Year 1010 D.E.

  The early afternoon sun shone brightly on the field. The young demons sat in a circle, laughing and playing. The chaperones standing guard throughout the field showed no interest in the younger demons unless one ventured too close to the boundary line. Tommy stood up suddenly and smacked the back of Azazel’s head. “Human!” he yelled and bolted away. Azazel sprang up and chased him, trying her best to tag him before he could take her spot. Keshiema watched from afar, unsure if she should ask to play.

  Mustering up the courage, she finally approached the group. Azazel stopped mid-step with her hand still resting on another kid's head. “Um, can I play too?”

  Tommy stood and marched up to her. “We’re playing Demon, Demon, Human. You can’t play because you’re both. You'll ruin the system.”

  “I'll be ‘It’ if you want. I promise I wont mess up the game.”

  “I said no. Now get out of here, freak!” He pushed her back. She did her best not to cry, but her raven hair and onyx eyes gave her away. “Awe, are you sad?” Tommy mocked her. “Good. You should be.” He shoved her again. “You shouldn’t even be at the Academy at all. You’re not even a real demon.” he shoved her again, knocking her to the ground. The other demons laughed and mocked her alongside Tommy, calling her names like "rainbow" and "mutt."

  "Go on! Get out of here!” Tommy picked up a rock and threw it towards her. The other children followed suit, throwing anything they had available.

  Tears clouded her vision as she got up and ran away. Not wanting anyone to see her cry, she ran as fast as she could to escape the torment. A chaperone yelled something at her as she flew past him. She kept running, not caring how much trouble she would be in for breaking the boundary rule. A small part of her wondered why the chaperone did not chase after her. She was never very quick.

  Blinded by her tears, she failed to see the demon in her path. She hit him at full speed, knocking him over and landing on his chest.

  “I’m sorry!” she scrambled to her feet, then knelt beside him. He sat up, gasping for air. “Oh, no, no, no, no, no.” Flustered from embarrassment, her hair turned a bright coral orange. Without thinking, she placed her hand on his chest, using her aura to calm his lungs. As he took a full breath, he stared at her in awe. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to knock you down. I didn’t see you, and I was just trying to… I’m sorry!” Her words came out a mile a minute as she checked him for injuries, tears still streaming down her flushed cheeks. She looked at his head through his short, bright green hair, and quickly healed a small cut behind his left ear.

  “Whoa there, speedy, take it down a notch.” he stood up, offering her his hand. Absentmindedly dusting off his formal wear, he gave her a quick once-over. “What were you running from, anyways?” Noticing her reddened eyes and flushed cheeks, he rephrased his question. “Did someone hurt you?”

  “I…” Knowing how childish she would sound, she avoided his question. “I’m sorry for knocking you over. I need to go back to the field now. The yard duties are going to be mad.” Looking behind her, she realized she could no longer see the field. None of the buildings looked familiar, either.

  “Kid, the field is about a mile back the way you came.”

  ‘No… The field’s gotta be right there…” she pointed behind herself. “I was only running for a minute…”

  “Holy hell, you just came into a power…” he mumbled to himself, brushing his hand through his hair. “I’ll have one of the professors send a message to the chaperones not to worry about you.”

  “Really?” Her hair and eyes shifted to foggy gray.

  “On one condition. You have to tell me what happened before you ran into me.”

  Thinking about facing the other students again caused her heart to race and stomach to churn. She agreed to his terms. “I wanted to play Demon-Demon-Human… but the other kids told me I can’t because I’m mixed. Then Tommy pushed me on the ground, and they started calling me names and throwing stuff at me.”

  “So you’re a Hell-Child.” He mumbled as he pulled out a notepad and started scribbling in it. “What’s your name, kid?" He asked as he waved over a Cat-Daemon walking by.

  “Keshiema Chaos.”

  He handed the staff member the note without looking at him. With one glance at the note, the Cat-Daemon sprinted away. “It’s nice to meet you Keshiema, I’m Cresil.”

  ***

  Waking up from the bittersweet memory, Keshiema wiped the tears from her eyes. Checking the map, she had about nine miles of walking left. Listening carefully to her surroundings, she jumped down from the tree and climbed back up the steep hill. After the meal and nap, she felt immensely better. When she reached the bridge, she sprinted across the half-mile-long structure as fast as she could. Being in the open meant being exposed to untold dangers.

  This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

  After leaving the bridge behind her, she slowed to a speedy walk. The moderate pace allowed her to be more attentive to her surroundings. She followed the highway until she found the offshoot Sam marked for her. The narrow road twisted and turned with the mountainside, giving her much more cover than the highway. The downside was that she had to be extra cautious every time she rounded a corner.

  Eventually, she reached the coast of the dried-up lake. Old, half-buried boats littered the lakebed where a small harbor used to float. Cautiously, she started across the lakebed, keeping her ears tuned to the forest.

  With the less hurried pace, her hearing improved. In the distance, she could make out the rhythmic pounding of horses galloping on pavement. Even farther away, she thought she heard the hard wheels of a carriage.

  After crossing the lakebed, she faced the most grueling part of her journey. The meeting spot sat near the top of a small mountain. She made her way up the steep, winding path as quickly as she could, hurrying to beat the others.

  When she arrived at the entrance, a young woman leaned against the doorway. Sweat dripped down the woman's olive skin. Her dark hair was pulled back, away from her ferocious brown eyes.

