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> Friend or foe <

Startled, Kiyumi jumped to the side as the well-built human rushed towards him and attacked him with two swords. Kiyumi unsheathed his own sword to block the attacks, but the might of the strikes began to hurt in his arms and he concentrated on dodging them and retreated to a safe distance. As the fight settled down for just a moment, Kiyumi looked around. The man seemed to be the only attacker. The other people around him have fled to the house walls and were watching the fight. The few present children had been brought to safety by their parents immediately.

"What do you want from me?", Kiyumi called out to the attacker.

"Today you will finally pay for the crimes of your family!", Lorian shouted.

The cat boy didn't have time to find a sense in the words, because the fighter again ran towards him with raised swords. Kiyumi scaled a roof of a house with a few leaps and crossed it. On the other side he jumped to a lantern pole and glided down on it. He would not win against this opponent on his own, so he tried to withdraw for now. But Lorian kept pursuing him stubbornly and came around the building just when Kiyumi reached the ground.

Lorian got angry about the fact that he could not reach the cat boy using conventional attacks. He raised his arm and whispered the magic word. But with a backward flip over a low wall Kiyumi also evaded the energy bolt and it detonated dangerously close to a house where some shocked people were watching the spectacle. The men and women ran away screaming and Lorian had to admit that the use of that magic was not reasonable here.

Surprised by the screams coming through the window into his room, Someron dropped the letter to the table, grabbed his sword and was on his way to the outside. In front of the hotel he looked around and noticed that the people were startled. Accurately he went into the direction were the most people were coming from.

Somebody alarmed the city guards and just as the men clothed with leather armor and armed with pikes and swords came running to the plaza to stop the fight, a deafening scream echoed above the roofs. All present people were looking up and frightened screams were heard as the people caught sight of the demons and rushed into the buildings. Lorian recognized them as the same beasts that they were fighting against just yesterday in the small Village. Altogether they wore a black fur that barely reflected any light. Their bodies combined the characteristics of panthers with the ones of wolves. While their head appeared to belong to a wolf with those dog ears, the long snout and the pointy teeth, the tail and the legs looked more like those of a panther and added a deadly elegance to their movements.

This time there were more than a dozen of them and this time they seemed to have a leader as well. The horned beast, which was roughly three times as large as the others, was standing in the midst of them on the roof and was looking down on them with its red glowing eyes. Steam kept coming from its nostrils as if it was burning on the inside.

Ferin had heard the screams and was immediately reminded of the gruesome incident in his village. It was clear to him that he could not take part in the fight actively, but he called out to all the people around him and warned them, making them look for a shelter. He knew this town and he knew a lot of hidden passages. Undiscovered by the beasts the fox boy ran past them to alarm the city guards.

The big beast cried out again and the smaller demons jumped down from the roofs with catlike elegance and seemingly attacked people at random. Lorian was sure that those were allies of that cat boy and he was sent by his father to attack this city. If he was judging the situation correctly, those demons were a greater threat than the boy though and Lorian ceased the attacks against Kiyumi to protect the innocent population.

When Someron noticed what was happening there on the plaza he ran as fast as he could and readied his sword for a strike. The first thing he encountered was a city guard that stood crouched at a wall and rang with one of the beasts. The teeth of the demon were buried in his spear and he pushed forwards while the guard tried to push him away with all his power to keep the deadly claws at a safe distance. Slowly the man seemed to loose this fight though and his face showed terror.

Someron swung his sword with full power and it hit the flank of the beast right behind the front legs. The cracking of bones was audible as the mighty blade was driven though the body. A fountain of blood followed the steel as it left on the other side. The tail end dropped to the side and moved a little further because of the last twitches of the hind legs. The front kept hanging in the air for a few seconds until the bite of the dead demon loosened and it joined its counterpart.

Completely out of breath and still in shock the guard wasn't able to say anything and just looked at Someron thankfully. The dog warrior nodded towards the man and resumed running.

Blood was dropping down from the blades in his hands while Lorian was looking around for more foes. He had already struck down a few beasts, but the situation was more complicated than in the small village yesterday. A lot of the people had brought themselves to safety, but others were drawn there when they heard the noise. More men from the city guard arrived as well, but Lorian had to protect a lot of them as well, because they encountered demons for the first time and thus were defeated by their fears. In the worst case they just stood still in terror. In the best case they managed to defend themselves.

On the other side Lorian spotted Someron and was glad about the unexpected support. His old friend seemed to have come a little early to the gathering as well and was now participating in the defense. What he saw as well didn't fit into his image. The cat boy hurled his sword in the direction of a beast that was closely following a woman. The sword hit the throat of the demon and the blade sunk into a wooden post afterwards. The blood flowed out of the wound around the blade while the beast kicked around wildly in a last desperate attempt to free itself. But with the red fluid, which was gathering in a rapidly growing puddle below it, the life left the body of the demon as well and when Kiyumi pulled his sword out of the wood again, it was already dead. The woman was relieved and kept running until she reached safety inside of the building.

