Chapter 22 : A Young Fool

"Help! Help me! Please!" a young man ran towards their direction.

"What seems to be the problem here?" Snow calmly asked although the man seemed to be frantic to get the hell out of there immediately.

"I'm *pants* being chased by *pants* them!" the young man hid by crouching behind Snow with his head in his hands and pointed towards the direction he ran from.

There, the four could see a bunch of dark and disfigured creatures speedily going their way. They seemed to be darklings morphed into fusions of multiple animals or other monsters. One of them had the hoofs of a horse, an eye like a cyclops's, claws similar to crab claws and a serpent like tongue. Others were just as weirdly transformed as it, as if they were not trying to cause damage but merely to scare their enemies or preys, which is how Snow could conclude that they were the weaker ones. Strong darklings do not bothered to morph into such oddities when they attack.

Some of them had knifes, some had claws, some had fangs. But it did not matter to Snow what they had, they were weak and she could be rid of them easily. Snow swiftly summoned her silver and scarlet scythe from her red crescent moon necklace and dived into the mob. She swung her scythe skillfully with no difficulty and to the other three staring at her from a distance, jaw dropped, she seemed to be dancing with her scythe.

Limbs were detached from the owners and flew towards all direction. The screams and begs for mercy and of pain of the intruders were like the sweetest sonata to Snow's ears. Blood as dark as ink but as thick as honey oozed and spattered around, making the road seemed to be covered in tar if not for the horrid stench of death. That is right, the darklings who chased the young man were almost all dead. No life remained except for one lucky, or should it be said that it was an unlucky fella who Snow decided to keep alive for questioning. It was a creature that morphed itself with a bird's beak, paws similar to a tiger's and a huge rhinoceros horn in the middle of its forehead. The only part that was not intimidating was the beautiful butterfly wings that sprouted from its back. It was currently tied up with chains that Snow had conjured up and was sitting on the dirt, cowering in fear of the reapress standing intimidatingly in front of it. Tears were streaming down its face, fearing its fate.

"Now, I need some explanation from the both of you. You start first, boy. Who are you and why were you chased by them?" Snow crossed her arms and waited for an explanation. It had better be good as her patience was thin from dealing with Lisa.

"O-of course, miss. First of all, I wanted to say thank you very much for helping me. I thought I was a goner when they began chasing me. You were the first one to help me among the others I have came across on my flee,"

"You are welcome. Now, explain yourself,"

"Okay. My name is Thomas and I'm a 26 years old human boy. Those creatures who chased me were darklings but they were no ordinary darklings. They-"

"What was that supposed to mean?! You little brat! You *mphm*," the chained darkling's lips were sealed by Snow as she had done with Lisa when the creature began yelling out of nowhere.

"Did I not make myself clear just now? You will have your chance to speak but I want to hear Thomas's side of the story first. I would have greatly appreciated it if you had not interrupted and stayed silent, but you chose to disobey. I order you to cooperate this time and let him speak first, or your fate shall be worst than your fallen brothers and sisters whose remains scattered around us. Understand?" the darkling stared into Snow's eyes with hatred. As it stared longer, it suddenly jolted away, wide eyed and quickly nodded its head.

"Good. Now you may proceed Thomas. You were saying they were not ordinary darkl-,"

"Hold on a minute! What the hell was that?! Why did it suddenly looked scared like it'd seen some shit?! What did you do to it, Snow?!" Lisa interrupted, again. Snow made a mental note about teaching Lisa some manners about when to not interrupt someone later.

"That is none of your concern, now is it, Lisa? Why do you care what it had seen?"

"Well, I... I'm just curious, okay? Why not you make it easier for yourself and tell me?"

"Fine, Lisa. I owe you an explanation later. And if you dare interrupt me or Thomas, I will be forced to seal your lips again. Now continue, Thomas,"

"Oh, okay. So, the reason I said they were not, uh, ordinary darklings is because you know how darklings don't have masters. Well these do. They work for a man who calls himself Professor Smiley. They were chasing me because I accidentally stepped in their turf and broke one of their stuff in the process. I-I didn't mean it! It was an accident, I swear,"

"Professor Smiley, eh? Okay then, explain yourself as to why you were in their turf? And what did you broke?"

"I, well... This may sound silly, but I went there to paint the scenery. I'm a painter, you see. I heard whoever could paint a piece there would be deemed the greatest and bravest painter, very few dared or could even stay there long enough to paint a rock. I decided I wanted to do so and took my chances and went there. I found a perfect spot to paint and set all my stuff down. I was about to take out my paints when I heard them yelling at me to get off their master's property. As soon as I saw them, I quickly packed and turned around, but my arm accidentally hit a tree near me and a crystal ball connected to a chain on one of the high branches fell off and it shattered. I had no idea what that was doing there but as I saw the darklings charging my away and yelled that I broke their master's stuff, I booked it,"

Snow waited for more information, but Thomas's silence told her he was done with his explanation. She now wondered why were mortals nowadays are always wishing for death by putting their lives at risk for no good reasons. These suicidal stunts were not even worth it.

"One more question, where is their turf you went?"

"That's the Forsaken Land, miss,"

"The Forsaken Land? That is quite far. How did you even ran all the way here?"

"I might have a little help from a demon to travel to and fro there in exchange for my mortal soul?"

"Are you serious? You exchanged your soul just to make a far travel?"

"Y-yeah. My family aren't financially stable. So, I can't ask for money to travel there. And my painter thing is just a hobby, not a job. I work minimum wage and couldn't afford the travel. I had no choice but to choose the only way I could think of... I made a deal with a demon to exchange my soul for a back and forth teleportation with no problem between my town and the Forsaken Land, since there were force fields that made travelling straight there through teleportation impossible... I was surprised they teleported with me..." a pause as Snow was processing all that was told to her.

"U-um. Miss? I hope I'm not being rude, but... I really have to go, my parents would be worried because I bet the news of me getting chased by a bunch of darklings will reach my parents soon, especially since I ran past a village near my home. May I take my leave? I-if you want, you can take m-my number down, and if something do comes up and you need to find me, you can just call me..."

Thomas's voice got softer and softer until it became almost inaudible. Snow heard him and nodded her head to show her approval towards his dismiss. Thomas bowed to her and thanked her again. He then turned towards the direction he came from and cautiously strode to where his home was.

"This should be interesting. Now I want your side of the story, dark one. Tell me who a-"

Snow stopped, mid sentence, as she saw a loose roll of chains on the ground, the chains that were supposed to hold the darkling she caught. She quickly looked around to find it and found what she was looking for in no time. Behind her, she saw Lisa holding the darkling in her arms while comforting it. Lyte was holding a sword he summoned and was staring at the two in each other's embrace. Snow looked at the chains again and saw the lock she used to connect the ends of the chains was broken in half in a clean cut, made by a... A sword.