1 Chapter 1: Heroic Deed

"Be careful!" says a man with light brown hair and emerald green eyes as he dashed to the young boy dangerously hanging from the rails of a lion's den. He immediately grabbed the boy just before he fell above a sleeping lioness with the rest of her pride.

" Gotcha'! " With a swing of his arm, he pulled the boy into his embrace and steadily stepped backwards, away from the railings.

He released a reliefed sigh and looked at the young boy, shaking in his arms, obviously frightened of what happened earlier. He gently patted the head of the boy, reassuring him that he is now safe and away from danger. " Hey there kiddo, it's okay now. " He gently rocks the boy as he says a few more comforting words to the now crying child in his arms.

A few minutes have passed before the boy calmed down from his sudden outburst of tears, his eyes as well as his whole face turned red from too much crying. The boy, still holding onto the man, carefully turned his head to see his savior. With a trembling voice he slowly spoke to the man.

" T-Thank you *hic*...m-mister."

The man gave the boy a bright smile and gently rubbed his hair. "No problem kiddo. Say, where are your parents?" He asked as he looked around to see a lady running to them followed by a man, both wearing a worried expressions on their faces. Guessing that those were the kid's parents, he gently let the boy down. As the two people approached them, the boy in his hands hurriedly let go and started running at the approaching couple.

When the couple reached the child, the lady went down on her knees and hugged the boy tightly. The man who saved the boy walked to the family of three who are now crying as both the parents and child started apologising at each other. He stood beside the family, smiling and adoring the warm aura that the family are giving off.

The man that looked to be the father of the child noticed the man, who has saved his son earlier. The father immediately stood up and grabbed the hands of the man as he thanked him whole heartedly for saving his child. "Thank you. Thank you very much for saving my son!" The father said as he shook the hands of the man that looked to be in his late twenties.

But before the man could reply, a loud voice called out to him, "Amari! Come back here. The whole team are moving now."

" *sigh* I'll be right there, just hang on a sec. " The man named Amari said a simple welcome to the family and gave the little kid a warm smile and a little ruffle in the hair, saying that he should be careful next time and that he should stick close to his parents all the time. The boy, in return gave him a hug and thanked him genuinely. After saying his goodbye to the family, Amari rushed to catch up to his team, that are already on their way to their next destination.

With a click of his toungue, Amari reached his team as he catch his breath from chasing them. His friend, Tim Anderson, noticed him and gave him a big hit at the back.

"That was some heroic move you did there. It was as if you were some superhero that saves the day! Hahaha. If I would've known you were gonna sprint all the way to save the kid, I woul've recorded it and post it on social media." Tim said as he wriggled his eyebrows and gave Amari a playful nudged with his elbow.

Amari just gave Tim a small smile and continued on walking. Time continued talking about his 'heroic' deed as he ignores him. His mind slowly drifted to the warm scene of the hugging family from before. Smiling, Amari was happy that he got to see a warm sight after living his life all alone since his parent's death from a plane crash 10 years ago. Just remembering it made him want to go to where his parent's are buried and just spend his all afternoon talking in front of their grave.

With his mind in a daze, he continued walking along side his friend, who has been talking non-stop about his plan to make him famous if he did managed to record the whole rescue. He gave his friend a glance and smirked at him, thinking that maybe he chose the wrong guy to befriend with. His sighed and thought that there's no point in regretting it since this guy has been with him since his college years and they have never left each other's side no matter how much opposite they seem to be. And besides he liked hanging out with this guy, although he felt like his IQ would droop everytime they hangout, it was still something that he was happy about.

"Amari, we should hurry and catch up with the rest of the team. We're going to the mountain near the Vina's Resort.", says Tim.

Breaking out from his thoughts, Amari glanced in front of him and they were indeed falling behind their team. So brushing off his previous thoughts, Amari and Tim rushed off to catch up to their team, who are now getting on a bus.

***

An hour has passed since they entered the bus along the team and started moving to their next destination. Amari is now sound asleep while Tim was beside him, busy playing games on his phone. It was a long ride all the way to the resort so at the moment the people inside the bus are now asleep except from the driver and some that are watching the scenery outside their windows.

Even though in the outside Amari looked as if he's been sleeping peacefully. Deep inside he is currently having a peculiar dream.

In his dream, he can hear heavy running footsteps of men, who keeps on shouting in some strange language. It was already night but it seems that not everyone, not even the sky itself are quite and sleeping, heavy rains and thunders spread across the eerie forest as the group of men dashed in it. It was as if they were chasing something. Or to be exact someone.

The scene changed and move to a woman with deep blue eyes and obsidian black hair. The woman was running barefoot, ignoring the pain that was coming from it when she accidentally wounded her soles on a sharp rock earlier. Her breathing was heavy and her eyes were slowly starting to loose focus from the wound and the fatigued that she was feeling, but regardless of that she kept on running and running while she tightly held a white box engraved in gold and blue carvings.

The woman held onto it as if her life depended on it. She quickly avoided a few tree branches that were getting on her way when she heard a loud voice that echoed throughout the forest. Reluctantly she slightly glanced behind her without stopping and soon after, she regretted it. Her eyes widened from fear and shock when she saw a group of men with torches and weapons in there hands catching up to her. With the suden rush of adrenaline in her veins, she hasten her pace, but unfortunately she has run out of luck as she quickly stopped her body as she reached the end of a cliff.

Her hands still around the box, she glanced behind her and saw the group of men who were chasing her has finally catched up with her. They spread around the cliff, blocking every possible escape routes. A man dressed in a black coat was standing in the middle with a smirk in his face, he lifted his sword and pointed it to the woman infront. "Madam Everleigh, kindly put surrender and put down the box and whatever is in there." His tone was threatening yet the woman, Madam Everleigh, didn't flinch, she straightened her back and sneered at the man in the middle.

"You dare threathen me, your Duchess?! *scoffs* What a bunch of traitors! You lot are no different from demons." Madam Everleigh shouted back to the man pointing a sword infront of her. The man's blood boiled from anger, his face turning red from rage.

"Madam, you are no longer the Duchess of the Cielito household. You are now just a thief that has stolen something that belonged to the Cielito's." The man rebuked.

Madam Everleigh's expression changed from shock to rage. She hugged the box in her arms as the sound of bones and skin ripping apart filled the air. The man was petrified at what he was seeing, his body stated trembling from horror and fright from seeing the woman in front of him slowly changes into a giant black serpent with fangs that were long and sharp as a sword. Upon finishing her transformation she screeched loudly as thunder and lightning fell down the sky as if it was answering back to her.

With a terrified look the man trembled as he says, "Y-you, WHAT are you!?"