Night Lords

Before The Coven.

Before The Coven

Chapter 1

With a sharp knife, a small horse formed out of a branch I discovered outside my hut. I had to keep myself occupied. Being shunned from civilization and having no one to talk to can make one mad. So, I found a hobby. After a few more scores on the wood, I put the knife down and marvelled at my creation. I had only picked up this hobby twenty years ago. I had become somewhat adept at it; my little hut was full of wooden trinkets from animals, to hair pins, to intricately carved cups that I'd whittled from pieces of wood I'd found. But I could not sell my wares. Not to the local town fifteen miles away. They would not welcome me, not anymore. I wasn't one of them. So, I'd strung up my creations from one side of the room to the other or placed them on shelves all over the walls. There was little place to move, but then again, I didn't need a bed, a sink or a kitchen... only a place to sit until the sun went down.

Since my transformation twenty-eight years ago, I was not welcome in any human township, city or village. I must live on the periphery. Skulking, watching, waiting in the darkness. Such is the nature of my... condition. I could not stand the sunlight and thus lived at night.

Feeling the last threads of light pass by my barricaded windows, I took a deep breath to calm my nerves for the night ahead. Within moments, they would come slithering from their elements, sniffing like ravenous wild dogs. They'd find me not as a food source but as a sport. Every night these creatures that humans call Deemons would want to kill me, but I was never in the mood to die so easily.

Each elemental Deemon was intelligent and had abilities that killed humans all too easily. The Deemons created hierarchies within their elemental groups or nests to which they'd cling. Each nest comprised fire, earth, water, and air. And they were driven by the need to destroy human life and eat their flesh. Whether humans liked it or not, it was my lot in life to protect them, even though they shunned me.

Standing up, I took another deep breath of cool air that crept in under the door. I felt a prickle against my skin. It was an instinct that Deemons were drawing towards me.

Ensuring the whittled horse was safe alongside the rest of my menagerie, I put the small knife into my boot and reached for my double-edged sword. It was a gift from a passing traveller I had saved from two earth Deemons some months ago. The weapon had come in handy, though I still preferred my smaller knife.

Throwing a dark brown woollen cloak over my shoulders, I ventured out into the night. To my left, I saw the vibrant colours of the dying sun. It pained me still that I could no longer bask in its warmth, but then again, my transformation only allowed me to bask in the moonlight. I did not need warmth anymore.

A rustle of brush beside me, and in a split second, my small knife was out of my boot. My skin prickled uncomfortably; a low guttural hiss escaped my lips. 'Come at me!' I snapped.

In two leaps, a mottle brown-skinned Deemon, no bigger than a three-year-old child with no hair and only a tiny scrap of cloth around its mid-riff, jumped from the earth and struck my head with its fist. Caught off balance, I flew into the air and twisted; I landed like a cat and scarpered off to the right. I needed to get it out into the open. Any tree with an earth Deemon meant that it had an advantage, and I had to take that advantage away.

'Come back!' it screamed in anger. One thing about Deemons, they could never outrun someone like me.

Laughing, I headed further out into a meadow lined with trees, but they were far away. I crouched low in the tall, wispy grass and watched the Deemon approach. It stopped barely five metres from me and bared its needle-like teeth. It knew I was playing a trick on it.