Be on your guard; stand firm in your faith; be courageous; be strong.
-1 Corinthians 16:13

23

It was a small noise in the brush near him that attracted his attention.

Granted, Alooc had been traveling long enough for centuries to know that not every little sound had a source that was going to attack him. There were always different noises. Of course, every one had a story behind it, a past of influence that would cause them to either walk by, hunt him, or watch carefully from the sidelines as he wandered by. So many sounds with so many stories. Story after story. Tale after tale.

But it had been just a sound.

Alert now, Alooc twitched the blade of grass that he had in his mouth, the yellow end jerking as it lost several seeds. The Demon Lord paused in his stride, calmly reaching up to take the blade of grass from his teeth and twirl it between his fingers as he waited. That was something he didn't have to worry that much about as a Demon Lord. Things came to you the majority of the time. Trouble always seemed to find him.

Studying the lush, dark green foliage before him, Alooc danced the piece of grass between his large, black fingers absentmindedly. His eyes, like two drops of ink in pure white, flickered over the mountainous scene as he rested a hand upon the wide belt that was about his waist. Now he could easily grab the only weapon that he had; it was an axe attached to chains that draped from its hooked position on his belt. The axe head, dent and scraped from age, was sharp after Alooc had literally spent three days dragging a rock along the side of the blade, practicing with it whenever he grew bored of the tedious job. With time, he had became decent at slinging the blade wherever he desired too. However, it was a different story getting used to actually using the weapon whenever he actually needed too. The transition between using hands to fight and an actual weapon unnerved Alooc.

He flicked away the grass that was still in his hand, deciding that the noise didn't have much importance. Turning his head away, he started walking as he gathered his newfound dreadlocks up into a loose ponytail to get them out of his strong face. At first he hadn't been too overjoyed to have the new hairstyle, but it had truthfully grown on him over the past few days. He had met a few humans traveling like him (in the opposite direction) and he couldn't help but to notice how most of them had shorter hair and long hair was kept neat and controlled. The dreadlocks were different here.

There wasn't any noises as he pushed his way through the brush. Strange. But not unwelcome; the animals here made a ton of noises and were constantly annoying Alooc with their squeaks and squeals. After asking the few members of Kingdom of Man that he had seen, he had a guess of where he was. One had said that they were near Radford, Virginia. While the states of the United States of America held no significance to the Demon Lord, he was familiar with the term the Eastern Shore and even the Appalachian Mountains. Traveling east meant that he was leaving the mountains and heading toward the beach.

But knowing where he was didn't help him locate the safe haven that he was supposed to find. Legion had made sure to get him started in the right direction and implant a sort of animalistic sense into him, but Alooc had never been good at reading even his own instincts and turning right or left never caused anything in his gut to feel if he was going the right way. As far as Alooc was concerned, he could be standing on the safe haven and he wouldn't even know.

Another little noise.

Whipping around, Alooc straightened as he caught a glimpse of a shadow moving through some dark vines crawling up a tree. Grasping the chain of his weapon, he growled slightly in warning as he slowly began to approach the spot. No animal he knew of walked on two legs and was easily seven feet tall. Several plants brushed against his bare chest and he ignored them despite how they itched him a little. He had bigger problems.

The feeling that something was watching him grew the closer that he got. With small flicks of his wrist, Alooc twirled the axe on the end of the chain calmly, controlling the blade with neat, practiced motions with a slight whistle. Cut pieces of the green fell to the ground slowly. The thing in front of him rustled; more pieces of foliage fell and Alooc released another growl as he darted forward, using his free hand to throw the branches that were blocking his view away. At first there was nothing there and, confused, he lowered his defenses, cocking his head to the side as his eyebrows furrowed and he grunted to himself. Confusion was still written in his mind as he studied the darkness before him that was created by trees that had fallen to block the sunlight above him. He was about to leave when a bloodcurdling scream stopped him.

