I nearly have more short stories than I have chapters, and here is one of them. Like 'veiled paradise' this is one of many origin short stories I have. This one is from when Raven was younger and his family was still alive - The purpose of this was to illuminate their close bond, and also to show what the deceased was capable of.

I am about to get to Raven's Bloodline abilities in the chapters, and this short stories covers more about what that is.



She hunched down with her muscles tight against her body, her long blue hair blew over her face and flew behind her as she jumped forward into a sprint, she reached her target and came to a stop, but only for an instant, then she jumped with her hind legs and flipped over her opponent with her head turning around his. She planted her hind legs onto his back and pushed him down as she flipped over and landed on her paws with grace. Her opponent got up and smiled at her swiftness and technique, for he had trained her in her youth, but she has manifested her own personal style as she matured.
“You resemble beauty, even in battle” he said.
“Stop it father, take me seriously” she said and pulled water from the air, she whipped it forward and he jumped to the side, a second whip came horizontally and he ducked and barely avoided it. He pushed his paws hard onto the ground and with the impact he raised a large amount of water from the soil, surrounding her, and sent it towards her from all directions. It consumed her and she made her body small as it lifted up in the air. She focused her spirit into her body to repel the water like a magnet. She quickly stretched out and the water exploded away. She gathered the water and used it to torpedo herself towards her father. She swept under his legs and he dropped to the ground with a grunt.
“Your movement is heavy father”
“Aeya, I am old! I have had my share of battles”
“So I’ve heard father, or should I call you the ‘legendary’ Falcon?” she mocked with a sly smile.
“Ha! You know I don’t like that given name, its bad enough that I will go down in history with that title, and now my own daughter? Psh…” he dropped his ears jokingly, Aeya laughed.
“You can defeat a dragon, but not your own daughter?”
“I didn’t train a dragon now did I!” he growled and ran towards her.
“Don’t try to take credit for my abilities!” she said and ran towards him.

“They are at it again” Ezra sighed. Raven sniggered.
“5 coin on grandfather” Asyria said, down on her front haunches, moving around and pretended she is in the sparring match between her mother and grandfather.
“I will take your bet, Asyria, mother will win this time” Raven said softly.
She turned to him and eyed him darkly, “Who knows, maybe he will let her win to boost her confidence” she hissed. He rolled his eyes; he knew its pointless getting into a confrontation with her. Asyria doesn’t use reasoning like Raven does, she uses force, and she can easily overpower him, and she liked to remind him every now and then.
Ezra faced her and they played, trying to keep up with the sparring match on the other side of the fence as they copied the movements. Asyria as Minnow, and Ezra as Aeya – on her command. Ezra winked at Raven as he took his side with the bet. Raven lay down on his haunches against the post where the grass was its longest and coolest, as he peeked through it, half paying attention to the battle and half on a stream of marching ants between the blades. Falcon sent a hydro pump into Aeya which was too big for her to dodge and it sent her flying into the air, Asyria copied by running towards Ezra and tackling him making him fall backwards with a thud.
“You’re not supposed to hurt the one you must protect” Raven sighed as he peered over his shoulder.
“I’m not a Protector yet and he’s not the King, yet”
“He’s the prince”
“And you’re the court jester, are we done here?” she growled, and faced Ezra again who was running towards her this time, laughing, and knocked her over. He pinned her down by her chest and towered over her. He snorted and made a grumbling sound, she tried to wriggle out but it was too late, a stream of spit slowly descended from his mouth and it snapped off and fell onto her face. She yelled out in disgust and kicked him in the gut. He fell over laughing in pain.
“That would have been more effective if I could tap into my spirit and manipulate water”
“Like your mother would allow that” Asyria laughed and dove into him, they rolled around in the grass snapping at one another.

