Welcome to Gaia! ::

Fire split the air, lightning whipped the earth, and rain hammered upon his broad shoulders. The wind grasped at his dark clothing. The man was dressed in complete black. Black hair, with long locks fell about his neck, ears, and forehead. His golden, red flecked eyes squinted in the face of the howling wind. A dark collar clasped to his neck, the symbol of a blood red bat, wings spread wide, upon it. He wore a tight black shirt, with a blue blade drawn upon it, the hilt separating the halves of his chest. A black long jacket, like a trench coat covered clung to his shoulders and back with a fierce embrace. Upon the back of the jacket was etched a golden fire. The pants that we wore were black leather, with two pockets at the top of each one. Upon each pocket was the design of a serpent’s maw. Black leather boots, with black steel tips covered his feet.
The man’s muscles were tensed, revealing a well defined, but not large, build. In his left hand he grasped a scale; each end was weighed down with a crystal dagger. In his other hand, rested a silver longsword. The golden eyes were focused across the field in which he stood. Lips drawn into a snarl, the handsome face was marred with hate. His white teeth seemed perfectly normal… if one was to discount the two fangs in his mouth.
The object of his rage was a large, hairy beast. It stood on two, powerful, legs. The animal was extremely huge. Each one of its legs was as thick as a tire is round. The arms were almost as large. A tail swished in the wind, flicking away rain with each pass. Instead of a face, the creature had a muzzle, with two wolf-like ears and eyes. Its expressive lips were also drawn back into a snarl, one as intense at that on the man’s.
Without a warning, the two of them started to charge. The man threw the scales up in the air, and caught the daggers as the fell, and in the same smooth motion, hurled them at the werewolf. They struck true; each embedded itself into the animal’s chest.
With the reverse effect as the man was planning, the dagger’s only served to increase its rage, and it’s furry. As the man and wolf headed to a near collision, the man jumped at the last second, doing a front flip over the werewolf, his blade thrust down, piercing the beast’s back. The animal howled out in anguish.
As soon as his feet touched the ground, the man jumped forward once again, as the werewolf pushed its arms into the ground, and slashed with its back legs. Realizing its failed attack, the werewolf spun with inhuman speed, its right arm swinging in a hook at empty air. “Vampire!” The werewolf cried as he missed his target. “Come and fight an honorable battle!”
“You want it? Then I’ll give it to you.” The vampire ducked as the werewolf turned and slashed at him. Then, putting his silver blades cross guard to his shoulder, he pushed off the ground with his legs, using all the strength he had.
As considerably heavy as the werewolf was, the two of them were propelled ten feet into the air by the vampire’s powerful jump. As the two of them came back down to the ground, there was the sound of the snapping of bones as they landed.
The werewolf was dead, and the vampire stood on its chest. Planting himself, the vampire pulled the sword from the dead body. As it easily slid free, the vampire had to stop to examine its intricacies.
The blade was a total of three feet long, not including the hilt, and four inches wide. Masterfully forged onto the blade, there were five vines, weaving their way up the blade. At regular intervals, the vines sprouted thorns, which would be virtually painless going into a body, but coming out, it would scratch up everything it didn’t already slash through. Just beneath the tip, the flower was indented into the blade. Its cross guard was designed to look like the vines had fused at the beginning of the blade, and had come from the cross guard. The hilt was wired with black leather grips, so that the wielder could grip it more easily. At the bottom, the counterweight was a budding flower.
The vampire glanced down at the werewolf, his face curiously void of emotion. Taking the blade, he set it against the design of a sword on his shirt, and the blade disappeared, and the blue sword on his shirt became a perfect, but smaller, replica of the one he had used to slay the wolf. After he had done this, he raised his face to the rain, and let out a primal scream of triumph.

