Changeling's Rise

There’s only one thing you should know about me: I fucking love dragons. I always have. Nothing else in life has ever made me more excited than the thought of riding around on a dragon, burning the government buildings to the ground, and bathing in the blood of my enemies. (And not excite in the way you’re thinking, get your head out of the gutter)

I’m getting off topic. I know you need more information than my love of dragons. In the interest of time, however, I will only give you some basic information. My name is Sky, pretty boring for someone like me. I also live on the streets like a good little nobody.

No one ever paid me much attention, not unless they caught me stealing food. Then people would get angry and chase me, calling me names among other things. Usually, I’m able to get away long enough to get back to the safe house, which is more like an abandoned warehouse than a house.

In my world, the only time you’re safe from murderers and kidnappers when you’re on the streets is to join a group. A group is kind of like a gang, only without all the killing and money and drugs. There used to be a whole bunch of murdering over supplies when there was a famine. Supposedly, it was so bad that there were rumors of cannibalism and drinking blood. After it was over, the groups decided that they needed a ‘code’ of sorts to prevent it from happening again. I was lucky enough to have a house and food when it was going on.

That’s about where my luck ran out.

Not long after that, my mother died from a sickness that had a cure the next day. My father was killed a few weeks afterwards, by a woman of the night who had been released from police custody. The crime she was suspected of? Murdering her clients who got handsy. The woman was convicted because of my father’s death. People kept telling me that I should be happy that my father had seen justice, but I wasn’t sure if I should be angry he was cheating on my mother or relieved that he didn’t get the chance to hurt anyone.

Since I was too young to get a job and had no money, I lost the house pretty quickly. I tried to go to my other family members to have somewhere to stay. They didn’t want anything to do with someone like me. So I was kicked onto the streets, forced to fend for myself in the hopes that I would stay alive long enough to get a job and a home and live happily ever after.

Yeah, no, they told me they wanted me to die. So I did the only thing I could think of at the time.

I joined the clan that controlled the area closest to me. Now, anytime I see them, I flip them off. They get angry of course but they can’t do anything about it. Soldiers don’t really help the poor people who don’t pay their bribes. Excuse me, ‘paychecks’.

My group is named after one of the biggest companies in the world; MgRonalds. The story behind the name is that the founder was about to starve when he crossed paths with a manager of a store. The guy actually gave him a burger instead of calling the soldiers when he was caught stealing food. The manager was never heard from again, but the founder changed his name to McRonald and started the group.

But I doubt you’re here for boring stories right? You’re here for action! Explosions! Death! Life-threatening situation! Correct? I’ll go ahead and skip to my favorite part: Explosions.

Here’s a fun fact for all you kids out there: Bombs hurt. They hurt a LOT. So don’t play with your father’s C4 or your mother’s guns at home. You could die or worse.

The only reason I came to this conclusion is because of the fact I had to jump out of a second story window of a high-security warehouse as it exploded behind me, impaling me with several large pieces of shrapnel, all the while holding a very large, very valuable stone.

All because someone couldn’t do their job. (That’s right, I’m looking at you, Gerald!)

See I’m one of the best scavengers/thieves in the group. No one steals better than me if I do say so myself. I can pickpocket an entire crowd and no one would suspect a thing. And even if they do report it, I’m usually long gone by then.

Well, I had just taken a wealthy ‘donation’ from a pompous asshole when I overheard a couple people talking. I was going to ignore them, but they said some… uncivil things about women. I decided to rob him blind to teach him to earn respect about women. It seemed fair at the time. It seemed even fairier when I found information about an extremely valuable object on its way to the palace.

It seemed less fair when the place was crawling with soldiers. It seemed even less fair when it was filled with explosives and the only valuable thing was a redstone about the size of my skull. The amount of trouble it would bring was not worth the amount of units it would give me. I still grabbed it though, and of course, in doing so I set off the bombs. I only had thirty seconds before the whole warehouse exploded.

The only way out was the window with a two story drop onto hard concrete. It was either that or die by fire, blood loss, or dismemberment of the explodey kind. I choose the way that would least likely cause my death.

Which is where this story begins: Me jumping out of an exploding building. Like a badass.

As soon as I hit the ground, I rolled onto my side to dodge some shrapnel and lessen the impact. Didn’t mean nothing was broken.

I started to scramble forward to get as far away as possible from the burning building, only to get hit by the shockwave. It caused me to go sprawling a few meters away into a metal crate. This probably created a small fracture in my hand because moving it caused a sharp pain. It wasn’t as bad as when I tried to put pressure on my broken ankle. As soon as even a little bit of pressure was put on it, white-hot pain raced up my leg. I would have screeched in pain, but I bit my lip so hard it bled.

