To the left of The Demon Queen’s castle, the West Woods firmly stood in place. Their trunks were sturdy and tall, a vivid green sprouted from their leaves, and their branches sang a silent melody as the breeze passed by. Amidst the brown of the barks, the lizard-man led the way through the forest, and Flint accompanied him by his right side.

The objective of their morning stroll was to find a lost “kitty”. But Flint wasn’t walking, he was stomping the path he passed by, crushing the dried leaves from the soil. The unfair hospitality that damned maid had given him made the veins from his neck throb.

Both of them were quiet, the green guy didn’t want to annoy the boy. All that silence, however, didn’t feel right to the lizard-man, they had been walking together for twenty minutes already. He couldn’t keep his mouth shut for any longer.

“Talk about scary! Miss Hyuna might be lean, but that girl is death herself! Don’t you think Pochi?”

“Flint.” the boy muttered.

“Hm?” The lizard-man turned his head to the boy. “Said something?”

“Tsk, it’s Flint! Not Pochi!”

The green guy guffawed. “They’re giving you strange names already? Flint it is! I’ll remember from now on.” He carried a cheerful energy in the tone of his voice.

“I don’t care, really… Tsk, doesn’t matter!”

The lizard-man was just trying to have a nice chatter, but Flint kept an uptight and rude attitude, not even giving a glance to look at him in the eyes.

“Don’t say that! Names are important… Mine is Barama!” He flexed his right arm. “Don’t you forget! Flint and Barama! Barama and Flint!”

The boy was still in a foul mood, and the energetic vibe only made things worse. After a few minutes of strolling, the fresh air cooled his head a bit. Not being in such a bitter state anymore, Flint sighed and asked. “Who are we looking for exactly?”

“We’re searching for Sheera. He claims that he’s half a lion, more like half a cat.” Barama paused to laugh. “Yesterday, we started a bit of ruckus… Then poof!”

The boy made a silent chuckle. “I was there. What happened then?”

The lizard-man crossed his arms “That Vela Witch. No… That Vela Bitch!” He laughed at his own joke again. “She used her finger snappy thingy to teleport me and the kitty out. I was thrown into a lake, as for the other… I don’t know.”

Flint looked at a fallen tree. “Maybe he’s dead…”

“Sheera? That rascal? Ha! I wish!”

A grumbling noise coming from the boy’s stomach interrupted them. He didn't have any breakfast that morning. Thanks to Hyuna's hospitality and Flint’s stupidity, his empty belly now protested for a meal.

“You hungry boy?” Barama asked.

Flint started to hold his abdomen to lessen the pain. “Yes… I might be.”

“Got the solution for this problem.”

The lizard took a sharp turn to the left, beckoning the boy to follow. The duo had to go through the middle of green and thorny bushes. The lizard-man didn't seem to be bothered by it. He had hardened scales after all. But Flint almost ripped open a hole in the cotton shirt. After crossing the forest, a massive tree was revealed in front of them. Its trunk had the same width of a brown bear, allowing the branches to reach far and wide. Said branches were loaded with oval-shaped fruits, roughly the same size of a human fist. Their colors ranged from red, purple and blue.

Barama said, “Here is a mangolim tree.”

“Mangolim?” Flint propelled his head forward “That’s a fruit?”

The lizard nodded and raised his arm pointing towards the tree. “Can you see the blue ones? Those are ripe and good.” He got closer to the tree and snapped a blue fruit from a bending branch. “Take a bite!” Swinging his arm, he tossed it to the boy.

Flint hesitated to eat. He had never seen such a fruit, but the hunger begged his teeth to sink into the juicy texture. It was similar to a small mango, the only difference was the blue color. Well… Why not? After rubbing the surface with his cotton sleeve, he chomped it down.

“It’s sweet!” His eyes even brightened up.

A sugar bomb exploded inside his mouth, covering all the taste buds from his tongue. He didn’t expect to eat something so sweet in a medieval world. But thinking back, The Demon Queen did eat puddings. Maybe this world wasn’t so outdated after all.

“Right? They’re the sweetest things out here,” Barama said.

After finishing the little blue mangolim, Flint wiped his mouth. That tiny fruit couldn't satisfy his hunger. He asked for more.

“Can do.” Barama started to collect the blue fruits, tossing all of them at the boy.

“Hey! Not so many!”

