Chapter 3. I am 3 days old.
Zazu didn't know how long he slept, but he knew he slept a very long time. Zarah had left him when he fell asleep, and went off for an errand of her own.
"Great, what the heck I'm supposed to do now in this place? I can't even venture out," he didn't know what was out there beyond the protected confinements of his room, so he decided to coop up in his room instead. There were all demons and demonesses out there. So whom could he trust anyway? Better be sure than sorry.
Zazu decided to turn on his computer. It looks like a standard human computer to him, with the usual on button, and a 17-inch monitor. Cool.
One thing surprised him through.
It started windows XP in 1.5 seconds.
"Well, that was fast," muttered Zazu, and went towards checking the computers system.
The schematics of the computer pointed out:
Unknown processor,
Unknown number of RAM,
Unknown graphic card,
Unknown ...,
Unknown ...,
Unknown ....
And on and on the list of unknowns displayed throughout his computer. Forget it, he decided. He went on to find something interesting to run instead.
He found something, an icon with unreadable words. He double clicked it, and it asked for his password. Great. How come this computer that's supposed to be mine has a password to it? He typed a few letters on his keyboard, but the text did not show out on the screen. Instead, letters with the shape of slashes began to appear on the screen. The writing nearly looks identical to Mandarin calligraphy except it was a jumble of slashes instead, combining together to make a word. It was much more complex per word through, reaching nearly 20-30 slashes per word.
"Great, even my computer wants to bore me to death," muttered Zazu, and pressed the escape button.
"Warning, computer will self-destruct in 5 seconds," flashed a sign on the screen.
"WHAT???"
A loud explosion was heard later throughout the residential building.
Zarah sensed something was wrong with Zazu. Suddenly his adrenaline levels were peaking up. It seems like he was panicking. Trouble? She wondered. Better check it out. She opened a portal and teleported to Zazu's room.
Zarah gracefully teleported herself into an inferno. Zazu's room was burning.
What the hell that newbie did this time? What a mess! Doesn't he know that she used quite a lot of power to create this room for him? Creating a matter by modifying and changing another matter is a tiring and tedious process. You have to focus on the matter, for example, air, and then fuse and rearrange the atoms from the original matter to create another object. Kami-sama and Hild is still the most powerfull of them all because they can literally create "something" out of "nothing". Demons and Demonesses could only modify things that are currently available to them; therefore they are not as powerful as the two lords.
I'm going to spank him for this. "WHERE ARE YOU, ZAZU? What the s**t have you done here? I'm going to get you for this!" screamed Zarah through the inferno.
"Help!" a sound was heard later.
Flames surrounded Zazu. He appeared unhurt but was terrified. "I'm going to burn to death, help me!" Zazu screamed.
"You Aho, don't you know you could simply walk through the flame?" replied Zarah. (A-ho, means idiot in Japanese)
"What? I could walk through them?" said Zazu.
"Yes, your demonic body will protect you. Trust me, you idiot!"
Hesitating, Zazu walked through the flames. He felt the intense heat radiating from them, but he felt no pain. He felt only heat licking at him from all sides. His clothes were burned off, but not his skin. He continued to walk through the flame, and he began to feel a twinge of comfort. It felt quite comfortable to him. "Hehe," he laughed slightly. The flames were comfortable to him.
He finally crossed the flame, naked, in front of her. Blushing completely red, he jumped back into the flames and tried his best to hide himself from her.
After staring at him for some time, she put off all the flames by turning all the air in the room to carbon dioxide. By the demons, he's cute.
"Well, at least I had 'something' nice to see from all this trouble," smiled Zarah, and made Zazu even redder. Any redder and he would look like the pits of hell itself. Zazu was very embarrassed now, because he accidentally showed all his "natural treasures" to her. He crouched even lower to the floor.
"I think I should keep a picture of you like this and show it to all my friends," teased Zarah. Zazu became as red as can be for a demon.
Then came the killer words, "Minus the best part, of course. That's mine to admire alone," said Zarah.
Okay, now Zazu is as red as the pits of hell. "Please, anything but that. I'll do anything you ask. Just return my clothes," pleaded Zazu.
"That's a lot to demand from someone like you," Zarah smiled. "Don't you know you current position and status you are in now? I could make your current condition a lot worse." Zarah was truly enjoying Zazu's squirm.
Then Mara appeared behind her.
"Enough sister, I need to talk with you about something important," Mara said.
"What's so important? You're spoiling my mood," sulked Zarah.
"About him," Mara pointed towards Zazu. "Give him something to wear," she ordered, in her no arguments from you voice.
Zarah sulked, but began chanting something intelligible. A few seconds later, clothes materialized around Zazu. A few minutes later, the room seemed to heal itself. Burn marks were slowly disappearing. Broken items began to rejoin and rebuild themselves. Objects begin to float and hover around the room and moved back to their original positions. (Well, if you still can't imagine this process well enough, see the first OVA of the AMG anime, where Belldandy restored the temple)
"Zarah, we have to begin the process of the integration of him into our demon society, which Hild has placed you in charge of him. You are responsible towards his demonic education, care and life," said Mara.
"What? Since when did you get involved in taking care of Zazu's business? And why do I have to be his babysitter? Can anyone else with better qualifications do it?"
