Fen

  A small girl, no older than twelve sat cuffed in the supply cart. She had long, dirty white hair, with wolven ears sticking out of the top of her head. Her eyes were a dark shade of green, and a dirty white wolf tail swished back and forth behind her.

  Fen had her head down, looking at the wooden floor of the wagon. Her hands shackled in iron cuffs and stuck in a cart. She had been caught trying to steal military rations. She couldn't help it. The orphan children were starving, so she had stolen some food for them.

  Now, she wished with all her being to not be killed. She didn't want to die, not yet.

  Fen could still remember when the guard had kicked the door down to the nursery. The small children had run in fear and panic, hiding. She had no choice, she couldn't let the guard search the building, or else they would have found the children. She surrendered and was brought to the border keep, from the nearby town.

  She was to be executed there, but when the wagon stopped, they didn't unload her. So it was now her, and a few supplies for the trip back. Fen didn't understand, she was supposed to have been killed.

  Her ears perked up when she heard voices outside the carriage. Fen looked up, moving the wolf ears on top of her head towards the voices.

  “Anything left in the cart?” Asked a gruff voice, destroyed by years of drinking hard liquor.

  “No, I got everything out,” said a less gruff voice.

  But Fen was still in here. At least they didn't seem like they were going to kill her.

  “Did you hear about the Demon, Kurt?” Asked a young, but still gruff voice.

  “Demon?” Asked the young voice.

  “Ya, the keep guards are saying that a black sword wielding Demon blasted that hole in the gate,” said the gruff voice.

  “Surely you must be kidding! Harold, there is no such things as demons!” Kurt said, sounding skeptical.

  “I'm not. I swear, I saw the thing with my own eyes. It was hooded, but had a sword on its back and it’s eyes were glowing.” Harold said more quieter.

  Fen felt a little fear seep into her heart. Demons? She didn't know what to think about it. But she had briefly seen the state of the keep’s gate when the guards had come into the cart for the supplies. It was hanging on its hinges, a massive hole in the middle. It looked as if something had punched the hole into the gate.

  “Hey! Get back to work you slackers! We need to get these supplies sorted and distributed!” Shouted a voice angrily. Fen heard the shuffling of boots as Harold and Kurt walked off.

  Fen looked back down at the cart’s floor. She curled her white tail around herself. Trying to figure out what the guards were talking about. They said it was a black sword wielding demon? It didn't make sense.

  Her ears shifted to the door, at the sound of the wood boards creaking under heavy boots. The door creaked open, revealing a figure. It was clothed in black, face hidden beneath a black hood and sword on its back. Two yellow, glowing eyes looked out from beneath the hood. They moved around, scanning the cart. They fell on Fen, who was now staring at the stranger in fear.

  ‘Demon!’ Fen thought, nearly shouting it, fear permeated her body. Something wasn't natural about the person in the doorway. She curled up, her white dog ears flattened against her head. Her tail curled around her ankles that were now pulled up to her chest, arms wrapped around them.

  The demon closed the door behind it and made its way to the bench opposite of Fen. It sat down, letting out a long sigh and putting its hands behind its head. The demon sat back, looking at Fen. The amber eyes seemed to pierce right through her, seeing everything and missing nothing. The sword demon just sat there, staring.

  It let out a short, bitter laugh, “Guess I didn't trap all the magic.”

  Now Fen was confused, her fear waning a bit. ‘Trap all the magic?’ What did the demon mean? Magic was only something of fairy tales. It wasn't real, only as real as unicorns and dragons were. But then again, demons were too.

  The shouting of guards could be heard outside the cart. Horses were mounted and the cart started up with a jolt. Fen and the sword demon sat in silence for a while. By now the demon had closed its glowing eyes and seemed to be asleep. Fen’s fear had subsided when she realized that it meant no harm to her.

  Fen gulped and finally spoke, “What do you mean by magic?”

  The Demon reopened its amber eyes, staring at her. “You don't know what you are, do you?”

  Fen shook her head. She knew that her and her species, beastmen, weren't  as ancient as the elves. Her parents had both been lycans, that meant they had characteristics of wolves. There were many types of beast people, they ranged from bears all the way to monkeys. But that was about the limit of her knowledge on her people.

  “Well, there's not much point in explaining. You wouldn't understand anyways,” The demon said, sitting up and gesturing toward her shackles, “What’d you do?”

