When I awoke, the sun was up and its rays pierced through the light canopy. It had dried me while I slept, and I was grateful for that. I didn’t feel like trudging around wet.
I got up and stretched. My joints cracked and I swung my arms to loosen them, yawning widely. I looked around. The woods I was in were remarkable like that back home. Where was I again? Oh, yeah. I haven’t figured that out yet.
I sat back down against the tree, giving myself a moment to wake up a little more and plan my next move. Sleeping outside all the time was not going to last long. Some way or another, I was going to have to find food and shelter.
I had no familiar landmarks to go by. I was lost, and couldn’t remember which way the building I had escaped from was. It wasn’t that I was considering going back, but it was familiar ground and it would give me a bit of a bearing.
All woodlands end somewhere. I imagine if I kept walking, I would eventually find my way out. From there, I could blend in as a human and find out how to get back home. It sounded simple enough to work out.
I heard the crunch of footsteps over twigs and I jumped to my feet. I turned to run, but stopped as a man in armor stepped out of the bushes and in my path.
“Freeze! Don’t move!” the man said, his voice muffled by the helmet he wore. It covered his whole head, and his face was hidden behind a pane of burnt glass. He leveled a strange weapon at me.
His armor was fascinating. I had never seen anything like it. It looked as strong as steel, but didn’t appear to be made of any kind of metal. He moved in it with ease compared to the plated armor back home. It was black and looked most made of cloth. It couldn’t be that strong, but I had a feeling there was more behind it than what met the eyes.
He spoke again, but not to me, even though we were the only two here. “This is Foxtrot. I’ve located the target. Requesting assistance,” he said to invisible people.
That object he held might have been a weapon, but he didn’t hold it like one. If he planned to strike me with it, then why did he keep it against his shoulder? That was not a logical stance. And there was no sign of any kind of blade on the device. His hand gripped the thing tightly, and occasionally he shifted his grip. He was nervous.
I bolded up and took a step forward. “I said freeze! Not another step! Foxtrot here, I don’t think this thing can understand me! It won’t listen to orders!”
I ignored his words and reached for my daggers as I took another step forward. The object in the man’s hand roared; the sound cut through the woodland serenity. The dirt in front of me shot up in rapid streams and glistening metal ejected from the side of the object. The noise startled me and I jumped back. “Holy crap!”
I looked down and saw the ground riveted with holes. What the hell was that things? It was so fast I didn’t see what happened. An acrid smell was in the air and smoke slithered out of the hole in the front of the weapon. I looked at him. My ears pressed against my head and I growled defensively.
“I said stay back! Foxtrot here, where the hell are you guys!” He paused for a moment, almost like he was listening to a reply only he could hear. “What do you mean you can’t read me on the NavTech? Dammit! The crappy thing probably broke again. I’m five clicks north of the lab.”
Was this guy crazy? We stood there and stared at each other, his weapon leveled at me. Neither of us moved. The silence was crushing. I needed to get away from this man, but I can’t beat that weapon. It was too quick. I might be able to negotiate my way out of this mess. It probably wouldn’t work, but it was worth a try before I had to resort to doing something stupid.
“Let me go,” I told the man.
“What?”
“You heard me, let me go. Do you know what I am?”
“No. And there is no way in hell I’m letting you go.”
I was a little surprised by his response, but it confirmed a theory. These people really had no idea what a demon was. Interesting.
“There are more of us out here. If you let me go, I’ll tell them to leave you alone.” The man remained silent. I couldn’t tell if my words had any effect on him. “They could be anywhere. Even close by.” Still no reaction. But I saw his head move ever so slightly. He was looking around. Come on, please work, I wished. I tilted my head and looked past the man like I was looking at something behind him. He took the bait and turned to look.
I ran forward and plowed into the man’s center. I was right about the armor behind harder that it looked, but I still managed to push the man over. We toppled to the ground and the weapon roared again, cutting a line into the canopy. Leaves and branches rained down on top of us. I felt the heat radiate off the weapon.
I let go of the man and ran toward the cover of the bushes. I heard him yell something incoherent, and the weapon roared ounce more. I heard the trees and bushes rustle as the invisible projectiles shot through them, seeking me. Still I ran. Like the night before, I ran until I could run no more.