Freezing, Alooc turned in the direction of the scream, releasing the branches as he turned. Another scream caused the Demon Lord to cringe slightly as he began heading in that direction; it was high-pitched, either woman or a young child. When a howl followed, laughter echoing behind it, Alooc paused.

A battle cry sounded behind him and he hardly had time to register it before a weight was slamming into him. The only instinct that Alooc had ever been able to understand was fighting; he was falling as he reached over his shoulder, grabbing ahold of what felt like hair, and jerked it hard. A squealing mass of green -what the hell is green anymore?- flew over him gracelessly as the Demon Lord managed to roll back onto his feet. Feet spread, he released a growl as he pulled free the chains of his weapon, slinging it down near his foot menacingly for the blade to smash into the ground with a thump, and watched as a curious creature scrambled up. 

"An Orc?" Alooc voiced in disbelief. The last time that he had heard an Orc being on Earth had been centuries ago. They had been beings of great strength and power, always fighting either each other or someone else and they were personally responsible for wiping out the dragon population on the North American continent some thousand years ago. But there was no question of what this was despite how small it seemed. Its skin was green in color, lighter than most, and was decorated with tattoos and paint of symbols that Alooc had never bothered to learn. Piercings of bones and studs were along its face. It was leaner than the pictures that Alooc had seen of most Orcs where they were about to burst with muscle, but teeth still protruded from its bottom lip in creamy colors and a belt somehow kept up various animal furs that had been knitted together. In one hand was a wooden shield, the sides chipped, and the other had a rusted sword that the Orc twirled once as if to scare Alooc. Compared to the other humans that Alooc had seen, the Demon Lord had been a tall man; the Orc easily surpassed his height and would've been taller if it didn't have such bad posture. Everything about it was unclean and nasty, down to the toenails that were beginning to curl over its green toes to the black, matted hair that was being kept back out of its face by a string that had animal teeth strung through it. Its breath stunk so bad that Alooc was catching whiffs of it from where he was standing.

It snarled at him, jutting out its massive bottom chin to bare its bottom teeth. In response, Alooc answered with his own roar, standing his ground. Fighting legend or not, Alooc was not intimidated easily.

Leaping forward, the Orc released a sound that reminded Alooc of a dying rabbit, holding its sword forward like it was about to stab him through. Side-stepping, Alooc pulled the axe head free from the ground as the Orc darted by him, calmly spinning the chain in his hand to gain momentum as he turned to face his attacker. By the time that the Orc was looking at him again, Alooc had thrown the axe toward him. It landed perfectly in the center of its chest with a splatter of black blood and the snapping noise as its ribs broke; the Orc jerked back, arms spread wide as surprise flickered across its face, and eventually collapsed to its knees.

Dying black eyes lifted up to his as Alooc stopped in front of the Orc, hand still grasping the chain. The creature seemed calmer now that it knew that it was dying; its breath was ragged as it somehow managed to maintain its grasp onto life, its shield and sword slipping through its limp fingers. Even at its knees, swaying back and forth as it teetered at the edge of life and death, the Orc reached Alooc's torso in height. As a human Alooc was shorter, but he couldn't help but to smile at the defeated creature in front of him. On its knees, the Demon Lord was reminded why the Kingdom of Man had been able to accomplish so much. Add a pair of wings and humans were almost angels -add magic and a touch of darkness and humans could just as easily be the children of the devil.

"Some legend you are," Alooc taunted as he gathered the loose chains of his weapon still resting in the Orc's chest. "I was expecting at least some challenge from something as famous as you."

Nothing in the Orc's expression showed if it had even understood the Demon Lord. With a disgusted scowl, Alooc pulled free the axe by one simple yank, the Orc crying out in pain as even more of the black blood began to fall from the gaping wound in its chest. But it never fell. Its black eyes, suddenly aflame with life once again, locked onto the Demon Lord's and it spat directly at him. Snarling, Alooc wiped the black blood from his face, his lip curling in anger as he pulled back his arm to slam his fist into the Orc's face -what was the point of using his weapon on something that was going to die anyways?

