CHAPTER 8: HEDERA AND LICORICE

Malia, Gorken, Aldous and Bayard left headquarters at the break of dawn. They had to head south, past the plains that lay beyond the Green Mountain, and follow the river to the Gray Forest. There, somewhere amidst the myriad trees, stood Kadem’s lair. At least, that was what they could gather from the map Konrad had drawn for them.

The travel was resulting more tiresome than they had predicted, since demons appeared frequently to hinder their progress. The constant fighting had them exhausted, and they were advancing much slower than expected.

“Are demons usually this persistent?” Malia wiped the sweat off her forehead.

“No. It’s the same as last time...” Gorken replied as he sheathed his sword, “There shouldn’t be so many demons in this area. Something’s wrong.”

“Maybe we could try avoiding demons,” Aldous suggested, “instead of fighting each and every one that comes our way.”

“Can we avoid them though?” Malia wondered out loud, “I could swear they are following us.” Malia was inexperienced when it came to traversing the wilderness, so she worried her opinion might be worthless. Regardless, she had diligently studied the areas Gorken had indicated as demon territories on the map, and the manner in which the savage beings consistently trailed behind their party was eerie.

Aldous ruffled his own hair in confused annoyance, “They don’t move really fast, on account of being gigantic beasts and all, so at least we could give it a try.”

“Let’s keep going.” Gorken commanded, conscious of what a waste of energy it would have been to start arguing amongst themselves.

To their relief, once they resumed their walk, no demons appeared for what they wished would be a long while. Even though they were finally gaining significant momentum toward the Gray Forest, they were facing a new challenge. Gorken was the first one to notice a different presence tailing them, and soon enough, the rest were more than aware of it as well. It both intrigued them and alarmed them to realize that what was pursuing them was stealthy and small, unlike the conspicuous demons that had been attacking them so far. They arrived to a silent consent, determined to expose their hunter. Malia followed the lead of her human friends, who were more than familiar with maneuvering together as a careful unit. But what they found astonished the young team.

Behind thick bushes, crouching and obviously surprised to have been detected, were two little girls. They would have looked like ordinary children if it hadn’t been for their yellow feral eyes and their hair; manes the color of a forest, with green and brown locks flowing from their heads to the ground. Even their skin was the rich color of wood.

They all remained silent for moments that stretched into lengthy, perplexed breaths, staring at each other. Then one of the girls stood up unexpectedly, while the other one stayed motionless behind the small frame of her partner. “What do you want with us?” she demanded.

Aldous grunted, “That’s our line! You were following us.”

Malia elbowed him in the arm, “Easy there, they’re just kids.”

The girl that had spoken took offense in that, “Mind your mouth, immortal! We may look like this, but we’re what you call powerful demons!”

The crouching girl mumbled, “That’s technically inaccurate. We used to be powerful. Now we are nothing but-”

“Be quiet Licorice!” The other one snapped back.

“But it’s the truth.” Licorice replied.

“I said be quiet!”

As the little girls’ argument progressed unperturbed in front of them, Malia and her companions could do nothing but watch, disoriented and at a loss on how to react. One of the few things humans and immortals shared was their notion of what a demon was. None of them had ever heard of manlike versions of the primitive monsters that infested the wild lands of their island kingdom. The creatures before them weren’t just humanoid… they could only be perceived as two children, small and innocent and noisy. Gorken exchanged a bewildered look with Malia, and Bayard and Aldous did the same. They didn’t even know where to begin their questioning. Finally, Malia decided to start somewhere, “What do you mean you’re demons?”

The standing girl interrupted her bickering to answer Malia’s question, “What you heard! Both your stinky kind and the humans call us demons. So you better show some respect.”

“Stinky?” Malia was strangely flustered.

“You reek of magic!” the girl accused her.

Licorice then talked again, “We should be honest, Hedera. If they wanted to hurt us, they would have done it already.”

“Would you shut up for a minute?” Hedera screamed back at Licorice, “I’m trying to get us out of this situation and you refuse to cooperate!”

Gorken exhaled audibly; being confused drained him, so he resolved to treat the two girls as what they seemed, “There is no situation to get out of. We just want to know why you were following us. We won’t harm you.”

“It’s the truth.” Bayard added.

Hedera was evidently troubled; her yellow eyes darted back and forth, assessing whether they were trustworthy. At last, she muttered, “…Fine.”

“My name is Malia, and these are Gorken, Aldous and Bayard.” she introduced herself and her friends as amicably as she could.

 “My name is Hedera,” the small girl followed suit, “and this is my sister Licorice.”

