~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~The Scars~~

Shukura stood in front of her father, her eyes were focused on the ground, just barely keeping the tears from being visible as she stood under the intense pressure of her father's glare. Yes, she had passed the survival test, but he didn't approve of how. He detested the idea that she hadn't just killed all of the wolves, and had lived with them, and he had to go through the trouble to send someone to get her.

"So, explain to me what happened after I sent one of my men to retrieve you, and why I had to send another to get you only to find you covered in your own blood and unconscious." He ordered. Shukura felt as if she was being crushed under an intense pressure, forcing her to bow down to his will.

"Father sir, I already told you. The hunter you had sent started killing the wolves that I had been staying with and I got upset, after that, I don't remember." Shukura whimpered quietly.

"According to my report, to ground was scorched from an intense heat, and you were in the middle of it. The Hunter's remains were also found, turned to ash. What incarnation did you use?" Her father ordered, and Shukura flinched at his hard and uncaring tone.

"I... I-I don-don't know. I have no memory of even using an incarnation that powerful, I don't even think I posses one." She stuttered.

"You will perform that incantation!" Her father shouted, slamming his hand on his desk. A mad look in his eyes and Shukura squeaked. "You said you were upset, correct?" Her father back to normal and Shukura nodded.

"Yes, sir." Shukura hooded her eyes, she had upset her father and was going to expect punishment.

"Then I guess I will just have to simulate the situation." Her father said, a dark, and cold look in his eye. He pulled out a knife before she could react. It vanished from his hand, and a sharp stinging pain of a cut appeared on her cheek.

Shukura's eyes widened, and her father pulled out another knife and got up out of his chair, then walked over to a frozen Shukura. He flipped the knife around in his fingers, so quick the blade seemed to vanish. He slashed at her with a hard expression, perfectly calm at attacking his own daughter, and she screamed in pain and clutched her right half of her face, blinded by a terrible red hot pain. Warm, red blood seeped between her fingers. He brought the knife down again, and Shukura stumbled into a corner, and cried, the knife embedded in her shoulder. Blood seeped from her right eye in place of tears.

"Daddy! Don't kill me! Please!" Shukura cried, and the man hesitated for a brief second and looked at the blood on his once pristine white dress shirt. He looked at the bloodied crying girl in the corner of his office. She was staining the carpet.

"Get out of my office. You're staining my carpet with your pitiful tears and weak blood. Out!" He shouted and Shukura screamed once more and ran out of the office, knife still embedded in her shoulder, still clutching her right eye, and still crying.

Shukura stumbled thought the building, running swiftly and blood dotted the ground behind her. Her injuries had no hindrance on her speed. AT one point, she crashed into a wall, and at another, and tripped and fell. She had gotten up and continued to run around blindly around the building. No one pursued her to help.

Her father didn't love her, nor would he ever. The only person she had was herself, she would never have anyone to depend on, that made her weak. Her father hated her, and she didn't know how she felt towards him, even after he had severely hurt her. He would never recognize her as a hunter, or as his daughter. She was alone.

A maid found her possibly an hour later, a pool of blood surrounding the weak and still crying girl. The maid had let out a startled yelp at the sight of her mistress covered in blood, and in such a miserable state. Though it wasn't the first time.

Shukra was clearly in shock. The maid carried her to the infirmary and tended to her wound. Her shoulder had clotted over the hour she had been crying, but her eye was gone. The slash had damaged it beyond the point of repair, and she was now blind in that eye, a gruesome red slash through it. She would have a scar on her face for the rest of her life. Shukura wouldn't say a word, let alone of what happened to her or who had attacked her.

~~~~~Later

Shukura sat in her temple, her eyes dead, looking forward into nothingness. Bandages covered her eye, and a thin red line peeked out from under the bottom of the bandages. Her shoulder had also been tightly wrapped. She wore a dress, one fit for the priestess of the Moon Temple. It was a confusing scene, bandaged, yet she still sat there like she always did, like nothing was wrong.

The dim candle light that lit the room, filled with incenses was the only thing Shukura acknowledged. Her world was limited to darkness, having lost her better eye, it was difficult to see far away and she wasn't used to only using one eye to see. But it was a complication no one would care about.

The world was silent and Shukura turned around and faced the stature she was to sit in front of a great dragon, large wings spread out and jaw holding up a silver orb, meant to represent the moon. Shukura bowed her head and rested her forehead on the elegant tiles surrounding her cushioned seat. Shukura closed her good eye and softly prayed, her throat still sore, and her voice over used.

"O great dragon of the moon, I am Shukura Ryuunome, the priestess of your shrine. I am alone and seek your guidance on what I should do. My pain clouds my mind and my heart are injured from the pain that has been caused. Please, o great dragon, what should I do?" A tear slipped from her left eye and her voiced cracked. There was silence, she should have known the dragon wouldn't respond, he never had before, so why should he now?

SHukura sighed and turned away, focusing on what she could see in e darkness surrounding her temple.

'Musume, hold your head high. You shall see through the darkness that you are immersed in and rise to a new sun.' Shukura blinked. It was a new voice, one she recognized, but couldn't place. The sound of their voice was comforting and kind, almost motherly. It confused her, but its sudden appearance didn't startle her, she was currently still too numb, though hours had passed.

'Currently, your heart has yet to truly see the true light. You need not cry, but stay true to yourself. To see through the darkness, I shall grant you something you have lost, Musume. Use it to see through the darkness of the darkest nights, and the darkest souls. Hold your head up and hold out until dawn, my child.' And with that, the voice was gone.

She blinked, and a warm feeling came from behind the bandages, wear her eye used to be. The blurriness in her other eye faded away, and the bandages fell off from the right side of her face like someone had unknotted them. The bandages unraveled and Shukura looked up, the bandages a disorderly pile on the floor.

A red line halved her brow and eye, ending at the hollow of her cheek, she opened her her eye. Her right eye glowed lavender in the dim candlelight of the ever darker night. But to her, the room had been lit in a new light, and so had the man she called father.

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-Just.... something...... I guess.....