***
The next morning Bo and Ryan readied themselves for a small excursion to the demon’s forest, packing food and water for the next two days before leaving. The woods were quiet as they trekked, and even the river only burbled as they passed it. The wind roared the loudest as they ran through the morning and afternoon, the demon the only thing on their minds.
Once they arrived, they could sense something was wrong about the forest. It was dark, as if the light never reached it, and silent as death. “Great spot for a picnic,” Ryan remarked, staring into the ominous place. Bo huffed through his nose. If Ryan could joke, his nerves were fine.
“In we go. Leave the bags in the trees here,” Bo said, tossing his supply sack to Ryan, who caught in and leapt into the branches. He was back down in an instant.
“Ready,” he said.
Bo gestured for him to follow, and then they crept into the woods. They started to slosh in the swampy ground, and Bo had them take off their shoes, giving his shoes and cloak to Ryan. Ryan put them in the tree with the other supplies and was back with Bo in a moment.
“Ryan,” Bo said, his voice hushed, motioning for him to come closer.
“Yeah, Bo?”
“I want you to scout from the trees. If you see something, come and get me. If something sees you, you shout for me. Understand?”
“Got it,” Ryan replied with a nod. He leapt into the trees and away to the heart of the forest. Bo leapt up into a tree as well, crouching and waiting for Ryan.
“I don’t like the way that water smells,” he muttered, staring down at the boggy ground. A sour, suffocating scent had been assailing his nostrils. He glanced around at the trees. “These aren’t swamp trees,” he noted. A shudder ran down his spine and he looked to where Ryan went. “Why haven’t I taught him how to swim yet?”
When Ryan finally reappeared in front of him, he released an anxious breath. “I saw a pretty big demon,” he reported, perching on a branch next to Bo’s. “It’s definitely big enough to tear someone apart.”
“Good work, Ryan; now show me.” Ryan led the way deeper into the woods. The stagnant, dark water had no clear depth, and Bo wrinkled his nose at the odor it produced. Near a bit of high ground sat a large salamander-looking creature that made a strange growling noise below the men in their tree perches. Ryan made a motion of leaping down onto it. Bo shook his head and held up a finger.
Bo peered down at the creature to see what it had for weapons. From what he could tell, it had sharp claws but no discernable eyes, which meant that the reason it was staying close was either because it was listening to them or smelling them. As a test, Bo broke off a branch and dropped it on the ground by the creature. It didn’t move, but it twitched its tail. Bo looked at Ryan and tapped his nose. Ryan nodded.
“It will probably feel for vibrations as well,” he said in a low voice. It didn’t seem to care much about noise, but as a precaution, Bo wanted to stay quiet. The creature had begun making a loud clicking noise, closing and opening its mouth. Bo assumed it was trying to lure them in some way. That, or it was thinking of how tasty half-demons might be.
“So what do we do?” Ryan whispered, peering down at the demon. Bo followed his gaze.
“From my experience, water-dwelling demons are nearly always venomous. The venoms can vary in effect, but they’re almost guaranteed to be fatal. Well, for us, most would just be incredibly painful. So, first, we stay away from its mouth and claws.”
“Okay, then where do we hit?” Ryan asked, clenching and unclenching his fists.
“Hm.” Bo stared down at the demon, wrinkling his nose, both in thought and at the stench that rose from the water. The shiny black body of the demon was only a silhouette in the dying light, further darkened by the dense trees. Much time had passed while Bo wasn’t paying attention. “Its head is the widest spot, and the weakest. We go for the base there. You have that knife I gave you, don’t you?”
“Right here,” Ryan said, pulling a modified carving knife from its wooden sheath—Bo’s, until Ryan’s eighteenth birthday had come.
“Good,” Bo said with a nod. “Leap down and shove that into the base of its skull. Right here,” he said, turning his head and pointing to the area he spoke of. “But be careful.”
“No joke,” Ryan muttered, looking down.
“Try and jump so that you land on the top of its muzzle. You’ll be able to kill it better that way, keeping its jaws shut. And try not to get in that water.”
