The story started as a young man walked through a village. A long cloak was wrapped around his fine but muscled figure, and his sword was inside its scabbard. He passed a hand through his black hairs with a sigh, adjusting his travelling bag on his shoulder. He journeyed a lot, and today he needed to restock his herbs, especially those for curing poison. His light blue eyes trailed around, and his gaze fell on a herbs merchant. Perfect.

“Hello sir. What do you need?” asked the merchant.

“Err...” He looked around. “Do you have some sage by chance?” he finally said.

“No, sorry. I'll receive a new batch in-”

He didn't finish. A cry had echoed in the village, coming from the entrance. Silence fell as fear crossed every faces. The sounds of hits followed. Wondering what was happening, the young swordsman rushed toward the source of the cry; and he barely avoided colliding with a winged creature. Just after having dropped to the ground, he glanced up and almost fainted: around ten beings like the one being scattered across the earth faced him. They easily had at least two meters of height. Their body were pitch black, and two horns protruded from their head. Their wings and their tail whipped the air in hostility. However, they held no interest in him. A young woman laid on her side, trying to defend herself from the demons-as they were indeed demons-with a bow. One of her arm was bleeding; and when she caught sight of the man, she couldn't help but scream for him.

“Help me, please!”

Snapping out of his frozen state and as swift as an eagle, he lunged onto the first two beings in front of him and slit their throat with his sword. The other ones turned toward him and one whipped his tail at him. The young man was thrown into a tree. He groaned in pain. A growl warned him one of the creatures was close to him. He jumped up, and having surprised the demon, he stabbed it in the stomach. The young woman used this opportunity to back away, and she armed her bow with three arrows. She aimed and released the three arrows. They hissed, and a second later three demons fell-dead with an arrow in the heart. Only four demons were left. Sadly for the young people, they flew up out of reach and started throwing black balls of energy. The situation was serious. None of the two young people could hit them. This was then that the young swordsman noticed a huge rock balanced on a wood beam from a ruined house. The swordsman gestured to the archer; and together they jumped on the other side of the beam. The rock flew up and struck the four demons-crashing them on a building. Finally, it was over.

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Now, the two young and exhausted fighters decided to sit down and rest. The young man could finally see her better. She had the same height, and visibly the same age-meaning 20-as him. Her long blue hairs, that went toward the middle of her back, fluttered with the slight breeze. Her emerald-green eyes watched him with gratitude. He surprised himself by thinking she was beautiful.

“Thank you so much!” She said.

“No problem.” He reassured her. “But it was surprising to see demons here.”

“Yes. They attacked me from behind, like perverts!” She joked.

A smile formed on the young man's face at this comment.

“What is your name? I'm Yuna,” asked the young man.

“I'm Solarys. Pleased to meet you!” replied the young woman.

“Same here.” retorted Yuna.

“You are hurt?” noticed Solarys.

Yuna himself just noticed the large gash on his leg. He didn't even see it during the battle.

“It's nothing. Well it doesn't hurt.” He blurted out without thinking.

“Doesn't hurt? Are you kidding!” She raised an eyebrow, accentuating the sarcasm in her voice.

“No-Ow!” He yelled while hopping around.

Solarys had just pressed her finger on his leg, close to the wound.

“See? It does hurt! Well, let's go to an inn and you can heal yourself.” She offered.

“Alright, but...” started Yuna.

“What?” asked Solarys.

“An inn? The closest is at two days from here...”

This comment triggered a series of fast paced replies started off by Solarys.

“And what is behind us?”

“A ruin with a big rock and four demons.” Yuna visibly tried not laugh.

“... Ah. Well, we should just sleep on the ground!”

“What?”

“What what?”

“We?”

“Yes, we!”

“We who?”

“You and I! You thought what? A demon and I?”

Silence, then laughter. The day had finished quite badly for the two young people, they were truly exhausted. Yuna used herbs he had in stock to reduce the pain before cleaning the gash and wrapping a bandage around the wound. After that, they started a fire and could finally sleep.

To be continued...