8My Icy Sonnet.
Introduction.
I wake to the sound of a heavy wooden door being slid back and I flinch. It's the first day of the new school year at the Runesworth Magicians Academy, and I wasn't looking forward to it. The dummies master, Lowen, walked into my cell and crouched on the floor next to me.
"A new school year Iyla! I know you're looking forward to it. So get up!" Chains rattled as I sat up and looked into Lowen's eyes. He gasped quietly, stunned, before he recovered and slapped my face.
"I thought I told you to stop looking me in the eye!" He yelled. I let my hair cover my face as I smirked - even though my cheek stung where he had hit me, it was worth the look on his face. My eyes had always freaked Lowen out - he was used to the dark, black eyes of the other dummies, and mine were a startling, pale icy blue. Lowen then unclipped my chains from the wall and yanked me out of my cell to the holding pen where all the other dummies were waiting. I took my place at post 13 and Lowen clipped me to the fence.
"I hear Lucas gained Level 2 mastery over the summer, I'm sure he's looking forward to showing you all of his new tricks." He smirked then sauntered off, rumbling that grating laugh of his. I glared at his back before turning a wary eye around the room. The holding pen was a large stone hall on the edge of the school grounds. It had hundreds of posts and pens inside where the dummies waited for their magicians, and the walls were lined with the cells we slept in.
Lucas Moonstone was my magician. Lucas...Lucas is the whole reason I'm stuck in this place.
My name is Iyla Silvertounge, and I am a 16 year old White Sonnet. A Sonnet is a 'mythical' creature that is half fox, half human, and has the ability to control an element. A White Sonnet is the basically the same except they are incredibly rare, pure white, can control 2 elements and they have some magical powers.
Sonnets are born as fox cubs and when they begin to mature at around 5 years old, they start to gain their human form. As they grow up, they start to appear human except for their eyes, ears and tail which remain - but they have the ability to shift back into a fox whenever they want to. At the age of 15 however, a Sonnet is fully matured and can no longer transform into a fox unless they are very powerful.
When I was 12 years old I lived in a glade in the forest with my family. My parents were both of earth and my 3 brothers and my sister controlled earth too. I was the youngest, and also the smallest, which made my family very protective of me. (Plus I was a White Sonnet, so that made them even more protective of me.)
It was June and my siblings and I were playing chase outside in our fox forms when we felt a rumbling in the earth. We ran back into the den where our parents were and they told us to stay in their room while they investigated. My sister and I scrambled under the bed and watched as our brothers sat by the door, and then we waited for our parents to come back.
Everything after that was a frightening blur. I remember trembling as the rumble turned into horsehooves directly over our den before they stopped. My mother ran in and told us to hide before dashing back out again. My two eldest brothers stationed themselves by the door with their hackles raised and then we heard a commotion and shouts down the hall.
2 loud yelps then filled the hall and my blood ran cold. Silence fell, broken only by the heavy footsteps of men. My brothers hid under the dresser and wardrobe on either side of the door as we heard the rooms next to us being searched. Finally, they came into my parents room.
We had held our breath as a tanned man opened the doors of the wardrobe and searched in the cupboards, then he knelt down and saw us under the bed. Things went very quickly after that. The man yelped as my 2 eldest brothers darted out of their spots and attacked him in their fox forms. They were only 14, and knew they had a better chance with their teeth than their fingers. Another man raced into the room, saw my brothers and my heart stopped beating as he sliced through them both with one sweep of his sword.
My third brother then charged the men from behind in an attempt to distract them as my sister and I panicked. It didn't work, the second man killed him without even looking. I was frozen on the spot in shock, trembling and terrified.
I'll never forget what happened after that. My brave, beautiful sister Sabriel pushed me back, braced herself, then launched herself at the face of the tanned man who was still looking at us. She ravaged his face with her teeth and claws before he stood up and threw her to the side of the room. She yelped but shakily stood up, biting the leg of the second man. He shook her off.
Then crushed her neck with his foot.
Time froze and I couldn't believe my eyes. My siblings, dead around me. All because they tried to protect me from these strange men who invaded our home.
A rough hand reached under the bed and grabbed the scruff of my neck, dragging me out. I was too terrified to even think of doing anything except dig my claws in the earth, leaving thin lines across the soil.
"Here she is. Come on Kanu, let's go." He dumped me into a woolen bag and then he tied the drawstring top closed. I swung back and forth in my little sack as he took me back outside, leaving my family and home behind me.
"Kanu, Mantu, I assume you were successful?" A chilling voice echoed across the eerie silence and I shivered.
"Of course sir." The man, Mantu, spoke. "We have her right here." Light flooded into my bag as he opened the top and pulled me out to show the cold man.
He sat upon a black stallion with red eyes. His hair was midnight blue and his eyes were pitch black. A black goatee was on his narrow chin and his skin was deathly pale. I continued trembling as he examined me critically.
"She's smaller than I thought she would be. Kanu, hunt down the sprite that told us about her and kill it. Lucas, she's too small to be of any use to me. You can have her - just don't get any blood on your clothes." The man then turned away and rode off.
A boy I hadn't noticed before slid off his white horse before taking me off of Mantu. My shaking increased as he held me, and I closed my eyes in fear.
"Her coat is amazing." He murmured. Was he going to skin me? I opened my eyes to look at him when he held me up in the sunlight. He gasped and I squeezed my eyes shut again. "Her eyes! Mantu! Did you see her eyes? They're incredible!"
Mantu grunted, "Master Lucas, what do you wish to do with the creature? Remember these things are not to be trusted." He spat on the floor, "They're vile and unnatural."
"Oh, yes, of course. I'll take her home to add her to my collection."
"Wouldn't you rather skin it here? Then it can dry on our return."
"No! I mean, no. I shall have mothers artist deal with it to make it presentable." The boy - Lucas - brought me back down and held me for a moment before putting me into a bag.
For the next year Lucas kept me as his pet. I lived in a small enclosure in his room and never once came out of my fox form. At first he tried to gain my trust, but I was too scared to do anything. Then, after the third month it finally hit me that the situation was real, and my family wasn't coming back. I sank into a depression and didn't move for weeks. After that, Lucas merely observed me until he lost interest altogther. He then discovered his magic and spent the final 5 months of the year at a magicians academy, leaving me with his cruel mother.
When he came home, he was entirely different. The first thing he did when he saw me was take me out of my cage and practice magic on me in front of his father. Turning me into other animals and objects until he grew bored. He was cruel, rude, and exactly like his vile father.
I was neglected again that summer, until the start of his first day back at the academy. I was 13 when he took me with him and left me in a strange stone building filled with other creatures like the ones that had lived in my forest. Then I learnt why I was there.
Magicains detested magical creatures existance. To them we were vile, unnatural, demonic and dangerous. They believed that creatures like me should be hunted into extinction, because we were more powerful and our magic comes instinctually.
Magicians generally killed any magical creature they came across, or if they didn't they used them as test subjects called dummies.
Lucas had decided not to kill me, or keep me as his pet. Instead I was to be his, and only his, dummie for his next four years at the academy.
If I survived that long.
Hi! Please review and tell me what you think!
The idea popped into my head while I was 'studying' and I had to write it down! :)
And I hated writing about her family being killed but I couldn't not :( I was practically crying :(
sooo, good? bad? too much info? please tell me if you think I should continue! :)
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