Shrugging, Halberd walked over to the door of his room, and opened it slowly. He drifted down the hall on silent feet, making not a sound. He turned at the first door on his right, opened that one. Inside was a set of stairs, which went up to the top of the eight story apartment building. He climbed the four sets of stairs that led to the roof, needing some fresh air.
When he was on the roof, he looked around. He was surrounded by much taller buildings, as well as several other apartment buildings. On the roof were the classic necessities of a building, like the venting system, and the chimney from the lobby on each floor of the building.
Still in a discontent mood, he walked over to a railing, looking down at the streets below, already busy with activity at 6:00 in the morning. Halberd watched as the cars and the people passed by the building, none of them taking the time to look up and see their silent observer. None of them taking the time to enjoy the darkness and the chill air only enjoyed at this time of the day.
Halberd stayed leaning against the railing, until the sun started to rise. As soon as the first pale purple and pink lights spread across the horizon, Halberd could feel his strength being sapped. He could feel it leaving his body. Halberd nonetheless stayed on the roof until he could see the sun, and when he could, he could feel his skin begin to blister. Groaning in pain, he turned from the light, and ran back inside the building.
Once he was safely away from the burning light, sat down on one of the stairs, hands in his head. He hated light, but that was the one of the few things that made him forget about being and orphan.
After he was inside, he moved over to a desk, piled with papers and books. All the papers were what he had written, and all the books were books he’d already read. Halberd was looking for something, and he had a general idea of what he was researching, but for the oddest reason, he could never exactly recall what it was that he wanted to know.

Rain fell gently across Halberd’s face, cooling the pain from his earlier contact with the sun. Each drop was a caress, as intimate as a lover’s touch. Halberd loved the rain. It fell without thought, for it could not think. It cleansed all if fell upon.
A terrified shout disrupted his thinking, coming from the alley below him. Halberd looked over the edge of the roof that he was on. Down below, three men were gathered around a human lying on the ground.
Despite being a vampire, and the council of the elders to not get involved with the humans, Halberd swung his legs over the railing, and fell the thirty feet down to the ground. He made not a sound as he fell, nor as he hit the ground.
“You might want to leave whoever that is alone; it’s unhealthy to pick on others.” Halberd’s voice was lazy, and drawn out. “Didn’t you know that? Somebody might be around to protect the innocent that you’re trying to defile.”
The three men turned at the sound of his voice. Each was dirty, covered in muck and worse. One of the men wore a beard, but the others were shaven, and clean faced.
“Yeah, well, there’s still only one person able to defend themselves around here, yeah?”
“You mean me? I think you fools should be concerned with your own health right now.” Halberd put his hand to his chest, ready to summon his silver sword to fight.
“Did you hear that?” The bearded man asked his companions. “This man thinks he can take us.”
“Think?” Halberd interjected. “I know that I can have all of you flat on your backs right this second, and still not have even stressed a muscle.” Halberd yawned. “This talk is beginning to bore me. Why don’t you just try to fight me? It would make things so much faster, and I would be able to say it was in self-defense. That is, if anybody cares that you louts are beaten and bruised. Not even a mother could love such ugly faces.”
“That’s enough from you!” Shouted out one of the men, pulling out a switch blade. “I’ll fix you!” The same man charged, his switch blade leading the way.
The man’s progress stopped when Halberd brought out his hand, and a shimmering light surrounded it. In his hand appeared his silver, vine covered sword. “You should think that move over again, I doubt your knife is a match for mine.”
The three men looked around the alley stupidly, and then walked over to a trash can, each of them pulling out some iron rods.
This left Halberd free to glance at their victim. He started when he did. It was a girl, not much younger then him, with glorious golden hair, and beautiful brown eyes. Her stunning face was marred with terror, several cuts, and some bruises.
An indescribable anger swept across Halberd, and he took a step towards the turned backs of this girl’s harassers. With effort, he controlled himself, and stayed his hand, allowing the three men to surround him.
“You plan on coming at me anytime soon?” Halberd asked the tip of his blade set in the ground.
