Kita sat up in the tree that over looked the courtyard of the palace. She watched the 3 year old princess play with her 6 year old friend, a boy who worked in the palace with his family. She was told to watch them from her master. She and her twin brother also lived in the palace as long as she could remember with two other wolf demons, which were a couple years older then them. She sat up in the tree looking around she was starting to get board when some thing caught her eye. She jerked her head towards the wall where she spotted the movement. It was gone. She stood up on the limb to try to see what it was. She scanned the courtyard then she saw a flash of rust color ears and they were heading towards the Princess. She jumped down from the tree and made a mad dash towards them. She moved as fast as she could towards them. She jumped over the hedge. Princess Ziya and the boy, Chad looked at her.

“What do you want?!” Chad asked irritated to see her. She ignored him and looked around for the intruder. The shrubs, which was across from Chad and Ziya, moved. Chad turned his attention to the shrubs too and pulled out his knife. He stood in front of the princess ready for whatever came out of the shrubs. Then it jumped out of the hedges in a blur movement and was heading right for the blonde. Kita before she knew it lunged herself at the intruder. She had no idea why she did it. She was not at all good at fighting but her body acted before her brain. She grabbed who ever it was around the waist and thrown her own body with the intruder on top of her to the ground. The intruder rolled off of her and got up into an attach position. Kita scrambled to her feet and stood ready. The intruder was a small fox demon around her age. The Fox growled at her. Her red hair long and wild she wore tattered clothes. She showed her teeth to Kita then snapped them at her and dug her long pointed nails into the ground.

‘WHAT AM I DOING?!’ Kita’s brain screamed. She was unarmed, weak and does not know how to get out of this situation. The small fox charged at Kita the only thing she could do was close her eyes, put her hands up to protect herself and wait for the blow. It never came.

“OW!” The voice of one of the wolf demon boys came. She opened her eyes to see Topher’s back. “Hey, that really hurts you know!?” He yelled at the fox that had her teeth sunk in to his arm. “C’mon, let go!” He shook her around. “If you don’t I will punch you! I’m not afraid to hit a girl!” She growled more at him. “You have till 3!”

“Kita!” She turned to her brother who had shown up with the other wolf demon, Alastair.

“1!”

“What were you thinking?” Rider asked.

“I don’t know.” She said.

“Oy, human!” Alastair yelled to Chad. “Get the princess away from here!” Chad glared at him and took the princess by the hand and went back to the palace.

“2!”

“You could have gotten hurt.” Rider said.

“I know. I wasn’t thinking.”

“2 and one fourth! You’ll get it!”

“She’s wild and dangerous. How were you going to fight her? You don’t know how to fight.”

“2 and a half!”

“I know.”

“2 and three quarters!”

“Look,” Alastair got between Kita and Rider. “She sees she did somethin’ wrong. Ya don’t need to jump down her throat about it.”

“Stay out of this. She’s my sister, my only family. I don’t need any advice from you.”

“OK” Alastair backed away.

“3! That’s it you’re going to get it!” Topher brought his fist down on the small fox’s head. It only caused her to growl at him more and sinks her teeth in farther.

“TOPHER!” Kita yelled. She ran over to him. “Stop!” She grabbed his arm.

“This runt started it.”

“She’s scared and I don’t think she understands us.”

“She doesn’t understand me hitting her!?” She let go of his arm and looked at the fox girl.

“It’s OK.” She said softly. Bringing her had closer to the girl. The fox only glared at her more.

“OW! Kita, she’s biting harder!”

“Quite.” She said to him. “We’re not going to hurt you.” She slowly again brought her hand to the top of the fox’s head. The girl growled again but it slowly subsided. She released Topher’s arm from her teeth.

“Man that hurt!” Alastair took off his bandana he had tied to his lag and used it to stop Topher’s arm from bleeding. “Look what that runt did to me!” Kita sat down to the girl’s level.

“Where did you come from?” The girl looked at her blankly. “What’s your name?” She still stared at her. “My name is Kita.” She pointed at her self then at the girl. “What’s your’s?” The girl moved her head to the other side. Then she let something that sound like a language but nothing Kita would understand.

“She won’t understand a thing you say, Kita.” The demon’s all turned to see their master approaching them. The girl tried to back away but Kita held on to her. “She’s from a tribe that does not speak with anyone out side their tribe.”

“Why is she here?” Alastair asked.