But then it was speaking. It was definitely not a language that he knew; it consisted mostly of grunts, growls, and words that didn't sound like they should be produced by the creature. Alooc didn't know why he paused like he did with his fist inches from the Orc's face. For some reason, he was transfixed by the fact the Orc was talking, every word so full of anger that it pierced through his soul and cause him to cringe slightly. It wasn't until he felt like he was suffocating that he understood what was happening.

Magic.

Panicked, Alooc's fist shot out, catching the Orc in the side of the mouth. The Orc hardly made a noise as it fell over sideways, knocked unconscious or dead by the strength of the hit -Alooc couldn't care. Hands shaking, he took his chained weapon, slinging it over his shoulder before bringing it down upon the Orc's back to make sure that he had killed it.

Magic. He hadn't seen magic being done on Earth for a very, very long time. It was possibly the one thing that he feared the most of all; he was completely powerless against magic and everything that came with it. Why? He didn't know. As a demon, he had always assumed that magic, since it was against God and considered a Sin, would have been something that he could have picked up amazingly fast. Instead, just the mere mention of it caused him to shiver in fright. Magic. It was like uttering Hell in Heaven. Or whispering about purity in the middle of the most sinful place. How an Orc, which was supposed to be stupid and thoughtless, knew magic and how to use it, Alooc didn't want to know. Besides, he had thought that magic was dead. According to many, magic had died out a while ago, after the humans had their fearful Witch Trails where every old female hag was a sinful monster that ate children or caused bad upon the good. Apparently, things were now different on Earth.

He was pulling free his weapon, mentally attempting to gather himself, when another scream sounded, this one deeper compared to the first.

He left the body -who would care?- and began sprinting where the screams had sounded. The forest got thinner as he ran and when he spotted the sky, he slowed down cautiously to see what he was about to face.

Sunlight slithered through the branches, enveloping the ground with yellow warmth. Alooc gagged at all of the gold happiness and he purposely broke a branch to look through the foliage. He was granted the sight of a wooden cabin at first; it was small, maybe big enough to house only one or two people, and the side of the wooden roof had caved as if something had jumped into it. Most of the details he failed to make out because of his weak human sight, but he squinted to find that the windows had been smashed in, another gaping hole was glaring at him, and the door was hanging lopsided from its hinges. Smoke swirled up into the sky from the side of the cabin that he couldn't see.

A noise attracted his attention and he ducked behind one of the trees as he kept one arm out to hold the branches back so he could see. His eyes narrowed. There were at least thirty more Orcs in a large group, laughing, squealing, and barking at each other as they dragged what appeared to be two bodies with them. Alooc growled in frustration as he moved further into the brush to avoid being detected. He watched them as they moved into the woods further down than him; this set of Orcs were various colors of oranges to light brown with some green thrown in randomly. They ranged in size, the biggest easily being eight feet tall and the smallest about Alooc's six foot. Their weapons were completely random, one even wielding a pitchfork. One, built big and board across the shoulders, was clearly the leader with its wild plethora of tattoos and body piercings. It was orange, standing well above the majority of the Orcs, and paraded about front with what looked like the bigger of the two bodies. Near him was three wolflike creatures; they hunched besides him, their movements fluid like that of a predator, and were easily doubled the size of a wolf with scaly backs and whiplike tails with a stinger on the end. Their snarling and barking was audible from where he stood at least half a mile away.

Once they disappeared, Alooc growled. There was nothing that he could have done. He had yet to test his abilities as a human to their fullest and he didn't want to risk transforming into his true form even out here. His eyes traveled to the cabin when a few minutes had passed. The two human bodies must have came from there. There was no other place they could have been here out in the middle of no where.

Alooc waited a couple more minutes to listen to the forest return back to its normal noise. Double checking both ways once more to make sure that the Orcs had truly left, the Demon Lord took a few cautious steps out into the open grass with a hand resting on his chains. When nothing attacked him, he continued forward.

