Forgive me delayed release again for I had sinned. I had to have my notebook repaired, and that delayed my writing bit. As of today, I have no finished chapter that I have not released. I will keep writing on this small microsized-ultraslow-notebook, but I cannot promise much. See ya.

I was lying in the forest. Wolves surrounded me. Giant black monster was holding me in its hand and then it laughed. So did all other wolves. Cail, covered with blood pointed his finger at me. Ryan who was missing both legs and was lying on ground also did so. “It's your fault.” they accused me. Then monster placed me into its mouth and ate me.

I woke up sweating and crying. My leg was tied to wooden stick to fix it in place. I was lying in straw bed in unknown room of small size. Walls were made out of wood, and it reminded me of my village Oakville. Even smell of straw and dirt was similar, making me think about my parents and uncle. I was scared and I wanted to see them. Even though I was sure neither uncle nor my parents could protect me from the demon, something inside me was telling me that as long as I was with my parents, I would be safe.

“It is alright, boy. Everything is alright already.” said old woman sitting on chair right next to me. She could have been even over sixty years old. For people who did not practice magic, most of them died between fifty to seventy years of age, so she was already in age that many did not live to.

Magicians were said to live slightly longer, if their lives were not ended forcibly, and there was legend that said that if magician would reach tier twenty or more, their aging would slow down. If this was legend or not was unknown, there were only three people currently alive who reached that high, my teacher Alaric, tier twenty three magician of Northern Empire nicknamed Wizard of North and tier twenty two magician of Eastern empire called Wizard of East. Western Empire had no well-known magician worthy of title similar to one these three received.

Teacher was only thirty years old and both other mentioned magicians were in their nineties, so it was too soon to confirm the legend was correct. It was however known that magic geniuses who reached tiers of magic higher than tier seventeen were very long lived, so it was mostly accepted belief.

“Where am I?” I asked while sobbing.

“We found you on the field near our village, so we have taken you into our house.” said the old woman.

“You belong to that group of children from Alsante city, right?” she asked. She was confused, because I was obviously younger than other children. Moreover, that group already left yesterday. I had my leg broken and chance of them leaving me here with broken leg was low. But they noticed I had magical rings, so I must have been one of group.

There were many other things weird about trip of young magician from Alsante this year. They left only four days after arriving this year, while usually they would stay for at least about two weeks.

In village Mill's End, people were used to magicians coming every year, and therefore everyone noticed something was wrong.

“Yes.” I answered weakly. I was once more reminded of Cail, Ryan, and Teulor and I started crying again. While we knew each other only for short time, they were really kind people and their death was painful to me and even more so because I have witnessed it myself. I also shivered with fear, that creature could easily leave forest and come here, I imagined.

As old woman noticed my tears, she started patting my head.

“It is alright, everything is good already.” she said again to calm me. She believed I probably got lost and was sad because of that. “We will get someone to bring you back to city.” she said.

Old woman had name Berta. She was what villagers would probably proudly call alchemist, but in reality, she was only ordinary herbalist. She would collect herbs and with help of little magic would turn them into herbal brews, but herbal brews are far from real potions.

Her husband was already dead and she lived together with her granddaughter, who was learning how to be herbalist from her. She only had two daughters who both got married and lived with their husbands.

Her granddaughter was silent and didn’t speak a word; instead she observed everything her grandma did. She was fifteen or sixteen years old. She shortly introduced herself as Laura.

Laura had golden hair, something that was rather rare in villages. Most villagers had brown or black hair, but there were some exceptions here and there. It was possible for child to have different color of hair than that of either parent, because it was soul color that affected color of one's hair.

I did not tell the woman about demon. When she asked about what happened, I did not answer at all. I was scared that if she knew, everyone would just run away and they would leave me here.

When night came, it was impossible for me to fall asleep and I cried instead. More than ever have I wanted to be back home with my parents. But at the same time I knew there was no way I would be safe there. If you compared them, Ryan and Cail together were stronger than whole practitioner group of our village. I fell asleep only few hours before morning and once more nightmares haunted my dreams and then woke me up before sun even rose. I realized I pissed myself during those nightmares once more.

Old woman came to wake me up, but I was already awake, but tired. She could easily smell that I had an accident, but thankfully she spared me questions.

“We have prepared cart for you. One of villagers offered to take you back to Alsante city.” she said. It was not hard to convince someone to bring me to city, since children from Alsante coming here were from rich families, and since I had magic rings, my family should be able to pay them well for bringing me back to them.

“My granddaughter also wants to go with you to see the city. It will be good experience for her, but I have to ask first, will she have place to stay?” asked Berta. She knew many of children in school were from other cities, so she needed to know before she let her granddaughter go.

“Yes. I am sure aunt Sable will provide place for her to stay.” I answered. I wanted to be as far from forest as possible, and I was willing to promise even golden horse to make it faster.

Old woman was still bit suspicious about my silence and did not understand why was I unwilling to explain my broken leg. But she did not want to be too forceful to obviously traumatized seven years old child.

Cart was pulled by two horses. Man who was riding it was twenty years old son of mayor of this village, Josk. Some villages like this one had mayor, but Oakville, my village, had only council of elders. It was not because of size of village, but rather because that was what people were used to.

“You said your name was Aiken, right?” asked Laura. I was surprised. Until now, I have not heard her speak more than few words, but now, she seemed cheerful and talkative.

