The gravel rustled faintly under her leather boots. Gazing over the village, her eyes met the small path leading in. Bustling sounds came from left and right as tall and scaly figures walked around, dealing with their daily business.

Ferín; a village of demons. Demons she met and talked with each day.

Enru’s lips curved into a wide smile as she went in. Small and large houses, built in wood, stone; or both, stretched out as far as her eyes could see. An intricate maze of various paths.

Further out to the left -standing either on the large bridge, or to its side- were fishermen, working their day away with nets, fishing rods and barrels of alcoholic beverage.

Two demons perked their heads up and waved toward Enru. She returned the gesture before they disappeared behind the houses, carrying stacked wooden barrels in their arms.

“Strong as always…” Enru muttered, staring into the palm of her own left hand with longing eyes.

Passing by the near-grey or purple figures of demons, carrying sacks of grain and other commodities, she headed for the stall set up along the main road like usual during midday. The butcher, with small cracks running across the two horns on his forehead, stood outside his wooden stall, facing someone just as tall as him.

“Do you think, that I,” the owner of the stall growled in his deep, raspy voice, “can be fooled by petty tricks?!”

“Grendol, listen to yourself!” a pale-skinned demon flung his scaly arms up in the air, making a gesture, “You’re placing your anger on the wrong man.”

Enru tilted her head as she gazed toward the two demons. Slowing her pace, she strained her long ears and watched from afar in order to not interrupt the interesting talk. The fish could wait.

“I resent humans and you know it!” the butcher stared deeply into the other man’s eyes -looking ready to fight, “But, Larg, your words are nothing but suicide.”

The tension grew, as it always did.

“You’re a fool to think that!” the pale-skinned demon stabbed the air with his right index finger as he pointed at Grendol, “We won’t get a better opportunity!”

Grendol placed down his butcher’s knife on the wooden counter behind him and turned back to the pale man called Larg. Furrowing the brows on his bald head, he stared intensely at Larg -without any hints of yielding. The butcher wouldn’t allow someone to do the same mistake as he had.

A small crowd -people they laughed and shared thoughts with on a daily basis- began forming around the wooden stall. They knew what was unfolding, yet their eyes held no worries.

Once Enru took a second glance, she noticed she had been closed off into the center with the other two. Her chance to be a spectator was lost. The safe distance wasn’t that much safer any longer.

Grendol took a large breath, breathing it all out through his purple nose. Fights were routine by now. He could only blame himself for his past actions.

“Then prove it,” the butcher flaunted his apron-covered chest, “what chance I’m missing out on.”

Larg’s scaly arm flew toward the butcher’s face without a second thought. He had warned the butcher over and over again, he had tried so many times to convince him... If even he couldn’t talk some sense into Grendol’s thick skull, then the loyalty would be better off forced.

The punch missed Grendol’s face as he jerked his head back. Retaliating immediately, the bald demon grabbed the scaly wrist and bashed his left wrist into the pale man’s ribcage.

Grendol released his grip and watched as Larg staggered backward. It seemed to have hurt him greatly, but he wouldn’t stop it there. He had to be rough, or else everything would repeat itself -over and over again.

Enru jumped to the side as the pale demon’s tail almost swiped her feet off the gravel. Cheers came from all sides around the stall. They had yet to notice the crowd.

Not that it would stop them anyway...

Larg closed his distance to the butcher, aiming his fist toward the thick throat. His punch was parried by Grendol’s large palm and shortly after, he got sent down onto the ground with another hit to his ribcage. Gasping for air, his eyes tried to focus on the purple-skinned butcher left standing.

“The only fool here,” Grendol crouched, staring deeply into the eyes of the youngster, “is you.”

Applauds came from the crowd which slowly dispersed, continuing their daily business. Two muscular demons, the same fishermen she had earlier greeted, chuckled loudly as they carried Larg away from the main path.

Demons...

Grendol went back inside his stall and picked up the cleaver, resuming his work. Cutting up some shank meat, his back faced the wooden counter until the smell of fish finally reached his nostrils.

