I was born a healthy girl named Jade for my vibrant green eyes. My mother was called Saria and father Zaren, a warrior of the village and one of the strongest due to our lineage. My birth took place only fifty years after the peace treaty signed at Ausmier, an event both of my parents had been alive during.

Our village was hidden at the base of the easternmost part of Dragoon's Roost and was named Sanctuarius. We who lived in the village believed we were the last of our kind as we had never met any of our race which were not born alongside us in the village.

The homes we resided in were all log cabins and none were very large. It was a custom for the family to live together until marriage where the couple would then build their own cabin and proceed to get married and move in together upon completion of the home. Our village saw it as as a trial to show that you will work together on a foundation in matrimony and life until you were able to shelter each other no matter what storm may come to spread you apart. An extra room is always added for the child that would be born in the future the fact that only a single room was built was rarely an issue. The birth rate had heavily declined as our people were no longer able to drain the stronger species such as those among the four great races and a family was rarely gifted with more than one child.

It was forbidden for the youths to go out of the village without an adult, and even the adults could not go further than a fifteen kilometer radius from the gates. There were no mining spots for mithril anywhere near us on the mountains, and as such most of the children would sneak out to explore the mountain which was our backyard. Once the child became an adult at 18, the age of which the Sangair ceased to aesthetically grow older, you would accompany an adult for your first solo hunting trip where we would track down an animal from the forest and drain its vitality without assistance.

The defining characteristics of the Sangair are beautiful pale skin, vibrant eyes which shone like the highest quality gems and the two sharp teeth which allow us to bite and drain the life force of our victims, their ever so delectable blood. Our beauty such that it was on par with the faye, those otherworld beings which were said the be descendants of the gods of magic and beauty.

I was the only child among the village or within known history to have red hair which matched the color of fresh blood, a symbol which my parents believed showed my strength to be great among the Sangalia. The leader of the 8 great heroes was said to have a similar color. This would make sense as my father was a descendant of that leader, and my mother was a descendant of the second in command. We were the head family of the village and my parents were strong and just rulers, never overly ambitious or desiring more power. I had always admired those qualities in them during my youth.

As I have previously stated our birth-rate was slow, so even with my lineage I was an only child. This does not mean I had no-one my age around me. There were two other children born within a year of myself Garette and Sylva, both born to close friends of my parents and from birth we were always around each other. Garette was a wild boy, but had the signs of being one of the most handsome in the village when he became older, he had raven black hair which was darker than the starless sky and eyes of a dark blue with a forest green sparks specked throughout. He was always biting Sylva and myself as toddlers, and if not causing a fuss between us three he would be constantly exploring whichever home we were spending the day in.

Sylva however was a very beautiful and very typical girl. She was shy to Garette and cried whenever he bit her, her beautiful sky-blue eyes would well up and one could get lost in the ocean as the tears poured. The hair upon her head was a glimmering gold that shined like the sun and everyone awaited the day she too came of age though even as a child I had no doubt they would be together forever.

I became the natural leader. When Garette bit I would smack him with my toy and he would withdraw. When Sylva cried I would hush her with a hug until she calmed down and we made a perfect trio. The days continued and when we became three and were able to quite fluently speak to each other our education began.

The Sangalia education at three began with martial arts, history and languages. It may seem a young age but as we were stronger than the other species we held a special intellect and could comfortably train our bodies without fear of harm. Further a Sangair with a healthy blood source to feed from was harder to kill than even a demon, for practice injuries the animals of the forest were more than adequate to remove any bruises or cuts. Sylva was a natural in the histories and languages, her mind was quick and she remembered everything after a single lesson. Garette was strong and fast, he made it seem as though the martial arts were made for him to learn and within a few years it became a necessity for him to take special lessons on the arts from my father.

Myself I found it all boring. It all came too easily for me, almost as if I had genetically given memories of the languages of the other species, my knowledge of the history would come to me as if I had lived the events and not simply heard about them from out teachers. I was not as talented in brute strength in the martial arts however my speed made up for my flaws and I was able to dual equally with Garette almost every day where we constantly tied for whom had the most wins. I soon began the special lessons in leadership from my parents which included war tactics, something we never used but it was a tradition passed down among the leadership of our kind for as long as we had existed. Among these too I was a natural, the war games played between my father and I soon became a single sided domination where my docile and peace loving father could never defeat my ruthless and cunning tactics. Perhaps this was a sign of my inner self which would not be seen for many years.

