It was when Nieto came home from the academy that he found a little girl, eight or nine years old, in front of his house. wondering about what was she doing in such a place, after all, his house was in the middle of a mini, harmless forest, in the outskirts of Tirqa. “Uhm... mister” spoke the little girl, “I lost my mother, we were here to pick flowers for mommy’s work but I can’t find her”, “and you suddenly found a house while wandering around the forest and decided to ask for help but it was locked so you waited for someone to come?” replied Nieto, suspicious, “yes” she said. This whole situation was very suspicious, but he wasn’t leaving a little girl in the forest alone. “okay I’ll take you to the city hall, they’ll know what to do”, “yes let’s go”, she said and ran to hold his hand, he didn’t resist and let her take it.
After some time of walking, his suspicions became certainty, at first he thought that she was sent to lead him to some trap, he read about kidnappers using kids to kidnap other kids in his inspection of the academy library for interesting books to read. she was very weird, not like that’s a reason to suspect anything, but the more he observed her the more he realized she was a victim of violence of some sorts, whenever he asked her about her name or anything about her family, she would flinch and sometimes stare at him with her deep black eyes and her nick tiled to the side, which was scary, so he stopped asking after some time, he wondered why did they teach her to hold the hand of the victim they were about to kidnap. After some time, he was not sure the thing next to him was even human, no he was sure she is not, sometimes when she thought he wasn’t looking, horns would flash on the side of her head, and a sudden smell of blood would come out of her, it was miniscule that a normal person wouldn’t notice, but Nieto was exceptionally perceptive. he knew the blood was human.
He knew from his interactions with her that she knew the human nature and tried to mimic it, but she had no human logic at all, she had no name, thought it was a normal thing to not say anything about your family after asking for help finding your mother, so Nieto thought of a plan to get rid of this thing, he wasn’t ruthless to kill a little girl but she had the smell of human blood in her mouth, he was certain and wasn’t risking that, so he decided to lead her to a cliff.
She thought it was totally normal that they diverged from the tracks into the forest. upon reaching the cliff, he asked, “are you a demon?”, when she heard his answer, she tilted her head and stared at him with her deep empty eyes as she did many times before, and started screeching, as soon as he heard that, Nieto picked up a small tree trunk that was lying on the ground next to him and ran at her, pushing her with the pole, she started falling but held onto the pole, which Nieto knew she would do, so he just let it go, He watched her fall down. her figure distorted, becoming a creature twice as big as Nieto.
To his surprise, the demon unfolded two wings, wings so small that shouldn’t be able to support a bat, erected on its back and started moving, they looked more like a bee’s than a bird’s, its descend was getting slower, until it came to a stop. Baffled at the view, Nieto took a couple of seconds to calm down and started running, he ran into the forest that he knew very well, it was his home after all.
Hiding behind a tree, Nieto was assessing the situation he’s in, he was currently being followed by a demon, not that he knew what a demon looked like, but what could explain the thing he saw? The creature had a tall and a very slim body, his rib bones visible through his black skin like they were casted iron, it had two horns on its temples, crawled up in a spiral, it had no pupils, there was only a white sclera, if that is not a demon then what is?
Nieto had thought of a plan after the demon stopped flying, it probably couldn’t maintain it for a long time. after getting tired of dodging trees flung at him by the demon, he decided to go through with his plan. Nieto kept luring the demon to where he wanted to execute his plan, running from a tree to a tree and dodging the demon’s attacks thanks to his knowledge of the terrain, though, there were times when he was nearly hit by its claws, and the tree that hit his leg still hurts.
“Hey you! I’m here come and get me” shouted Nieto, he watched the black creature rush at him at an astonishing speed but he didn’t move, which reminded him of the battle stories he would often read, where the soldiers were ordered to hold the line in front of the approaching army. it was so terrifying that he struggled to stay in place, every second he would think of just fleeing but would brush that thought aside and hold his place, the demon was running on foot, and when he reached the arch made by two fallen giant trees supporting each other, its step sunk deeper than usual, and fell down a hole.
Stolen story; please report.
