Chapter 1:
Demon’s Forest

A young fire demon sat on the forest floor, flicking rocks into the lake. “Stupid humans, stupid world......” she muttered . A large black leopard with dark blue wings lay in a tree above her snoring gently. The demoness was wearing a pair of red flares and a black flame print teeshirt. She had green eyes, long silvery white hair and long black wings, tipped with flames on the top edge. A human leant against a tree behind her. “Does that mean I’m stupid?” She asked slyly. The demoness turned to face her. “I never said that. Get out of my forest. Now.” She replied, with pure anger in her voice. The leopard opened one eye sleepily. “Now now Salmakia, no need for that. It’s our forest.” He then turned to the human. “Would you please leave our forest?” His voice was deep, but kindly. The human smiled and said to him, “Hmm, well I would, but I’ve got the cops, not to mention half the city chasing me right now.” Salmakia looked at her and said, “Well, I suppose you could crash here for a while. Nobody ever comes here. But don’t forget, it’s still my forest.” She said, still dubious . “My name’s Salmakia, and that’s Tialys. But just call us Sal and Ti.” The human was now smiling broadly. She nodded and replied, “Thanks. I’m Kærii. You two have beautiful names.” Tialys smiled and flicked his tail . He now resembled a human, except for his creamy white leopard tail. He wore a light blue shirt, long white trousers and a black crescent shaped earring in his left ear. He had icy blue eyes, which were tinted with silver. He never really thought of Sal as his owner, and she knew it. She too changed into her human from, her wings disappearing and her eyes becoming brown tinted slightly with gold. She smiled and said to Kærii, “Thank you. Your name is beautiful also.”

As the day went on Sal showed Kærii how to do many things, like make a small raft, a slingshot, a small bow and some arrows, and other things which would help her in her struggle. They were revising arrow making when Sal said to Kærii, “No, you’re using the wrong knot again. Use this one , ” b efore correcting it. Kærii smiled and nodded. They continued to make arrows for a while. Suddenly, a loud crash shook the ground. Kærii gulped and fell backwards onto the boulder behind her. Sal quickly returned to her demon form and flew high above the canopy. “Here they come. Looking for you I suppose.” She said to Kærii, smiling. As the humans reached the edge of the forest one of the police officers yelled, “Hey you, demon!! We know you’re hiding a criminal in that forest of yours, so come out with her!!” Sal merely smiled and beckoned to Kærii to follow her. They walked into a large clearing near the entrance. “Why don’t you come in here. We can have a nice friendly talk.” Sal said, smiling at them. Everyone she could see in the front row looked terrified and some of them were walking backwards slowly. Night was drawing when a few of the policemen and citizens came into the clearing, so Sal made a small fire in the centre. She and Kærii sat on a boulder and the humans sat on a couple of logs on the other side of the clearing. “We need her back.” Said one of the citizens. “She’s a criminal, you see.” Kærii stood up and said, “I am not a criminal! What did I ever do?” Her mother stood up from one of the logs and replied, “You stole from me, you attacked a policeman, need I go on?” Kærii sat back down and growled. Sal simply sat there thinking. Then, pop. A small boy with cat ears and a tail appeared over Sal’s head. “Boo!” He said, then looked around, spotted the humans and promptly screamed. “Yipes! Why are there humans in your forest, Salmakia? I thought mum told you not to let strangers in.” Suddenly a black entity pounced on him. “It’s our forest Sinreal. So there.” Ti stepped off him and cuffed him round the head with a paw, laughing. “You’ll never learn.” Sin stood up and began to smooth his hair and fur down. “I wish you wouldn’t do that all the time. It takes me ages to sort it all out again afterwards. Hmmph.” The three of them then realised the fact that six humans were staring at them. Sal was the first to speak. “Eh heh. Everybody, this is Sin, my younger brother, and the black leopard is my familiar, Tialys.” Ti smiled and changed back to his human form. “Good evening, everyone.” Sin smiled nervously and said, “Hi all. Pleased to meet ya!” The humans were in awe and fear of the three demons. Kærii was the first to recover and burst out laughing. “Heya there lil’ guy. I’m Kærii.” Sin smiled and the negotiations continued. They finally agreed that Kærii could stay with Sal as long as they all checked in at the police station every day, which was situated just outside the forest. Sal smiled. “Well then, now that’s all over, time for some fun. Kærii, if you go sit in that tree over there,” she said, pointing to a tree behind her, “you can get the best view. Hey Ti, time for a barbeque!! Man, I haven’t done this for ages!!” She cried as she created a ring of flame around the humans. Ti smiled and created several icicles, which fell just inside the ring of flame, but didn’t melt. “W, why don’t the icicles melt, Ti?” Kærii asked from the tree. “Well, they’re demonic icicles, which basically means they’re , ahem, ‘ magic al’ so they won’t melt.” He explained. “Yeah, but who cares! I missed this so much!” Sal said, and laughed as the other humans tried to put out the flames, and those inside it tried to smash the icicles.

