Kendrolgo found himself walking to the tree where he spent a lot of his time. Stopping by the village’s school, he had grabbed a copy of “A journey: The War of Light and Dark”, a comprehensive book on the events prior to, during, and after the War. The size of the book made it the largest book,at the school’s library, along with the bound leather cover and metal clasps. Sitting down under the tree, he unclasped the book looking at the drawing on the front page. The drawing was of a demon and a potestas, their blades crossing in an epic battle. Wanting to read more about them, Kendrolgo flipped to the section of the book talking about the postestas. The postestas were warriors who acted as leaders in the Army of Light, though they often never crossed paths with demons, there were times during the war where they fought in battles. He read how even though postestas and demons crossed paths, protestas were able to win against demons through tactical advantage. After the war, postestases gave up fighting and went on to lead kingdoms and create what were now the royal families. A King in a kingdom was selected by how closely their lineage was to a postestas.

With demons, they were completely wiped out after the war. Unlike other parts of the Army of Dark, demons were too dangerous to keep around the kingdoms, and so there was a mass cleansing by agents of the Light. Kendrolgo went through the passages and saw how they were portrayed as soldiers, who were feared. They were merciless in their duties as assassins, killing generals and soldiers in their sleep. There were accounts of demons using babies and children as distractions, held hostage, in order for them to complete their missions. With each turn of a page, he felt alone and cut off from those around him. Opening his hand and staring at his palm, Kendrolgo cursed the blood flowing through him, and felt jealous of all the other villagers. What made them so special that they had to push him out of their perfect world?

“What are you reading this time?” a voiced suddenly asked him out of the blue. Glancing up, he saw that the voice came from Malera.

“What do you want? I see that you didn’t bring your escorts this time around.” He sneered at her. Learning about what he was that day, combined with the sight of Malera in front of him, brought up all the feelings of anger and confusion inside. He didn’t care if he was being unfair or petty at directing all his pent-up anger at her, especially since he understood the difference between humans and demons. It was as if she personally wrote all the accounts dealing with demons into this book.

Hesitantly, she came over to him and sat down, next to him, and in a quiet voice said, “I’m sorry for what happened today.”

Keeping his head looking forward, Kendrolgo acted as if he didn’t hear her. At that moment he didn’t want to hear anyone apologizing to him, especially from someone who hung out with those guys from the inn.

Out of nowhere, Malera suddenly punched him on his arm.

“What do you think you’re doing!?” He yelled out at while rubbing his arm. Standing up, he glared at her still feeling the ache from earlier. “Why are you here? I mean last night you suddenly ask me if I want to go to the Spring Festival with you, then you and your friends push me out of my chair at the inn, and now you’re apologizing?! Are kidding me?!” He yelled at her pouring out all the anger inside of him.

“I know…” she whispered “an apology could never make up for all the teasing the guys and I have done, all these years. I’m not apologizing expecting you to forgive everything that has happened.”

“Then why are you apologizing? Why even show up in front of me like that, going out of your way?” He asked in a low voice barely containing his feelings.

Looking directly at him she said, “I’m apologizing because I feel bad, but more importantly I have feelings for you. That’s why I asked if you want to go to the spring festival the other night.”

Shaking his head in disbelief, he could only respond by laughing because the thought of her actually liking him was unbelievable. “Yeah of course you like me. I can totally see that whenever you stand up for me, after your friends torment me. If that’s the way you express your feeling for me then I don’t think I want it.”

“I’m serious about my feelings for you.” She replied, calmly.

He couldn’t believe what he was hearing. “So you’re so serious that you’ll tell all your friends that you like the monster in the village.” Just seeing her stay silent, he grabbed the book and walked off into the forest so he could be alone.

“Yes I would!” yelled Malera, pleading. “Also you’re not a monster!”

Kendrolgo stopped after hearing her response. Walking back toward Malera, he looked directly at her and calmly said, “I may not be a monster, but I am a demon. Are you okay with that?”

“What are you talking about,” she asked looking confused.

“I’m saying that I’m not completely human and that I have demon blood inside of me.” Sighing, he just shook his head and just walked off. “Don’t worry about it. I’ll forget what you said, so just go back to the village and hang out with your friends.” Kendrolgo didn’t understand why he told her, about what he learned earlier about his heritage. Even he didn’t fully understand everything, about himself.

Walking towards the forest, he could hear Malera’s footsteps following after him. Figuring that she would lose interest, he continued into the forest letting the shadow envelope him. Kendrolgo felt himself merge with the darkness, like a ghost. This time when he went into the forest the feeling was different, like something was waking up. It felt the same as when the daemonis came charging towards him, and he was able to escape between its legs.