They came to a pause, with Minnow towering over her. She looked dryly up into his experienced blue eyes and then suddenly smiled. His expression dropped and he tried to get away, but it was too late. Her wings manifested from under her back which was pinned to the ground and it spread in great diameter on the grass. She flapped them over and wrapped them around Minnow; she pulled him close to herself.
“You decided to get serious today” he said.
She grinned.
She opened her wings as quick as she could and the skeletal water of the one pulled Minnow with and slammed him into the ground. Aeya got up. Her wings arched back behind her and glimmered in the glorious sunlight. Minnow lay there for a while. His neck was sore and body tired.
Aeya’s wings slowly dispersed in a mist and the water particles created a rainbow over her.
“See what I mean, beauty” Minnow said and stretched his neck.
“I’m not trying to look beautiful!” she growled and ran towards him again.
“You don’t have to try”

They fought for a while, as the children watched, lost interest, and then wandered off tracking the ants a few meters away. On this day neither Aeya nor Minnow felt like giving in to the other, it was a battle of sheer willpower. A battle of will Minnow was winning, Aeya thought to herself, as she was quickly becoming too exhausted. Her graceful movements started getting sloppy and heavier, while Minnow seemed to move as he did from the start. She realized he was pacing himself from the very beginning.
“Bring out your Bloodline” He said.
Startled at the request, she broke her stance. “Why do you suddenly want me to do that? You know we’re not allowed to manifest our Bloodlines near the children. Alyssia will freak if she finds out we overdid it in our sparring, we’re not allowed to get Ezra worked up!”
“The boy only gets worked up because he craves adventure like any pup his age, let him admire our power, let him dream a little bit”
“Dreaming will lead him astray, father. You had this argument with Alyssia before, many times in fact. She might be you daughter, but she is also your queen. You are honor bound to her word as a Protector” She tried to talk some sense into him.
Minnow was a royal heir once; he was next in line for the throne. But his heart’s craving for adventure was stronger than the shackles that bound him to his duty. At a young age he refused to have his destiny planned out by his family and the kingdom’s council. Knowing that, Alyssia, his eldest daughter and current queen of Aria, feared that her son would inherit his grandfather’s iron will.
“The twins speak to Ezra about how you show them your Bloodline’s power in secret; he is introduced to it already, even if it isn’t directly. He has asked me questions about it”
“That… I… I told them not to speak about it with him!” she growled and narrowed her eyes on Raven and Asyria fighting in a tall patch of grass, then she sighed “They have to know about it, you know they have a strong chance of inheriting this Bloodline of ours”
“I say let’s show him. We can deal with Alyssia later; she can’t lock up her own father!”
“No. More like she can’t lock up her own captain of the guards in his own…” Before she could finish her sentence, he was running towards her with his Bloodline power burning in his eyes, and exuding a glowing blue mist from his lolling muzzle. “No no no! Don’t do it!” She cried out but it was too late – He unleashed a thundering roar right in front of her that force-manifested her bloodline. The roar rippled over her fur as her body turned into a water mist spirit form, her body consisted of glowing blue water that flowed and disappeared into mist on the contours of what was once her physical body. It took her a second to find her bearings again. The forced shift took a slight toll on her mind and spirit. When she opened her eyes she saw her father staring at her with a dumbfounded look on his face.
“Your Bloodline form makes me speechless every single time. You are so beautiful, Aeya”
“I hate you. I really really hate you” She said as the glowing orbs that were her eyes narrowed in displeasure.
“I wish your mother was alive to see you like this”
“That is honestly the worst thing you could have said. Please release your Bloodline father; you’re making the weather shift again”
“Oh, right. We don’t want to attract too much attention” He said and his sclera went to its passive white state as his Bloodline subsided.
“Oh my gods! Is this your Bloodline state Raven and Asyria always speak about? You look amazing!” Ezra exclaimed excitedly, “What can you do in this form? What are your abilities? Are you much stronger now?” Aeya tried to get a word in, but his questions were relentless. “Can you teach me to manifest a Bloodline power?” He asked, which stunned Aeya, she didn’t know how to respond to that question.
“Ezra” Minnow called and he turned around to face his grandfather, “The Bloodline can’t be taught, you are born with it, and you will die with it”
“But the chances are you will die by its corrosive power. This is a very dangerous curse, and I wish for your sake you don’t have this sleeping in your spirit” Aeya said dryly, scaring the poor pup out of his curiosity. But then she noticed she scared Raven as well, his eyes were fogging up as he remembered what she has told him and his sister about the Bloodline power. They had it; both of them had shown signs of its existence in their spirit even though they have yet to grasp elemental manipulation. She moved towards Raven with no sound in her weightless movement, “It is okay, my boy. I will guide you through the dark times. I will protect you always” she tried to caress him with her warmth, but she couldn’t touch him in this form. He didn’t show signs of feeling better. Asyria rolled her eyes at her brother.
“Don’t be such a baby. I bet I wouldn’t even need Mother’s help when my Bloodline curse awakens” Asyria sneered. Aeya gestured to Asyria to keep quite with her paw over her daughters head, and in a second of fervent, her spirit being engulfed Asyria’s body and fused with her spirit until she was no more. Asyria made a small wailing noise and then her eyes became vacant for a few seconds, until her consciousness glimmered with a new exuberance.
“I love my mother very much” Asyria said with a sweet tilt of her head, “But I love my little brother more” She said and rubbed against Raven who instantly shifted from depression to a mix of wonder and fear. She licked his little nose and turned away from him.
“This is the power of my Bloodline: A total spiritual takeover. This power allows me to break all the known rules of the spiritual laws and allows me to invade an individual’s body, spirit and mind. The only thing I cannot take over is the will of a wolf. The stronger the will, the harder I have to fight to take over a spirit. In other words, it isn’t always possible for me to use this ability on someone, and I can get seriously hurt if I fail” She talked to Ezra as a peer, who was still trying to wrap his mind around the fact that she was speaking through Asyria’s body. She turned her attention at Minnow, “That is why I choose not to use it as much!”
He looked away feeling guilty.
“But I don’t have to use this ability; just being in the water spirit form alone has its benefits: It makes me weightless, so I can move around with very little restrictions, and it’s near impossible to hurt me since I’m not a physical being. And to top it all off, it multiplies my elemental manipulation. But that is a common thing – the same thing happens to your grandfather. Speaking of, he needs to be taught a lesson in boundaries” She said and started walking towards him with dark intentions flaming in her eyes.
He read her dark intentions and slowly stepped back, “I am your father, I don’t have any boundaries when it comes to my daughters!” He said nervously.
Aeya laughed within Asyria’s small body, “Don’t spout that fatherly nonsense at me now”
“You’re not actually going to do this now, are you?”
“You wanted me to use my Bloodline, well here you go. Try fighting against your granddaughter” She smiled darkly, an expression that came easily with Asyria’s muscles, and she picked up her speed in a short dash. She gathered water in front of her head and head-butted Falcon on his chest. Before he could cough out in pain, she punched him in the gut with a torrent of water that flipped him over and left him to cringe on the ground. She climbed on his chest and looked at his enormous muzzle down from her own, She licked her small sharp canines that had yet to fully mature, to intimidate him.
“You win Asyria, uh, I mean, Aeya. I will admit I took it a bit too far today”
“That’s what I thought”