Exhausted, I stopped to rest. My heart pounded painfully and I gasped for breath. Looking around, I scanned the foliage for any signs of pursuers. There was no one in sight. It was only me and the forest. I listened closely to confirm what my eyes were telling me. There was only the breeze dancing through the leaves. It was quiet and serene again. But for how long?
I went to one of the trees and climbed as high as I could. There, if that man does happen to find his way here, he wouldn’t spot me.
I sat of a branch and leaned against the trunk, waiting to catch my breath. Ten minutes passed. And then another. There was still no sight of the man. He apparently had not been able to keep up with me.
I felt safe up in the tree, convinced that I would be okay as long as I stayed there. The leaves provided enough shelter to hide me from the ground, and still allow me to see below.
I wondered about what I would do next. All my thoughts had been focused on getting away from that strange place that I hadn’t really put much thought into how I was going to get back home.
My options were grim. From what I can gather, the people who lived in these parts were not familiar with demons, so chances are I would be treated with hostility if I just walked around. Luckily, there was a remedy for that. My ability to take the form of an average human will allow me to walk around un-harassed. But if they were unfamiliar with demons, then the chances were high that there were no Temples or Sorcerites here, either.
I hung my head in despair. It was not looking good. Bahaumut would know what to do. He was good at planning things out so they went down smoothly. God, I missed having him around already.
I sighed. Sitting around in a tree was not going to get me home. I was going to have to get out there and just see how things happen. It couldn’t be too hard to just walk around and ask questions.
That man back the way I came; the one with the frightening weapon; he was talking to someone. Somehow, he was communicating. That meant there might be others like him around here. I had to be careful not to run into them. But they were looking for a demon, not a human.
I concentrated on my magic and felt a minuscule seep away. Turning into a human used up very little mana; hell, it was the only spell I knew of that could be maintained while sleeping. In fact, the amount it used was so little that you practically regenerate the mana you use to maintain it while it’s being used. However, I discovered that while you can maintain human form in sleep, it will not hold if you fall unconscious.
My ears migrated down to the side of my head and rounded out. My fur disappeared into messy black hair and my snout melted like a stick of butter in a hot pan and formed a human nose and mouth. My bone structure readjusted to suit my human form. My muscles weakened and my tendons thinned. My demon reflexes were far superior to those of humans. If I kept my demon muscular structure to facilitate quicker movement, my human bones would break under the strain. My use of magic was also greatly hindered. As a result, I was much weaker in human guise.
I had once tried a partial transformation, to give my human self the speed of my demon form. The result was a broken forearm and dislocated elbow.
Once I finished transforming, I grabbed the tree’s trunk and slid down it until my feet rested on the soft earth. It was time to move on again.
- - -
I walked until the sun started to slip behind the horizon, casting a portrait of orange and red across the sky canvas. Despite occasional breaks, I was exhausted. My legs were rubbery and my arms hung loose at my sides. I was hungry and tired and was starting to loose heart. How much further does this forest go on?
My head was cheerlessly hung and I walked simply for the sake of walking. I wasn’t guiding myself by any means. I was no tracker. I didn’t know how to navigate without a map using stars. My whole plan was to keep going until the forest broke, but that was supposed to have happened hours ago.
Where was I?
It took me a moment to realize that the pine leaves and acorns that littered the ground in the forest had suddenly disappeared, and soft grass had taken its place. I looked up and realized that I was out of the woods. I had walked into a small clearing in the woods. In the center of the clearing was a small house, nestled on top of a hill. A warm yellow light pour from its windows like fire. Smoke rose lazily out of the chimney.
Relief washed over me and I rushed to the house. As I approached, I what appeared to be a barn a ways from the house. I hadn’t seen it before because it was hiding behind the hill. The residents might be farmers.
Rich farmers, though. They had glass on their windows. Glass windows were almost exclusively for the wealthy. Their door also looked like it was handcrafted, and had four rectangular designs symmetrical to each other. Perhaps the owner was not a farmer. All hands pointed to the possibility that he was a noble. Perhaps the barn was run by his servants.
