THE DUEL

Step by step, through separate ways, we reached the forest, we reached the very center where a wide playground area was awaiting for us and because it was so late, it would be like usually at that time, empty

Like in a western movie we walked towards our rival, making noise with every step we took as we walked on the small multicolored pebbles that were in the playground area, we stopped a few meters away, alert to the movement the other one did, both of us let her schoolbag drop to the ground and waited

Face to face we waited, without moving; it was almost the sunset in some instants the magic hour would begin, the moment when it wasn’t yet night but it also wasn’t day. That moment when the light of day turns into a strange red line that spans the horizon, that precise instant when the door between the worlds opens

With first rays of red light, with the last instants of light we ran to battle each other in a furious fight, in and intense clash of claws, fangs and talons. We had changed, for we are shape changers also known as Therianthropes, revealing our true forms, forms we had inherited, by the blood of our parents

My daddy and therefore me too, are what is known in human folklore as BALAMS: Panther Onca, considered and worshiped as deities, heirs to an ancient kingdom that long time ago was destroyed. While Natasha and her mother are Lycanthropes, specifically Canis Lupus Albus, the nobility of the ancient Europe, ancient rulers of the most frozen north

We were incompatible; we were from different and distant worlds, with nothing in common. Both species rival from time immemorial, both destined to battle among them for domain over the other. But with the pass of time things changed and now our parents were married, which had made us, Natasha and me in sisters...well stepsisters

Girls that were, almost normal, who already had a lot of problems with having to adapt to the human world, who also had to make an effort to get good grades and having to adapt to a new school

If that wasn’t enough we had just passed to middle school, we had just turned thirteen years old and we were just began with our teen years with all the physical and emotional changes that implies

And, on top of all that, we had to understand and withstand our parent’s relationship that would come to a climax with their recent marriage, for which reason we had to adapt to live together; to make matters even worse, increase our stress and tension we had to hide our true nature: half human, half wild

All that tension, all that frustration we had channeled against each other and now we had let it out without control. Filled with rage but equals in strengths and skills we both fell exhausted after a long fight, side by side

“y...you’re so...so stupid!” exhausted Natasha yelled at me, while on the grass soft and smooth as a green rug, of one of the meadows for during our fight we had moved from the place where it had began until we had reached that place

“So...so...are you!” I answered just as exhausted while we both laid, less than an arm’s length away, covered in blood, cuts and bruises

“wh…why…did you” Natasha said turning to see me “have…to rip…my silk blouse, it was new…my mommy gave it to me” she added while the tears were already flowing down her eyes “for my birthday!”

“Just…like…the Cardigan…” I said turning to see her “it was also my birthday gift!”

“WHY DID THEY HAVE TO GET MARRIED?” she yelled, practically howling with frustration

“WHY DID THEY HAVE TO RUIN OUR LIVES?” I yelled, roaring, as frustrated as she was

We both continued howling and roaring, during a very long time, with all our strength, expressing with screams all of our frustration and problems that the union of her mommy with my daddy had caused us

“SHUT UP!” from above the tree tops, a Harpy that was passing by at that moment yelled at us “you pair of imbeciles your howling and roaring are scaring all the preys in the zone!”

“Don’t you dare speak to my sister in such a way!” in anger I yelled back at him while throwing with precise aim a stone that caught him in mid flight

“DEMON’S CAT!” the Harpy roared swooping down against me, his sharp claws ready to cut me down when a white blur, like a platinum ghost, intercepted him in mid flight

“Never threaten my sister!” Natasha screamed as they fell to the ground in a tangle of claws and bites. But the Harpy being the biggest and strongest, with one powerful kick threw her off him and sent her against the trunk of a tree, that creaked against the terrible intensity of the impact

Immediately the Harpy, with a powerful jump, advanced towards Natasha, who stunned by the blow laid almost unconscious at the foot of the tree; the Harpy had already lifted the dangerous talons in one of his feet , ready to unleash their edge on her, when from above that very same tree I pounced on him

My fangs closed around his neck, suffocating him, at the same time my claws sank deep into the skin on his back, holding his wings firmly so that he was unable to take flight, while with the talons on my feet I made deep cuts on his chest and belly; thus managing to keep him from using his best advantage, but the Harpy was an adult, too strong for me alone to handle him

But not strong enough as to be able to face both of us; working together we managed to submit him and after tearing off one of his wings finishing him wasn’t so difficult. Even so it was a long fight, at the end with several wounds between bruises and cuts, totally bathed in blood both ours and from our opponent, triumphantly we feasted consuming our prey, our enemy…it was our first hunting together

We were both exhausted, we were both satisfied by our victory and our hunger satiated after having completely devoured the Harpy