Lorian did not understand why the son of his enemy fought against the demons. When the fight was over, he might really have to talk to him. For the moment they all had enough to do with those demons though. Finally guards with a better training arrived. Ferin had told them about the attackers and the city guard had sent more experienced fighters.

One of the beasts came running straight at Kiyumi and first jumped onto a crate and then further in his direction. The cat boy himself ran towards it, dived under the attacker and stabbed upwards with his sword. While he was sliding across the floor below the beast he cut open its complete stomach area and used the rest of the momentum to get back on his legs. He just continued running and did not deign to look at the pile of guts and skin that once was a deadly demon.

The number of hell residents was gradually reduced until finally only the three heroes and six men of the city guard were standing on the plaza and were looking up towards the leader of the demons who had just watched the event until now.

Now it jumped down to them and the ground trembled when the strong monster landed. A guard that was standing right before him, looked into its eyes and was paralyzed immediately. It seemed as if the pure evil was looking straight into his soul. Lorian rushed towards the side of the beast to rescue the helpless man. The horned monster turned around unexpectedly fast, considering its size, and spewed fire. Lorian jumped to the left and rolled over. He barely got away from the flames and could clearly feel the heat on his arm. In the meantime Someron had started running and almost came right from behind. He stroke with the heavy two hand sword and hit the beast on its flank although it immediately span around. It screamed and punched the attacker with its paw, although more to get rid of him than to actually hurt him. So Someron was only hit by the backside and thrown back. The punch still hurt in his chest and took his breath away for a few seconds.

Blood was trickling through the fur where the sword had hit the monster, but the wound wasn't deep. Someron had felt the blade hit something hard like an armor just below the fur. The demon leaped towards Someron right away and raised up to smash its claws down upon the dog warrior. Someron just made it back on his feet in time to spin around with his sword and inflict some cuts on the obviously more sensitive paw pads of the beast.

It screamed angrily and again spewed a cone of flames from its muzzle. Someron could not draw back fast enough. His fur was strongly singed on the right side and the skin below was burned.

Less than a second after Someron groaned in pain, Kiyumi jumped in front of the hell creature and stopped it from following Someron anymore with a blow of his sword upon its nose. The eyes of the cat boy stared angrily into the ones of the beast and suddenly it seemed as if it was frozen. Then Kiyumi thrust his sword through the left eye deeply into the brain of the monster. The struggle before death did not last long, then the glowing in the remaining eye vanished and Kiyumi pulled back his sword from the corpse of the demon.

> Decisions <

Bjunai was woken rudely from his trance as the demon, through which eyes he had seen, died. Slowly he rose from the floor of his tower room and walked towards his desk where he took a seat. He began to analyze the things he had seen. His adopted son Kiyumi, who had shared his life with him for so long, had fought side by side with his enemies against his demons. Deep inside of him the last feelings died.

The dark prince now was ultimately convinced to have lost his son to the other side. He now had to handle the cat boy just like any other enemy. He slowly realized that this was a war between him and the rest of the world, but not even this fact was capable of breaking his will. He just had to get the corresponding reinforcement. As he had seen in the fight today, the demons clearly had an advantage against normal warriors. Someron, Lorian and... Kiyumi couldn't be everywhere at the same time to defend Sangan.

After the fight Someron was astonished to hear that Kiyumi and Lorian had been fighting against each other. Now he was mediating between his two friends and explained the situation to the human warrior. Only reluctantly Lorian accepted that Kiyumi wasn't his enemy. Gladly, Kiyumi wasn't very resentful and let Someron conciliate him without any resistance. Finally the heroes managed to go to the restaurant and recover with something nice to eat and drink.

When they had all calmed down, Lorian apologized for his attack. He clearly stated though, that there was a good reason for it. Something far in his past was still following him in his dreams and had determined his whole life. His companions had to know it to understand him. Only then they could stand side by side against evil. It hurt Lorian to remember the events of that time, but after one last sip of the delicious beer he began to talk.

"I was living with my parents and my older brother in a village far in the south of Terrania back then. Most of the inhabitants there were warriors that earned their money with assignments. You could call them mercenaries, but they had a code of honor. They would never have fought for the evil. In the good old times before his death, they were often sent out by order of the old king Thoran.

I myself wasn't old enough to participate in the fights, but my training had already started. At that time Bjunai had already been the unlawful ruler of Terrania for some years and declared war on Sangan. The dark prince still liked doing his dirty work on his own and was traveling around to suppress all resistances. The warriors of our village have been loyal to the former king and opposed Bjunai.

One evening, Bjunai and his soldiers appeared in our village and overbore all inhabitants. Although some mighty warriors were amongst them, the number of the attackers was too high and the sinister magic of the dark prince was too strong. In the end, he had driven together all of them on the village square. I, too, was amongst them and was completely terrified, because I didn't realize what was happening there. I was just staring at the wickedly hissing panther, who was berating us and was slaughtering one after the other with his mighty paws while his son, who was even younger than me, was watching from their carriage. That image was burned into my memory. His eyes shone blue in the full moon and he looked like the impersonation of innocence. Still he was the offspring of pure evil."

