1 A glorious day to pick up a red-eyed stranger

    What is power? What is strength? What is a god, and what can be considered a devil? I ask you these questions knowing that I will receive no answer. I ask you this knowing that a stake will pierce my heart any second now. I am Tye Jones, and this is how I became the king of demons, and the most hated being in history.

This story begins in the heart of a little town called Simmor, in the beautiful world that we called Talling. In Simmor there lived a young man named Tye Jones. He was a strapping young man with the muscles of a beast and the charm of a fox. And he was super-rich like he had the bank.

Fine, you caught me, he was a weakling and a bookworm. Tye, of course, was nothing more than a mere farmhand. Day in and day out that farmhand did what he was told. When the farmer wanted him to feed the pigs, he fed the pigs. When he wanted the pens and stables cleaned, Tye would clean the pens and stables. And when the farmer was drunk (which he was more often than not) and needed a punching bag, Tye was that punching bag.

 Why did the young man not leave, you ask? Well, truth be told he would have left if he thought that was an option, however that old farmer was none other than Tye's father. And to make matters worse he was a self-proclaimed coward. He believed that being a coward was what has kept him alive as a child on the streets after his mother's death.

 Before the young man reached his father's farm he had to wander halfway across Talling. During this period of his childhood, Tye never took any unnecessary risks, so he didn't even talk to anyone. Actually, it was strange to be so weak in such a terrifying world. The world of Talling was filled with dangerous people, and even more perilous creatures. In his childhood travels, Tye had overheard many rumors of many demons such as giants, goblins, werewolves, and most horrifying of all, at least in Tye's young eyes, vampires. Bloodsucking creatures that had the strength of five barbarians, the speed of a cheetah, and the ability to create an army if they deemed it necessary.

     Luckily for Tye, the rumors all said that these demons would, and some believed could not leave the forests. As a result, Tye never went anywhere near the forests. Of course, this added months to a journey that would have taken three and a half years on forest trails. He reached his current destination at the age of eleven and had been living on his father's farm for four years. This now brings us to the true beginning of his story.

 The day after this young lad's fifteenth birthday he began to feel a bit cocky. This was because the day before his father had allowed Tye to drink with him and a few of his friends. Though this may have seemed normal for most people in Talling, to Tye this was the biggest event in his life. This is because his father never really took much interest in him unless he was beating him.

 "Lad," his father had said, "I know that you may despise me, but today is the day you become 15 years old, today I will show you your first taste of manhood." At least that's what Tye remembered him saying. Of course, the entire day was a blur of booze and taverns throughout Simmor whenever he tried to remember it.

 So there he was feeling as gleeful as a smiling child, with the breeze blowing his curly dark brown hair, and the moonlight glittering on his light brown skin. When he heard a crash in the nearby forest. Usually, he would have acted like nothing had happened and would have tried to walk away, but his newfound confidence allowed him to run toward the sound. However, even with this surprising push of bravery, he couldn't help but be afraid. He was heading toward the one place he never even wanted to think about, and worst of all he was heading there knowing something might be wrong.

As he came over the edge of the hill that bordered the forest he noticed a carriage flipped onto the side. "Please don't be demons, please don't be demons," he muttered to himself involuntarily. Before he could fully see the wagon he saw a tall figure in a black cloak that shrouded the shape of its body. He couldn't tell whether the figure was a man or a woman, but he had a gut feeling that whoever they were they were trouble.

 "Excuse me," he began despite his fear, "what happened here?" After he had said this the figure craned its neck to see the confused Tye standing across from it. In doing so the figure revealed long blonde hair and piercing cold blue eyes. Still, what Tye now realized was a woman was wearing a mask that covered her face from the bridge of her nose and down. Having finally noticed him the mysterious woman ran into the forest. "Wait," he yelled, but it was too late she had already left, "well if that wasn't the strangest…"

 "Help somebody, anybody," a feminine voice groaned from inside the over flipped carriage. Tye ran towards the carriage, evermore curious about the blonde woman.

 "I'm coming," he announced as he climbed onto the top of the carriage. He bent over and grabbed hold of the door's handle and pulled with his seemingly twig-like arms. After a minute of struggling he managed to open the door, only to come face to face with one of the most beautiful girls he had ever seen, she could not have been more than a year older than him. She had a skin that was not so much brown, but tan, and her hair was a silky brown color. But most importantly, her eyes, her eyes were the most beautiful, the brightest scarlet color he had ever seen.

 "I didn't know eyes could be such a beautiful color," he said captivated by them.

 "Really?" the girl questioned him somewhat surprised, "they changed to this color not too long ago, though no one's called them beautiful before."

 "You must be joking, I've never seen eyes such a stunning color before, what's your name miss?"

 The girl paused as though the answer was somewhat confusing to her. After a few seconds of consideration, the girl looked up and answered. "Olivia," she said, "my name is Olivia Henning, and you are."

 "My name is Tye, Tye Jones, it is very nice to meet you, Olivia Henning." He said with a smirk fighting for room on his face. 

 "So, could you get me out of this carriage, or…"

     "Yes, yes, sorry, of course…" he stammered through his words awkwardly as he pulled her through the door of the overturned carriage. And as he looked into those captivating eyes he couldn't help but think about the woman who had run away from the scene. 

 After helping Olivia off of the carriage he began to feel a growing curiosity about this new face with extraordinary eyes.

 "So, how did your ride end up in such an odd situation?" Tye asked while pointing at the overturned carriage. 

     The girl looked back at the carriage and seemed to, at least to Tye, begin deciding whether she should speak to him or not.

 "It's fine if you rather not speak to a strange boy whom you've just met, but I assure you I mean you no harm."

 "No, no, sorry it's not that, I'm just not sure how it happened myself. We were traveling down the trail on our way to Dastin when an arrow struck one of our horses, the horses panicked and ran this way, but not before my driver was killed by another arrow," she explained in a very unsettling tone that was somewhere between angry and amused.

 "You must have been terrified!"

     "Not really, those arrows couldn't injure me even if they did reach me."

 "What?"

 "Moving on, where am I exactly?" she asked in a hurried voice.

 "You're in Simmor, but what did you say about…"

 "Simmor!" she yelled cutting off Tye's next question, "This could add an extra three days to my journey, let alone finding another carriage!" she said before beginning to storm off along the trail into town.

 "Wait, where are you going?" Tye asked, feeling both confusion and worry. Tye knew that very few people in the town-owned carriages, let alone allowed strangers to use them. Of course, he could allow her to use it…

 "Wait, I have a carriage," Olivia stopped as soon as he said those words, "I have a carriage, and I can give you a ride to Dastin." 

"Well, why didn't you tell me that before?" she questioned rhetorically.

"Actually, there is one teeny-tiny problem with the carriage…"

"What is it! It better not take too long, I have to be in Dastin in five days."

"It's nothing," he said sheepishly, "let's go get our ride, follow me." Tye began walking towards home without checking if she was behind him in fear that she would see the worry on his face.

    Sorry father, he thought to himself, but I'm taking the carriage for a little trip.