Written by SuperSilverXtreme14 on 1/12/17.
The story begins..
In a small Mercian village, located between a forest and a mining camp, in one particular home, a young tenrec is born. His fur is black with a red line running along his fur, and his eyes are black sclera with red pupils. Standing around him, are his mother, his father, and his sister. Though he is just born, he is able to see his mother and father loudly arguing amongst themselves, while his sister looks on, watching them with fearful eyes. Before the young tenrec falls asleep, he catches a look at his father, who takes one last look at him and his sister, and then marches out of the house, slamming the door behind him as he left.
Five years later..
Young Trezerac Dark gleefully patted the mud under the window sill of the house. He was busy constructing a mud pie, while his older sister busied herself with her knitting on the steps of the house. It had been five years since his father left home and didn't return, and yet, the life of Trezerac and his sister, Trezera, was left completely unfazed. Trezerac had learned to get along without knowing who his father was, after all, no one would tell him otherwise. Besides, he seemed okay with it just being his mother and sister and him; that was apparently the only family he seemed okay with having.
With a final pat, Trezerac stood up and admired his finished work. Wiping the mud off of his hands onto his overalls, he scooped up his mud pie and approached his sister, who sat there quietly knitting, her face a blank slate.
"Look big sister! Look at my mud pie!" Trezerac stuck the glob of mud under his sister's nose, some of the mud falling and staining her patchwork. "Oopsy.." Trezerac muttered. His sister, who had noticed the stain, rose to her feet and glared down at her brother, her fists balled up in fury, her lips curled back to reveal a harsh snarl.
"You little pest! You ruined my work!" Trezera growled. Trezerac whimpered and shrank back. "I'm sowwy sister, I-I didn't mean to.. I just wanted to show you my pie.." Trezera stamped her foot impatiently. "I can see that. I can also see that you managed to mess yourself up. Look at you! You're filthy!" she pointed to the side. "Go clean yourself at once!" Trezerac's ears drooped sadly, a he let the mud pie drop to the ground with a spulch.
"Fine then, Ms. Nice-'n-Tidy. I'll go." And with a huff and a puff, Trezerac was gone, having left to wash himself by the river. With her mess-up brother gone, Trezera went inside to get some new materials to knit.
When she returned outside, however, she found Trezerac, his face pale and his breath coming out heavily. He was still a mess. Trezera opened her mouth to yell at him, but Trezerac grabbed her hand and pulled her down the stairs with such force, that Trezera fell down the stairs, falling into a mud puddle and dirtying her frock.
Trezerac ran to her side and pulled at her hand, but Trezera pushed him aside. Wiping her mud-covered face with one hand, she angrily gestured with the other. "What are you going on about now? You'd better have a good reason to pull me down the stairs like that, or I'll-"
Trezerac quickly interrupted her, his words tumbling out all at once. "There's been a cave-in!?" A flash of shock and fear fell over Trezera's face, replacing all anger in an instant.
"What? Where?"
"Cave B2 476!? A cave-in!? I heard a loud noise, a BOOM kind of sound and then yelling!! Everyone's going down there to check it out right now as I speak!!" Tears fell down Trezerac's face, and kept falling as Trezera pulled herself up and grabbed her little brother by the hand, both siblings running as fast as they could to the area of the cave-in. By the time they had arrived, the whole village had been assembled, along with the mine's administrators: four or five cybernetic Dark Egg Legion soldiers. A large barbed-wire fence kept most of the villagers outside of the mining yard, but some of the villagers were even now attempting to climb over. Trezera, leading a young Trezerac, had to push her way through the throng of villagers, so that she and her brother could stand at the front of the crowd, so they could get a good look at the cave-in. Trezera gasped at what she saw.
The cave entrance was completely sealed off by huge boulders and dirt and grime. A small crowd of miners who had either escaped, or had stopped working from the other caves to see what had transpired, watched from a safe distance as the administrators inspected the cave-in. From the other side of the fence, Trezerac tugged on his sister's hand, tears falling down his mud-covered face. "Is she there? Is she there?" Trezera shook her head and watched intently. She held her breath and tried to hold back the tears. She placed a free hand over her heart and prayed silently that everything would be okay.
