Red River

Rita woke up to literal rainbows and unicorns every day of her life. The sun shone and it only rained when it needed to. The world was prosperous. There was no war and the once mythical and fairytale creatures peacefully coexisted with the everyday humans. Half-breeds were no longer looked down upon and it was common for species to fall in love with each other. With the help of some of the races that were previously in hiding, the world was rid of trash and pollution and the once crowded world was thinned out with the brief war that occurred before there was peace. The population was now 3 billion and was lightly controlled by the reigning councils which were elected. 

Rita was the daughter of one of those councilmen and her father was training her to be an enforcer of the rules that all races were held to. The problem was, she had never left Council City. So most considered her naive and sheltered and tended to look down on her. It was true, too. She saw the world in black and white and never questioned things. 

As usual, Rita floated out of her giant mushroom house, passing the unicorn shifter's house and the Goblin councilmen's house with her fairy dust fluttering to the ground and sprouting flowers.

She felt ready, and, in preparation for the test for the enforcer trainees, she had trained with her father the entire week after his shifts in City Hall. Her father said she had improved and would do well and she believed in his belief in her. It was not pride or arrogance that made her believe, it was her knowing that her father had never lied to her, never let her down, so she simply trusted him.

The test was in three parts. The written which was both essay and multiple choice, opinion and fact were included in the answers. 

The oral test in which she would have to give a presentation, her subject being the classic rivalry between wolf shifters and blood drinkers. She had compared them and with some history research had discovered that the shifters were created to be guardians of those weaker than them. The blood drinkers, however, were created to be the Cullers of Evil. In other words, they killed whereas the shifters maimed and made sure they never did it again and being guardians disagreed with the killing. She argued that with the world now being peaceful, the fight between the two races was pointless seeing as blood drinkers now did not have to kill to get sustenance. Then the physical test included an obstacle course that would push the trainees to their limits.

Finally, if they passed all three tests at above an A rating they would be assigned to a district as shadow training.

Rita was hoping for River District. It had a beautiful river running through it and a waterfall at both ends of the city.

It held all the so-called city slickers that had street credit. She wanted to learn what she did not already know by going to the high-end Cloud District that her father wanted her to go to.

The Training Building was a tall eight-story building that was white, strict, and concrete. It looked like nothing would make it fall. 

That was what she thought until, when she was probably fifty feet away, it blew up. Literally, it blew up from the inside out into a million little pieces. Shrapnel from the building reached her and she was blown off her feet from the force.

Rita stood up from the ground and started running towards the burning remains of the building without even thinking. Her father had been in the building, he had to be there for the tests as one of the councilmen to watch over the trainees. She could not lose him though. He was her last family, all his family, and her mother and her family were all dead. Her dad said that it was an accident at a family reunion. It had wiped them all out except her and her dad because they had been running late because of an outfit wreck from her playing in the mud right before they left. Rita had never asked any questions about it. Whenever she had thought about it she would think about her father’s haunted face when they arrived at the burning field where their family had gathered.

Now, as she started rummaging through the crumbled concrete that burned her hands, she regretted not asking. She regretted not saying goodbye early morning to the last one in her life, to tell him that she loved him, tell him that she would see him soon. 

As she frantically dug she noticed there were sounds around her that were very faded. Then she felt hands on her shoulders. Surprised she turned around, hitting the person that was trying to pull her away from finding her father. It was the goblin councilman's son Korvak. They had been childhood friends until she had completely immersed herself in her studies. Looking at his face she saw tears in his eyes. His father had been in the building as well. Seeing her friend crying when it was instilled in him as a goblin not to show tears or weakness she realized she was not the only that suffered today. Turning around on her knees she threw her arms around her old friend's neck and cried with him. She cried not only for her father but for all the others who had been lost.

Standing up, dragging Korvak up with her, she looked around and let the world fade back into focus and saw the medical vehicles and personnel running towards her and some were already rummaging themselves. One approached her and wrapped a blanket around her and she felt instant relaxation realizing it was a magic shock blanket. She wrapped it tighter around her. Touching her face she noticed that she was crying and bleeding as well. Rita was guided towards the van, she allowed the cleric healer to look her over and heal her. All the while, she plotted, she plotted to spill a red river of blood of those who had ruined her fairytale ending