Enslaved

Enslaved
The first entry in the Blood of Scarlet series

Chapter 1 - So Close, Yet So Far
The clamping of hooves. The clicking of claws. The thump of feet touching forest floor and the crunch whenever someone stepped on a leaf.

Scarlet scurried across the moist ground of Sarepia, trying to keep up with the other animals and make sure the phantoms didn't keep up with her. Screams pierced her ears and animals were seen being chained up, dragged away by those monsters. But she couldn't stop running, not even for a second.

But then, she heard a scream she recognized.

"SCARLET, HELP!!"

It was Whippersnapper, a friend of Scarlet's! That voice made her lock up in fear. The phantoms could be doing so many bad things to him; yet she didn't even have the courage to turn around.

Suddenly, she felt a slimy, black tentacle wrap around her tail. She turned around, and saw a phantom's arm clenching her fluffy tail. She tried to pull it away, but she felt two other phantoms grab her arms and pull her towards the ground. Two bulky, metal handcuffs with keyholes on them were slid onto her hands, and steel chains were wrapped up all over her tail.

She had been captured.

She screeched for the others, but they were long gone. Then, she felt herself being dragged away, dragged away from a freedom so close, yet so far.

Then, a tentacle whacked her in the head, and she blacked out.

Chapter 2 - Discovery
Scarlet woke up within a small chamber, practically rotting of age. The walls were made of stone, covered in splatters of green goop and spiky, dry moss. On the front of the cages were tall, iron bars, covered in several dry splats of brown. The brown was rust, but the red was something different... blood. In the cell itself, there was nothing but a small cot splattered with phantom goop and lacking a mattress, a bowl with the rotting corpse of dead bunny inside labeled "FOOD", a bowl of phantom goop labeled "WATER", and a rusty bucket simply labeled "POOP."

"It seems we have a new inmate." Scarlet heard a voice chuckle. She turned around, and was shocked at what she saw.

It was a pitch black coyote with a phantom purple square swirl pattern. But not any normal coyote, oh no. It's eyes were an impossible acid green, and his tail was a phantom tentacle.

Scarlet just looked at him, stuttering "W-what.. what is wrong with you?" He simply laughed it off. "Oh, I get that a lot. I'm Corrosive. Corrosive the phantom coyote." Then it clicked.

He was one of those phantom hybrids she had heard of occasionally. But what was he doing here? Shouldn't the phantoms like hybrids? So, she asked "Why are you here?"

"The real question is why are YOU here." Corrosive laughed. Scarlet tilted her head. Why was it weird for her to be captured? She was completely normal, in fact being what was called a "purebred" jammer. But, as if he had read her mind, Corrosive chuckled and began to tell her the story.

"Most animals that phantoms capture are sent straight to the labs. There, they are injected with chemicals and turned into phantoms. However, some animals are immune to the chemicals, which means they are either a phantom-animal hybrid, or have physical or elemental, well, elemental blood. If they do, they are sent to the dungeons for experiments."

"That's horrible!" Scarlet exclaimed, before looking at her paws. "But what is an "elemental?"" "YOU DON'T KNOW?!" Corrosive said, laughing like a hyena. "EVERYONE knew about them back in the day! But let me explain..."

"Elementals are special animals, like the alphas or shamans.There are two types of elemental; physical and elemental. Elementals are the most well-known; they have power over either fire, water, lightning, nature, earth, and light. Physical elementals have the power of strength, speed, jump, flight, and courage. There are also anti-elements, which are more common in phantoms, either giving the elemental weaknesses or the power over anti-elements. The weaknesses are, well, weakness, slowness, plummeting, and fear, and the anti-elements are smolder, sludge, pain, thorn, barren, and darkness."

But Scarlet was still confused. She stared Corrosive right in the eye, and snarled "And HOW do I use these powers?!" But Corrosive just laughed it off and said "How they are used have been forgotten for years." And then, he calmly walked away, hopped on the cot, and fell asleep with no problem. "Fine!" Scarlet growled, and sat down in a corner, contemplating what the actual heck was happening.