Nieto knew where these holes, he’d been scolded for playing near them so many times when he was a kid, these holes were originally dug to hunt the Roverie bears, the forest used to be a dangerous place before they were exterminated by these holes that the local community of hunters built, so Nieto used them to hunt the demon, it was a long fall with spikes of stone at the bottom, the spikes were necessary, the Roverie bears were a tough bunch, and required a lot of effort to kill, but the demon could fly, so when the demon fell, he immediately rushed to the giant trees, climbed on top of the left one and jumped on its edge, then quickly jumped to the side, it was a long fall that was dangerous, especially with his hurt leg. the tree fell through the hole closing in on the demon, Nieto sat down after jumping from the tree, he heard the sound of impact and a screech, the demon, as expected, started flying after he fell down, but there was enough distance for the tree to accelerate and smash him, apparently, the demon didn’t have enough strength to fly with a giant tree, that is, given it could fly after the crash.
There was no easy way to go down the holes, or at least to Nieto’s knowledge, the hunters used to light them on fire to get rid of the remains of the bears, so Nieto can’t actually check what happened to the demon. Lying on his back, Nieto thought about the thing that just happened, he found a girl, she turned out to be a demon and then he killed the demon, sounds like a totally believable story. it’s not like demons don’t exist, but they’re not seen every day, though, it is said that, before the jeopardy wars, mages would summon demons occasionally and have them do things for them, but as one of the outcomes of the jeopardy wars, the underworld gate was shut, not to be opened ever again, even after two hundred years, no one can remove the seal made by the mages of Yejus.
Sighing loudly, Nieto stood up and started searching for his bag, he threw it away near the cliff, after finding out the demon could fly. he found it lying near some bushes on the cliff, he picked it up and started heading out of the forest, there was no way he’s sleeping in that house, he decided to head to his good friend Liam’s house.
Nieto lived alone, he had no brothers, and one sister, who is older than him, she’s a linguistic expert and always on the move. his parents died when he was a kid and his sister took care of him, although to this day, she still refuses to tell him about it.
Liam was Nieto’s only friend, they’ve been friends for as long as he could remember, they attend the same school and in the same class. “Nieto”, said Liam standing on the door, “what are you doing here this late? Come in”. Liam was a charming guy, he had a blonde and wavy hair, and the face of a noble, Nieto hated that face of his, ever since his crush in second year asked him to help her get with Liam.
“So you’re telling me, you found a little girl in front of your house, she was suspicious so you took her to a cliff and confronted her, she turned out to be a demon and then you killed her with the bear traps?”, said Liam massaging his sinuses, “that’s totally what happened”, replied Nieto, “Nieto have you been drinking?”, “I know it sounds unbelievable, it is unbelievable, I’ll show you the corpse tomorrow, we’ll get some ropes and climb down, but for now I need to sleep somewhere”, “ugh fine, I’ll get a bed ready, but for now let’s go have dinner, mother’s calling”, “Yeah I’m starving, having to fight that demon and all, thank you”.
“How have you been Mr. Verrens?” asked a woman while putting plates on the table, she was Liam’s mother, “Great, especially since I’m about to eat Mrs. Thalisen’s food”, “oh you flatter me”. Liam’s mother was way too good looking for an almost forty years old woman, hell she could go toe to toe with nobles, guess that’s where Liam got his looks from.
***
The next day came, and so Nieto and Liam went to check on the bear traps. “Are you sure this thing’s safe?” said Liam climbing down the bear traps with a rope tied to a tree above, “It is”, replied Nieto, climbing down next to Liam. Soon, they could see the giant tree, Nieto hit it with hit feet a couple of times to confirm that it is safe and stable, then stood on top of it, so did Liam. They climbed down with the help of the many branches, at last, they stood between the stone spikes, they were distanced from each other that a person could walk between them, they were especially made for the bears, who were several times a normal person’s size.
“Holy shit”, said Liam while looking at the remains of the demon in front of him, crushed under a tree, the demon started decomposing unnaturally fast, at least compared to humans and other animals. “You see?” said Nieto, “this thing had the strength to plow trees and throw them at me, I’m not sure how I’ve managed to kill it”. After inspecting it a little further, Liam said “Let’s get out, the smell is awful, also we should burn it or something, who knows, maybe it could come back to life if given time”.
On their way home, they were confronted by two men, one was and old man, but had better posture than most young ones, he had a long white hair tied on the back of his head, and a small beard, he wore plain clothes, except for maybe the overly long shirt reaching his knees. The other one was a big middle-aged man, had black hair and no beard and had muscles showing everywhere in his sleeveless robes. “Nieto Verrens” said the old man, “I believe you should come with us; we have somethings to discuss”.