Kiyumi was shocked and looked at Lorian. During the last few sentences, he was reminded of something that had been buried deeply within him. Something that he remembered as nothing more than a terrible dream, which he had once had as a small child. Lorian turned away and stared on the table in front of him as he continued his story. Ferin put his arm comfortingly around his friend.

"I could do nothing while friends, neighbors and my family were butchered right next to me. Bjunai seemed to find it funny to kill the youngest one last, which was me. The pain was unbearable when his claws cut open my chest. And still I was longing for this at that moment. The terror had to come to an end and so death seemed to be a mercy. But the end was deceitful and my eyes didn't stay sealed."

Ferin remembered the scars on Lorian's chest.

"Someone found me and looked after me until I regained my health. The attack on the village had been an effective warning for the resistance and it broke apart. I grew up and fled to Sangan at the first opportunity, where I completed the training of a warrior and was waiting for my chance until today. When I saw you there today, I thought the time had come, Kiyumi."

"I'm very sorry.", Kiyumi said compassionately, "What happened to you is terrible. I know that I should have realized the true face of Bjunai a lot earlier, but believe me: He is not my father and he is not my friend. I will do everything within my power to let him pay for the murder of your family and mine."

On the next morning Someron and Lorian went to the meeting with the king into the castle. Kiyumi had to stay back, because he wasn't part of the circle of entrusted people of the king. Ferin stayed with him and felt a little out of place here. The lover of the other warrior was a great warrior himself. Only he didn't have any fighting abilities. Even though they told him, that he had contributed to the victory over the demons yesterday by alarming the guards, he knew, that he hadn't accomplished anything that couldn't have been done by everyone else as well.

Kiyumi seemed to be a nice guy, completely different from what you expect of the son of the evil Bjunai. When the warriors returned from the meeting with the king and announced his decision, the envy of Ferin grew additionally, because they would all set forth starting an open war against Terrania now and only he would stay back as the only civilian. Considering the imminent danger for all warriors, this envy was nothing less than ridiculous and still for Ferin everything was centered on Lorian and the longing to be with him at the moment.

In the huge hall, which was used as weapon and armor depot, there was a lot of activity. A stream of hundreds of humans and furries were equipped with a fitting armor and a weapon according to their skills by the soldiers of the king. Also Lorian and Someron got a stronger protection against attacks. Someron had experienced himself that his usual light clothing didn't offer enough protection. Now Kiyumi helped him put on a stronger, full body leather armor that covered his burns which were already taken care of.

During the preparations for the departure, the fox boy stood separately and watched Lorian sadly. He just got to know him and just fell in love with him and now his friend was going to war, without him. He was wondering whether he would ever see his lover again. Leaning against a stone pillar, he let his head hang and closed his eyes when he felt tears welling up. A hand brushed softly through the fur of his cheek and gently lifted his head up again at his chin. Ferin opened his eyes and looked into the affectionate face of his friend.

"You will see, everything will be fine.", Lorian said smiling gently.

> The evil arises <

"Darena!", Bjunai shouted, after the door that he had kicked open had crashed into a wall shelf. Several strange things, which were standing in the shelf and all had been part of an animal or plant, were shaking and a small vial with the label "Liquid of life" fell to the floor and broke apart. The grayish liquid was slowly spreading throughout the remains.

The eyes of the panther looked around in the big room of the castle for his target. The only light source was a chandelier with candles in the center of the room and without his cat eyes, it would have taken Bjunai a while to adapt to the darkness. Finally he noticed the human woman on the other side of the room, standing in front of a pile of books. She was only about 1.6 meters tall and was wearing a robe that seemed to be made of feathers and cloth in equal parts. Slowly she turned around to the king. Her hair was pitch black at the root, but was turning gray at the tips. It appeared that she had been old before and had returned to youth recently. Her face emphasized that. The skin barely showed any wrinkle, but her eyes showed the impression of wisdom that has been gained in countless years.

"My king.", Darena addressed the dark prince lowering her head only slightly, "I expected your visit."

"Are you observing me?", the panther asked irritated.

"No, your majesty. But the stone floors of your castle are transferring the sound of your mighty steps quite far."

Ignoring her remark Bjunai stepped to the middle of the room and pointed to the massive chest with silver ornaments standing on a socket that obviously had been build just for this purpose.

"Tell me something about my future!", he requested, "What will decide the upcoming war?"

Darena went to the chest and opened it. Inside there was a blueish shimmering crystal ball lying on velvet. Carefully she picked it up and walked a few steps towards Bjunai. She stretched out her arms. The ball was resting on her palms. Then she concentrated and murmured a few unrecognizable words. A blue fire flared up inside of the crystal and slowly the ball raised a few centimeters. The glowing from the ball submerged the room in a restless, blue light in which the shine of the candles seemed to be wiped out. The eyes of Darena lost their color and became pale like the eyes of a blind person.

