Riki's entire life is uprooted when a mysterious injured man shows up at her front door...As well as the enigmatic creature chasing him, which bears a suspicious likeness to the death god of legend.
She has to flee along with the man, who turns out...
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...After a little over an hour of running, me and Riki stopped for a break. I was hunched over, panting, and took a glance at her. She was tired, too, but her attention was fixed to something a bit above the trees. Her hair keeps on catching my eye-it's this bright orange color, something that's pretty unique. Then again, I have oddly colored hair too. You humans are so weak, aren't you? It took you only an hour to get this far and you're already exhausted. His voice rang out in my head again. First when I threw the candle holder at that man, and now here... Leave me be, Flambuvel. Just for now. ...As you say. Its odd, though, how that girl didn't seem to know who you were and what you are. Please be quiet. "...I think I smell smoke!" Riki called. I stood up and walked over to where she was. I couldn't smell anything, being a somewhat normal human and her being a canine demihuman, but I could still see a bit of gray smoke rising up over the horizon. Her house. Well, shit. "...That's an awful loss.." I wasn't quite sure what to say to her. This was basically my fault, getting her dragged into my problems. "Y-Yeah." She quickly turned and started walking, making sure that she was ahead of me-but I still saw a tear forming on the corner of one of her eyes. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- These woods are disturbing. The leaves and branches of the trees have blocked out most of the light from the sun, and I consistently felt as though I was being watched-though, with these woods being known for how infested they are with demons, I wouldn't be surprised if some were stalking us. We have no weapons, so hopefully nothing comes at us... You could use my abilities to fight off demons, Soleil. But what if I don't want to? Then perish. We had been walking for a couple of hours, when I took a glance down and noticed...Something. It was a stream of blood, coming from a bit of an incline to my left. It was moving incredibly slowly, and along the edges of it were twitchy, veiny membranes. I had no idea where the blood was coming from, nor did I want to know. "Hey, what're you looking a-" She jumped a bit when she saw the stream of blood. "...Let's just keep going." She practically ran away from it, but then slowed back down to a walk. I stepped over it-it was very, very small- and continued following Riki. The woods began to grow even darker as night began to fall. I kept hearing things moving in the dry, dead grass all around us. Riki walked ahead of me and pushed some red-leaved bushes aside, and peered into the clearing beyond. She turned to me. "Does this look like a good spot to spend the night to you?" She moved aside a little ways so I could have a clearer view.
There wasn't much in the clearing. It was surrounded by creepy trees, but everything was surrounded by creepy trees-you can't exactly find a place without that in here. "Looks as good as any-we could probably stay here for the night." I stepped into the clearing, and Riki followed. Looking around, I didn't see anything that was particularly abnormal-at least, abnormal compared to what we've seen in here so far. There were twigs lying just about everywhere-perfect for making a fire. I turned to Riki. "I'll go set up the fire, you keep an eye on things in case...something...appears that I didn't notice." I didn't want to think that something would come up and attack us, but it was extremely likely and something to keep an eye out for. She nodded. "Okay, I will." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------Soleil is really, really good at starting up fires-it sparked and caught in an instant. Even though I live almost right next to these woods, I've never gone into them-I've seen demons come out of them and wander near my house, though. But I've never had to fight one-most of the ones that got near me were injured in some way and I could hide from them easily, and tended to be weaker-looking and smaller in general. Here, however, in the heart of the most demon-infested place on the continent, with no weapons other than possibly a burning stick...It's a different experience entirely. I wish I'd taken an axe before my home burned down, but I feel like that big, scary guy would've knocked it out of my hand and killed me with it...
"Hey, Soleil?" He turned to me, startled for a second. "Yeah?" "...What are you doing all the way up here in Aricto? There's no reason for you to be here, is there..?" He looked away from me a bit, his face partially hidden in shadows. "There isn't. I'm not supposed to be here." I cocked my head, confused. "...So why are you here? Did those people drive you here?" He started to look nervous. "No, that-" He stopped short as the wind began to blow around us suddenly, and the flapping of wings was heard as something descended... --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
