"Can you ride a horse?" the boy asked the girl pointing at one of the horses tied to the caravan.

She took around 10 seconds thinking of an answer to respond.

Is she slow or something?

"No, I don't know how to......" she responded sadly.

She was still shaken up by the events which had transpired and he could tell she wasn't in the mood to speak.

" Alright.......seems you'll be riding with me" the boy said staring at the caravan.

I wish I could've taken this caravan and the horses but they'll slow me down too much and delay arriving at Mephisto.

A strange feeling ran through his body, something was off. He was confident it was still pre-lunch time, but wouldn't that make the climate of the forest moderately hot?

The boy stared up into the trees.

The gaps between the trees stopped a degree of light from entering, but light was entering nonetheless which meant it should've still been hot.

Why does it feel like noon..........the heat from the sun should still be relatively hot around now, isn't it still the morning period? Wait..................is it still morning?

"Girl, what time do you think it is right now?" he asked her with a worried look on his face.

She gave no response, she had dazed off thinking about something.

"Lady, what fuckin time do you think it is? It's important" he asked again raising the tone of his voice.

"Ummmmmmmm, I'd say it's near the evening time.......I could be wrong so don't expect my opinion on it to be right.......why did you ask?" she responded

What the fuck........Did I really lose track of time? No, that's not possible, I haven't slept in awhile, I started back riding since dawn today................did I start riding at dawn?

I had planned to take a small rest in the evening and ride through the night to avoid that thing.

Fear was slowly making its way into the boy's heart. Although last night his body and mind showed no sign of it because he was lost in the heat of the moment. Now that he thought about it, he was basically roadkill if it found him.

Although he knew there were wards for protection, it couldn't shake the fear of that thing breaking through and killing him.

He turned and looked at the girl.

This complicates things.

That thing last night, it had a bit of intelligence.......it knew how to intimidate me........Chances are it probably marked me since I'm in the forest...........FUCK

Taking a satchel from the helm of the caravan which contained food and water in a rush, he tied it to the side of the horse.

"We leave now, we're riding through the night, get on the horse" he said quickly and slightly on edge.

She immediately got up from the helm and climbed upon the horse.

He followed getting up on the horse behind her and put his arms around her holding the reigns.

*YAH YAH

He shouted hitting it gently on the side getting it to move.

She turned back to look at the other horses.

"Are we leaving them behind?" she asked him.

"Yes, they would slow us down drastically in the night" he replied.

They were on the move again.

The sun was setting and the sky was getting dark.

"Excuse me......but do you think we can stop for tonight and rest?" the girl asked the boy.

Oh for fuck's sake..............

"How come?" he replied hoping she would just drop it and say to keep moving.

"I haven't slept in 2 days out of fear of that man and I don't think my body can keep up anymore" she responded.

He began to think about it.

Maybe I was being paranoid, there's no way it would've followed us this far........I shouldn't let my paranoia affect her.........she should rest.

"Ah okay, we'll stop here for the night" he told her.

"Woah, woah boy slow down," he told the stallion slowly bringing him to a stop in the center of the road.

They unmounted the horse and she took a seat on the cold dirt.

He untied the satchel from the horse and sat facing the girl.

Opening the satchel, a small wooden water bottle could be seen along with some dried bread.

He took it all out and passed it to the girl, however she hadn't accepted it.

"Eat, I'm sure you're hungry right?" he asked her.

She seemed as if she was in deep thought and gave no response.

*Growl

Her stomach began to grumble.

"Eat............. your body's screaming for food" passing her the food.

"Ah.....yes, thank you, I was just thinking about my family," she told him with a look of grief on her face, taking the bread and beginning to eat.

He stared up at the sky with some stars being visible through the leaves whilst she ate.

It wasn't uncomfortable for him but for her it was different, the silence was awkward in her mind.

"The stars are pretty aren't they?, I haven't seen them in awhile," she asked the boy, stopping eating and looking up at them.

"The stars make my chest hurt, they should jus-" he said depressingly stopping halfway through what he was about to say, he was speaking what he was thinking accidentally.

The stars reminded him of Rex, it was a normal day for Rex and him to stare at the stars in the sky before going to sleep in the well.

