TheLastDemon

***POV Aivan.

My life is just a nightmare. Every day I struggle to survive in this huge city, all alone with no family or loved ones.

Two years ago I had a house, a small estate that was a haven for underprivileged children like me, but when it burned to the ground, I was completely forgotten.

Sleeping on the street or in dens until I was thrown out of there in the neck of the woods became commonplace. Hungry days turned into weeks, and every day my hope for a better future faded away.

In fact, I always wanted to live an ordinary life, to be loved and have my own family, but all this only remains in the dreams of a pathetic vagabond.

Today, as usual, I go to the central square of the city to ask for handouts. Usually I get 1-2 bronze coins a day, but lately even that amount is a huge sum for me.

— Please, sir, give me some food, — a phrase that has become an everyday occurrence to me, a phrase I utter every day when I sit here begging for money.

— Why is such a nice girl sitting here asking for a pittance? — asked a huge man with a small brown beard and short hair. He wasn't athletic, but he was very sturdy looking. He leaned toward my face, and because of my long hair he seemed to take me for a girl.

— I'm a little, and I can't earn enough to eat, — I decided to play into his hands «and see if he feeds me, and then I'll run away»

— Come with me, I will tidy up, it is not good for such a little girl to sit here, — «somehow it was too easy» I thought, but I got up and followed him anyway.

We walked for a long time, for his house was on the outskirts of town, five minutes from the main gate. The house looked neat from the outside, and the inside was clean and tidy.

— Have a seat at the table, I'll fix you something to eat, — he said, walking over to the pot of soup.

I climbed on a chair, and while he turned away, I checked for a small knife near my caviar. I corrected it just in case, and tucked it tighter into my sock. Still, his good behavior kept me on my toes.

The man put a bowl of soup in front of me, and put two slices of bread. The whole meal looked delicious, and I immediately gorged myself on it. After a couple of minutes I had nothing left.

— Apparently, you haven't been fed for a long time, little one. What's your name?

— Alice, my name is Alice.

— That's a pretty name. Let's go Alice, — he lifted me from the table, and headed toward the door leading to the basement.

It was dark downstairs, but he lit a small lamp and hung it from a chain hanging from the ceiling. The room became terribly creepy, and I knew when he put me on a small wooden table and started to take my clothes off.

— STOP! — I screamed at the top of my voice trying to get out of his grasp, but his huge hands were impossible to move. My eyes bled with anger and fear, and the world froze for a second.

— Shut your mouth! — he punched me in the face, gagging me with his hand. He ripped my T-shirt off and started to take off my pants. When he pulled down my underpants, he saw what I was trying to hide.

— What the hell... You're a kid! Ah... I don't care, — he said and started unbuckling his belt. When I realized he was distracted by the jammed buckle, I pulled my leg up and pulled a small blade out of my sock and hid it underneath me.

— Come here.

Taking his hand away from my mouth, he put it around my neck, and began to choke me. Bringing his face to me, he kissed me, and I knew this was a chance.

Grabbing the knife from behind my groove, I jammed it down my throat. I didn't stop after the first time, and as I pulled the knife out, I stabbed it into his neck over and over again until he recoiled from me. He clutched at his wounds with one hand, and with the other he tried to strangle me, trying to kill me. Intercepting the knife, I thrust the blade into his arm until it let go of me.

When his huge body recoiled and fell dead, I climbed down from the table full of horror. The sight of his remains, and the blood spurting from his neck made me vomit. At that moment, I felt every possible emotion, horror, fear, disgust, and a slight sense of victory.

When I rose from my knees and looked at his body, I did not feel an ounce of pity for him. I had seen executions in squares, bloody bar fights, even people dying of hunger and disease in the streets before, and after two years of this kind of life, it was commonplace to me. But it wasn't until I killed that thing that I realized how truly horrible it all was.

After I got up from the pool of blood, I searched his pockets and got the key to the basement. After climbing the stairs and opening the door, I had to scour his rooms for the bathroom. After filling the wooden trough, I undressed and began to scrub my entire body of blood.

Getting out of the tub, I had to change my clothes.

My old and torn pants were covered in blood, and my T-shirt was nothing but rags. I was able to find a baby T-shirt and shorts on the first floor in the lower closets. Putting them on and taking a small hiking bag from the bottom, which was near the closet, I stuffed it with leftover food from the kitchen and walked out of the house toward the gate.

I was determined to escape from this town to another, and hoped that the food I had stolen would be enough for about a week's journey. As I headed for the main gate of the city, I realized that I couldn't get through without getting caught by the guards. For the past few weeks I had been denounced by every other peddler in the market, and so the guards could catch me.