Only one way to find out; I reached out and knocked on the door. The reports sounded hollow. The door may appear handcrafted, but the wood was of poor quality. I was confident that even I could put my fist through it if I wanted.
Moments pasted and a heard a series of tapping sounds before the door opened and an elderly man stood there in the doorway. He held a cane in one hand. Wrinkles plagued his features and I had to guess his age somewhere around sixty. He was bald except of the ring of grey hair that stuck out around the back of his crown. He looked around over me as though I wasn’t there, and I realized that he was blind. “Hello? Who’s there?”
At first, I couldn’t find words. My mind was busy processing information. He could not be a noble. His servants would have answered the door for him. And the light in his house was too bright and steady to be from fire. I stumbled over my tongue at first, but finally the word caught.
“Sir, I’ve been traveling for a long time. I was hoping you would allow me to stay the night”
“Where are you’re parent’s kid?”
Lie. “They’re dead, sir.” Dammit! When lying, you have about half a second to come up with a lie before you have to resort to the truth. Any longer, and the person is more likely to become suspicious. I was unprepared. Usually I had a story ready for such a situation, but I didn’t. I was too anxious to remember to do so.
“Oh, so who are you living with?”
This man was determined with the questions. I had to tread about this conversation carefully. “No one, sir; I’m on my own.”
He frowned and I winced. “How old are you?”
“Fifteen, sir,” I lied.
“Hmm, and they don’t have you living in a foster home?”
Foster home? I took the term in context and simply assumed it was a place for orphans. “I ran away, sir.”
He nodded and smiled warmly. “Well, I don’t think it will do any harm for you to stay the night.” He moved aside. “Come on in. Be sure to take off you’re shoes.”
I quickly removed my shoes and stepped inside. Warmth hugged me and welcomed me inside along with the alluring subtle smell of cinnamon. A fire burned in the fireplace, but it was not the main source of light in the room. The light came from four glass bulbs on the ceiling. Their glow made them hard to look at, but I couldn’t help look at it in an attempt to figure out how it worked.
“Whoo!” the man exclaimed. “Son, how long has it been since you bathed?”
“I’m sorry. I was lost in the woods. I haven’t bathed in nearly two days.”
“Lost in the woods! Now that’s something! You should have stuck to the trail.” I could tell he was ready to lecture me, but he let it go. “Come, I’ll show you where the shower is, and I’ll get some clothes set aside for you. They used to belong to my son, but he’s grown and gone. Come on.”
He led me up the stairs and into a hallway. He stopped at one of the rooms. “This is my son’s old room. You can use it for tonight. Clean cloths will be waiting for you when you’re done.” We moved on to the next room over. “Here’s the bathroom. Towels are in the closet. I’ll cook dinner while you take your shower.” He turned and left me there, using the wall to guide himself to the stairs.
I opened the door. There was I light in that room too, and it illuminated the almost everything in the room. Most of it was white. It was extravagant. An actual toilet; only lords had those. The sink looked like marble. The tub had a curtain around it, and a strange contraption of pipes over it. Water slowly dripped out of the top of it.
No way! These people actually found a way to get water into the house through pipes! But how? I couldn’t wrap my mind around it. These people were much more advanced than we were. Where was this place, exactly?
I inspected the contraption and tried to figure out how to operate it. I followed the top of the pipe down and it led me to two knobs. I turned one and jumped back in surprise when water cascaded from the top of the pipe. I tried the other knob and the water turned hot.
I undressed and climbed in. It was the most enjoyable bath I ever had. How was it that they found a way to control the temperature of the water? I had to find out, but that would have to wait until later.
There was one advantage to the human body: it was so much easier to get clean that my demon form.
My mind suddenly shifted to spells. More specifically: death spells. We learned about them in school a little more than a week ago. They were powerful spells designed to kill a target without fail. Difficult to master, they often had faults to them. If they weren’t cast right, they had undetermined results, and…
I snapped my fingers. That’s how I got here! That demon back at the village must have tried to use one of those spells on me. In the heat of the battle, it was unlikely that he would have been able to properly cast it. So instead of killing me, it must have somehow transported me to this strange land.