  By now Fen was utterly confused, but she ignored it. Something about this man's presence commanded she answer, “I stole military supplies for starving orphans.”

  The demon nodded, looking off into space, “Then they caught you, right?”

  Fen nodded a few times, still slightly afraid of the sword wielding demon.

  “So, have you people invented poker yet?” Asked the demon causally, sitting back again.

  “Po-ker?” Now Fen was doubly confused, why would you play a game about poking?

  The demon waved the question off with a pale hand, “Nevermind. Just another thing to add to my bucket list.”

  They sat in silence for a long time, till Fen started to feel sleepy. She lay down, resting her head on her hands and drifted off.

  Only what felt like moments later she was awoken by the jolt of the cart stopping. A beastial roar could be heard from outside, it rattled the wagon. The sounds of screams and yelling filled the air outside the wagon. The noise soon turned into the sounds of dying men, screaming in terror.

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  By now Fen was panicking, they were being attacked. That much was clear, but by what? She sat up, franticly looking around. The demon still sat against the side of the wagon, but his eyes were closed and was heavily snoring.

  Fen opened her mouth to yell at him to wake up, but before she could yell the cart was hit. It flipped on its side, sending rations, Fen and the demon crashing. Fen let out a shriek as the hooded man landed on top of her. The the wind was knocked out of her, causing her to desperately gasp for air.

  When she looked down at the demon man, he was sprawled on his back with her tiny frame trapped beneath. Remarkably he was still asleep. Fen pulled lung fulls of air and once she was able to breath, she started to try to wiggle her hands free.

  Another roar resounded outside the upturned cart, followed by more screams. Fen shouted in the demon's ear, “Wake up!”

  That woke him up, he sat bolt upright. He looked around, somehow his hood had stayed on his head.

  “What happened?!” He shouted frantically.

  “Down here,” Fen coughed out.

  The sword demon looked down, amber eyes still glowing. He got up off of Fen, standing unevenly on the former wall of the cart. He held his hand out to Fen. She hesitated for a second, then grabbed it with both of her shackled hands.

  The demon pulled her up with ease, “What's going on?”

  “I don't know. The cart just stopped, and then it was hit by something,” Fen responded, she scrambled toward the now sideways cart door. The demon man followed shortly behind her, hand hovering over the sword on his back.

  The screams were much fewer now, more like the sounds of people dying. Fen grabbed the doorknob, turned it and pushed. The door fell open, revealing a site of carnage.

  Horses lay broken on the ground, cut open and intestines hanging out. Pieces of their riders littering the dirt road. Another roar, this one earsplitting and triumphant sounding.

  Fen’s eyes opened in horror, she nearly vomited at the site. Sure she had seen blood, but not on this scale. It stained the ground a crimson red, still bleeding body parts stern about. She froze, she couldn't move.

  The hooded man peered over Fen’s shoulder. He didn't even flinch, how could he not be disgusted by the site?

  “Move it!” He whispered to Fen. She so very much wanted to move, but she couldn't. Fear had infiltrated her mind, taking root and blooming. It looked to much like what happened to them.

  The demon man let out a low, frustrated growl, “Alright, you better not make a noise.”

  He then grabbed Fen’s sides, picking her up like a feather, slinging her over his shoulder. That broke the fear’s grip, she let out a terrified scream and started thrashing.

  “I said to be quiet!” He harshly whispered into her ears. She didn't even notice, still screaming and kicking. He had an iron grip on her now, there was no way to break out.

  The demon rushed out of the sideways cart, boots squishing in the bloody mud. Before he could get to the edge of the road, where the thick forest started, another roar resounded.

  Fen looked in horror at what turned the corner of the cart in the direction they were headed. She fell silent.

  It was a beast of a man, at least 15 feet tall. It had antlers protruding from its head that branched out, a bloody maw filled with sharp teeth. Malevolent, red, cat like eyes looking forward, staring at them. It stood upright, with big, crimson stained clawed hands. It had the lower half of a goat, or maybe a cow, with hooves. Its entire body was covered in a thick pelt of matted and dirty brown fur.

  The sword demon promptly skidded to a stop, only a couple meters from the beast. “What the hell is that!?” He shouted before running in the opposite direction, where there was more thick forest.

  The demon yelled incoherently before plunging into the forest, Fen crained her head behind her. The beast was now running after them, a long tail trailing behind it. It let out a bloodthirsty roar, gaining speed.

