• Kelsher - Karin Chronicles, Day 35 of the Year of Naming of the Bentri Calendar

    Prologue –Tromainia Forests
    In this world, there is more than meets the eye. Some people live in the lap of luxury. While others struggle to survive in poverty ridden conditions. Nevertheless, there is one common fact that binds the people of this small growing and changing world: the menace of the dreaded Kelsher.
    A young girl and boy run through the deep underbrush. The worn path is lined with ancient tree roots and bushes that scratch and slow the sibling’s journey to their destination, that are even unknown to children. The small boy stumbles and trips. His small and non-athletic body is not made for the ruggedness of the path that his sister, the girl, is pulling him along. He is small, but looks intelligent. His hair and eyes are dark, despite his pale skin, but there is nothing that makes him stands out. She scrambles to pull him before the beast that killed their mother reaches her brother and herself. The Kelsher.
    The Kelsher. The most evil creature in this world, no matter where you go you will hear of it’s evil. Whether it is the swimming water Kelsher that drowns sailors, the cave dwelling Kelshers that snack on unobservant travelers, to the most feared Kelsher of all. The huge monster, the rare, blood-induced insane, and powerful forest Kelsher, bent on only the killing of the few people whose souls might satisfy it’s unstoppable hunger. The Kelsher lives only to steal and ingest the souls of the truly pure and born without the spark that causes humans to commit acts of evil.
    “Dini-sho…please gets up! You must hurry up. The monster will get you too! I cannot lose my only brother and mother in the same night,” the small girl gasps as she hoists her brother up on his feet. She is tall and long, with silky, black hair, that is held together by a small bead near the small of her back and lightly tanned skin. Her bright amber eyes are sad and worried. She is tall, but anorexicaly thin, and very fast and strong. But looking at her confused glance you would know that studying and books are not her specialty. She listens to here if the monster is coming. To her it has no name, for she has never heard of terror this great in her seven years of life.
    The siblings run to the tattered remains of the village they grew up in. The monster had ravaged it before anyone had even known what was going on. It was miracle they were still alive. Everyone else had been killed. They were the only survivors of the Chapin Valley village, the Yopi, of the Tromania territory. The monster, a Kelsher although the girl and boy do not know this, is stalking around the carcasses of the dead villagers, looking for the one with the pure soul that can satisfy its hunger. The twin siblings try to mask their scent but the creature finds them. As it slowly stalks toward them the boy, Dini-sho, is paralyzed by fear. The girl, his sister, picks up an old rusted spear and stands in front of her only living family member.
    She hisses to him ”Dini-sho… run…go into the forest. Get to a new village. Stay there. I will buy you some time. Run!” The moment she says to run he scampers away. He ducks into the forest. He doesn’t look back. His sister was a fool. She would die and he would live. Dini-sho had always lived by only law: take care of yourself only. The girl is holding the spear ready to die if it means that her brother will live to see tomorrow.
    She quickly observes her opponent, looking for a weakness. The huge beast that she has no name for was as large as the large, medicine hut her family had lived in. It had bright red brown hair that glistened in the light of the crescent moon. It had small black eyes that seem to always be staring straight into her soul. It resembled, in body, a large child whose arms were a foot longer than the leg. Its hair was mattered together in clumps held together with dirt and other naturally sticky substances. She realized she was no match for this beast with only a discarded spear.
    Suddenly an unknown person, of whom the likes had never been seen in the village, clothed in deep red robes appeared with a sword. He was tall, with tanned skin, broad shoulders and had dark long hair that he kept in a short ponytail at the nape of his neck. He held his dyed blue broadsword at the same level as his amber eyes. He lunged at the Kelsher with the quickest of human abilities.
    In this, world children with exceptional souls of purity and skills that surpass the normal are recruited to become the international police force, the Karin, which is responsible to destroy the dangerous Kelshers. Some places like, remote places in Tromania, have never had a Kelsher and so they no nothing of the Karin, Kelsher fighters. The Karin is trained to be stronger, faster and smarter than the average man, women, or child. They were unbeatable by other humans except against each other. They traveled the world destroying the Kelshers in order to allow others to live.