Having so many mangolins flying at once, he let most of them fall to the ground. A purple one, however, hit his face.

“Sorry!” the lizard exclaimed. “Don’t eat the purple! Neither the reds!”

The boy rubbed his nose. “Alright, but what’s wrong with the other colors?”

“They give you a bad tummy pain. Happened to me once.”

After the enlightenment, Flint eagerly chomped down all the blue mangolins. He ate one, three and then five. When he reached the seventh, he noticed Barama didn’t take a single bite out of the fruits he had collected. Instead, the green man sunbathed while resting over a fallen tree.

“Won’t you eat as well?”

“I’m half a lizard, you forgot? I can eat fruits sometimes, but I’d rather have a big chunk of meat… and a mug of beer.”

It was normal for a lizard to prefer meat, but beer? Flint shrugged off the thought and brought his attention back to his hunger. After finishing off his ninth mangolim like a glutton, his stomach stopped grumbling for more.

“Done already?” Barama said sarcastically.

“Yes, sorry about that.” Flint scratched his head a bit embarrassed.

“Just messing with you, I don’t mind. I know how being hungry is bad.”

They resumed their search for the lost Sheera and walked back into the woods.

*****

“Sheera! Where are you?” Flint cried.

“You damn rascal! Where are you?” Barama cried.

Three hours have passed since they started their aimless search and rescue. The boy's throat was sore and his feet hurt. “Maybe he already found his way back home?” he asked.

“Hm… I don’t know.”

The lizard wasn’t convinced. He stopped walking and puffed up his chest. After opening his mouth, he shouted at the top of his lungs. “SHEERA!”

“It’s Sharee you damn gecko…”

A rough and faint voice echoed through the woods from the north. Flint and Barama got back on their feet and rushed to the rescue. After finding the source of the voice, both of them tilted their heads upwards. The lion-man was over a large branch belonging to a tall tree. Being that high up, there was no way to reach him.

Barama crossed his arms as fidgeted his tail. “Sheera! You don’t know how worried I got! Come down!”

The lion-man looked at him. “How many times I have to say it? My name is Sharee!”

“Sounds the same to me, just get down here already!”

“I can’t! The ground is too far.”

“What? Just use your damn cat claws! Climb your way down!”

“I have tried Barama-ya… I just can’t!”

This stirred the lizard’s nerve. Sharee had been up there for an entire night and didn’t muster any courage to leave the branch. Stomping the ground, Barama politely yelled. “Stop being a coward you damn kitty!”

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And of course, there would be an equally polite reply. “Don’t you call me that you disgusting gecko!”

“I will call your skin whatever I want you pussy!”

“Big talk for a man with fish for brains!”

“Come down here and face me you useless fur-ball!”

Both of them kept verbally assaulting each other while making nasty hand gestures. Meanwhile, Flint started to explore the forest on his own, looking for a specific item.

“Found it!” he exclaimed.

- Sturdy - Vine Rope obtained!

It seemed long enough to be able to reach the branch, and the thickness guaranteed it wouldn’t break easily.

“You’re just a snake with legs addicted to beer!”

“At least I’m not a weak ass milk drinker!”

The boy returned entangling the vine within his arms. “Ey! I found something that we can use as a rope!”

The other two stopped throwing insults. The lion knitted his brows, most intrigued by the rope.

“What do you plan to do with it?” he asked.

“We will throw it at you, then, you can tie it to the branch and climb down,” Flint said.

“You sure it’s a good idea?”

“Of course!”

Even though the man was half a lion, he was still half a human. He had fingers that could firmly grip the vine and descend to safety. The boy tied a knot at the end of the rope to give it more weight, and then, he tried to hand it to Barama.

“You want me to throw it?”

“Yes, you’re… stronger than me.”

Indeed, the lizard wore quite a self-revealing leather armor that only protected his chest, shoulders, and groin. His well-defined green biceps were always exposed. On the other hand, Flint was just a normal human, a lean young man at best.

Barama guffawed. “Have more confidence boy! Try throwing it first!” He crossed his arms. “You’ll never know if you never try! “

Flint wore a smile. He tried to hide it but failed. Backing away from the lizard, the boy bent his knees and tensed his muscles. Swinging his arm upwards, the vine was launched with all his strength. To his surprise, it reached Sharee.

However, it accidentally whipped the lion with great oomph under his chin.

“Ugh!”

