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mama-m1na · 4 years

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Sweeter Than Sugar: Prologue

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It was the night of June twentieth, the cusp of spring and summer, and everyone in the Astra Estate was inside to celebrate the birthdays of the twins in the head family…

Well, almost everyone…

The eldest of the four children in the head family sat outside, away from the commotion in the main house, as she took the time to stare up at the full moon.

She was so entranced by its soft glow that she didn’t even notice the appearance of another person until they asked, “What are you doing out here?”

The younger girl jumped in surprise, whipping her head around to be met with the sight of a young boy with bright blue eyes and blond hair.

“Are you not enjoying the party?” he continued, moving to sit next to the girl donning a pastel pink kimono.

“Not really,” the female muttered, brushing her black hair out of her face before focusing her gaze on her lap.

“What happened?” the eleven-year-old boy asked, leaning forward a bit to get a better glimpse at her mostly brown irises which contained tiny golden flecks that would glitter in the light.

“I overheard the elders talking earlier,” the ravenette spoke in a low tone, “Indigo is going to be the next clan head when Papa steps down…”

The boy was shocked into silence for a few moments before his brows furrowed once the information set in.

The Astra Clan was first led by a woman, so it couldn’t have been due to her gender that her younger brother would get the position.

“But you’re the oldest out of your siblings, and I always see you training your butt off, even when you come down to the village!” the male retorted.

The girl only nodded along as her friend continued to rant, small tears slipping down her face as she whispered, “I’m just not good enough, Cloud.”

Try as hard as she could, the eight-year-old could not stop her tears as she said, “I’m just a failure everyone here.”

Suddenly, the girl was brought forward into the male’s form as she let her tears drip onto his haori, immediately wrapping her arms back around him.

“Screw what they think, Magnollia,” the boy hissed, “you’re one of the strongest people I know and if your family can’t see that, then that’s on them.”

With a small chuckle, the girl rested her chin on the boy’s shoulder, both of them unaware of the glowing red eyes that watched them.

Two days later, Magnollia von Astra made her way down the mountain that her family’s estate was perched on.

She cringed as she passed the wisteria flowers that her youngest sister was named after, placed all on the bottom half of the mountain to ward off demons.

The scent of the things made her head hurt so she had to keep holding her kimono sleeve to her nose as she descended, but other than that, she was fine.

It was one of the rare days where she didn’t have any training scheduled, so she was heading down to spend it with her friend.

A bright smile was on her face once she finally reached the base of the mountain and was able to breathe freely again, but it was quickly wiped away when a certain scent was wafted towards her by the wind.

‘Is… that blood?’ she thought, eyes widening in fear as she turned to where the scent was coming from, ‘That’s where Cloud’s house is…’

Ignoring the strange looks she got from the villagers, the girl followed her nose as she felt the building dread in her heart.

Her feet were traveling in the familiar route she always took to her friend’s home, the scent only growing stronger as she got closer.

Standing outside the front door, the girl trembled slightly as she tried to catch her breath from the run.

‘Open the door,’ she ordered herself, heart pounding as she could hear nothing from beyond the thin piece of wood and screen, ‘Open the door!’

Gulping down most of her nerves, the girl lifted a shaky hand to slide the door open, only for her breath to hitch at the sight.

The female’s pupil’s pinned at the sight of blood splattered on the walls and floor of the small house, two familiar figures laying in pools of the red liquid.

Taking a shaky step back, the ravenette took a deep breath and focused her energy into her throat, just as she did during training, she threw her head back to scream, “Papa!”

Her voice reverberated around the road, causing the people to stare at her in concern, but what mattered was that it reached the ears of the current Astra clan head.

As the head man and lady began descending the mountain accompanied by a few other members of the clan, the eight-year-old shook off her nerves as much as she could before rushing over to the woman only to find her without a heartbeat.

Panic built even further in the girl as she moved to her friend and pressed two fingers to a certain spot on his neck to feel a weak, but still existing, pulse.

With a small smile of relief, the girl let out a sigh before opening a glass bottle she brought down with her in a basket of snacks.

