Chapter One; Of Colossal Spectres and Loud Silences

Silence pierced the foreign city of Albia as a cloaked vixen made her way through the rim of trees encircling the enclosed city. The night was so young and so tender, a pathetic fallacy to the existing romantics still awake by this hour.

Juno landed on a seemingly strong tree branch as silently as the passing wind. As her slanted, undaunted eyes covered each exposed corner, her ears and her senses compensated for those thatare invisible to the eye. Her experience was shown through the great cooperation between her mind and body; both given aspects worked in sync thus as a result she had a sharp mind as well as she is also a very nimble combat practitioner, evidently so as she managed to score an evacuating rabbit within a couple of seconds.

Proud, she hopped off the branch and headed towards her hunting prize. Juno had learnt the basics in surviving when she was young and when she was 12, she was taught even further survival necessities by Experience itself. She held the rabbit by its neck as she sauntered off to grab the required equipment for a fire.

Once she had gathered the right equipment for a fire and found a just accommodation for the night, she settled down and began to working process to making a fire. Gradually, Juno was able to relax after being able to create a fire and freeing the rabbit from its thick layer of fur and skin.

As she was left with nothing to occupy her mind, she began evaluating the little information she obtained through eavesdropping.

The first information she found out about the wandering prince was that he currently resided in Albia according to another messenger the Queen often sends rather than Juno, however he was later on diseased and passed away rather tragically considering his youthful age hence why she replaced him. So, Juno made it her mission to search Albia for the missing prince and return back to Turia as quickly as possible, tomorrow evening being the latest time.

Juno laid on her back to the ground with her arms crossed behind her head. She watched as the stars twinkled before her eyes and for a moment she allowed to free her mind from her mission and dwelt with her curious mind.

In her memories laid equal amount of fragments of moments which her and Luhan- a man and no other kind in her own perspective- shared together until he left for good. Her expression remained unmoving as she stumbled upon the heart shredding blames for his departure which were embedded in her mind. Not once had she forgotten that she was the cause of his suffering, perhaps until now if he remained true to his feelings.

Closing her eyes, a chuckle elicited from Juno's lips. She shouldn't be questioning the past any longer, especially when it's been resolved and although isolating her from her very own happiness was the only solution, regardless of her stubborn aspect of love, it was the only thing that could save him so she had to go along with the process of heartbreak.

As the night became tender, Juno slept away and temporarily flew to a hidden Utopia created by her mind. Even in her dreams, she regularly exercised the torture of re-living moments with Luhan because as sad as it is, he was the only definition of ever being sincerely happy to her.

Blood and its mysterious ways is not only ironic to the tongue but also to its control over a creature. Through Luhan, she realised the importance of blood of which she carelessly bled out during the time, oblivious of the great vulnerability it came with exposing it.

Like love, blood is bittersweet. For creatures like Luhan, blood decided whether he would live or not. It is the nucleus of his own existence and he was only a cell which wandered about with a purpose of keeping his empire's prestige. Juno was aware of the reason as to why blood was greatly yearned to their kind hence why she merely overlooked the arousing pain every time Luhan sought for hers'.

At that time, they were both aware of the impossible ending they were both chasing: the acceptance from both races they were both so jailed about gaining. For them, it didn't seem exceptionally difficult having one another to rely on; they both gave and received solace from each other.

Having someone close to your heart gave a person a vast amount of strength to keep that person. It's an experience that can hold onto a dead man's soul beside his undying love.

Love in a way is similar to pain; it exposes your true virtues and it reminds you of your will to live, it makes you stronger, similarly as how it is often short-lived. An undying love is just as rare as an undying pain because with undying love comes undying pain.

Juno awoke hours after a peaceful slumber. She was awakened by hysteric laughters which seem to surround her. Scavengers, she thought upon hearing the dark series of cackles muting the morning silence and smelling the highly concentrated scent of soil and sun in each body.

Previously, Juno had encountered scavengers during a duty that was set earlier. She learnt that it was best to escape stealthily rather than putting up a fight with them. Scavengers were insane, usually of a tribe, beings that hunted for food in the outskirts where animals are often found. They were the kind that adults would tell their young to scare them away from trouble.

