A Quest to the Portal

The demon world - a different dimension, its existence unknown to mankind, until now. The demon world is filled with demons in varying forms; some are in man form like Satyro who helped us or those who were chasing us, and some in beast form like all those monsters we've destroyed back home. Demons are immortal. They can be killed, of course, but they don't wither and die of old age like humans. Their physical attributes - strength, speed and agility - are a couple levels above humans too. It's a good thing weapons were created from monster corpses. It more than makes up for the difference. According to Satyro, the emergence of the portals is a mystery even to them. Many years ago, portals just started showing up. Beast type demons are more sensitive, and are usually the firsts to wander around portals when they open. That would explain why we've only been fighting the beasts back home. There was a third type, Satyro said, that was neither man nor beast, but somewhere in between. It was the kind of demon we wouldn't want to face.

Satyro let us stay in his home until we find a portal to take us home, a miracle I wasn't so positive about. Even if a portal opens up, there's no assurance we'd be able to locate it and use it. There were things to consider, like beast demons beating us to them. We stayed in Satyro's home while he went out to scout for portals. We were lucky other demons haven't found us yet. We were lucky our host was kind and trustworthy. We spent nine days inside the shelter, and we got more restless as days went on. We were starting to lose hope. That was when Satyro informed us about two open portals in the middle of a swamp a few miles from his home. He explained why he never mentioned them before. Apparently, the portals are guarded by a demon of the third classification. It was a strong demon, said to be one of the most powerful in the demon world. It would be dangerous, he said, and we might even die trying. We thought hard about it. If we stay, who knows when we'll ever find other portals? But if we go to the swamp, there might be a way to go through one of the portals without fighting the demon. We just needed a strategy. And so, our minds were made up. We spent three more days in Satyro's home building up our strengths and going over our plans and strategies, with what little knowledge of the demon we had.

Finally, it was time to head out. Satyro traveled with us and talked to demons we met on the way. The three of us had to be fully covered, with long cloaks and our hoods up. We couldn't take any chances. We made a few stops, and thankfully, we never ran into any trouble. Satyro was also kind enough to lend us armors we wore under our cloaks and a few weapons. Turns out, he was a blacksmith in his demon village. We really were lucky. What would've happened to us if we met another demon who was less kind and more hostile? Even if we were able to run away, we would've died of hunger and lack of shelter. After days of traveling, we reached the entrance to the swamp. Satyro won't be going further with us. We thanked him for his hospitality and told him we'd forever be grateful. Then we entered the swamp - ready to face the "Queen of Thorns".