Chapter 4

Part 1

Encircled by Clayton and his band of blood thirsty demon hunters, hand itching at the chance to draw her sword, former warrior, Abagail stood at the ready. Cowering behind the legs of his would-be protector, son of the demon lord, Timaios could only shutter seeing the monstrously bulky, one-eyed leader of the band of hunters himself. “Hey now, Mrs. hero! You and your husband in need of a little assistance? Seems you got yourselves into a bit of a demon themed issue.” He laughed.

“…” Without a word, Abagail assessed the situation. (Five men, Kris is down, possibly in serious danger, and…I’ve got the kid.) She chuckled to herself, surprising the demon hunters. “I’ve been in worse situations. Out with it! You don’t need to put on a front anymore now that it’s just us.”

“Straight to the point! If not for the fact that you were a demon loving bitch, I’d make you my woman. First, let me say, I respect the hell out of you two. Making it this far in the Pauldris Woodlands is incredible! I’ve been running these woods since the war, otherwise catching up to you guys would’ve been impossible.” Clayton clapped patronizingly. “Second, come on now, ma’am, hand over the kid.”

“…” Those unflinching beige eyes bore holes through Clayton.

“Don’t look at me like that. I’m being a really nice guy here. Most people would have you two drawn and quartered for keeping the Demon Lord’s brat safe.”

“Yeah, I guess so.” Timaios’s small pale hand trembled, clasping Abagail’s leather pant leg as he watched on in fear.

“Then why do it? If you hand him over now, we can just pretend like it never happened. We’ll go to Zéme, bring the kid to the knight captain, and he’ll lop the little bastard’s head off. Simple. We’ll get a reward and you guys don’t have to do a thing. Everyone wins!”

“…” Simple, like he said. Kris was unconscious, so he’d never know what truly happened. Just glancing at that crimson hair, porcelain skin, and pitch-black horn adorning Timaios’s head, like his father, just like Demon Lord Uzziel, filled Abagail with hatred! The grievous wound Uzziel inflicted on her, whenever she saw her own unrobed figure reflected back at her, remained, spitefully mocking Abagail! Nearly killing her, and robbing her of a dream, that agonizing pain burned deeper than the flesh, into the soul. (What if this boy…becomes like that?) All those who’d been killed by Timaios’s father, their screams and bodies, Abagail remembered everyone she’d witnessed vividly.

“I see it in your eyes, you know. What I said before about you loving demons, I take it back! Just like us, you hate them too.” Turning over the demonic spawn she despised so much, and allowing someone else to do the deed of ending his life, her hands would be clean.

“No.”

“Huh?”

Even with her hands clean, her conscience wouldn’t be. “No…to everything. Go fuck yourselves.” Abagail gave them an answer, to which the large vein in Clayton’s forehead reacted by ballooning, ready to explode!

“Suit yourself. Kill the bitch and her husband, then grab the kid.” Three of the other demon hunters brought out spears, while one drew a crossbow! Abagail slowly drew her broadsword, pushing Timaios aside.

The man with the crossbow launched a bolt directed at Kris, but it was stopped by Abagail mid-flight! Abagail shot the man a glare fierce enough to halt any beast in its tracks. “That's how you want to play? Fine!” Abagail snapped the arrow in her hand and charged. With her sword held high overhead, she aimed to cleave the man in two, but an enormous shadow closing in caused Abagail to rethink that! Gracefully, she jumped back, barely avoiding the massive blade of Clayton’s greataxe!

“Hah! You’re quick, little lady! I saw how strong you were before, and I assumed you were just all upper body, but with legs like those, guess I should’ve realized.” Clayton joked with what was supposed to be a wink despite only having one eye. “This here bad boy is perfect for chopping up demons, but I wonder how it’ll work on a former hero…let’s find out!” The one-eyed man bellowed a hearty laugh while patting the ax’s head.

“You talk too much.” In from behind, two men thrust their spears toward Abagail. She leapt, dodging the attacks and landed back on the polearms! In one fell swoop, slamming the hilt of her sword into the face of one of the men, she also ran her knee into the side of the other’s head, knocking him out cold! “This is YOUR last chance. Leave us alone.” Abagail pointed her blade at Clayton’s chest, awaiting her answer.

“Hmm…? Let me think…no. Is ‘no’ a good answer? I’d like to say ‘No’!” His grandstanding only served to annoy Abagail.

“Have it your-” Just as the warrior woman readied herself to attack an explosion of smoke shot up from beneath her! The man she’d hit with the hilt of her sword was still conscious, as she’d played right into their hands! The demon hunter grabbed her from behind, holding her in place. Without a chance to defend herself, the huge blade of Clayton’s great-axe hung above Abagail’s head, ready to end her life in an instant!