As stated earlier, Scavengers were insane and with insanity came the inability to sense the obvious. Juno remained silent as she was carried and lead into their territory. She remained limp under their watchful gazes, at the same time planning a legitimate escape.

When they were not looking, Juno would open her eyes and study the setting. Unexpectedly, she landed in a hideaway beneath the soils of the forest and there were two openings. One was a trap on the ceiling which led to a bed of pointed arrows potentially coated with lethal drugs that drowns the heart with death and the second was through a cave hole which was farther.

Juno was left with no choice but to escape through the trap, but before all of that excitement, she had to free herself from the ropes which kept her bound to a boulder. She steadied the beat of her heart- a great mistake the ordinary seem to forget during survival situations- and reached for her blade which remained in the hidden holster beneath her trousers.

The Scavengers were nowhere to be seen, which made escaping easier for Juno. Upon reaching her blade, she freed herself and proceeded with her plan. She used the narrowly spaced walls encasing the trap to support her from falling onto the lethal trap just beneath her gateway to freedom.

Juno ran to the wall to build up the spring for a lengthy jump she had to leap to get onto the wall. She first landed her right foot onto the right wall, not wasting a risky second to drop and be as good as dead before moving onto the other wall. She did this continuously before she reached the very top.

Thankfully, the Scavengers were as mentally ill which provided an easy access to escaping them. Juno dusted her clothes after heaving herself up from the hole she just came out from. Suddenly, she stopped as the sound of rustling leaves was detected by her ears.

She looked up to meet nothing and feel nothing, the presence of the coming was heavily concealed which gave away its nature: it was of her Queen's kind- a vampire.

Juno narrowed her eyes and took a couple of steps away from the trap. She held onto her blade while her other hand was held up for defence. The level of deceiving absence of the new-comer was far too great to be mistaken as an effortless battle for Juno.

She was patient for the revelation of her new company, a curse building up at the tip of her tongue at her misfortune encounters the first time she set foot on a foreign city.

Perhaps it was a mistake going as an individual at all, but then again, if she chose differently she would have been paired with Kris and going individual is just as good, perhaps even more efficient, as proceeding with the given task in pairs with that egoistical retard.

Juno frowned and since the new-comer was not giving any signs of stepping away from its mask, she decided fleeing was the best option.

*******

“It's a woman.” Kai's voice filled the gaps of nature's continuous silence.

They were both relying on a grand tree to see the owner of the colossal spectre who sported a strong scent of their own motherland with a hint of a rather minty, fresh scent that the only explanation as to how that scent was obtained was through usual exposure to nature's fresh breath and sea breezes. In other words, a messenger.

Moroii is known for its highly prestigious, uniformed army that heavily guarded its walls. Under its rules, the Queen has demanded that only tradesmen and those who are given special admission to a return passage in and out of her mothering city was allowed outside Moroii, namely messengers.

Kai smirked at his instant developing of conclusion about the source of the presence. He was nimble on his feet and sharp in his mind, over all Kai was only second to Sehun who was specially trained and genetically inherited an immaculate set of DNA from his mother and father.

“Get rid of it before it even comes close.” Sehun was cold and rather bitter about the meaning behind a messenger tailing after him, for it was the limiting factor he had to reaching the lifestyle he has always yearned for: absolute normality.

On the other hand, Kai was rather intrigued by his latest finding. The source immediately flew to take refuge in a temporary sanctuary, probably due to the wrong signal he previously gave off earlier.

Vampires and those who are well informed about the kind are aware that almost everything that exist have a presence and it is impossible to hide that certain signal which gives away signs of life. Vampires, however, are able to mute their presence into absolute nought to conceal their presence from their enemies; it is a skill often taught to their kind only. Similarly, Vampires could also unveil their presence to intimidate the opposing side and this could often lead to the opposing side showing immense vulnerability if not on par with their enemy.

That was the single variable that gave away Juno's occupation: her ability to evaluate her surroundings and her quick reaction to finding the meaning behind the loss of presence when clearly life is present, or a physically-abled creature is. Kai purpose made the noise and muted his presence to test Juno's sense of awareness and considering she was very much hyper-aware also she had a rather distinct scent, Kai was able to conclude everything and muster up a simple profile for Juno.

“With pleasure.” Kai responded before heading off to find his company for the day.