According to the tramps, there was a little crevice under the west wall somewhere that people used to get out of the city, so I decided to get out that way. When I reached the nearest wall, I walked along it for about a dozen minutes until I saw a small house and a pile of neatly stacked wooden planks, with a hole peeking out from underneath.

As I approached the planks and moved them, I saw a little dig under the wall. After pushing first the bag, and then myself, I was able to get out of this horrible town.

After leaving the capital, I followed the tract for several hours until I reached the forest. I knew it was dangerous, because it was full of common and magical beasts, bandits constantly attacking caravans, and all the other troubles that gave this huge forest its status. Still, I had no choice but to enter it.

Wandering between the trees for hours on end, I didn't even notice how dark it began to get. After an hour or so, after the sun went down, I wanted to rest. I knew that it was dangerous to spend the night on the ground, so I decided to climb a tree. It was possible only at the cost of my bruised knees.

Putting the bag under my head, and somehow settling on a branch, I tried to sleep.

I woke up early in the morning and climbed down from the tree, trying to find the road I was walking on. Even before sunset I had turned off the tract, and the realization of that thought sent a sense of panic through me. "I am definitely lost," the thought made me want to cry, but I restrained the flow of emotions that came over me, and still gathered my thoughts.

My solution was to go back the way I had come to the tree. But by the end of the day, I was not even close to the edge of the forest, and I realized that I was walking in the wrong direction.

On the second day, I realized why this forest was so dangerous. All second and third day I just sat in a tree trying to escape a pack of wild dogs. They were already starting to hunt in this area, and wouldn't leave until they were attacked by a huge kite with scarlet lizard scales and a huge black beak.

According to the stories of the hunters, such birds were called griffins and were found only in the depths of the forest. This bird was so huge that even dogs were one bite away for it.

As the flock fought off the griffin, I realized this was my chance to escape. Quickly climbing down from the tree, I dashed in the opposite direction from the fight, and was able to escape.

The fourth day passed without incident. All day long I tried to make my way carefully further into the woods.

By the middle of the fifth day I was able to reach a small river that had fish in it. All the food I had hoped for was gone yesterday, so I took a stick and sharpened the end of it and began to hunt fish. I managed to catch only two all day, but that was enough for me. I made a fire and cut the fish, put them on sticks, and hung them over the fire.

While the fish was cooking, I decided to cut off my long hair as it had been bothering me too much lately. As I walked to the river and took out my knife, I brought the blunt blade to my brown hair and sawed it off, leaving it hanging down to my forehead.

The next day I moved along the current of the river, hoping to get out somewhere. By nightfall I was able to reach a small bridge over the river, and crossing it I was finally on the trail.

This night I was not sleepy at all, so I spent a few hours on the road, and suddenly I saw a quiet light deep in the woods.

Silently sneaking into the bushes, I saw a lone man sleeping under a tree. He was very thin, with black wavy hair split in two halves. He was wearing a brown coat and black pants, and a thick bag was slung over his right side.

Opposite him there was a fire over which two rabbits were cooking, and the sight of that roast meat made my mouth water. Dropping my empty bag into the bushes and taking out my trusty knife, I stealthily moved in his direction.

I was about ten paces away from him, and I was ready for action. Still, if I wanted to survive, I needed his things and food, for I did not know how far I was from the city.

As I moved quietly toward him, I watched my feet carefully, trying not to make too much noise. As I approached the tree, I stepped sharply out of the bushes and swung the knife into his neck.

The man immediately woke up and grabbed my wrist, throwing me over himself. Before I knew what had happened, I was already lying on the ground completely unarmed. The man got to his feet and picked up my knife lying on the ground. His green eyes looked at me with bewilderment and a kind of disdain, but I was not going to give up.

I grabbed the nearest stone near me, and rising from the ground I ran toward the man. Throwing the stone as a distraction, I rushed to his hand with the knife. The man easily kicked away the stone, but I was already beside him and tried to unclench the fingers on his right hand to take my only weapon.

It was all to no avail. When he got tired of it, he lifted me by the scruff of my neck and looked me in the face. Somehow his emerald eyes filled me with fear. I tried to punch him in the face with my foot, but he caught it and hung me head down.

Throwing me into the air, he threw me to the opposite end of our little arena with one mighty kick to the stomach, and rammed me into a tree.

Pain shot through my whole body, and then I knew it was the end.

I had always managed to escape in such situations, but now I was unarmed, one on one against a strong opponent. As I got up on all fours, I felt the blood trickle down my cheeks, and the world seemed to slow down and look very different.