Ryan looked at Bo, his brow furrowed in confusion. “What’s wrong with the water?”
“It smells wrong. I noticed it earlier. And it’s at its worst here. Just be careful, all right?”
Ryan nodded. “I didn’t plan on going for a swim, anyhow,” he said, the corner of his mouth twitching into a smile for a second. It disappeared as he looked down. He tightened his grip on the knife, the knuckles of his hand turning white.
“Take a deep breath. It’s waiting for you: don’t let it have the advantage of your fear. And don’t freeze.”
Ryan glanced up at him, taking his advice with a nod. Then he leapt down onto the creature, his feet and knees lying on the monster’s muzzle. He plunged the knife into the back of the demon’s skull without hesitation. The beast screeched, making Bo cover his ears. It rolled, and Ryan yelped as he was buried in the water and the demon stopped moving.
Bo shouted a curse and dropped down. “Ryan, I hope you held your breath,” he muttered as he shoved the creature’s body off the boy.
Ryan emerged, spluttering as he shot up into the trees. He lay down, gasping, on a branch, clinging to it for dear life.
Bo removed the knife from the demon’s body before joining him.
Ryan gave Bo an exhausted glance as he settled on the branch next to him. “Sorry,” he gasped. “Looks like I went for a swim after all.”
Bo’s nose twitched at the proximity of the water’s odor and asked, “Did you drink any of the water?”
Ryan nodded.
Bo set his jaw. I should have told him to be careful of it rolling. “It’s all right. I’m probably just being paranoid. Let’s get back to the mouth of the forest,” he said with a jerk of his head toward where they had come. “We’ll rest a moment before we go back.”
The two returned to the forest’s edge to make camp, lighting a fire. They ate, and Ryan fell asleep almost the second he was full. His light, whistling snore had barely assaulted the air when Bo felt Dayo enter his head.
Good evening, Dayo, Bo greeted, watching the flames of the fire lick the night sky.
“Good evening, Bo. How did it go?”
Fairly well. The demon seemed to have made a strange swamp for itself, but other than that it didn’t seem too powerful. Ryan dispatched it within a few seconds.
“That sounded like a hint of pride at the end.”
It was.
“You also seem a little hesitant. Is something wrong?”
That demon. Bo thought. It seemed…too easy. You understand what I mean?
“I believe I do. But perhaps you don’t give the boy enough credit.”
Maybe. But, I don’t know. That demon didn’t seem to be a very smart creature. It certainly wasn’t very tough. I just feel…I feel that I’ve missed something.
“I will fly over there and see for myself, then. I’m not very far.” Bo heard thunder approaching and saw the clouds, but judged that it would just miss the forest for now, though it was heading for the cabin.
Watch out for the storm.
“I will watch, but it may collect me anyway.”
A few minutes later, Bo glanced up to see Dayo speed overhead. You really were close.
“Yes, I was. I’ll take a look here. You get some rest.”
Got it. I’ll take Ryan back to the cabin in the morning. Good night. And thank you.
“Good night.”
The next morning was gray and dreary. Ryan and Bo awakened and ate breakfast, gathered their belongings, and bega
n the trek back. Bo looked at Ryan as they ran. “Are you all right?” he asked.
“Hm?” Ryan said, looking at him with tired eyes. “Oh, yeah. I’m all right. I just didn’t sleep very well.”
“Well, we’ll be back home soon. You can rest there. After you see Colette, of course,” Bo added. Ryan seemed to put a skip in his step after hearing his friend’s name. “I’m sure she’s worried. She’ll be quite happy to see you back.” Ryan began pulling ahead and Bo smiled as he ran faster to keep pace.
They were back at the house soon enough, the sky above still dead. Ryan dropped his things off and gestured in the direction of the village, his face asking permission. Bo waved him off and he was gone in an instant. “I’ll be hunting for some dinner if I’m not home when you get back here,” Bo called after him.
Bo went out to the field where he and Ryan had come. It felt like so long ago. He could remember the timid, innocent thing he’d adopted, so scared of him but so quick to trust. The boy who hadn’t wanted to hurt him now challenged him in play-fights, and the one who had asked permission for a name now soundly voiced his thoughts.