The cabin was smaller than he thought. Most of the smoke had slowed done, but thick blankets of it still billowed up into the sky from what appeared to be a pair of horses and a cow, creating a massive stench. Blood from the animals was splattered across the ground like red paint and half the ground was destroyed. Even from the outside the cabin looked broken with its shattered window and the door just hanging on by one hinge. Several boards from the buildings had been smashed, like something had been trying to reach through, and a couple others were bent at awkward angles. A body of a dog, already swollen from the heat of the fire nearby, laid with its stomach cut and Alooc glanced back at the forest where the Orcs had disappeared too. Were they this evil? What had they done to the owners of this home?

Slowly and carefully, he opened the door enough to peer through, cringing when it snapped off the cabin and landed with a thud against the wall. He waited a moment to make sure that there was nothing still inside the house before he looked into it again. Chaos greeted him. Wooden furniture was broken and strewn across the room, picture frames of a small family of three being framed in most of them, and food was haphazardly half eaten or just randomly lying about. The floor creaked as he walked across it and he paused occasionally to make sure that he was the only one there. Again, blood stained certain areas and Alooc pressed his fingertips against a stain on one wall, his eyes narrowing when he felt that it was still slightly sticky. Surprisingly, the only thing left standing was a table. On it was a picture frame, the corner cracked just a little. He picked it up after a moment, studying the man, woman, and little boy that was portrayed in it. The adults didn't gain his interest; he had never seen a third body outside or with the Orcs.

Creak.

Alooc's head snapped up to the little untouched closet that was in front of him. Crouching down, he fingered the chains on his hip as he slowly approached the closet. His lips pursed in concentration and he debated actually opening the door once he was close enough. Biting his lower lip and keeping a good grip on the chains of his weapon, Alooc's fingers were just brushing the knob of the door when he heard the first whimper from inside.

That's a person. Whatever train of thought that the Demon Lord had clattered to a halt when he realized what he was doing. That was another human inside of that closet. And he was readying himself to attack them. But he wasn't human; what was his problem? What morals did he ever have?

Another whimper drew his attention and he found that he had been holding his breath. Mumbling to himself in annoyance, he released the chains of his weapon as he glared at the door, debating what he should do. Clearly the orcs hadn't gotten everything in the house. Leaving the person behind the closet meant that Alooc was denying his humanity; but why would it matter when he was a damn Demon Lord in the first place? If he left them, that just showed that Alooc wasn't accepting his new role -which wouldn't matter because he was just transforming into a different form- and would live with the guilt that he had left them behind. But what if they weren't part of the Kingdom of Man? Scrunching his nose in frustration, Alooc rolled his eyes. He knew what he was going to do.

"Hello? Anyone there?"

There was a brief silence and Alooc straightened as the silence grew. He was about to open the door himself to see just what was inside when a slight creak echoed about the room. Slowly, the door open.

Small, almost ridiculously tiny, fingers wrapped about the side of the wooden door. A head covered in dark, dirty blond hair appeared, the strands sticking out in almost every direction. Pale skin followed, light green eyes slowly revealing themselves on a round, soot-covered face. Fright had caused a blush to appear on the child's face and was stunningly clear across their button nose. A little boy. The fear was evident everywhere; fear sparkled in his eyes, his hands shook furiously, and tears left trails through the dirt on his small face.

Alooc stared, unsure how to react. A little boy. They shared a few minutes of staring. One of confusion, one of pure terror. The Demon Lord's head tilted to the side; so much innocence in one small creature that looked so scared just at the sight of him.

"What's your name, boy?" Alooc took a step forward, offering a hand out toward the child. He froze when the boy disappeared behind the door once more with a slight squeal and a whimper. An amused snort escaped Alooc. Squaring his shoulders and approaching the door, he pulled it open just enough to see the shape of the shivering boy crammed between the very small interior of the closet. He took a moment to take in the scene before asking, "Where's your parents?"

