Chapter 3
Saichens

Diaga’s spidery legs swung off the edge of our patio in the Saichen village. Four season cycles had pass since I rescued her from death. We had taken refuge in the treetop town about two season cycles ago, when the humans began hunting us. The Saichens took us in. Diaga had become very fond of the clans and was eager to learn more about the Elements. Still unknown to me was my own, but with my studies along side Diaga I was starting to discover my abilities.
I watched her from the inside of our hut, though she was never a real bother. Her thin frame was hidden under robes made by the Wolfkin weavers. Her hair was long and silver like her mothers and Mawkawins braided their colorful feathers into it. Her face had the same angular features of her mother, as well as some distinguishing ones given by her father, who ever he might have been. Her eyes were not silver, but dark as the night sky, and they did not twinkle like it either. Her teeth were sharp like that of a Tarragon. When they were first pushing through her gums as an infant, they pierced my skin. My wounds flowed silver blood, which she recoiled away from when it touched her lips.
Diaga examined her surroundings with great focus. Across from our hut was Maldonden’s home. He was a Wolfkin and the High Chief of the Saichen village. She watched his two pups wrestle on the wooden planks of his patio.
“Mother Ashna, may I go play with Sevus and Duken?” her voice was light and airy. Innocence to my ears her words were.
“You may, Diaga.” I watched her cross the bridge that spanned between the homes of our village. She started talking to the boys and I started my household chores.

Raising Diaga had given me an identity that I did not have long ago. I once was a free spirit taking forms to suit me. I felt no pain, no anger or joy. Pleasure meant nothing to me; I did what I needed to survive. My first real emotions showed when I met the Elementalist and Diaga. Maybe it was when she reached out into the Elemental Plane was when I first realized I cared. The Fairfolk tell me it is because of my sister, Creatas embodiment of Love, but Love was still a detached feeling for me. I didn’t love Diaga; I just wanted her to live. It’s a shame to waste a Soul. I didn’t feel that Diaga loved me. She was somewhat distant from me. We only seemed to Bond when we were learning more about the Elements.
“Up keeping your nest are we?” asked my Fairfolk neighbor, Trillilly as she walked in with a basket of fruit.  Her daughter fluttered in with her vibrant wings creating a blur on her back. Fairfolk followed under Creatas. They were very insect-like with their eyes dark and glazed. Their spiny, fragile-looking bodies were agile and they were quite crafty when it came to making bows or music. Trillilly pick a fruit out of the basket and held it out to me.
“For Diaga, she’s much to thin for a human, even for one so young. This will help, it’s got meat in it and it will put meat on her. I see the Tarragons gorge on this stuff and you know it fattens them up.”
I laughed for many reasons. First, was the fact that Diaga didn’t eat fruit; second, it was true that the Tarragons of the Fire Element were pudgy little dragons. The largest stand no taller than my shoulders, but they packed that fat for when they traveled into the volcano several leagues away. It was a ritual for the clan, for all the clans, to get as close to the Elemental Plane as you could get.  
“The equinox is coming soon, and the Shadrows and Agles are getting ready to visit the Elemental Plane, Trillilly began, “Maybe you should let Diaga join them.” She spun the fruit between her fingers. I stopped what I was doing.
“She can’t shift into and Element like the Saichens can. She’s made up of them all, like all mortals are. Doing something like that will kill her.”
“Well, doesn’t the Elementalists have a ritual that allows them to enter the Plane?” she continued as she eyed me.
“What are you saying by letting her enter the Plane? What good will it do her? She’s only a child.”  I thought Trillilly was talking nonsense. I haven’t even entered the Plane yet.
“It would do her good,” said Trillilly. “She needs something like that to boost whatever she has inside of her. Now, I’ve been around those Elementalists, some young and some old and I never felt the energy that she possesses in a mortal, let alone a Saichen. And you, the Unnamed One, Ashna, should go too.  What sleeps in you is a greater mystery.”
I thought for a moment. Why hadn’t I entered the Elemental Plane in the beginning of my awareness? If the secret to my power lies in there, wouldn’t it be worth wild to find out what I was. As for Diaga, I felt her too young for such a journey. Boosting her power would probably kill her. Trillilly and I watched Diaga from the window. I suddenly felt uneasy. The Elemental Plane once again had the disturbance that it had four cycles ago, when I saw Diaga drinking the blood of a fellow human with such inhuman desire. I never told anyone of this, or my dream.
Diaga was standing before Sevus and Duken with a hand raised and fingers twitching. I gasped at what I saw. Trillilly and I were rushing out of the hut, I bounded over the gap that separated our homes and pulled Diaga away from the wailing pups. Maldonden burst from his own hut to rescue his sons.
“What is the meaning of this?” He demanded as he held his whimpering cubs to him. The other Saichens in the village stopped what they were doing. Those with wings flew closer, others shifted into their respected Element.
“Ashna! Diaga! What is the meaning of this?” I looked to Diaga with shock and I became even more so when she showed no remorse in her face as she explained herself to the High Chief.
“I wanted to see what pain looked like.” Her voice still had the airy innocence she used when she asked me to play with the boys. No one said anything due to this shock and in Diaga’s eyes reflected amusement.

She’s only a child… I watched Dark consume Light…