“I hard of a fox tribe from the north being wiped out. She was probably the last of them and traveled all the way here for revenge.” The girl stopped struggling because something caught her attention on Kita. She grabbed a hold of the necklace Kita was wearing.

“You like my necklace.” Kita took off the necklace and held it up to her so she could see it batter. “It’s a star.”

“S-tar.” The girl said. “Star.”

“Sounds like you like that.”

“What are we going to do with her, master?” Rider asked.

“Take her in. What should we call her?” He asked them.

“How about Biter?” Topher growled still trying to stop the bleeding.

“I think Starla would fit her.” Kita said. She put the necklace around the little fox’s neck.

“Star.” The fox said again.

“It does fit, doesn’t it.” Their master turned back to the palace. On his way back to the palace he ran into the King, who saw the whole thing.

“I see you got your self a new one eh, Malory.” The king said to him.

“So it seems I have.”

Author’s note: I made it seem that Malory is a nice guy. But he has plans for these Demons then taking them in the kindness of his heart.

Chad looked every where for the youngest Princess all over the palace but she was nowhere in sight. The only place she could be was in the court yard. He walked into the court yard. He looked around and could not find her.

“She’s over there.” Chad looked up into the large tree. Rider, the cat demon, was longed back up in the tree. “For some one who is supposes to be keeping an eye on her you’re pretty bad.”

“You seem to keep a good eye on her.” Chad said glaring up at him. He did not trust any of the demons Malory takes in or even Malory for that matter. They always seem to be up to something. “Why do you all seem like you’re keeping a very close eye the royal family?” Rider sat up and leaned over to look at him.

“Why do you think that is any of your business?”

“Never mind.” Chad growled. “Where is she?”

“She’s hiding behind the trees on the other side of the courtyard.” Rider laid back in the tree again. “You should keep a closer eye on her. Something may happen to her.” Chad glared at the smirking demon child. He walked over to the trees. He heard the sound of a little girl crying. He found her sitting under the tree.

“Princess?” Chad said. “Are you alright?” She looked up at him wiping her tears away.

“I’m fine.” She said.

“Why are you crying?” He sat down next to the younger girl.

“Every one is not here for my birthday?” It was the princess’s 5th birthday to day and everyone in her family was all off doing their own things. The king was off to another country with the price to discuss future planes. The Queen had a companied the middle princess to a recital 3 cities away. The oldest Princess was being a hostess a city away to a visiting ruler of a neighboring country. It was hard on all of them to leave the young girl but they had to leave. It was also too dangerous to bring her with them. It turned out it was safer for her to stay with all that was happening around them. And Ziya was left here by her self to be watched over by Chad. Chad felt really bad for the young girl.

“You will all celebrate when they all get back.”

“But I’m all by my self on my birthday.”

“I’m here with you.” The princess sat silently. Chad came up with some thing that might help a little. “I’ll be right back.” He ran back to the palace with rider up in the tree watching him. Chad went in to his room and grabbed a few sheets of paper. He ran back to the princess. Rider still watched him. Chad sat down next to the princess. She watched him fold and tear the paper.

“What are you doing?” She asked. Rider wondered what he was doing and climbed up into the tree above Chad and the princess. When Chad was done he handed it to her. He folded it into a flower. He started on another one when he finished gave it to her. “Paper flowers.” Ziya said. “Can you show me how to do this!?” She said excitedly.

“Sure.” They sat for an hour working on flowers until the princess went in to eat. When she was gone Rider dropped down from the tree next to Chad.

“That was stupid.” Rider said to him.

“All that mattered that it cheered her up.” Chad said.

“Where the hell did you learn such a girly thing?”

“My mother taught me.”

“Your mother? I didn’t think with all the cooking she does for the king where would she have time to teach you that?”

“My real mother. It’s one of the few memories I have of her.” Chad was adopted by a couple who worked in the kitchen when he was 5 years old. The king had saved him after his village had been destroyed. He was the only survivor of his village. So the king brought back to Harada and gave him to a family that wanted a child but could not.

“You remember your mother?” Rider said who had no memory of his parents.

“Yeah, a few things.” He looked at the cat boy. “We better not be bonding over this.” The cat boy backed away from him.

“Hell no!”

“Good, mention this to any one I will rip apart one of your cat toys.”

“Same goes for you.” Chad walked away from him. “I don’t have any cat toys!”

“WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE ESCAPED!?” Starla screamed as she grabbed the neck of one of the trappers. She could not left him off the ground because of her height.