Bo was following a herd of deer through the plains as he reminisced when he felt Dayo enter his head. Dayo? he asked, continuing after the deer.
“Bo, I am so, so sorry,” Dayo said immediately, a wave of guilt coming with the thought.
What’s wrong?
“I am sorry,” Dayo apologized again.
Dayo, tell me what it is, Bo thought. He was getting a very bad feeling.
“I am so sorry, I wasn’t paying attention. You were followed, Bo. You were right. That demon was weak; there was something wrong. The real problem demon was in the water.”
“I knew it!” Bo growled, too impatient to think anymore as he sprinted back to the cabin. “Where is it, Dayo?”
“I’m not sure. I’ve lost sight of it. Its movements are fairly slow, however.”
“Probably because it’s on land,” Bo said, storming over the bridge and stream. He stopped at the cabin, which had been broken into. The door was half broken, and the interior was torn apart, though nothing seemed to be missing. Bo cursed. The sky overhead cracked, thunder rolling as rain began to fall. “Perfect!” he snarled at it.
“Bo, I think it was after Ryan. You yourself said something was wrong with the water, didn’t you?”
“Yeah, why?”
“Did Ryan swallow any?”
“Well, yes. Tell me your point, Dayo,” Bo snapped.
“The water seemed to be a way of tracking prey; whatever ingests it gives off a particular scent.”
“So Ryan just became a walking beacon for a demon as he walked into a human village?” Bo growled as he leapt into a sprint towards the village. He’d made it only a few steps before a girl’s scream echoed through the forest beside a cry of pain. “No!” Bo cried, charging even faster. Not again played over and over in his head.
He found Colette in a tree, holding onto a branch for her life, her hair flattened to her head as the rain poured down. “Are you all right?” Bo called. She nodded. “Where’s Ryan?”
“A demon took him that way! He put me up here!” Colette called, pointing in the direction of the brook.
Bo cursed to himself again, looking toward the river. Turning back to her, he called, “I’ll be back for you!” before he ran off.
“Bo!” he heard from the river as he got close.
“Hold on, Ryan!” he roared, stopping at the bank. I won’t just let you die, he thought as he glanced up and down the water, already rushing with the downpour. “Where are you?” he muttered before spotting something large downstream and darting to follow it. He pulled up beside it and matched its pace.
Ryan was fighting to get his head above water as a demon pulled him downstream and tried to drown him. The demon was large and appeared to be some sort of lizard-horse beast, with sharp teeth sunk into Ryan’s arm and clawed horse legs and a lizard tail and gills on its throat. It wasn’t allowing Ryan to get out of the water despite his efforts, and began tearing into the arm it held. Bo yelled and dived onto it without a second thought, finding its scaled neck and trying to press his claws under its jaw, but it kept its vicious hold. It began thrashing in the water and kicking out, and Bo could see Ryan was getting pummeled.
“No you don’t,” Bo snarled, squinting to keep the water from blinding him. He jabbed his claws into the monster’s eyes, blinding it. It let go of Ryan as it screamed, and Bo managed to snap its neck with a yell.
Bo let go of the demon’s body and dived into the water to find Ryan, grabbing him and letting the demon’s carcass pass over before springing out of the river as lightning cracked overhead.
“Come on, Ryan,” Bo said, laying him on the bank. The boy looked like a drowned rat, his clothes torn and his hair plastered to his face, his eyes closed. His right forearm was badly torn, and he was covered in gashes from the demon’s claws. “Dayo!” Bo called, turning his gaze to the sky.
“I can hear you.”
“Then help me,” Bo pleaded, listening to Ryan’s silent chest, the rain melding with the tears that ran down his cheeks.
“I can’t.”
“Help me, Dayo!” The dragon was silent for a while.
“I will take care of the demon’s body.”
“With Ryan,” Bo cried, his voice and heart breaking at once. He knew Dayo could do nothing, but he wanted him to try. To at least try.
