The hole pulled the group through and placed them in woodland. The ground was covered in small grasses and shrubs. All Around are thin, straight trees. For a minute, no one moves. The shock of what happened finally processing. Then the girl tackled Azure to the ground. “Thank you! Thank you so much!” She exclaims. Tears ran down her face. The boy is tearing up as well, but he’s trying to hold them back. The young woman is sitting in a daze, eyes glassy. “We’re… safe.” The woman says. She runs her hands over her body as if to confirm she’s in one piece. “We were in some void.” She continues. “Above us was a great blue-green ball. It was beautiful.” “That was this planet.” Azure answers. “That banishment spell of yours sent us to space.” “And then you wrote something on our phones and I could breathe and then you opened a hole to here just writing on my library card and it was the coolest shit ever!” The girl didn’t even breathe as she recounted what happened. “Liza, slow down,” The boy said. “You’re going to choke on your own words.” “Oh yeah, I’m Liza! That’s Lindsay.” “Shut up Elizabeth! I told you to call me Lin.” The boy snapped back. Azure laughed. The girl reminded him of some old friends. And like that his laughter stopped. The actual weight of everything finally hit him. Azure wouldn’t see Ryan, or Kesk, ever again. All his old friends, family, his work and life; all of it was gone. He slumped, how did this even happen? He remembered dying, being taken, experiencing cosmic horror that still sat in the back of his mind, and then the terrible pain that came with merging together. “...ey! Hey!!!” Someone was shaking Azure. He looked up and saw the girl, Liza, again. “Miss what’s wrong? What happened?” Azure blinked. “Miss? Are you talking about me?” “Um? Yes?” Liza answered. Azure looked up, the others were all standing around him. Lin and Liza were looking at him in concern, while the woman stared. “No, No. I’m not a miss. My name is Azure, though I used to be known as Zach and Arnold.” He said. “Oh! Oh god, I’m so sorry.” Said Liza. “It’s just, you look, well, um… There’s just nothing down between your legs you know.” Embarrassed, Liza practically whispered the last part. “Yes I can see how that would be confusing,” Azure replied. “Truthfully everything that’s happened to me is insane. I died and got taken by some portal, then I was merged as one person. After that something took me into this world. Did you do that?” He looked at the woman who caused them so much trouble. “You were not supposed to be with the rest of them, demon.” The woman sneered. “I summoned the seven heroes to put an end to the threat your kind propose.” “Wait you chose us to be heroes?” Lin asked. “But I’m in high school. I don’t know anything about fighting and I’d rather not be involved.” “But you must Sir Lin!” The woman pleaded. “Without your help, the demons would overrun our kingdom of Kitch and then devour the world! And you needn’t worry about training, all heroes are given the divine gift all God’s creatures. Just think, I look at my divine self, and you will see what I mean.” Azure watched and listened as the woman argued with the teens. As she spoke the words, he saw a staggering display of symbols in the Deities’ language circle around. These same symbols soon circled Lin and Liza. In all his life, Azure had never seen anything like this. His own Deities used this language for simple miracles, but their workings were scribbles compared to the artwork laid before him. Each piece of the language had been crafted with the utmost care. Azure saw runes that would interpret everything about a person and runes that showed said power to the person. On top of that were more symbols that would allow for the growth of a person beyond their natural abilities. The entire language was weaved into the person’s very being, using their soul to power the spell. “Lin! Lin! This is awesome! There’s a little picture of me. And next to it are a bunch of words describing me! I have a will of ‘above average’. How cool is that!” Liza grabbed Lin’s hands and swung him around. “What did you get?” “Liza stop it! I can’t read what it says!” Lin shoved Liza away, swaying a bit as the spinning made him a dizzy. In a second, he read what had shown in front of him. “Mine says I’m a level one human. I’ve got six attributes that look a lot like some roleplaying game. There’s also a list of skills and feats. I don’t have will listed anywhere. Is this different for everyone?” Lin directed the question at the woman. “That is correct Sir Lin. Each person sees their divine self differently. For example, I see myself defined by various words that surround my person. One such word is elegant, which means I am elegant in all situations.” Coulda fooled me earlier. Azure thought to himself. The woman continued. “Everyone is given this gift and by training oneself they can increase their abilities. Only demons are devoid of this power, which is why they seek to destroy us. They are jealous of the love our God gives us.” Lin and Liza stood awkwardly while the woman continued to exposit their role as heroes and why it was so important they get back to Kitch. Azure had stopped listening and was instead looking at his own ‘divine self’. To Azure, it looked like a code editor. Line after line of the Deities’ language flowed past. Curious, Azure tried to write something into the editor, but he was prompted for administrative priveledges. Odd. He thought. Despite being able to use the language earlier, it seems something prevented him from altering this description of him. A part of him hated the idea that something he couldn’t control would affect his body, but another part of him was used to it. Once again a dissonance formed in his head, past selves unable to agree on what he should be feeling. The only thing to stop him from spiraling down was the