Bjunai saw nothing other than those things, but he knew that Darena was looking into the future at this moment, which was revealed to her in a symbolic manner. Only she was capable of reading and interpreting those symbols. A few minutes passed. From time to time the face of the witch showed the expression of astonishment. Eventually the crystal ball sank back onto her hands and she carried the ball back to the chest. Bjunai was having a hard time to stay patient while waiting for the answer.

"Kiyumi will be the death of the dark prince.", she finally said while closing the chest. She still had her back turned to the king, partly from fear of his reaction to this message.

"What?", the panther screamed so loudly, that a few of the flasks on the shelves were clinking, "What exactly have you seen?"

Darena turned around and looked at her king submissively. Her eyes had returned to their dark color.

"You know that it does not work like this, your majesty. I only see signs of the time, not the actual events that lie before us."

Bjunai stood there, angrily snorting and stared into space, while he sorted his thoughts. It didn't matter, that the witch had foretold his death. The knowledge of it would empower him to change his fate. Now that he knew who his most dangerous enemy was, he would triumph.

Even if the last attack of the demons hadn't been as effective as expected, it had provided him with information, whose importance he now realized. When he looked at Darena again, his face showed no trace of anger any more. Now he knew what had to be done.

"Brew me the deadliest poison that you know of!"

"Certainly, your majesty."

"Maybe...", said Bjunai grinning and left the chamber of the witch, "I will succeed to give this a personal touch."

In the huge banquet hall some servants were turning over the large dinner table and with a mighty thump it finally hit the ground. They leaned the dinner table against the side wall and let it stand there. Then some of them began to roll up the big red blue carpet while other servants carried the chairs out of the room. Bjunai observed the action impatiently. The banquet hall was ideal for his plan. He needed a large room and he couldn't remember when they had celebrated here for the last time, anyway.

"Bring me a tall ladder and then leave me alone and lock all doors!", the dark prince ordered and the servants obeyed. Bjunai took the magic chalk, which had been manufactured from the ashes of virgins, and began his work.

About thirty minutes later he drew the last line across the stone floor and completed the summoning rune. The ceremony took another ten minutes and cost the panther a few drops of his blood. After all, he wasn't summoning the usual small demons here. Finally something was moving. It started with small red lightnings between the chalk lines of the rune. The amount and strength of the lightnings increased slowly. Eventually they ripped open the floor and formed a circle of twitching light around the formed portal.

A mighty paw emerged and thrust its claws into the stone floor, then a second one appeared and a huge creature slowly pulled itself up from within the hole. At first a huge, horned skull appeared. Little by little, the wings and the upper body appeared until, finally, the hind legs were put down on the hall floor. Below the demon, the portal closed again and it let out a deafening roar which meant something like: Here I am!

The demon had a shoulder height of about five meters. Towering above that was the enormous skull which, of course, contained a pair of glowing red eyes. Smoke was coming from its nostrils continuously. Four horns protruded from the back of its skull and pointed backwards. Right behind the head and the short neck the mighty wings were folded. On the back end of the dragon there was an almost four meters long tail that ended in the shape of an huge arrow head. The whole massive body of the hell dragon was covered with black scales which resembled slates, but seemingly were a lot more solid. Thorns stuck out at arbitrary places from between the scales and surely turned a ride on this dragon into a painful experience.

"Who has called me?", asked the hell dragon and exposed the dagger like teeth in his mouth.

"It was me, Xylith.", answered Bjunai, who stood on the left side behind the dragon and was now walking around him to get into its field of view, "My name is Bjunai."

"Bjunai.", grumbled the dragon the name, "I heard a lot about you. You already have summoned and sacrificed a lot of demons of my army in your war."

"Those sacrifices were necessary to prepare the war. But for the decisive battle I need stronger support."

Xylith looked down upon the small creature that was talking to him so naturally for a mortal, as if this was nothing out of the ordinary for him.

"I don't care about your war. As far as I know you already sold your soul years ago and so you don't own anything interesting for me."

The panther displayed such an evil grin on his face, that his appearance wasn't less scary than the dragon itself. Then he blurted out a word with four syllables and lightnings struck the dragon from the ceiling and went through its whole body until the lightnings turned into shackles on all four ankles. Angrily the dragon let out a deafening roar that didn't need any translation and looked up. There on the ceiling was drawn, barely noticeable, another rune.

"You betrayed me!", screamed Xylith, "You will pay for this!"

"My soul cannot be saved anymore. And I guess that I will die in a violent way anyway. So what should I be afraid of?", replied Bjunai.

The dragon tried to burn the panther with hell fire, but although the shackles didn't really hinder his movements, he wasn't able to disobey or hurt his new master.

"What do you want?", the dragon hissed instead.

"Well, how about some of the small four legged demons for my protection for the start as a sign of your good will?", Bjunai demanded.

Xylith didn't seem to say anything nor move and still several portals appeared on the floor only seconds later and from each of them a demon emerged. In the end, five small demon panthers and one horned beast as their leader surrounded the dark prince.

