I woke up because of damn Mejni, who was pulling my tie. Well, the first day of catastrophic events ended with me having a little bit of strain on my right foot. It was a bad idea to do the last small jump with only my right foot, but we were still alive. I decided to rest in the shade of a tree, but it was night. I was a little curious about how they controlled night and day here; it must be some experiment that worked. They should share it with Earth so we do not have to depend on the real sun in about a million years.
Something not far away from us was burning in a circle. It had lit up the whole area around the three, as if it wanted us to notice it. I got up and moved forward to check it out, with Mejni climbing up on my head. I am too tired to fight with the Cat right now. As we came closer, the fire changed colour to purple and a text appeared above it.
"Box?"
Nothing happened, so it wasn't the second stage.
"Gandrael?...Book?"
Nothing, did the book break after a while when we entered the world? The text above it was just three words: 'Save the child!'
"Cat! Do you know what it is?"
"Nho!"
"I wonder if this is a request from Gandrael, or maybe the book is broken. It does look like a portal, but it is pitch black inside the circle." I said, forgetting I was talking with myself because Mejni isn't a coffee buddy you take with you when you want to discuss something. A wall is probably better to take with you when commenting, as it is quiet, rather than giving you jibberish answers.
I took down Mejni from my head as he stared at the portal, and I threw him at the center of the circle, but he hit his head and fell on the grass, bouncing back to me.
"Oh shit! I miscalculated, I thought you were going to go through it!" I tried explaining to him as his eyes turned red again, and he attacked me when two hands came up from the ground and pulled me down, with Mejni holding my blazer.
The pitch-black darkness turned to woods around me, and I looked around. We were definitely not in the same place. Mejni released my blazer as his eyes returned to black while we watched the surroundings. The question was not where we were; the question was which woods we were in. I did not recognize the woods from home. Something was scrambling in the bushes, and I hurried to get up when a little girl in a maid's outfit came out. She looked like the one I fought in the classroom, but this one looked like a four- or five-year-old.
"Elloh!" She said, smiling at us.
"Hey! What is your name, little girl?" I tried asking by raising my hand with a big smile.
She put her hand on her chest and answered:
"Me, Me, Shtella!"
"Ah, Stella! My name is Berk, and the Cat is Mejni."
"Cam, Met Mameh, Papeh!" She said and started walking on one of the paths.
Mejni climbed onto my shoulder, and I turned to look at him as he smiled at me with his eyes closed.
"You are climbing up on my shoulder so you can use me as a shield, aren't you?"
He kept smiling, the bastard, playing it safe. If we get hit, I will take the whole damage while he can jump off my shoulder. The little girl turned around and lifted her hand at us.
"Cam, Cam!"
After following her for a while on the path, we came out to a village. The definition of low-budget was really in full-on mode here. There were several huts and a couple of cabins in a half circle out in the middle of the woods with a bigger road leading away from the village. Stella went into one of the cabins, and we followed her.
Inside, a woman was setting up the table with wooden plates; well, everything was wood. Mejni jumped off me and attacked a Melon in the basket.
"Oh my! I suppose the little one was thirsty." The woman commented, continuing, "Who is the stray that my daughter has brought home this time?"
I scratched the back of my head, and I felt it was a little bit awkward.
"Hi, ma'am! I am Berk, the one eating the melon is Mejni."
She smiled back at me and said:
"Do not worry, Berk! You are not the first stowaway she has brought home. Please, make yourself comfortable and sit down at the table, join us for supper."
Supper...haha! That is such a British, hm...Are we in England or maybe Ireland? Nah... can be Scotland, too, but she doesn't have a Scottish accent. Not the Irish either, perhaps the maid is from England, but her hair is way too dark, more like black. Can it be that her mother is maybe from England? I wonder where her father is from. I felt a breeze on my neck, and it didn't stop, so I turned around and stared at someone's chest. I had a feeling I wasn't one of the strong citizens in this village when I got my ass kicked by a ten-year-old. Looked up and saw a man in his mid-40s staring down at me and growling with his red eyes. He pressed his pointing finger at my chest, and I backed away a couple of steps before he entered the cabin and sat down, engaging with Stella.
"Hahaha! You do not have to be scared of my husband. He does not say much, but he arrived a little earlier than usual. He must be really hungry today. Please, sit down, and I will get the burned potatoes."
Burned potatoes, owaow! That just took the low-budget level beneath the trashcan level. Why does the Cat get melon, and I get burned potatoes?
I moved to the opposite side of the big guy as he stared at me like he was ready to go at any moment in a fight against me. Mejni climbed up on my shoulder and stretched out his whole body over my neck, covering both shoulders as if the bastard was going to take a nap.