“He got out of his chains and climbed the over the fences.” The trapper gasped out.

“I was promised a lemur demon. I came here for a lemur demon. I’m going to leave here with a lemur demon. I WANT MY LEMUR DEMON!!!” She throws him to the ground. Starla had just shown up. She noticed around the camp that there had been some kind of disturbance. Then she was told the lemur boy she was told to take with her had gotten away an hour ago. She was fuming from this news because the stupid humans were unable to keep a 9 year old demon boy from escaping.

“There is still a younger lemur demon.” The trapper on the ground said. “She’s the sister of the one that got away.” Starla looked down at him.

“Why didn’t you tell me that EARLIER!?” She growled at him.

“I didn’t think you would take her because she was so small.”

“I’m small.” She said. “Take me to her.” The trapper got off of the ground and took her to the room where they were keeping the little lemur. They opened the door. The little girl was huddled in the corner of the room. She looked frighten with her big yellow eyes. She shook as she watched them. Starla looked at her. She was only 5 years old. The same age as she was when Malory took her in. Starla walked over to her and kneeled in front of her. The little girl tried as she might to stay as far away from Starla.

“Do you understand me?” Starla said to her.

“Yes.” Most demons had their own languages and very few spoke human’s language as demons called it. If they did they were of high ranks in the tribe or they did business with the humans.

“Do you have a name?”

“Yes.”

“Now, what is it?” The little girl flinched at her coldness.

“Brooke.” Starla stood up.

“Now Brooke, you’ll be coming with me.”

“No!” The girl came out of her ball. “I can’t. I can’t leave without brother. Where’s my brother? They took him away? Where is he?” Starla looked shocked that the girl did not know what happened to her brother. Of course they did not tell her. They were humans they did not care for demons feelings. But knowing this could be useful to Starla. She sighed heavily. She kneeled down again to come eye to eye with the big eye girl.

“I’m afraid to tell you but your brother. He felt that you were in the way so he escaped without you.”

“What?”

“Your brother, abandon you.”

“He won’t.”

“But he did.”

“But brother would never.”

“And you are left here with these scary trappers.” Starla said. “But if you come with me you won’t be around these scary people anymore.” She stood up. “But you would be around other demons like you and I.” Starla held her hand out to the girl. “So what do you say? Come with me or stay in this dark room.” Brooke looked at her then her hand. She thought for a while. She reached for Starla’s hand. “Good choose.” She turned to the trapper in the door way. “I’ll take her.”


Bonus:
Starla: Come to the dark side… (Holds up a plate of cookies.) …We have cookies.

“AHHHH!” Ziya woke to the young lemur boy yell. He jumped on to her bed. “ZI, ZI look! What is it? It’s all white out side!”

“White?” Ziya said sleepily. She got out of bed and went over to her window. It was white out. It had snowed during the night. “Evan, its only snow.” She looked over at the boy sitting on her bed with his head tilled to the side giving her a wondering look.

“Snow?” He said. He had only been with her since spring when she found him in the rain. He was from a warmer climate and he was able to adjusting to the dropping temperatures very well. He loved it. When fall came and the leaves were on the ground he found out he loved playing in the leaves, but there were times she and a couple of the girls would have to chase the boy down to get him to put on his warmer clothes they got him. “What is snow?”

“It is like rain but it’s frozen.” She opens the window and gets some snow off her windowsill.

“Is it dangerous?” He watched the snow in her hand carefully.

“No, come over here and look for you self.” He got up and looked at it. It was only flacks of ice.

“So it falls from the sky like rain.”

“Yes.”

“What can you do when it snows?”

“You can play in it.” Evan liked the sound of that. Then children from the orphanage down the street were out front of the convent. (There was not room at the orphanage so most the girls were sent to the convent to live and go to school.)

“What are they doing?” He asked engrossed in the kids throwing snow at one another.

“It’s a snow ball fight.”

“Looks like fun.” He said with a big smile on his face. Before Ziya could tell him to put on his winter clothes he was out the door running down the hall way to the front. Ziya rolled her eyes. She grabbed his boots, scarf, hat and his heavy coat. She also put on her warm clothes on quickly so she can get to Evan before he froze his black and white tail off.

She ran down the hall way and ran in to a few nuns.

