Halfalias - Chapter Four: The Underworld

Chapter Four: The Underworld

     “Alyss,” Emilee looked over at the Vraemon girl, holding out her hand. Alyss nodded and reached into her cape, pulling out a bow and quiver holding fifty arrows and handing it to her. The wolf girl secured the quiver on her back and walked over to the injured demon, standing in front of him. Kiki flew over and took Emilee’s place at Lily’s side.

     “What’s wrong? Kill me already, or else I’ll hunt you... Kedsawn wounds heal fast, and in... In a few hours if I’m not dead I’ll be completely healed...” the Kedsawn coughed up more blood, his wound slowly but visibly closing. Emilee took out an arrow and fitted it on the bow, pulling it back and pointing it at his face as Lily looked away, shedding tears. Somehow, she didn’t know why, she so desperately wanted nothing more than to kill this creature, but... Emilee took a deep breath and slowly withdrew her bow and then placed the arrow back into the quiver. She walked back to her friends, who were looking at her with disbelief.

     “Let’s go back. We saved Lily, and that’s all we came for,” she said, turning to where they came from. Maybe it was because she usually was sure that the demons were evil and only wanted power when she went demon-hunting, or maybe it was the uncertainty in her knowledge of the Kedsawns, or was it because Lily was crying? She was never sure why she let that demon live, but something in her gut told her that if she killed that Kedsawn she’d be just as bad as all the monsters that she’d slaughtered in the past. Just as they were about to climb up the outcropping from before, there was an ear-shattering screech from the other side of the room, the kind of sound that pierced your eardrums and raked your brain of its sanity. Suddenly, the sound became even louder and a portal that looked much like a black hole opened up and grew so big that even a large elephant could fit through it. Terry gripped onto the ground with his razor sharp talons as the portal began to create a vacuum that was becoming more powerful by the second. Kiki had whipped around to look at the giant hole in the wall when she noticed that even the Kedsawn’s face showed great alarm, his wound already two thirds its original size. The half alicorn was so overcome with fear and confusion that she hadn’t noticed that the portal’s vacuum had become so strong that she was beginning to slip towards it, and would had been sucked in if Alyss hadn’t grabbed hold of her arm. Even with the combined efforts of all the Halfalias, they couldn’t stay anchored for long. Terry’s talons gave way and he tumbled into the portal, bringing Lily, his friends, his sister, and even the Kedsawn in with him.

---

     Terry couldn’t explain what he was feeling, or seeing. It felt like his body was there, but everywhere and not there at all. He was hot and cold, and his stomach was doing somersaults. His ears were filled with static, and...Was he floating? It felt something like that, but he was standing... There was black, he was sure, but what else? Ever changing shapes and indescribable colours flashed across his eyes until it became so confusing and dizzying that he shut them tight. The shapes and colours were still there. A headache, then, there was darkness.

---

     The first thing that Alyss noticed about her surroundings when she popped out of the portal and away from the crazy stuff in there was that there was fire everywhere. For some reason, it wasn’t hot at all. It was actually a bit cool. The second big thing she noticed was that the ground was made of a kind of hard, blood red soil. It seemed like another world, and when she looked up she saw that high up, so high that she could barely see through the red mist above, there was a roof of some kind of black stone. When Alyss turned her gaze back to the landscape, she noticed a colossal castle far off in the distance that looked like it was made of some dark burgundy rock. There was no life to be seen, and it was eerily quiet besides the crackle of the fire and hissing of the few lava pits that littered the ground. She was alone, standing there, and as soon as she noticed that her friends were nowhere to be found she turned back to the portal that had spat her out. It was still open, and since it wasn’t sucking her in she got a better look at it. It was a black hole, no portal frame or anything, just a black hole that had opened up in thin air, and when Alyss looked behind it she found nothing there. It was odd, to say the least. Just as the Vraemon was about to stick a gloved hand back into the portal, in a flash of light Terry, Emilee, Lily, Kiki, and the Kedsawn appeared out of the black hole and landed in a heap on top of her. By now the Kedsawn had only a small circular scar on his back and a ripped shirt, yet nobody really paid attention or cared as they took in the otherworldly environment.

