Two beast-blooded guardsmen stand at their posts. Just by the front doors in the throne room. One of them with wolf features yawned and then glanced to the other,

“So did you hear about that dust walker kid?”

The other with cat ears scoffed and shook his head,

“Yeah, an exact result of the king’s fabulous ways of doing utterly nothing, didn't the guy have to get his hand cauterized because of it?”

The one with wolf features nodded,

“I believe so, the child even called the general a nitwit. What is a nitwit anyway?”

It was when the two guards talked that a tall man silently entered the room. He pulled his scarlet red hair with black tips out of his face. His blood-red gaze fell onto the two guardsmen. His eyes were red with black sclera instead of white. While his attire consisted of a dark-colored fancy tailcoat with red and gold embroidery and ash-colored pants accompanied by lacquer black boots.

The tall man walked over to the two guardsmen and the two men stiffened. The one with wolf ears looked to the tall man but didn't look the man in the eyes,

“Yes, your highness?”

The tall man narrowed his eyes,

“where did you hear about this child that called a general a nitwit?”

The soldier furrowed his brows,

“Well, many have been talking about this. The child was able to severely injure two Anawrath guardsmen and then was left in the desert to die by rebels.”

The tall man’s eyes widened,

“By whose order?”

The guardsmen shuddered,

“By General Fenicce’s.”

To this, the tall man froze and then gave a cruel smile,

“Thank you for this information.”

With that, the tall man stormed out of the throne room and rushed through the halls. He eventually reached one set of doors and burst through them when he entered the room. The many generals that were in the room flinched and looked at the tall man. The man that they had never seen entered this room once.

One of the generals looked to the man,

“Sir? Uh, what are you doing here?”

The tall man strode through the room looking from general to general,

“I want to give a military command.”

The generals looked from each other and to the tall man. They began to laugh and the man smiled,

“Silkie, Demos rise.”

The general's laughter died to gasps of horror when all the water floated in the room and two green horses were now by the man. These horses had large pointed teeth sticking out of their cheeks and chunks of skin peeling off. The creatures hissed through their teeth and gazed at the generals hungrily.

The tall man’s smile changed to a cruel grin,

“I am the blood king, you are going to listen to what I tell you to do and if you choose against that then my friends here will get to have you for dinner tonight, am I clear?”

The men nodded and shrunk a bit in their seats. The blood king seemed to suffice with this and continued,

“So I want you all to create a map of rebel activity, even a sighting. Then I want you to send search parties out to those areas to investigate. Should they encounter rebels, have them capture the children and kill the adults, those are your orders.”

All the generals nodded,

“Yes sir!”

*****

Lexy awoke with a groan as she heard barking outside of her bedroom door. She got out of bed and walked over to her dresser. Lexy pulled out one of her light blue hoodies, a grey t-shirt, and cargo pants. She changed into clean clothes and grabbed her red goggles. She then grabbed her throwing knives, her bow, and arrows and her father’s knife.

Lexy walked over to her bedroom door, opened it, and flinched when she saw Varikin sitting in front of the doorway. The animal gave a gruff short growl.

Lexy sighed,

“Ok sorry, you don’t like being left alone, but since I have some spare time maybe I should go downtown to get food for the others.”

Varikin gave a thoughtful look and then nodded. Lexy weirded out by the fact the dog understood her raised a brow,

“k ima go but you’re going to have to stay here. Will you be ok?” She said as if expecting an answer,

“Wait, why am I talking to a dog?” She said while watching the dog for a response.

Varikin narrowed his eyes and then nodded softly up and down to say yes. Lexy smiled, “alright I will be back.”

Lexy walked away from the dog and headed downstairs to one of the butlers, “Can we head downtown to get some food supplies?”

The butler nodded,

“Yes, I'll go get one of the drivers.”

Lexy watched the man leave and a few minutes later she heard a limo pull up. She then walked out of the mansion and got into the limo.

The driver asked her, “Where is the young man?”

Lexy hummed “is there a Walmart in the town nearby”

The driver noded,

“Yes, would you like me to take you there?”

Lexy nodded,

“Yes please.” The driver nodded and began his task.

As the trees went by and the country land became urban, Lexy already had a recipe in mind for the meal. Biscuit stew, her mom had made it for her occasionally. The driver pulled up into a large strip mall that has a Walmart. The driver while he did,

“Would you like me to drop you off at the front?” the diver said when he looked at her.