Looking at his hands, he saw that he had blended in with darkness though there was the occasional glimpse of his body, when light penetrated the forest canopy. He didn’t understand why this was happening, but guessed it might have something to do with his blood. This had never happened before, until that morning. He wanted to look deeper into what was happening with him, but being by himself away from Malera was a higher priority.

“Where did you go?” Malera called out after him. When he looked back at Malera, Kendrolgo saw that she had completely lost track of him.

“Just go home!” He called out continuing to walk deeper into the forest. For the first time he enjoyed his cursed blood since it let him finally be alone. Yeah he enjoyed this new gift, but hiding in the dark was definitely different than fighting. Aside from those two things, he also noticed that his body was changing. The changes were different from what the adults told him about years ago; mainly because these were changes that couldn’t just happen overnight. Before the Ladies came, his body was somewhat overweight, though not fat, compared to others his age. Now looking at himself, the fat on his body was practically gone and replaced by muscle. There was definitely something changing inside of his body.

“Kenny! Kenny!” Malera continued to call after him, while stumbling after him in the dark forest. He had no idea what she was trying to accomplish following him.

Deciding to wait until she caught up, he leaned against one of the trees waiting in the shadows. When she walked past him, he said, “Just what do you think you’re doing?”

“Wah!!” Malera suddenly jumped from the sound of his voice seeming to come out of nowhere. “Where are you?” She looked around trying to locate where his voice was coming from. Though he wasn’t completely invisible, his body was broken up enough to blend in with his surroundings. It reminded him of some of the animals in the forest.

By just thinking about appearing, he felt the shadow slide off of his body, like he was shrugging off a cloak. Suddenly revealing himself, he calmly looked at Malera and asked, “Why can’t you just leave me alone, you’re not even really serious about what you said.”

“If I tell the village my feelings for you then will you accept them as being genuine?” She asked him, her voice dead serious.

Feeling embarrassed by her straightforward response, he inadvertently cloaked himself in shadow. “Do whatever you want, I don’t care anyways,” he grumbled.

Malera looked at where he was and smiled at his obvious embarrassment. Without saying a word she reached out her hand and touching him. She moved in closer giving him a hug and held him. “Stop hiding, it looks like I’m hugging the air.” She said giggling. When he released the shadow and appeared, she rested her head on his shoulder. “I’m really sorry about before. I didn’t intend to hurt your feelings with how I let the guys harass you.”

“I am a demon though…” he whispered, his voice cracking the anger from early changing into despair.

Raising her head, Malera looked at him confused and asked, “You said that before, but what do you mean by that?”

“I learned that I’m actually half demon, like those that appeared in the War of Light and Dark. That’s why I told you to forget about what you said earlier.”

Stepping away from him, her face was a mixture of fear and concern. “I knew that there was something different about you, but to say that you had demon blood in you.” She paused trying to gain composure over her emotions, trying to figure out is she believed him, or not.

Before Kendrolgo could hide himself and get away, Malera slapped his face. “So what if you have demon blood in you!” She exclaimed. “Did you think that my feelings for you were that weak?” she said quietly, tears forming in her eyes. Even though she didn’t seem to completely believe him, she still looked hurt by the thought that he didn’t believe her sincerity.

“I’m sorry,” was all he could say after her outburst.

They stood there in uncomfortable silence, looking at each other both trying to figure out what everything meant at that moment. Kendrolgo didn’t understand how Malera could even feel what she claimed she felt. For all he knew, she could just be acting out some kind of fantasy or something. In the village he was considered to be a rebel who didn’t belong, and she could just be curious as to what it would be like to date him.

“So what do you do inside the forest all day?” She asked him, trying to break the silence. Casually she started to walk deeper into the forest, lightly jumping between the roots of the trees till see reached the moss covered ground.

As she reached the area of the forest with the demon flowers, they appeared to light around her like the night sky.

Glancing down at the demon flowers around her, she looked up and asked, “How can these flowers be called demon flowers, especially when they look so beautiful?”

The question was something he had asked himself a countless times, but now began to understand that it was probably because of the way he saw the world. The flowers had a glowing aspect to them, when he looked through his eyes. They radiated dazzling colors, and this was one of the reasons why he loved coming to this forest, aside from the darkness that seemed to stay regardless of the time of day.

“I don’t know,” he lied, hiding his suspicions from her. The last thing he wanted to do was widen any difference between him and humanity, especially her though he didn’t really know why.

Twirling around and enjoying the demon flowers, she suddenly paused and tilted her head listening to something off in the distance.

“What’s wrong?” He asked her, worry in his voice.

Looking at him all she said was, “I think I hear screaming coming from the village.”

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Author's Note: How's that for an ending to a chapter? Hopefully not too cliche. haha