[13] The Guardians of Humans

Our flight stopped in a forest, we landed in the middle of who knows where. Trees standing tall around us, with their big trunks and greeny leaves. I can even hear the birds chirping. In Zonax, trees and plants are rare. And for the past few days of staying on Earth, traveling from one place to another, I realized why some demons wanted to live here. It's quite a beautiful place with so many wonders.

Traiser hopped down, reaching his hands towards me, offering help. I reached it without hesitance, jumping and landing safely on land.

Facing the mighty bird, I subtly bow my head to it, a way of acknowledging and thanking them for help. It chirps loudly and flies away afterward. We watched how it vanish from our sight.

"Where are we?" Traiser finally speaks up, looking around in curiosity.

"I don't know exactly, but I guess we are in the middle of Balakan Forest," I answered, inspecting the map carefully.

"There's practically no path at all. How can we know if we're in the right direction?" Indeed, there's no trace of human tracks that we can use.

I smiled at him "You forgot that I have my lovely tails." I turn into my demon form, bringing out my third eye and four tails.

I closed my eyes, trying to feel the surrounding. I also sharpen my sense of hearing, in case there are any wild animals near us. Luckily, I don't hear one.

Demon tails are a crucial part of us. It has so many uses which include a direction. The four tails basically tell which are North, East, West, and South.

With the use of my tails pointing towards our right, Traiser and I continued our journey. He bravely walked forward, picked up a stick to cut, and swung away the dangling branches and plants crawling everywhere.

"Careful." I remind him, there are some insects and edged branches that might cut him. He looks back at me and smiled to which I ignored.

"Is this the last place in your map?" he asks, as he held the stick like a sword, cutting the vines blocking our way.

"Yeah, the portal should be here."

"What if.." he stops for a second but he doesn't look back "...the portal isn't here?"

"It must be here," I answered firmly. He hums in response.

After walking for few hours, we stopped in a small open area. I'm guessing that there were trees in this space before, thus were cut down, based on the left stumps.

I sit down in one of the tree stumps in the ground, and Traiser did the same, trying to catch our breaths. I'm not really tired at all. I can walk for days without feeling wear out, henceforth I am a demon. However, Traiser is a human, compared to me, he gets tired easily.

"Catch!" he throws me a bottle of water, without any prior warning. He's few meters away. With my reflexes, I successfully caught the bottle. I glared at him and he laughs.

"Ohhh, you're pretty quick!"

Immediately, I take a gulp of water and closed it, throwing it back in his direction while he's drinking from his own bottle. "Catch!" he was caught off guard, but he managed to catch the bottle with his right hand, then coughs from shock.

"That's unfair! I was drinking!" he whines, wiping the spilled water on him. I shrugged my shoulders, smirking at him.

Our little moment was stopped when we heard a hiss. We both fell into silence, feeling and watching the surroundings. My eyes widen when I saw a snake behind Traiser.

Slowly approaching him, noiselessly moving its body on the ground.

"Don't move," I command Traiser. He stiffens, realizing the situation.

I effortlessly threw a dagger towards the snake. On point landing at its head, piercing it on the ground. Its blood finds its own path, sliding from its head down to the soil.

"That was close!" Traiser inhaled deeply as if he forgot to breathe for a while. I stand up, pulled out my precious dagger from the poor snake.

"You almost cut me," he stated in a matter-of-fact tone. I rolled my eyes as I clean the blood from the dagger.

"With all that happened for the past days, how could you whine over a dagger that almost cut you, when you barely made it back alive at Siquijor?"

"Because the two events are different from each other."

"By how?"

"Back then, I almost die because of other creatures. And now, I almost got hurt because of you. I don't like the thought of you, hurting me." he smiled faintly.

I did not bother answering, instead, I picked up my bag. Before I made three steps, I heard what he said.

"I trust you anyway, I know you won't hurt me." his voice was low, whispering to the air. I ignore his words and continued on my tracks, and he's following me from behind.

The continuation of our journey was entirely silent. Only the chirping of the birds, rustling of the tree leaves, and the cracking of branches on the ground can be heard. It felt suffocating.

Although I tried to ignore his words, what he said keeps on repeating in my head. I shake the thoughts away.

We've been walking for an hour already, and I halted when I realized that I can't hear Traiser's footsteps behind me.

I looked back and started panicking when he wasn't there anymore.

"Traiser!" I shouted. My heart beating so fast as it would jump out of my chest. I retraced my tracks back, hoping I could find him. As minutes pass by, I still can't see any trace of him, fear started to creep inside me.

"Traiser!" I shout again with my voice almost cracking.

It's just impossible for him to get lost! He was following me, I know he wouldn't dare walk on a different path. But what if he got upset with me? What if he realized that I lied after all? That I will eventually hurt him? What if he runs away from me?

Limdi, calm down! You won't be able to think straight if you stay like this!

I breathe heavily. I opened my third eye again which I closed when we stopped to rest. I tried to adjust my sense of hearing, hoping I'll hear his voice, but I failed miserably.

I used my speed to run around, searching for Traiser, unfortunately, he's nowhere to be found. Using my speed for quite some time tends to tire me. It's not realistic for him to get so far in a small time if ever he runs away or got lost. This only means that an unknown creature abducts him.

My legs shake uncontrollably so I decided to sit down. I shut my eyes tight, as I bite my lips until I can almost taste blood. I swear, if I found out who dared to take him away from me, I'll mercilessly kill them.

