Chapter 5: Afraid The Sad Boy

Sammy did not look back even once. He had this imaginary feeling that if he looked back his illusion of escape would be shattered. He knew how Dogoud Hemmel would feel when he saw what he told his ghouls to do and he would not be ready to feel the wrath of a Journeyman knight. Once he felt he was far enough, he rested onto a tree and changed back to his human form. He let out a sigh of relief when he did not see a sword wielding hulk after him. He did not know where he was so he had to be vigilant. After a quick rest, he started walking around till he found a footpath.

He followed this footpath for half a day then he found the destination; it was a small village. He watched from a far how the village worked. In the morning, the village hunters would take their traps and baskets then head off to capture their game. Women were cooking for the villagers and children were still slugging behind. At noon, fishermen went to the river and caught fish for lunch. The children were in high spirits and were all over playing. In the evening, the hunters came back with game or no game. He watched this village for one week and he came to know of a child they called the devil child.

This child was born with snake like eyes and had incredible strength. He could break an adult's arm when he was five while arm wrestling and now that he were ten years old, he was becoming a nuisance. The boy would run around the village bringing chaos with him and this became the usual story until his father locked him up. His father was a knight, a Journeyman Knight as a matter of fact so he could keep up.

The boy felt so lonely he could smell it. The second week, he decided to visit him. The boy was watching the village from his window when a blue hummingbird flew into his room. He was surprised for small animals like this one would just scuttle off when they smelt his scent but he was relieved. He watched to see what the bird would do but it suddenly turned into a blue cat.

"Why would a boy be locked up in a house?" the cat spoke in a lazy drawl. The boy was shocked to say the least.

"You can talk? How can you talk? Is this real?" the boy asked in panic and wonder.

"My lips are moving and words are coming out of my mouth. Perhaps he was locked up for being stupid," the cat said.

"Hey, I'm not stupid!" the boy shouted at him.

"Then perhaps you shouldn't be locked up," the cat drawled.

"Who are you?"

"Why, you can't manage the voices in your head?" the cat spoke again in an even more lazy drawl.

"Because I want to know the name of the guy I am kicking his ass," the boy shouted and charged at Sammy who just jumped out of the way. The boy whizzed past him and crashed into the wall, bringing it down,

"Careful, too many hits on the head can cause serious damage," Sammy taunted. The boy was incised by the way this car was talking so he charged again. This went on until there was no more house and the boy was lying on the ground, panting.

"Isn't that better, sunshine and fresh air, just the stuff for a good nap," Sammy said and lay comfortably on the boy's back. He was too tired to stop Sammy so he just went with the flow. He was surprised when he suddenly felt sleepy. He closed his eyes reluctantly and fell asleep.

In the evening, his father came and when he saw the destroyed building, he was furious. He grounded him but realized the house was gone so he punished him by building it up. The following day, he went with the hunters to catch game, leaving the boy miserably wondering of how to do his punishment. He remembered the pompous cat/hummingbird from yesterday and got furious.

"What's this now? The boy was told to build a house that he destroyed," the cat's voice reached his ears. He looked up and saw the blue cat sitting on branch watching him with these intelligent but mocking blue eyes. He felt his anger boiling inside him.

"This is all your fault you blue eyed freak!" he shouted and threw a brick at him but the cat lazily dodged it making him even more furious.

"Perhaps if you can catch me I will help you," the cat told him.

The boy ended up wasting another day chasing the cat around. When evening came, the cat disappeared and he got to look around the compound. Trees had been uprooted, holes were everywhere and his job was not even started! He immediately knew his father was gonna kick his little butt and he did. He was spanked so hard he was given punishment by his mother to sit but his aching butt would make him shoot right back to his feet. They did not sleep outside though but in his grandparent's house.

"Honey, I am worried about Adrian. I saw excitement in his eyes for these two days. I think he might be happy destroying things," his mother told her husband.

"Nonsense. Adrian would never do this willingly. There might be some thing else going on that we don't know about," he said.

"Why don't you spy on him all day tomorrow and see what is happening," his wife said and he agreed with a nod.

The following day, Adrian was doing his punishment but the blue cat never showed. The first two hours he was glad but later, he felt sad then depressed until he burst out crying. He felt as if his only friend had left him. His father was watching this in alarm. That night, Adrian did not eat his dinner and went to bed early.

"What happened?" his mother asked his father.

"He was doing fine for two hours then he started looking around anxiously as if he was searching for someone. When the person did not come, he cried till evening,"

"You think this person might have bad thoughts about our son?"