Chapter 2:
Dragon Falls

The next morning, they sat at the edge of the lake talking and joking about several things, like why people continually state and repeat the very very obvious, like “It’s a nice day,” or “You’re very tall,” or “You seem to have fallen down a thirty foot well, are you all right?” and why people were so obsessed with religion. "'Oh Deiwos, save me Lord!!' Pathetic..." Kærii joked, and the forest was soon filled with laughter and an air of merriment.. “So, what we gonna do for food? I’m hungry.” Sin complained. “Oh shut up. We’ll find food later. Unless the ladies would like something to eat?” Ti asked them. Sal smiled and said, “Well, ok then. You hungry Kærii?” She asked. Kærii nodded and replied, “Sure, I could go for a bite.” So Sal picked up Kærii, Sin sat on her head and Ti flew beside them. After a while Kærii asked them, “So, where are we going?” Sal smiled, pointed ahead and said, “Look.” Kærii looked ahead and gasped in awe. What she saw (and what most other people would I imagine) was a large clearing surrounded by the sort of trees you would see in a rainforest, a stream running through the middle, and a waterfall at one end, next to a large cave. When they landed Kærii sat down on a moss covered rock next to Sal. “W, whoa! Where is this place?” She asked, still in awe. Sal smiled and waited for Ti to come back. He returned, followed by Sin and the most beautiful woman Kærii had ever seen. She had long black hair, green scaled wings, two horns protruding from her head and a long, reptilian tail. She smiled at her and said, “Welcome, to my home. My name is Kira.”

Kærii simply nodded, unable to speak. Sal smiled and said, “Good morning, mother. This is Kærii, a human, erm, friend of mine.” Kira smiled gently and said, in a soft, musical sort of voice, “A human friend? I thought those days were long past. But it seems like the old ways are returning, somewhat.” Sal gasped and said to her mother, “Mum, don’t talk to me about that, ok? You know it reminds me all too much of father.” Kærii looked at her and began, “Your father? What happened to -”

“You don’t need to know that, just yet.” Kira interrupted. Sal nodded and Kærii closed her mouth slowly. Then unexpectedly , Sin flew around Kira, chanting, “Food, food! We want food!” Sal and Kærii suddenly popped out of their trance-like state and laughed. Kira smiled warmly and turned to the girls. “Would you two like something to eat?” She asked kindly. The girls nodded and Kira and Tialys walked inside the cave, beckoning the others to follow.

The food was quite exotic, at least that’s what Kærii thought. There was oatmeal bread, dandelion and burdock cordial, hotroot soup, and what Kira called a turnip ‘n’ tater deeper ‘n’ ever pie. Sinreal ate ravenously, whilst Kira and Tialys had a conversation around mouthfuls of deeper ‘n’ ever pie. "So, what's the story behind this pie then , Ma'am?" Tialys asked Kira. Kira smiled and nodded her head towards Salmakia. "My daughter could tell you better than I could, Tialys. She was the one who found old Elmjak in the forest all those years ago." Sal nodded. "That's a thing! Mother, when was the last time you saw Elmjak?" Kira smiled and tapped the side of her nose knowingly. "I have a surprise for you all after dinner." Salmakia broke into a wide smile and saw the look on Kærii’s face. She nodded to Sinreal, and the cat-like boy came over to Kærii, whispering in her ear, “You’ll find out soon enough. I’m not even sure I’m guessing right,” before winging back to his seat. “Is this surprise what, or should I say who I think it is?” Sal asked her mother. The draconic female smiled and replied, “That depends on who you think it is, Salmakia darling.” After they had all finished eating, Kira stood them all inside the cave whilst she went to fetch the surprise. Salmakia and Sinreal were explaining to Kærii why they both looked different to their mother. “It’s because of Dad. He was half human half demon, so Sal’s a full blooded demon, where as I got the neko demon genes from Grandpa, and also these cute lil’ wings.” Sinreal said, grinning toothily. Sal smiled and added, “Yea, Grandpa was a neko demon, Grandma was a dragoness. Our other Grandpa was a human, where as Nana was a full-blooded tiger demon. It’s really complicated, but I’m pretty sure Mum understands.” Kærii nodded, for it did sound rather complicated. She walked over to Tialys and sat on the floor. “What’s up, Ti? You look depressed.” She said. The large black leopard sighed and lay beside her. “It’s nothing really, just all this talk of family, it reminds me of home. I was barely a pup when they took her...” He said, a look of pain on his face. Kærii stared at him for a while before replying, “I’m sorry if I reminded you of something you’d rather not think of, Tialys. Who was she?” Tialys looked to the human and smiled. “She was my older sister, Bryony. We lived peacefully in a mountain some way to the north, but one day... They came. Hunters, wanting money, and a new trophy head for their gallery. We fought tooth and claw, but then she told me to run. I had no choice, so I ran to the far reaches of our cave, a place I had never been allowed to go before. There was a tunnel, leading out into a forest. The last thing I ever heard my sister say was ‘Good luck, little brother. Fly well.’” At that moment the conversations stopped, for Kira walked in. “Come on then you lot, my little surprise is outside.” Said she, beckoning them outside. Momentarily they were blinded by the bright sunlight, but they soon recovered to see an elderly squirrel, of around 5 feet tall. He smiled warmly at them all. “Good to see you again, Salmakia dear.”