I was celebrating my escape when I heard the shouting of confused soldiers.

“Fuck.” I cursed my life and the old gods above before dragging myself up. I began to run as best I could towards my planned escape.

I had planned this for days: I’d pop in through a hole in the building next door, grab the valuables, and get out of there via my entrance like the underworld was on my heels. I thought that it was so great that I didn’t need a plan B!

I was SO wrong in hindsight.

I went to the hidden escape route, my body screaming in protest the whole time. I dove into the small hole as another explosion, much stronger, sounded behind me. I quickly covered up the hole to shield myself from the head and leaned back on the opposite wall.

“Fucking hell,” I grumbled. I rested a bit before checking on the object. It seemed to sparkle brightly, even though the room was barely lit. I had to admit, I really wanted to keep it. But my need to stay alive outweighed my greed for something shiny.

After resting for a bit, the sound of footsteps could be heard. I tensed up, expecting some soldiers to come into view. Instead, a familiar mop of brown hair came bouncing into the room.

“Sky!” It was Gerald, a fellow group member I had brought along for protection. Usually the more athletic you were built, the more likely you were to be a protector. Protectors stayed with the group to guard them if soldiers came to take someone or if there were murderers around. Gerald was one of these people, only a slight newbie. So in order to break him in, I brought him along on my job.

“Oh, gods you look terrible!” I laughed dryly.

“Jumping out of an exploding building will do that.”

“Exploding? That’s what that sound was?” He asked. See, anyone who had been with the group for a couple years knew pretty much every sound ever made.

“Oh yeah.”

“Is anything broken?”

“Probably an ankle.” I tested my arms. “Maybe a couple sprains.”

“Need help walking?”

“Nah.” I stood up, leaning on the wall for support. We walked along for a bit. I kept one hand on the stone as we walked. Maybe it was the fact I almost died, but something didn’t quite feel right. Something felt off.

I strained to see if I could hear something indicating an ambush. Only silence greeted my other than the sounds of Gerald and I. There were no sounds of soldiers running around, the burning building, nothing. It was eerie considering a government building had been destroyed during a robbery.

“They scattered around when the explosion sounded,” he replied after I pointed it out to him. “It was pretty funny watching them run around like chickens with their heads cut off.” We both laughed before I realized something.

“How… Did you see them run around,” I asked, “but didn’t see the explosion?”

Gerald suddenly looked nervous. “U-uh, w-well, I-I-”

“Gerald…?” I asked cautiously. I hobbled over to my friend. Suddenly, I was hit in the gut with enough force to knock the wind out of me. I violently coughed, falling to the ground.

“You just couldn’t keep quiet, could you? You never shut up.” Gerald was hovering over me, fists at his sides. The hatred in his eyes made me want to curl up into a ball and die just to get away from it.

“W-what are you doing?” I tried to sound threatening but it came out stuttering. Gerald let out a soft chuckle.

“Something I should have done a long time ago.” He spread his arms wide. “Come on in boys, she’s all yours.” The door behind him creaked open as soldiers began to swarm the room. I tried to jump to my feet, only to scream as white-hot pain raced up my leg once more. I was forced to my knees by the soldiers behind me. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a soldier hand a bag to Gerald.

Money. He turned in a fellow group member for money.

He looked back at me as he walked out. “It won’t make you happy,” I spat at him with as much venom as I could muster. Gerald gave me an ashamed looked before walking out, leaving me to die.

“We were told to take you in alive,” the man who gave Gerald the money spoke, “However…” He snapped his fingers and I was forced to the ground. I cradled the stone to my chest, protecting it as best I could. I had no clue how I was still holding onto it or why, but I knew that I couldn’t let them have it.

“No one would complain if you were killed while resisting arrest.”

Fear filled my body as adrenaline pumped through my veins. Depression washed over me, swallowing me whole. I was almost gone when I felt something stir in me that made me want to fight, to live not just survive. I was not going to die here at the hands of the government. Not at least without a fight.

I jumped up, one hand ready to punch and the other wrapped around the stone. I let loose the best battle cry I could make before rushing the man. My plan was to punch him in the throat then knee him in the balls and run as fast as I could.

Before I could do anything, the man’s arm snapped up. My brain barely had time to register the gun before he pulled the trigger. The shot sounded, but I never felt the pain. The world went black with no warning.