He turned his head and looked. Leaving the cleaver in the preserved meat, he spread his arms. A wide grin had formed on his purple face as he faced Enru -carrying the blue-scaled fish with a metal ring.

“Almost doubled the amount,” Grendol chuckled as he placed his large hands on the counter, leaning forward, “since last time, anyway. In a few years, you’ll surely overtake the adults.”

Enru puffed out air through her nose, responding with a smile as she handed over the metal ring along with the rahnafish. Eight fish was a lot more than four days ago, but it wasn’t nearly enough to catch up.

She bit her lips as Grendol glanced away. There was no way to catch up to begin with. It wasn’t hard to see the difference in strength, not to mention the overall physique. She was far behind -so far behind, yet...

Enru couldn’t let the demons down and do nothing, even if her own back would break as a result. She had to do better -not show her weak self. They deserved at least that much out of her, for having taken care of her for so long.

The girl stared at the wide and large back of the demon as he laid the fish onto the table -right beside the half-sliced shank. A view she had seen many times. The lonely back she could never catch up with, no matter how hard she tried.

“Eight rahnafish,” Grendol turned back around with a small leather pouch in his hands, and began to take out small coins, “should be... Two silver coins and five copper.”

Enru gazed into the butcher’s yellow eyes as she received the coins with her hand. That grin which he always gave her... She couldn’t sit back and just let things stay as they were.

“Next catch!” the coins clinked as she clenched her fist, “I’ll bring the double again, so...”

The bustling sounds in the background overtook as she stopped her sentence. She had done it now... It was impossible for her to catch sixteen, let alone another eight rahnafish within the next four days without relying on luck.

“Yeah,” Grendol’s grin got wider as he reached out to ruffle her hair, “work hard!”

One day, she would greet that smile with a confident grin of her own.

Leaving the butcher alone to his cleaver, Enru walked off -further into the village. Other stalls were beginning to set up along the path; preparing their daily goods. Everything from bread and flour, to gems, armor and bows.

She stopped at a vacant area between two busy stalls. Walking into an alley on her right, her gaze rested upon the leather merchandise hanging from a secluded stall’s roof. Light equipment that was easy to move in, flexible and still provided decent protection against blows; perfect armor for hunting. Enru focused in on one item in particular, before glancing at her left hand.

“Back here again, dear?” a tall, slightly round, woman called out from behind the counter, “The gloves won’t disappear all of a sudden.”

“Hi Asmira.” Enru placed a silver coin on the wooden counter in front of her, staring toward the black set of odd-looking gloves hanging behind the shopkeeper.

Asmira sighed and turned around, picking down the archer’s gloves. Laying them on the counter, she looked at Enru with worry, but all Enru could see was the gloves.

Softened leather, they wrapped around and covered the wrist. While the right glove covered the whole hand as well, the left only extended over the thumb and index finger. The leather covering the backside of the wrist was reinforced; hardened with another layer.

“You really don’t need to bring a silver coin every day, dear.” Asmira smiled for the company she had been given nonetheless, “I am doing just fine without Robert. It was eons ago since he left us.”

“I’m not.” Enru replied back, “Just slowly paying off these gloves.

Another drawn-out sigh came from the shopkeeper, taking a seat on the wooden stool placed in the shadows next to the stall.

“Whichever you prefer,” Asmira shrugged her shoulders as she looked over the young adult, “but you have paid more than enough. They are already yours.”

“Then I’ll just pay for everything else.” an honest smile came from Enru, causing Asmira to heave another sigh at the girl’s stubbornness.

Enru removed the gloves from her hands and looked at them for a good while before placing them back onto the counter. Walking up to the occupied stool, she sat on the ground next to Asmira -leaning her back against the side.

None of them said anything, as they stared out over the men and women walking by on the main path; holding buckets of water in their arms or sacks of grain behind their backs. A small breeze tried its best to brush itself against her untidy hair. The atmosphere was different at Asmira’s shop compared to everywhere else...

As if the time around her had slowed down.

“It’s... Calmer here,” Enru said in a low voice as she stared out toward the bright area, “Colder, too.”