It only contained water, but that was fine as it was the element she constantly trained and connected with.

Taking a deep breath, she moved her hands in fluid motions, causing the water to rise out of the bottle and coat them.

Upon pressing her water covered hands on the wounds she found on the boy, they glowed a soft purple color as they steadily began to close.

Just as the glow faded, doing all that she could for her friend, multiple people appeared in the doorway behind her.

The clan head’s eyes widened at the damage as his wife stepped up with narrowed eyes to comment, “A demon attack.”

“Looks like it,” the male next to her scoffed, looking down at the ravenette who gently cradled her friend in her lap.

Turning to the clan members behind him, the man said, “Take Magnollia and her friend back to the estate and have him treated further.”

“Yes, Sir!" the members spoke before walking up to the two children.

After exchanging a few words with the younger female, she let one carry Cloud as the other took hold of her smaller hand.

“Magnollia,” the man spoke before they walked passed him, “You are to immediately return to training tomorrow morning.”

This caused his wife’s eyes to widen before they gazed down to her daughter that merely looked up at him with a blank stare.

“Okay, Papa,” the girl whispered before she made her way back home with her older cousins.

The child felt absolutely numb as she waited outside the room her friend was being treated in.

There was something very wrong with what just happened, there was another scent amongst all of the blood.

Something… familiar… why was it so familiar?

With rustling behind the door, Magnollia perked up before it slid open to reveal the doctor of the clan.

“Auntie Rachel, is Cloud going to be okay?” she asked as the woman took her hair out of the bun it was held in.

“Yes, Honey, you did a good job healing him, the woman praised as she leaned down to the child’s level, “I barely had to do anything! All we have to do now is wait for him to wake up.”

Three weeks passed without the male even stirring, which concerned everyone because there was nothing physically wrong with him that they could find.

In those long days, the eldest child in the head family acted more distant from everyone in her family, even if she tried to act normal.

She threw herself into training, becoming more and more aggressive with every spar she took part in.

She was soon able to defeat many of her older cousins, who were years older than her and had already killed their fair share of demons on their own.

This was a huge improvement to the Astra clan head, but the girl’s mother knew better, watching from the side with a frown.

Her daughter was stressed, scared, and extremely worried for her friend, but the woman could do nothing to sate this as her husband was the one in charge.

Even before this happened, it was difficult for the girl to express her feelings to anyone other than the boy, but now the Astra couldn’t even get a word in with her own daughter.

It was on the twenty-first day of the blond’s coma that everything went horribly, horribly wrong.

The eight-year-old girl jolted up from her sleep to the smell of blood, smoke, and something hauntingly familiar.

She opened the door to see a trail of blood and the corpses of her beloved family members.

The girl stumbled forward as she saw the unmoving forms of her three younger siblings.

“Indigo! Sakura! Wisteria!” she called as she slid over to kneel beside their faced down bodies; but when she turned them over, their faces were gone.

She let out a silent gasp of horror as she shuffled away from them, noticing the corpses around her were in the same condition.

As the girl remained frozen in fear she felt a much stronger presence come to loom over her.

“Hehehe, lucky me!” a distorted voice chirped from behind her as the ravenette finally registered a foul scent, “There’s another marechi here!”

“And you seem particularly sweet,” it hummed as the girl turned around.

“Hey, are you the one who did this?” she asked in a shaky voice as she looked up to see a large demon with a large eye in the center of its face.

“Why yes I am, Little girl, and you’ll be joining them in a few moments,” the demon spoke with a cruel smile.

“Why just their faces?” she questioned as tears started forming in the corners of her eyes at the pain they must have gone through.

“It was a good start to have them scream,” the being shrugged, showing off it’s bloodied teeth, “My master just said to get rid of this disgusting clan of humans, so I took some creative liberties, pretty isn’t it?”

‘That’s right,’ the girl thought as she looked back to her family, already accepting her fate, ‘Demons like this carry no empathy towards their victims.’

‘I’m sorry, everyone,’ she thought, closing her eyes as the demon brought its claws up to strike, ‘I really am just a failure in the end.’