"Hild has assigned me to guide you through the integration of Zazu into our society. However, you are placed under direct responsibility towards him. Whatever problems he ran into will be your responsibility. I trust you handle him well. Hild will not be pleased if anything bad happens to him," Mara continued, without listening to her smaller sister's words.
"Well, I don't really need a babysitter, all I need is just someone to guide me through the integration process. You don't need to watch my every step," Zazu butted in. "You're very scary and incompetent anyway."
"WHAT!!!" Balls of fire began to appear on Zarah's hands.
"It's true, don't you realize how you act?" Zazu continued.
Zarah seemed like she is going to explode. Fire seemed to be raging in her eyes. Mara snickered. She would really like to see Zazu pounded up for that remark.
"Well, looks like another session of pain," muttered Zazu to himself. He stood straight, and prepared himself for the impact. He looked like someone who accepted his faith that he is going to be shot to death. Zazu closed his eyes.
Looking at Zazu in that state made Zarah hesitated. It reminded her of something, ten years ago, the time when she could not do anything to protect her sister from Hild's punishment. She remembered she was speechless at that time when the dark mistress gave them their punishment. All she could do was accept the punishment, and a loss of words to defend herself or her sister. She deeply regretted for what she had done over the fifty years in the comatose state. The scar was still there and it was burning her heart now.
Zarah slumped forward. The fire seems to be gone. "He is right you know, I was at fault for giving you that 50 year punishment, sister," Zarah said in a dejected manner.
"Zarah still blames herself because of that incident," Mara said to herself. Apparently, Zarah could not forget that incident 10 years ago. How could Zarah forget it at all? The dark mistress gave an eternal punishment to her. No flaming until you found your true love. How could a demoness do that?
Mara felt sympathy towards her sister. Every time when a scene of helplessness approaches at her smaller sister's eyes, she will be traumatized. Zarah's reputation dropped down severely after that punishment. Her desire to completely ruin someone's life had faded. How could a demoness work if her desire to destroy was gone?
In the demonic army itself, Zarah dropped severely in rank. In the army, there are a total of 16 ranks, being 1 for Hild, 2 to 5 for first class senior demons, 6 to 9 for first-class demons, and 10 to 13 for second-class demons and 14 to 16 for third-class demons. Each rank below the previous rank has double the number of members compared with the rank above it.
Except death, a demon or demoness will continue to carry his or her rank forever. Due to the limited places in the demon ranking system, a demon or demoness has to challenge another demonic being in the hierarchy in order to advance in their rank. Zarah refused anyone who challenged her. Therefore her opponent automatically advanced into her rank while she took he opponents' rank. Many demons and demoness took advantage while Zarah was weak and challenged her. This made Zarah to drop from rank 7 to rank 13. Now, her former friend's in the same rank now booed and laughed at her. More pain she has to contend with.
Zarah needed someone she could talk too.
"Zarah, I....," Mara began.
"Shut up! I do not need anyone's help, ok? Just leave me alone!" And Zarah stormed out through a portal.
"What's wrong with her? She kinds of worry me a little," Zazu said. He felt a little guilty after saying out those harsh words at her earlier.
Mara then began to tell Zazu of Zarah's self imposed guiltiness and her refusal to open her heart to anyone else's.
(Back to Zarah)
This grass field in the Alps always calmed her. The soothing wind, the touch of grass on her skin, and the privacy gave a sense of calmness towards her. Zarah often visited this place when she had problems. At least in this place, she could run away from her problems for a while.
She felt calm here....
But the pain doesn't want to go away....
She was still lonely....
The wind carried away the sounds of sobbing......
(Back to Zazu and Mara)
Zazu felt moody all of a sudden after Zarah left. He doesn't know why, but he felt miserable. "Probably it's because my body is changing," Zazu said to himself. But why he felt misery? Shouldn't he feel anger or aggressiveness? That's what a demon should feel if he is at work. No remorse.
"Come, I need to take you for your education. In the mortals terms, it is called a kindergarten."
"WHAT? I have to go to school with 5-year-old toddlers? S**t!" Zazu cursed. "I'll die of embarrassment. I'm not going."
"By orders of Hild, either you follow me nicely or be forced to go," Mara said. "You will not be happy at all if I force you," Mara threatened, and formed a ball of fire at her hands.
"I believe you," said Zazu.
Mara then jumped into a CD while pulling Zazu into it.
(A few moments later)
"Uuh, I feel nauseous, I think I'm going to puke," said Zazu after he went out through the CD. While he was traveling through the maze of CD's his body felt completely distorted. He felt like his organs were at the wrong places and continuously to shift about. The view was distorted too, like the light was bended. CD's were everywhere around him. They were all portals, he guessed. And felt he was lost. He was glad he was when they finally stepped out of the maze.
"The journey was not supposed to be pleasant for a half-demon like you. Glad you enjoyed it," taunted Mara. "Yeah, thanks a lot for your hospitability," replied Zazu. "I'm feeling miserable already, and she tries to entertain me," said Zazu to himself.
Mara then led him to some sort of a chamber. The chamber's walls were black with ivory pillars. The walls absorbed all light that fell on them. Making only the view in front of you visible, not your sides. It gave an eerie feeling to him.
