Prologue

"Get away from me!"

A shout rang through the woods, far from any human settlements. Birds flew into the air as a young boy, in pain and feeling very alone, ran away from the man who had betrayed him. That man, the boy's grandfather, stood in the place where he had so recently made a deal with the boy, smiling coldly. Then an odd look crossed his face and his voice rang out. "Wait!" he yelled, to the boy who did not, almost could not, heed the call. Then the mood fell from his face and the cold smile returned. The man turned and walked away, moving in the opposite direction as the one the boy had taken.

The boy ran for hours, racing with demon-like speed through the thick forest. Tears streamed down his face and clouded his vision. Finally, sometime around sunset, he reached a clearing and stopped to avoid the girl sitting in front of him. She was a young girl, very plainly a farmgirl, with green hair peeking out of under her bonnet. She sat in a garden and held several dirt-covered carrots in her hand. Her brown eyes widened as she saw the boy in front of her. Screaming, she dropped the carrots and ran into the nearby farmhouse. The boy just stood there, exhausted after his long run. Two burly men ran out of the farmhouse door and headed towards the boy, clubs in hand. The boy grew scared and started running back the way he had came from. Before he got there, he tripped on a tree root. Before he could get up, the men were on him, beating him into oblivion.

When he woke, he found he was in a cage placed in the middle of a town square. A crowd of people surrounded the cage, looking at this monster some local farmers brought in. As soon as the boy opened his eyes, cries of "demon!", "mazoku!", "monster!", and such rose up in the square. A few rotten tomatoes and rocks were thrown at the cage. The boy tried to shield himself, but some hit anyway. A few hours passed while the boy crouched in his cage, trying desperately to ignore the crowd around him. Finally, when twilight descended, the boy dropped into a fitful sleep.

Around midnight, he was awoken by the sound of metal scraping and sat up. There was an elderly man there, doing something to the lock. The boy scuttled to the other side of the cage, afraid for his life. When the man heard him, he looked up.

"So yer up, are ye? Don't worry, oi'm not gonna hurtcha! Oi'm Swift and oi'm here ta getcha outa this cage. Wacher name, boy?"

The boy hesitated for a few seconds, then answered, "Zelgadis."