“Boelik, you know that I cannot.”
Bo looked at Ryan’s pale face, at the human and demon all at once. The sharp eyes that couldn’t see anything anymore, open or not. The face with two sides, each side making him a monster to the other. Bo wanted to vomit. He stumbled away and did just that in the river.
Coming back to Ryan, he knelt beside him and let the rain douse him in his grief. “Ryan, I am sorry,” he said to his friend, his voice as lifeless as Ryan’s face. “You have no idea how sorry I am that you had to be born like me. You were like my own son.” Raindrops fell at the corners of Ryan’s eyes and it looked to Bo like Ryan was crying with him.
It was a little while later when the rain began to let up and Bo heard Colette calling him. He got to his feet, his body cold and numb, and went to her. “Bo! Are you all right? Is it safe?”
“It’s safe,” he replied with an empty voice, leaping up and bringing her down from the tree. Once on the ground she peeked around Bo to the woods where he came from.
“Where’s Ryan?” she asked.
“Not coming back,” Bo said. Colette stared at him, her wide green eyes searching his face.
“Not coming back?” she asked, her voice trembling. “You mean he’s…?” Bo nodded, and she fell to her knees and began to cry.
“I’m sorry,” she sobbed to Bo, covering her face with her hands. “It’s my fault. It came after me.”
“It’s not your fault,” Bo said, kneeling next to her. “It came after him. He was trying to protect you, but it had the advantage. He didn’t know how to swim. It’s my fault for failing to teach him.” Everything is my fault…like always.
Colette looked up at him and threw her arms around his neck, crying on his shoulder. He embraced her in a comforting gesture and took her back to the ravaged cabin. They grieved together until the storm let up, Bo in silence and Colette in tears. When the storm finally stopped, the evening sky hidden by the moving storm, Bo escorted Colette home.
“What will we do now?” she asked him just outside of the village. The girl and half-man would part ways here.
“Well, I think I will continue to use the cabin as a home when I’m not needed anywhere else. As for Ryan, I’ll bury him when I get back.” Bo locked a hard gaze on Colette. “You should forget about us.”
“Forget about you?” she said in a hurt voice, curling her dainty fists to her heart. “How could I? You both saved my life, and I…”
“You loved him. I know. But he’s gone and you should move on.” Colette looked at him, searching his
face.
“You won’t,” she accused.
“No, I won’t. But I don’t have anyone to move on for, either. You have a family—parents, a sister. I’m sure you’ll find a good man, and you’ll have children. Ryan wouldn’t want you to stop your life because his is over. You know that.”
“I didn’t think he would. But I don’t think I could love someone else.”
“Keep living. I’m sure you will find someone who makes you feel safe again; choose him,” Bo said. “If anything, have kids, then tell them about a young boy with a strange face who saved a young girl from a horrible monster. About the strange man who lives somewhere in the wood.”
Colette stared at him for a minute before nodding. “All right.”
“All right,” Bo replied, turning around and heading back to the trees. He heard Colette go back into her house, heard her greet her family, forcing a happy tone. He continued to the river.
At Ryan’s body, Bo had almost expected him to sit up and say something. Maybe yawn. Maybe stretch. Maybe he expected him to move. But none of that happened. He was just where Bo had left him, just as pale and cold. Just as dead.
Bo knelt next to Ryan and took a moment to look. Ryan’s face appeared calm despite what he’d been through, and the blood was mostly washed away by the rain. As Bo bent over to pick him up, he paused, having a realization. Then Bo pulled the boy close to him. I never did this while you were alive, did I?
Three years, and I never hugged you.
I was a fool.
After some time, Bo scooped up Ryan’s limp body the same way he had swept up Olea the day he took her home and sang her to sleep in his arms. He sang softly to Ryan’s closed ears as he carried him, not bothering to swallow the tears that fell down his cheeks. He carried him through the dark woods, his voice winding, forlorn, through the dying leaves that fell from the trees. “My heart breaks again,” he sang softly. “I lose what I love, and live with what I lose.”
When will I lose myself?