There had been several cave-ins in the past, but none had been this big. The cave that their mother worked in, was so huge and so deep, that one could get lost in there for days, even weeks, and if it was months, it was safe to assume that someone had died or had gotten lost, never to return. Entire families had died in the mines, and many orphaned children who had lost all of their family members, were often forced to leave the village, never to return.
And so, as the crowds continued to yell and push and attempt to get in to the mining camp, Trezera and Trezerac waited for their mother to return to them.
After awhile had passed, one of the administrators got out a megaphone and got up on a tall rock, looking over the heads of the assembled miners and looked out at the worried faces of the crowd beyond the fence. Trezera squeezed Trezerac's hand and bit her lip, watching the administrator intently, trying to identify a shred of hope of the poor miners' survival. But, try as she might, all she could see, was doom.
"Attention! Do I have your attention!" The crowds instantly quieted. The only voice was the small voice of Trezerac. "Is she there? Is she there? What's going on?" Trezera shushed him and held her breath, same as she was certain that the crowd held theirs.
"Good, good." The administrator was a cybernetic salamander with two cybernetic feet and a cybernetic right eye. "I have some bad news, I'm afraid. The cave-in is too deep and too wide. Even if with the combined assistance of the miners here, and your fellow administrators, by the time we unearth the mines, it would be too late, and all of the miners would be dead." He said it so clearly and un-doubtedly, that everyone there actually believed him and took it as he said it. "It is, with a heavy heart, that I advise all orphaned children to pack their belongings and wait outside the village for the ride to town." He then, took out a list, of sorts, and read through every family name of every person who had died (or was about to die) in that mine. When he had come to the name, "Amelia Dark" Trezera let her tears fall down her face and called out her and her brother's names and hurried off home to pack what they could. She was still crying when she returned home to pack her things. And so was Trezerac.
Snottingham County Orphanage
Located in the town of Snottingham in the kingdom of Mercia, there was a particular building situated there called the Snottingham County Orphanage. However, this rather gloomy building was also called by another, more infamous name, Snottingham County "Prison". With black iron spike gates as tall as the building itself, barbed wire tied in between those crude, terrible spikes, and pale, faded grey and black painted brick walls, if the nickname didn't mean this was prison, these dismal, jail-like features on the inside are definitely worth noting.
The inside, not any better than the outside, was composed of creaky, faded grey boards, dark grey walls, and small, square rooms where usually three or four children would often reside. The children themselves wore colorless clothes, which were either rags or hand-me-downs. The colors composed of tan, faded yellow, grey, black, and dirty brown. The curfew of the Snottingham County Orphanage can also be in sharp comparison to that of prison.
In the early mornings (8:00AM), the children would rise from their beds, get dressed, and stand to attention outside their bedroom door. Then, after close inspection, sometimes of their rooms and other times of their faces and clothes, they would walk in single file to the "cafeteria" where they would be served mashed potatoes, grey, flavorless "jello", and thin milk or water. Then, after they ate, they would be shown to a bare classroom where they sat on stools or on the floor and watched as one of the workers at the orphanage wrote down "things to learn today" on the blackboard or typed it down on a computer. Many times it was simple education stuff, like math, science, etc., while other times it was something else, like battle tactics or planning. (More on why later.. keep reading.)
In the late afternoons (3:00-4:00PM), the children were given their supper and then given permission to go outside to play, or go to their rooms and have some free time. However, they never left the orphanage gates, and playing in the bleak, gray, and sometimes muddy, yard was oftentimes boring and depressing. And, for those who stayed inside, they either slept or did homework, for there was hardly any good books or fun things to do on the inside neither.
