CHAPTER 2: The dead forest.

He wandered over the crooked wasteland all on his own. Somewhere in the distance he could see creatures fighting and their deafening cries echoed over the nearly empty plane.

Despite being incredibly curious he could not allow himself to come any closer. He would get trampled under the sheer might of these colossal beasts.

On his way to who knows where he even passed some structures. Some where large with stone altars in the centre. Others were small and close to each other. Maybe at one-point creatures had lived here. But now most of them were just a husk of what they once were.

Eventually he reached a small river. Tough he did not feel thirst for some reason, he was still covered in the slimy substance that was with him in the egg. It was sticky and it smelled truly annoying, so he decided to try and wash it off.

He jumped in the water that was icy cold in comparison the hot air surrounding it. As he had hoped the slime egg substance easily came off and he was no longer tormented by the stickiness and smell.

If he stood still for a moment and allowed the wrinkles in the water to disappear, he could even see his own reflection.

His face was naturally angelic. His eyes were completely black with the exception of the pearl withe pupils that even seemed to glow a little. Much like with the rest of his body he even had a black stripe over his face. That bled down from his right eye socket down his cheek. If he wanted to, he could stretch out his mouth filled with long sharp teeth until it almost reached his long downcurved ears.

Apart from his face his entire head was surrounded by white fluffy hair that danced like a flame every time he moved. He had two curved horns that faced forward like a bulls if you looked at it from a weird angle one could actually compare them to the ears of a bunny.

He did not really know what to think of his appearance. But that wouldn't change anything anyways.

He crawled out of the river and continued his journey.

After searching for a few hours, he found a forest filled with seemingly dead trees. Here it was almost completely silent. He could no longer hear the roars and cries from the creatures in the distance.

With was a verry good thing. His bone wite appearance stook out like a sore thumb in the dark red wasteland with random fires. Among the cold and grey of these trees it would be a lot harder for stronger creatures to notice him.

He changed his legs to digitigrade, this time from his own will. If he walked on his toes, then he would cover less ground and there was a smaller chance for him to step one a random branch that would give away his location.

But the deeper he went into the forest the more he noticed the small specks of light that filled the trees. These small sparkles resembled the one he took from his dead sibling. Yet these were so small and faint that one could barely notice it.

A few dozens of meters further he could hear whispering coming from all directions. The voices were many and soft, so it was had to tell what they were speaking about.

The trees started to look the same and the branches were closing in om him like birdcages. The thick fog covering the floor like a carpet made it harder for him to see further than a few meters in front of him.

He was greatly irritated by this. He wanted to know what the whispers were talking about and where they came from. How could he do that if he couldn't even see properly?

Eventually he reached a cave hidden behind some of these strange trees. But when he wanted to pass by the trees to reach the cave, he suddenly heard a voice.

"Don't you dare come any closer! Stay away demon."

The moment he heard the words he immediately started to understand what they meant. He looked up at the only thing where the voice possibly could have come from, the tree.

Now that he looked at one of them a little closer, he realised that they hall had a vaguely humanoid figure hidden amongst the branches. Only this one seemed to be holding something. It had a second small light. The origin of this small light seemed to be a smaller version of itself.

He couldn't help but to feel delighted. This thing had called him a demon. For the first time in his still verry short life he vaguely had an idea what he was.

With wide eyes he happily looked up at the tree like thing.

"What do you want fiend? If it is a soul take mine already, just don't touch my child."

The tree seemed to be verry uneasy. But with her feet nailed to the ground there was no way that she could run away from the new-born demon.

"What is it? Why aren't you doing anything?"

Still not fully knowing how to pronounce many words, he could not answer her question. Let alone ask the tree more about the world and himself.

Eventually he managed to mutter a few words that he heard the tree speak. "What… is you?""

"Even though I am locked here like this, I am a human. Never seen one of those before?" The tone of the 'human' was almost mocking.

When Sirin shook his head the expression of the human changed and turned a little gentler. "You just hatched, didn't you? Well, it does make sense you are a lot smaller than the other one that passed by here."

The human sighed. "Fine. If you want to, I will let you stay in the cave behind me. But if you even dare to touch my child, I will let other demons know you are here. And they would certainly enjoy a little snack like you."

He nodded and walked past the human tree. He would not refuse her offer. At the moment he was still too small and too weak to wander around. And if he really did have to hide until he was stronger, then he might as well stay here and learn more words from her.