Boelik (7 page)

Boelik waited a moment before responding.
“No.”

“
There is your reason why I
didn’t give you any more. I, myself, have only heard of the child.
I witnessed their departure to this house in a vision. This is all
I know.”

“
Fine, all right,” Boelik
conceded, lifting his human hand in acceptance as he adjusted his
cloak with his demon one. He put his hands down then, finishing the
adjustment with his human hand to cover his left arm.

“
Then, good luck. Don’t let
it get the better of you,” Dayo said, taking off.

“
As if I would let that
happen!” Boelik called to him as he left. And then he turned around
and headed toward the cottage.

Boelik was within earshot of the cottage when
he realized he heard snarling sounds from inside. He ran to the
door, pausing for a moment outside to listen. He could tell that
there were two beings inside. One was snarling like a beast, and
the other was a shouting man. The two were causing quite a ruckus,
banging against walls and shouting. Boelik knew as he spotted a
boot print in the dirt that some villager must have come to face
the ‘beast’.

He attempted to open the door, but it
wouldn’t budge. In an instant, he figured that the man must have
sealed the door to prevent the half-demon’s escape. Thinking fast,
Boelik stepped back and slammed his shoulder into the weak wood,
splintering the door rather than flinging it open like he’d hoped.
Inside, a man and a ragged boy turned to face him. Both looked
terrified.

The boy was on all fours, naked, and his face
was defected. The right side was paler than his already light skin
and seemed to be permanently stuck in a snarl, the lips parted and
showing canid teeth. The eye seemed to be forever dilated, making
it look like there was only pupil, at least from what could be seen
underneath his scraggly, sandy-red hair. His legs were pale as
well, and were long and twiggy and…backwards? The joints were those
of a four-legged animal, but the feet seemed right, if rather gaunt
and somewhat pointy. Boelik also noticed that the boy was bleeding
from his shoulder.

The man seemed normal, and a bloodied dagger
had slipped from his hand. There was an overturned bed area, blood
on the floor around it. He seemed to have stabbed the boy while he
slept and now had him in a corner.

“
What’s going on here?”
Boelik roared, remembering to keep his left arm still. The man
stared in shock, and the boy leapt for the door. Boelik moved into
his path before he could leave, however. “I’d like an explanation,”
he demanded, directing the phrase towards the man. “Why were you
trying to kill this boy?”

“
That is no boy,” the man
spat in an unfamiliar brogue, his eyes bugging as he appeared to be
scared witless, pointing at the boy who stared up at Boelik with
equally wide eyes. Boelik looked between the two and finally
settled his gaze on the man.

“
It is indeed a boy. A
strange boy, maybe, but that certainly does not change his sex.”
Boelik tried to keep his tone as flat as possible regardless of the
spite that was running through him.

“
It is a
monster,
and it must be killed!” The man had picked up
his knife, and his eyes were wild. The boy glanced at him and
scrambled to the opposite corner as the madman came after him once
more.

Boelik’s hand darted out and grabbed the
man’s hand holding the weapon as he passed, and he held it with all
the ferocity of his irritation. The man looked at him, his rage
being replaced with fear in his brown eyes once again. He had
reddish hair like the boy’s, but much darker. His beard was ragged
like the rest of him, but he seemed sane enough despite his current
endeavors.

In fact, Boelik knew he was sane because of
them.

“
Enough.” Boelik stared him
straight in the eye, though he had to look down a bit to do so. The
man gawped back at him and dropped the knife again. Boelik
considered it for a moment before gazing back at the man and
stepping on the knife, pulling it outside with his foot. “What did
he do?”

“
He terrorized my flock and
family,” the farmer entreated.

“
Did he
do
anything?” Boelik pressed.

“
What do you mean, ‘did he
do
anything’? He terrorized
them!”

“
Did he
touch
them?
That’s
what I’m
asking!” Boelik shook the man’s arm as his fury and impatience
mounted.

The man paused. “No.”