After walking for a while, Mara went off to talk to a demon nearby. This demon wore spectacles. He looked like he was educated. Probably he is the teacher.
Mara then clapped her hands to demand Zazu's attention. "He will guide you from now on. Follow his orders well, or you will suffer my wrath, do you understand?"
"Yes."
Mara then went into a CD.
"Greetings 'student'," smiled the teacher. It seems like he was trying hard to control his laugh. "I will bring you to meet you new friends."
Zazu followed the teacher, who made him run because the teacher was hovering pretty fast. "Another lesson I have to learn quick," Zazu muttered.
"Don't worry, you will learn this in your second class," replied the teacher.
And the teacher brought him to meet a classroom full of 5 to 7 year old kids. Now Zazu was turning red again.
"Teacher Hazre, is this our new teacher for a certain subject?" One of the kids asked.
"No, he will be one of you guys as students under me."
All eyes turned to look towards him.
"What? But he's old."
"Where he came from, an orphanage?"
"Is he mentally retarded?"
"No, his body only looks like that. In fact he is the youngest of you all. He is only three days old. You guys are all above 500 years old already, remember?" Said the teacher.
Zazu felt like he wanted to shrink into nothingness.
(Half an hour later)
The first class was quite boring for Zazu. It was a class about Demonic alphabets. He caught up quite fast, compared to the befuddled kids. It took them about half an hour to memorize the basic strokes, while Zazu took ten minutes only. Their IQ is still of a child, Zazu guessed.
Then came to the second class. Here, a striking demoness taught the students how to fly. She wore bangles, rings, earrings and many more jewelry to complement her beauty. She will be a star if she becomes an actress.
She says that you have to imagine that your body was weightless. Feel that you were up there instead of down on the earth. Feel like you body is light. Feel the air is heavier than you. Feel the wind moving downwards as you ascend. Feel this and feel that. What puzzling words for him.
Then she came towards each of the students and touched their temples. Then, she touched her forehead with the students. The students eyes went dreamily about went she touched them. And Zazu finally discovered how striking she was! If they fail to float, they were striked! By the demons, she was scary.
It was his turn then, as she began to touch his temples with her hands and then contacted her forehead with his. He closed his eyes. Then a shock went through him.
He was seeing visions of himself; floating about the air. His body began to feel very light, as it was a feather. He felt free and lightheaded. She was trying to influence how his body felt and how his mind taught.
And then he began to hover a few centimeters off the air. He smiled. He opened his eyes, and saw the demoness smiling at him. She let go of her physical contact with him. Soon, he was floating around, smiling and shouting in triumph. It was easy for him, and puzzling for the "older" students.
Most of the "older" demons and demonesses became jealous with him.
"Get him out of the class," one kid said.
"He is too good. He makes us look bad," another said.
"Serves them right," Zazu said in his mind. "Earlier, they were humiliating me and now they were jealous of me. Hehehe...." And he circled the dark skies a few more times to make them even more jealous of him.
Weird, he still felt miserable after the flying class. It was temporarily thrilling while he was in the air. Now, depression began to take over him again.
Suddenly,
WHAM!!!
Mara caught Zazu in mid-flight and wrestled him down to the ground. After that, she gave him a suplex and a body-slam too.
"Yahoo, Hulk Hogan gets the championship belt," and Mara showed an imaginary wrestling championship belt award towards the air around her. She was standing on Zazu. She was acting all proud of herself. Man, her high heels are sharp!
"How is your day, boy? Having any fun?" Mara asked.
"Other than teasing those small kinds, I felt miserable all day," replied Zazu.
Mara then materialized something on her hands.
"Zazu, Hild asked me to give you this." Mara handled a small sized object, that looked like a quills egg, to him. "Swallow it," Mara ordered. Zazu made a disgusted face, indicating that he wanted to object towards doing it. But when he looked at Mara's serious face, he took it and swallowed it in one gulp. He felt a little weird after swallowing that thing, but it quickly passed.
"Ugh, what was it anyway?" asked Zazu. "Hell, I don't know," Mara shrugged, indicating that it was one of Hild's secrets. "Probably a tracking device to track you wherever you go. Hehehe."
That made Zazu really sick. "Great, now even the dark mistress knows where I am all the time. Don't I have any privacy?" Poor Zazu.
Mara then hit her head as if she had forgotten something, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you something. You made a mental link with Zarah, right?"
"Yes, what it has to do with me?" replied Zazu.
"Well, other than acting as a form of communication, sometimes strong emotions can travel through the mind link. Therefore, if Zarah was very sad, you might be able to feel it. It surprises me though that you can sense it that early in your development. Perhaps you have some other hidden power. Zarah told me that."
Zazu temper then flared, "How come you could be so calm at a time like this? How could you be acting all happy now? Can't you see Zarah is very sad? Why can't you go and cheer her up?"
It was Mara's turn to scream back at Zazu, "Don't you think I cared for her? Her emotions also hurt me much." Mara was all shaking in anger.
"But what the hell I can do? She refuses whatever I tried to cheer her up. Don't you think I felt hurt by my inabilities to help her?" Mara was half in tears.
That gave a paradigram shift towards the emotions of Zazu. Just like that, his emotions were turned upside down. He felt angry earlier towards Mara, but now he felt pity, and sadness. It was not Mara's fault. None was to be blamed for this.
