"Two days. it took two days of sailing to reach the kings continent. Seas and deep waters, the things that i hate the most. The constant splashing of waves still keeps ringing in my ears. the dried stickiness of my mouth, and the most annoying thing, the rocking of ship, it became so bad that sleeping was a luxury. I did not liked this, any of it, the journey by ocean and this stupid job of exterminating demons for some stupid cult of a church, name that i don't even remember and i don't want too. After arriving at the port of St.snizel, the first thing that i wanted was some food, something that an actual normal human would eat. But at that moment, like always, i had no money and the only thing i have to do is wait, wait for this so called 'priest' to pick me up".

" so, that means you have no money to pay the bill", the man behind the counter asked as he was wiping the glasses.

"no,no, certainly not, as i told you i am rich. I have money but it's not yet here, here in my pocket".

"will you pay the bill or not, cause i have a lot of dishes here in the back waiting to be cleaned".

the man behind the counter knew that he was drunk and broke to pay the bill, he was a man of late fifties with both his arms inked from the wrist to his neck, wearing a grey worn out shirt with unclean beard. he signalled his eyes to a bunch of people sitting back at the corner of the inn towards the drunken man.

"oh, i miss the my office, oh i miss my chair, oh i miss my tea", the drunken man murmured and fell asleep on to the counter.

The people that the innkeeper called had already surrounded the man, one of them slowly moved closer to check if he was really asleep, indeed the man was just like a dead body. He raised his hand with the thumb sticking out to inform the others. one man slowly grabbed his leather bag, while other man his black hat. The bag was filled with clothes,most of them were of high quality and could fetch pretty reasonable price in the black market, nothing of high value was in it rather than some silver rings and a book about demons.

One of the men said "brothers look, he must be a demon hunter, we shouldn't rob him"

" i don't think so brother, look, he has black hair and doesn't seem to have any kind of church sigil on him", he said and checked the coat of the drunken man.

" then what about these rings made of silver, there's more than a dozen here", he grabbed his palm full of rings from the bag and showed it in-front of everyone.

"my guess is that, he is just a foreigner who is here for some quick gold", said the man that checked his pockets.

" even if he was a hunter the old pops would knew it, he too was an hunter back in the days"

an synchronised humming of yes came out of them, they all raised their head and looked at the man behind the counter for an answer.

"the hell am i supposed to do, just....just rob him already", the man behind the counter shouted at the group with his hands in the air screaming the same thing.

This sudden outburst of sound made the drunken man to partially regain his consciousness, he was dizzy, his eyes were heavy. He looked around with a curiousness of a child, swinging and swaying back and fourth and then to both of his sides, trying to figure out who these people that is around him. While this was happening, one of the man from the group had noticed two short sword on his hips, the handle of those was quite unique and at first glance he knew that, those were of Baijun origin. Baijunees swords were lot more expensive and high in demand than its counter part made anywhere in the kings continent. with its handle decorated with dark blue cloth covered in golden writings. Its hilt, made in pure gold with the design of a dragon spitting the blade out of its mouth like fire.

He slowly moved towards the man trying to get his hands on those swords, that will make him a good amount of fortune,his fingers touched the sheath it was woolly and the sensation of the writings felt so good inside of his fingers. He took a step forward for more comfort in holding the blade, engulfing the dragon with his fingers ready to make it his own. His grip strengthened ready to pull out at any given moment, he thought to himself, in three, two...on...e.....uh?

"what is your name?", a sharp yet soft and calm voice broke the arguing in the room, drawing all their attention towards the drunken man.

"is he awake?", one of the men whispered.

The man froze mid air, leaving his grip from the hilt and leaned slowly and carefully towards his face to check if he was asleep or not. With a sigh of relief, he made a head gesture towards the group to inform them of a fat no. He continued with his work, grabbing the handle of the sword this time.

"I asked you a question syne !, answer me!!", a sharp yelling came from the drunken man, targetting all their attention to him but this time, the man who was trying to take the sword was certain of one thing, that it was not the drunken man who had raised his voice but something under his coat. Before he had an opportunity to ask for an opinion from his friends or to look under the drunkards coat, the voice came back at him with a furious tone, it felt like a warning, the kind of warning that you will get once in a lifetime.