Slowly, from out of the shadows, the boy turned his round face toward Alooc, his dull green eyes full of fear and sadness. It sank in then.

Pity welled up inside of Alooc as he watched the little boy slowly break down into tears. The Demon Lord suddenly found himself in a curious position. Hesitantly, he crouched before the small child of Man, speechless as the little boy hiccuped himself into silence and wrapped himself into a protective ball beside the farthest corner of the wall. Alooc sat down at the entrance of the closest, troubled. A boy should not be crying. His parents should not have just been murdered by creatures that shouldn't exist. His home should not have been burnt down. His animals should not have died. So many things that had happened to this small boy that shouldn't have.

He realized that he had been staring his hands as he had thought when he heard the boy begin to snivel. Alooc sighed, looking up to study the human child. While Alooc wasn't good with age, there was no way that the boy couldn't have been older than four or five; his face still had too much baby fat and his eyes were much too large. For a brief second, the Demon Lord found himself looking at his past self. Maybe not exactly -Alooc as a child had stubby horns jutting out the back of his head and tended to eat almost everything, but, then again his childhood years had only lasted a year or two- but he felt for the little boy. He couldn't tell if it was pity, guilt, or -Lucifer forbid- empathy, but he could almost place himself in the boy's shoes. Though Rasha and Lilith, his so-called parents, had never truly died, somehow he could see himself as a small, tiny demon who hadn't molted into his first skin in the same position as this boy. Scared. Frightened. Helpless.

"I'm traveling around and I could use some company, boy."

The words were out of his mouth before he had truly thought them over. Looking at with through his fingers with swelling red eyes, the boy stared at him as Alooc shifted to his feet, half bewildered that the sentence had even slipped past his tongue. What would Legion think? What would any demon think? But Alooc couldn't help it; he had to help this boy.

As he stretched out his hand for the boy to take, he caught the boy's scent fully for the first time. Frowning, he sniffed as nonchalantly as he possibly could. Illness. The severity of it literally washed over Alooc just as the boy's hand finally touched his, sending a feverish sensation across the Demon Lord in a flash. The boy was unhealthy. It explained why he was so small; as the boy stood, using Alooc as support, Alooc noticed how the boy's arms almost appeared bone-like with so little muscle and fat. His cheekbones were awfully noticeable even through his youth, only being truly noticeable once he had entered a small beam of light that revealed the bags underneath his light green eyes and his sickly pale skin. Even young, the promising stench of death that wafted from the boy caused Alooc's nose to scrunch for several reasons.

And his heart reached out to the small boy. For the first time in his life, Alooc found that he cared for something other than himself. Even if it was for a son of the Kingdom of Man that he couldn't help and was destined to die sometime soon.

"What's your name, boy?" he asked gently as the boy rose to his feet shakily.

His eyes were still red when he looked up at Alooc, fear still settled briefly in the back of his light green orbs as his hand fumbled for something in his pants' pocket. A part of Alooc half expected a weapon and he tensed; he was partially surprised when the boy pulled free a black pair of glasses and placed them on his face. The effect was absolutely adorable, making his eyes look even larger than they were before. "My name's Jack-Jack. What's your name?"

The boy's weak voice caused pity once again to swell throughout Alooc's chest. To his own disbelief, he found his much larger hand curling over Jack-Jack's little one protectively as he thought. "My name is Zahara."

"Zahara?"

"Yes, boy. Zahara."

Jack-Jack's nose crinkled as he reached up to push his glasses. "That's a cool name. I wish my name was cool like yours."

The Demon Lord stared at the boy until he had looked up at him, giving Alooc an innocent smile, revealing the gap where he was missing one of his canines. For a moment, Alooc studied Jack-Jack, who was clutching almost desperately onto the one finger that he could wrap his hand about. When the house made a shuttering noise as a gust of wind ran through it, causing Jack-Jack to shiver and move closer to Alooc, the Demon Lord sighed as he hesitantly patted the boy's back to comfort him.

Oh, he was in so much shit now.