“Sorry Sister Katherine, Sister Joseph!” She yelled over her shoulder. She finally made it out side. She found him getting into a snow ball fight with the other children in his bare feet. She sighed. “Evan!” He looked her way when he heard his name. He ended up getting nailed in the back of the head with a snow ball. “Come over here and put these on before you get sick.” He walked over to her.

It was funny she had just turned 12 and she acted like a mother or an older sister to the young boy. As he put his boots on as she wrapped the scarf around his neck and stuck his hat on. His ears stuck out of the hat. It gave him the look of one of Santa’s elves. Every one she was friends with was also orphans and all acted like family. Older girls acted like mothers or sisters. Older boy acted more like older brothers; they never acted mature enough to be father figures. They all adopted one another.

A large group of kids ran past them as they were walking out to the street. The kids were dragging sleds with them and were heading to the large hill on the end of town. Evan’s eyes got big.

“What were those they were dragging?” He asked.

“Sleds,” She said. “I think I have one.” She said as she headed to the shed where they kept their outdoor equipment.

“What are they used for?” He asked as he fallowed her. She pulled out her sled from the shad.

“They used them to go down hills.” They headed towards the hill at the end of town. They played there most of the day. Sledding down the hill over and over again. They went back to the convent, where they found the courtyard had been turned into a statuary of snowmen. One of the snowmen was of a lemur with the use of Clementine for its eyes. Evan and Ziya decided to add to the collection. When they were done building up the snowman Ziya runs inside to get things to decorate the snowman with. When they were finished with it had gotten dark out. Ziya put her arm over Evan’s shoulders.

“So how was your first snow day?” She asked him.

“It was great!” He yelled. “I never want it to end! What can we do now?”

Evan shifted back and forth on his bare feet nervously. Why was thins tack so hard for the small lemur demon. I was a simple but he could not give it to her. Today was a special day. Today he wore his nice clothes instead of his usual hoodies and ripped jeans. He didn’t wear his goggles, which every one noticed. Today he wore a long sleeve shirt (which was appropriate for the day.) and his nice black pants. Now all he had to do is give Ziya his valentine card he made. ‘Why did I think this was a good idea?’ He thought to him self. ‘Now, that I think about it. It’s Stupid!” He looked down at the valentine in his hands.

When he first thought about giving her the valentine, he thought it would cheer her up after every thing that happened to them. Like with her boy friend and the baby. She seemed to have been very low these days. But now he thinks it would mean nothing for it to come from him.

He felt a nudge on his back.

“Give it to her.” Evan turned around. It was Tara. She was one of the people that took him and Ziya in. Tara was the same age as Ziya. She and Ziya looked alike. They both had light brown hair and dark blue eyes. Tara had an older brother, Asher. He had jet-black hair and light blue eyes. “She’ll love it.” Evan looked over at Ziya, who was by her self by the river.

“She’s going to laugh at me.” Evan said as his fluffy white ears drooped down.

“No, she won’t laugh at you. She’ll love it.” Evan had a week agonized over what to get Ziya for Valentine’s Day. He did not have any money so he could not buy her any thing. So he talked to Asher, who was the only male figure in the whole group he felt he could trust. Asher told him to make her a card. He handed him a note pad that was sitting on the table at the time and told him. “Write a poem or something from the heart.” So Evan wrote and re-wrote for a week. As soon as Evan would finish a draft of his writing he would go show it to Asher to get it checked. Asher would say it was fine then later Evan would read it over then re-write it again. Amazingly Asher was very patient with him. He kept smiling every time the lemur boy came to him for help.

Now it was Valentine’s Day and he has a heart shaped card. Tara gave him a big shove towards Ziya.

“Go!” He stumbled and turned around to give her a pleading look. She pointed towards Ziya. He slouched down and his tail lowered as he turns towards Ziya. Tara went back to where her brother was watching him.

Evan walked slowly towards Ziya. He felt anxiety as he approached her. He had known her for three years. Why is it a problem? He stood behind her and cleared his throat to get her attention. She turned around.

“Evan?” His head lowered. He could not look at her.

“I…um.” He tried to talk. “I…hav…um…I want to giv…um.” The little lemur boy could not think of the words to say.

“Evan, are you alright?” She sounded concerned. “Is something wrong?” Evan took a deep breath.

“Here.” He handed her the card. She jumped back a little by his sudden movement. She slowly took the card from him. Once it was in her hands he quickly turned around and walked away to the house leaving a stunned Ziya holding the heart shape card.

Evan got to the house and went inside. He sat down on the couch in the front room.