"Very nice.", Bjunai remarked contently and looked at his new companions, "I will retreat now and will plan the further actions. You stay here until I need you, Xylith!"

The hell dragon took note of the command with a deep growl.

"All of this was pretty exhausting. I feel a little overworked.", Bjunai complained, "What I really need now is some distraction, something to release some tension."

Bjunai stepped up to one of the demon panthers and knelt down.

"Tell me, little demon.", he ran his fingers through the fur of the flank of the four legged demon, "What sex do you have?"

The demon looked at him expectantly, but could not answer of course.

"Well, it doesn't really matter anyway. Just come with me!"

Xylith watched as Bjunai left the banquet hall together with his demons and let out another angry roar that meant something like: Be careful not to burn your tail!

> The war begins <

When the sun was going down on Sangan, Kiyumi and Someron were lying in their hotel room. The new leather armor of Someron lay next to the bed together with his other clothes. Kiyumi only got a pair of protective metal parts for his forearms to deflect sword blows, because his biggest strength was his agility and everything else would have slowed him down too much. The two warriors stared at the ceiling and tried to order their thoughts. Everything went so terribly fast. The just got to know each other and now they moved out to a war that would change the life of everyone. Kiyumi would soon face the man whom he had honored as his father until recently and whom he now detested more than anything else.

The cat boy turned his head to the left and looked at Someron. Then he rolled himself upon him, so that he was propped up on his hands and was looking down into the face of his beloved friend. Someron embraced Kiyumi and softly caressed his back with his paws. For a few minutes they just lay there, looking into the loving smile of each other. Both of them sensed exactly what the other wanted to say and so they finally said it in unison:

"I love you."

Kiyumi lowered his head and they kissed passionately. Kiyumi closed his eyes. He wanted to keep this moment in his heart forever, independent of what the future might hold in store for them. He would always remember the love and safety that he was feeling now. When they eventually broke their kiss, Kiyumi lay down and snuggled against the strong chest of the dog warrior. Firmly embraced they lay there while the sleep gradually overcame them.

Not far away, Ferin and Lorian also lay in their hotel room.

"I don't wanna lose you.", said Ferin and a tear ran down on his cheek, "Getting to know you was like a fairy tale. You freed me from the misery I was in and I fell in love with you. I don't wanna let you go."

"My sweet fox.", Lorian soothed him, "Have no fear. Don't fairy tales always have a happy ending?"

"What if this one has none? I'd like to be a warrior. I wish I was strong enough to go with you and take care of you. Instead I have to stay back in fear and wait."

"Yes, it is true. You are no warrior. Instead you are soft and unbelievable compassionate. And exactly that is, what I love about you. I could never have fallen in love with a warrior so utterly."

They shared a lot of gentle kisses until Lorian finally fell asleep. Ferin however lay awake for a long time and looked at his lover. He tried to memorize every little detail to never forget him.

Eventually the morning came and so the open war began. Sangan sent out all his troops to intrude into Terrania. Only a small group, which was led by Lorian's comrades Kyle and Sam, stayed back and protected Kayoma.

The majority of the people even welcomed the intruding soldiers that were supposedly their enemies, but as they got closer to the residence of the ruler, more and more demons stood in their way and also soldiers of Terrania blocked their way more often. The soldiers of Sangan, who had never before seen demons or fought against them, were very hesitant and frightened until they eventually understood that even a demon could be injured and killed like any other living creature.

Even if they suffered many losses, they observed that the remaining warriors gained strength every time a hell creature dropped dead to the ground or when they were greeted as liberators by the local people.

Over time, new kinds of demons appeared. Flying demons were mainly, but not too efficiently, attacked by the archers. The uprightly walking demon warriors, fighting with swords and shields, were even a much bigger problem. Both claimed countless victims until the humans and furries of Sangan could passably adapt to them.

Kiyumi was doing quite well because of his agility. Hardly any of his opponents could keep up with his fast movements. Someron and Lorian were, thanks to their fighting education, experience and strength, superior to their enemies as well. All three of them were an important role model for all the others, without which the fighting spirit couldn't have been maintained. Because of this motivating effect they tried to stay in the field of vision of as many fellow combatants as possible, so the three of them often ended up being wide apart.

They fought their way straight towards the castle. There were some longer distances without fights and then there were some bigger battles close to cities. Again they had reached a point where an army of demons was waiting for them. They fought in a settlement that seemed to be deserted on a large area. It was easy to lose sight of each other here. Each one of Sangan's soldiers was busy fighting one enemy after the other.

Suddenly, Kiyumi heard someone call out his name and looked around. To his left he saw to his dismay that four flying demons had grabbed Someron, each of them holding one paw. Someron tried to wriggle out of it, but could not break free from the tight grip of the claws. Kiyumi's friend seemed to have taken a short break from fighting, when he had been seized by the beasts, because his sword was attached to his back and thus was out of his reach. Kiyumi called out to his friend. Behind him he heard an archer shouting that the risk of hitting the dog warrior was too high, so the use of arrows was out of the question.