"Are you okay?" she asked

"Yea, sorry, continue eating" he replied changing his view to staring at the ground.

She realized that they had been sitting there for awhile yet the boy hadn't eaten anything yet.

She broke the piece of bread she was eating into 2 and extended her hand towards the boy.

"You have to eat too," she told him.

"Ah, no thanks, I don't need it" he responded.

The awkward silence began again.

He had no intention of asking about her life but he wanted to know her story out of curiosity.

"So girl, what happened to you?" he inquired bluntly.

She paused before responding.

"My name isn't "girl", it's Miranda, I'll summarize it for you, most people think that only monsters and wild beasts live in the forests but that's wrong, the forest is home to other races such as elves and stuff, I'm a mixed breed, my father was a human and my mother was an elf, we lived as outcasts of an elf tribe because my mother fell in love with a human and had me, contaminating the bloodline, we were victims of discrimination for majority of my life for that reason and my father decided we could have a better life outside of the forest"

"And then what happened?"

"My dad left us for awhile and when he came back he said he met an old friend who was willing to help us make a life on the outside but that man betrayed us and came to the tribe with people and tried to enslave them but they fought back and they were slaughtered, my parents fought with the tribesmen but they passed along with them, I hid in the house and they found me after and put me in that caravan, that old man tried to rape me twice but he couldn't and the other men left him in charge, I don't know where they went" she said, beginning to cry looking down at the ground.

She's had it rough.........

"I'm sorry to hear that, I wasn't there then, but I guarantee you nothing will happen to you while you're with me," he said trying to comfort her.

She felt the urge to hug him, but he wasn't the approachable type.

"So if everything had gone the way it was supposed to, what would you have liked to do?" he asked her out of curiosity.

"W-Well I would've liked to live with my family and go to school, my dad always told me that he wished to send me to school but because of the tribe he was unable to" she responded gloomily.

Ah........school.........there was a time when I wanted t-........................that time's long gone

"School isn't a bad idea you know, when you reach Mephisto maybe you can-"

"To go to a school is expensive, I won't be able to, I have no money so I'll probably look for work when we reach there"

"Things will work out, don't think about it too much" he told her trying to cheer her up.

"So how old are you? 23-24?" he asked.

She had a look of confusion on her face.

"23-24? I'm 17..........." she replied giving him an angry look.

"Oh..............I'm sorry I didn't know" he said nonchalantly

They were talking for awhile and they didn't even notice it was already nightfall, and the beautiful moonlight shined down below upon them with a cold breeze blowing.

She began to tremble from the coldness.

He walked around of her and took the overcoat off her shoulders.

"You should actually put it on instead of just throwing it over your shoulders" he said lifting it into the air opening it for her to put her arms through the sleeves.

"Thank you" she responded putting on the coat.

"You should get some sleep now Miranda," he told her.

"You're right, but will you be fine, with all you're wearing for the coldness?" she asked.

"I've been through worse, goodnight Miranda," he said prompting her to sleep.

He's been through worse?

She laid on the ground and before he knew it she had fallen asleep, down to the horse was sleeping.

It was quiet and peaceful with only the crickets chirping being audible.

Talking with her had taken his mind off his own problems and for the first time in a long while he felt as if he wasn't choking on his own breath.

Hours passed as he looked up at the sky and it was already midnight, although staring at the sky made his chest hurt, it was a form in which he was coming to terms with acceptance of all which had happened and the sky reminded him of his family. The pain and happiness went hand in hand, good memories would come reminding him of his family and painful ones would follow soon after.

He had no wish to forget them and the tears began to run from his eyes hitting the ground.

*Shake Shake

Leaves began to shake.

The sound was coming from the left.

Rubbing the tears off his face he got up and looked to the left.

Don't tell me...........

The road was the only thing illuminated by the moonlight, nothing else could be seen but the vague outline of the trees.

The trees were closer to the road than they were the previous night.

There were no red eyes and he felt a sense of relief.

Must've been a bird

He sat on the ground and began to look at the horse and Miranda.

As he was watching them, something touched him on the back, like fingers poking him.

Shivers ran down his spine.

