>>325915
>>325912
>>325904
In the year 3452 in the great desert of Geddi a lone wanderer walked. At his side was a blade of shining steel that stood out from his ragged clothes and disheveled form.
A cave loomed in the distance. Above the cave were mountainous rocky overpasses and outcroppings. Vast mesas with homes and tunnels carved into every last inch.
At the caves entrance he pushed past a rotten and long abandoned doorway. He walked through torch lit halls and up hundreds of stairs to meet with the Queen of Oni.
He was a priest of the Megarial sects. A pagan belief system mainly followed by monsters and humans of the badlands.
In the badlands human women no longer existed and had instead been replaced by monsterous females filled with magical power and earthly fertile energies.
The priest was there that day to oversee the creation of a new generation.
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Nine months later.
You found yourself drifting in darkness as your mind soared through to this world. You felt the changes of heat and saw light through gelatinous newborn eyes.
On that day you were born. Sensation was strange at first, your mind was in a new form.
You tried to move but found your stubby infantile limbs inadequate. Soon you fell asleep in the arms of a kind woman.
Life was difficult at first, you were bound to the side of a tall motherly figure in a sling. You counted back on every memory of your life during this time to ease the dullness of this subtle existence. You had to retain yourself and your knowledge at all costs.
At two months you were able to more readily understand your surroundings again. By four months you had a working knowledge of the others in this strange city of stone and strength.
You were part of a new generation, born as the first child of an unknown woman. It seemed that children were raised as a collective here. You took note of their strangely militaristic mindset. At times you saw glimpses of what you assumed to be captives being dragged in, mostly what seemed to be human men but often things you could not call quite that.
The language they spoke slowly overtook your own and at five months you began to speak your first words.
The other children from your generation were somewhat behind you, but they weren't thirty years old after all. The next four years would see many issues with bonding and you found yourself unable to make a meaningful relationship with those around your age.
The other girls were too warlike and seemed quite single minded in their pursuits and little games. Furthering your issues was your own lack of strength compared to them, you found yourself as the runt of the litter.
By eight you entered into a pattern, a routine of waking, sparring, training, cleaning, and sleeping again. The Oni, as you had come to understand yourself as being, seemed to relegate most non-war tasks to their young.
You took up a hobby of building things in your spare time. From simple carvings to tiny ornaments you began to lust for your old life of instant entertainment.
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"Hurry up, runty!" Yelled out the voice of a young girl with bright red hair and a single bone white horn; it was the sweet voice of the innocent. The girl stood at 5'5 and she wore a torn old robe with simple wood sandals. On her side was a simple purse-like cloth satchel bag and strapped to a cloth belt she carried a chipped old blade.
The girl was calling to you from further along in the cave, the fiery torches illuminating her hair and making her look like an inferno. You stared at her beautiful features for a moment as you stumbled over the various rocks and sandy stones.
You wore a similar if not identical outfit. The only difference was the lower quality and patchwork nature of your robes. You had your shoulder length black hair kept in a rough ponytail with your bangs almost covering your eyes.
You were smaller at 5'2 and slower too. The other girls were already further ahead, only the redhead made time for you.
You huffed and wheezed as you climbed to where she was. She adopted a pouty pose with her hands on her hips. "Geez, Runty, you're always so slow. Everyone else will have gotten to the lake by now you know!"
You bow your head in submission as she states this. In the distance you can hear rumbles and splashes as well as footsteps far away.
"I'm sorry, Saki…" You mumble out, your cheeks going red.
The caves ran deep into the mountains and connected to the main hub of the city. As dangerous as it was in other societies to let children venture to underground caves for the Oni it was considered a normal aspect of everyday life; what could possibly go wrong? Besides, as beta as you had allowed yourself to become you were still as smart as a thirty year old man.