Lexy nodded,

“I would like that a lot, thank you.” The diver nodded and pulled up to the front of the Walmart and handed her some cash.

Lexy got out of the vehicle and got a smaller cart while she pocketed the cash the butler had given her. Lexy got weird looks from other customers and she knew why, it's her height. She is a foot taller than an average five-year-old. Even though she is thirteen and soon to enter high school level classes.

But Lexy did not care about her height. She was more focused on the task at hand she probably was going to have to triple the recipe and so she started shopping. When she got to the register the lady raised a brow,

“Where are your parents?”

Lexy gave a blank expression,

“ I am thirteen and they're out in the car waiting for me. Have a problem with someone who has dwarfism?” the lady gave a shocked expression and was quiet after that.

Lexy bought ten concentrated cans of cream of chicken, Eight bags of uncooked chicken, two bags of vegetables, and one bag of potatoes. Along with fifteen cans of jumbo biscuits.

Lexy placed what she purchased back into the cart and hauled all of it outside to see the driver parked the Limo in one of the first parking spots she saw. Lexy brought the cart of food up to the back of the limo.

The driver came out of the limo and opened the trunk for her,

“Young miss, do not bother yourself with this, I can put it away for you.”

Lexy tilted her head still not used to people doing stuff for her but didn't want to make them feel bad so she nodded and smiled,

“Alright, and thank you.” Lexy got into the limo and a short moment after the Driver was back.

The driver started the car,

“Alright, we're too now, young miss?”

Lexy smiles “back home please.” The driver nodded and started up the limo’s engine.

The way back was quietly leaving Lexy to her thoughts “I wonder how Varikin is doing. I wonder how mom is doing. She’s probably happy I'm gone”. Lexy felt a sharp blade of sadness and anger bubbles up when she pulled herself away from those thoughts.

Lexy then realized that they were pulled up into the driveway of the mansion. The limo halted and Lexy gets out of the limo and turned to the driver,

“I'll get the stuff I've just got to do a few things first” the driver nodded and Lexy headed inside.

Lexy remembered what Alcore said about most nonorganic materials disappearing because they aren’t real. So, she walks up to one of the maids,

“excuse me but do you have cotton sheets that no one cares for?”

The maid nodded,

“We do actually, it's rather large though.”

Lexy smiled,

“it's fine”

The maid nodded,

“ok, I'll go get it for you.” With that, the maid left. Varikin came up to Lexy. Lexy smiled and the maid returned with a large white sheet that’s folded and handed it to Lexy. Lexy smiled,

“thank you” and turned to Varikin,

“come on”

Varikin nodded and followed Lexy outside. Lexy walked up to the driver,

“Could you pop the trunk please?”

The driver nodded and with the press of a button the trunk opened. Lexy walked back over to the trunk and opened the sheet.

Lexy had begun to put the food into the sheet and with the last bag of chicken, Lexy tied the sheet around the food. Lexy picked up the sack worth of food which was heavy and waved to the driver,

“Thank you.” and the driver left.

Lexy slowly entered the forest, the sound of nature filled her ears. She began to follow her trail of chalk markings on the trees. Varikin shortly behind is no longer in his Doberman pinscher allusion instead now in his wolf form.

Lexy sighed and sat down on a fallen tree branch. Varikin came up to her and just stared at her. Lexy smiled and sighed,

“Hi, I'm still not sure about you. I've never been around dogs before, but we’ve got to keep going. I hope they like the food. Got to hurry otherwise the chicken is going to defrost too soon.” Lexy stood up and picked up the sack of food. She resumed walking and following her markings on the trees.

The two get to the clearing and Lexy leaned down and touched Varikin on the scruff and with some heavy thoughts brought the duo to reality. Lexy noted Varikin immediately began sniffing the air “what is it?”

Varikin growled and began to lead Lexy by taking a left,

“Where are we going?” Lexy asked confusedly as she struggled to follow Varikin. Varikin eventually stopped after what felt like an hour to Lexy. Lexy looked up and sighed upon seeing the door to the base.

Lexy stepped through the doorway and headed to the rebellion’s main building. When the two entered the base they were instantly bombarded with questions about what she brought with her by a group of little kids. Lexy tried to answer some of them but before she could she see a familiar bi-pedal brown bear come to the back of the group of ankle biters,

“QUIET!” Silence filled the room when Lexy watched the children flee. “h-hi uh”

Lexy was trying to remember his name.

