Lailah laid back on a couch. She lay on her side, her haed propped up with one hand. Her tail flicked back and forth behind her. She was gazing into a crystal bauble on a small table near the couch. She could see children running around laughing, and collecting their holiday sweets. She knew they would not come to her home. The thought made her grin, her sharp canines glimmering in the dim light. She rolled onto her back, knees sticking up in the air. She knew they would not come. They hadn't come all her life. The people in the village below wanted nothing to do with her.
Lailah was named after an angel. How ironic. Her mother had been a young human girl, and her father, a demon. The result had been her. Lailah was thin, and very attractive. This, according to the villagers below, was so that she was able to lure any man to her. Her skin was a deep tan. Her hair was very thick, waist length and brilliant fire-red. Her eyes were large and black, and if one looked into them too long, they could see fires dancing. She had two small horns placed atop her head. Her teeth were brilliant white, and her canines long, sharp fangs. Her ears were slightly pointed, and pierced three times in one ear, and five in the other. Her legs were long, with strong thighs. And her tail... It was long, with a spike at the end. And she had powers... She could set things ablaze with only a thought. And she could move things with her mind. But the fire was her favourite thing.
She wore a barely concealing outfit. The top was only a thin leather wrap that covered her chest with strings holding it in place, and the bottom a leather skirt ripped off at the very upper thigh. She wore black boots to her knees. The villagers were frightened of her, and they found her clothing disgusting. But they did not bother her, and she did not bother them. She lived in a giant, empty mansion on a hill above the village. From where she was, she could look down upon the entire village. It was one night, one dark autumn night when someone for the first time in turns knocked on her door.
Knock, Knock, Knock
Lailah was startled. Her grin disappeared quickly. She jumped up from her couch and smoothed her hair. She reached out towards the fireplace and suddenly a bright fire was roaring. She waved the hand around in a circle, and various candles set around the room sparked on. The house was always hot, the way she liked it. And normally it was dark. But now, a visitor! She grinned again, and glided across the room. She pulled on a hooded floor-length black cloak, and pulled up the horn over her head. She crossed to the door and gracefully pulled it open.
"Demon! You have slain our children to feed upon their blood! For this, you will die and burn in Hell where you came from and where you belong!" Outside of her door stood a river of villagers, each bearing a fire-lit torch. Lailah stood calmly, leaning seductively against the door frame. She grinned slightly, and detected a slight unease in the man who led them. She spoke then, in a silky smooth flitting voice.
"What makes you believe that I would kill your children to drink their blood? I am a demon, not a vampire." There was a slight murmer. The amn in the front glanced around at his followers. He glared at her.
"Demon! For killing our children you shall die!" He whipped out a wooden crusifix and flung it at her. It struck her cheek, cutting it open and burning her skin. She hissed, howled and slid from the door. The man cried out in triumph, and the mob roared their approval. Lailah turned on the mob, her fangs shining in the firelight. She uttered a screech, anger and terror in her eyes. She had done nothing to them! She had lived for seventeen turns in that home, alone! And this was how they treated her? Her eyes burned. She knew from experience that they were turning from night black to blood red. She hissed again, and then thrust forward both hands. Fire spun forth and lit ablaze. But it was not the people she aimed at. She would never hurt another human, no matter how they treated her. No, she aimed at her own home. The mansion she had lived in for all of her life, she now deliberately set ablaze. The mob turned toward it, amazed. She watched for a split second, and then raced away in to the blackness.
Stupid people. She hated them, sometimes. She had never done anything to anyone, and now here she was. Alone, cold in the woods. Naturally, she was warm-blooded. She got cold quicker than other people. It was nearly mid-night, and she was wearing nothing but her cloak and her...outfit. She sighed, and decided to slip into something more comfortable. She stood, still, listening for anyone coming near. Her hearing got much sharper, and clearer. And she could hear things moving farther away now. She felt her ears shifting, and they moved to the top of her head. Her nose pushed forward slightly, moving her eyes apart. She felt her fangs grow, and at the same time, her fingernails changed to sharp claws. They retracted into the pads that had been her hands and feet. She felt the bones of her arms and legs shorten, and her knee joints reversed. She felt the base of her spine extend to form a tail, and then she fell forward onto her feet. She stretched her back, and her eyes became clearer. She could see much better in the dark now. And then came the fur. Her favourite part of this shape. The thick, night black fur rippled across her body, starting at her ears and moving to the tip of her tail. She grinned, and flicked her tail. And then she began to race through the woods, unsure of where she was going.
Lailah woke up the next morning, in her normal shape. She sighed. She really enjoyed the shape-shifting she inherited from her father. She looked around. She was near a pond. She looked in it, and saw shapes swimming beneath the surface. She held up one hand, and watched as it grew long cat claws and thick pads. When her arm was fully changed, she changed her eyes. She took the eyes of the eagle, that majestic bird that could see from miles away the fish under the water. She focused them on a fat fish, her tongue running over her fangs. She waited, patiently. And then....
CRASH! Lailah jumped, and her transformed appendages disappeared. She whipped around. The mob! They had found her! She stood, as they spotted her. She ran, changing as she went. Her thoughts raced. What could she use to get away? The first thing she thought of were wings. She grew them as fast as she could, large, feathered wings. The rest of her body changed too, into a giant eagle. She lifted from the ground with a screech, insanely mad with the people below her. She rose higher and higher. And then, there it was. So fast she had no time to react. The arrow came zinging through the air, and struck her wing. She screeched, and looked back at the people. They were waiting, hate in their eyes for her to fall. She threw her talons forward, and focused with all her might. The trees around them exploded in flames, and they no longer cared about her. They were running around screaming, trying to get out. No, she would never deliberately kill anyone. She was not like that. And there was this little problem of the arrow in her wing...
She spiraled down, trying not to flap. SHe lit on the ground, and transformed back to herself. The arrow fell harmlessly to the ground, and she picked it up. It was shrewdly made. She snapped it in half, suddenly furious that such a piece of...JUNK could have grounded her eagle form. She wondered where to go now...
And suddenly, an image flashed into her mind. A picture of a giant thing... The word 'Weyr' floated into her mind. From inside the Weyr she saw large forms... 'Dragons'. This was where she was supposed to go? A place with Dragons? She heard the voice in her head again. Sweet, twinkling, like silver bells.
"Sweet daughter. Look at the people there! There, you will be welcomed. There, you can bond a Dragon. Just go, get away from those horrible people." Lailah thanked her mother mentally, looking up to the sky above. Keeping the picture of the Weyr in her mind, she changed to an eagle and flew.
She landed much later at the Weyr. It was called something about a Healing Den... She walked among others, strange like her. And she was happy. Because she had met a dragon. And he had told her to stay... and to become a candidate. She knew that here she would fit. She was given a tour, and ushered to a basket of eggs almost immediately. She waited patiently, with meat in hand. When one finally hatched, she smiled, her fangs glinting in the light. She tossed it some meat. It's hide was red, reminding her of how she was. Red. Like fire. Like a demon. Like her father. Like her. What a pair they made.
"What's his name?" asked someone nearby.
"Cerberus," she replied. She took him away. It was then that it occured to her that someone had spoken to her, and not been mean or afraid. Maybe she truly was welcome here.
