show her. "Mind getting these off by chance? Or are you going to kill us too?" The grin stayed.
The woman laughed, and shook her head. This caused a long, bright pink strand of hair to fall out. "I'm sure you have them on for a reason, and until I know you more you can just stay in your cute bonds."
Shenyo sighed at that, but nodded. What happened after that was a blur. The figures quickly began loading up cages as fast as they could, yet when they came around to his the woman stopped them.
"This one will ride with me. No cage. Take the others and I will meet you back at home. Don't wait for me, I will meet them tomorrow after they are treated and fed." The sweet voice turned into a more stern one yet was pleasant on the ears nonetheless. She was in charge, it would seem.
"So you know my name, what's yours?" Shenyo asked, watching as the other cages continued to disappear.
"Me?" She asked, then laughed. "My, most don't ask for my name, only refer to me as mistress. You may call me anything you would like. My full name is Blossom Sakura, though I do prefer Sakura."
As the last cage left, only one carriage remained, and one last figure waiting on it with the reins in hand. Sakura turned to Shenyo's cage, waving a hand at it as if lazily swatting at a fly. The front bars bent violently, snapping in several places to create an opening for him.
"If you would follow me?" Sakura spoke cheerfully, beckoning him as she began to walk. "It's much warmer in there, I promise. And fairly dry." She added, not looking back as she moved.
She was trusting him, which Shenyo found to be a bit odd. It was true she saved him, but why would he want to go from one captor to another? Stepping out he stretched for the first time in ages, raising his hands far above his head with an accompanying series of cracks along his spine.
Then again, it was cold and wet out. "One condition, you get my tail free. I'll keep the gloves on, but it's painful keeping it like this for so long." To his surprise, she gestured back, the rope around his waist fraying and falling apart.
"Come now, my little one. We have places to be." She called over to him as his tail began to sway from side to side in an attempt to get the kinks out. Looking up he sighed, shook his head, and did what she said. He would put up with it, for now.
The inside of the carriage was beautiful, lined in a wonderfully soft blood red fabric. The seats were better than most beds he had slept on, and in truth it was all he could do to not fall asleep in front of her.
It was when they began moving and she took her hood off, that sleep suddenly vanished from his mind. Sakura was nothing less than perfection. There was hardly a woman he could remember with as much beauty as her. With a face that could stop a man of any species, lower-back length pink hair that looked incredibly soft, and blood red eyes...
Shenyo blinked as he took the last thought into account. Blood red eyes? She was saying something however, and he had missed it again.
"Sorry, what did you say?" He asked, trying to focus on her words this time.
"I said if you're hungry there will be food at my home for you. For now you need only to relax. You seem quite well for a slave. And with those interesting additions on your head and bottom it makes you clearly not mortal. So, my little one, what might you be?"
This was a question Shenyo was hesitant to answer. The truth was he didn't know quite what he was. Was he a demon? It was the best description he could give without seeming insane. The other description included the voice in his head.
"Well, I guess you could call-" Shenyo's voice cut off as Sakura grinned to him. Though he wasn't sure why she did it, it was what he saw that made him hesistant. It made his fear rise up, and suddenly he was no longer quite so confident.
"No no, not again. Not this. Not again!" His voice started soft, slowly rising up as he scrambled to get into the corner opposite of her. To get as far away from her as possible. With a suddenly snap of his tail the door flung open, his body rising up to jump out, regardless of where they were.
In a blur the door closed, and Sakura was on top of him on the seat, straddeling him and pushing his shoulders down with her hands. Despite her small body, she was surprisingly strong.
"No! No more vampires! I can't go through this again!" Shenyo shouted at her, struggling against her. To Sakura's surprise, he was beginning to win. This was until her body pressed down against his own, silken cloak covering both of them, pooling as if it were water all around them. This sudden soft, nice feeling caused him to hesistate, but it was the action after that caused him to stop speaking all together.
Her lips pressed up against his neck, pressing firmly in several different places. Each time send a wave of warmth, of pleasure through him. Despite his hatred, he could not resist it. As those two long fangs sank into his flesh his vision blurred with the sudden explosion of warmth through his being, a soft moan coming out of him followed by a deep purr.
"My word, your blood." She spoke softly, having only bitten him for a few seconds. "I've never tasted anything like it." Without warning, or permission, she bit into him again, keeping him silent as she savored every drop she took from him, until his consciousness faded entirely. His life did not fade, yet it was beginning again. Not as something new, but with someone new. Someone he never would have searched for. A vampire named Sakura.