“Kuma my name is Kuma and pardon the shovel kids have yet to eat and their rowdy”

Lexy followed Kuma through the entrance and through the cafeteria which has tables and seats now set up for the day,

“don’t mind me asking but why are their kids here? Also, I brought food”

Lexy said while following Kuma. Kuma shrugged,

“Well those are kids abandoned or are children of some of the rebels and I'll bring you to the cafeteria’s kitchen.”

They get to the end of the cafeteria where there is a slightly chubby but charming-looking old lady, she looked to be in her forties busy in the kitchen area.

The kitchen had three giant cauldrons filled with water that had a fire lit underneath them. Next to the cauldrons is a long metal counter made probably from scrap metal.

Kuma coughed to get her attention.

“Katie this is Lexy'”

The lady immediately had set her eyes on Lexy,

“oh bless my stars you’re the one everyone is talking about. You are adorable and by the look of it you bought something with you?”

Lexy took this as her queue to talk,

“yes um I brought food and thank you”

. Lexy smiled,

“well I was thinking we could make a dumpling soup, but I don’t know how to operate the kitchen”

Katie smiled,

“It's ok I can get the water ready, you clean the vegetables and prepare the dumplings.”

Lexy used water to clean the vegetables and then used one of the kitchen knives to cut them, she looked to Kaite,

“We add the chicken concentrate to the water and then put in the veggies. Once that simmer for a bit we add the dumplings to it and have them cooked in the stew.”

Kaite nodded and with that Lexy added the chopped vegetables to the soup. Lexy took a turn stirring the soup with a long spoon and it wasn't easy at first. With so much food in the cauldron, it felt like trying to stir concrete. But once she got it stirring it was much easier to keep going than starting it. They added the huge dumplings into the soup and let them cook in the broth.

When the food is done the two begin dishing food out on boles made from clay. Lexy had begun to help Kaite dish up food and got ready to dish up for whoever was next only to see Talo and her wonder wolf Lexy quickly dished her up a bowl of soup,

“uh, soup?” Lexy raised the bowl a bit defensively.

The dog smiled,

“Talo.”

Talo turned to the dog,

“what?”

The dog looked at Lexy’s extended bowl of soup and looked back to Talo,

“You never answered their question and I am hungry so if you don’t want the soup, I’ll take it and you will be staring off into space.”

Talo looked back to Lexy,

“ugh fine I’ll take two bowls of your stupid soup.”

Lexy nods and quickly dishes them up to two bowls of soup,

“Wait, the wolves can talk?”

Talo stops and smirked,

“oh has Varikin not? Well, that’s not surprising why would a rare white wolf talk to likes of you, stupid vail child.” With that Talo and her friend walk away.

Lexy got ready for who was next and was greeted by Miko who set a holographic device on the table. With this type,

“Sorry about Talo, she's harsh but I am not against the thought of having a vailer. At least I think that’s what her problem was.”

Lexy shrugged,

“Well, it's ok. I can understand that no one usually likes foreigners. Want a bowl?” he nods, Lexy smiles and dishes him some food.

Once finished helping Katie, Lexy gets food for herself and looks for somewhere to sit, and decides to take a seat at an empty table.

Lexy begins walking over to where she wanted to sit. Varikin is shortly behind. Only to be stopped by Fendres

Fendres was talking to Miko and Leo.

“oh, howdy Lexy. I’d like you to meet Leo and Meko. They handle our science and techno gaits. Though sometimes I wonder what you make in that rabbit hole of yours. Some of those contraptions have gone crazy as the king”

Lexy looks over at Leo and his eyes visibly twitch at Fendres’s words.

Leo shook his head and ignored Fendres and turned his attention over to Lexy,

“Fendres me, Miko, and the little kid have already met.”

To this Fendres shrugged and smiled “well you could have told me.”

Lexy never liked being called small but did not make anything of it. To not be rude she gave a soft shrug,

“um, yea I’m going to go sit over there so yeah.”

“Bye, how old are you?” Leo asks with curiosity on his face. Lexy was expecting this question to come eventually,

“I am thirteen, also where did Varikin go?” She said while she looked around for the wolf.

Fendres made a slowdown motion with her hands,

“Wait there the minute you are thirteen I thought you were some super-smart little kid, damn, You’re the size of an ankle biter, no offense and to your question, he probably went to report to Alcore.”