Suddenly, both of them sensed a huge flow of emotions from Zarah. Both of them felt shock, fear, helplessness, and many more emotions. They were all radiating from Zarah.
"She's in danger," Mara said. She quickly hopped into a CD she was carrying, bringing Zazu along with her.
(In heaven)
The god, mars, was scanning through the heaven's scanner to find any signs of the demon named Zazu or the demoness named Zarah. He was determined to exterminate their existence. And get all the prestige from the battle council of the heavens. Greed clouded his mind.
The long, tedious and tiring search turned out to be fruitful in the end. The scanners suddenly detected a demonic temporal shift over the Alps. He zoomed the scanners over the place and showed a demoness crying there, all by herself. The scanners confirmed it was Zarah, the target he was looking for.
"Now you are mine"
(Back to Zarah)
She was still sobbing there alone. Thoughts by thoughts flew through her mind.
Why I have to be demon? .....
Why I was born like this? .....
I have no places to show my feelings too.....
I have to keep this all to myself.....
The demon society sucks.....
I can't share with anyone there.....
Sister is too burdened already....
None of them in hell were good enough to talk too....
I wish I were born in heaven instead....
Gods and goddesses in heaven are so happy there...
Can't I die and be reborn as a god?....
"WHY CAN'T I JUST DIE AND GET THIS MISERY OVER WITH? CAN'T I ???" Zarah screamed through her tears.
"WHY???" the sound was echoing through the mountains.
A different source of light suddenly appeared. It gave her two shadows.
Zarah felt a temporal shift towards her left. A portal had opened there. A god came through. This god was muscular all over, with battle scars throughout his armor. There were many medals attached to his armor, noting all the demons and demonesses he had slain. He carried a huge sword, which is now encased in a casing behind his back.
"Don't worry, in a short time, you will have nothing left to worry with," the god said. He withdrew his sword, and chanted a few words. His sword began to glow.
All Zarah could do was to prepare her regeneration spell before he charged at her.
(Back to Mara and Zazu)
"Dammit, why you send us nearly 500 miles away from Zarah's current location?" Zazu said. "We really have to rush over there now."
"Where can you find a CD in the Alps? All I can do was to bring us towards the nearest civilization available." Mara replied.
Both of them flew as fast as possible towards Zarah's location.
(We shift our attention towards the battle raging on)
"Damn! This god is tough!" Zarah had unsealed her power-limiters already, but so did the god, and that made it worse. He was way stronger than what he was a few moments ago. The earth was riddled with cracks and lines when she fought with him on the ground. Not wanting her favorite spot to be ruined, the battle progressed into aerial battle.
"Every time my wing clashes with his sword, my wing tears and I was thrown back. This is not good." She parried a few more slashes, and kept moving backwards. Her strength was draining rapidly. Many cuts were apparent in her body, where the sword grazed her. She had a deep would on her right leg, and she felt her life was draining out from it.
After a while, she finally managed to outsmart the big god and flew around him. She gave him the strongest slash with her left wing.
All she saw was a few drops of blood oozing out of the armor.
"HOW DARE YOU!!!! NOW I'M MAD!!!"
"HELLSLAYER SLASH!!!"
Zarah managed to parry the sword with her right wing. However, it was too heavy for her.
It tore right through her wing and went halfway through her right arm.
Zarah plummeted down to the ground and made a 1-meter hole in diameter in the ground. "Well, at least I'll die at my favorite place," Zarah said, half conscious.
The sword was gaining in momentum downwards as Mars prepares his final decent to finish her off.
A dark ball of energy suddenly appeared....
"Argh!" Mara slammed her body towards the god. And send him off course.
"Sis don't worry, big sister is here." Mara said," half in tears," I'll protect you. Don't worry." Zazu arrived a few moments later.
"Zazu's here too? Why did you bring him here? He might also be a target," said Zarah.
"S**t. Now I have two de......," before she could finish her words, Mara was hit by a light. Mara was instantly trapped in a ball that formed a few seconds later.
If seen through the ball, Mara's mouth was moving, but no voices were heard. It seems as she is screaming for her freedom.
"Mara, you are not in my list. Now stay there like a good girl while I finish both of them off" chided the god.
Zazu watched as Mara helplessly banged herself at the walls of her confinement. She is not going to get out of there soon. She was screaming desperately. He eyes were red as if tears we falling down.
Zazu materialized both of his swords. They hummed, as they were eager for battle. "Man, I'm only 3 and a half days old and I'm going to die. Great." Zazu said dejectingly. "Well, at least I tried to save the damsel in distress."
"Run you idiot, no s**tty heroics." Zarah spoke in pain. Her voice softened even further after that, "Zazu, please save yourself. Forget me. And forgive me for whatever I've done on you." Zarah has no more strength to defend herself. Her wounds were deep, but they stopped bleeding already.
"In your dreams, pretty lady. This is what I want to do. This is my goal in life. To help others to be happy in their lives so that I might be happy too," Zazu countered. "If I die here, I die with at least half of that goal of my life was done."
He floated 1 foot above Zarah and waited for Mars.
_____________________________________________________________________
Okay, how's that for a suspense ending to chapter 3?
The next chapter will be out in five days or so. (If my uni exams don't bog me down)
Find out the fate of Zazu in Chapter 4.