After the break (4:30PM), the children were called back indoors to eat a little "snack" and then began another class. After that, around 5 o' clock, on certain occasions, someone came to visit them and check on their health and experience numbers (per say, in their education).
Around an hour after this "someone" leaves, the children are told to brush their teeth and ordered to their rooms, even if they weren't tired.
If one person, whether a teen or a kid, so much as complained or even stepped out of line of curfew, many punishments would await them, and sometimes they were locked in "solitude" which was, in this case, a dark, dark, small and cramped room where only a flimsy lightbulb would shed light and protection from the darkness. They were often shut up there for three or five days with only the scraps of food and half a cup of water for nourishment.
Besides the staff and the workers, the children also feared and hated the people who came to visit them on the times around 5:00. These certain people were: the Mercia Dark Egg Legion. For, you see, Snottingham County Orphanage, as well as all of Snottingham belonged to the Dark Egg Legion and "Lord" Mordred Hood, who sat on the throne of Snottingham Castle at this time. At this certain time, a cybernetic doctor and a soldier carrying a clipboard would come and check and ask the children the usual questions, "Who is your lord?", "What Empire are you under?" and, "What is your mission?" while they measured them, inquired after their age and retested their blood type.
For, you see, the reason Snottingham County Orphanage was built in the first place: was so that the Mercia Dark Egg Legion would be training the younger generation of Mercia for the Dark Egg Legion, and the Eggman Empire's, armies.
Through this reason, many fathers and mothers, and grandparents alike had been secretly slaughtered without the children knowing of it, or supposedly placed in the all too common categories: accidental death, unexpected death, and simply, "unfortunate" death, all supposed deaths which were purposefully done by the Dark Egg Legion soldiers for this grand scheme.
And so, that is why Trezera and Trezerac the Dark are here, in this dark and dreary place, and this is when the story, at last.. begins.
Part One
When 17 year old Trezera opened her eyes, she was staring at the bare, grey ceiling above her with as much indifference as she could possibly have expressed if it were anything else. That was just how she viewed everything she saw, as if the world were only black and white, as if it were as plain and simple as the ceiling of which she stared at.
Under her bed, she heard her stupid brother banging his feet loudly against the wall so hard that dust fell from her bed and onto her black and red hair. With an even louder sigh, she sat up and got off her bed, which was an old, metal, four, legged bed, that had the appearance of a hospital bed rather than a real bed. When she stood and straightened, her spinal cord snapped and her bones with it. The staff would be pleased that her sleep had been "comfortable", as always.
Her brother, 14 year old Trezerac, however, expressed a very different personality. As Trezera straightened her hair and undressed from her flimsy nightgown into her black hood and frock, her brother slipped out from under the bed and casually dusted himself off, his face bearing a chilling, but innocent, smile.
Unlike his sister, Trezerac was always cheerful and strangely happy in this dreary place. As a boy, he had always had a very, "normal" nature, but after their mother's sudden death and their coming to the Snottingham County Orphanage, the boy's health and mentality had slowly deteriorated and he became practically insane, though he managed to preserve some of his boyish innocence and charm from when he was young.
Trezerac was a born rebel at heart, and couldn't escape a single day at the orphanage without earning a few new bruises or broken bones for his reward. He didn't mind or seem to care, for his mind was too fractured as it is.
Only one thing, one bond held brother and sister together, one thing they both shared in common: each had felt the dark abyss left behind by their mother's death, and both sought for the freedom they deserved.
"You better get dressed, Trezerac, or they'll beat you again," said Trezera as she flattened down her bed hair. Trezerac stopped staring at her in his normally creepy way and also began to undress. Both siblings had the same colored hair, eyes, and skin, the only way to tell them apart was in their different sizes and different mental and personality states.
When both siblings were fully dressed, they both stepped out of their room, where they were greeted, just as every other day, with the morning curfew.
One of the staff, a big female beaver, wearing a nun's attire, walked down the narrow halls, scrutinizing every face and attire of ever child, and hitting them hard with a wooden paddle if they weren't clean enough or dressed appropriately. No child dared to yawn, or even stretch in her presence, as she looked at each one.