Bo continued singing to his deaf audience as he gently put Ryan on the ground and dug a grave for him in the fields they had once come from. Dayo landed as Bo finished digging, silent as Bo continued singing in a whisper to the dead, tapping the tip of his tail in a soft drumbeat to Bo’s grief, and watched as Bo carefully put his companion in the ground. Dayo pawed the loose dirt back overtop, and the two were silent.
“I am sorry, Bo. I did not mean for this to happen,” Dayo said, eventually breaking the silence of the cold night. The life around had hidden itself away from the rain and the beasts it had brought about.
“I know. I would have buried him anyway, someday, I knew,” Bo said. “He did not stop in time like me. He wouldn’t have. But it wasn’t supposed to be today, Dayo. He was supposed to live in the happiness I couldn’t.”
“You did let him live that happiness, Boelik, I’m sure. All of the training one takes can only prepare him for so much, however. Death takes her prey in every chance she can,” Dayo said. He looked at the new grave, his wet fur hanging in tight white locks. “I was preparing to meet him. I am sorry that I never had the chance.”
“So am I. You would have made quick friends, I think; you both have more patience than I could ever have,” Bo said with a bitter smirk.
“Bo,” Dayo rumbled. “There are still no new assignments. Will you be staying here?”
“Yes.”
“All right. I shall find you when the next half-demon is ready to be trained.” Bo held up his hand in a wave without glancing at Dayo. “Good-bye for now, then,” Dayo said, lifting off and flying away.
Bo walked back alone and found Ryan’s hat on the ground by the river. He dusted it off and took it home, putting it on the back of Ryan’s chair as he reset the table and chairs and cleaned up the cabin. He ate a dinner in silence for the first time in years. As he went to bed, he breathed in the scent of his former partner. He dreamt of Ryan that night:
Bo stood near the bridge, on the side that looked out to the field. Bright light filtered through spring trees, breathing new life into every tree and shadow. Ryan waved to him from across the bridge, a grin on his face as snowflakes began to fall. He seemed to call something out, but Bo couldn’t make out what was being said.
Olea appeared behind Ryan as Bo moved to approach, making Bo freeze in his tracks. His wife gave him a little wave and a sorry smile as she guided Ryan away, and Bo could see her telling the boy something. Ryan looked back at Bo with regret written on his face as he was led away. Bo reached out, words forming on his lips to call them back to him and to apologize.
And then he woke up.
Bo sat with another meal in front of him, staring at the hat on the chair across from him. He remembered talking and laughing as he had eaten just a few days before. He remembered having someone to laugh with. He stood and went outside, leaving his wooden plate behind on the table. The food was untouched.
Autumn passed, and winter came and went. When spring returned, Dayo informed Bo of a new assignment. Bo traveled to the village and let Colette know of the new development, and she hugged him as she said farewell. He told her he would be back within ten years, but just to check once or twice a year for a fire in the cabin. With that, he went to his new charge.
Bo protected and trained his new half-demons until they decided Bo was no longer needed; so he left one night. When Bo informed Dayo of this, he was told to let them go; the half-demons were trained well enough to make something of themselves.
Bo went back to Ireland two years earlier than he’d expected.
He and Colette soon reunited for a picnic, and she informed him that she’d found a suitor. Bo told her that he was glad for her, and feigned happiness despite the hole he felt inside. It was not long before Bo had another assignment and left the country again.
This time Bo’s charge died of a disease, and he returned within three years. Colette was married and with child now. He got to see the babe once before he left again.
The pattern of coming and going to and from Ireland continued for many years, even after Colette and her children were dead and buried. Bo watched the generations pass, watched as more of his pupils either fled from him because they felt they had no reason to stay, or they passed onto the next life because he was unable to protect them. Still he continued to return to his Irish cabin, long after his visitors stopped coming.
He helped the descendants of Colette’s family in secret, leaving them game on their step whenever famine hit, and wood in the winter. From the edge of the forest he watched the children as they played in the fields, or from the branches as they ran in the woods. Somehow, none ever found his cabin.