As fast as he could, Kiyumi ran towards him, while the demons continuously carried the dog warrior higher and higher and had already reached the height of the nearby buildings. With mighty leaps the cat boy came closer and climbed up to the roof of an house with incredible speed. In few seconds he crossed the roof and came to the point that was closest to the demons. Without considering the consequences of a fall, he jumped with all his power and flew through the air towards one of the flying demons. He barely managed to bury his claws into the chest of the demon and drew his sword. He thrust the blade deeply into the body of the monster and immediately the grip around Someron's ankle was loosening and Kiyumi and the formerly flying demon plummeted down. Halfway down, Kiyumi pushed away from the demon and safely landed on his paws. The demon was already dead when it hit the ground. But even if the three remaining flying demons struggled for a moment, another one came right away to occupy the empty position and they continued their way.

"No!", screamed Kiyumi.

Someron had given up to break free. He wouldn't survive a fall from this height without serious injuries anyway. So the flying demons were finally able to fly more coordinately and gained speed. Kiyumi ran after them for a while, but it was pointless. Soon he had lost track of them. Still he knew their destination. They were flying towards the castle of Bjunai.

The flying demons dropped Someron right in the middle of the rune symbol that was painted on the floor of the inner ward. The dog warrior ended up on his knees and slowly raised to a standing position. He was still a little groggy from the unpleasant flight to there.

"That's what I call a precision landing.", Bjunai praised his underlings. Next to him only few soldiers were standing. The place was now mainly inhabited by demons. All servants had fled in fear, only the soldiers remained. Above the castle, some storm clouds had gathered, which submerged everything in a baleful half-light.

"The sword, please!"

One of the soldiers pulled Someron's sword out of the prop on his back and brought it to Bjunai.

"Bring this to Darena, she shall prepare it like discussed!"

"Yes, your majesty.", the human affirmed and went on his way.

Then four demon panthers stepped up closely to Someron. The dog warrior didn't even try to fight against them. Alone, he didn't stand a chance in the headquarter of the enemy. Bjunai inspected the dog warrior in front of him. This was the creature that his former descendant had fallen in love with. He shook his head disapprovingly.

"You have been the beginning of this whole evil.", the dark prince addressed Someron, "But don't feel bad about it, you will also help me to make an end to it."

"I will never do anything to harm Kiyumi!", Someron shouted, "I'd rather die."

"Well, we'll see about that. I think you overestimate your power, young warrior. With all your muscles you think, you can oppose everything. But now I will turn you into my tool, nothing more than a marionette."

Bjunai recited a short formula and Someron suddenly felt strangely vulnerable. One after the other the four demons jumped into him as if his body was a gate into another world. Then they were gone, yet he still sensed them inside of him. Deeply inside of him they pulled at him until he was sick and sank back onto his knees. Then something broke into pieces that had enclosed his soul like a protective shell and suddenly everything went away and took him with it.

> The fall of the demons <

When the strongly decimated soldiers of Sangan had overcome the castle walls, they were already awaited. The inner ward was full of hostile soldiers and demons. Also Bjunai and his witch were standing at one side in the back of the yard and looked at them. Darena sought cover behind the corner of a nearby building and prepared her crystal ball.

Bjunai used a summoning formula to call some demons, which spread around him in a circle. Then he spoke another, more complicated formula and slowly he raised from the floor and was levitating in the air. The demons were caught in a whirl around the panther and were screaming in agony, while their bodies were unnaturally stretched and deformed until their bodies filled the whole surface of a sphere surrounding the dark prince. Then they whirled gradually faster, until the outlines of their bodies blurred and became transparent. In the end, only a distortion like a looming could be seen around Bjunai.

Shortly thereafter the first archers came into range and shot their arrows towards him. But the projectiles rebounded from the shield of Bjunai and the attackers had to admit that their approach was senseless and ceased fire. They could do nothing but to fight their way through hordes of soldiers and demons.

Two fighting groups were built, one of them was led by Lorian, the other one by Kiyumi. They tried the best to watch the back of each other and neutralize the enemies as effective as possible. They used all the information that they had gathered in the past fights and were aiming for their weak parts. The fighting spirit of the human enemies was pretty low, so that a lot of them already gave up after getting wounded slightly.

Kiyumi managed to get to the center of the inner ward relatively unchallenged. Almost none of the soldiers or demons attacked him, because Bjunai had other plans for him. After all, Kiyumi wasn't just anybody and he should pay for his betrayal. And now the moment had come. Someron stepped out of the entrance of the tower, completely controlled by the demons of his enemy, which lurked inside of him. In his hands he held the sword which has been dunked in the poison of the witch.

Lorian's path had led him to the other end of the yard, where the general of the demons was waiting. He hoped, that he could win against the big dragonlike demon and that the other demons would give up automatically afterwards. Only a few dozen meters separated him from his destination, but his troop was slowly dissolving around him. It seemed, only few of his soldiers would make it with him to their enemy.