Trezerac licked his face thoroughly, trying to dispose of any sign of dust or grime. Trezera didn't even turn to look at her brother, and when the beaver at last came to them, Trezera stood up straight and said with as much politeness as she could muster, "Good morning, Ms. Beaverton."
Ms. Beaverton's eyes narrowed and she leaned her huge bulk down to look Trezera in the eye. Trezera held her breath, refusing to breath in that foul odor wafting from the massive beaver's mouth.
"Morning to you too, Trezera. I trust you, and your nuisance of a brother, slept well?" Ms. Beaverton inquired with a scoffing smirk on her face as she gave Trezera's attire and face a once-over.
"Yes, we slept great," replied Trezera through clenched teeth. She hated it when people made fun of her brother. She didn't mind when she did it though.
Ms. Beaverton straightened and looked at Trezerac next. Then, as he usually did, Trezerac made a goofy face at Ms. Beaverton, addressed to her something about her eating habits, and earned a hard slap on the head for his compliments.
The rest of the day continued as always, they ate, did their lessons, had free time, etc. When it came to the time when a Dark Legion member came to visit them, everyone lined up in their specific orders: boys and girls lined up by gender. Only Trezera and Trezerac stayed together.
Because they were always seen together, when parted, neither would cooperate with anything the staff told them to do (though it made no difference with Trezerac, who never listened anyway). Sometimes they would even become violent. Though violence only promotes more violence.
As the soldier and medic walked in and checked each and every child, there were some of the children, who were tall and healthy looking boys and girls, that were looked over with a more interested eye than the others.
These, Trezera knew, would be sent away, faraway, and never return. When they had first arrived at the orphanage, Trezera had searched the whole orphanage for a place of escape. A boy, a teenager, had come to her and explained that there was no way out. The only way out, according to him, was by the hands of the Egg Soldiers that came to check the children.
At first, Trezera didn't believe him, but a day later, this same teenager was checked, and next thing Trezera knew, the teenager was led away by the Egg Soldier, and was never seen or heard from again. Where he went and what happened to him were still fresh on her mind then, but she had learned to let it fade away.
And so, when the medic and soldier came to Trezera and Trezerac, it appeared to be the normal check-up, but, after watching the soldier and the medic's exchanged glances and hand movements, she began to realize that something was up. Trezerac, who held his sister by the hand, just smiled and stared at the medic and soldier as innocently as could be expected of a child. Then the soldier looked up from his clipboard and returned the smile with a small smirk.
There was definitely something up.
"Your ages?" inquired the soldier and the medic dished out a shot to withdraw blood with and grabbed Trezerac firmly by the arm. Trezerac flinched back as the needle went in, but the medic held him tightly and didn't let go.
"17. And my brother is 14." Trezera said as she stared the soldier coldly in the eyes. The soldier looked down at his clipboard quickly and scribbled down their ages. The medic, after withdrawing the needle from Trezerac's skin, quickly whipped out another one and, just as quickly, grabbed Trezera's arm and the needle went in. Red blood, as red as her hair and eyes shot up the glass tube and Trezera wrenched her arm back as the medic withdrew the needle.
The medic smirked and, with a nod, both soldier and medic moved on to the next child.
That night, Trezera couldn't sleep. Images of that teenager from years past kept returning to her, as he was being led away by the soldier and the medic. The images grew distorted, and it showed her brother being led away instead. In her dream she tried to run to him, but another soldier appeared behind her and held her back, a gun pressed to her head as her brother cried out to her. She called his name over and over again, and then the trigger was pulled, and she awoke.
Without waking her brother, Trezera crept out of bed, grabbed her black cloak, and, without another sound, left the room. Sneaking along the hallways stealthily and carefully, heeding the staff as they made their daily night rounds, staying to the shadows, she crept about, trying to hear anything she could find out about what was going on. The staff never told them what was going on, neither were they permitted to say anything at all.