During these years us three children never grew apart, when we were six we became confident and began to wander into the mountain. Garette and I would then learn the hunt, we would find creatures of the forest and capture them for Sylva to devour hoping it would assist her lack of strength. This is where we first experienced a real sense of danger.

While doing our normal expedition Garette and I were scouting ahead of Sylva when we heard a piercing screech from behind us in a very familiar voice. Garette, ever so attuned to Sylva was the first to react, instantly pulling an about-face and sprinting back to her location with me close on his heals. When we arrived we found Sylva in tears with tattered clothes and blood dripping from her left arm attempting to cling to a branch above a tree. Below her was an orc, the larger mutant cousins of the goblin both of whom were known for capturing women and raping them for reproduction. To our knowledge there should have been no orc's anywhere near our village so it must have been a lone traveler or some variety of a scout. The beast itself was many times larger than us, to our seven year old eyes it may as well have been a giant. In its hands was a rusted human blade which was also considerable larger than even Garette the tallest of us three.

Without hesitation Garette charged at the back of the orc knocking it off balance and distracting it from Sylva. Quickly I jumped pivoting off the mid section of the tree and snatching Sylva down. I then placed her a good distance away from the orc and Garette which were now locked in a fierce stare-down, neither moving from their position awaiting the first movement of the battle. Garette, infuriated and impatient, made the first move. He charged the orc and as the creature lifted is blade to strike Garette he dropped down and slid low using his powerful legs to knock the orc to its knees. Before it could recuperate I joined the encounter, using my speed I jumped on the fallen orc and sunk my teeth into its neck and began to drain the now wailing creature. Garette followed my lead and latched on to the arm, draining the wrist of the orc which know was desperately trying to knock us away with its one good arm. Our combined strength was far too much however even in our youth and it soon succumbed to death.

With the completion of our task Garette rushed to Sylva's side whom was still crying and shaking in her fear. Without asking I ran to the forest while he soothed her worries and found a wolf, without hesitation I jumped the beast and using my fangs ripped the jugular from its throat spraying myself in its blood. Dragging the wolf I ran back to Sylva and Garette lying the creature taking its last breaths in front of her. With quick coaxing from Garette Sylva soon had her fangs in the creature and drained the last of its life, quickly healing her wounds encountered from the orc. With her wounds head she seemed to lose the last of her anxiety and we made our way to the nearby river flowing from the mountain and proceeded to clean the blood from our encounters.

We arrived back to find my father at the gate, with one glance at his towering figure with slanted eyes I knew that this was not going to be pleasant.

“Jade, where the hell..... What in Darkal's name happened to Sylva, look at her damned clothes! Jade, Explain!”

“Well father... see we were exploring toward the mountains and experienced an orc. I had separated Garette and myself from Sylva and it caught her unawares, this is my fault entirely.”

“Damn straight it is Jade, Garette, take Sylva home and then go home yourself, I need to have a discussion with my daughter.”

“Yes, Sir.”

Garette quickly escorted Sylva back toward her house and my father and I headed home. The discussion from there was heated and luckily upon conclusion all blame was put on myself as the leader of our rag tag group of rebel youths. This quickly put an end to our expeditions at our young age as the parents now kept a much closer watch on ourselves and the boarders in expectation of more orcs. My father did compliment me however once he had cooled down saying that for children our age to take down an orc was an extraordinary accomplishment. He is at the core of his heart a warrior I guess.

Life quickly returned to normal with our studies and instead of expeditions we now began training in weapons. I found myself to prefer an agile curved blade which well accentuated my swift movements. The mithril blade was stolen by our scouts while raiding a convey by some faye merchants and was light with an unbelievable sharp blade. Garette learned to use a two-handed weapon which likely outweighed me but he swung it with power that could crumble a house. Sylva chose the art of archery using mithril tipped arrows. We continued to train like this every day until my eighth birthday. The day that disaster struck our village, the day my path deviated from the warm light and began its descent on to the chilling darkness, my bloody path begins now.