     “Why... the underworld?” the Kedsawn mumbled to himself as he stood up, unintentionally catching the Halfalias' and Lily’s attention. Lily didn’t understand what was going on. Sure, she believed in magic and demons, but what she failed to understand was where they were, how they got there, and who or what her supposed saviour actually was.

     “I thought as much,” Emilee said, standing and pulling up her friends and brother. She brushed herself off and stared suspiciously at the Kedsawn.

     “Why are you still in disguise?” she asked, reaching behind her back, ready to nock an arrow into her bow. Before the Kedsawn could reply, Lily spoke up.

     “Um, could somebody explain to me what’s going on?” she asked looking around at the half human forms of her friends and Emilee’s little brother.


     The handsome boy who she thought had saved her stepped to her side and started to say “Well, you see...” while his hand was about to pat her shoulder. His hand was only a few centimetres from her when Alyss appeared between the two, pointing a jet black gun against the Kedsawn’s forehead, another pistol glinting in her other hand which was tensed at her side.

     “This guy is a demon trying to kill us all,” Alyss said, her head turning to face Lily. Lily shook her head in disbelief.

     “But he saved me...” she said, glancing at the gun pointed at her saviour’s head. Kiki sighed and shook her head at her.

     “He lied to you. We saw everything, how he impersonated you to get to us, and how he brought you to his lair to eat you, and how he tried to gain your trust by disguising himself as a human,” Emilee explained. The Kedsawn smirked and stood his ground triumphantly.

     “When did you see me bring her to ‘my lair’?” he said, raising an eyebrow at the wolf girl. Alyss shot him a warning look and pressed the pistol harder against his skull. The Kedsawn was about to take a step back, and upon seeing this Emilee immediately was at his side, bow drawn back and arrow pointed directly at the side of his head.

     “Of course you brought her there! Don’t mess around with m-”

     Suddenly, Emilee felt something close around her waist mid-sentence, and her vision went black.

---

     Kiki woke up with fuzzy vision and had an annoying ache that seemed to be teleporting from one place in her body to another. The ground that she was laying on was hard, cold, and uncomfortably bumpy. She blinked a few times, clearing her vision, only to notice that she was staring at a line of thick iron poles jutting out from the ground that reached up to the coal black ceiling, and to be hit with the overwhelming stench... of rotting flesh. The half alicorn sat up abruptly and looked down at the dark gray stone ground, averting her eyes from anything around her, afraid she may glimpse a Kedsawn. She tensed up as she heard a groan behind her and in a flash she was huddled in a corner of the dark room, her eyes never leaving the ground. Kiki heard sniffing and shuffling from the spot she once was, and then her head was forcefully jerked up to stare at a pair of pale yellow eyes. The half alicorn opened her mouth to speak, or scream, but Emilee let go of her friend’s head and covered Kiki’s mouth with her hand. Emilee’s wolf nose twitched, and she pressed her index finger to her lips, shushing the alicorn girl before the half wolf crawled on her hands and knees with her eyes closed to another part of their what seemed like a prison cell, finding Alyss and Terry and waking them up.

     “So, you all are awake,” a voice said on the outside of the cage. The voice had multiple layers to it, similar to when somebody talks into a blowing fan. It sounded masculine, sarcastic and smooth. The Halfalias kept their gazes on the ground, or closed their eyes altogether.

     “Hm? Why aren’t you looking at me when I’m talking?” the voice taunted, making Emilee’s temper rise. The prisoners kept silent, and after a moment the voice chuckled.

     “I dare you to look up,” he said in an aggravatingly challenging voice. As soon as the voice prepared to launch into an endless stream of insults, he was cut off by a new voice.

     “That’s quite enough, Amedeo,” it said, closer to the Halfalias than they expected. This new voice still had the blowing fan effect to it, but was remotely different to the first voice; even though it was also masculine this voice had a regal edge, as well as being wise and calm.