“Quiet!” It was the bearded one again. “We’ll teach you to mess with us.” The three of them charged Halberd simultaneously. Halberd slid his foot backwards, and brought his sword up to his right, cutting the iron rod in the bearded man’s hands. He reached out with his left hand, and caught the rod of the second man. The man behind him was stupid enough to swing horizontally, so he ducked under that, and let the rod connect to the man on his left. Quick as lightning, his left foot shot out, and connected with the man who had just received a blow. He let go as that man fell. The he turned to slice at the man behind him, who just barely managed to get out of range. The bearded man just sat looking stupidly at his bar.

Halberd knelt down in front of her. “Will be you alright now, lady?” He felt concern for her at that moment, and he could feel himself being drawn into her eyes.
The girl rose to her feet, brushing her hair out of her face, as well as some of the blood. “I’ll be fine, thanks to you. What’s your name?” She asked.
“You want to know my name?” Halberd laughed. “I’ll tell only if you tell me yours.”
“Alright, you have a deal. My name is Ra’Shae.” The girl stared him in the eyes, her head cocked to the side.
“I’ll take that deal. You can call me Halberd.” He said, grinning.
He realized his mistake when her eyes shot to his mouth, or more importantly, his fangs. “You’re a vampire.” She stated, falling back against the wall.
“Yeas, I am.” Halberd said. “Do you have a problem with that?” He challenged her. Though he couldn’t say why, her fear of him ripped at his soul.
Ra’Shae recovered her posture, and pushed herself off from against the wall. “No, I don’t. I just… You’re lying, aren’t you? There aren’t any such things as vampires.”
“You can tell that to those three over there, if you feel like it.” Halberd said angrily. Again, he couldn’t quite place his finger on it, but her denial stung him. “I am a vampire.” Halberd raised his chin defiantly. “What are you going to do about it?”
Ra’Shae looked into his eyes, and he began to feel like he could just stand there and stare into the deep brown pools of emotion that were her eyes. She reached out, and then let her hands fall to her side.
“I don’t know what I’m going to do about it.” Ra’Shae couldn’t seem to take her eyes off of him. “I do know what I’d like to do about it, though.” Her voice was suddenly much quieter, much richer, and it set to making Halberd’s knees tremble.
“What’s that?” Halberd asked intently, taking a step forwards.
In response, Ra’Shae reached out her hand, and took his own. Her hand seemed so delicate in his powerful grasp, and he suddenly wanted to pull her close against him.
“I’d like to thank you.” She answered, stepping closer to him, and slipping her hand out of his, only to replace it, and her other hand around his waist. “For saving me from those men.”
Halberd felt his pulse quicken, and he looked down at her eyes, oblivious to everything else around him. The rain falling down around them seemed to slow, and his thoughts ceased. He could see her moving in closer, eyes closed now, and feel her hands and arms around him.
Ra’Shae’s lips found his cheek, touching his lips at their corners. Halberd felt his arms move, one finding its place in her hair, and the other falling in place around her waist. Slowly, taking her time, Ra’Shae slid her lips to the side, until they found Halberd’s and she had her lips pressed to his.
Halberd lost track of time for a while after that, feeling only her hands, and her lithe body pressed into his, and her soft lips against his own.
With a tremendous effort, Halberd pushed her back to arms length.

Halberd opened the door to his apartment and slammed the door behind him when he walked in. Century lay at one of the couches, his face buried in a book.
“Would you please not slam the door? It hurts my ears.” Century said without looking up.
“Whatever.” Halberd replied in a dead tone of voice. “Does it matter?”
“Of course it does. Would I ever get anything done if you kept breaking the door?” Century’s voice was light and airy; no concern touched his lazy voice.
“I don’t care about what you do!” Halberd yelled, walking over to star down at the window. “It doesn’t matter anymore…” He muttered, looking down at the street below, watching cars and trucks drive by.
