Un Human by Milly Alexander (pocket ebook reader txt) 📕

Somewhere on earth the Mytivus islands are in trouble. TanBaa, Island of the Sun, was just one of the islands that had been crushed by the forces of Etarip, king of the demons, as was Lemcu – Island of the Spirits – and Ponthco. Etarip was rebelling against the law to keep humanity safe. He thought that demons should have more power and wouldn’t listen to anyone else’s view, killing all that had the guts to stand up to him.
His brother Salakin, the fire demon king of Xamtle, was in trouble with the island of Heneru for financial reasons and Etarip was more than happy to help his brother out by taking the island for his own. He planned an attack with Salakin and was brought over to Heneru by ship without anyone knowing. When he got there he snuck into their Elder's hut and killed him in cold blood. His soldiers, along with his brother, rounded up all of the villagers including a beautiful young healer named Elaji.
Etarip was enchanted by her beauty and made an agreement with the head villager; he would leave the island alone if he could have Elaji as his wife. The villagers didn’t even ask Elaji if she was alright with this - they were amazed that Etarip had promised to leave their island in peace, as everyone was terrified of him. Etarip travelled back to his home island, Croath, with Elaji, leaving his abandoned and distraught brother behind.
Salakin took over the village himself but diseases that the healer girl had once protected the village from came back and poisoned the pretty island. Etarip had tricked them; now their only healer was gone they had no one to cure the people of Heneru. The people were very desperate for something to help save them! An old lady that had been their prisoner since the last war told them that she would help them if they would let her go. They agreed. She gave them a sharp rock and told them to carve patterns on a child’s back with the rock when it was six.
The old woman fled from the island whilst they were waiting for the next child to be born. The lady went straight to Croath where Elaji had her first child. She told Etarip that the island of Heneru had a powerful source of magic with them and that she could help. He was also presented with a rock and told to do the same thing but that the child had to be his. Etarip begged for some other way but the old lady told him it was either he did this to the child or his wife would die. So he agreed.
The children were said to have become the most powerful things alive – monsters! A destroyer and a saviour, a devil and an angel. Etarip’s child was named Lucifer and the child born on Heneru named Michael. The child living on Heneru Island was loved until after the ceremony. The child was said to have killed both of its parents and its screams deafened and burned the villager carving the marks. In their fear the villagers forgot their original intentions and the child was thrown into the sea and shooed away from the island. Meanwhile, King Etarip’s child was finding it hard to contain the demon inside him and was locked in the cellar until it could handle the power.
The children were once feared around the world – but today they are just a myth.

7 Years Later...

BANG, BANG!

“Get up you lazy ass,” the voice of the house keeper shouted. I groaned and turned over in my bed. I was sure it was Saturday. Staying up last night had made me dreadfully tired. Although I couldn’t remember what I had stayed up for. Oh God! I had been reminding myself that I needed to get up on time for my first day of school! I sat up and grabbed my alarm clock. Damn, my alarm wasn’t set. I looked at the time… hold on – I was two hours early! Yes! Thank you house keeper man! I got out of bed and, not willing to hang about, got dressed and collected everything for school. When I had made my way downstairs I grabbed a roll of bread.
“Bye, thank you!” I shouted before I ran out of the door to do my morning jobs before school. I couldn’t afford to stay in hotels but the man who owned the inn that I had been staying at was letting me stay for free! In return, because the man owned a farm, it was my job whilst I was staying to feed all of the animals. I threw the four chickens their seeds, refilled the cows’ trough and the horses’, then went to feed Smokey the pig. Smokey was probably my favourite because he would eat anything. He was kept in a sty at the edge of the farm under a big oak tree, near Yua Woods where I spent most of my time. I leaned over the fence.
“Food!” I called, shaking the bag of pig food. He wasn’t in the run. I climbed over the fence – man, it stunk! I tried to walk through the mud in the sty but ended up on my bum. I pulled my hands out of the mud and was about to get up when I noticed that my hands were red. Blood! I got up and looked at where I had been sitting. There was a trail of blood leading along the back of the barn. It looked like it had come from the forest. I followed it slowly, thinking of all the horrible things that could have happened to Smokey. I looked round the side of the barn. Nothing I imagined matched what I saw!
A pale girl with long grey hair was kneeling, drinking water from a tap. Blood was pouring out of her side and trickling down her legs to her knees, where a large crimson pool had formed. She noticed my presence and spun around quickly. She looked angry but I could tell she was quite weak and tired. She relaxed her angry expression and fainted, probably from loss of blood and sleep. I ran over to her. What was I supposed to do? I was thinking about going back to the inn but everyone would be asleep and I had to catch a boat to school. If the boat left without me I would have to wait five hours for the next one to come. Where I was staying didn’t have a hospital so my only option was to get on the boat to the next island where there was

a hospital. Heaving the girl on to my back I set off to catch the boat. She was heavy and I struggled to lift her. As I ran through the forest I saw a white, boat shaped blob disappear off into the distance.
“No! Wait!” I shouted. I changed form and leapt into the water.

I stepped on to a gravelled play ground and looked up at my new school. This was not the way I had planned to start my day. I was so tired and there was no way I could carry the girl on my back any longer; I could barely hold myself up! My trousers which used to be white were now mostly a reddish brown colour. I started to hobble further towards the school; how embarrassing, lots of faces appeared in the windows of the school pointing and shouting. My legs trembled and gave way. People ran out of the building to help me, but they were probably too late to help the girl.
“It’s ok,” a curly haired nurse said. “We can help you.” There were three of them: a doctor, a teacher and a nurse.
“Are you both from this school? I haven’t seen you before. What’s your name? How old are you?” the teacher was asking.
“My name’s Seth, it’s my first day,” I replied, exhausted. My voice was surprisingly hoarse due to lack of fresh water. What time was it?
“There are no injuries on the boy apart from his bloody knees and scratched up legs.” The doctor reported. He turned to examine the girl and sighed. “The girl is another story. There is quite a large deep cut in her side and it has cost her a lot of blood. She is just hanging on to life and needs urgent medical attention!” I was picked up by the nurse and hurried inside. I yawned and, forgetting everything, fell asleep.

When I woke up my legs felt stiff and ached. I rubbed my eyes and started to get out of bed. As I stood up both of the scabs on my knees burst and I started to fell slightly dizzy.
“Oh great," I sighed, under my breath. I ignored my painful knees and the dizziness and remembered that I was supposed to be at school. I pulled back the curtain around my bed to find a long corridor with cubicles either side. There was a big counter to the left of my room, with a man sat behind it reading. I decided to ask were to find the girl I had been with.
”Um, excuse me,” I said, walking up to the counter. “Do you know where I can find my friend; she has grey hair and we came here earlier.” I got no answers. “Hello?” I said. Still no answers. “Hello!” I shouted. “Will you look up from your damn book!” I yelled slamming my hands down on the counter. The man’s head moved finally, and then fell off. “AHHHHH!” I cried, jumping backwards.
“HOP!” someone shouted. “WHAT ARE YOU DOING?” The curly purple haired nurse I had seen earlier appeared from behind one of the cubical curtains. She looked shocked at the sight before her and then rolled her eyes. “It’s OK, Dr Hopkins has just found a way of skipping work without me knowing. It’s only a manikin,” she said, smiling.