**** Chapter Twenty Six: THE MAN WITHIN

**** Chapter Twenty Six: THE MAN WITHIN

He had taught me how to counter every move with my hands and feet. Plus in the hours when we weren’t training, I got to know the man behind the hard exterior. I learned many little things about him, mostly by accident.

I could never forget the time Ogaz asked me to stir some hot gravy he was cooking while he ran off into the garden to fetch some fresh mint – and coal lumps for Azure from the living room fireplace.

Uhm – I don't think I’ve mentioned this before, since I hadn’t noticed it myself during my stay at the castle. Azure did not eat like us. He didn't eat food as in meat or vegetables or fruits. I mean not that he couldn’t since he certainly had teeth and could chew well and swallow and digest but food, as we know it, wasn’t his diet. He ate coal. Yes, the mineral. Black hard lumps of coal, slightly toasted for added flavor. And toasted in the fireplace not stove if you will, since slow cooked food – I mean – coal was what triggered his appetite.

So anyway, Azure was setting the lunch table when Demon strolled in and stood by me, sniffing the food. I offered him a taste of the gravy from the wooden spoon I was stirring with since Ogaz would do the same often while he cooked. He said Demon had excellent taste buds and if he liked it then the food was ready to be served. I had already tasted it before and thought it needed a bit of a spicy kick. So I had taken the liberty of adding a few red pepper flakes before offering it to Demon.

What ensued was a total surprise for me. He had hardly swallowed the gravy when he stopped and cleared his throat as if something got stuck there.

“What the hell!” he barely whispered as he started to cough. Tears ran down his eyes while he dashed off to the fridge to pour a mug of lemonade.

“What’s wrong?” I sort of panicked. I’d never seen him in pain before.

Azure was quickly by my side and picked up the spice bottle from the countertop.

“Chili?” He looked horrified. “Who added chili?”

“I did.” I looked back at Demon. “You can’t eat chili?” Unbelievable!

He would have replied, or breathed fire, if he wasn’t busy gulping down cold lemonade. After he chugged down every last drop he simply sat there on the floor by the fridge, glowering at me with bloodshot eyes.

“Never add chili!” was all he said.

Later I learnt that Krâl Antinoos couldn’t eat chili. It triggered a fire reaction in him that could literally burn miles and miles of land and air away from site. This trait was peculiar to him alone. No other Demon before him had ever shown signs of being this allergic to chili though none of them liked it as a spice. And this was why he drank lemonade by the gallons that he did.

“You must be the worst Demon in history!” I couldn’t stop laughing.

As for the food, Ogaz quickly whipped up some eggs for Demon while I was served my sins on a platter – the deadly gravy from hell that had reduced the mighty Krâl to tears. I loved it! But I loved Ogaz’s omelets more so I did sneak forkfuls from Demon’s plate. His reaction – take a guess!

I had grown very comfortable with my new independence and my new home. I had begun to relate to the Realm in ways I never thought I could. I had taken a liking to its folklore, to its poetry, to the amazing magic that came to being in Ogaz’s little greenhouse and kitchen each day, to the lineage of its exotic rulers and races that lived there.

I had become exceedingly skilled in the arts of warfare. Only a week of training had done wonders. Demon’s tough training had made its mark. And now that I knew I could shoot arrows and hit targets blindfolded and otherwise; parry and thrust and cut and slash with a sword; wrestle and punch and draw blood with ease, my mind had begun to wander.

I had begun to notice Demon.

I would concentrate more on his muscles than his techniques to strike and block. I would pay more attention to where he placed his hand when he told me to twist my waist so that the attacker behind me would topple forward.

And that day, I almost sniffed his neck when he was ranting over how lazy I was becoming with holding my bow and arrow in the right position. He had come from behind and supported my arms with his hands to show how to aim – and I just couldn’t smother the sound of my sigh as I sniffed his perfume and leaned against his bare chest.

