The Stranger

Rana started his bike. Zolo was confused.

"Hey Rana, your friend is missing, leaving a huge trail of blood and you don't seem concerned at all! What the heck is wrong with you?" Zolo shouted at him angrily.

"Zoe is not my friend. She was just a mere acquaintance. That's all. Nothing else." Rana said with a blank expression in his face.

"Oh man, that was cold." Zolo awed. The truth was Rana didn't really care about her. Why should he really care? They were not friend. They might have trained together but Zoe had always made fun of Rana's weakness. Soon Rana and Zolo reached the oldest banyan tree. The tree was a container for aura. It has been there since the end of the 3rd war and so for 500 years the tree had been a landmark for both Roltings and Welting of the Blood region. From the tree, which was known as 'Jiiwandan', the road was divided into three routes. One lead to back to Roltings, one lead to Weltings, one to the News network and the last one lead out of Blood region to the other regions. Rana took the second road to news network and Zolo followed. Barely they had cross few hundred meters in the new route, they saw a snake. It was huge black cobra. Rana stopped the bike. Fear loaded in his heart and weighted it.

"Rana what are you doing man? Stop shaking and push him off the road." Zolo shouted at Rana. Zolo too felt Rana's fear. Zolo was scared too. A Coyokey scared of a cobra? Is it a joke or something?

"Zolo, you are a coyokey. Cobras are supposed to be scared of you. You shouldn't be scared of them." Rana said and got up from his bike. Slowly he hide behind a huge rock, on the left side clearing of the road. The snake moved a little and then rose up. Zolo too jumped in near to Rana. Rana's fears started from the time his mother died. That day he was too scared to

look at a dead body, he missed his mother's funeral. The priest had said that it was the outcome of something that happened to him in his past. And he couldn't remember what happened.

"What is your problem? You are a coyokey!" Rana shouted. Zolo felt ashamed to be a coyokey. But yet he didn't know from where his fear was from. Rana and Zolo had been besties for a long time and Zolo knew every thing about Rana just like Rana knew about Zolo but they never faced a real life beast problem before. They were trained to be enrolled in the academy as warriors but they never left Roltings. Usually when kids turn 11, they will be sent on little errands to other regions and cities so that they could develop their beast-fighting skills before they turn 16. But Rana and Zolo were never sent on errands like that and so they never knew how to face or fight dangerous beast. Fighting common beasts are usually unnesscary since they are not dangerous. But for Beasts that have a curse, they are very dangerous. And that cobra was dangerous too since it too held a curse. While the cobra was trying to get away from the road, a sound of a bike was heard coming from the direction of the News network. Soon the bike and the rider were visible. The man was a stranger to Blood region. He was in his combat suit and he wore a scarf hiding all of his face except his eyes, which was hidden with a Goggles. He stopped before the cobra and got up from his bike. He eyed Rana's bike suspiciously but then let it go. On seeing the

stranger walk towards it, the snake activated its curse. It was no longer a snake, but it was a demon. He had bat wings, ram's horns, it's limbs where the seize of an elephant and it had a snakes head, which was really gross. The demon growled at the stranger but the stranger didn't care. He moved his hands behind him and a sword materialised out of thin air. He unsheathed the sword and ran to fight the demon. He swung the sword but it missed the demons head in inches. The demon in return punched him , but he was fast enough to dodge it. Then the demon tired to hit him with its tail but the stranger cut its tail and slayed it. It all happened very fast that Rana and Zolo were frozen with fear. The enthusiastic kid who left the police station was no more, instead Rana was filled with fear and fear only.