Madella smiled and felt the star necklace that Maro had given her as they rode the lion monster into the dark forest mana zone. It noticed that they were both anxious and gave a jerk of its head with a grunt which they didn't understand was reassurance.
They constantly checked their surroundings, looking close at the trees and what could be behind them, at the short blue-ish black grass below in case there were snake or insext monsters slithering about, and the strange stone structures they saw - like extremely simple greek temples - and what could spring from the deep wells they encased.
However, nothing happened. And the lion seemed to think that nothing would happen. If so, it was right, because they reached the end of the mana zone two hours later and returned to the grasslands of the Pericland. It was at this point that Madella and Jurie decided loosen up and took the liberty of napping.
When they awoke, they awoke well-rested under the starry night above, having slept for nearly five hours. The lion monster was still walking; it must've fought off any monsters that tried to attack them. But it had no scars. Madella checked its entre back and face, but it was completely uninjured.
"Thank you," She said, pressing her cheek against the back of the lion's head, into its fur. It looked back at her with a mix of confusion and pity.
"Can you tell me more about the stars?" Jurie asked.
"Of course." Madella lay back on the lion; Jurie joined her. She showed her the many constellations in the sky and told her about the differences between the red stars, white stars, and the blue stars in the sky; the great vibrant nebulas – a purple and a blue one adorned the sky that night – and distant galaxies visible because they were slightly bigger than all the other droplets of milk.
Halfway through their journey to Lusitra, they crossed through the outskirts of Rukae, the country and city of crime, where the lion suddenly began to walk West. Madella worried over its sudden change of direction and tried to talk to it back on course, but it wasn't listening to her.
It led them to a city reduced to ashes on the horizon. Horrified, they stared at it. "What happened?" Madella asked, but her intrigue toward the downfall of Rukae was replaced by a worry for a young boy, no older than twelve, lying in the grass face down. His hair was long and concealed his entire head and neck. He was skinny and grass had grown over his body.
The lion monster took them to the boy and Madella got off, ran over, and checked on him. A pulse. Quickly, she lifted him up carefully and rubbed the mud and grime off his face.
"How old is he?" Jurie asked, unable to discern his age because of his broken and dry skin. She noticed his hair was snow white at the roots, though they were slowly turning back to black.
"He looks your age; maybe a bit older." Madella scooped him up into her arms. His long hair fell away from his face, revealing an incredibly starved boy whose cheeks were sucked in massively until the very shape on his teeth and gums was visibile. His face looked like a skull with just skin on it; his eyes were sunken into deep dark craters. "Oh, Leia! We have to give him something to eat!" Madella tried hurry him to the Lion's back where they had stashed a handful of mana zone fruit – one of them looked like a blue apple, the rest were in all sorts of rounded odd shapes.
She checked the boy's breathing and then slowly and gently pressed one of the fruits against his lips. His body was in shambles, too skinny to even move, or so it seemed because a moment later he somehow grabbed the fruit with sly speed and jumped away to devour it away from them.
"What happened to him?" Jurie asked, uncomfortably waching the feral way the boy grinded his teeth and licked the juice off his hands and wrists.
"Now that I think about it, my aunt was telling me about three demons appearing in a nearby country. Don't tell me that's what happened here, and this boy is… But that happened six months ago…" She looked pitifully at the boy who had finished tearing the fruit apart and now lay satisfied on the ground. Going against the laws of nature, his sunken cheeks regained mass and color and moisture returned to his skin. He noticed them watching him and jumped to a crouching position. Where he was getting this energy from, Madella and Jurie had no clue.
Madella slowly crawled to him, "Hello," She tried to speak to him, but he didn't respond. She reached a hand out, but he slapped it away and stared her down, his eyes glazing a marvellous blue for a moment that Madella felt strangely grateful to have experienced. She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him in, embracing him tightly despite him scratching and pushing her with inhumane strength. The red glow of Strength Magic wrapped around her arms as she kept him in place. After a few moments the boy went limp with tears, returning her embrace and screaming one name, "Jiggan!".
Jurie watched Madella begin crying too; she'd seen unspeakable hurt and sorrow in that deep blue. "It's alright now, no one will hurt you now," She stroked the crying boy's oily and dirty hair.
It took him ten minutes to let everything out and finally calm down. Madella washed him in a small pond and placed him next to Jurie on the lion monster, continuing their journey to Lusitra.
"What's your name?" Jurie asked, but he just stared at the ruins of Rukae in the far distance. She reached for his hand and grabbed it, as well as his attention now, and asked him again to which he answered shakily "Teerom…"
She noticed a piece of torn paper slipping from his pocket and picked it up.
"And your last name?" Madella asked.
"Lucifer Eodo." Jurie said, reading out the paper.
He looked at her with a puzzled expression – the first feeling other than sorrow he portrayed. Madella grabbed the paper and inspected it, on it was written 'Your real name is Teerom Lucifer Eodo.'