Part 2

(This dream again…?) A small boy walked alongside a carriage. Falling snow, as it made its way toward the ground, clung to his dirty brown hair and crunched beneath his feet. (These dreams - no, memories are the worst…) To his left was another small boy. They both staggered as the smaller of the two slowly lagged behind, ultimately falling to the ground. A large man came up to the collapsed child, and nudged him with his boot. The collapsed boy never responded. The man pulled a knife from the unmoving boy’s belt, gifting it to the dirty brown-haired boy, regardless of how he felt. (I don’t want this. It’s not mine.) He wanted to say but it didn’t matter. The carriage continued on as he watched the other boy’s body disappear beneath the snow, fading into the distance.

A small castle came into view. The carriage stopped as men began unloading barrels and crates. The boy helped as much as he could, but for a child of his size, it wasn’t possible to lift much more than one thing at a time. They finished moving the supplies into the castle, but the boy was denied entry. (Someone’s gotta watch the cart? That’s unfair…) He sat out in the carriage, looking over his shoulder, readying a small bow and arrow. A sound came from the front of the cart alerting him! When he jumped to see where the noise originated, he was surprised to see a demon, a fire sprite.

The sprite was no bigger than a girl’s doll, and with its body made of embers, cast in a human-like shape, just as pretty. Using flaming fingers, the demon dug at a barrel of equipment the men had neglected, until the sprite noticed the boy readying his bow! It backed away slowly, wistful fiery locks dancing about in the cold breeze and large marble-like eyes reflecting the boy’s visage. The dirty-brown-haired boy noticed a small flickering spark in the woods. Another fire sprite, with far dimmer flames, and bright eyes less lively, watched on. The boy lowered his bow as the sprite ripped off a piece of wood and ran back to the weaker sprite. It gave the weak fire sprite the wood, kindling it within the creature’s body; no longer seeming fragile, it stood up, regaining some strength! They danced away as the boy looked on, a little confused but satisfied.

A whistle rang out, and as the boy turned he noticed a group of people raiding the castle! Many, many large soldiers had managed to sneak past him! The boy unleashed his bow without a second thought. (Oh right…this is how it used to feel. It was…so easy back then.) The head, the chest, the head, the chest. The boy killed one after another as his group finally exited the castle, fighting for their lives. They were outnumbered and unprepared. The man from before called for the boy, to which he responded by leaping from the carriage and rushing to his side. The boy killed two men on his way to the top of the castle; unleashing his last arrow on a man attempting to climb the staircase. Protecting that man was his only goal, so he drew the knife and plunged its blade into a soldier’s neck who’d pinned that man down. The boy and the man were backed into a corner, the only escape was through an open window, and down four stories to the unforgiving ground.

The man pushed the boy forward into the crowd of soldiers and jumped through the window. A loud crash could be heard as the boy looked out and saw the man hobbling away into the woods. He felt no hatred for the man, as he knew what his fate was. A tool, just a tool, and he’d served his purpose.

Part 3

Short of breath, clothes tattered, and body bruised, Abagail stood criticizing and disappointed in herself. (I wasn’t prepared for this. It’s been so long since I’d last fought a group of people, I let my guard down.) Two men lay dead at her feet as Clayton sneered.

“Those men…” He groaned and then continued. “Are you telling me…that I lost two of my men because of a fucking demon?! Lady, you can’t be serious!”

“You lost two of your men because you refused to yield. I warned you that I wasn’t going to hold back.” She said, bluffing with false confidence. The problem was the crossbow trained on her by one demon hunter, a man yet untouched with his spear drawn, not even counting Clayton and his giant ax, Abagail was at a disadvantage. (This isn’t good. Should I just give up the kid? No. Too late for that now. They’d just kill us anyway. Kris Pewter, I love you, but you get me in way too many of these situations.)

“B-boss…I don’t want to die…” The crossbow wielding man said to Clayton.

Abagail picked up on the man’s words. “Then run!” She shouted! “Leave and I won’t give chase!” A glimmer of hope. (Come on…run away! I just need to make this situation a little better.)

“Wait! She’s lying! Soon as you turn your back, the harpy will run you through!” The other man called over to his compatriot. “Get her! She’s a demon sympathizer! Lower than dirt!” The man charged, spear in hand. Abagail simply side stepped him, thinking he was just being careless, but the man kept going.

“Oh no!” The demon hunter’s target was Timaios and Kris, who laid defenselessly behind her! Abagail got angry, more so than she’d gotten in a long time. She hiked her blade over her head and lurched it back, then with all of her remaining strength chucked the broadsword at the man!

From Timaios’s point of view, the man was charging toward him! There was no way to defend himself, so the boy covered his head, frightened of what was to come. He waited, though nothing came. The boy opened his baring witness to the man’s decapitated body collapsing lifelessly to the ground. Gruesomely pinned onto the tree behind Timaios, with Abagail’s sword, hung the severed head.