abrupt rumbling of his stomach. “Excuse me,” He spoke to the woman, interrupting her speech to the relief of the teens. “Do you know where we are, exactly? The gate spell I used wasn’t tied to anything except the planet since I’ve never been here before. Also, we should probably save the talk about killing demons until we find food and shelter.” “Yes, fine.” The woman answered. “Food and shelter are probably more important right now. However, I have no clue where we are, though I don’t believe for a second this clueless act of yours. Since you have not performed any acts of unspeakable evil yet, I will allow you to leave. Begone.” “Hey you can’t talk to him like that he saved our lives!” Liza exclaimed. “I agree with Liza, he’s done nothing to make you hate him like this.” Lin supplied. “He. Is. A. Demon.” The woman spoke, hatred in her voice. “All of them would do anything to cause pain and terror. He cannot be any different. I will not have him with us, because at some point he will attack us.” “He said he wasn’t a demon!” Liza yelled back. Lin moved over to Azure’s side in a show of solidarity. “It wouldn’t be right to abandon him.” He said. Liza followed suit, crossing her arms in defiance. Tension rose, and then a hysterical laugh burst from the woman. “I see!” She cried. “This is your ploy! Convince the heroes you aren’t a threat, make them side with you and not I. I’ll be forced to travel on my own, no doubt meeting some terrible fate and you’ll have two heroes all yours. Well, I won’t have it!” With a snarl, the woman charged at Azure, arms out. She was going to try and choke him! He stood from his kneeling position and ran to his left. Both Lin and Liza had stood on the right, and he wouldn’t have either of the two get involved. The woman ran after, followed by both the teens. The chase was on. Azure darted through the woodland, kicking up loose dirt with his feet. The woman screamed at him, hysterical cries echoing through the forest. Behind her ran the two teens, trying their hardest to keep up. Azure leaped over a fallen tree, then ducked under low branches. The woman followed, slowed up by her long dress. Eventually, the hem of her dress caught on a shrub and yanked her off balance. She toppled face forward, throwing her hands out in an attempt to cushion the fall. Her left wrist twisted and she fell onto her shoulder. “Hyah!” Liza cried, taking advantage of the fall. She jumped onto the woman, landing in a pile of limbs. Lin stood by, ready to intervene if the woman escaped. “Unhand me!” The woman screamed. “It must die, don’t you see? Even now it has you doing his bidding!” “Lady no one tells me what to do,” Liza grunted. The woman was larger than her, making it difficult to keep her on the ground. “Azure! Can’t you use your magic to make her see reason or something?” Azure was holding a tree, his muscles were shaking. A part of him was trying to take gasping breaths, but since he had no lungs nothing could happen. This woman was a nightmare, worse than any boss he ever had to work with. Of course, he had never dealt with anyone who hated him because of how he looked. Sure, the odd hero would sometimes sneer at Azure’s servitude, but none ever tried to outright kill him. “Azure! Can you magic her or not?” Liza asked again. “Oh, no. I can’t do anything without something to write on or carve into.” Azure replied. “Why not use a tree?” Lin asked. “Using the Deities language on anything living tends to cause terrible side effects,” Azure said. “Well then what do we do?” said Liza. A bone-chilling growl answered her question. Out of the thicket stalked a black figure, freezing the blood of everyone near. “What is that?” Lin whispered. “A griffon.” The woman whispered back in fear. It didn’t look anything like a griffon in Azure’s memories. The face was owlish, with eyes like a cat. A short beak sat where the nose and mouth would be. Past the face was the body of a cat covered in feathers, not fur. But the really un-griffonlike part was that it had no wings. The griffon growled once more, the sound a deep rumble. It stalked forward on four paws, tensed and ready to pounce. Azure and the others moved back, once again forced together by dangerous events. The griffon turned its head to each as if deciding who to chase first. It stepped forward, the group stepped back. It happened, again. Then once more. After the first few times, Azure thought that maybe the griffon wouldn’t attack. After another five times, he was sure of it. The griffon kept herding them until eventually an invisible line was crossed and it stalked back into the forest. As if puppets cut from their strings, the three others collapsed to the floor. Azure leaned back against another tree, thanking the Deities that all the griffon wanted was to remove them from its territory. He hoped there wouldn’t be anything more aggressive in the forest. As if summoned by those words, the bushes rustled. With a start, Azure turned to the sound, ready to bolt. But instead of another griffon (or something worse), there was a man. He was tall, almost seven feet in height, and his body was built like an Olympic sprinter. His upper half was uncovered, exposing his golden skin. As he walked towards everyone, he spoke. “Greetings travelers, good to find others in this forest after such a long time alone. Heard what happened. You were lucky, most people run when they see an Ishka. They don’t get very far, running means you’re prey. Would you like to come for a bit of rest?” It was like he hadn’t talked to other people before. The words came fast and he switched topics quickly. Numb, Azure and the others just nodded. “Great!” The golden man smiled. “Come this way. Have a cottage an ola away. Will take you to it and maybe we can get some pants for you haha!” Azure smiled. After everything that happened today, pants were the least of his worries.