“Are you kidding me?” He snapped.

“What? I slipped!” I pouted. And it would help if you put a shirt on and be less fragrant!

“Don’t!” He ordered. “Now hold your arm steady and point the arrow like – Aoife!”

“Yes!” He’d caught me dreaming again and snapped me back to reality. I quickly blinked and straightened my stance.

“What is the matter with you?” He glared.

“Nothing! My mind is not on the game today that’s all.” I said. “I need rest. A day off.

Relax a little.”

“No.” He frowned. “Now remember,” he said getting back to the boring bow and arrow, “I’ve told you a thousand times before and I’ll say it again, be mindful of how leveled your elbow is with the bow when you aim because – you’re not listening to a single word I’m saying are you?”

I shook my head and giggled. I couldn’t help it. Some foreign force had taken me over and I was enjoying it immensely. He sighed and looked at me benignly.

“Very well,” he said. “Hit that target there and we’ll call it a day.”

“Promise?”

“Yes!” He rolled his eyes. “Aim!”

“Cool!” I said happily and aimed the arrow at a target a mile away.

“I know,” he said. “You smell nice too by the way.” Gasp!

I looked at him. And my arrow misfired, landing yards away from the target to where two people were loading some sacks into a horse drawn cart.

“You just had to say that right then.” I glared at Demon.

“Ooh-kay.” His eyes were fixed on the men. “Have you ever had a horse for dinner?”

“What?” I looked back and saw the men looking on in horror as their draft horse struggled on the ground. “Oh, no!” I cried. “Look what you made me do!”

“Oh, so now it’s my fault you can’t keep your head or your aim?” He gave me a look and we both went racing down to the poor villagers.

I knew those men. The two brothers lived in the nearby town of Sikri and often brought supplies like foodstuffs, firewood, coal, produce, and any other item Ogaz might want.

“My family horse!” The older brother cried.

“Oh, God, his family horse!” I buried my face in my hands.

“I got him as a baby!” He wailed.

“Oh, God, I killed his baby!” I wailed too.

“Will you stop?” Demon frowned. “It’s hardly dead.”

Upon hearing Krâl, the men instantly stopped wailing. He was right, of course. The horse was lying on the ground, but its head was up and it was alert. Demon had zapped the arrow to ashes before it could hit the beast but the warmth of the ash alone had scorched its knee. That was the pain that had made it buckle and fall.

How Demon had done it, I have no idea. I never even saw the arrow turning into ash. I realized what had happened when I saw the blue sparkle on the animal’s leg.

Blue sparkling dust meant Demon had set something on fire.

Demon helped the horse up, made sure it was ok and apologized to the owners. The men in turn thanked him for being so gracious as to personally – blah blah – but the amazing part was that they seemed perfectly at ease with their King. And this wasn’t peculiar to them alone. When I had had the chance to see Demon interact with the common folk, I’d noticed that not everyone bent down in huge courteous bows to him nor did he maintain a kingly demeanor with his people. He talked to them, listened to them, and treated them politely. And it tickled my mind to see the honest love on their faces when they saw him.

In fact, I had begun to think his rudeness was reserved for me alone.

It was already nightfall when we returned to the cottage. Though the horse hadn’t even been badly bruised, I couldn’t get over how close I had come to killing an innocent animal. I never knew how it felt to actually take a life until I almost did that poor horse in.

I felt sick.

At dinner time, while Demon and Azure and Ogaz ate and talked of their day, I sat quietly playing hockey with the beans on my plate. When Ogaz asked me what was wrong I couldn’t hold back and tears welled up in my eyes. Azure was quickly by my side but Demon – he just sat back glaring at me as if I’d committed a crime.

“You disappoint me, Princess,” he said heartlessly.

“I almost killed it.” I choked.

“Wait till you’re in the battlefield. You won’t be almost killing anything there.”

That was all I could take for the night. I pushed away my untouched food, excused myself and ran upstairs to my room.