"I think he or she did not come because I was watching. That means he is weaker than me or he would have shown up just to flaunt it. For now, I think Adrian is safe," he answered her.

"But just be careful. This guy must be up to something bad.

The following day, Adrian was still upset about the other day. He looked forward for today but an hour after he started his punishment, the cat never showed up. He started crying after two hours. He did not see the blue cat creeping onto the pile of bricks and lying on them, resuming it's lazy posture.

"Tis tis tis. This old cat found a snotty little brat crying for his mother," Adrian heard the lazy drawl from the familiar voice. He turned around as he wiped off his tears and turned around.

"These are manly tears," he said. The cat just snorted at this then turned into a hawk. He sank its claws into the boy's shirt then flew them up to the sky. Adrian was panicking but he did not struggle. He just let the hawk take him where it wanted and Sammy was surprised and touched by the boy's trust in him. When he thought they were high enough, he stopped.

"Boy, do you see what is below you?" he asked.

"Now, all I see is green and brown," Adrian answered.

"This is what gods see us. We are just ants to them, playthings. They send out 'destinies' to us mortals and it becomes a sick joke to them as they watch us do just as they say. I heard from a villager of how a god came to your father and he sealed a demon emperor's core inside you just to make sure it does not reincarnate. Boy, a god can wipe out a Demon Emperor, why does he need mortals to lock it away? You are a pawn and you are dancing in their palm," Sammy said.

"What should I do? Do I make my own destiny?" Adrian said but Sammy laughed.

"Destiny, it is nothing but a malleable force. If you will be brainwashed then your destiny is to be a slave. But if you break the brainwash, you change that destiny and the previous one will shift. Destiny is written as we live. Your destiny will end once your soul becomes dust. So, boy, do not be misled. When you become powerful enough, come find me. My name is Sammy." With that, Sammy flew back to the ground and put Adrian there. He then flew away, leaving a somber boy behind.

Sammy landed at another footpath and started walking away from the village while whistling. He did not know he was the cause of the rise of the Demon Emperor Adrian's rise to battle gods. He was ignorant that this big wig would be one of his many friends that fought heaven so that they could free him when he killed a god because he wanted to ascend; but that's a story for later.

Two days later, he found a larger rood that he saw was frequently used by coaches and carriages. Excitedly, he followed the road and it led to people he hated with passion, Templers. He wanted to charge in and start wrecking havoc but something he heard made him change his mind.

"The Holy Son is officially going to start his training to be the new Pope, isn't that grand?"

"I still can't believe we are escorting him to the capital,"

"Keep your voice down, trees have ears,"

"Sorry. Prince Evans has been the most blessed person ever; he even has said to be baptized by light magic at birth! I bet some brothers will feel pretty mad about this,"

"Like the new Arch Bishop, Sorelito Lockheart. His father was a bishop in the kingdom of Leon. It must have hit him hard when he realized that he was killed by a woman he swore he would marry one day,"

Sammy suddenly had a crazy thought in his mind. He had lost his magic training books and griomores in the cathedral but this boy would have first class access to books not even the royal family had. He changed into a rat and snuck into the boy's carriage. He found him meditating. He changed into his human self and woke the boy up. When he opened his eyes, Sammy was surprised when he saw two golden runic irises looking at him.

"You are a creature loved deeply by the darkness," the boy said.

"Those eyes are truly magnificent. I would have loved to keep them and you as trophies but when I heard the name Lockheart you just became collateral," Sammy said then his eyes shone blue and he immediately sank his fangs into the boy's neck. As he drank his blood, he felt as if his soul was being washed away. He felt as if he had come into balance! When he was done with his feeding, he felt powerful! He looked at his nodes and realized that his magic node had formed the fifth node and the other four had been interconnected; the same thing about his beast nodes. He looked at the corpse of the boy then he exploded into blue smoke and out came the splitting image of him. He did not know he could do that with people.

"Guess every rank up brings new abilities; that's cool," he said as he took the boy's clothes, donned them on his own body then destroyed the body with Acid Spit. Just then, one Templar knocked at his door.

"Everything alright, Your Majesty? We heard a commotion inside,"

"Everything is much better now," Sammy answered with a smile on his face. He did not realize the runes in his eyes were revolving crazily when he was saying this. "Full speed to the capital, now!" The Templar nodded then went to inform the others.

"Lockheart, I wonder what would happen when I destroy the whole family? I will find out soon," he said to himself then chuckled evilly.