My Independent Writing Project: The School of Fighting Arts Against Demonkind

Author’s Note

Dear Reader,

The idea for this may seem a bit strange at first, but I urge you to give it a shot. It’s not as weird as you think. It came to me in the middle of class while I was discussing a different topic in a critique group.

So many people at SAS are mixed, part Asian, part something else; I began to think: what if there was a girl just like that in a story? And, of course, not just your typical coming of age story where the girl finally comes to terms with being half one culture and half another. More of a girl who knew who she was but was held back because people were scared of her.

And thus the character Amani Kearny was born.

Writing her was fun and after a certain point, it was like I wasn’t typing. There’s a certain way Amani talks — loads of sarcasm along with the barest hints to what she actually feels— that makes her feel like a lot of the people that I talk to on a daily basis. Which is most likely why it was so interesting.

If I had more time I probably wouldn’t have ended it where I did and maybe one day in the future this will turn out to be an actual book that I will have published. Who knows?

So please enjoy what I’ve written (even though you might hate it)

Thank you!

Zoya Burney

May 24, 2017

P.S. My project is digital. Please go to my SAS blog at sb-sas49705.blogspot.sg to see my project. I’d prefer if you commented on my blog.

The School of Fighting Arts Against Demonkind

CHAPTER 1

There is a reason that we were always told not to go out at night.

Of course, I only realized that as I was running from the horde of demons that had come to attack me when I set foot outside the boundaries of my house. The ring of salt that kept our house safe from the nightcrawlers that prowled the open roads.

In hindsight, I should have talked to my parents about what was out there and then had them take me out there with sufficient protection but it was a spur of the moment thing. The more I think about it if I just had a protection cuff made of blessed iron I might have been safer.

I tripped on a piece of sidewalk and tumbled to the ground. I got up as quickly as I could and stumbled on. Cursing, I dodged a blast of fire that singed my clothes. Yeah. I was so grounded.

I tore down the street and stopped. It was a cul de sac. Why was there a cul de sac in the middle of the city? What stupid city planner put a cul de sac in the middle of a city that was on the edge of demon territory? Why?

I turned around to face the horde coming at me and braced myself. There wasn’t much I could do except for the thing I promised my mother I wouldn’t do. But this was a life or death situation. She’d understand.

Nah, she wouldn’t.

Still, I spread my feet planted myself on the ground stuck my hands out in front of me and yelled.

The fire turned the demons to smoke.

CHAPTER 2

“What were you thinking!?”

I flinched as my mother began to yell. My clothes had holes where the demons ripped through and I was still bleeding. Not only that but I still smelled like smoke. Needless to say, I was uncomfortable and the feeling of horrible guilt had made itself a permanent home in my stomach.

“You know that we tell you to stay inside after dark because of how dangerous it is! You were lucky you only ran into a small pack of Raveners. What if it had been something worse?” My mother looked at me sternly.

I looked like her. With long silky black hair, brown almond shaped eyes and pale skin. I got her body too, skinny, lithe, dangerous if trained right. But I got every ounce of stubbornness from my father.

My father with his flaming red hair and a temper to match. His blue eyes cold and calculating when doing business that melted into something warm and inviting when with his family. He was the parent I went to when I needed anything.

But he’s not here anymore. He has killed in a Demon attack a couple years ago. Apparently, they assigned him an easy sector with trainees and they were all wiped out. But no one will tell me anything.

“Amani, what do you have to say? What would your father say to you?”

“My father.” I started snapping. Whenever she brought up dad that’s what I did,”Would tell me what I could have done to improve on what I did there. He would have told what tools I should have brought and told me more about what Ravener Demons are. He wouldn’t just yell at me and tell me what I shouldn’t have done.”

My Mother gave me a fierce gaze, “Amani you need to realize that it’s  not okay for you to unleash any of your power. You don’t have something harmless you have something destructive.Fire is not a tool it is a method of destruction.”

