Dawn gave way to a warm summer morning. Four-winged hawks flew through the sky, squawking, in search of prey. And a young tailed demon girl stalked through the still-waking village to go to the same place as yesterday.
Farah had found herself interested in the two strangers that one day waltzed into their village, especially in the boy named Luqa. Ever since he had spoken privately with her mother Daria, she noticed a significant change in her mother’s behavior. Gone was the quiet, somber woman who stared aimlessly into the horizon during the evenings. She had become more energetic, as if her youth had returned to her.
Cutting through the wooden houses by the edge of the village and traversing through the large fir trees bounding the area, Farah found what she was looking for.
Under the clashing colors of the sky’s calm blue and the rising sun’s radiant, red-orange rays, by the edge of the still, reflective waters of the wide Lake Tegernsee, stood the white-haired boy. He held a thin, long wooden staff in his hands and engaged himself in a spectacle that Farah couldn’t help but look on with awe.
Surrounding him, countless arrows of stone materialized from thin air and hovered. And before Farah could even process it, the stone arrows launched themselves with great velocity right towards the white-haired boy. Part of her itched to scream “Watch out!”, but she couldn’t dare to, as if she would be interrupting a sacred ritual of the gods.
The white-haired boy remained still until the very last moment before the stone arrows would reach him, with his eyes shut firmly closed. As if reading the air around him, the boy smoothly weaved through the trajectories of stone projectiles, his movement not unlike a leaf floating on a stream. As he dodged every single stone arrow, he brought down his staff with simple, yet extraordinarily quick movements, pulverizing each passing projectile into dust.
When the boy opened his eyes, as if waking from a trance, his face showed dissatisfaction. He then shook his head and paced around while tapping the wooden staff. “Too slow…” he whispered to himself. As he walked around, contemplating, balls of water orbited around him, before turning into floating crystals of ice, and then turning back into balls of water.
“That’s it…” The boy mumbled, stopped his pacing, and nodded once. The water balls dispersed up into the sky. And then he turned his head towards the trees, making direct eye contact with Farah, who thought she had hidden properly. He waved at her while smiling.
“Ahh! I’m sowwy!” Farah ran away in panic, heading back into the village. While part of her admired the boy’s display of magic, it also caused her instinctual fear. It reminded her too much of her scary brother who had hurt the people of this village.
***
“Hmph, you’s a hard-working boy, ain’tcha? Didn’t expect a lil’ boy like ya to get some work like this done.” A scruff, hairy old tailed demon patted Luqa on the back while chuckling. They stood in a large, wooden shed that housed a wooden wagon under repair. The blistering high-noon sun made the two sweat profusely as they toiled.
“No problem at all, mister Babak! You certainly need the help you can get,” Luqa said as he sat on the ground, concentrating on slowly conjuring iron nails on the palm of his left hand.
“And that magic of your’s real convenient, y’know? Ya sure ya dun’t wanna come and stay with us? Wouldn’t mind taking a boy like ya as my apprentice and teaching ya my craft…”
“Thank you, I appreciate the offer. But I already have my own plans for the future,” the boy responded. “And I’m not sure if the rest of the village would be so happy to take me, haha,” he said with a self-deprecating laugh.
“Dun’t let it get to ya, Luqa. You’re doing real lots for us. All’s of them ‘s just scared of ya cuz of that magic of yours. Reminds them much of that damned Malachi boy,” the old man said. “That magic you use ‘s different though, right?”
“Mhm, it’s human magic, so don’t worry about any miasma,” the boy said. “And I don’t hold it against them… this strange boy from nowhere just turned up and told them to up and leave. I’m really glad I got miss Daria believing and helping me! Though even with her help, it’ll be tough to convince everyone that I’ll be able to guard them during the journey — Ah, here, that should be enough nails for this wheel!”
Right outside the shed, a group of tailed demon children peeked into the entrance, watching with curiosity. Among them was Farah, who decided to continue observing the white-haired boy from afar. She had told herself that she would use this moment to go up and talk to him, but she couldn’t push herself to.
The children buzzed and gossiped amongst themselves as they watched Luqa.
“Ah, his hair’s really white! Whazzup with that?” a boy next to her whispered.
“We really have to leave here cuz of 'im… did he do something to your mother, Farah?” another boy whispered.