" answer me syne!".

under the heat of pressure the man answered, like it was his only choice. Like if he do not then something bad will happen to him, something that he cannot save himself from.

"Gino"

"well Gino, where are you from?"

"Sincra- from the town of Sincra'

"well Gino of sincra, you have violated one of my Golden agreements and as an apology,I will be taking you", even thou it was just a voice, it was clear as a river that it had a malicious grin, a smile that took his freedom away.

With his hands unwrapping swiftly from the handle, Gino jumped back towards the group. It was more than an instinct born of fear but rather something primordial. Something far worse and helpless, like when a herd of mammoth walks in-front of a caveman on a snowy night, with the skies black as the abyss. Like the caveman Gino stood there in front of the voice with a spear made of his dreams and wonder.

"you alright"

a light feminine voice came from the crowd, he was back in reality again, he looked around for the source of the voice, it was from behind. He sensed a familiar silhouette. Before he could look clearly, the voice came back,

"you alright, Gino".

It was Julia, his sister. She grabbed around his shoulder, supporting him to stand on his feet.

"what are you doing here, you aren't supposed to be here", he said "did you get it...the job'", she changed her line of sight towards the man carefully analysing him from toe to head.

"who is he?", she asked Gino without taking her eyes from the man.

"i don't know, it doesn't matter" he said ' look Jules, look at me and tell me, DID YOU GET THE JOB?'

she paused sometime, breaking her sight from the man to Gino, and into his eyes. It was gleaming with hope that he would get the right answer, an answer that he wanted.

"yes", she tried to smile, arching her lips, pinching her eyes.

Gino was oddly familiar with this expression. His hopes for a good answer died down.

"but?"

"you got the job "and", he asked once more of hoping to get something from her.

"i got the job", she paused for a moment, breaking her eye with him and said, 'but i refused it".

Gino was furious and sad, he wanted to be mad and scold her, he wanted to blame her, be angry with her, but he couldn't.

"Do you have any idea how hard it was to convince that lady", he said "but you just went on and threw it all away in one word, what would ma's reaction be".

A freezing feeling had struck him from behind. Gino looked behind him, there was nothing there except the drunken man. He turned, facing back to Julia but this time the feeling only grew larger and immense, dragging him into the void. He shrugged off the feeling, and was ready to confront Julia, but then something icy cold had touched his left shoulder, he glanced with a side eye. It was a hand, a hand made up of pure ice, blue and sparkling. He looked at Julia, she and the entire group was staring at Gino, more accurately,something behind him. He looked back slowly, it was a huge figure, probably of seven feet...no maybe eight. Its face was not clearly visible but the entire head was touching the ceiling. Its spine was curved, hands long till its knee. A creature that emitted coldness, his shoulder was frosty, his hands barely able to make a move, legs glued onto the wooden floor and eyes fixated on this monstrous creature that just appeared. What 'could' i do, he thought to himself.

The monstrous creature closed its distance with Gino, now face to face with it, he could see perfectly. The face, it had no features for a face. No eyes, no ears, no nose, no nothing. It was plain like a polished marble of ice, it was blue with white miniature dots that looked like stars. A small breeze of coldness rushed onto his face. The creature it has a mouth and it is opening.

"syne", It said, "you are mine to take".

Gino wanted to cry, scream at the top of lungs but he could not or would not. He was stuck, standing there he was just alive, a standing corpse.

The creature then grinned and took a step back. It looked at it's chest and whispered something and looked at Gino with an overarching devious smile. With its icy arms it grabbed both of Gino's shoulder and pressed him toward its chest. It kept repeating the phrase, 'you are mine, syne" and an endless showering of mine, mine, mine came afterwards. Gino was being sucked inside, he was going to disappear.

I going to die, he thought. He tried to move but couldn't. Julia tried to take a hold of Gino's shirt but she couldn't. And then he was gone, completely. The creature vanished right after it, it echoed the phrase in the air,

"syne is mine- mine forever".