Blood and Water

==Prologue== I guess I should tell you what happened to Jamaa, right? ...Right. Well, uh, it's not a very happy story. Actually, um, none of this story is very happy. Jamaa lost to the phantoms. We were overrun by them and we live in designated areas, 'containment units,' basically giant phantom fortressess built to contain animals. A lot of them are used as manual labor. I'm in one of the lucky units. We just get cells cut off from the rest of animal contact. Every morning we file into the food court, which is just a long tray with food dumped in. We all line up and eat whatever they give us, three times a day, every day. After lunch, we get to walk around the exercise room, which is depressingly barren. I mean, there's a tire swing, some pedals and running tracks, a few treadmills... one of them is broken... yeah, it's, it's pretty... pretty bad. At least it's warm. Kind of hot, actually. Nobody uses the exercise machines because we all overheat five minutes after we start. A lot of the jammers have forgotten jamaa and they speak phantom. I'm special because I still know Jamaa. I write on the walls, all the words I remember, then scrub it all off in the morning. It's the only way I can retain my language. None of them know, of course. That would be bad. I'd probably be punished. Anyway, that's all you need to know about me. Here's the record.

Chapter One - 'Magical Hero'
Everyone froze as the doors opened. This NEVER happened. A malnourished cheetah stumbled on the running track in her haste to stop, the only noise besides the whish of the great metal doors.

A squadron of phantoms dragged in a poor, bedraggled creature - so filthy and skinny Seraph couldn't even see what it was - and roughly hurled it onto the floor where it lay gasping, sides heaving up and down.

Nobody moved.

The phantoms stared everybody down, then exited back through the doors, which slammed shut behind them.

a penguin waddled over and, after glancing around furtively, took some mouldy bread from his tattered jacket and fed it to the animal, who seemed to recover after that.

Seraph crept over, eyes wide, wings fluttering, and realised that the creature was in fact a snow leopard. They must be around Mt. Shiveer now, and picked up some straggling rebel.

I didn't realise rebels even existed anymore, he wondered, staring at the leopard, who's glazed blue eyes locked with his.



She turned out to be lovely under the dirt, Seraph realised as she slowly dusted herself off. She was pale grey with blue spots and a pale belly, and he felt oddly protective of her, especially from Decker, who was skulking around her, but he was too anxious to approach her.

"Decker!" he called in a whisper, angrily.

The wolf's shredded ears twitched, but he didn't respond.

"Decker, come here right now," hissed Seraph.

Lazily, slowly, like he just happened to be passing by, he strolled over to Seraph and gave him a dangerous grin, leaning into Seraph's personal bubble. "What's up?"

Seraph pulled his wings close to his body, disgusted. "Don't hang around the snow leopard," he told him quietly. "Go bother someone else."

"Why d'ya suddenly care about someone, Aph? It's every animal for themself here." Decker poked Seraph between the eyes with sick smile across his muzzle.

"Don't touch me," he snapped, slapping Decker's paw away and taking a few steps back. "She's a rebel," he said, almost reverently.

"Psh. Not anymore."

Seraph opened his jaws to respond, but nothing came out.

Decker flapped his leathery wings, shaking out dust. "Face it. We're stuck here until we die and then we get to sleep forever. There is no Mira, there are no rebels, and no magical hero is coming through those doors to save us."

Seeing Seraph's upset face, close to tears, Decker's sick, insane smile dropped, and he patted his shoulder.

"Get some sleep, little bro."