“H-Holy shit, boss! I-I don’t want to die!” The man dropped his crossbow and fled as fast as he could away from the battle.

“…Hmph…” Clayton shrugged. “Guess it’s just you and me, little lady.” He slowly strolled up to a weaponless and exhausted Abagail.

“…Fine. Come on!” Taking up a fighting stance, Abagail leapt at Clayton! He swung his ax backing away, but Abagail ducked beneath the blade and continued toward him! As wily as a fox and nimble as a cat, she weaved between Clayton’s wide and sweeping attacks with ease! It wasn’t ideal to challenge an adversary so large barehanded, yet Abagail had experienced far worse, and left with no choice, the swordswoman rushed in!

“Damnit!” Clayton suddenly changed his grip on the polearm, giving his assault even greater speed! Abagail, shocked by how different his movements had become by simply shifting his hands further up towards the blade, changed tactics! His missing eye was a disadvantage no matter how used to fighting with it he was. Weaving beneath the blade again, she dodged around his left side! Each swipe of the axe boomed past her like the wingbeats of a massive beast, yet she moved without falter!

“Got you!” In one swift motion, Abagail scaled Clayton’s shoulders! She locked her thick legs around his throat from behind, then gripped the demon hunter’s chin and mohawk, aiming to end the fight by snapping his neck! Before anything else, Clayton dropped his axe and grabbed Abagail’s hands, locking her in place! He threw himself back onto the ground, sandwiching her between his muscular body and the ground! “Gahh…!” Abagail kept firmly locked in, though, in her daze didn’t notice the man standing up again, launching them back first into a tree as hard as he could! “Geh…”

Clayton grabbed Abagail by her hair and whipped her around onto the ground! “G-Geez…” He hacked away, rubbing his throat that was almost crushed under Abagail’s muscular thighs. He quickly pinned her arms down, straddling Abagail! “You’ve been giving me a lot of trouble! Those men…were all close to me, you know that?!” He reeled back, then gave her a shot to the face, dazing Abagail further. “I’ll break your neck; I’ll paralyze ya’…then I’ll make you watch as I kill your bastard husband.” Clayton gripped Abagail’s neck, leaving her to weakly struggle beneath the monster sized man.

“S-Shit…” With one of her eyes beginning to water, inhibiting her vision, along with what seemed to be a concussion from the previous head trauma, the dire situation worsened by the second. Abagail peered over to her husband, lying defenseless; stunned as she was, survival felt impossible! As her consciousness faded, the cry Timaios made while charging toward Clayton at full speed, with his head down, steadied her mind.

“Get off Ms. Abagail!” The demon child shrieked as he drove his horn deep into Clayton’s side!

“Fuck!” The man released Abagail as he stood up! He writhed in pain as Timaios’s horn was lodged deep into his ribs. Timaios had rammed the jagged horn so perfectly as to get it lodged in between the bones of Clayton’s ribcage! “Fuck…off me!” The massive demon hunter reached to grab Timaios, but with his muscle bound body, he was unable to. Timaios held onto the leather armor with his small hands to avoid being tossed off! “Enough of this!” Clayton stretched his arm back and grabbed the young boy’s cloak and his great-axe. Preparing to jam the blade into Timaios’s back; he was halted by what felt like a mallet colliding with his temple! Abagail leapt to her feet with fire in her eyes, driving her knee into the man’s skull!

Timaios was swung off of Clayton, thrown to the ground alongside the exhausted Abagail, who’d spent the last of her energy on that attack! Timaios looked toward his protector as she lay on the ground gathering herself. Both Clayton and Abagail struggled to their feet, the demon hunter’s colossal frame towering over the warrior woman. “Run…boy, run!” Abagail reached for her broadsword that had remained stuck in a tree, pinning the decapitated demon hunter’s head! She pulled it from the trunk as the demon hunter’s leader grabbed his axe. Abagail fought violently, pushing ever forward, swinging her blade with reckless abandon as her footing got more and more uneven, while Clayton could only block her frenzied assault! The blows she’d gotten to the head were taking their toll, coupled with exhaustion, she wouldn’t last long. “Stop standing there! Run away!” Sadly, Abagail’s act of bravery only yielded pain as Clayton swung his axe down, shattering the blade of Abagail’s broadsword and then charged her with his shoulder, sending her flying!

“Mrs. Abagail!” Timaios screamed as Abagail rolled back to her feet, just barely stopping in next to Kris. She’d lost her broken sword during the fall and before she had a chance to respond, Clayton had caught up to her with the massive weapon over his head. “No!!”

