1 Chapter 1: I Want To Be A Demon When I Grow Up

Stories tell of demons around the world, powerful individuals who can alone turn the tides of war, move and form mountains, and even change the earth's climate for years to come. This power is only one that can be gifted by the gods to people who are deemed worthy in their eyes. A power so great, yet very scarce. There are very few who have such a level of power in this world. Some of them take it upon themselves to lead countries, others find it better to meditate in the mountains to ponder. A boy with horns, and a member of the Odocoi race, named Ardi [Ar-dee] Mashiripiti [Mah-shi-ree-pitee] wishes to become one when he is older, ignorant of the cruel path of obtaining such power. Our journey begins in the small village Yupr of the Dertoro Clan in the north of the Odocoi region.

"Ardi, Ardi wake up!" His father, Indrek, called out to him.

"Ugh! I don't want to!" Ardi said groggily, still half-asleep.

"You'll never get anywhere in life with that attitude!"

"Ugh! Fine, I'm getting up."

"Breakfast will be ready for you downstairs," Indrek says, leaving Ardi's room.

Ardi haphazardly gets out of bed and puts on his slightly tattered clothes, with his brown boots. His white, messy hair itches annoyingly. His bruise still throbs with pain. His blue eyes struggle to see clearly before he puts on his glasses. "Another day," he says to his pet bulbul (a type of bird), who often sits on his windowsill. "I can't wait until I get to leave this place and really work at becoming a Demon!" he says, looking out his window into the hilly terrain. The smell of breakfast slowly creeps into his bedroom, and he soon follows it into the dining room. "Hey dad."

"You sleep well, son?"

"I slept just fine." Ardi says, as he sits at the dining room table, food already prepared on a plate.

"You sure?"

"Yes, I'm fine." Ardi insists, slightly angrily.

"Hey, I'm just worried is all. Kaden and his pals gave you a good beating the other day."

"Can we not talk about that."

"Yeah sure, it's whatever," Indrek says. "I need you to go out and buy me some more medicine."

"Can't you do that yourself?"

"I could, but I gotta go out and meet up with Frazer."

"That guy?" Ardi rolls his eyes.

"Hey, he's a fine guy."

"Yeah, a fun drinking buddy right?"

"You know, you could learn a thing or two from him."

"And how could I learn anything useful from a drunk?"

"He used to be friends with a demon."

"Bullshit."

"It's true!" Indrek insists. "You can go and ask him."

"Yeah sure, next time I see him I'll ask." Ardi gets up and grabs his bag, "The medicine will be here when you get back."

"See you later then."

Ardi leaves without saying another word back and heads toward the doctor's place. His bulbul flies to him and sits on his shoulder. "That damn good-for-nothing dad, going out drinking again; I really shouldn't be surprised." The bulbul chirps and Ardi sighs. "Yeah, I know. It should be fine, especially once I'm able to live on my own. But I guess that can wait." Ardi says as he continues walking on the dirt road leading to town. A minute or two later of walking Ardi hears a familiar, yet displeasing voice from behind him. "Hey Ardi!"

"What do you want?" Ardi turns to see three boys, Kaden with his short stature, but strong physique, Jared who is tall and skinny, and Dylan who is big in both weight and height.

"You still walkin' after what we did to you?" Kaden says, walking aggressively towards Ardi.

"Yeah, but it's a bit hard. Now if all you wanted to do was ask about my physical condition, we can do that later, I'm a bit busy at the moment."

"Busy doin' what? Buyin' meds for your druggy dad?"

"Yes, buying meds for my 'druggy dad'."

"Well, we need to settle some more important matters."

"Like what?"

"Well you're out here, on our turf. " Kaden's friends begin to approach aggressively behind him.

"Turf, what do you mean turf? This is just a road."

"Anywhere 'round here is our turf, and you're walking right on it."

"Come on, you're seventeen. Can you please just leave me alone for one fucking day and not have the need to fill your twisted, childish desire for superiority over some other random kid?"

"The fuck you say? You callin' me childish?!" Kaden asks aggressively.

"Yeah, I just did. Now if you would please excuse me, I need to visit the doctor." Ardi turns around to continue walking, but Kaden grabs him by the shoulder and stops him.

"You're not going anywhere!" Kaden asserts as his friends get closer to Ardi.

Ardi recognizes where this is going and immediately books it into town; Kaden and his friends chase him. Ardi's been in this situation many times before. Kaden and the others have been bullying him ever since they were young, but only in the last few years has it gotten physical. He continues running to The Doctor. The Doctor has a rule set up: if there is any physical violence right outside of her building, the perpetrator will be responsible for the victim's medical expenses. It's pretty much the only truly safe place in the town.

As he continues to get chased, he passes people who glance apathetically. 'Of course they'd rather worry about their daily lives than the safety of a kid.' He just manages to make it to the building, out of breath and exhausted. "Goddamn you, fucking coward! Of course you'd rather cower behind some asshole doctor than take it like a man!" Kaden angrily asserts. Ardi falls on his knees, still catching up on his breathing. "At least I'm not some prick who would pick on someone for no reason." Ardi refutes.

"No reason? You're weak, the strong dominate the weak. It's only natural that we constantly put you in your place." He smiles, with some weird sense of pride.