“So now you’re attacking me with the power that I had no control over. Smooth.”

If it wasn’t obvious, we’ve had this conversation before.

“You need control-”

“And who will teach me that, my benevolent earth controlling mother?”

Her lips tightened. “Go to your room.”

“Gladly, at least there no one tries to control my every move.”

And then I stalked out of the library.

I still couldn’t understand even after years why my mother found the need to control the aspects of my life that I couldn’t do anything about. She acted as though I chose to have fire as a power when I was born. Like I purposely made her life hard by having a destructive power.

It was stupid.

I walked into my room and sat down on the chair at my desk. Peeling off my ripped shirt I took out the med kit and treated the cuts and scrapes all over me. When I finished wrapping up the now treated injuries and slipped into bed and passed out.

Running from demons and then getting yelled at by your mom can take a lot out of you.

CHAPTER 3

“What do you mean you’re moving me?”

I was 95% sure that my eyes were blown wide as I asked my mother the same question for the fifth time.

“You’re moving to the capital. I’m sending you to the training school there.” Her face was drawn and she was a shade paler than usual. It was as though she didn’t care that she would be alone after I left.

“But I never applied.”

“I’m a commander. They would have let you in no matter what.”

“What made you think of this torture, my abhorrent mother?”

“Your outburst yesterday. There is no way that you can be contained. At least there you might be reined in some.”

‘So this is about disciplinary action? This isn’t anything about me training or me learning any control.”

“Go pack — you leave in two hours.”

---

I didn’t bother waving as I got on the plane.

It wasn’t as though my mother would wave back.

The plane ride was going to be ten hours since we lived on the outer edges of the human territory. I wasn’t looking forward to it but the plane was pretty nice. We’d be making the trip during daylight hours only, no one knew what would be flying over the sky even deep in human territory.

When we took off I looked out the window down at the tarmac that we just left. My mother was still there and her hand was raised. Guilt shot through me. Maybe she sent me away for a good cause. How would I be able to know after pushing her away?

But then our last conversation ran through my head. I shouldn’t be feeling guilty at all.

But I couldn’t shake off the feeling of something ominous.

CHAPTER 4

When I finally landed it was just reaching sunset. I was rushed into a car and we moved quickly. The capital was huge. Roads and bridges and tall, tall buildings. Not something suburban me was used to in daily life.

The city was large, for a good reason it seemed.

The School of Fighting Arts Against Demonkind, also known as SOFAAD took up at least twenty acres at the heart of the city. It doubled as a school and a military operations base. One of the towers was dedicated solely to military work while the other many were all for the school. it stood high, above the skyscrapers around it and was solid, built like a castle.

This was going to be my home and my school for until I was brought home or I graduated.

We pulled up at the gate and the swung wide open revealing the huge gardens that surrounded the school. There was a lake to the right and a forest to the left. We drove down the gravel path to the foot of the stairs in front of the entrance.

I got out and grabbed my bag from the chauffeur that had picked me up from the airport. I mounted the stairs and just as I reached the doors they swung open to reveal the school.

It was buzzing with an energy I can’t describe. Students were flitting around everywhere in their uniforms, milling about in the huge common area right in the middle of the school. Along the sides of the walls were flights of stairs that went up and up and up. Little notes were airborne and floating past, looking for the person they were meant for. Professors briskly strode to their next directions and paintings hung in mismatched patterns across every single wall.

The man that drove me to the school led me along through the chattering kids of different ages and then down a narrow hallway sort of hidden next to a large mountainscape. This passage led us to a circular room with a door that had a weird symbol embellished on it. The symbol looked like a mix of a lion and a bird and when the man opened the door we were greeted by the sight of a woman standing in a chaotic looking office.

Hearing the door open she looked up, and when she noted who it was she stood and smiled.

“Hello there, Amani Kearny. Are you ready to learn something new?” asked the President of the entire Nation.

Well, this was sure to be an interesting adventure.