Lena’s tears rolled down her cheeks uncontrollably. She yelled in pain and frustration, for what felt like the tenth time that day. Her screams of mourning and agony could be heard throughout the whole village and just as she screamed, a dark atmosphere engulfed the village air. Lena was too distraught to notice as it began to rain and thunder now replaced the sounds of screaming. 

Just then, blood from each laying corpse began to leak out of their bodies through their wounds. The blood travelled towards Lena while she yelled and cried over her family’s passing and the slaughter she was forced to do. The blood trailed onto her thobes and reached her exposed skin. Lena could feel it seep into her skin but she paid it no mind. The blood, now litres worth all gathered onto her body as it tainted her skin in a tattoo-like shape. By the time she realised what was truly happening, the blood had created patterns of weapons, dragons and more all over her body. 

Alarmed and confused she stood up and took off her armour. The tattoo-like pattern had spread across her body. Suddenly as he moved her arm, it moved in a suit. She watched as the blood changed into different forms and patterns in her skin. As she moved her hand to touch, the blood on her arm spread to her fingertips as it began to flow out of her skin. Lena opened her hand completely, which changed the shape of the blood. The blood was no longer a flowing liquid, but now a sharp-looking blade. 

Taking a step back, she extended her arm, which also extended the length of the blade. “Huh?” 

Lena then thought of an idea. She visualised a sword in her head and motioned her arm around. Proving her idea true, some of the blood on her person was extracted from her skin and formed a sword in her palm. Swinging the now-formed sword, it made the same sound and was as sturdy as a regular sword. She then aimed at a nearby wall and threw the sword. Just as she thought, not even a moment had passed when the sword dissolved back into its liquid blood state and returned to her. Trailing up her body as it again seeped into her skin, joining the rest of the blood into its tattoo-like shape. 

There was no way to rid her body of the blood. She had been cursed. 

She felt confused and scared as she’d never heard of blood turning into cursed matter and tainting the skin. And certainly not of someone who could manipulate the form of blood. 

Still distraught at the events that engulfed her today, Lena turned to the laying corpses. Picking up what was left of her father, she walked towards where she laid her mother some time before. Bringing them together, she began her prayers and buried them so that they could finally rest in peace. 

……..

An hour had passed after the burial. Lena began to repeat her experiments with manipulating the blood. Each time she visualised a different weapon. By moving in different motions, she learned to control the blood and summon more than one weapon at a time. 

Days passed as she trained. She adapted quickly to the new combat technique she had just been cursed with. 

Days turned to weeks and then a month had finally passed before she felt stronger than ever. Although the curse that taints her skin makes her no longer human, Lena has discovered many uses for it. The blood had a mind of its own. 

As the blood moved on her skin, it demonstrated many of its uses. It can form weapons, ways of travel, clones and more at her command. It could even manipulate the behaviour of others, just by attaching some of the blood to the nape of those around it. 

……………….

The word of the village massacre had spread. Soon the whole kingdom and surrounding villages knew of the deaths of Lena’s village. Curious, many people came by to ‘visit’ and ‘take a look’. Although this truly entailed robbing the homes of the now-dead people. 

Lena watched them intrude from the shadows and grew disgusted by the people of her kind. She could not afford the humans to discover her curse or else she’d be locked up, tortured, experimented on and then killed. She decided to keep herself hidden and play dead. Soon the others in the military along with the captain would pronounce her death and she’d be able to move on in this life and protect herself with her new abilities. 

She drove all intruders without being seen. The village had now formed a reputation of not only “the massacred village” but also “the haunted village”. This made people grow even more curious and she realised she could no longer stay there, hiding. Lena gathered her necessities, covered her head, and put on her father's golden armour. Then, she ventured out of the village and began her journey into the nearby capital.