Boelik nodded and looked over at the boy.
“Then he’s mine.” He glanced back at the man. “Tell a soul about
this, and you won’t have enough time left to live to take another
breath. Understood?” He shook the man’s wrist some more as he
asked, and the man was quick to nod. “Then leave, and don’t
return.” With that, Boelik released the man and let him run
outside, watching him go for a moment to make sure he left.

Turning his attention back to the boy, Boelik
walked nearer to him before realizing the boy was practically
squishing himself into the corner. Boelik stopped and crouched on
the floor about three paces away from him. “Hello,” he said,
keeping his voice as gentle as he could manage as his temper
cooled.

The boy continued to stare at him with wide
eyes from behind his hands while he held them up in self-defense,
as if waiting for an attack. He was trying to keep the right side
of his face turned from Boelik. “You speak English?” Boelik asked,
ducking his head to try and get a better view of the boy’s face,
covered in dirt and blood now. The boy nodded a little.

”
Good,” Boelik said. “I’m
Boelik. You have a name?”

The boy shook his head.

“
No name?” Another shake of
the head. “I’m not going to hurt you, you know. You can put your
hands down.” The boy was slow to do it, but he brought his hands
away from his face. “I’m not afraid of your face, either. Go ahead:
you can show it to me.”

He shook his head.

“
Okay,” Boelik relented. “I
won’t press you. But you truly have no name?” Huddled in the
corner, his arms now wrapped around his strange legs and his entire
right side turned away from Boelik, the boy shook his head again.
He stared at Boelik from the corner of his human, blue
eye.

“
Then why don’t you pick
one? I can’t just call you ‘Boy’, now can I?” The boy just looked
at him. “Okay, well, I could, but that’s no name. A name should be
something that you want to be called. Go on; pick one you
like.”

“
Ryan?” The boy spoke, soft
and vague, seeming almost to be asking Boelik’s
permission.

“
Ryan? That’s the name you
want?” Boelik asked.

The boy nodded.

“
Okay. Ryan it is. Your
shoulder hurting, Ryan?” Ryan nodded, his eye flicking away from
Boelik.

“
Let me see.” Ryan only
shuffled to face the wall a little more, keeping the hurt shoulder
and his face away from Boelik. “I won’t hurt you, I
promise.”

When the boy didn’t turn around, Boelik
added, “Do you want it to get infected so you have a fever tomorrow
and die in your bed in a week?” That made Ryan look at Boelik
again, and he turned enough so that Boelik could see his shoulder.
“That’s a boy,” Boelik praised. He scanned the room for a cloth to
use and saw none. So instead, he turned his attention to his
trousers and ripped a long strip off in a spiral from one leg with
a bit of help from his knife.

“
I hate this century’s
fashion,” he muttered. Pulling his water flask from his jacket
pocket, he pulled another strip from his other pant leg and scooted
close enough that Ryan was in reach. He folded one strip into a
square and dampened it, then reached over to clean the wound. “This
may sting a little,” he warned. “Don’t move, all right?” He pressed
the cloth to Ryan, who shuddered immediately but did as he was told
and didn’t move. “Good. Just let me clean it,” Boelik said in a
soothing voice, dabbing the cloth around the wound to remove the
filth as much as possible.

“
There. Now, I’m going to
wrap this around your shoulder. Okay?” He held up the clean strip
of cloth to dangle in a straight line, and Ryan gave a tiny nod.
“All right.” Boelik gently wrapped the strip around the wound and
tied it with a bit of help from the boy before backing off to
crouch where he’d been before. Ryan stared at his shoulder but
stayed still. “Feel all right, Ryan?” Boelik asked. Ryan’s gaze
shot back to Boelik, giving him a nod.

“
Ryan, how old are
you?”

“
Fifteen,” came the small
answer. He had a similar brogue to the other man.

“
Fifteen?” Boelik asked.
Ryan nodded. “Are you alone?” Another nod. “And you live here? …Of
course you do. Well, Ryan, I’ll have to go to a village tomorrow
and get you some proper bandages and both of us some proper…well,
everything else. Clothes for you, dishes and food for us
both.”

