Bright night

Since that singular day, the day when Miron met the shadow spy with the incomplete body he had mutilated and who asked him to acknowledge his horror of the light, he never again went out into the daylight. Or at least he tried to. He had completely changed his habits, resting when the star of Ashellion reigned with grandeur and flamboyance in the infinite space of the celestial vault, and came out of his sleep when it gave way to the imperishable veils of the holy night. Fortunately for him, in the kingdom of Srodigius, day and night were of equal duration, and with perfection, and this was decided by the great royal assembly itself, which wished to establish an exemplary and above all fruitful equity, since the diurnal and nocturnal magicians of the Nation were also about the same number, as well as those who constituted the great royal court.

Trying as she might to understand Miron's deep and complex nature, and leaving him free to express and enjoy it as he wished, in all its largesse, Clarine had gone so far as to cover her great home with a spell of starry night, impenetrable to all daylight, and this at all the hours of chores of the young mage so that this one can have all the time, that is to say the whole night to explore the city under all its forms and to discover of himself its various faces, as well as to detect, and that with impartiality, Clarine was confident there, its good and bad sides.

Sometimes Clarine and Kei accompanied the young mage in his incessant, tireless night outings, sometimes it was only the two boys who went on adventures, and sometimes, or to be more exact, most of the time, since Kei belonged with undeniable clarity to the diurnal beings, Miron went out alone, and he didn't mind at all, because he had an extreme ambiguous character, which made him despise most people, especially those who didn't understand much, and who were dumbed down by ignorance and prejudice. Miron preferred to be alone, rather than to be accompanied, surrounded by them, who he considered as useless insects to be exterminated.

Tonight, accompanied by his faithful Sheno who was willing to carry on his back the one who had freed him from the chains of suffering of Sirkol and his henchmen, and considered him as his master, even more than Kei, they left for another night exploration of the beautiful city that they seemed to have slowly but surely adopted as their new country. This was how they discovered the night park of Srodigus, bearing the beautiful name of Oshirel, meaning in the local language - territory of lights, and Miron soon understood why this name was given to the place.

Because, as he was walking, still on the back of his Athok beast, on the roads of the vast protected domain, some flickers started to appear from the ground, then rose gently to surround the two visitors and flutter around them.

- Wow!

After the surprise, Miron stopped his mount to admire them with a tender if slightly condescending face, and soon found out that the twinkles were in fact tiny winged beings, with a charming and open face. They apparently had to live only during the night like him, and now they were having fun to irritate Sheno by rubbing his nose, pulling on his fur or throwing ridiculous grimaces which made him angry.

"Hola!" Miron stopped him when the annoyed victim of the amusements wanted to return the device by hitting his annoying but innocent tormentors with a big fierce paw. "They are only small people without malice in spite of their energetic game Sheno. I apologize for them, so let's let them live."

And to put an end to the pungent exchanges of the two clans, Miron ordered Sheno to lead them away from the small flying beings at high speed, and to which the beast obeyed with the greatest joy. A few minutes later they arrived in a wonderfully flowered meadow with a large wooden fence engraved with protective and limiting spells.

Miron, his curiosity aroused again, was lucky enough not to have to wonder for a long time about the reason for this rather sophisticated boundary because a few meters further on he saw it in the form of an enormous and graceful creature, endowed with eight legs and a long tail, whose imposing body was covered with scales and leaves painted in all shades of green, and whose rather round and asymmetrical face proudly bore four massive horns with dangerously sharp points.

So that's what a creature from the free world is like!" murmured Miron, ordering Sheno to bring them closer to the fence. It was beautiful and undoubtedly dangerous in its own way, or rather, dangerous if one did not take into account Miron as well as Athok's curses.

The young mage stared at it for a moment and then ordered it with a magical voice to come as close as possible so that he could touch it.

The green creature, trembling with fear, obediently complied, not even having the audacity to imagine doing otherwise. And when it was close enough to the mage to allow him to caress it, it thought it would faint from fatigue, so much the magic pressure of the visitor was terrifying. Then with a weak and shaken voice it asked Sheno.

"Tell me, comrade, how do you manage to bear even the presence of this being by your side? He is...monstrous."

Sheno was silent for a moment before answering with a superior and sarcastic look.

"Monstrous...if only you would actually see with your own eyes, and feel it with your own body what he is capable of doing and completing, that word, like no other will ever suffice to describe him."

"And it suits you so much to stay with him after you have discovered the truth? Or rather, are you yourself trapped in his invisible chains, unable to escape, unable to do otherwise?"