  Fen and the demon man where now bobbing and weaving between trees and bushes, Fen still slung over his shoulder. It seemed he was gaining speed, but so was the monster. It had no disregard for the trees, just breaking them down. Carving a path of destruction behind them as they ran.

  The hooded demon turned swiftly to the left, he shouted out a word. The air hummed and vibrated for a second. Then an illusion of Fen slung over the demon man’s shoulder appeared, running in their original direction. The illusion weaved between trees, looking no different from the real ones. The bloodied beast chased after the illusions, not realizing its prey had broken off from their original path.

  The real demon and Fen ran to the left. They kept running, only stopping to change directions every once and awhile. Eventually they stopped at a small creek.

  The sword demon was now gasping for air, he unceremoniously dropped Fen to the ground. He then too, fell to the ground. The demon man lay back staring at the tree branches above, breathing heavily.

  Fen pushed herself to a sitting position, looking around. They had stopped at a small, clear water creek.

  She couldn't make sense of what just happened. She saw herself being carried away by the hooded man, while the real them ran in a different direction. At least they had escaped the beast. But what of the elven soldiers? It had looked like a lot of them were killed.

  Fen choked up at the memory, tears streaming down her face. Her stomach churned, she turned and threw up in a bush behind her.

  She wiped her mouth with her arm, turning to look at the now cursing demon, “Dammit! Dammit! Dammit! That was all of my magical essence.”

  He sat up, his cursing subsiding. His hood was down now, revealing a youthful face with amber colored eyes. It was the face of someone around 16 years old. He had short, tousled, pitch black hair. His face was thin, looking like he hadn't eaten in a long time. He practically looked like a skeleton.

  “What did you just do?” Fen blurted out, not even thinking.

  “What did I just do?! I would darn say, I just saved your sorry tail and used up nearly all of my power! That's what I just did!” He shouted at her, panic evident in his eyes. Fen could tell he was in distress. She didn't know exactly what had happened. But if she would guess, the boy had used some kind of power to make a copy of themselves and trick the monster.

  The demon boy took a few deep breaths, calming himself down. Then he spoke again, in a much calmer voice, “I'm sorry, my anger gets the better of me sometimes. It hasn't been a good day, especially after being attacked by some creature that looked like it was straight from Doom. Do you know what beast that was?”

  Fen only shook her head, she had never seen a monster like it. The sword demon let out a long sigh.

  “Doom?”

  “Well there's not much point in staying here, the illusion will have already dispelled. The monster should not be able to follow us, for a time,” He said ignoring her question and getting up. He took a few steps towards Fen. She scooted back and growled at him.

  “Calm down. Just give me your wrists, I can get the cuffs off you.”

  Fen hesitantly held her wrists out in front of her. He gently grabbed the shackle on her right wrist, turning it so he could see the keyhole. He grabbed it on both sides and started to pry it apart. The metal groaned in protest, but after a few moments it broke with a clang. He moved to her other wrist, doing the same.

  Fen pulled her wrists back, massaging them. The skin where the cuffs where was rubbed raw. “You sure are strong, Mister.”

  The demon frowned down at her, “I'm no Mister or Sir. I'm just a swordsman. Albeit, a very powerful one… Just call me Lost.”

  A thought pushed forward from the back of Fen’s mind, “Lost? That's a weird name.”

  “Eh, it wasn't always my name, but it is now.” Lost said shrugging. He pulled his hood back up, covering everything but his glowing eyes.

  “My name’s Fen,” Fen replied warily. He had saved her, but in her experience people usually did it for their own gain, to use Fen.

  Lost shrugged and walked off towards the creek. Once he reached the creek, he backed up and jumped over it. Fen scrambled to her feet and ran after him. She didn't want to be left alone. After a few minutes of following Lost, he turned around.

  “Why are you following me, kid?” He said, looking down at Fen. Lost wasn't tall, but he was at least 5 inches taller than Fen.

  “I don't want to be left alone here. That monster might come back,” Fen said, looking around and listening to the forest.

  Lost shook his head, “You’d be safer going back to your town. I'm heading back to the border keep, something about that attack didn't feel right. It almost seemed planned.”

  Fen’s heart missed a beat, she really didn't want to be left behind. Plus she didn't know which direction the town was. Though Lost might have been right. She decided after a moment, “I'm going with you, Mister. I promise I won’t slow you down.”

  Lost grunted and turned back around, heading deeper into the forest. Fen followed closely behind him.