Luminous Assassin

Ferdula,Town of the Gildons

Karina, a Gildon child at the age of five, played with the glowing butterflies in her mother's garden. Her pale-white skin shone under the rays of the burning sun and her white hair swayed as she leaped from one point to another, following the direction where the glowing butterflies were heading.

Gildons, with the least population in the land of Nivrata, were the only creatures with the human-like appearance except for their eyes that glows in the dark.

Karina's family lived far from the center of Ferdula, down to the forest , for peaceful living away from the Nuskars who were ruling over the entire Nivrata.

The Nuskars, who were greedy and merciless, pledged to do no harm to the Gildons and other creatures as long as they obey them and be their servants.

Karina went deep to the forest and thought she was lost. She heard the cacophony of the howling wolves and screams of the red crows.

The noise in the forest filled the air as she ran back to their house with heart beating fast and thoughts of the forest eating her.

She almost reached the opening of the forest but her foot hit a log that made her fall down into the bush meters away from their house. Feeling the pain of her broken ankle, she never cried and remembered what her mother always said to her.

"A strong woman never cries because of pain but of joy and happiness, Karina."

The young Gildon child forced her tears to not fall down despite the sensation of burning pain in her knees and arms.

She heard a loud snarling sound and screams that point to the direction of their house and peeked in through the blank spaces in the bush. She saw four Nuskars , with sharp teeth and moss green skin slashing the flesh of her father.

Her mother was emplaced in the ground with bleeding head and visible flesh in the legs – unable to move and her cries punched Karina's heart repeatedly.

Nilda, Karina's sister with the age of two, cried to death with blood all over her tiny body watching her parents eaten by the ferocious creatures.

Scared and helpless, Karina cried silently in the bush covering her mouth to not make any sound, witnessing the death of her family. Her tears unstoppably flowed from her weary eyes and forgot what her mother used to say whenever she cries.

The Nuskars continued devouring her family's organs until only the heads remained.

After doing such heinous massacre, the monsters vanished in a snap, leaving only silence and dead bodies.

Karina was hesitant of going out from the bush, fearing the Nuskars might come back and eat her. She saw red crows landing on her sister's body, triggering her anger and jumped from the bush, ran to where her sister was emplaced and scared the crows with her small voice.

Her tears fell again upon seeing her family closer, with blood covering their shattered bodies and eyes remained open like watching the sky and asking for help. She kneeled down, with thoughts of abhor and anger.

Her innocence was jeopardized and stained with such inexpiable incident.

Silence dominated the surroundings while dusk slowly covered the sky and the forest. She didn't know the way to the Nivrata to ask for help from the other creatures, except for the monsters that killed her family.

She stayed outside the house, helplessly watching a group of Agris (vultures with snake head) finishing the lying corpses in front of her. She was weak, impuissant, silent, and hungry.

She took her blanket and waited for the Agris to go away, stared at the sky, watching the stars twinkling.

She was jealous of the stars, they're far, safe from the greedy creatures.

The Agris flew away after seeing a Grimp ( a deer with eagle wings) landing few meters away from the house.

Karina moved the corpses together and covered them with the blanket she took inside the house. She didn't uttered a word but did a ritual she made herself and asked the forest wisps to guard her family's corpses.

After doing the ritual, she made herself cocooned in a blanket her mother made. She fell asleep and made an oath to herself, that one day she will make the Nuskars pay more than what they did to her family.

She slept with nothing but despair and anger in her heart, wishing that she could turn back time and save her family.