Leo and Meko nodded in agreement. Meko began to type on a device on his wrist and then finished. The message floated above his wrist and directed it toward Lexy,

“Have you gotten assigned to a squad yet?”

Lexy nodded,

“Yes, Jacksons, and what are the squads?”

Fendres chuckled,

“The squads are what type of fighting zone you work under. Say someone is stealthy, they go in the stealth squad. We find one skilled at flight and aerial combat. You would go in my group the Blue renegades also known as the flight squad. Then there is the battle battalion they are our heavy hitters if you can hit heavy and take on multiple all at once. Then there’s the one you are a part of the k-nine”

Lexy nodded and ate her soup while standing,

“oh makes sense”

Lexy was not paying them much mind she was thinking about what time it was. “Um, I will be back tomorrow, but I have got to go,” she said, slightly nervous.

Lexy went over to the exit and grabbed the sheets that smell like chicken and vegetables. Varikin was already at the door waiting for her. “oh hi, you are back com on Varikin lets go”

Lexy and Varikin were about to leave when suddenly the door bursts open and a panicked-looking Kuma runs into the cafeteria “all hands! We have an enemy battalion coming in! They just breached the door!”

Alcore came rushing in passing Lexy,

“Crud they found us again? We can’t run anymore. We have had too many injuries from last time.” He turns back to the crowd “ready for combat all who can fight that is.”

Lexy turned to Alcore,

“How can I help?”

Alcore shook his head “those who can’t fight include you.” He mumbled, “what was I thinking?” And ran off with Kuma.

Lexy glared and turned back to the crowd of other members getting ready. She saw Leo and two others putting out crates of weapons, shields, arrows and she smirks once she sees the rack of bows.

Lexy walks calmly up to Leo “hey is there a way to the roof?”

Leo nodded,

“Yes, you just follow that hallway.” He pointed to a hallway

Varikin was not quick enough to stop the girl when she rushed up, grabbed an armful of arrows, put them in her quiver and a shield made from metal. Leo rushed to go get more supplies not having time to think about what Lexy grabbed.

Lexy ran down the hallway that takes a left and led her to a ladder. She quickly hopped up the ladder with one arm and it opened out to a flat open roof. No one is up there. Lexy crouched and put the shield in front of her while peeking from behind to see where she was going. She reached a foot from the edge and stopped.

Lexy looks out at the battle situation before her Alcore, Kuma, Jackson, Fendres, and a few others are fighting head-on against at least fifty enemy soldiers.

She set the arrows she got from Leo in her quiver and readied her first shot. To Lexy’s surprise, purple energy exactly like the glow that had come before from her father's blade seeped from her fingertips and into the arrow. Lexy readied, aimed, and fired an arrow into the air. The arrow makes a whistle as it splits into five other arrows, all five arrows hit. Lexy looked with wide eyes at the result and stared at her hand for a bit before notching another arrow onto her bow’s string.

Alcore was about to swipe at his enemy with his blade when he heard a whistle and they dropped down to the ground and black tendrils spread from an arrow in the enemy’s chest. The tendrils quickly spread over and then within a dark puff of smoke. Only a small single mark was left remaining. Alcore looked in terror and turns to Fendres who fires her dual crossbows at a few enemy soldiers,

“Fendres are you using a new arrow?” Fendres punches a soldier in the face and then shoots him in the head “no?”

Alcore curses “damn it, I think they have an archer hidden around here.”

Jackson blew fire at the enemy and then looked around “I don’t- “He was interrupted by the sound of whistles. The group watched as ten enemies got hit by an arrow then consumed by black tendrils and disappeared into the smoke.

One of the enemies stopped at seeing the death of his comrade. Only thirty-five left “wha-“ their words were short-lived as they got hit by one of the strange arrows and consumed by the black tendrils along with four others.

Thirty left. Kuma looked around,

“Where the seven hells is that coming from!?”

Alcore shook his head,

“I don’t know, just keep going, they don’t seem to be aimed at us.”

Lexy pegged on four arrows and released them into the air and watched as twenty soldiers fell to her. This only left ten.

The group watched in awe, as twenty soldiers got slain by the strange arrows. The last ten looked at the group with terror in their eyes.

Alcore leaned forward “boo!” The ten jumps to their feet “You people have demons on your side! Demons!”