“Again, huh?” Asmira tried to meet the younger girl’s gaze.

“Yeah,” Enru’s eyes followed the burly figure of a man, carrying a dead deer over his shoulder, “more brute force I can’t hope to reach.”

The shopkeeper chuckled at the girl’s words; exposing her small fangs as her pale eyes stared toward the sky. Her grey body was completely protected from the sun; covered under the shadows of the roof. Eerie, yet beautiful.

“You don’t have to push yourself,” Asmira turned her body, facing the girl leaning toward her stool, “strength comes naturally.”

“I know!” Enru averted her eyes, “I know, but...”

Silence filled the space around them. Gazing onto the gravel below, she dug down with the heels of her leather boots. Enru wasn’t a demon -at least not one with the same physical strength.

A slight breeze swept past the two as they sat, together, in the cold shadow. Like usual, it would take a while until any of them moved again. Heaving a sigh, Enru lifted her chin and glanced toward the tall shopkeeper sitting behind her.

“Hey...” Enru was barely audible, “Can you tell me that story again?”

“The spellcasters?” Asmira began stroking the short girl’s messy hair.

“Yeah, the humans.”

Asmira was silent as she glanced at the long-eared girl in front of her. With a smile, she lightened the atmosphere.

“Then, just this once.” she couldn’t just say no to the fragile child’s requests, “It all began one hundred years ago. There was a clan of humans, formed from many families, living on an island secluded from everything else.

Humans capable of magic.”

“Magic?”

“Magic.” she confirmed, “They were the advisors of kings, the keepers of order... And this one specific family leading it all was the pinnacle of power.”

Asmira continued to stroke the girl’s head, doing her best to straighten the strands of hair as she told her story.

“But that was it. They were never remembered for their deeds. Only known for their power, the specific family carried on.” the older woman said as her voice saddened, “Nothing linked their family together. Nothing except their blood.”

“So they wanted something that could do both.” Enru added.

“You know the story well,” Asmira smiled, reaching for a small petal in the girl’s hair as it had fallen from the blossoming tree, “do I even need to tell the story?

Asmira heaved a sigh at the stiff silence, taking the chance for a slight pause. Switching her gaze toward the path bustling with people, she watched them walk by under the sunlight.

Taking a deep breath, she continued her story. “Their family decided to create an item, an heirloom to be passed down with each generation that would lead the clan.

It was all peaceful. The head of their family imbued the item with a part of his magic as the first one to pass down the heirloom.”

Enru listened to every word. There were as many strong humans out in the world as there were weak ones, meaning she could one day also get stronger.

“But then the orcs began their raid. A night no living man had seen coming. In a frenzy, they stole; murdered innocents. In a brave attempt, the family tried to protect the island -but failed, as their magic suddenly disappeared.

The orc’s leader challenged the father to a battle between swords -giving him another chance at protecting the island. Sparks were flying as the steel of their weapons clashed. A fierce battle, lasting long into the night.”

Asmira’s left fist tightened, but eventually loosened up as she sighed, turning her eyes back to the unmoving body that was still leaning on her stool.

“He was ultimately overwhelmed by the orc’s strength. Unable to protect the island, he watched as the rest died to the hands of the orcs.” Asmira slowly pushed the girl’s body away in order to get enough room to stand up. “...And that’s how the most powerful of spellcasters disappeared in one night, unable to fulfill their only wish.”

It was a short, yet sad story. Enru had listened to most of Asmira’s stories already, but this was the only one involving a sad ending.

Overwhelmed by someone stronger.

She glanced down on her small hands. They were definitely capable of more than just detailed handicraft, but after seeing the raw strength of Grendol or the fishermen...

“I’m...” Enru clenched her hands into small fists as she let her voice fade away.

Asmira crouched in front of the girl. She smiled faintly. Her pale eyes, full of compassion, met Enru’s gaze. They were different, refreshing; trustworthy.

“Your eyes do not lie. You are as much of a demon,” the shopkeeper waved her arms slightly in a gesture, “as anyone else living here.”