Boelik glanced down at his pants as Ryan did.
“Okay, clothes for me, too.” Looking up at Ryan again, Boelik sat
down and crossed his legs. “Ryan, what animals can you hunt here in
this country?”

“
Deer. Stoat. Otter. Hare.
Other small things.”

Boelik rested his chin in his hand. “I see.
This will make things harder. Do you know where to find these
animals?” Ryan nodded. “Would you let me stay the night here with
you, and show me tomorrow? We’ll need meat to make money to buy
supplies. Would you do that?” Ryan hesitated for a moment, but
eventually nodded. “Good. Thank you. And Ryan, do you know how to
walk on just your back legs?” To answer, Ryan rose to his feet.
Boelik scanned him up and down to check that it looked at least
somewhat natural. “All right, good. That will help.”

Ryan sat once more and Boelik said, “All
right, Ryan. I think we’re both pretty exhausted. How’s about you
fix your bed, and I’ll go sleep over there.” He pointed to the
other side of the cottage where Ryan and the man had had their
standoff, next to a workbench. Ryan nodded, and the two separated
to either part of the cottage.

Boelik laid down and pretended to fall
asleep. Once he heard Ryan’s breathing become regular, he got up
and walked over to the boy. Ryan was so peacefully asleep that
Boelik was speechless. He was curled into a strange ball, the left
side of his face up and looking gentle and innocent.
How could someone attack this?

Then he peered back down at Ryan’s
legs
. I suppose that’s how.

Boelik turned his gaze to the open door,
which he knew would invite biting air in once night hit. His eyes
wandered back to Ryan, and he unclasped his cloak and lay it over
the boy. Then he meandered over to the door and, silent as a mouse,
lay the largest pieces over the opening; the wood plank that had
blocked the door he put outside. After he finished blocking most of
the wind from his new charge, he followed through on his promised
sleep.

In the morning, he woke to Ryan sitting up in
his makeshift bed and holding the navy cloak, staring at him.
Boelik sat up and stretched his arms upward with a yawn. “Good
morning,” he said after he relaxed his arms.

It took him a moment to realize that Ryan was
staring at his demon arm, and he glanced over at it himself. “Oh,
this.” He held the clawed hand in front of him, showing off the
sharp claws. “Yes, I’m like you. That’s part of the reason your
face doesn’t scare me, or your legs.”

“
Like me?” Ryan
asked.

“
Yes, like you,” Boelik
repeated.

“
What am I?”

Boelik was a bit taken aback by the question,
and gave Ryan a level stare for a moment before he was able to
respond. He had always assumed that people like him knew what they
were. “You are… half demon.” Boelik paused for a moment, letting
his hand fall. He added, “But that also means you are half human,
remember.”

“
Half demon? Why don’t I
look like you?”

“
Because there are many
different types of demon. From the looks of it, you have goblin
blood. As for me, my father met a fox demon.”

“
Why?”

“
Why are we like this, you
mean?” Ryan nodded. “Well, because demons and humans weren’t meant
to have children. Most animals have a smooth go of it when they can
have children between species, able to make something that
incorporates them both without making them look like a badly done
puzzle. A mule is a good example.

“
But, most animals come
from the same world. Demons don’t come from the land of man, and
their blood and abilities often want more than their share. So we
have disfigured bodies. Our bodies also mark us as something that
should not be: a warning.”

“
We had no choice, though,”
Ryan said, his voice quiet as he turned his eyes to the
floor.

“
No one does. Children live
with the consequences of their parents. It makes life difficult
sometimes, but it does not mean we were not meant to
live.”

Ryan was silent. He stood and returned
Boelik’s cloak, walking on his two strange legs. They bent in an
awkward fashion, but one that was obviously natural to him. He was
about a head and a half shorter than Boelik was as Boelik stood to
take his cloak.

“
Ryan?” he asked. Ryan had
begun walking back to his bed, but turned around. “Who taught you
to speak?” Ryan’s eyes lowered, and Boelik quickly noted that the
memories that the question dredged up were painful. “Never mind. We
can talk about that at another point in time. For now, those
hunting grounds?”