Zazu didn't know how long he slept, but he knew he slept a very long time. Zarah had left him when he fell asleep, and went off for an errand of her own.
"Great, what the heck I'm supposed to do now in this place? I can't even venture out," he didn't know what was out there beyond the protected confinements of his room, so he decided to coop up in his room instead. There were all demons and demonesses out there. So whom could he trust anyway? Better be sure than sorry.
Zazu decided to turn on his computer. It looks like a standard human computer to him, with the usual on button, and a 17-inch monitor. Cool.
One thing surprised him through.
It started windows XP in 1.5 seconds.
"Well, that was fast," muttered Zazu, and went towards checking the computers system.
The schematics of the computer pointed out:
Unknown processor,
Unknown number of RAM,
Unknown graphic card,
Unknown ...,
Unknown ...,
Unknown ....
And on and on the list of unknowns displayed throughout his computer. Forget it, he decided. He went on to find something interesting to run instead.
He found something, an icon with unreadable words. He double clicked it, and it asked for his password. Great. How come this computer that's supposed to be mine has a password to it? He typed a few letters on his keyboard, but the text did not show out on the screen. Instead, letters with the shape of slashes began to appear on the screen. The writing nearly looks identical to Mandarin calligraphy except it was a jumble of slashes instead, combining together to make a word. It was much more complex per word through, reaching nearly 20-30 slashes per word.
"Great, even my computer wants to bore me to death," muttered Zazu, and pressed the escape button.
"Warning, computer will self-destruct in 5 seconds," flashed a sign on the screen.
"WHAT???"
A loud explosion was heard later throughout the residential building.
Zarah sensed something was wrong with Zazu. Suddenly his adrenaline levels were peaking up. It seems like he was panicking. Trouble? She wondered. Better check it out. She opened a portal and teleported to Zazu's room.
Zarah gracefully teleported herself into an inferno. Zazu's room was burning.
What the hell that newbie did this time? What a mess! Doesn't he know that she used quite a lot of power to create this room for him? Creating a matter by modifying and changing another matter is a tiring and tedious process. You have to focus on the matter, for example, air, and then fuse and rearrange the atoms from the original matter to create another object. Kami-sama and Hild is still the most powerfull of them all because they can literally create "something" out of "nothing". Demons and Demonesses could only modify things that are currently available to them; therefore they are not as powerful as the two lords.
I'm going to spank him for this. "WHERE ARE YOU, ZAZU? What the s**t have you done here? I'm going to get you for this!" screamed Zarah through the inferno.
"Help!" a sound was heard later.
Flames surrounded Zazu. He appeared unhurt but was terrified. "I'm going to burn to death, help me!" Zazu screamed.
"You Aho, don't you know you could simply walk through the flame?" replied Zarah. (A-ho, means idiot in Japanese)
"What? I could walk through them?" said Zazu.
"Yes, your demonic body will protect you. Trust me, you idiot!"
Hesitating, Zazu walked through the flames. He felt the intense heat radiating from them, but he felt no pain. He felt only heat licking at him from all sides. His clothes were burned off, but not his skin. He continued to walk through the flame, and he began to feel a twinge of comfort. It felt quite comfortable to him. "Hehe," he laughed slightly. The flames were comfortable to him.
He finally crossed the flame, naked, in front of her. Blushing completely red, he jumped back into the flames and tried his best to hide himself from her.
After staring at him for some time, she put off all the flames by turning all the air in the room to carbon dioxide. By the demons, he's cute.
"Well, at least I had 'something' nice to see from all this trouble," smiled Zarah, and made Zazu even redder. Any redder and he would look like the pits of hell itself. Zazu was very embarrassed now, because he accidentally showed all his "natural treasures" to her. He crouched even lower to the floor.
"I think I should keep a picture of you like this and show it to all my friends," teased Zarah. Zazu became as red as can be for a demon.
Then came the killer words, "Minus the best part, of course. That's mine to admire alone," said Zarah.
Okay, now Zazu is as red as the pits of hell. "Please, anything but that. I'll do anything you ask. Just return my clothes," pleaded Zazu.
"That's a lot to demand from someone like you," Zarah smiled. "Don't you know you current position and status you are in now? I could make your current condition a lot worse." Zarah was truly enjoying Zazu's squirm.
Then Mara appeared behind her.
"Enough sister, I need to talk with you about something important," Mara said.
"What's so important? You're spoiling my mood," sulked Zarah.
"About him," Mara pointed towards Zazu. "Give him something to wear," she ordered, in her no arguments from you voice.
Zarah sulked, but began chanting something intelligible. A few seconds later, clothes materialized around Zazu. A few minutes later, the room seemed to heal itself. Burn marks were slowly disappearing. Broken items began to rejoin and rebuild themselves. Objects begin to float and hover around the room and moved back to their original positions. (Well, if you still can't imagine this process well enough, see the first OVA of the AMG anime, where Belldandy restored the temple)
"Zarah, we have to begin the process of the integration of him into our demon society, which Hild has placed you in charge of him. You are responsible towards his demonic education, care and life," said Mara.
"What? Since when did you get involved in taking care of Zazu's business? And why do I have to be his babysitter? Can anyone else with better qualifications do it?"