“Then I’d be an elf as well, going by your stories,” Enru stared onto the ground as she fiddled with her ears, “but I’m nowhere near as strong.”

White petals slowly sank onto the gravel below, in rhythm with the muffled laughter she could still hear -from the main path only a few steps away. Brawling the day away with drinks, selling their large amounts of grain, buying new seeds...

They really had no worries.

Asmira sighed and brought the sulking girl into her pale arms, gently stroking the back of her head. Looking up toward the sky, she could see the blossoms falling from the tall tree. Words escaped her mouth, sounding both sad yet hopeful, as she began to sing a short melody:

When the days come to an end.

Don’t cry, my child.

Can’t you see the stars, as they brighten the night?

They will follow you dearly, and bless you with light.

Then you can tell me, my dear.

‘The ravens are here.’

The day when we part.

Don’t fear the dark.

Can’t you see the footsteps, the path that I’ve set?

It will always lead you home. It will show you the way.

It’s alright now, my child.

For you’ll be okay.

Will you remember me? A broken half.

Will you see the truth of it all?

Will you remember me? A broken half.

Will you forgive my sins as I fall?

Don’t look back, my brethren.

The world is still there.

Reach the mountains, the forests; then carry home some beer.

The fire still burns, the moon is still young.

The crest of the ravens, will always stay strong.

Ending abruptly, the lively sounds of the demons’ daily routine slowly returned. She was in a daze, staring into the green color shoved into her eyes as Asmira hugged her tightly. It was warm, yet...

The gravel beneath them rustled to Enru’s hasty movements as she struggled getting out of the shopkeeper’s grip. After some resistance, she managed to safely free herself.

Her eyes widened as she gazed up toward Asmira. Enru couldn’t look any longer and immediately burrowed her face into the shopkeeper’s chest in an attempt to hug back. Comforted all this time, she never noticed who actually needed it. She had never paid attention outside of her own struggle, her own weakness. She couldn’t look at her teary face, or when she bit her lips... Asmira wouldn’t make those sad expressions.

“It’s alright!” Enru burrowed her head even further in, “The rest of the song will be found, someday, so don’t cry!”

“...What?” Asmira blinked rapidly as she searched for where the muffled voice came from, “No, I… My thoughts wandered back for a bit. I’ll be fine.”

The sunlight painted the village paths in a deep orange -almost golden- color, indicating how long the two had been talking for. There was less noise around, but laughter still filled the air every now and then, as drunken demons sometimes passed by.

Asmira sighed, glancing down on the messy, dark, hair that had burrowed itself deep into her chest. Taking a deep breath, she stroked along the back of Enru’s head.

A soft giggle escaped her as she looked up into the sky with a faint smile on her lips, “Thank you...”

Petals continued to land on them as they sat still in silence. Every now and then, drunken workers passed by, singing merrily -from the bottom of their lungs- before disappearing just as quickly as they had appeared. The sun was close to setting when Asmira finally released the girl from her arms.

“...Are you sure you’ll be alright?” Enru tried getting up on her numb feet to leave.

“I should ask the same,” Asmira grinned heartily, her pale eyes brimmed with newfound youth, “you’ve been scratching your neck since getting here. Take care of it once home.”

Enru tilted her head slightly as she met the shopkeeper’s gaze. She stood still in the shadows, puzzled over her words for a while. Her neck hadn’t been scratched at all, not often, at least.

Sighing through her nose, Enru walked further out -onto the main path.

Warm winds brushed past her cheeks as she turned around one last time. The girl didn’t say anything and just showed a confident smile on her face as she waved goodbye. Next to no sunlight appeared on the gravel below her. She didn’t leave immediately, instead continued staring at the shopkeeper. Asmira had said that she was fine. She could take care of herself, but the longer Enru gazed toward the older woman...

The pale, almost transparent and hornless demon Asmira... It was as if... As if she would just disappear at any moment.

Enru sighed and turned around. Another night short of sleep wouldn’t be good. The gravel rustled beneath her as she walked away with slow steps, toward her own home.