The girl could feel the shift in the air as the demon started to swing, but her eyes snapped open as her ears caught onto the sound of something else.

In a flash, the demon was knocked to the side by a smaller figure, a familiar figure.

“Cloud?” the girl questioned as she watched the male dart around in a feral manner, using strength she didn’t remember him having to tear the demon to shreds.

It was as the male stood over the torn-up body of the demon did the female notice something different about his scent… he smelled like a demon.

Just as suddenly as he had knocked the larger demon over, the girl was knocked onto her back with the blond on top of her.

Due to her previous training, the female was barely able to hold the male back by the shoulders as he tried to bite and claw at her face with his now sharpened nails,

“Cloud, get a hold of yourself!” magnollia pleaded as fresh tears began to fall down her face, armed starting to shake from the strain of holding him back.

The male let out a snarl as his blue eyes met hers, but now they were glowing against the darkness of the night and his pupils had turned into vertical slits like those of a cat.

She bit her lip as the male’s nails dug into her wrists, drawing the sweet-smelling blood that her family was known for.

The blond seemed to struggle harder against the female’s already weakening grip and she could only smile softly up at the face of the person who had supported her for years as she said one thing.

“I trust you.”

At that moment, she felt her friend’s grip loosen as drops of something wet hit her face.

Slowly, her eyes panned up to see that tears filled the boy’s eyes even though his pupils were still slits.

“Mag-Magnollia,” he croaked, releasing her wrists completely, allowing her to wrap her arms around his neck and bring him closer.

“You- you can’t-your blood!” he gasped, hands shaking as the need to eat filled his head, “You have to get away from me!”

“You had me so scared, Cloud,” the girl said, not caring about what the male had become as she buried her face in his neck, “You were asleep for so long and you weren’t waking up at all.”

Blue eyes softened slightly as he slowly wrapped his arms around her, using every ounce of self-control he had not to tear into the girl’s soft flesh.

When the sun rose, both of the children rushed back into the house, letting the body of the first demon burn in the sunlight as the girl went to treat her wrists.

The male looked away, guilt pooling in his gut as the female worked before he asked, “How did a demon even get up here?”

“Did you smell the smoke?” the girl asked, not keeping her eyes on her work, “Someone burned down the wisterias.”

The older male looked at his friend with a sad look before he reached out to embrace her, whispering, “I’m sorry that this happened, but we should probably search for thins we can take with us.”

“Huh?”

“We can’t stay here, Magnolliam” the boy replied as he pulled away, keeping his hands on her shoulders, “With the bodies just lying around and the wisterias gone, more demons are just bound to come here again.”

“But how are we going to travel if you die in the sunlight?” the ravenette asked as she crossed her arms over her chest.

“We’ll move at night for now,” the blond huffed, “I’ll be sure to protect you from anything we come across.”

“Alright, then I’m protecting you too,” the girl replied, puffing out her cheeks as her nose twitched.

“Magnollia, I’m a demon now, I can handle it,” the boy sighed, resulting in a glare from his friend.

“I was literally born and raised to kill demons, Cloud!” the ravenette retorted, stomping her foot, “I haven’t been training all these years for nothing!”

Shaking his head, the male relented, saying, “Fine, but if it gets too much, then leave it to me.”

“No,” was the girl’s simple answer before she stalked off to find some supplies, leaving a shocked Cloud in the infirmary.

After about an hour of looting her own home, the girl finally gained the courage to enter her parents’ room.

There she found some money, small weapons, a journal that she would read later; and hanging on the stand to her left, the haori of the Astra Clan head.

It was a plain black fabric with three white stars embroidered into the left side of the collar, the Astra family crest.

“Are you going to take it?” Cloud asked, watching from the doorway as the girl looked longingly at the piece, “You might as well since you’re officially the last Astra.”

The girl flinched at the blunt nature of her friend’s words, but she knew he meant well and no harm by them.

“Yeah, I will,” she said, carefully taking it off of the stand and folding it to put in her bag, “But I won’t wear it yet…”

“Not until I kill a demon!” she finished with determination burning in her gold glittering, brown irises.

~~~Fin. Prologue~~~

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