Immediately he got up turning around putting his hand on his waist and moving it in a drawing motion out of instinct. He thought that he still had his sword, but he left it in the man way back.

Fuck

There was nothing there as he turned.

I must be going crazy

Then fingers began to emerge from the shadows around chest height, a pale white hand painted red in blood, slowly making its way to him.

The fact that the hand went through the barrier meant it had to be someone, perhaps they were injured.

The boy rushed over to person and grabbed the hand.

"ARE YOU OKA-"

There were talons which could be seen holding the forearm, pushing the hand through the barrier.

What the-

The boy pulled the fingers off reflex trying to bring the hand closer to see the person.

A finger detached itself and the boy fell to the ground.

The hand retracted quickly back into the shadows.

Staring down at the finger in his hand it could be seen to have a clear liquid covering it where it broke off from the hand.

"MIRANDA" he shouted.

"What is it?" she said with a droopy look on her face, rubbing her eyes.

"GET TO THE FUCKIN SIDE OF THE HORSE RIGHT NOW" he shouted pointing at the horse.

She looked at him wondering what was going on and why he was screaming, but the moment she saw the finger, her face became filled with fear and she ran to the horse's side.

"WHATS GOING ON" she shouted at him.

*Thump

Something hit the ground around a meter away to the right.

He took a quick glance to the right then immediately turned back to the front.

In that glance, what he saw was the arm.

Can't lose focus now

*Thump

*Thump

*Thump

*Thump

*Thump

Human body parts began to fall from above scattering over the roadway with blood spreading in the air falling onto the roadway.

A head, the midsection of the body, an arm, and two legs. The mutilated body was fully naked with no signs of clothing.

Suddenly the parts began breaking up into multiple parts. The fingers separated from the hands and the toes separated from the feet.

He looked at the finger in his hand.

This clear liquid is

"Saliva......." he said

Turning quickly he ran over to Miranda. She was staring at something and her face looked as if she had seen a ghost.

It was the older man the boy had left impaled to the ground. It was his body parts which were thrown at them.

She was afraid.

He quickly glanced in all directions but the darkness was cruel, it hid everything in the forest from his line of sight.

Then, it slowly emerged from behind the outline of a tree................red eyes.

The red eyes, slowly began getting closer to the edge of the road where it was still masked by the darkness and it stood there directly onto the roadway's edge falling directly outside the barrier hidden by the shadows.

"WHAT IS THAT" Miranda shouted holding onto the boy's arm.

Then the sword the boy used to impale the man slowly made its way through the barrier falling onto the ground............................half in, half out.

The position of the red eyes could be seen shifting from them to the sword.

It glanced up at the boy then looked at the sword again.

He should've been feeling fear, but it was no longer there in his heart.

The creature was signaling him to pick up the sword.

Calling me?

Miranda understood what the creature meant and she grabbed his hand tighter than before signaling him not to go, she wished to tell him "Please don't go" but the fear stifled her.

He grabbed Miranda's arm and moved it off his, leaving her side and made his way to the sword, his body moved on its own.

Standing there face to face with it. He bent over and grabbed the sword by the blade.

The creature pulled the sword back into the shadows, slicing the palm of the boy's right hand with some blood falling onto the blade.

Toying with me?

The boy stood up straight, looking up at the eyes with the eyes looking down at him and licked the blood in the palm of his hand grinning at it with it only being visible to the creature.

*Slurp

It could be heard sucking something and then the hilt of the sword emerged from the shadows.

It was giving him the sword now.

The boy grabbed the hilt of the sword with his bleeding hand and pulled it from the shadows.

Looking down at the blade, he could see it was licked clean with saliva dripping from the tip of the blade.

Had your fill?

Pure excitement ran throughout his body and he took the first step towards exiting the roadway and entering the forest.

The bloodlust he felt right now was like that of a hurricane, he wanted to fight it so badly.

What's he thinking, no no no, don't do that, don't leave me..................... I have to move and stop him from going any further.........

Breaking the hold her fear had on her.

Miranda ran away from the horse and grabbed him pulling him out of the shadows and back into the roadway.

"We'll continue this later" the boy moved his lips, grinning.

Miranda didn't see it, only the creature and after, it slowly faded away into the darkness.