“I dun’t know. All he did was talk to Mama… And she says it’s dangerous to stay 'ere now…” the girl said.
“Well, my Mama says not to trust him. He’s a half-demon so we just can't!”
“But, he’s been helping us a lot recently. And he does chores with Mama too…” Farah responded quietly.
“And I heard he can also use magic, just like that meanie from a few years ago. He might wanna hurt us!”
“Hey, brats! Whaddya want?!” Suddenly, old Babak screamed at the watching children, whose whisperings had grown louder and louder.
“Run!” The children scrambled, scattering like panicked ants. As Farah ran, she looked back. The white-haired boy waved at the running children. On his face was a forced, melancholic smile. It caused her to stop for a second and absentmindedly nod at him before returning to running away.
***
The early evening bathed the central square in a warm tinge of red as every single tailed demon still living in the village gathered around Daria. Beside her were the two strangers to the village. Farah pushed and squeezed her way to the front, eager to get a good view of whatever was about to happen.
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“And so everyone, I appreciate all of you coming here,” Daria said in a loud and clear voice. “I’ve talked with each and ‘very single one about it, but I wanted to gather everyone to discuss and decide on our plans.” The woman gestured at the two standing beside her. “Thanks to Luqa and Shara ‘ere, we’ve learned what happened to our pas, husbands, and sons. The humans invaded and took ‘em captive, all while destroying the horned demons’ village, too.”
The women, children, and elderly of the surrounding crowd listened quietly and solemnly as Daria continued on.
“And now we live in danger. The humans can return at any time, and the gods know we won’t be able to defend ourselves ‘gainst ‘em. We gotta leave this place. I think we should all head for the Citadel. And there we can find ourselves better lives while protecting our children,” Daria finished.
“I don’t got a problem with ‘hat, Daria,” an elderly woman in front said. “And while it hurts many of us to leave, if those words are really true, then we got no choice but to. But can we really trust these two? What if they’re making this all up?”
“Yes, Ava, course we can trust them. No, we should,” Daria said passionately. “Luqa here was born and raised in the horned demons’ village. He was a victim both to our people and to those humans, and he went outta his way to come here, tell us all this, and also offer to help. What’s he got to gain from lying to us like this?”
“But he’s no horned demon, ain’t he? How can we believe that?!” another woman from the crowd yelled.
“And he’s half-demon, too. Only the gods know what’s swirling in that head of his!” and yet another from the crowd screamed.
“You just feel that way Daria cuz he reminds ya of your damned son!” an old man cried. The last statement made Daria flinch, her expression turning stormy. More and more demons joined in, throwing their disagreements at the half-demon boy as if pelting him with stones, who simply watched with hardened eyes. The expression on the boy’s face made Farah’s heart feel heavy.
“Everyone!” Daria shouted. “Let’s be reasonable ‘ere. Are those good reasons to refuse what he’s saying? I know deep down y’all don’t think that. And besides that, I don’t think we got a future here in the village. The men who left ain’t coming back. And hasn’t this past year been real hard? We can’t keep living like this. We just can’t.” Daria’s eyes shone and her jaw clenched. “I know y’all feel the same.”
The crowd went silent. Each person looked at their neighbors as if to see if the others around them agreed with what each of them had internally decided.
“Please, everyone,” the white-haired boy spoke, “if you can’t trust my words, please trust in miss Daria.” And Farah noted that the boy had that same exact smile again. That forced smile made her want to talk to him yet also pushed her away.
The old woman, Ava, was the first of the crowd to speak up, talking as if she represented the majority’s opinion.
“Alright. I do think you got a point, Daria. But can we really make it to the Citadel? It’ll take a week at least to journey across. And how are we gonna fend for ourselves in the Deathlands?”
“Thank you, Ava,” Daria said, finally with a smile. “Thankfully, we have a lot of grains still remaining in store. We’ll take all that with us for the journey. And for protecting ourselves, Luqa and Shara will be willing to protect us. And don’t underestimate them. You two mind showing what you can do?”
Shara nodded first, glanced at Luqa, who nodded back, and she picked up her spear. She stepped forwards. The crowd instinctively backed away to make space.
“Shara here is a renowned adventurer and a famed warrior. She doesn’t speak our language, but she can understand it somehow,” Daria commentated.