“Whoa, calm down man.” Century closed his book and turned to look at Halberd’s back. “What’s eating you right now?”
“I revealed myself.” Halberd answered, still not turning to look at Century.
“Why’d you do something that stupid?” Century asked his voice puzzled.
“There were three human men, beating up on someone else while I was sitting on a roof, enjoying the rain.” Halberd took a steadying breath, his anger becoming almost livid when he remembered what those men had been doing to Ra’Shae. “I dropped down and fought them.” Halberd turned to look at Century. “It was a girl that they’d been trying to beat on.” Halberd told Century, his voice filled with anger.
“Was she human?” Century inquired concern on his face.
“Yes, of course.” Halberd responded. “She was so beautiful.” Halberd turned back to the window, staring at the rain and the clouds. “She kissed me.” He said simply.
“She kissed you?!” Century burst out. “She actually kissed you?”
“Yes she did. You have a problem with that?” Halberd answered absently, he seemed lost, staring out into the rain.
Halberd heard Century sigh. “Yes I have a problem with that. Do you know what the elders would do to you if they found out that you kissed a human girl?”
“I don’t care. Besides, she was the one who kissed me, didn’t I say that?” Halberd turned to Century. “You forget your place sometimes, Century.”
“I forget my place?” Century asked angrily. “Do you know what I’ve sacrificed to obey the elders? Do you know what I gave to watch over you?” Century always used this argument against Halberd when he was feeling rebellious. It wouldn’t work this time.
“Do you think I care?” Halberd shouted at Century. “Do you think I give a damn for what some old vampire says, when we live just barely under a hundred miles away from them?” Halberd walked over to his desk, and picked up one of the books. It was written by one of the elders. “Do you know what I’ve been through? You’re a pureblood, and so you’ve been accepted by all of the other vampires. Do you know what some of the purebloods have done to me?” Halberd placed the book down, and walked over to the window again. “Don’t talk to me about sacrifice. You don’t understand the meaning of the word.”
Halberd felt Century’s eyes on his back. “You’re right; I don’t understand what you’ve been through. I don’t know what happened between you and that human girl, but I do understand some of it.” Century’s voice paused. “You didn’t blood that girl, did you?”
Halberd shook his head. “No, I didn’t. She offered her neck to me though.” Halberd closed his eyes, remembering each sensation he had felt with her. It was something wonderful, but it could turn into something horrible if it happened at the wrong time.
“Good.” Century asserted after Halberd answered him. “Now you know what you should do? You should forget all about that girl, and move on. You know as well as I do that human’s and vampires don’t mix so well.”
“They don’t do they?” Halberd asked. “Then explain why I’m here today.” He turned to face Century once again. “You can’t can you. Don’t talk to me.”
Century’s red eyes were opened wide with shock. “What happened to you?”
“I don’t know.” Halberd muttered to himself. “I really don’t know.” Halberd turned on his heels, and walked over to his room, closing the door behind him. He didn’t want Century to see him cry.

“Hey stranger,” A voice called to Ra’Shae. “If you keep running off like that, I’ll never be able to ask you why you’ve been so distracted lately.”
It was Alicia, her life long friend. She walked over to Ra’Shae, wearing her trademark blue headband, black, unmarked shirt, green long skirt, and white boots. Her pretty face was covered with good natured concern
“That’s the whole point.” Ra’Shae muttered under her breath. “I don’t want to talk about it, Alicia.” Ra’Shae told Alicia, after raising her voice.
“You’ve avoided me for a whole week, Ra’Shae; I think we need to talk.”
“Please, just leave me alone.” Ra’Shae begged. Ra’Shae could feel tears in her eyes, and she knew that her voice had sounded weak and wounded.
“Not this time.” Alicia said a touch of iron in her voice this time. “I’ve let you get away for a week; I think we need to talk.”
“Please…” Ra’Shae trailed off, knowing it was pointless. “What do you want to know?”
