Chapter 2

Cyra's world is a dark and drastic world, teeming with curses, monsters, and some things that even supernatural beings struggle to comprehend, let alone the mortals. A fact that only a few dare acknowledge. Others simply feign ignorance in exchange for a safe refuge from the ones who hunt or maim abominations.

The town she and her father currently inhabit is faraway from the notorious cities or capitals, with their incessant probing and lust for bloodbaths with the less fortunate. It's where monsters are freely hunted and the mortals reign over as overlords by aid of dark practices.

Their town has always been surrounded by an awe inspiring fog that covers it from the valleys between the three mountains to the edge of the Grey river, where a dam is being built. (Cyra sometimes pities the poor builders who are making it)

As per her rough assumptions, the second most loathsome place, the school should be somewhere in the middle of the township.

Her relationship with her dad is..pretty weird, to say the least.

His wife, and the woman who gave birth to Cyra was a greater succubus or otherwise called a Yakshi. She was also responsible for a lot of calamities in the town, as part of her residual energy during her witchcraft experiments overflowed in the form of a mist.

Cyra's mother is one of several beings from an ancient part of the world, who come from time to time and meddle with less powerful beings.

And as characteristic of her kind, she seduced Cyra's father into relieving herself off a curse while pushing the poor man into an eternal life of longing. Not that she cared about that consequence. Neither did she care about Cyra, her first mortal child, which she apparently had on a whim.

It left her father hateful no doubt, but it just had to get worse.

Cyra turned out to be a succubus too. A good-for-nothing astral being that seduces and traps the menfolk for her own reasons.

Unfortunately Cyra was held back by her mortal state officially becoming both a punching bag and an object of various unsociable desires at the hands of her despicable father.

Something which even he admitted to not having control over. It is what brought forth the idea of those nightly sadistic sparring sessions with him where he tried engaging in combat with her rather than giving into his carnal desires, yet more than most of the times he would simply give in to it, offering her hellish nightmares in waking hours.

It had been a while since Cyra had made it out of her home. It shouldn't be hard to get to the school from where she was but Cyra decided on a detour.

Her spot? The shining lake in the white forest. Rumored to reflect the true intentions of a gazer.

She simply went there to mull over life, wishing not to run into anything strange. Or run into someone with a grudge.

Her evil birth mother's deeds had left a permanent blot, which made her an easy target for any of the aggrieved townsfolk. Given that she was still in highschool and a female at that, it was way too easy to pick on her.

It would be as simple as meting out punishment to a witch's offspring after all. And the townsfolk wouldn't bat an eyelid.

I guess that's why dad insisted on getting me accustomed to blows and physical torture, but if I was honest the bastard simply enjoyed himself.

But Cyra couldn't help wondering about how it would be nice if her dad treated her with love rather than spite.

She banished the thought of her father and tried to notice anything out of the ordinary in the cleared up part of the forest. Most of the times, monsters or other supernatural beings claimed territories so it would be bad to be seen trespassing on their marked land.

Though lesser demons or monsters like herself stood no chance against the bigger ones, Cyra sometimes felt it would be better than encountering prejudiced mortals who hated the sight of everything inhuman.

The lake was right in front of her but she held back from rushing in. It still mesmerized her, the effect of it's glimmering reflection on the eyes sent off a strange but invigorating energy. Almost like it was magic that inhabited the depths. Waiting to be defiled and discovered.

She was careful to step out of the foliage and look around. It was deadly quiet, just like she wanted, and so she laid back on the ground with a gleeful smile on her lips.

Her entire self shook when she felt something grab her foot and retracted her legs away from the lake surface to see a pair of glowing eyes from the surface of the glassy lake staring right at her.

BLINK. BLINK. BLINK.!!

Ahhh...noo.. Monster!

The eyes widened for a bit before the head dipped under once and lifted itself up. Now being attached to a head of a person.

It was a girl, even more paler than Cyra was, with white pupils and who was completely naked.

The girl didn't scramble to cover herself and instead sat down next to Cyra, on her folded legs, tucking her hair behind her ears after removing it from her wet face, to look properly.

"Hi. I'm Nita." She announced with a wide smile. Offering an outstretched hand which Cyra didn't bother taking. For all she knew, she had just offended some sort of a beast.

"Was I..was I intruding?"

"Not at all." Nita shrugged disappointed at her not met her hand while hugging her legs close to her body. "I initially thought you were here to bully me so I wanted to scare you off. Guess that didn't work."

Cyra emitted a nervous laugh. I think it did.

"Aren't you feeling cold?"

"Not really. That's because I'm a mermaid. See?"

Nita sat back leaning on her arms, stretching out her legs, which in a short bright burst of light, transformed into a pair of scaly but a pretty slender single fin of a gigantic fish like thing. She almost seemed proud showing off.

I just ran into a friggin 'Jalpari'! Please don't be territorial. Please don't be territorial...

"Holy shit. Can I touch it?"