The distressed man lost his balance, allowing his body to slip sideways from the branch covered by lime.

“Aaaaaaah!” The sound of freefall agony.

In a loud note, he fell onto the ground filled with dead leaves. Flint and Barama looked at his limp body flattened on the terrain. Drops of cold sweat emerged from the boy’s forehead. The lizard-man, however, didn’t have the same biological mechanism, so he just let his jaw drop.

 “Boy…” Barama muttered, and then slowly turned his head to Flint. “What did you do?”

That wasn’t an easy question to answer. He just murdered someone while wearing a big ass smile.

“Boy, I think he might be dead…”

“I didn’t expect it to hit him that hard!” Flint stuttered as his voice got thinner. “What do we do now?”

Barama rushed to the body on the ground and put his claws next to the muzzle.

“He breathes! Put him on my back! Miss Mamyl can heal him!”

Fortunately, Sharee still lived. After putting his unconscious body on the lizard’s back, they sprinted towards the castle.

What if that man died before he could be saved? Would Flint be punished for his crime? The boy started to consider his options in the case he actually became a murderer. He wouldn’t stick around just to be executed or tortured for killing a video-game character. But honestly, he knew he didn’t have many options. He played the whole game using teleportation magic. Even if he ran away, he wouldn’t know a place with humans where he could flee. At that point, he could only hope that the lion-man survived.

*****

Flint slammed the castle’s gate open, followed by Barama who carried the unconscious man in his back.

“Miss Mamyl? Where’s she?” He shouted.

In the Main Entrance, Namzara was sweeping pieces of glass from some broken window. The butler winced as the loud slamming sound hurt his ears. After seeing the body being carried in the lizard’s back, he immediately got a grasp on the circumstance.

“Follow me.” He said. “She’s in the Piano Room.”

The three of them battled the hallway, putting their legs to good use. Namzara pointed at a door to their right. “There it is! Behind this door”

Barama didn’t hesitate to force the door open, almost bringing it down. By the table on the left, Melidia coughed out the tea she was drinking. Scowling at them, The Queen yelled, “What are you morons doing?”

The morons didn’t take a single break since they started running. Their chest felt heavy, a burning pain consumed their legs.

Out of breath, the lizard tried to speak. “Miss Mamyl here? Where… Where she? We need…”

That woman was in the room, but not in a very presentable way. Flint raised his brows and Barama dropped his jaw. Namzara, however, didn't express shock. He knew what had happened already.

The lizard asked, “Miss Melidia… Uhm… Did we interrupt something?”.

Mamyl was sitting on a chair at the opposite side from Melidia. A rope tied her hands to the seat, and a piece of cloth covered her mouth. Just like a hostage.

“Hmhmhm! Hmhm.” She started to struggle vertically, letting her well-endowed breasts jiggle all over the place.

“What… What happened to Miss Mamyl?” Barama asked again.

The Demon Queen corrected her posture, letting her spine hit the backrest of the chair. She blinked twice, and spun her head over to Mamyl, and then turned back to the crowd at the door. She sighed and rolled her eyes, explaining the situation would be a pain.

“It’s simple… She wouldn’t stop rambling about something.” Her eyes targeted Flint. “So I had to shut her up.”

Barama stepped inside the room and carefully put the lion’s body on the brown couch by the fireplace. He looked at the women and bowed. “Miss Melidia, please, let Miss Mamyl save Sheera!”

“Gah!”

A sudden gasp called for their attention. To their surprise, the unconscious man coughed a faint cry. He came back to life, and with a rough and low voice, he said: “It’s Sharee… Damn gecko.”

Nonetheless, Barama’s yellow eyes seemed to shine ever so brightly. “You still awake! Don’t die on me now! Miss Mamyl! Please!”

Flint hurried to the blonde’s side and untied her, accidentally chipping one of his nails in the process. She, after finally being able to speak, let out a relieved breath. “Thank you, sweetie.”

Melidia kept quiet and poured for herself another cup of tea. The blue woman couldn’t care less about what was happening in the room.

Approaching the brown couch, Mamyl kneeled while fixing her wrinkled white dress. After she sat over her legs, the healing magic started. “Kuanu… Hiatu”

That was a great relief for Barama, he trusted Mamyl's healing skills and knew Sharee would live for another way. But Flint was still a bit uncertain. Lots of What If were going crazy inside his head. What if he dies? What will happen to me then?