    The lung missed as the surprisingly agile beast swerved the robust lung. The unknown man then jumped high in the air to land a hard strike on the Kelsher’s exposed neck. The Kelsher knew he was coming…It swatted its’ hand in the air, like we would a fly, and sent the man flying into the house closest to the small girl whom had been mesmerized by the display of skill and courage.
    She quickly picked up the sword that the unknown man, a Karin, had been holding and decided that she would protect him to protect her brother and honor her late mother’s spirit.
    * * * * * * * * *
    My name is Iruka. I am a Karin assigned to protect the remote regions of the secluded Tromania, a territory near my home country. I do not know anything about the local customs so I have been staying away from the towns. Bad idea on my part, because of this I was unable to save the village that was attacked a few days ago. There is only one survivor. I will now tell how this only survivor saved me.
    I awoke in a strange and small house. I was in a small bed, which I could barely fit in. When I tried to sit up a side splitting pain raced up my body and I uttered a stifled yell. I must of broken several bones when I hit that house before I lost conscious. Even my throat hurt. A few seconds later a small girl with incredibly large amber eyes and long black hair came to me holding a small saucer with a hot cup of tea on it. I drank it with out hesitation due to my overwhelming thirst. The moment I drank it I felt much better. My throat was noticeably better as well. In addition, I could sit up with out aching pains all over my body.
    “What happened? Who killed the Kelsher, that monster? I need to thank them. Also who healed me? Also you may call me Iruka.” I hurriedly asked, in Tromainian (which I should add is not my mother tongue. I speak Naman so I had some trouble translating what to say) and I began to get off the bed and suddenly an even worst pain raced up my body starting in my legs. I let out a strangled cry of indescribably, horrible pain.
    The small girl helped me back into the bed and then incredibly calmly stated, “I took up you sword and slew that beast. I ran right at it and just threw it into its head as hard as I could. The sword was also given strength by the powers of the deceased villagers as I helped avenge their deaths by killing it. But the monster was strong. It was weakened by the blow but not killed. I ran to the ditch where my elder brother and I had been hiding.”
    “There was an herb there when it makes contact with eyes it leaves the one hitten with it temporally blind. I threw it into the monsters face hoping to by some time. When blind and confused it thrust as hard as I could right in the back of it’s neck. It roared in pain but did not die.”
    “I scrambled up into a tree hoping to hide and plan for a second but it was not to be. The monster charged causing me to have to leap from tree to tree to have to avoid it. I turned and yet again thrust the sword into the monster. Hitting it right in the back of the head. Instead of reflecting back, I dug the sword ever deeper. Finally, the monster fell its life and blood on my hands.
    My mother was the local healer and I healed you. This is my home.” There was nothing about her that hinted she was lying, any one could see it her eyes. She was not bragging or even taking pride in what she had done. She looked sad and disappointed. Her eyes were filled with the same loneliness that haunted the eyes of some of the Karin.
    “I’m all alone now. There is no one else you can talk to if you don’t believe me,” she stated with almost no emotion. There was no emotion in her voice but in her eyes, there was a sadness I had never even imagined possible.
    “You should sleep now. You need to heal faster and you will if you sleep. I will get you… Iruka, a sleeping potion to make it deeper and better for healing. I’ll be right back.” She left the room and went into a smaller room off to the left.
    I was amazed. A young girl, about six or seven, being so independent and honor-filled that she won’t allow herself to cry and mourn her family and village and protect her lousy guest whose job was to have protect them and failed. I was amazed by her sensibility and saddened by it. A girl her age should not be like this. If I had been her, I would have been crying my eyes out.
    When she returned I inquired of her” What’s your name?” as she handed me a warm bubbly drink that I quickly drowned.
    “Go to sleep. My name is Kimimi-Aiwa of the Yon Clan. You may call me just Kimi through.” She replied. I heard those last words before I drifted into unconsciousness.