With that, the group began to run for the hills only to be shot down like the rest. Alcore frowned and looked behind. Only to see a small blond jump up from behind a shield,

“Yes! Oh ...hi.”

Alcore frowned,

“You.Down. Now.”

Fendres looked from the scorch marks on the ground and back to the child on the roof,

“No way. Jackson, you don’t think?”

Jackson blinked,

“I think so.” With that, the group entered the base.

Lexy huffed and took the remaining arrows, the bow, and shield down with her. She headed down the hallway with a smile on her face. She entered the cafeteria to see a frustrated Alcore who marched up to her,

“What were you doing up there? You know it wasn’t safe.”

Lexy shrugged,

“I know.”

Alcore huffed and Leo walked up to him.

“sir?”

Alcore turns to him,

“what?”

Leo looked at the arrows in Lexy’s hands,

“You said there was a hidden archer, Yes.”

Alcore huffed,

“Yes, and why does this have any relevance?”

Leo smirked and pointed to Lexy,

“Well, she’s standing right in front of you.”

Alcore’s eyes widened and he looked to Lexy,

“Is this true?”

Lexy puffed up her chest,

“Yes, it is.”

Alcore sighed,

“I told you, you couldn’t fight.”

Lexy puts her hand on her hip,

“and I just did you nitwit.” She said in a taunting tone. Alcore sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

While Leo smiled,

“Sir, I don’t think you realize just what she did. Those arrows were the splitters. Do you remember yes? No one could get them to work until her.”

Alcore huffed,

“fine, but one question Lexy how come I didn’t see you or the enemy you should have been in plain sight when on the roof”

Lexy smirked,

“guerilla warfare silly are you a commander I would have expected you to know that.”

Alcore raised a brow,

“So you hid in plain sight using this tactic?”

Lexy nodded,

“Ok, teach me,” Alcore says his tone is respectful.

Lexy must take a step back. She was not expecting the tone of respect. Her smirk leaves,

“Well, guerilla warfare is pretty simple. you get as close as possible to the enemy without getting spotted or being suspected.”

Alcore nodded,

“You have methods we could use, yes?”

Lexy nodded,

“Yes I do, I’ve been thinking of two. That would work perfectly with our area. Number one is a system of underground caverns that we can use to escape if things go south too quickly. We also can use them as outposts. The outpost hatches will have dirt on them and it will make it less suspicious. The second tactic I used today was to set up a tall riming around the roof with holes big enough to fire an arrow through.”

Alcore turned to Leo,

“Do you think you can make some blueprints?”

Leo nodded,

“Yes, I can make you something ready by tomorrow with Miko's help and some of the earth wizards.”

Alcore nodded,

“good.” He then turned back to Lexy and Leo went to get started on the new project. “And for you thank you for not listening.”

Lexy smiled,

“any time.”

Alcore returned the smile,

“Now, quick question: how do you already have combat experience?”

Lexy smiled bitterly,

“For a short question, this is a long answer. My mom is one of those people who will go through life fast and leave nothing but half-baked items behind her. Cruel and blind. She will have her fun with something and then once done it’s another broken item added to the collection. The only way to get her attention was by doing something interesting.

So I found out that archery got her attention and I found it was something I could practice in the backyard. Then once she saw I could do archery she took me to self-defense classes. I did my best in those two. I even got to the point that I enjoyed it and I was winning competitions. But I guess in the end it wasn't interesting enough for my mother. ”

Alcore pondered and a short silence went by,

“so, you know archery and self-defense? Is that how you managed to give Jackson a bloody nose?”

Lexy nodded,

“Yeah, it is.”

Alcore smiled

“Hey, has Varikin changed yet?”

Lexy tilted her head confused,

“Change? You mean his allusion?”

Alcore shook his head “if it hasn’t happened yet, let me tell you, you'll know it when you see it.”

Lexy nodded,

“Hey, do you guys want the same food I bought today or something different?”

Alcore chuckled,

“I quite liked what you bought. But I’ll let you pick. Oh by the way head to Jackson by the gate door I believe has something planned for you.”

Lexy smiled and nodded, she looked around.

“Hey, where is Varikin?”

Lexy said while she looked around for the white wolf. Varikin came up from behind Alcore and just sat down by Lexy. Lexy smiled,

“Sorry Varikin, let's go see you around Alcore.”

Alcore nods “see you around.”