With the immediate emergency dealt with, Namzara excused himself and left. He still had a certain floor under a certain broken window to sweep. “That smashed window isn’t going to clean itself, see you.”

*****

Barama and Flint were standing on their feet while watching the healing procedure. The former tilted his head closer to the boy.

“Mamyl is the best witch healer,” he muttered.

“It’s nice to have her healing magic, huh.” Flint stared at her rear.

“She’s the kindest woman in this castle.”

Flint looked over his shoulder and caught Melidia by the corner of his eye. She was sitting by the table, reading a book while sipping on a cup of tea. He chuckled. “I agree with you. The others are kind of mean.”

Barama pointed at Mamyl. “You see that energy floating around her? That’s the magic energy”

The boy squinted and tried to focus, but he saw nothing. “Huh? What’re you talking about?”

“Over there, the green cloud in front of Miss Mamyl”

The boy rubbed his eyes and tried to look again. “I swear I see nothing…”

“You need some fixing in the eyes then.”

It was either Flint’s eyes or Barama’s mental state that got a serious problem.

Mamyl let out a relieved breath and relaxed her shoulders. The healing procedure ended. “He’ll be fine, just needs to rest for a while now.” Exhausted, the blonde turned to Flint and asked. “What happened to him anyway? Sweetie, can you answer?”

She didn’t mean to afflict the boy, but her innocent stare felt like a cold stream falling down on his head. Flint didn’t know how to explain he almost killed Sharee.

But before he could say anything, Barama covered him. “This kitty has claws for nothing I tell you! The rascal fell on his own from the tallest tree, can you believe it?” He finished with a laugh.

Flint couldn’t be more thankful towards that lizard.

“Since the kitty’s safe now… I’ll go hunt some game!” Barama tapped the boy’s shoulder. “You coming?”

The young man couldn’t help but reply to that invitation wearing an honest smile. “Of course I am!”

Mamyl stepped up. “Sweetie, what about your room?”

“What?”

“You deserve a normal bedroom, no?” She crossed her arms, elevating her breasts. “I was talking about it with Meli and–”

“Talking?” Melidia sneered. “You were crying like a lousy monkey!”

The blonde clenched her fists. She approached Melidia and slammed the table. A bit of tea fell over the edge of the cup. “You just have to let him have a roof over his head and I will stop!”

The Queen rolled her eyes. “Fine, whatever. Ugh, I allow it. Say it to Hyuna, I don’t care!”

Content with the reply, Mamyl put her hands together over her chest and turned to Flint. “Ah! Wonderful news! Isn’t it sweetie? You can go play with your friend now!” Positive energy overflowed from her words.

The boy gave her a slow nod, tightening his lips into a forced smile. Not even his mother treated him like that.

“Yes… Thank you…” He tapped Barama’s arm. “Let’s go then.”

Closing the door, they left the Piano Room. Flint had never tried hunting before. He couldn’t help but feel kind of excited.

*****

Inside the Piano Room, five minutes after Flint and Barama left…

Silence prevailed. Odd, there were three people inside, and none of them created any sort of sound. Sharee, the lion-man, rested his large body over the couch by the fireplace. Mamyl, the blonde demon, sat on a recliner while reading a book. And Melidia, The Demon Queen, was sitting over the piano without playing a single note. Instead, her amber eyes were fixed at a lovely lady who keeps calling a certain human boy Sweetie.

“What is it?” Mamyl asked. “Your beautiful eyes don’t seem to lose me…” 

The Demon Queen let her index finger repeatedly tap one of the piano keys. “Mamyl, don’t you be doing anything to that boy.” She scowled. “Understood?”

“Don’t worry.” The blonde chuckled. “I won’t kill him.”

“Oy, I know what you’re scheming. I will say it only once: Don’t.”

Mamyl focused her sights on Melidia. “And why is that?”

The Queen closed her eyes. “I didn’t capture him to be used by you.”

“You just got him by chance, and surely, you could share a bit… No?”

Melidia raised her arm and opened her hand, then let it drop over the keyboard. The impact made a loud scrambled note. She walked towards the table in the corner, letting a clear “No!” out of her throat.

The blonde woman turned her eyes back to the pages of the book and then used its cover to hide her mouth.

“Fine,” she said, “Have it your way.”

Her lips twisted into a malicious grin, but the book in her hands wasn’t a comedy.