I flinched when a dwarf appeared in front of me. He's wearing dark brown clothing. With his pointed ears and straight face, he looks grim.

"A diablae. What brought you here?" he asks, his voice is deep despite his size.

"I'm finding the portal," I answered kindly. He might be a help to me, it's better if I get on his good side.

"You're alone?" he stated unsurely which made it sound like a question.

"I'm with a human, but he disappeared. I'm trying to find him"

"A human, you say." he narrowed his eyes on me like he's reading my inner self.

"Yes, did you perhaps saw him?" I look away because I can't hold eye contact anymore. His stare is so intense, likewise digging deep into my inner self.

"He's in our hands," he said, emphasizing each word, with his eyes still on me, watching my reaction.

"I'm taking him back" I look at him fiercely.

"He's a human. You're a diablae. What can be his purpose to you?" he questioningly raised his eyebrow.

"He's mine, give him back or I'll cause havoc in your territory" with my determined voice, my kind expression disappeared.

He then reached my hand, and in one snap, we were already in a different place. The atmosphere seems magical. With the trees glistening and the light shining from above, although it should be dark by now. There are small houses on elevated ground. There are also flowers and various types of plants around, making the place fresh in my eyes. At that moment, I also realized that I shrunk into his size.

"Where are we?" I asked, confused and curious.

"Perditus City" he answered, his voice softening a bit. I gave him a look, telling him that I'm waiting for him to continue speaking.

"I'll bring you to him," he added. Realizing what he meant, I followed his steps. We turn right, passing colorful houses with different designs of flowers. I keep observing the place as we walk. It's literally magnificent if you ask me.

We reached an open area where numerous dwarves are hanging out. They stopped and stared at us—or me, rather, then they started to whisper to each other like they found out that I'm not one of them, but they were all bowing their heads down. Interesting.

We continued walking until we reached the front of a small structure-like house, designed charmingly. It stands out from the others, not just because of its looks but because it is situated in the middle of the whole city.

He opened the door and the fascinating interior welcomed us. It's quite big on the inside. With a meticulous touch of gold and brown, a door on the left, and a round wooden table in the middle, where five dwarves are sitting. They quickly turned their attention to us.

"Ducis" they stand up simultaneously and bowed their head down. The dwarf beside me nods his head, like permitting them to sit down. He also gestures me towards an unoccupied seat at the table. Settling down, the dwarves are looking at me with pure interest and concern in their eyes.

I get it. I am a diablae, we have a dark reputation but it doesn't mean that we're evil.

"Where's the human?" I opened the topic up, they seemed to be startled a bit with my fierce voice. Argh, I should have been a bit soft, instead of appearing as a fierce diablae.

"He's at the room on our left" the female dwarf pointed at the door. I stand up, and opened it, only to see Traiser sleeping peacefully. Seeing that he's safe, I closed the door and went back to my seat.

"So, what do you want?" I ask, serious tone. I know I should be careful with my words right now, and I should stay humble for I am in their territory, however, it's really getting on my nerves how they meddled with us. Traiser and I were on our journey and they just came out of nowhere, taking him away from me. That's really rude.

"One of my people here saw you and the human. Seeing a diablae with a human doesn't seem normal. That's why we took him away, in the thought of saving him from you" one of them explained.

"And we were wrong." the other one added.

"Dwarves never meddle with demons and deities, but we try our best to guide humans. Now, as a human is involved in this situation, you might as well explain what's going on." the dwarf I was with, said.

I know for sure that they don't pick sides. When the feud struck, other creatures have sided with deities, becoming servants of them. Thus others still chose to stay on the line, making sure their feet won't land on any sides.

Dwarves are one of them. Even before the feud, dwarves are known to be friends of humans. They were one of those who help improve their way of living. Later, when deities and demons came, they hid. Until now, they are still known to be guardians of humans.

I don't know whether I should trust them but knowing that they own this forest, they might be knowledgeable of the portal.

"We came here to find the portal. The human followed me in his own accord. I didn't force him nor threaten him" I speak, their eyes are all over me.

"Why would you bring a human into your world, and why would he go with you?"

"Unless..." they look at each other, realizing the whole point.

"He has a pure virgin soul." the other one continued. There's a long silence before they started arguing about it.

I breathe deeply. I give no response.

"We can't allow him to go with you!" the old male dwarf pointed at me, with his firm voice.

"The feud started because of the pure soul. Now you, demons, have one on your hand. This will only cause a war!"

"If the deities find out about this, the massacre would occur again!"

"Innocent humans would once again be caught up in the middle of the feud."

"You are the so-called guardians of humans, but you should never meddle with our actions!" I glare my eyes at them.

Ducis hit the table with his hand, silencing everyone.

"This diablae is right," he said.

"Ducis, we can't let both sides get a hold of pure virgin souls. After all, we are here to protect and guide them." One dwarf bravely speaks, his voice is gentle, with obvious respect towards the other.

"You are right, but we are only a guide for humans. We can't meddle with anything especially if the human has made up his mind."

They nodded their heads, agreeing. No one dared to go against his words when obviously, they all went silent. I supposed, he had authority over them.

"You may stay here for tonight. It's not safe for your human friend if you wander around the forest. There are wild animals around. Especially, beasts." he turns his head to me.

"Thank you," I said and give him a nod.