A Loyal Companion
Prologue

She found herself crouching on the ground behind a bush as she escaped the two demons earlier. This isn’t going to work, she mumbled as she felt her way forward. The crescent moon didn’t give enough illumination for her naked eyes to see her way around, and her human eyes weren’t adjusted to see in the dark. She knew she was an easy prey, but she prayed for a safe passage. The witch in her demanded her to fight, but the human in her wanted to hide away and forget whatever was going on. Leave it for the ones who can handle it. Her mission was to close the portal. How, she’d replace out later.

Zae stopped as she heard a rustle from behind her.What is it? She didn’t want to turn, she was scared to replace another demon behind her. She was scared to see her own death coming at her. When the rustle stopped, she crept forward again. A few inches forward and the rustle came again. With all the braveness in her, she summoned a spell, which worked like a radar, pinging back whatever energy emitted from living beings around here. There, it was something small. Could be an injured animal, she thought. Feeling better, she turned to the source of the rustle. Behind the bush, she squeezed her eyes twice, not believing that she had found a glowing infant. Surprised, she took the infant in her arms, adding to her surprise, the infant didn’t make a noise. His eyes were opened already, those glowing golden eyes gave Zae more courage than she thought she could have. Immediately she recognized him.

This cannot be true. She trembled as she held the baby close in her arms.

“Why have you descended, my Lord?” she whispered in the infant’s ear. The infant gave her an innocent smile, and tugged her curly hair in his fingers. Zae took her shawl off and rounded it to the baby, so she had free hands while carrying the baby on her back.

“I cannot leave you here, but if you wish to come with me, I must let you know, I am no warrior, but I will do my best to keep you safe”. The baby giggled in respond, which she took as a yes.

Once again Zae felt her way out of the bush, crawling towards the portal. I can do this. She pressed her palms together, summoning her braveness that was wearing thin, but before she could act upon it, her hands were forced apart. She gasped in fear at the ghouls who suddenly surrounded her.

“Let go of me!” she screamed as she fought for her freedom. She wasn’t a fighter, she was weak, but one thing the ghouls did not know was that she had one wicked tongue. The ghouls dragged her towards the portal, one of them took the baby from Zae.

“Not the baby! Leave the baby here!” she begged and begged, but none listened. They knew who the baby was.

The ghouls talked in the language she couldn’t understand, and soon she found her wrists tied together and she was dragged on the ground. The second she entered the portal, despair, pain and numbness filled her. She peeked at the infant only to replace that he was crying. With all hope left in her, she finally spoke her mother tongue. In an instant, her life force was taken from her, she laid limp but still breathing, having that little drop of life left in her, all ghouls surrounding them went into ashes, leaving her and the infant and traces of the portal, a small opening was still left in the midair, in the matter of minutes, the portal would completely disappear from the face of the earth.

With her dying breath, she pulled the baby into her arms, and whispered with her last breath, “Live”.

As if he understood, the baby laughed, and glowed brighter, filling the darkness with a blinding light. Zae’s lifeless body gave out a faint white glow that fed into the infant’s aura. Big explosion followed soon after.