"Hild has assigned me to guide you through the integration of Zazu into our society. However, you are placed under direct responsibility towards him. Whatever problems he ran into will be your responsibility. I trust you handle him well. Hild will not be pleased if anything bad happens to him," Mara continued, without listening to her smaller sister's words.
"Well, I don't really need a babysitter, all I need is just someone to guide me through the integration process. You don't need to watch my every step," Zazu butted in. "You're very scary and incompetent anyway."
"WHAT!!!" Balls of fire began to appear on Zarah's hands.
"It's true, don't you realize how you act?" Zazu continued.
Zarah seemed like she is going to explode. Fire seemed to be raging in her eyes. Mara snickered. She would really like to see Zazu pounded up for that remark.
"Well, looks like another session of pain," muttered Zazu to himself. He stood straight, and prepared himself for the impact. He looked like someone who accepted his faith that he is going to be shot to death. Zazu closed his eyes.
Looking at Zazu in that state made Zarah hesitated. It reminded her of something, ten years ago, the time when she could not do anything to protect her sister from Hild's punishment. She remembered she was speechless at that time when the dark mistress gave them their punishment. All she could do was accept the punishment, and a loss of words to defend herself or her sister. She deeply regretted for what she had done over the fifty years in the comatose state. The scar was still there and it was burning her heart now.
Zarah slumped forward. The fire seems to be gone. "He is right you know, I was at fault for giving you that 50 year punishment, sister," Zarah said in a dejected manner.
"Zarah still blames herself because of that incident," Mara said to herself. Apparently, Zarah could not forget that incident 10 years ago. How could Zarah forget it at all? The dark mistress gave an eternal punishment to her. No flaming until you found your true love. How could a demoness do that?
Mara felt sympathy towards her sister. Every time when a scene of helplessness approaches at her smaller sister's eyes, she will be traumatized. Zarah's reputation dropped down severely after that punishment. Her desire to completely ruin someone's life had faded. How could a demoness work if her desire to destroy was gone?
In the demonic army itself, Zarah dropped severely in rank. In the army, there are a total of 16 ranks, being 1 for Hild, 2 to 5 for first class senior demons, 6 to 9 for first-class demons, and 10 to 13 for second-class demons and 14 to 16 for third-class demons. Each rank below the previous rank has double the number of members compared with the rank above it.
Except death, a demon or demoness will continue to carry his or her rank forever. Due to the limited places in the demon ranking system, a demon or demoness has to challenge another demonic being in the hierarchy in order to advance in their rank. Zarah refused anyone who challenged her. Therefore her opponent automatically advanced into her rank while she took he opponents' rank. Many demons and demoness took advantage while Zarah was weak and challenged her. This made Zarah to drop from rank 7 to rank 13. Now, her former friend's in the same rank now booed and laughed at her. More pain she has to contend with.
Zarah needed someone she could talk too.
"Zarah, I....," Mara began.
"Shut up! I do not need anyone's help, ok? Just leave me alone!" And Zarah stormed out through a portal.
"What's wrong with her? She kinds of worry me a little," Zazu said. He felt a little guilty after saying out those harsh words at her earlier.
Mara then began to tell Zazu of Zarah's self imposed guiltiness and her refusal to open her heart to anyone else's.
(Back to Zarah)
This grass field in the Alps always calmed her. The soothing wind, the touch of grass on her skin, and the privacy gave a sense of calmness towards her. Zarah often visited this place when she had problems. At least in this place, she could run away from her problems for a while.
She felt calm here....
But the pain doesn't want to go away....
She was still lonely....
The wind carried away the sounds of sobbing......
(Back to Zazu and Mara)
Zazu felt moody all of a sudden after Zarah left. He doesn't know why, but he felt miserable. "Probably it's because my body is changing," Zazu said to himself. But why he felt misery? Shouldn't he feel anger or aggressiveness? That's what a demon should feel if he is at work. No remorse.
"Come, I need to take you for your education. In the mortals terms, it is called a kindergarten."
"WHAT? I have to go to school with 5-year-old toddlers? S**t!" Zazu cursed. "I'll die of embarrassment. I'm not going."
"By orders of Hild, either you follow me nicely or be forced to go," Mara said. "You will not be happy at all if I force you," Mara threatened, and formed a ball of fire at her hands.
"I believe you," said Zazu.
Mara then jumped into a CD while pulling Zazu into it.
(A few moments later)
"Uuh, I feel nauseous, I think I'm going to puke," said Zazu after he went out through the CD. While he was traveling through the maze of CD's his body felt completely distorted. He felt like his organs were at the wrong places and continuously to shift about. The view was distorted too, like the light was bended. CD's were everywhere around him. They were all portals, he guessed. And felt he was lost. He was glad he was when they finally stepped out of the maze.
"The journey was not supposed to be pleasant for a half-demon like you. Glad you enjoyed it," taunted Mara. "Yeah, thanks a lot for your hospitability," replied Zazu. "I'm feeling miserable already, and she tries to entertain me," said Zazu to himself.
Mara then led him to some sort of a chamber. The chamber's walls were black with ivory pillars. The walls absorbed all light that fell on them. Making only the view in front of you visible, not your sides. It gave an eerie feeling to him.
After walking for a while, Mara went off to talk to a demon nearby. This demon wore spectacles. He looked like he was educated. Probably he is the teacher.
