My Journey with the Demon King

1 - Meeting Zane

I looked around me in a daze. Screams of terror filled the air. I heard my mother scream, my father begin to shout. Glancing over my shoulder, I called out to them in fear. Villagers were running past me in a mad rush to get away. To flee. Only, what were they fleeing from? I wasn't sure. One minute I had been walking down the market street with my parents and the next chaos.

"Mother...Father?" I called as a strange expression filled their faces. Slowly, I turned.

A huge figure loomed about fifty feet from where I stood. He had to be at least eight feet tall. Or, at least I assumed it was a he. He looked like a beast given human form and walking on two legs. He had a pair of horns, at least three feet long, which curved to the back of his head. His body was covered in a thick, dark brown fur. His legs ended in goat's feet, cloven and huge. On his back were two large wings that looked as if they were made of stone. His entire body was surrounded by a menacing aura of black-blue shadows. His face was a bizarre mixture of a human and a lion.

His eyes...They were a bright red-orange, like the sunset, but looked more like snake eyes. They glowed out from his skull. They stared at me, making me feel as if I was rooted to where I stood.

I gulped. "M-Mother?" I murmured in fear. Turning back, I was struck speechless. My parents, both of them, were fleeing along with the rest of the villagers. "F-Father!" I shouted in shock. "D-Don't leave me!" I cried.

Slowly, the Beast came closer. I began to sob. I couldn't help it. He was terrifying. His eyes...

When he stood about ten feet away, he came up short. His expression twisted into a look of guilt. "Uh...Look, I'm sorry about that. I didn't mean to scare you so bad." I stared, speechless. Slowly, the Beast faded away. In his place was an ordinary man. Or...mostly.

"What?" I said softly.

He had shrunk, a little more than two feet, until he was five' eleven". His body had transformed into a normal, twenty-year-old man. His skin tone was a pale white. He wore a midnight blue tunic and black trousers. His hair was cut close to his head, a dark black. He had a full beard, covering his chin and neck, though not in an unappealing way. But it was his eyes, again, that held my attention. They hinted at something inhuman. They were a brilliant shade of purple.

He ran a hand through his hair. "Look, like I said, I'm sorry. I'll...I'll go help you find your parents, okay? Though, honestly, I wouldn't bother with them. I mean, they did just completely abandon you in order to save their own lives."

I finally found my voice. "D-Does that mean you are going to kill me?"

He sighed. "Why does everyone think that of me?"

"Have...have you seen yourself in a mirror when you were...like that earlier?"

He frowned. "I just can't stand other people. I don't like to be around others. I don't like having to deal with them. So, when I come into villages, I usually transform in order to make people leave me alone. That was the first time I used that particular spell though. Was it really that terrifying?"

I nodded firmly. "Yes," I half-squeaked out, "it was." I closed my eyes, taking in several deep breaths. "This is a really strange conversation I've found myself in," I muttered as I opened my eyes again.

For the first time, I saw a ghost of a smile on his face. "Strange conversations are the best."

His smile made me feel a little funny. Shaking my head, I came to a decision. "You don't have to help me find my parents. Honestly, I don't want to go back to them anyway. Mother treated me like her personal slave and Father acted like I didn't exist most of the time."