“You see, grandma does not like it when I am speaking with patients without her permission. She believes I should just observe most of time. It's boring.” she said while smiling.

I did not respond. I felt terrible. I should have warned villagers about danger threatening them, but I was too scared they would just leave me here and run away if I did so.

Seeing I was not responding, Laura decided that she would make me talk to her at all costs. I must have looked to her like pitiful child too scared to speak.

“You are studying magic, aren't you? I also wanted to be magician, when I was little. I even had talent to be chosen. But instead, grandma took me in. I still regret it little, you know. I have been secretly learning magic from one of village practitioners, but I am still not even able to cast tier six spells.” she said.

“What tier of magic can you use?” she asked.

Even though I would usually proudly declare that I can use tier eight magic, now it felt like a bad joke. I did not even bother answering.

After few more attempts, Laura gave up and would only occasionally speak up, when there was something interesting in plain sight.

Finishing our first day of traveling, we had only about third of the distance behind us. We started a campfire and then ate some food that was packed for us.

When we finally went to sleep, nightmares filled with that demonic creature haunted my sleep. In one of those dreams, demon entered the village and dead villagers pointed their fingers at me and were asking me why I didn’t warn them.

While I was talking unintelligible nonsense, I managed to wake up both of my traveling companions.

I also woke up, and therefore, I could hear their conversation.

“He looks really scared. Do you think that our village could be in danger?” asked Josk.

Josk was son of mayor, and he was certainly observant. He felt suspicious from the very first moment magicians left in rush. He noticed that it was both groups who left, not only children but also youths who were supposed to be strong magicians and who already arrived day before other group. Seeing my expression caused by nightmares only supported his suspicion that something terrible must have had happened there, that scared all of them.

“If that was true, they would have warned us. Or at least boy would.” responded Laura.

“Don’t you see that kid is terrified? Maybe he thinks other magicians have already warned us, or he thinks we would think him crazy if he said what he knows. You see, I could see those magicians’ expressions, when they were passing through our village back to their city, Laura. They looked scared as well. I tried to warn father, but he said I was too paranoid.”

“You are too paranoid, Josk.” she said.

After that I tried to fall asleep again but it was hard. My leg started hurting again, since it was still far from healed, and moreover, I was haunted by memory of nightmares and words of Josk. I stayed awake for rest of night and slowly, I came to decision.

When morning came and we started to eat bread, I finally found courage to speak.

“Laura, Josk, I have something to tell you.”

With tears in my eyes, I started telling them whole story, about the monster and how it has eaten my friends in front of my eyes and how it also broke my leg. As I was speaking I could see their faces turning pale.

Both of them lost their appetite instantly and were silently listening in horror.

“We have to return back to village and warn everyone.” said Laura.

“That is nonsense. We should instead rush to Alsante city and try to find help.” disagreed Josk.

“Listen, Josk, we don’t have time for that. We need to return back to village now!”

“And then what next, Laura? We’ll tell them fantastical story of traumatized child with hope that they will believe it? They will probably blame it on his imagination and fear of being left alone. Noone will be willing to leave the village based on wild claim of young boy. If we really want to help, we have to rush to city and ask them for help. That is our only hope.”

And so Josk made our horses move much faster than previous day. Laura was not able to be angry at me, because after telling them what happened, she was feeling sympathy for me even though I did not warn villagers about the threat. After all, seeing such horrifying scene would scar anyone, and I was only seven years old.

Only few hours after sunset, we arrived back to Alsante city. However, city gates were closed and night guard was unwilling to let us in. That is, until I mentioned name of aunt Sable. He then sent some other guard to Sable household, and soon, he returned with lady Sable herself.

“Aiken? You are alive! You are alive!” she screamed happily as soon as she saw me. Then she ran to me, hugged me, and held me so tight I was afraid that I would suffocate.

“They told us you were dead... I was thinking about how I should have convinced you not to go. I am so happy to see you are alright.” she said as she was crying tears of happiness.

“I am alive, aunt Sable.” I said weakly, finally feeling safe. I was so happy I made it back I could feel tears of happiness in my eyes.

“Lady, could we ask for your help? We are afraid that our village is threatened by whatever it was that harmed your niece.” asked Josk as politely as he could.

“Since you have helped my niece, I will do that which is in my power.” she answered and then she turned to guards. “Let them enter the city.”

After that we made our way back to main house of Sable family. When we got back, aunt Sable woke up Saffron, Flore and Neri and when they saw me, they cried as well. Apparently, two days back, they were informed that I have died because of sudden appearance of demon in border areas of forest. There were over fifteen students who did not make it back and who were thought to be dead. Well, I was most likely only one out of them who survived.

I was almost crushed when they hugged me together, without any care for my broken leg. It did hurt a lot but I was also crying, since I was happy I was alive and together with them again.

Aunt Sable has sent one of her servants and after about hour, teacher Alaric arrived as well. He walked close to me, but when he noticed my leg was tied to piece of wood, he instead patted my head.

Since he did not do anything else, I hugged him, and he started sobbing as well, his expression slowly changing into one of relief.

“I am so happy you are alive.” he said and then he hugged me as well, careful not to cause me any pain.

I was finally back and Alsante. And after long time of being scared of every shadow, I finally felt safe again.