Mara then clapped her hands to demand Zazu's attention. "He will guide you from now on. Follow his orders well, or you will suffer my wrath, do you understand?"
"Yes."
Mara then went into a CD.
"Greetings 'student'," smiled the teacher. It seems like he was trying hard to control his laugh. "I will bring you to meet you new friends."
Zazu followed the teacher, who made him run because the teacher was hovering pretty fast. "Another lesson I have to learn quick," Zazu muttered.
"Don't worry, you will learn this in your second class," replied the teacher.
And the teacher brought him to meet a classroom full of 5 to 7 year old kids. Now Zazu was turning red again.
"Teacher Hazre, is this our new teacher for a certain subject?" One of the kids asked.
"No, he will be one of you guys as students under me."
All eyes turned to look towards him.
"What? But he's old."
"Where he came from, an orphanage?"
"Is he mentally retarded?"
"No, his body only looks like that. In fact he is the youngest of you all. He is only three days old. You guys are all above 500 years old already, remember?" Said the teacher.
Zazu felt like he wanted to shrink into nothingness.
(Half an hour later)
The first class was quite boring for Zazu. It was a class about Demonic alphabets. He caught up quite fast, compared to the befuddled kids. It took them about half an hour to memorize the basic strokes, while Zazu took ten minutes only. Their IQ is still of a child, Zazu guessed.
Then came to the second class. Here, a striking demoness taught the students how to fly. She wore bangles, rings, earrings and many more jewelry to complement her beauty. She will be a star if she becomes an actress.
She says that you have to imagine that your body was weightless. Feel that you were up there instead of down on the earth. Feel like you body is light. Feel the air is heavier than you. Feel the wind moving downwards as you ascend. Feel this and feel that. What puzzling words for him.
Then she came towards each of the students and touched their temples. Then, she touched her forehead with the students. The students eyes went dreamily about went she touched them. And Zazu finally discovered how striking she was! If they fail to float, they were striked! By the demons, she was scary.
It was his turn then, as she began to touch his temples with her hands and then contacted her forehead with his. He closed his eyes. Then a shock went through him.
He was seeing visions of himself; floating about the air. His body began to feel very light, as it was a feather. He felt free and lightheaded. She was trying to influence how his body felt and how his mind taught.
And then he began to hover a few centimeters off the air. He smiled. He opened his eyes, and saw the demoness smiling at him. She let go of her physical contact with him. Soon, he was floating around, smiling and shouting in triumph. It was easy for him, and puzzling for the "older" students.
Most of the "older" demons and demonesses became jealous with him.
"Get him out of the class," one kid said.
"He is too good. He makes us look bad," another said.
"Serves them right," Zazu said in his mind. "Earlier, they were humiliating me and now they were jealous of me. Hehehe...." And he circled the dark skies a few more times to make them even more jealous of him.
Weird, he still felt miserable after the flying class. It was temporarily thrilling while he was in the air. Now, depression began to take over him again.
Suddenly,
WHAM!!!
Mara caught Zazu in mid-flight and wrestled him down to the ground. After that, she gave him a suplex and a body-slam too.
"Yahoo, Hulk Hogan gets the championship belt," and Mara showed an imaginary wrestling championship belt award towards the air around her. She was standing on Zazu. She was acting all proud of herself. Man, her high heels are sharp!
"How is your day, boy? Having any fun?" Mara asked.
"Other than teasing those small kinds, I felt miserable all day," replied Zazu.
Mara then materialized something on her hands.
"Zazu, Hild asked me to give you this." Mara handled a small sized object, that looked like a quills egg, to him. "Swallow it," Mara ordered. Zazu made a disgusted face, indicating that he wanted to object towards doing it. But when he looked at Mara's serious face, he took it and swallowed it in one gulp. He felt a little weird after swallowing that thing, but it quickly passed.
"Ugh, what was it anyway?" asked Zazu. "Hell, I don't know," Mara shrugged, indicating that it was one of Hild's secrets. "Probably a tracking device to track you wherever you go. Hehehe."
That made Zazu really sick. "Great, now even the dark mistress knows where I am all the time. Don't I have any privacy?" Poor Zazu.
Mara then hit her head as if she had forgotten something, "Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you something. You made a mental link with Zarah, right?"
"Yes, what it has to do with me?" replied Zazu.
"Well, other than acting as a form of communication, sometimes strong emotions can travel through the mind link. Therefore, if Zarah was very sad, you might be able to feel it. It surprises me though that you can sense it that early in your development. Perhaps you have some other hidden power. Zarah told me that."
Zazu temper then flared, "How come you could be so calm at a time like this? How could you be acting all happy now? Can't you see Zarah is very sad? Why can't you go and cheer her up?"
It was Mara's turn to scream back at Zazu, "Don't you think I cared for her? Her emotions also hurt me much." Mara was all shaking in anger.
"But what the hell I can do? She refuses whatever I tried to cheer her up. Don't you think I felt hurt by my inabilities to help her?" Mara was half in tears.
That gave a paradigram shift towards the emotions of Zazu. Just like that, his emotions were turned upside down. He felt angry earlier towards Mara, but now he felt pity, and sadness. It was not Mara's fault. None was to be blamed for this.
