When I woke up the next morning, I had hardly gotten dressed when the door opened. My back was to the door, so I didn’t see whom had come in. I figured it was Koori or someone to fetch me to the temple. I was running rather late that morning, having slept in later than I had intended.
I was about to turn around when I was suddenly thrown up against the wall. Panicked, I turned and saw that it was a demon, and not one that lived here in the house. I scrambled away from him, trying my hardest to run away, but he grabbed me by the head and pulled me back onto the floor.
It was then that another demon came into the room. I kicked the one in the face and scrambled away, but he grabbed me and threw me, crashing into the dresser, knocking everything to the ground and causing a huge ruckus. As the decended on me, claws and fangs bared, I could only whisper, “Help.”
“No one is coming for you,” one of the demons assured me. “A human is last on the chain of life.”
Hyaku flashed through my mind. Why would he come for me? Why would he save me? I was more than a little mean to him. I deserved to die. It would be better that way. There was a noise that could be heard from the hallway.
“Hey! Luck-” the demon smiled, thinking it was his buddy. He was cut off when Hyaku threw him into the wall.
His eyes began changing to a bright turquoise. He raised his sword and killed the last two demons in the room. “Come,” he said, simply, grabbing my hand and dragging me out of the room. I was shaking badly, and hoped he couldn’t feel it, but with his keen senses, I knew otherwise.
“I’m pretty surprised to see the great lord has a human,” a demon said, sneaking up behind both of us, catching Hyaku in his stomach and me on my shoulder. I was bleeding, but I was in shock and was unable to feel any pain.
Koori and two other demons on our side came running up to our rescue “Hyaku, take her to Hana. We’ll take care of the rest,” Koori told Hyaku.
Hyaku nodded in response before running off down the hall towards the temple, still dragging me behind him. He was quick, slightly too quick for me. I had a hard time keeping up; it didn’t help that I was losing a lot of blood either. We got to the temple, and he pushed me inside, dropping to his knees in pain.
“Sir!” Hana cried upon our entry into the temple. I crawled out of the way to hug the wall. I didn’t want to get in the way of the healing or whatever Hana was about to do.
“Don’t touch me!” Hyaku growled when she dropped down beside him. “Go over to her first,” he said pointing at me.
I frowned. He wanted to help me? I stayed where I was, not moving, holding my hand over the gash on my shoulder, the blood staining my palm.
“Sir, I only have so much energy now, and it is only befitting if I heal you. You can heal her,” she said. I agreed with her. Hyaku had worse injuries than I did. From protecting me.
“I am not touching her,” he spat as he crossed his arms. Hana paid him no mind as she healed him anyway.
Shortly after Hana had finished healing Hyaku, Koori came in, “It’s done. We suffered heavy loses, but in the end, we won,” he said plopping down.
I was glad the immediate threat was over, and I had made a choice. I was going to help Hyaku. I owed him my life. He was actually a nice guy. For a demon. Flinching from the pain, I sighed. Hyaku, now healed caught sight of me, and came over to my side, putting some stuff on the wound.
I placed a hand on his, which he was holding over the wound, and looked into his eyes, which now were back to their normal blue shade. “Thank you for saving me,” I told him sincerely.
He stayed focused on the wound, not saying anything other than a grunt in response. “There, you should be fine now.” With that, he stood up and went and spoke with Hana and Koori, probably about what their next move would be. Hyaku didn’t seem like the kind of person-or demon- to let something like this attack to just go.
I sighed, rolling my shoulders, wincing at the soreness where my shoulder had been injured. My shirt was still covered in blood, but I ignored it. I got up and went over to the altar, where the book Hana had shown me earlier was sitting. Opening it, I went to the first page and ran my hand down the page.
I wanted to do this as payment for Hyaku risking his life to help me, to protect me. I could do this; I knew I could.