"I'm the weak one?" Ardi gets up. "You're the one who needs two others just to pick on one person."

"Please," He rolls his eyes. "We could each take care of you by ourselves, it's just more fun with friends around."

"Yeah right, if it was just you, you wouldn't be able to lay a finger on me."

"The hell you say?"

"You're weaker than me, you can only win with numbers."

Kaden aggressively walks towards Ardi, and picks him up off the grab by his shirt. "You best watch your fucking mouth."

"You wanna bet?" Ardi smiles looking him dead in the eyes. Kaden punches him right in the face repeatedly, without hesitation. "You like that!? Is this what you wanted!?" He continues. Dylan and Jared start to hold him back, "Hey we need to go, Doctor 12 o'clock," Dylan calls out. Kaden gets up and spits on Ardi, "Piece of shit." They begin to scram as the Doctor rushes over, "Hey! Get back here!" They don't listen to her and continue to run away. "Those little shits," She says as she turns toward Ardi and inspects his face. "This again? You need to stop aggravating them."

"Hey, they're gonna try and beat me up regardless. So it's pretty much free treatment every time it happens."

"And what would you do if you didn't have my office to come to?" She stands up and offers him a hand.

"Well that's not the case, is it?" He grabs her hand and gets up.

"Stubborn as ever I see. Are you here for your father's medicine again?"

"Yeah, of course."

"Then come in," She says as she unlocks and opens up her office. Ardi follows her into a small doctor's office with some tools, potions, and a place to rest the patient. She goes to the backroom full of medicine, potions, books, and other equipment, opening a drawer with the desired medication. "This is it." She says, giving it to Ardi. "Thanks."

"Now sit down and let me take a look at you."

Ardi does so and The Doctor begins to inspect his injury. "He really went at it, didn't he?"

"Yeah, it sure felt like that." He chuckles.

"This isn't funny. One of these days he might go too far."

"That's why I have this place."

"My healing abilities are limited you know! If he snaps and does something really serious, I won't be able to fully heal you."

"He may be an idiot, but he's not that stupid. That would land him in a world of trouble."

"Well when someone's in the right mood, they will do anything without any regard for the consequences. Why do you think people who aren't psychopaths still end up killing people? I mean he beat you in front of my office, that's definitely a red flag."

"Okay okay, I'll try not to push him 𝘵𝘰𝘰 far off the edge."

A light glow comes from her hands and she begins to heal him. "Seriously, promise me you won't aggravate him anymore, or else I won't provide protection or medicine for you."

"Fine." Ardi says hesitantly. "I promise I'll try not to aggravate him anymore."

"Good." The glow begins to fade as she finishes up. "You can leave now, I have a few patients who need to visit today."

"Thanks for the help." He gets up and heads to the door.

"Remember, try not to get in any more fights." She waves him bye.

"Yeah, I know." He says as he exits the building.

'Damn, that kinda hurt. Maybe I should stop aggravating him, at least for now.' He puts the medicine in his bag. His bulbul lands on his shoulder, "Oh hey, I didn't even realize you left." He pets the bird with a light smile. "I guess you left at the right time. I wouldn't want Kaden or something hurting you." He begins heading home and eventually gets there about half an hour later. The house is empty, and Ardi puts the medicine on the dining room table for Indrek later.

He goes up to his room and lays back down on his bed, "Bulbul, what are your thoughts?"

<Chirp Chirp>

"Yeah maybe, you're right."

<Chirp>

"I don't know, that sounds like a weird idea."

<Chirp Chirp Chirp>

"You know what, good idea. I'll do that, but maybe later. Right now I'm feeling a bit tired. I wasn't exactly planning on getting chased." He says as he yawns. "Alright, I'm gonna take a nap. You can chill here, maybe go out and get something to eat."

<Chirp>

"Yeah sure, goodnight." Ardi says as he turns over to take a nap. He wakes up a few hours later and looks around, seeing his bird sitting on his window sill. "Oh hey, you're still here."

<Chirp>

"Oh yeah!" Ardi gets up out of bed, grabs his things, and looks outside to check the time. "Damn, I slept until afternoon. Well, I think I know where I need to go." He leaves with his bird and goes to the tavern where, when he gets there, he sees his father drinking with someone at a table. He walks over to them. "Hey Ardi, what're you doing here?" Indrek asks, slightly slurring his words. Ardi takes a seat. "I wanted to talk to your drunk of a friend."

"Oh, you mean Frazer?" He puts his arm around his drunk friend.

"Th-the hell you doin' that for?" Frazer asks with his raspy voice, slurring his words. He looked a bit older, and a bit roughed up, but that was probably because of the drinking.

"My son here came to learn something from you!" Indrek says, smiling.

"This kid?"

"Yes, this kid."

"What does he want?"

"I want to know about a previous friend on yours." Ardi asks, in a formal tone.

"A previous friend of mine, I don't got no friends other than this guy." He puts his arms around Indrek with a wide smile.

"No, I heard you were once friends with a demon."

Frazer drops the smile and removes his arm from around Indrek. "That's not something I want to talk about.." His voice became cold and worn, it held a very somber tone.