Suddenly, both of them sensed a huge flow of emotions from Zarah. Both of them felt shock, fear, helplessness, and many more emotions. They were all radiating from Zarah.
"She's in danger," Mara said. She quickly hopped into a CD she was carrying, bringing Zazu along with her.
(In heaven)
The god, mars, was scanning through the heaven's scanner to find any signs of the demon named Zazu or the demoness named Zarah. He was determined to exterminate their existence. And get all the prestige from the battle council of the heavens. Greed clouded his mind.
The long, tedious and tiring search turned out to be fruitful in the end. The scanners suddenly detected a demonic temporal shift over the Alps. He zoomed the scanners over the place and showed a demoness crying there, all by herself. The scanners confirmed it was Zarah, the target he was looking for.
"Now you are mine"
(Back to Zarah)
She was still sobbing there alone. Thoughts by thoughts flew through her mind.
Why I have to be demon? .....
Why I was born like this? .....
I have no places to show my feelings too.....
I have to keep this all to myself.....
The demon society sucks.....
I can't share with anyone there.....
Sister is too burdened already....
None of them in hell were good enough to talk too....
I wish I were born in heaven instead....
Gods and goddesses in heaven are so happy there...
Can't I die and be reborn as a god?....
"WHY CAN'T I JUST DIE AND GET THIS MISERY OVER WITH? CAN'T I ???" Zarah screamed through her tears.
"WHY???" the sound was echoing through the mountains.
A different source of light suddenly appeared. It gave her two shadows.
Zarah felt a temporal shift towards her left. A portal had opened there. A god came through. This god was muscular all over, with battle scars throughout his armor. There were many medals attached to his armor, noting all the demons and demonesses he had slain. He carried a huge sword, which is now encased in a casing behind his back.
"Don't worry, in a short time, you will have nothing left to worry with," the god said. He withdrew his sword, and chanted a few words. His sword began to glow.
All Zarah could do was to prepare her regeneration spell before he charged at her.
(Back to Mara and Zazu)
"Dammit, why you send us nearly 500 miles away from Zarah's current location?" Zazu said. "We really have to rush over there now."
"Where can you find a CD in the Alps? All I can do was to bring us towards the nearest civilization available." Mara replied.
Both of them flew as fast as possible towards Zarah's location.
(We shift our attention towards the battle raging on)
"Damn! This god is tough!" Zarah had unsealed her power-limiters already, but so did the god, and that made it worse. He was way stronger than what he was a few moments ago. The earth was riddled with cracks and lines when she fought with him on the ground. Not wanting her favorite spot to be ruined, the battle progressed into aerial battle.
"Every time my wing clashes with his sword, my wing tears and I was thrown back. This is not good." She parried a few more slashes, and kept moving backwards. Her strength was draining rapidly. Many cuts were apparent in her body, where the sword grazed her. She had a deep would on her right leg, and she felt her life was draining out from it.
After a while, she finally managed to outsmart the big god and flew around him. She gave him the strongest slash with her left wing.
All she saw was a few drops of blood oozing out of the armor.
"HOW DARE YOU!!!! NOW I'M MAD!!!"
"HELLSLAYER SLASH!!!"
Zarah managed to parry the sword with her right wing. However, it was too heavy for her.
It tore right through her wing and went halfway through her right arm.
Zarah plummeted down to the ground and made a 1-meter hole in diameter in the ground. "Well, at least I'll die at my favorite place," Zarah said, half conscious.
The sword was gaining in momentum downwards as Mars prepares his final decent to finish her off.
A dark ball of energy suddenly appeared....
"Argh!" Mara slammed her body towards the god. And send him off course.
"Sis don't worry, big sister is here." Mara said," half in tears," I'll protect you. Don't worry." Zazu arrived a few moments later.
"Zazu's here too? Why did you bring him here? He might also be a target," said Zarah.
"S**t. Now I have two de......," before she could finish her words, Mara was hit by a light. Mara was instantly trapped in a ball that formed a few seconds later.
If seen through the ball, Mara's mouth was moving, but no voices were heard. It seems as she is screaming for her freedom.
"Mara, you are not in my list. Now stay there like a good girl while I finish both of them off" chided the god.
Zazu watched as Mara helplessly banged herself at the walls of her confinement. She is not going to get out of there soon. She was screaming desperately. He eyes were red as if tears we falling down.
Zazu materialized both of his swords. They hummed, as they were eager for battle. "Man, I'm only 3 and a half days old and I'm going to die. Great." Zazu said dejectingly. "Well, at least I tried to save the damsel in distress."
"Run you idiot, no s**tty heroics." Zarah spoke in pain. Her voice softened even further after that, "Zazu, please save yourself. Forget me. And forgive me for whatever I've done on you." Zarah has no more strength to defend herself. Her wounds were deep, but they stopped bleeding already.
"In your dreams, pretty lady. This is what I want to do. This is my goal in life. To help others to be happy in their lives so that I might be happy too," Zazu countered. "If I die here, I die with at least half of that goal of my life was done."
He floated 1 foot above Zarah and waited for Mars.
_____________________________________________________________________
Okay, how's that for a suspense ending to chapter 3?
The next chapter will be out in five days or so. (If my uni exams don't bog me down)
Find out the fate of Zazu in Chapter 4.