Part 4

Cold steel layering his wrists, traversing an unsteady and rocky path, the captured boy feared that at any moment he’d fall down the mountain slope, perishing in the valley. (Looking back…I thought my death was certain, but hoped I could be a useful tool one more time.) He wasn’t allowed to ride in the carriage, no, that was for the important cargo, the spoils of their recently won battle. A man, walking too fast, dragged the boy along by his chains, paying no mind to the child barely keeping up. Looking around, the dirty-brown-haired boy saw other children, human and demon alike, trudging along the same path, hands in shackles. The man turned and spoke with someone, a demon. The demon’s pitch-black body radiated small particles. Darker than night, the black visage of the demon looked to the boy and then whispered to the man. (That was the first time I saw him.)

The carriage reached a small convent, hidden away on the side of a mountain range. After storing the carriage away, the boy was brought into a jail cell, leaving him alongside another boy with long raven-hair. Eventually, the all black demon - the shadowman, came to the boys’ cell. With a wide smile on his face, every day the shadowman brought them food, over and over, each day with a joyous glow about him. (He was always nice to us.) The shadowman opened the cell after a few days and released the children. They were allowed to leave. The dirty-brown-haired boy led the timid raven-haired boy around the small convent. Another demon stopped the children as they walked about. A woman with a set of squirrel ears and a tail, eagerly waving about as she hugged the children, lifting them off their feet. (Oh yeah…I missed this.) The shadowman and the beastkin woman cared for the boys. The shadowman trained with the boys, teaching them how to use weapons and the squirrel woman showed them how to climb trees and forage for food.

The boys began traveling with the group. Man and demon alike were a part of the caravan; it was an unbelievable sight for many. They came across a town, burned to the ground during a battle between demons and men. Scorched ground ebbed beneath the boy’s feet as he walked about the village, slowly making his way to investigate odd sounds off in the distance. (Ah…this memory…of all the memories to think about…) A group of bandits suddenly attacked! There wasn’t enough time to respond and the boy’s group was captured! They were forced to kneel as a man slowly limped down the line of them. When the limping man reached the dirty-brown-haired boy, the boy looked up seeing the man who abandoned him long ago. He laughed, and grabbed the boy up by his arm. (He said that he was happy to have me back. Saying he’d paid so much for me and he was happy to have not wasted money.) The shadowman stood up and reached for the boy, but the man struck him down with the hilt of his sword! The tip of its blade was placed at the throat of the shadowman; the boys, the two of them, tried to stop the limping man but were quickly shaken off! The man turned his blade onto the raven-haired boy who backed away. (No…not him…my…brother!)

The boy’s brother screamed. The boy gripped his knife, the knife given to him, that he never wanted.

“No!!”

Part 5

(No…what do I do? I can’t block it! I can’t dodge because of Kris! Damnit!) Abagail raised her arms to block the imposing greataxe! (Ah…so this is the end? Dammit! Just make sure to survive, Kris.) There was no way she’d survive such an attack, and Abagail knew it. There was no greater plan other than a desperate woman attempting to protect her husband. Something leapt forth with a flash and latched onto Clayton. Out of nowhere, Abagail saw the back of her husband as he charged at the demon hunter!

Barely conscious, Kris muttered. “This…bastard…again, huh?” With no hesitation, he drove his knife into Clayton’s brawny neck! “I told…you to…go away, right?” Kris’s hands trembled as blood gushed from Clayton's throat rolling down his arms!

“Gah!” Wheezing and gasping for air, Clayton reached for the blade, but Kris drove it deeper still! Twisting the knife, unblinking, unabated, not an ounce of remorse; Kris fell to the ground atop the man, watching intently as life drained from his face.

“…Kris…” The ace archer looked up, gazing at Timaios, backed away in terror of the once warm-hearted protector turned stone-faced killer.

“I…” Clayton’s hand reached up toward Kris’s face, setting off that brutal side of the man once more! One fell swoop, Kris nearly severed the demon hunter’s head from his body! Blood exploded everywhere, coating the ground, and Kris alike. Returning to his senses, Kris focused on Timaios; the young boy shook in terror. “T-Timaios…sorry you…had to see that…” Attempting to stand again, failed. A sudden wave of vertigo and Kris’s still lingering fever plagued him. Without any warning he collapsed again!

“Kris!” Abagail staggered over to her husband, pulling his head onto her lap. “This is bad. His fever is getting worse…his temperature is going up! No, please no! Hang on, Kris!”

“Hey, you all! What’s all this then?” A voice followed by several glowing torches came around one of the many trees. Abagail turned to see multiple men clad in knights’ armor.

“Please!” Abagail called out. “W-We need help! Do you have anything to help with spider venom? My husband…h-he…”

“Relax, miss!” A man, equipped with a medical bag, rushed over to the woman and her downed husband! “Worry not, we’re Zéme’s knights! We’ll assist you!”

End of Chapter 4