Lorian wasn't sure if he could defeat the hell dragon with the handful of warriors, but he would try it and at least give the others the necessary time to find a way to Bjunai. He was only ten meters away from Xylith when he attracted his attention. The dragon breathed in to start an fire attack, but Lorian was faster. He pointed to the head of the dragon and soon afterwards the magical projectile hit its target. Xylith groaned loudly, although the armor protected him from actual damage. The breath that he wanted to change into a fire attack was lost though. Angrily he stared at the small human warrior, who readied his swords for the fight. With his right paw the dragon performed a strong blow in his direction, but Lorian managed to avoid it scarcely. Instead, one of his few remaining fellow warriors was hit and flew about ten meters until he crashed into a house wall and dropped to the floor with some broken ribs.

When Someron walked towards Kiyumi, Bjunai turned to Darena and called out to her arrogantly: "What now, witch? Do you still believe, that Kiyumi will kill me?"

Darena left her trance and the crystal ball sank onto her hands while her eyes slowly regained their normal color. Then she looked at the current action on the inner ward.

"I never said, that he would kill you. I said, that Kiyumi will be the reason for your death, your majesty.", she replied in her usual cold manner.

A brief wave of insecureness went across the face of Bjunai, but he got hold of himself right away and waved aside scornfully.

Only ten meters were separating Someron from Kiyumi and he continued to walk towards him like a robot. The demons drew back from the cat boy, because they could not win against him and weren't supposed to anyway. For this purpose, there was the dog warrior. Kiyumi saw Someron walking towards him and shuddered at the sight of the expressionless eyes that otherwise were looking at him so lovingly. He could not imagine to fight against his lover. The death of Someron would just be another victory for Bjunai and a stab into the heart for Kiyumi.

Now, of all times, he had to think of what Shayla had said to him: Love is to completely give up yourself for someone else. Oddly enough, it seemed to make sense to him now and suddenly the imagination of sacrificing himself, so that Someron could live on, did not seem too painful. At the moment the dark prince concentrated too much on Kiyumi, so it was impossible for him to attack him directly. But when Someron had more time, he might find a way, because he was much wiser.

The cat boy sheathed his sword and looked at Someron. The soldiers accompanying him looked at each other irritatedly and weren't sure how to react to the situation. Slowly Kiyumi closed his crystal blue eyes that could break the will of almost every man and smiled in the knowledge, that his love would live on.

Only few steps separated Someron from his target. Around them, the battles subsided, because despite biggest efforts on both sides everyone knew at this moment, that the encounter of Someron and Kiyumi would decide the outcome of the war. Like in a silently arranged truce, all demons, humans and furries turned away from their opponents in the midst of the battle to watch the events in the center of the yard. An eerie silence surrounded them and even the quiet steps of the dog's paws on the stone floor were audible.

Kiyumi had retreated into memories and barely took note of the sudden changes. He saw their common time again in front of him. The cat boy still smiled when he remembered, how he got to know Someron and how much fun they already had during their first time together, even if he never had thought, that things would evolve like that.

In his mind, he saw their journey to Kayoma, during which they had really gotten to know each other. He had enjoyed the long ride immensely. There had been nothing for them to do than ride along the way and talk. It had been an untroubled time, some kind of sorrow free island in the stream of his life. The time had been short, but even now he could remember the relaxed feeling from back then.

Someron had reached Kiyumi and raised the sword high above his head to carry out the deadly blow.

"What has been seen through the fog of time, will finally happen.", said Darena and turned away, as if the whole thing was just a repetition of a long known scene. Bjunai watched this and glared angrily at her.

In the meantime, Kiyumi had reached the peak of their relationship, the night before the war had started when he had confessed his love to his friend. They had just embraced and kissed each other. On the next day, the war had awaited them, yet Kiyumi couldn't remember having ever felt so safe.

"Now kill him, my marionette!", screamed Bjunai from behind, completely mad.

Finally the arms of Someron started to move and the blade was sinking fast. Then the sword hit the stone ground with a loud crash and Kiyumi opened his eyes. But his dream seemed to melt with reality, because the image he saw was still the same. Still he saw Someron in front of him, who pressed his lips onto his own. The brown dog eyes had regained their loving expression and were looking at him. Kiyumi kissed him back and they embraced each other tightly.

The lifeless remains of the demons, which had controlled Someron, lay around them. They had spent all of their energy to make Someron raise the sword against Kiyumi. But they hadn't got a chance to make him kill him and when he had come close to Kiyumi, something had streamed through the dog warrior, burning the demons like sunlight on the skin of a vampire.

"Noooooo!", screamed Bjunai and stared in shock and wide eyed at the scene. His spell was broken and shortly thereafter, the magical feedback was causing him a lot of pain and took away his concentration. He fell to the floor and his barrier broke apart into the separate demons, which it had consisted of.

The evil spirits sensed his sudden weakness and the magical shackles around the ankles of Xylith were so weak, that he could tear them apart. The general of the demon horde suddenly regained his freedom. He flew up and hovered above the inner ward.