“First off, what happened last week?” Alicia reached out, and forced Ra’Shae to look up at her, eye to eye. Alicia’s rich green eyes were filled with concern.
“I… I almost got raped.” Ra’Shae told her friend in a trembling tone.
Alicia gasped. “You’re alright though, right? Nothing happened.”
“It would have happened, were in not for him.” Ra’Shae stressed the word him.
“Who’s this ‘him’?” Alicia asked Ra’Shae. “What did he do that made you so lost to this world?”
“He saved me.” Ra’Shae responded to the prompt. “He fell down the roof of a four story building and challenged the three men to fight him. One of the men pulled a switch knife when Halberd held out his hand and…” She stumbled on the words. She didn’t want to sound like she was just making things up, and so she didn’t finish the sentence.
“So is Halberd this ‘him’?” Alicia interrogated. “What did he do?”
“Yeah, Halberd was his name.” Ra’Shae walked over to another set of flowers, to smell their fragrances. “He… Called a sword out of mid air.” She answered.
“What?” Alicia asked incredulously. “How could he do that?”
Ra’Shae could sense the doubt in Alicia’s voice and sighed. “I don’t know.”
“Are you sure of what you saw?”
“Not entirely. It all seems like such a dream.” Ra’Shae looked over at her friend.
“Do you want to know what I did after he beat up those thugs?” Her voice was mischievous as she looked impishly at Alicia.
“What did you do?” Alicia responded to the prompt, a grin on her face.
“I kissed him.” Ra’Shae turned back to a red rose and reached up to smell the rose, but on the way, she pricked her finger on a thorn, and her finger started to bleed.
“No.” Alicia gasped. “What was it like?” She asked glad to finally find a topic not so depressing to her friend.
“I don’t think I can really describe it.” Ra’Shae replied. “It was meant so much to me. He walked over to me after dropping those other men, and looked at me. His golden, red flecked eyes stared deeply into mine, and he asked if I was alright.”
“What did you tell him?”
“I told him I’d be fine, thanks to him, and then I asked his name.” Ra’Shae looked over at section of the gardens with the trees. “He said only if you tell me yours. I said alright, and told him. He told me to call him Halberd.” Ra’Shae stopped to sigh. “Then he grinned at me and I saw that he had fangs.”
Alicia gasped. “You mean fangs like a vampire?” Alicia was a big vampire fanatic, and she’d always said that she knew that vampire’s were real. “I’m jealous.”
“If you believe in vampires, why don’t you believe in him just pulling a sword out of thin air?” Ra’Shae inquired, looking over at her friend with an eyebrow raised.
“You should have told me he was a vampire the first part of the story, and then I would have listened and believed.” Alicia paused. “You actually kissed him, he didn’t kiss you right?” Ra’Shae’s friend’s had to ask, curiosity eating at her.
Ra’Shae grinned at her friend’s impatience. “Yes, I kissed him. Just let me finish telling you what happened.” She paused to look up. “Where was I again? Oh yeah, he grinned at me, and I backed away, he got defensive on me when he saw me back off, and he asked me what I was going to do about him being a vampire.” With a tangible pain in her heart, she remembered the pain on his face at her words. She never wanted to see that emotion there again. “I told him I wanted to thank him.” She recalled the feel of Halberd’s hand in hers, so strong, yet so gentle. “At first, I was just going to kiss him on the cheek,” She could feel his smooth, yet hard skin under her lips. “But it didn’t turn out that way.”
“What happened?” Alicia requested the right to know.
Ra’Shae laughed at her old friend. “I moved my lips until they covered his,” Her hands could still feel the taut muscles of his back and side when she kissed him. “And he just kind of pulled back after a while.” She could remember the surprise on his face, and she remembered the wonder that she felt that she had actually kissed somebody she didn’t really know. “He tried to leave, but I pulled him back for another kiss.” Ra’Shae brought her hands up to her lips, remembering how softly Halberd had kissed her back that time, and how urgently she had kissed him. Every night for the past week, she could still feel those lips against her own; still feel his hands in her hair, and on her back. “After that kiss, he pushed me back, and jumped onto a window ledge and on to the next one until he had reached the top of the building he’d jumped down from.” Ra’Shae paused to remember the rain falling on her face as she watched him go, blurring his figure into darkness as he moved.