Sheno nodded, but to the creature's surprise it was for a different reason than it had heard.

"Yes friend, I confess without shame now, there was a time when I was indeed a prisoner of the macabre chains of monsters, whose nature and bottomless depths differed from those of my master here, and it was precisely the latter who broke them for me, because for the most part, I was simply unable to do it myself, and that, no matter how angry I was, how determined I was, or how great my strength was. He did it instead of all those others who claimed, even proclaimed themselves to be, so much better than those who enslaved me, those others like the magicians who hold you prisoner here or like the one who sold me to those unspeakable captors. Since then, I know with certainty that I will follow the one who gave me back my freedom, for better or for worse. And also, above all, that no one will ever take him away from me."

The creature of the prairie was so shocked by what it had just heard from its visitor, and especially by the confidence, the unflinching conviction, of unquestionable authenticity, which it displayed and with which it had pronounced every word, that it could do nothing but shake its proud head and threw out.

"I shall probably never understand this. And never would I have imagined that any of my race would ever feel such feelings toward a person."

"I'll say." Miron affirmed, who finally decided to come forward.

The already shocked creature was this time completely floored as he couldn't believe what was happening.

"You..." And it swallowed with difficulty its saliva before continuing. "You speak the language of the beasts?

"Apparently so." he affirmed mockingly.

"But...but that's not possible. There are countless requirements for this prodigious ability...I..."

"Well, as you can see for yourself, that's not the case for me. I am a monster, don't forget that. And between you and me, I don't really care. But I am also very pleased to see how I can arouse astonishment and fear in all the beings I have met in Sordigus, individuals or beasts, and this since the beginning. And as for the last answer you gave Sheno," he continued, wearing a falsely thoughtful face, "well, yes, you creature of nature, you're right, you wouldn't understand, never. And you don't have to either, because as long as Sheno can do it, then the rest doesn't matter to me. And you don't have to worry about this inalterable lack of understanding, because my Sheno will never be able to grasp all the facets that make up your being either.

Miron considered the barrier before adding.

"You are undoubtedly considered very dangerous to those on the other side of these barriers, perhaps with good reason, hence the reason for their installation. And this has undoubtedly given you an immense feeling of power, respect, and satisfaction, but I can assure you that this is not true. For I myself have known and fought beasts, real barbarians, of which the protected and ignorant little animal that you are will not even come close."

This time, the creature did not know what to say. And when a clock, quite far away and exhaling a soft and magic sound, resounded in all the park, all the creatures that inhabited it, all nocturnal, pushed their respective cries, cries of joy and harmony, all except the green creature crushed by the presence of the two visitors, that capsized the space and that had to stop only when the last sounds of the clock were extinguished in the dark. And when all this was done, the beasts straightened up and there, from their bodies, they all shot out lights of great beauty and marvelously colored, whose dazzling brightness managed to illuminate the whole park and made it look almost like the big day. It only lasted a moment, but enough to blind Miron and put him in a very bad mood.

"Uh, that was very interesting, wasn't it, young master," Sheno asked with a laugh that sounded false even to the ears of the green creature, still petrified.

"Yes, I can confirm it, interesting to burn me" answered the young master with a voice too soft which made a shiver of terror go through his beast's whole body and of which he had learned to grasp the danger, to fear it to the utmost. "And now that you point it out so well, I still wonder why I still bother to go out at night to escape the day when the latter has the power to exist there."

"It wasn't so much the same young master, and it had only lasted the time of a bell." Sheno tried again to protest in moderation.

"A bell that rang a little too long you mean." And he turned to the creature who had kept its terrorized but also fascinated eyes riveted on the two unusual visitors.

"You were magnificent. Finally, there is something visible about you."

But this was not the end of it, because at that very moment, a tremendous wave of sparks appeared all over the place and rose to fill the whole space and illuminate it but this time with softness, comparable to stars.

This time it was Sheno who growled with rage. And the worst thing was that this time too, the little winged beings were not just more energetic, no, they had also arrived in countless numbers and walled themselves up in the air like a sea of dust, radiant and peaceful but painfully stifling. And some of them, obviously too mischievous, could not help but move around the visitors and knowing instinctively that Miron was too terrifying to mess with, they attacked with a natural habit the weak one, that is to say Sheno, who after having emitted a bestial roar to terrify any weak being, resigned himself to become the prankster of these little living rays. Miron, who ten minutes later decided that enough was enough, ordered his mount to leave the park and was about to do so with almost unbearable joy when suddenly a wave of magic burst forth from the depths of the meadow, a considerable and most obscure magic which chilled the whole place.