I saw a strange thin silhouette inside the man, and the whole world poured with blue and green particles that stretched toward me. As I lightly touched the green particle in my right hand, I felt a whiff of wind. As I looked at the man's face, I noticed his oddly surprised look. His face was petrified in exasperation, and I realized that this was my chance to attack.

While he was in shock, I had to take my knife away and kill him. The fire's fire was shimmering several times calmer, and the man was moving much more slowly than before, and I realized that being faster in this situation was the only way out.

I beckoned the green particles into my right hand, and, creating a small stream of air, I was very surprised when my idea worked. When I was close to the man, I directed the airflow underneath me and jumped up.

When I hit his chin with my head, I knocked him off balance. When I dropped to the ground, I grabbed his hand again and sent a stream of particles between his fingers, creating a small vortex between them, causing him to drop his knife.

Catching my weapon, I decided to push it off the ground again with the flow of wind to thrust the knife into his neck. With a wave of particles in my palm, I bounced off the ground and was at the level of his face. Pointing the knife at his neck, I prepared to celebrate my victory, but then he grabbed my arm sharply and suspended me in midair.

He squeezed my wrist until it hurt sharply, until I dropped my last chance for victory.

— That's enough! — he said, shouting in my face.

— Let go of me! — I screamed at the top of my lungs, trying to kick him in the face again and break free of his grasp. The man pushed my foot away and put his hand over my mouth. Pulling my head back a little, I bit his finger, trying to tear it off, but it felt like I was biting a rock.

— Stop it kid, stop biting me! — he said, letting go of my hand, which made me hang on his finger. When I opened my mouth, I fell to the ground and lunged for the knife again, but he knocked it into the bushes.

— Listen to me, please! — he turned me toward him, — listen at last!

— GET OFF!!! — I shouted, trying to punch him in the face and get out of his iron grip that bound my shoulders, but he wouldn't let go and held me, not letting me hit him. I tried to kick for a few more minutes until I was completely exhausted.

— You've finally calmed down, now listen to me. I'm not going to hurt you, you hear me, look me in the face, you hear me? — I nodded, and he let go of my shoulders, but I didn't run away, for I was exhausted.

— Now tell me, why did you attack me?

— Why should you care? — I got to my feet and walked away from him.

— It's a direct matter, because now I'll decide what to do with you.

— Pfft. I attacked you because I thought I'd kill you and take your things, — I said as I wiped the blood off my cheek, — I needed food and stuff like that, I'd run out of mine.

— You're just a kid, and you want to kill already?

— I've killed before, and I figured it wouldn't be hard now.

— Eh, — he said, rubbing his eyes, — calm down and sit down.

I didn't take his advice, but the man dropped to the ground and sat down beside the fire. From the spatial ring he took out a flask and drank from it.

— Would you like one? — he asked me.

— Is that a drink?

— Huh, no, just water, — even though my throat was dry, I was still skeptical of his offer. I was glad when I drank from his flask that it was indeed cool water, which made me feel better.

— Anyway, kid, what's your name?

— Aivan, — I answered, with a little delay and fatigue in my voice.

— And your family name?

— I don't have one...

— No family name, huh? I see. All right, all right, — said the man and rose a little, reaching for the fire. He took out two sticks with rabbits on them, and handed one to me.

— Take it.

I took it, but said nothing. I remember perfectly the man who fed me so good-naturedly.

—Perhaps you have not been taught, but when you are treated you should say thank you, — he said, and taking a piece of bread out of his bag.

— Thank you, — I said, taking a bite of the hot, juicy meat. We ate in silence for a few minutes, and the chill of the night was starting to make me sleepy.

— Aivan, — he called to me, — I see you're falling asleep now, and I think you should sleep.

— I don't trust you, and I won't sleep near a stranger, — I said firmly, looking straight into his eyes.

— Of course it's your right to decide where you sleep, but it's a full moon, and this is when the creatures are most active, so I think you'd be better off sleeping here.

Even though I knew I couldn't do it alone when I was like this, I didn't say anything and just ripped off a piece of meat.

— You know, when you eat it like that, you really are something like him.

— What? — I asked puzzled, not really knowing what I was talking about.

— Ahem... Never mind, I was just saying that. Anyway, let's get ready for bed.

When we were done with our dinner, I went to get my empty bag, and once again climbed into a tree and put it under my head. The man took a futon out of the space ring, made a bed for it, and climbed in after putting out the fire. I looked at the bed with a little envy, but just snorted, wrapped myself in my thoughts, and fell asleep.

Author: Hello everyone, this is my first work, which has 12 chapters already ready, I will release them gradually every day while preparing for the second volume. I hope you like this story because it's really interesting.