"You and the Meerkat seem to be really close, are you family?" The woman asked as she put the...burned potatoes on the table.
I gave her a smirk because I couldn't tell her that I wished she could cook him instead, so that I could get rid of him. The red-eyed guy would probably eat him without hesitation.
"Well, we meet on the road, so we are just traveling together for a while."
"Kill!" The red-eyed guy commented.
"Stop it, Tharfyl! I am so sorry about my husband; he has not eaten meat for a while. I think he was looking at your travel pet on your shoulders, and it made him miss it."
Please, take him, cook him, kill him.
"Oh...Eh...Okay!"
"You have to beg my pardon for not introducing myself properly. My name is Magdalena Ven Kotte. The big man here is my husband, Tharfyl Ven Kotte, and the little one is Stella. Then there is her brother, also, but he is serving in the war right now as a soldier for the Demon Army."
Of all the things I just heard, what stuck in my mind was Kotte, because Kotte means Cone in Swedish. So this is the Ven Cone Kotte family. Do not laugh, Berk. Do not laugh; hold it in.
"Oh! Is a war going on?" That was close, good play, holding in your laughter.
"Yes, you were lucky Stella did not kill you both," Magdalena said.
Mejni woke up from his nap and leaned his upperbody on my head, like I was carrying a child on my shoulder. He probably got interested when she said that we were lucky not to be killed. Pfft! How is a four-year-old killing us? What a joke.
"Eh, kill us?"
Magdalena laughed, and the red guy looked like he was choking on a potato.
"Is he alright?" I asked.
"Oh, yes! Do not worry. That is how he laughs, he was laughing at your surprised look." She paused and then continued, "Stella is half Demon and Half Witch. She did not show you her red eyes because you posed no threat."
The red guy kept choking while I was stunned by the mother's comment, even if the child is half demon and half witch. It is still a child.
"Did she think we were too weak?" I asked.
"Yes, that is correct!" Magdalena answered.
The sound of something hitting the ground outside made the table bounce, shit, what the hell was that? A roar came from outside, and civilians were screaming. We all got up, and Magdalena grabbed Stella and gave her to me, and said with a serious look on her face:
"Keep her safe!"
Both of them ran out of the cabin, and it was chaos as parents tried to guide their children into the woods to get away. The sun disappeared for a moment as it grew dark, and I looked up to see black wings spread wide, covering the sun. A big foot was approaching the village when the couple with red and blue light used their powers to keep it from slamming down on the rest of the homes.
I took a couple of steps out onto the grass with Stella in my arms while Mejni rushed forward to try to help, but stopped when he realized we were completely useless against a giant monster of that size. The red and blue auras they were mounting out were saving many citizens, preventing the foot from destroying everyone's home.
"GO!" Magdalena's scream echoed over the whole village. She was serious, the look in her eyes.
I nodded and started to stumble towards the woods, ignoring the pain in my right foot. When we were about to enter the woods, my body suddenly stopped, and I tripped back, noticing Stella's hands gushing with a black aura as she slowly got pulled towards Magdalena. I tried pulling her back with Mejni helping out in the front, but she kept floating above the grass towards her mother. I tried with all my strength, but she was way too strong for me when we came close up and were under the foot with both parents crying while doing everything in their power to hold up the foot. Stella's black aura in the air was leading to Magdalena.
"Witches who have a close bond with their mothers can connect in ways that are not possible for others. Take her to safety, please!" She said, then started mumbling to herself.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, MAGDALENA?" I yelled to her.
Her eyes turned crystal blue as she swept her hand from left to right, and the black aura cut midway.
"I do not have any bond anymore with my daughter!"
I grabbed Stella and got my eyes a little bit watery as I hurried towards the woods and turned around to look at the parents when the foot slammed down, crushing them. Stella was crying and screaming after her mother, and I kept moving as far away as possible. Mejni climbed up on my shoulder when a portal just appeared from nowhere in front of me, and we passed through it.
I hit a wall and fell on my back, feeling the rocky ground, which made it a little painful. Someone grabbed me with red hands and pulled me up quickly as something with two horns and sharp, scary teeth was staring at me.
"Gran te Kvampan!" It said and pushed me back as I suddenly found myself in a row surrounded by strange creatures. Beside me was a girl with red eyes... wait a minute, that is Stella, and she was still wearing a maid outfit. Mejni zigzagged between several creatures and climbed up on my shoulders.
"Why do you interrupt the leader's speech?. Do you want to get thrown out of the camp?" Stella angrily commented.
"Camp?"
"Yes, you idiot. We need to pass the camp as Demon soldiers for the army; that is why we are here."
I looked around, and there was not a single human or human-looking individual except for Stella, but she wasn't even human.
Why are we in a demon camp?