  “demon!” the woman hissed, drawing a gun from her waist.

  Keshiema dove behind a large boulder, barely avoiding the bullet. “I’m not here to fight anyone!” she yelled. “I’m just here to find my friends!”

  The crunch of gravel to her left warned her to go right just as the woman turned the corner, firing another shot.

  “Would you please stop trying to shoot me!” Keshiema shouted from behind a large pine tree. She scrambled to a higher vantage point, grabbing a rock as she did. As the woman aimed her gun, Keshiema threw the rock as hard as she could, knocking the gun out of the woman’s hand.

  The woman shouted in anger as the gun tumbled off the cliff. Drawing a dagger, she charged at Keshiema. Not wanting the Woman to fall, Keshiema let her get close. Just as the woman swung her knife, Keshiema ducked down, pivoted behind her, and grabbed her arm. She twisted the woman's arm, making her drop the knife, then put her in a choke hold.

  Her small size made subduing the woman difficult. Just as she thought the woman would pass out, Keshiema felt a sharp pain on her right side. As Keshiema stumbled away, she noticed another knife in the woman’s hand as she picked up the first one.

  Keshiema tried to focus a small burst of aura to seal the wound, but the woman lunged forward again. Just before she reached her, Keshiema sprang to the side. The woman charged again.

  “Wait! Stop!” a male voice shouted from behind Keshiema. The woman paused mid stride and straightened herself.

  “She's a demon!” the woman argued.

  “Yes, but she's human too.”

  While the two argued, Keshiema took to higher ground. Above the humans' reach, she stared down at the two curiously. Both appeared to be young, about her own age. The man's windswept, curly blond hair gave him a friendly-but-unpredictable look. His blue eyes showed nothing but kindness.

  “You know what I am?” she called to him from behind a boulder above the doorway.

  “I do. I have a special knack for that kind of thing.”

  “I’ve met others like you. Tell me, do you know who I am?” Her best guess was that he was Zack Davis, and the woman who attacked her was Mia. She wondered if Mia and Tobias had ever told him about her.

  “No, should I?”

  “I’m not sure. But she should know me,” she pointed a sword towards the young woman.

  “Mia, do you know her?”

  'Theory halfway confirmed.' Keshiema tried to ground herself, to keep from getting too excited. 'She might be Mia, but she still tried to shoot me,' she reminded herself.

  “I don’t make a habit of associating with trash.” Mia's response made Keshiema’s heart ache.

  “Mia, Zack, are you two… up… here.” Keshiema ducked further behind the rock as a man with dark hair and pale skin pulled a gun on her.

  “Tobias, stop!” Zack ordered.

  “Keshiema, is that you?” Tobias asked.

  “Yeah, it’s me! I was hoping we could talk!”

  “Wait, Keshiema? You told me she was dead!” Mia shrieked.

  “Nope, totally alive, and not wanting to get shot at again!”

  “Tobi, who is this demon?” Keshiema listened carefully to Zack's whispered words.

  “Remember how I told you the orphanage got worse after you left… well she’s the only reason Mia and I survived.” Tobias whispered back.

  “Then why are you trying to shoot her?” Zack admonished him.

  “I sort of have a buddy of hers down the hill in a cage. He was spying on my base.”

  “You brought a P.O.W. with you? What the hell Tobi!”

  At the mention of Cresil, Keshiema jumped from her hiding place, her hair and eyes turning a bright fiery red. “You’re keeping Cresil in a cage?” With swords drawn, she faced the siblings, now all huddled together. The two brothers immediately aimed their guns at her, and Mia whispered, "Holy shit, its really you..."

  "I don’t care about your damned weapons! Where is he?” she demanded through clenched teeth. Her violet aura exploded around her. “Where is Cresil!”

  “Tobi, I think it would be a good idea to give her back her friend,” Zack said calmly, lowering his gun. “If she wanted to hurt any of us, she could have easily killed Mia before I got here.”

  “Look, I just needed him to get you to come to me so we could talk. He's all yours after our chat.”

  “no, he gets released now. I wanted an alliance with you, but if this is how you treat a peace treaty messenger I want nothing to do with you!”

  “Keshiema, he isn't harmed. That’s why I brought him with me. I didn’t want my men to attack him in my absence.”

  Though still shining brightly, her aura slowly started to simmer down. "We can talk all you want after Cresil is released.”

  “Alright, fine. He's just down the hill by the small building you passed to get here.”

  She pointed her swords and cautiously sidestepped around to swap places with the siblings. Peering down the slope, she found horses and a carriage. Then, another person caught her eye. As much as she wanted to get Cresil out of the cage, she knew going down there alone would be a bad idea. “Who else did you bring with you?”

  Zack stepped forward. “I brought a watchman from my village as a bodyguard. I can go down there with you so he doesn't attack you.” he holstered his gun in a show of good faith. Giving in, Tobias did the same, but kept his hand on the gun.

  “Is that wise?” Mia remarked.

  “If I understand correctly this woman saved your life at least once.”

  “That was a long time ago,” Mia said, but the conflicting thoughts racing through her mind were written on her face.

  “I would appreciate the escort. I don’t want to have to hurt your bodyguard.” Keshiema sheathed her swords, but stayed prepared to draw them again.