Dramatically, the girl threw her robe up into the air. With a speed surpassing that of sound, she made a flurry of thrusts in the air before twisting and turning around to do the same in the other direction. Her quick footwork raised dust in the air.
She then spun the spear, moving from one hand to the other and back. Using the spear as a pole to vault herself up, she jumped high up, catching up to the robe still rising above. In mid-air, she grabbed the robe with one hand while her spear remained in the other and clad it over her. She landed gracefully, holding the weapon as if it were a part of her body.
“I… am Shara the Strong!” the girl howled, in the demon tongue she could supposedly not speak.
The crowd erupted to clapping and cheering, whistling and applauding, all while the teenage girl posed in victory, smiling brightly. The white-haired boy behind her looked on baffled and covered his face with his hand.
“
“
Finishing her display of strength, she moved back to give way for Luqa to show his abilities.
“And Luqa here is a half-demon capable of potent magic. And no worries, the magic he uses is human magic. With the two of them, we’ll be in safe hands,” Daria said.
The white-haired boy stepped up and looked up to the sky with a reluctant expression. He began to raise his hand before hesitating. Making eye contact with the crowd, he found little encouragement from them. But he then turned his eyes on Farah, whose eyes showed only admiration. Farah nodded at him. That was enough to steel his determination.
His right hand fully raised up, the clouds in the sky converged directly above them. The clouds began swirling down, condensing back into water, before gathering around the white-haired boy and forming a gigantic water ball in front of him. After it finished forming, the water surged back up, separated into various swirling streams which rose up and dispersed back up into the sky, eventually falling down as rain. The wide sky above them was now clear of clouds.
The crowd watched on amazed, but they dared not to cheer. And underneath their awe-filled faces was something else. Fear. In front of them stood a beast as monstrous — no — even more monstrous than the tailed demon who called himself Malachi.
Finished, the white-haired boy hastily turned around, and Daria interjected to continue discussing the village’s plan to migrate to the Citadel.
Though Farah had seen it for a split-second. While the others were focused on the spectacle with the gathering clouds, Farah focused on the boy himself. And seeing the crowd’s mixed reaction, he did it once more.
It was that same forced smile.
Farah wanted to run up and express her admiration for the boy, to make that smile real. But his face had hardened once more.
***
The light of the full moon enveloped the quiet village delicately. The villagers slept soundly, awaiting the next day, which would be full of work to be done before their upcoming departure.
And still roaming the streets was Farah. She knew that he would be back at that place once more. Tracing the path she took during the morning, she found herself as before by the clearing beside the lake. Under the moonlight was the boy, though, unlike the morning, watching from the side was that girl who came to the village with him. He moved vigorously, punching and kicking the air while maneuvering around, as if in hand-to-hand combat with an invisible opponent.
Surrounding him all the while were spiraling flames, which danced on with him, churning and wrapping around him like the stars of the heavens. The flames lit up the lakeside with a warm radiance.
And Farah couldn’t help but admire the boy once more. The earnest expression he wore as he lost himself in his movements was markedly different from the expressions from earlier.
Just as in the morning, he quickly made eye contact with Farah. Stopping, he waved and smiled once again. Instinct told Farah to flee, like she always did, but she fought against it.
She waved back and approached him, though nervously.
“H-hello, Sir Luqa, I-I’m sorry for watching. My name is Farah.”
“No, don’t worry about it, Farah. And you can just call me Luqa, I’m just a kid like you, y’know?”
“A-ah, okay, I’m sorry then, sir L— no, Luqa!”
The boy smiled endearingly. “Are you interested in the magic I’m doing?”
“Y-yes!”
“That’s great. I’m really glad someone else is interested,” he said. “Do you want a closer look at it?”
Farah nodded. The white-haired boy made a motion with his right hand and wisps of flame formed around her, dancing.
“Be careful not to touch it, okay?”
Farah looked on fascinated. It was unlike the ugly, destructive magic her brother had used to threaten everyone in the village those years ago.
Beautiful.
That was the word that came to mind to describe the flames.
And she glanced back at the boy’s face.
It was the same smile from the morning. A kind, easy smile that seemed natural. One that Farah thought fit him better. And the same word came to mind to describe that smile.
“Beautiful…”