“What is going on here?” A female voice said from behind Raven and Ezra. “Father, why do you look so tattered?” she asked as she scoped the area, “where is Aeya…” then she rose a brow when she saw Asyria pinning her grandfather down.
“This is… I can explain”
“You’re taking playing with the kids to a whole new level. I hope you didn’t play too rough with Ezra”
“Mom, stop it” Ezra growled.
“Of course not, Alyssia, I would never even think of putting the little prince in harm’s way” He said as he jumped up, dropping Asyria to the ground. Alyssia could hear a slight timbre of sarcasm in his tone.
“Need I remind you of the council meeting in an hour? Please find Aeya, and for Vox sake get yourself cleaned up. It is bad enough that you bring children to the meetings, now you want to enter looking like this? You are a Protector, not a child”
“Yes, dear” He bowed apologetically.
She walked away, and then licked Raven on his forehead, “Not that I mind you coming to the councils meetings, clever little wolfbird”

They sat in somber silence until she was completely gone.
“That was a close one” Minnow said dumbfounded.
“Please tell me I don’t sound like that” Aeya said dryly.
“No, you take after me. Your sister is the spitting image of your mother, such a feisty spirit, born to rule. That is exactly what I was afraid of becoming, but then I fell in love with it”
They all started walking towards the castle.
“Mother sounds horrible”
Minnow couldn’t help but snort a laugh. “Yeah and look at you with your A+ parenting” he sneered. It took her a second to know what he meant. “Oh” she said and phased out of Asyria’s body and appeared in her physical form next to them, with her blue hair all wild and messy.
“Why are we walking? What happened?” Asyria asked confused, and then tackled Raven when he laughed.