“You’re twins, right?” Aldous asked, noting the two girls shared the same face to an indisputable degree.

Licorice stood up, “Unfortunately, we are.”

“Unfortunately?” Aldous echoed.

Licorice assented, “It’s because we were born twins that we were banished from our home. Most of our powers were sealed as well.”

“Powers? Banished? Why? What does that even mean?” he questioned her, his doubts as dense as before.

Hedera frowned, “We don’t know! What an annoying man! We just were banished because we’re twins, we don’t know the rest!”

“Fine, fine, there’s no need to yell, little demon.” Aldous raised his hands in defense.

“My name is Hedera!” she scolded him loudly.

“Calm down sister.” Licorice pleaded in her delicate voice.

Malia ran an uneasy hand through her ponytail, as if that would lessen her turmoil, “Why are you two so different from all the other demons we have encountered? As far as I know demons are just giant, angry beasts.”

Licorice chose to speak instead of her sister, convinced she would be more capable of communicating, “The ones you have confronted so far have probably been fallen demons. All demons are born with a certain amount of information about their purpose engraved in their mind. We call a demon a fallen when they forsake that purpose and become stray creatures. Unlike those demons, even if our powers are sealed and our memories fuzzy, we didn’t become fallen.”

“You’re giving them too much information about us!” Hedera intervened.

Hedera and Licorice kept quarreling for a while, but Malia, Gorken, Aldous and Bayard had all remained quiet, absorbed in their own thoughts. What Licorice had just said was ground shaking. Demons with a purpose? Somehow, Malia had expected to find out that kind of information, but now that it wasn’t just a wild guess she felt aghast. Only her excitement could overshadow her consternation. What were the odds of bumping into a pair of exceptional demons on their way to Kadem’s lair? On their way to seeking answers about their kingdom? Her heart raced at the thought.

Gorken was the one to talk next, grounding the conjectures of his allies in the present, “Why were you following us then? What do you want from us?”

“The trees heard you-” Hedera quickly corrected herself, “We overheard you talking about Kadem… so we thought maybe you knew where she is. That’s why we were following you. If someone can help us reclaim our power… that’s probably the Oldest Witch. Or so we hope. She’s not easy to find so, we…” Hedera glanced down at her feet, expectant and nervous.

After a sequence of hushed, knowing glances, Malia expressed what she prayed they were all thinking, “Why don’t you join us? We can travel together until we find Kadem.”

“Travel together with you?” Hedera gazed upwards, hesitant.

 “Please allow us to come with you.” Licorice settled the matter.

Hedera glimpsed at her sister rapidly, as if to confirm what she had heard. Then she cleared her throat, “I suppose we can accompany you.”

“Let’s go then.” Gorken declared, “There’s no time to waste. We can keep talking while on the way.” In his experience his mind worked better when his body was also active. And standing still in the middle of the woods was almost an invitation to be surrounded by demons. Well, fallen demons, apparently.

Guarded enthusiasm brightened Hedera’s face up until the moment she stepped forward, ready to follow the group, and she tripped on her exceedingly long hair, stumbling clumsily. Bayard noticed before the rest could, “Do you need a haircut?”

“I-I don’t require the assistance of primitive human craftsmanship.” Hedera’s cheeks darkened.

“Bayard’s pretty good at it though,” Aldous said, “probably the best in the rebellion.”

“Please go ahead.” Licorice spoke in her sister’s stead.

Gorken and Malia stood guard as Bayard borrowed one of Aldous’ knives and deftly trimmed Licorice’s hair. She had requested to keep it long, so he only cut the necessary amount to prevent her from stepping on it. When he was done, it was Hedera’s turn. “You can cut mine short.” She sensed her face going hot at the recent memory of her disgraceful stumble.

“So that you won’t fall flat on your face again?” Aldous laughed.

Rage and shame dueled for the right to claim Hedera’s expression, “That way it’ll be easier to tell us apart, foolish human!”

Aldous was ready to respond with mockery, but a cold glare from Bayard halted his tongue. Brief as it needed to be, Bayard cherished his time dedicated to handiwork, and it would not do to have Hedera twitching restlessly at the freckled man’s provocations, inevitably sabotaging the hair trimming. That, and he despised Aldous’ tendency to engage with children as if he too were a brat.

When Bayard was done, Malia searched for a couple of tunics in her luggage so the twins could wear them and replace the tattered rags they had on.

“Thank you for your disproportionate kindness.” Licorice said as she bowed her head. Her sister was reluctant, but in the end she also whispered, “Yeah, thanks.”

No further words were needed to continue their journey toward the Gray Forest.