From the moment I was inside her, she was affected by a weird illness. It was the self-defense mechanism of the curse working, whenever it felt that something magical was going on inside her body, she’d get ill. This, together with basically no one else in the village knowing her left her excluded of the group. Not long after I was born on the same village, about one month after; that’s the gestation period for a Rakshnurian.

The Rakshnurians instantly noticed that I was different, less Rakshnurian-like and more human-like. They attributed this to me being the first offspring of their vice leader which was half-right. I turned more human-like because of the vice leader and because of the same reason why he himself looks like that.

Through some experiments which some people may call unmoral, I found years later, that the other reason was from my mother, as she was victim of a curse and I, instead of feeding myself on her own lifeforce, I fed myself with the mana of the curse, the same one which made her so frail and sickly. Through the same experiences I found how the Rakshnurians breed and how to utilize the feeding of the fetuses to break off or at least weaken curses.

The vice leader had also been born of a similar woman, although as far as I know he didn’t know at the time, because he’d probably have answered his boss and he didn’t get live much longer.

As a Rakshnurian I was born with quite a strong body, albeit quite weakened because of my mother’s condition. But I respect her, because even though she was forced to have me and two more children, she took care of us as if she intended for us to be born. Only when I got older did I actually realize how much she had been hurting when she was with us.

During my first month, the time when I was the only child of Sonja, I spent most of my time looking around and learning stuff through my senses. For example, by the time my sister was about to be born, I could already kind of walk, although only for short distances and I could communicate with humans and Rakshnurians if I wanted to, but as I was different from most Rakshnurians they instinctively left me out of their group and so I stayed most of the time with my mother and the other pregnant humans. I could already see that some of them were getting weaker, the effect of being the female progenitor of Rakshnurians showing.

A few days later and not only had the first few women died, making the other one’s cry over them and start to seriously worry about themselves, my first new sibling was born. She was a woman, which was widely celebrated in the tribe, as their boss was reaching their final years and as such, she would probably turn to be the new leader of these Rakshnurians.

But many were also doubtful if such a girl could be their boss, as she didn’t look like a usual Rakshnurian, she looked more or less like me, albeit a bit redder in skin and a bit bigger in size, at least when you compare it with my birth-size.

Around that time, on the Munny Capital

- Thank you, thank you SO much! Finally, I can save my mother and sister, thank you so so so so much!

Said a boy with a thankful face towards a tough looking man wearing some important-looking clothes.

- And you wish to be part of this expedition, am I right?

The man proceeded to ask, although he already knew the answer not because he was told it, but because he had already experienced such a situation and the previous times, they all wanted to do the same thing.

- I do.

- Very well, you may, as long as the captain of the expedition force approves of your participation. He will choose the testing format and he will choose whether you pass his test or not.

Marcus knew very well that they wouldn’t leave a disturbance accompany them, so on his way here he honed his skills as well as he could… Well, he also did that to survive, as he had to steal some money to buy enough food to get to the capital, because no one had taken him into a carriage. He may have gotten unlucky with the people he met, or the world may just be a bad place in general. Marcus didn’t really spend much time thinking on those things.

But he didn’t let any of that get to him. He had to get his sister back, get his mother back, save them, make her sacrifice worth it. He wouldn’t let her down. And so, with his skills, he was asked by the captain Funny Raven who wanted to either be called Raven or Captain. Funny was the name he was given at birth and he resented his parents for that. If they died, he would find it sad, but he wouldn’t cry a river as a usual son may. And after a while he probably wouldn’t miss them.

Marcus was faster than before and got only rubbed twice with the wooden sword which was good enough not to create a problem for the mission, so they let him in. The village was not that far away, they’d get there in about three weeks. Marcus was worried though, as when he was informing people in the capital about the situation, they told him that these monsters reproduce by raping women of other species and suck the mana out of them.

He did have a bit of mana and he knew that his sister had quite more than him, but his mother didn’t have the talent, as far as he knew, so he was worried about his mother, expecting her to die quicker because of her mana defficiency.

Days passed and the day came. The village was barely on sight last night, so the troop decided to sleep and raid it full of energy to prevent accidents coming from their tiredness, because, although they were being transported with carts, they still got tired, and monsters were known to have better eyesight in dark environments in comparison with humans.

That day had been a good one. After about two months of being born I could walk fully within my control. Yes, I was a bit slower than my redder, also newborn tribe members, but still I was proud of myself. Also, I held the advantage in communication, as I could express myself well enough to be understood, while the others were babbling noises without any order. I was also babbling, Rakshnurians don’t get teeth until they’re two months old, because they feed off their female progenitors until they get their teeth.

My mother would then give birth for a third time and now she was starting to show the signs of weakness, the same ones that the other women had experienced not long before they died. I may have been a newborn, but I was a smart one and I could relate things and I started staying more together with her. She was the only one who accompanied me all the time without problems.

Rakshnurians instinctively resented me by my looks and humans resented me for being born from who I was born. But I didn’t decide to be born from such a father. I would probably have been much happier if I had been born in a family with two parents of the same race was what I had been thinking during those days. Now, while writing this and the knowledge I have accumulated during the years I know that in my case this is better.

Spending my days with her felt calm, especially in comparison with the hell that would break loose. If not for my mother, me and my sister wouldn’t have gotten alive out of there. Unluckily, the third member of our family was born… with more significant signs of being the descendant of a Rakshnurian. And that didn’t bode well for the new raiders.

About 1 km away of the village

- Captain, everything for the raid is ready!

A tall man dressed in silver armor with a blue cap talked to the man sitting before a small map of the village, filled with red and black dots determining Rakshnurian sightings and destroyed buildings.

- What about the women? Any info on them?

The captain Raven didn’t want to risk the Rakshnurians killing the people they were going to save, making this whole mission and the resources invested useless or at least worth less. And he didn’t want to be criticized by his superiors again…

- Sir, no sir!

Raven had a helpless face for just a moment, but he quickly regained his seriousness and looked at the map for the most likely positions on where they kept them. He could limit it to three different options, still too much for his opinion. But if his years in the army told him something was that you have to learn to use your available resources instead of crying over hypothetical situations.

Raven went out of the green tent, brown on the inside, so that it could mimic both grass and dirt. He shouted some simple orders, and everyone started putting their armor on, readying themselves for battle.

They would save the citizens of Munny, they would do their job. Marcus also prepared, specially mentally because of what he had been told, he had to prepare to see the corpses of his mother and sister otherwise he could quite easily become a liability or get killed in battle. He wouldn’t let his mother’s sacrifice go in vain.