I felt my heart sink. This meant that I could have ended up anywhere. I grew up in the village. I never went more than a mile away from it. I never had any reason to. I had no idea what was out here past the village. How was I supposed to find it again if I couldn’t even locate it on a map?
I shook my head. That kind of thinking will get me nowhere. There were other ways of finding the village. If I could find a Temple, they surely will have a map of where all the other Temples can be found. As long as they know where my village Temple is, I’ll find home. I grinned to myself. It was flawless.
I turned off the water, dried off, and moved to the other room to get dressed. The old man said his son used to live here. The place was still furnished like he was still living there. I looked around the room a little, just to get familiar with the place, and found a stack of thin, but wide books made of some kind of closely paper. The covers were made of the same material. On the front was a portrait of a person running. The detail was so immaculate, that I was almost convinced it was real. The book was filled with these kinds of pictures. Funny, though; there were no signs of paint or ink being used. Perhaps they had some crazy advanced was of drawing images. I looked at the cover some more, and I saw a date on there.
March, 2153.
No, that could not be right. I recognized March, but the numbers had to be something else. No way that they could be years. That was silly.
I tossed the magazine aside, laughing nervously. I tried to not let it bother me. After all, there was no way to speed through time.
But it disturbed me. As I walked down the stairs, I tried to convince myself that those numbers were not referring to the year. But there were all these advanced things I have never seen before. There were these bulbs of lights, the running water, that self-running carriage; I’ve never seen anything like them before, and I couldn’t sense any magic from them.
And besides, that spell could not have sent me through time. That’s impossible.
When I arrived downstairs, I saw that the old man had dinner ready on the table. There was a place made ready for me, so I sat down and joined him.
“I don’t think I caught your name.”
“Jonathan,” I lied quickly. “My name is Jonathan.” I didn’t know why I lied about my name. The answer came before I could put any thought about it. I had no choice but to go with it.
“I’m Jacob. Jacob Davids.” He paused. “So what do you plan on doing next?” he looked at me from across the table with his glazed eyes. He was blind, but I had an eerie felling that he could still see me. I shifted uncomfortably.
“I don’t know yet.”
“So you’re just going to wander until you find what you’re looking for?”
“Looking for?”
“Sure. Everyone is looking for something. Some of us just aren’t sure what we’re looking for until we find it.”
I wasn’t sure how to respond. I looked at him intently. Was he trying to lure me to say something? Leading me on, perhaps? Maybe he was trying to make me trip on my story. It was full of holes, and smelled fishy even to me.
Just at that moment a bell rang throughout the house; a bright, cheerful chime that echoed briefly, lingering in the air like a hesitant spirit. Mr. Davids stood up, grabbed his cane, and moved to the door. Years of living in the house allowed him to move about it with familiar ease. He turned the door knob and opened the door. “Can I help you?”
I looked on at the strangers at the door. One man was dressed in a black, impressive suit, while the two behind him were suited in clothing colored and designed to blend in with foliage. The both carried the same strange weapons the man in the woods did. I tensed up and tilted a little off my seat, preparing to run. I gripped the chairs backrest, ready to push off at a moment’s notice and make an escape. My stomach turned cold, like I had swallowed a whole winter snowball in one gulp.
“Sir, we’re sorry to bother you at this hour. We’re with Terra Incorporation. We are conducting an investigation and were wondering if you’ve seen anything unusual this evening.”
“I’m sorry,” Mr. Davids apologized. “I don’t see much of anything these days.” He pointed to his eyes. The man took a moment to realize what Mr. Davids was trying to tell him.
“Oh. Sorry sir.” He looked to the men behind them and nodded at them. They return the gesture and broke off into two different directions, disappearing into the night. The man looked over Mr. Davids shoulder into the house and our eyes meet. I quickly looked away, afraid that I might give myself away. “Is that your son, sir?”
Mr. Davids answered, “Yes, it is. So?” I looked up at him in surprise, but quickly hid it before the man at the door could catch the expression. Why had Mr. Davids claimed me as his son?