“That’s so romantic.” Alicia sighed. “I wish I had the courage to kiss a man.”
“There’s nothing romantic about it now, though.” Ra’Shae replied. “I can still feel him, and I can still smell him, but he’s not here, and his absence has left me… wanting.”
“Oh, I’m sorry Shae.” Alicia apologized. “I didn’t know what you felt.” Ra’Shae’s friend looked at her closely. “You know, one of the folklore’s I’ve read about says that once a human loves a vampire, they can’t love any other human with the same intensity.”
Ra’Shae stopped to consider her friend’s words. She remembered not just more than two weeks ago, she had thought she’d been desperately in love with one of the guys over at the school, but when she met Halberd, it seemed to vanish from her mind entirely. She could no longer look at him and think of how cute he was, but she compared him to Halberd. There was no comparison. In fact, the boy that she’d had a crush on turned out to be a bully and a jerk.
“That’s the truth.” Ra’Shae said softly, her mind still back on that night.

“I’m painfully aware of that fact.” Halberd groaned from down on the ground.
Century laughed and then sheathed his sword. “You almost won that round.”
Century pulled Halberd to his feet. “I think you might have won if you weren’t so distracted. There were many opportunities that you didn’t take.” Century alluded to Halberd’s painful detachment.
Halberd glared at Century. “I don’t need you to point out something so painful, oh most diplomatic.” Halberd limped over to the window of the same room that he had yelled at Century a week ago. The room was clear at the moment, for their practice, but now that he was exhausted he’d have to move all the furniture back by himself. Halberd walked over to the table, and pulled it back to the center of the room.
Halberd never knew why they had the table, they never used it, and it just got in the way. The next piece of furniture was Century’s favorite. A large couch, filled with some kind of super soft foam that melded to your body shape whenever you sat on it. After that was the research desk that Century wouldn’t let him throw out. The papers made no sense, since whenever Halberd worked on them he was almost always frustrated.
When Halberd was done rearranging the furniture, he sat down on one of the soft chairs that Century had placed next to his couch. Century himself lay lazily on the couch, his feet on one of the armrests, and his head on the other.
“That was fun, wasn’t it?” Century asked Halberd with a grin on his face.
Halberd clenched his teeth and looked away. “Why must you continually test my patience with you? I’m old enough now that I could go live by myself now, free.”
“Yes you are old enough, but I’m not sure that you’re mature enough.”
“What’s that mean?” Halberd snapped at Century. “You don’t think I can make decision, or keep my cool? You don’t think that I could go out there by myself?”
Century raised his head at Halberd’s yelling and then lowered it back down. A sly grin played across his lips. “I think that it’s very obvious that you’re not ready yet.”
Halberd opened his mouth, and then closed it. “That was rather immature, no?”
“It was more than just a simple rather.” Century replied indifferently.
Halberd stood on his feet and walked around the chair, till he was pacing behind Century’s couch.
“Hey, if it bothers you that much, go find her.” Century said suddenly.
“What?” Halberd spun on Century. “I thought you said it was morally wrong.”
“I’m still saying that, but I think that it would be a smart thing for you to go find her again, if only to say a proper farewell.” Century supplied the answer. “Just go man.”
“Thank you so much.” Halberd bowed. “You have no idea how much this means.”
When Halberd walked out the door, Century sighed. “You’d be surprised at what I know, and understand, little Halberd.” Century reached down into his pocket and pulled out a letter. It was addressed from his love, now long departed. Sighing, he opened it once more, just to lose himself in his past.