As soon as the heavy doors slowly creaked open my hard begun to race in panic. My tail was slightly wagging behind me. An action that could be compared to nervously tapping with your fingers on a hard surface.
("What if they won't let me in? what if they think I came here to attack them and decide that the offence is the best defence?")
The crowd begun to chatter when they noticed that the doors were opening. The light of the giant hall which the doors were opening up to caused many people to close their eyes after being exposed to darkness for such a long time.
Suddenly I felt a warm hand reach out to mine. I looked over in surprise. Only to see Allenya.
She smiled brightly.
"Now is the big moment! We finally reached it."
"Why are you holding my hand?"
Her grin widened. "We are friends, aren't we?"
I found it weird, but didn't question it. She was quite childish after all, it reminded me of some friend that I had when I still lived in my village. It was nice to finally have a friend again.
I nodded, still unable to fully calm myself. The only event in my life where the anxiety and excitement I felt at the same time that could compare to this moment was when I was still a small child and was allowed to help my father finally help my father with the work on the fields. Back then it seemed like the biggest event of my life and I had no idea wat to expect.
I closed my eyes and tried to block the painful memories out.
After a few seconds the scraping and screeching of the doors stopped. I opened my eyes again and looked up to see what was behind them.
A red light, like that of the setting son resided in that gigantic space, originating from a gigantic red crystal in the centre of the cave. We could see a great stone wall surrounding a city entirely made out of stone. Tall buildings seemed to almost scrape the roof of the cave, but that was just an illusion. The cave was so large that it nearly could be compared to the sky. The actual city only took up half of the space. The rest was used to grow crops what was possible due to the light of the crystal.
Everyone stopped to stare at the amazing view of the city. Some of them started to cry since they had reached a place that most of them never really expected to exist in the first place.
Due to the overwhelming scenery of the city none of the villagers had actually noticed that there was someone standing in front of the doors.
He cleared his throat. And when he did everyone turned to focus on him. It wasn't weird that they were that easily distracted. The man standing in front of the doors was a dwarf after all. He was old, very old. There was a chance that he had even witnessed the great war. His face was wrinkled, his hair was the same shade of grey as mine and if it was not tied down in a knot it would sure reach the ground. What wasn't a major achievement, considering that he had the height of a seven-year-old.
Many whispers could be heard. None of the villagers had seen a dwarf before. They were almost as legendary as the city itself, along with the elves.
The dwarf spoke. "Greetings and welcome to Agartha, or as you humans like to call it, the stone city. Come, pass through the doors."
With sight hesitation we passed through the doors. I had the feeling that I was being watched the whole time. Right before I entered the cave, I felt the presence invading my mind again. It was the same experience as when I entered the tunnel. Only this time it was far stronger. It gave me the feeling that what I felt back than was just a cheap knockoff from this one.
Only when I passed through the doors, I noticed that one of the lion-dogs had its paw on a smaller version of itself while the other had its paw on a ball.
Eventually the second presence faded when I entered the cave. Some humans had felt it to and gave a sigh of relieve when the presence faded.
The dwarf smiled brightly.
"Congratulations! Every single one of you have been judged by the komainu and were allowed to pass. This means that none of you have ill intentions towards Agartha. To be honest, I was quite scared that the komainu would come to life again, since there was demonic presence detected in the tunnel.
But for the order, I will still inspect all of you myself to make sure that none of you are being manipulated by a demon or have been damaged by one."
He took a cross made out of crystal from one of his pockets. The cross was filled with a clear liquid, but I wasn't entirely sure if it was water or not.
"That won't be necessary!"
I let go of Allenya's hand and nodded to the five broken humans. They followed me when I stepped forward.
("It is a risky move, but it is better to confess right now then when they find out on their own. Hiding among the humans while they have tools to detect demonic presence would only cause suspicion.")
The dwarf raised an eyebrow when he saw me walking towards him wile pulling down the hood of my cloak.
"My, my. It is the first time that the komainu let a demon pass."
I tilted my head and smiled.
"These five are the only humans who actually were damaged. But not my me"
I knew that it was hard to believe, since I had no way to prove that I didn't inflict this damage on them.
The dwarf looked over at Nathan.
"Nathan, what do you know about this? You should have at least sent a report!"
The elf only shrugged. "I didn't think that they would get this far. It really surprises me that the komainu let them through."
"How irresponsible can you be?! You could have brought all of the inhabitants of Agartha in danger."
"Well, I'm not as irresponsible as you, that's for sure. You should have at least given me more information about the what was going on, on the surface! This isn't even the only demon I encountered!"
I frowned. Yes, it was going better than I expected. But if they kept arguing we would come nowhere.
With that in mind I glared at the dwarf. "It is true that I have no ill intentions towards the stone city. I only came here to see if you can help these humans, and I would like to peak to the ones who research demons."
The elderly dwarf shrugged and gave a faint mischievous smile.
"If I were to let you in, I would basically break all the rules of this place. but, the komainu let you through and I don't give a shit about the rules. Afterall it would be nice to have a word with a demon without having to torture them."
"so, you are the one who researches demons?"
"Yes. After I have shown the way to these people, you and your… followers, can come with me."