Madella threw the paper away and looked at them both with a smile. She'd resolved herself to raise these two, "From now on you have no last name. From now on you're my daughter and son. Jurie and Teerom." She said as the sky reddened before the night.
Madella tenderly watched Teerom and Jurie sleep on each other's shoulders. The cloudy sky hid the stars and cast the world dark, so much so that trees just a little far away seemed black, but it didn't discomfort Madella. She rested atop the lion's head stomach-down and stroked its fur, which it greatly enjoyed.
"I really can't thank you enough," She nuzzled her head down and fell into a half-sleeping state, she was, after everything that had happened, completely exhausted. A gentle hand that felt so cold yet so warm softly met her head. She turned slowly and with a smile to see a blur, a man, definitely, tall and handsome – she couldn't make out anything above the neck, it was too dark. In fact, now that she thought about it, where did that overwhelming darkness come from?
That thought was fleeting as her attention returned to the man, though she couldn't see his face, she could feel a smile on his face. "Thank you, Maro." That seemed to make the mirage smile more. He caressed her hair affectionately and in moments she fell asleep.
The next morning, she'd wake up unusually refreshed to Teerom and Jurie conversing over their favourite stories, Though it was mainly Jurie telling him about her favourite love story, a tale of a boy who falls for his childhood friend and tries for ten years to win her over. Teerom was holding something back and failing to hide it. Taking notice of this, Madella asked him, "You were told stories by your dad in Rukae, right?"
Trying to be distant, he nodded. When he was younger and Jiggan had taken him in against his wishes, he'd found one of the original copies of Aneros' story hidden away atop a shelf too high for him to reach. He'd scraped his elbow getting it and he couldn't even read it. But when Jiggan returned home to see him trying to decipher the letters, he sat down with him and read it out for him.
Madella pouted, frustrated that her attempts to get close to this boy were failing. She decided first he should get to know her. "When I was little my aunt used to tell me this one Fairy Tale. It's about a being called The Devil. People all over the world have different names for it: Shaitan, Emmou, and uh… Tzi-Tzitzi-something. But they're all the exact same thing, a being so evil that even demons fear it. My aunt told me that once, when I was a baby, she was carrying me home late at night and a drunk man attacked her. According to her, The Devil appeared and saved us from him." She looked at their faces, surprisingly, they seemed to completely believe her, "I couldn't believe it at first, no one could, but just yesterday, when I was running with you in my arms, Jurie… He…" Her mind trailed off into a flurry of questions, but she shook them off and turned to Teerom, "So that's my hero, T-The Devil. Who's yours?"
Teerom rubbed his thumbs together and darted his eyes low before answering quietly, "Aneros,"
"Aneros? Really?" Madella grew excited. He nodded and she grinned, "Let me guess. Your favourite fight is the Battle of Black and White." He nodded again, "Mine is his battle with that huge snake-fish demon at Posiedis, I forgot what its name is…" She clicked her fingers as she tried to recall the demon's name.
"Lev'Gaz," Teerom helped.
"Yes! Lev'Gaz! Do you know why I love that battle so much?" She leaned toward them both.
"Why?"
"Because Aneros lost. Posiedis sank. And it was that day that Aneros became a hero. Because he lost, and he vowed that he would grow stronger and never allow anyone else to die."
"But he lost," Teerom said, though he disagreed, Madella was still overjoyed at his reply.
"Isn't losing what makes us human? I find comfort in the fact that even a Quimnia is just like us. Even a Quimnia is still human." She held his cheek affectionately. "Isn't that beautiful?"
"I guess."
They crossed the borders of Lusitra and were soon heading toward a small village in the distance. Madella readied her sword and hopped off the lion when it bought them to the leader's house. The villagers stood a safe distance, anxiously watching the lion, after all, it was a tier II monster.
Madella knocked on the village leader's door which opened almost immediately after the third knock. A very short and skinny man whose appearance would've been of a child had it not been for his wrinkles, thick beard and mostly hairless head met her.
"Hi," Madella bent down slightly and unintentionally speaking to him as if he were a kid, frustrating him slightly.
"There's no need for that, I can hear you," He snapped and walked into his house, "I take it you're a traveller?"
She followed him, leaving Teerom and Jurie with the lion, "Yes, I'm looking for a monster hunting quest," she said.
"Hahaha, lady, I don't think you can handle that kind of work." He had been frustrated with the patronizing way she treated him earlier, but now she was the one frustrated with him.
"Because I'm a woman?" She asked.
"Correct. Those things are gonna get in the way," He pointed to her chest, making her sigh and look away disappointedly.
"I can handle it. Just tell me if you have any-"
"We have plenty!" He answered, having changed his mind suddenly. Surprised and confused, she looked at him to find his expression desperately trying to hide terror. She looked outside and saw the lion watching the man, but that couldn't have been the reason behind his horror. After all, when he opened the door and saw it, he didn't appear affected. Before a headache formed, she shoved the thoughts away and stood up.
"Show me, then."