Kiyumi and Someron noticed, that something important was going on. They broke their embrace, but still held each other's hands and watched Xylith and Bjunai.

"Now you will pay for your arrogance!", shouted Xylith and pointed at Bjunai with his paw. Then he hissed some words in an unknown language and all demons started running towards Bjunai. They jumped at him and their teeth and claws pierced his body everywhere. The number of demons was so large and their outlines were, thanks to the black color, so indistinct, that they melted to a swirling, dark mass, which slowly devoured the dark prince.

Only after all life, his fur and his flesh had been gnawed from his bones, the demons left him alone again. But his pure evilness let his skeleton stand upright over the end of his natural life. With a demonic glowing in the holes of his skull, from which his eyes had been removed, he gazed at Xylith.

"I called you into this world.", screeched a voice from his insides, which did not originate from any organ of speech, "And now I ban you from it!"

The pact between them still was intact. The demons had to experience this first-hand, as chasms opened below them and swallowed all of them. Although Xylith was hovering high above the ground, the unnatural vortex seized him and the wild flapping of his wings didn't help him either. He crashed onto the ground and while half of his body was already sucked into the ground, he tried to use his claws to stay outside. So he drew deep furrows through the stone until his claws finally were ground off and he helplessly disappeared.

The ground closed again and there was no evidence for the existence of demons anymore. With them, the last amount of demonic energy vanished from this world and the skeleton of Bjunai collapsed to a pile of lifeless bones.

When the present citizens and warriors realized what had just happened, Bjunai's soldiers dropped their weapons and let themselves be arrested without any resistance. The cheers of victory became louder and louder and the lovers exchanged smiling satisfied glances, while more and more people of Terrania streamed into the castle and gathered around them.

A few of the people began to shout something, which was indistinct at first, but gradually more citizens joined in and shouted it in unison. Finally, Kiyumi could clearly hear what they shouted.

"The King is dead! Long live the King!"

• Epilogue -

Ferin had been traveling after the warriors in safe distance to the front line and arrived at the castle just one hour after the victory. The fox boy was more than happy to be able to embrace his unharmed lover. Together with Lorian, Kiyumi and Someron, he moved into the castle, where the heroes recovered. At least as far as the pairwise lodging in just two rooms allowed this.

The end of the war between the two countries was pronounced and the rulers took care of withdrawing their soldiers from all borderlines and other regions. After the turbulence had subsided a little and the people began to clean up the destruction of the war, the king of Sangan came to Terrania, to congratulate them and officially acknowledge the new king of Terrania. They celebrated in the great hall, although it had, for some unknown reason, a big hole in the outer wall.

In a great ceremony they commemorated the countless victims of the war and declared the building of a memorial site. It should remind everyone of the great suffering the people had to endure under Bjunai and the dangers of a war. The memorial site was located in the center of a cemetery in which the tombstones of the fallen from both sides were mixed.

A new law forbade the summoning of demons under penalty of death. The witch Darena seemed as if swallowed up by the earth and could not be found.

The servants returned to the castle and gradually removed all traces of Bjunai and his demons. After a while the walls appeared pretty homely again, like it had been a long time ago under the old king. Also the nanny Serena returned, as new tasks awaited her.

In a double wedding, which was hailed by the people, Ferin married Lorian and Kiyumi married his Someron. Because the expectation of an offspring was pretty low, they decided to change the law of the succession to the throne, which only allowed children begotten by the king himself.

The war had brought forth many orphans, which were cared for in specially built orphanages. The two freshly wed couples decided to adopt babies from them.

Ferin's gaze fell upon a fox boy right away, who reminded him of himself. This child would not have to go the same way as him, he swore and picked the small orange white fur ball up and carried him on his arm. Because Ferin always wanted to have a brother, they adopted a second baby right away. The first photo for the family album showed Lorian with the fox baby on his arm and Ferin with the human baby. And so they unintentionally became the role model for relationships between humans and furries. The image quickly spread throughout the country and became the symbol of a lot of groups that were fighting for equality of rights between the races, because it was no matter of course in some distant corners of the world.

Kiyumi and Someron chose a lion baby with a fiery orange fur. When the two embraced each other with the baby in their middle, their fortune was complete. Everyone nearby the city had come to the announcement. The inner ward was nearly bursting and more humans and furries were standing all the way down to the city. Everyone tried to get a view of the little prince.

"Bow down before Kiyumi, king of Terrania and the future successor of the throne!", a crier announced him as Kiyumi walked with the baby on his arm to the edge of the high balcony which was protruding into the inner ward.

Bowed, yet still trying to see something, the people remained in reverence and watched as Kiyumi reached the railing and held his son up high.

"Prince Rhyan!", Kiyumi called out to his people and they broke into cheers. Kiyumi lowered the baby again and held it in his arms. Someron came to the front now, too and lay his arm around the cat boy. Satisfied they smiled down upon the celebrating crowd and waved at it.

"See?", said Lorian to Ferin while they were walking towards their friends on the balcony, "This fairy tale has a happy ending."

• End -

completed in May 2010

by ScaniX