“Do you mind if I ask him a few questions?”
“Not at all.” He stepped aside and the man walked towards me and took a knee so that we were roughly eye to eye.
“You didn’t happen to see anything strange today, have you son?” I shook my head, not trusting myself to speak. I knew that he was here for me.
“You didn’t see another kid running around the woods have you? About your size?” Again I shook my head avoiding the man’s gaze. “Its okay if you did. He’s not in trouble or anything; he’s just lost.”
I realized that my attitude was leading this man to think that I was hiding something. I looked out the window above the sink in the kitchen and saw a beam of light dancing around near the barn. The other two men must be searching the area.
I turned around and met that man’s eye. “I haven’t seen anything,” I said sternly. He stared at me, and I fought the urge to look away and held his gaze. His eyes shifted slightly back and forth, as though the truth was writing on my pupils and he was trying to read the fine print. Finally, he shrugged, stood up and moved out the door.
“Thank you for your time, sir.” He moved to offer to shake Mr. Davids hand, but pulled back, probably realizing that he would not see the gesture. Instead he turned and disappeared into the night. I looked out the window again and saw that the barn was once again deserted.
Mr. Davids closed the door and returned to the table. We continued to eat in silence. I sat there, expecting the questions to start flowing like a river. But none came. I chose my words carefully. Saying the wrong thing could lead Mr. Davids to start asking those questions that I was sure were sitting at the tip of his tongue, banging on the back of his teeth like little prisoners struggling to free themselves from their prison. “Thank you for helping me.”
“You’re welcome.”
That was it. The blanket of silence was thrown up but once again fell back in place over us. “Aren’t you going to ask me what that was all about?” Mr. Davids’ toothy prison was stronger than mine. The words practically shot off my tongue.
Mr. Davids put down his eating utensils. His plate was clear. He wiped his mouth with his napkin before speaking. “Those men were after you, of that I have no doubt. I’m not sure about the man who did the talking, but the others were well armed.”
I look of wonder crossed my face. “How could you tell?”
He shrugged. “I spent some time in the police force in my youth. I know what gear sounds like when you move in it. And wasn’t about to give you up to armed corporate men. As for asking question, I usually don’t like to pry into other people’s business. I’m sure you’ll tell me when you’re ready.”
I appreciated Mr. Davids’ gift of confidentiality. I wasn’t ready to explain myself to him yet, but I did feel as though I owed him some sort of clarity. “Everything I told is true, in a sense.”
“But the truth lies in pieces, am I right?”
“Yes sir.”
That awkward silence descended again. It was stifling and uncomfortable, and I felt the urge to break it by all means. “I don’t want to intrude; I don’t have anyplace to go. I am willing to work if you allow me to stay here.” I shifted the food on my plate. My appetite had left me. Worry had filled its spot.
Mr. Davids stood up and took his plate to the sink. With a twist of a knob, water cascaded from the faucet and he began to wash his dish. I watched him intently, waiting for his reply. I desperately needed a place to stay. It wasn’t the need for shelter that drove this desire more than the need for stability. Since my arrival to this time, my life was a spiral of chaos. I found myself seeking an anchor, something to hold me steady in this time of mayhem.
Mr. Davids turned towards me. He did not look at me, but I knew his attention was focused on me. He stood silent for a moment, and then spoke. “If you are willing to help around the barn, and you stay out of trouble, I will let you stay.”
I felt indebted to the man’s compassion. Not many would allow a perfect stranger to take residence in their home. I imagined it must be harder for Mr. Davids since he could not see his new charge. I found that I could not understand this man’s blind faith.
“Thank you,” I said, almost under my breath. I was surprised by my sudden shyness, almost as if my tone would cause him to change his mind.
He leaned forward. “I don’t know why those people are after you, but that is not my concern. But I will have you know that I will not harbor you from the law. Stay out of trouble while you are here, understand?” There was an iciness in his voice that chilled me, and insinuated how serious he was.
“Yes sir.” I lowered my head.
“Very good.” His usual demeanor returned. “Now that we are clear on that, lets get these dishes done so we can head to sleep.”
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Submission Name: Dark Legacy Ch. 3