     “You have no need to be afraid of us,” the second voice said in a comforting manner. Terry tensed; he had no desire to play right into the enemy’s hand.

     “Yeah, right,” Emilee spat, speaking the words that the rest of the Halfalias dared not to say.

     “You’ve got some sass, girlie,” the first voice, Amedeo, sneered.

     “Amedeo, leave this to me,” the second said before Amedeo answered in a grumble.

     “We don’t trust Kedsawns,” Kiki said under her breath.

     “I know,” the second voice sighed. “But please hear what we have to say. About everything you know about our species the Kedsawns; the books, internet databases, and anything else that may have our information in the Halfalia records, have been planted there falsely and against our will. The rogue Kedsawns are not ruthless killers and we only eat enough for us to survive. Please understand that all of us need nourishment of some kind to sustain ourselves. We have only killed for survival and self defence, never in vain... unlike some humans I’ve observed,”

     Emilee flinched at this, because of course, being the deep thinker that she was; she had realized long ago that humans killed for their selfish needs. She usually tried not thinking about it, but she always did anyways. The edges of her mouth quirked up in a sad smile, hidden by her hair and the downwards angle of her face.

     “We don’t expect you to fully trust us. I am just requesting that you please leave our species in peace,” the second voice continued with a sincere tone.

     “Who planted the false information?” Emilee asked suddenly.

     “The transformation unit of the demon capital. We’ve heard news from passing demons that their king is crazy. That’s why we became rogues, so we don’t have to deal with government affairs, greedy rulers and other crap,” Amedeo answered, and when the Halfalias said nothing, he continued with, “That lair you found me at, it wasn’t mine. I honestly wanted to save that girl, and all the others, from that place. It was one of the transformation demons from the capital that put them there. When you followed me from your school, I was tracking down their hideout,”

     “What about when you cornered us in the hallway?” Emilee accused, still not trusting the Kedsawns.

     “What? I only took that girl’s place after her classes so I didn’t need to go endure those hellholes,” Amedeo declared.

     “Who you interacted with was most likely a different demon,” the second voice said thoughtfully.

     “How can we be sure that you’re telling the truth at all?” Emilee said skeptically.

     “SERIOUSLY!?!? After all we’ve told you?! And they say I’m difficult. Okay, girlie, I dare you to look up. See our true forms. C’mon, it won’t kill you. Or will it?,” Amedeo cackled, leaving Emilee gritting her teeth and digging her claws into her palms, making them bleed. Terry, Kiki, and Alyss had been mostly just staying by Emilee as she talked to the Kedsawns... until Alyss stopped spacing out and noticed two things: One, Lily was nowhere she could sense; and two, their families had absolutely no idea that they were doing this at all. Alyss may not have paid much mind to this fact about herself, but she was a very observant person. So, when she was scanning the room with her Vraemon senses, she noticed somebody that she hadn’t before, and that somebody was someone that she was oh-so-familiar with. It almost startled her when she made this discovery that that certain someone was in this certain place, but Rachael didn’t scare easily, so instead of yelling or rapidly gesturing to that certain someone (as some may do), she took the calmer route and ever so slightly nodded her head in their direction to acknowledge their presence.

     “Hey, you, the one with the horn. How about I dare you to look at me? Aw, are you afraid to? That’s what I thought,” Amedeo sneered at Kiki, who tensed. The second voices attempts at stopping Amedeo from saying any more had failed, and so it appeared that he had given up completely and was presently standing by.

     “Leave her alone, demon,” Emilee said.

     “Well, I’m obviously not making any progress with you, mutt,” Amedeo retorted harshly. The wolf was finally fed up with all of the demon’s dark sarcasm and cheeky replies.

     “You want us to look up so badly?!” she lashed out.

     “Emilee, what are you doing?!” Terry cried, yanking on his sister’s arm.

     “THEN I’LL LOOK UP!!!” Emilee yelled.                                          


     And that’s exactly what she did.