As Trezera crept around the shadows like a specter in the night, her ears caught a noise that made her hairs stand on end and she halted beside a door in an empty corridor. The door was halfway open so that Trezera was able to peer inside. There stood an Egg soldier, a green cybernetics enhanced hawk, who was talking in an undertone to a superior looking figure in a dark green cybernetic enhanced suit and looked definably like a cobra, who was shown on a robotically enhanced television set.
With an effort, Trezera managed to suppress a gasp. It was the Egg Sub-boss of the Mercia Dark Egg Legion, his Grandmaster, Lord Mordred Hood!
A green cobra with yellow eyes, Mordred Hood was the most feared, self-proclaimed, "ruler" of Mercia, and the one who the orphans were forced to idolize and were falsely manipulated to believe him as such.
Anyone who declared out rightly against Lord Mordred Hood, was punished soundly. Trezera and her slightly insane brother were the only two orphans who still outwardly resisted his Grandmaster, though oftentimes they denied him privately, if not publicly.
So it was, with this in mind, that Trezera took an adult, open mind to the matter at hand, something of which she had adopted since she and her brother arrived at the orphanage and their mother's passing all those years ago.
Holding her breath, she honed her hearing on the conversation as it was conducted at hand.
"...my lord, a new batch is on its way," said the soldier, who bowed lowly to his sub-boss, who cackled gleefully.
"Wonderful! Excellent job, E-Soldier 0-A79! Could you give me the daily report of who of the promising young troops will be joining our organization?"
The soldier bowed again and presented a clipboard which he had lain on a small table beside the television. With an involuntary shudder of fear, Trezera instantly recognized the clipboard as the one that had been used this morning in the daily assessment.
Clearing his throat loudly, the hawk began, tracing a metal claw over the list of alphabetized names. "Aerid Falcon... 18... assigned to Base Camp A01. Blossom Fennec... 14... assigned to Base Camp B02-" With an effort, Trezera refrained herself from dozing off at that boring, droning voice, which instantly sped up from an impatient look from his superior.
At last, after a painstakingly long time, the soldier had reached the T's. "Trezerac Tenrec Dark... 14... assigned to Base Camp B02. Trezera Tenrec Dark... sister to Trezerac... 17... assigned to Base Camp A01. End of assessment."
With a feeling like a brick had been dropped into her stomach, Trezera stood there, not sure she could comprehend what she had overheard. Finally, after a short while, Trezera's legs jerked to life, and she dashed back the way she had come, staying to the shadows, dodging staff members, and grabbed the door knob and ran into her and her brother's room, taking care to close the door slowly and silently behind her.
"Trezerac! Trezerac! Wake up! Wake up!" she cried at her brother in a scream-whisper, shaking and clawing him like a caged animal in a frenzied state.
"Meh? What do yeh want with meh?" Trezerac asked as he stirred, and, lazily, sleep still present in his eyes, sat up on his bed and watched her in a groggy, disoriented way.
Without stopping to pause for breath, Trezera explained the whole situation to her brother, everything she had heard from start to finish. Though her brother, with his ill and unstable mind, understood very little, he understood the main point clearly enough: he was going to have his sister, the only family member he had left, taken from him, forever.
Jumping off of his bed with such a willing energy that he took his sister completely off guard, he balled his hands into fists and looked at his sister, giving her a comforting, yet strangely maniacal grin.
"Well, what do you want to do?" Trezerac grinned at his surprised sister and nodded. And she nodded back.
The only thing they could do. Escape. Together.
Overview
The story starts in a Mercia village, where a young tenrec is born into a broken family, and a broken life. Together, two siblings, Trezerac and Trezera Dark, must stick together in order to survive in the dangerous world of Mercia. Follow them through their terrifying journey from orphans, to wanted criminals, to servants, and then to the people they are now..
Characters
Trezerac and Trezera the Dark (main characters)
Mercia Dark Egg Legion
Grandmaster Mordred Hood