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In the time after the Parting of the Ways (that's what the era was known as after the God's deserted their people), the Qas prospered and went on many hunts. Great Hunts were now part of tradition, even though gentility was starting to settle over the war-like race.



It was during this time that Kana, a young Qas, went on her first Great Hunt. There was nothing warlike about her at all, except her anger.



While she was on her individual hunt, she witnessed a tiger killing one of her clan. It made her so terribly angry, she slew the beast and drank its blood.



As she was gorging herself, a twinge of her conscience made her stop. Her tears fell on the mangled carcass. She had senselessly killed an animal that was defending itself.



So, she spoke magickal words, words that should have been forgotten. Words that created a powerful spell, a spell which wove itself into the dead tiger and into the bones of every tiger in the world. A spell that said if any Qas ever slew a tiger and drank its blood, they would revert back to their primitive, warlike state.



And she took the tiger as her symbol. A symbol of warning to all....

*

Sena murmured to herself and to the goddess. "Please, Lady Zoria, return to us! I beg of thee! We were once a great people, now we are reduced to hiding in the shadows! Help us!"



She lit some incense and laid it on the altar. Though she was not a full-blooded vampire (as the naive mortals called the Qas), she honored the gods and goddesses of her people.

Sena had been bitten over two centuries ago, brought back from the brink of death by Kahein, her tribe's leader. She had been bitten by a foolish young vampling, not even in his teen years. Forgiveness, usually not an option among the Qas, was granted after Sena had been changed.



So, she had existed, for the last two hundred and thirty-seven years.



Sena said one last short prayer to Lady Zoria and exited the hidden temple. She came here every Thursday to pray for the future of the Qas (she considered herself one, even though she only had a few drops of Qasic blood running through her veins).



She found her way back to the tribal house, which was really a mansion with hundreds of acres isolating it, and checked the feeding chart. She wasn't on this week's chart, but that was fine since last months kill could last her another three weeks. (Kahein was known for being very orderly.) Sena trudged up to the dorm she shared with Halakne (Hally), another part-blood. She glanced up at the clock, wondering when Hally would get back from her hunt.



Sena lay on the bottom of the bunk bed that she and Hally shared. Thoughts formed into pictures, which slid across her closed eyes. Memories of her past life. A life she could never again live. A life she did not want to remember.



Hally suddenly banged the door as she entered. "Get your things packed! Kahein has just announced that it is time that the vamplings enter the world of vampires, so for their initiation, we shall go on a Great Hunt!" Hally was so excited nearly tripped over the emergency rations of canned blood next to her bed.



"Where shall we go, when will we be leaving, and who shall stay behind?" Sena asked in rapid succession.



"The forests in Africa, two days from now, and the guards are listed by the feeding chart, but you're not on it. I've already checked," Hally was already packing.



Sena sighed and picked up her ammunition shoulder bag, and threw it in her traveling case. She paused when she picked up her belt clasp. On it was the outline of a tiger, which was sacred to the Qas.

*

Sena knelt on her knees, praying to Lady Zoria, Goddess of the Moon and of the Night. She did not know where her prayers went, for she felt that Zoria had forsaken her.

*

In ancient times, when all the gods had turned away the fledglings of Lucifer, only one gave them strength. Lady Zoria gave them the strength to grow and to live, but at a terrible price. They would have to take that life from others.



Lucifer, angered and frightful that Zoria had turned his children against him, took away their tranquility and put war and rage in them, weaving it into their flesh, blood, and bones. In return for Lucifer's dreadful deed, graceful Zoria gave them the ability to breed and spread them out across the land, in hopes of their ferocity being bred out of them.



Then, angered by the fierce competition between Zoria and Lucifer, Redemptia, Ruler of the Gods and Goddesses (her true name long forgotten), intervened and cast out the Qas (the name that was given to Lucifer's children), pushing them away from humanity. The Lady Queen also gave them a lust for human blood, pushing farther the already thin relationship between the Qas and mankind. Before, they had fed on animals, which they raised themselves, or were happily given by their human neighbors and companions.



The final sin was one that taxed the Qas people dearly: taking a human mate for themselves, despite the Goddess' attempt to seperate them.



After that fateful time, the Gods and Goddesses withdrew from the Qasic temples, forsaking them.



Thus, the Qas faded into myth, as did their Gods and Goddesses....

*