“So Evan…” One of the other boys who lived in the house asked. He had been teasing Evan about the card. “…did she-“

“Shut Up!” Evan snapped.

“What? She didn’t like it?” The boy asked now concerned.

“I don’t know.”

"What do you mean, you don’t know?!”

“I just gave it to her and took off.”

“You stupid, lemur!”

“Shut up!” He pulled his legs to his chest and buried his face into his knees. He hard the front door open. The boys in the room left after seeing who it was. Evan had a feeling it was Ziya and he was right. She sat down next to him. He looked at her face. She had tears in her eyes. “Oh no my card was so bad it made her cry!” Suddenly she pulled him into a tight hug.

“Zi?” He said shocked.

“Thank you.” She whispered. “That was so sweet of you.”

“Your welcome.” He squeaked. She got up as she whipped the tears away from her eyes.

“How about we go into town? It’s been a long time since we spend time together.” She pulled him up from the sofa. She smiled at him as she led him out side. It was a real smile. It was not forced, but a real smile. The same smile she gave him that day they met. The smile he fell in love with.


(Author note: I decided to put these up as I finish them so they are out of order. Later I’l put them in order.)

Evan’s had been running for so long he did not know how many days had past. He did not know if it had been days, weeks or months. He was not aware of anything around him. The rain that was falling on him for the past couple of hours, the village he wandered into and the looks the people were giving him. It was not because he was so skinny form starvation, or that he did not have an umbrella. It was because he was a demon. He was cold, hungry, wet and tired. The last time he had eaten was when he broke free from the trappers. This was also the same day when they took his little sister away.

“Look!” A girl’s voice brought him out of his fog.

“Brooke!” He said looking around for his sister, but he found a human girl pointing at him.

“He’s so cute, Mommy!” She said. “Can we take him home?” Her mother dragged her across the street.

“Stay away from that beast.” She said. “He’s a demon. They don’t make good pets.” Evan looked around and saw for the first time every one looking at him.

“A monster.”

“Uncivilized beast.” He heard them all saying horrible things about him.

“No!” Evan yelled. “I’m not a monster!” He turned around and started to run as fast as he could down the street. He looked around as he ran. It was in an unfamiliar place. No place safe for him to go. Every person he ran past looked unfriendly to him. They were scared of him but he was more scared of them. He closed his eyes to try and block out every thing around him. Then finally he ran into some one. He fell into a deep puddle. He looked up at a nun with her umbrella over her head. There were a couple of girls in uniforms behind her asking her if she was okay. He did not get a good look of the girls; he was too busy focusing on the angry look on the nun’s face.

“Watch, where you’re going, you little heathen!” The nun yelled. Evan was so scared that he attempted to run way from her on all fours into the ally. He was finally away from everyone. He curled up into a ball. He finally felt the cold for the fist time in hours. He shook from the cold and his fear. He was alone now. He had no one with him. He was truly alone.

Suddenly the rain stopped falling on him. He had just noticed the girl wearing a uniform standing over him with her umbrella. He looked up at her with his big orange eyes.

“An angel.” He said quietly to himself. She was the most beautiful things he has ever seen. He had herd from when he was younger about angels and what they look like but this was the first time he had ever seen one.

“Are you ok?” She said. She knelt down in front of him so she could be eye to eye with the small boy. He was too scared to talk so he nodded his head. “Do you understand me?” He nodded again. “I know it’s silly of me to ask a question like that and not find out if they can understand first.” She laughed. He ended up smiling shyly at her. “Do you have any place to go?” He shook his head no. “You don’t?” She sound said sad. “I know!” He jumped at her sudden out burst. She stood up and held her hand out to him. “I’ll take you in!” He looked at her hand then at her. “Come on. I can get you in warm clothes, feed you and you’ll be dried.” He took her hand and she pulled him up. She was a bit taller then he was. “You will have to hide. Sister Joseph, would have kittens if she found out I snuck a demon in.”

“Kittens?” Evan said in a horse voice.

“So you can speak?” She smiled at him. He really liked her smile. It seemed to warm him up by looking at it. “When some one says having kittens it mean getting mad. Get it.”

“Oh, I do a little.” Evan said. “Like the woman I ran into she was having kittens?”

“Now you're on the trolley!" He looked at her confused. “Sorry, we’ll take this slowly. I said now you got it.” They started to walk back out to the street. “Oh, I almost forgot. My name is Ziya. What’s yours?”

“Evan.”