Chapter Four



The sun was bright in a cloudless sky, the birds were chirping. The lush green of the forest sparkled from the dew settled on the foliage from the night before. Leo felt like he would throw up any minute.

He had driven out with his father, Rafael, and younger brother, Angelo, on this ‘special family adventure’. Angelo had called it ‘Hunting’, their father had called it ‘bonding’, but Leo called it ‘waste of time’.

They had set out well before dawn and were supposedly on the tracks of a deer and very close to actually hunting it down. Day had quite arrived, and as far as Leo was concerned, they should’ve caught the animal by now. However, his father did not see it his way. He kept telling them how important patience was to the kill. Angelo might be looking bug-eyed at their father in his impressive hunting gear, Leo just wanted to go back home to his mother’s cooking.

“I think it went that way, Papa,” piped up Angelo. He pointed a finger excitedly at a narrow space between a few bushes with blue flowers.

Their father moved his horse closer to his and took a look at the place where Angelo was pointing. “And how did you know?” he asked his second-born.

“The branches over there seem broken at an odd angle for it to be done by only a medium sized animal,” explained Angelo proudly. Rafael clapped him on the back with equal pride and moved towards the gap, motioning for Leo to follow.

Leo looked at his Stallion. Easel was a beautiful animal, fast, powerful, and quite the graceful jumper, but he had not been built to trek in muddy forests. Besides, that gap looked tiny and the last thing Leo wanted was for his favourite horse to end up scratched. Shaking his head, he dismounted and patted Easel’s neck. “Go home, and kick Giuseppe if he doesn’t give you at least five apples,” he told the animal before sending it off with a light slap on its thigh. Most people thought he was being dense, but he would bet everything he owned that that animal understood everything he said to it.

Hitching his backpack higher on his back, Leo made to follow the direction his father and brother had disappeared in. Apparently waiting for the third person in their party was not part of the hunting experience.

Leo walked lazily through the foliage. His father said that he was only good in a fair competition – which was a severe understatement, as far as Leo was concerned – but useless in a real situation. Leo didn’t take well to this outlook of his father’s. Angelo took to their mother’s side of the gene pool. Therefore, Angelo had more pixie in him than Leo. Since pixies are forest creatures, trekking through thick forests was like second home to his little brother. Leo, on the other hand, had more of the Succubae traits. A nightclub was more like his natural habitat. But that didn’t mean he was useless in a forest.

He could see, hear, and smell practically everything that his brother could. It was just that he didn’t enjoy the experience. The warmth made him sweat – something he was unaccustomed to – and the humidity made his hair frizz up. And he hated the annoying little bugs that seemed to be ejaculated by every plant he touched. Besides, Leo hated looking dirty or unkempt. Rafael might like his ‘ruggedness’, but Leo liked himself pretty.

Scratching his neck, Leo suddenly became aware of the fact that the sunlight didn’t feel as sharp as it had and that he still had no idea where his father and brother were. He looked up, squinting to get a better view of the sky through all those leaves. Either he had spent the entire day getting lost, or there was going to be a right little downpour in a few minutes. Where the hell was his bloody kin?

Muttering about being important and the First Prince of Giovanna, he picked up his pace and tried his best not to get side-tracked by the annoyances of the Forest.

The sky kept getting darker and after exhausting his legs, Leo finally admitted to himself that he was very lost. He decided to try and retrace his steps.

A few steps back the direction he had come from, he heard the distinct sound of some one brushing past the undergrowth. Finally! They had found out he was missing and come back to look for him!

Calling out, he moved in the direction of the noise.

However, he stopped dead in his tracks when he saw a five foot scythe cut through four bushes and two horny creatures with sharp, pointy teeth grin at him. He became aware of movement behind those creatures and, as he turned his head to the right, five more of the creatures cut through. He started sweating even more. This was definitely not a search party. There was a very palpable malignance to the creatures, as if they were thinking of how to torture him before killing him.

Cursing loudly, he turned and ran in the opposite direction. He heard the creatures charge behind him.

This was so perfect he felt like he could cry. He was hungry, exhausted, and the only weapon he had on him was a hunting rifle that happened to be useless when pursued by a horde of Orcs. He hoped his luck worked for him. It had been mighty horrible for the whole length of the day but, it never hurt to hope – or he hoped not.

He could feel them closing in one him and panic rose. He was desperate for any way out.

Cutting a sharp turn, he jumped over an uprooted tree and ran in a random direction. He felt the ground rumble as apparently a few Orcs fell over each other.

Without a further thought on his actions, he let his instincts take control of his body, the way he did during a duelling match. He twisted and jumped and ran with all that was in him. He ducked just in time to avoid a scythe as it pierced into the trunk of a tree with its edge a few centimetres above his head. Using a couple of large roots as hoists, Leo somersaulted over a large boulder and into thin air.

His brain screamed in panic as his body calmly moved into a diving position. He closed his eyes moments before he crashed into the water.

He frantically swam to the surface and took a series of deep breaths.

A loud gurgling sound made him turn around and look at the edge he’d jumped from. It was probably more than twenty-five feet above sea level and the entire ridge seemed to be covered by Orcs. A few of the looked like they were considering jumping in after him, while others set their scythes down and sat down, clearly ready to wait for him.

Still not sure about what he was doing, Leo closed his eyes and opened his senses further than before. He became one with the sea. He felt a nudge in his back and turned around to face whatever it was.

What looked like a shiny blue horse’s head, stuck out of the water. The horse was staring at him as if studying something odd and then, almost as if nodding to itself, turned around and neighed softly.

Hesitantly, he swam up to it and slid his arms around the horse’s neck. It felt slippery but he felt his fingers merge into the horse’s skin. With a sharp jerk, it jumped into the water.

With a jolt, Leo realised that he had no water in his lungs and he seemed to be breathing normally. How that was possible was beyond him. He also realised that he could see pretty normally underwater too. He didn’t know how that was possible either. Like a kid in a candy store, he looked around himself. The coral reef was full of life as fishes of every size and shape whizzed past him. The brilliant spectrum of colours all around him was near intoxicating. He secretly cursed his father for never taking them snorkelling. It was beautiful.

Finally, he looked at the horse and almost gave a start. Its shimmery blue skin became almost invisible underwater and the dark blue mane of hair had slicked itself around Leo’s torso like a harness. The ‘horse’ also had three tails instead of hind legs and it’s front two feet were webbed. For no real reason, he was convinced his ride was female.

He bent forward and snuggled closer to her back. For some very odd and unknown reason, he felt he was safe.