Part 2 – Her Life in the Forest

The guards couldn't believe how fast Ai ran either; there was no way they could catch up to her now. They decided to get back to their job and tell the Lord in the morning.

Finally the sun rose and Ai awoke from her long slumber, she rubbed her eyes then let out a cute yawn, and then she stretched her arms and stood up. She thought to herself, 'I can finally sleep in…' She felt so lazy, she felt as if anything could happen and she wouldn't care. It was nice having feelings like this sometimes.

Ai felt hungry all of a sudden, "I guess I should look for something to eat…" she mumbled to herself. She picked up her basket and started walking off to look for some food, about 7 minutes later she stumbled across some berries. "Oh look, a berry bush." She started picking some berries and placing them in her basket.

The guards ran into the Manor to tell the Lord the news, finally they reached him. "Oh mighty Lord, please forgive our clumsiness, Lady Ai ran away from the Manor last night and we tried to run after her, but she ran like one possessed. I believe she escaped into the forest somewhere." The Lord seemed shocked by their statement,

"Go gather a search party and look for her, if you do not bring her back by sun down then you will be punished for letting her go."

"Yes, my lord." The two guards ran off to take care of their orders.

The Lord seemed stressed, he thought to himself, 'What would make my beautiful Ai want to run away, I can't let this slide. I will find her, no matter what.'

Finally Ai finished picking her berries, her basket was full to the top, 'This is probably going to be the biggest breakfast I have ever had.' She thought to herself with a smile. Then she sat down under a tree to eat, she popped one berry in her mouth at a time.

A little while later the berries were finished, Ai thought to herself, 'I think I'll go look for a river to drink from.' She got up and set off and look for a river, there had to be one around here somewhere.

Finally she came across one; it was a simple river, not very wide. But full of fresh water that sparkled in the sunlight, and fish swam freely through the water. She sat on her knees and leaned over to get a drink, it tasted more alive; it just felt so good eating and drinking without wondering what it was, or where it came from.

Ai didn't get the proper schooling, she was taught the simple and important things and how to dance. That is all she learned, her education was not very advanced at all, and sometimes she felt stupid. She asks herself so many questions, she wonders if she will ever learn. But now the recent moments in her life seem to be rather enjoyable, so she shouldn't worry about things right now.

Ai stuck her feet in the water; she wasn't drinking it anymore, so it was alright. She just swayed her foot around while pointing her toes, her other foot just sat in the water. She watched the fish swim around, freely. Sometimes she thought that it would be lucky to be a fish, you never would have to worry about responsibilities, or getting married, or higher status like a King to a mere villager. But they did have to worry about getting eaten by bigger fish. I guess humans are kind of like that too, they have sharks, humans have demons.

Suddenly this thought popped into her mind, 'But what am I? Sometimes, I don't even know.' She looked down at her claws, 'Why do I have these? They don't suit me, there for a demon; I'm no demon am I?" She remembered what people had told her in the past, they called her Demon, Half-Breed, and Creepy. What was she? Was she just a creepy human that was born with claws? A Demon? She doubted that somehow… 'What am I?'

Ai decided to just stop thinking about it; she just guessed she was an unknown species. Ai sighed; she felt depressed all of a sudden, her happy thoughts of freedom switched to questions. She wished her questions could be answered. Why did she have to be so stupid?

Then a small butterfly with huge white wings with some sort of symbol on one of them started flying towards her, it started to say something? It sounded like some sort of stupid song.

Hey Ai,

What's with the sigh?

Oops, oh my,

I meant "Lady" Ai.

Hey you,

Why so blue?

Oh, boo hoo,

I feel for you.

The butterfly landed on her hand, Ai raised her hand into the air to get a better look at it, and it crawled onto her finger. Ai then spoke, "How do you know my name? I've never seen a talking butterfly before."

"I'm no ordinary butterfly, I'm a demon. I travel the skies watching and gathering information, I want to know everything about everybody, and I know a lot about you, "Lady" Ai."

"I see, what might your name be, oh demon butterfly?"

"Nice choice of words, my name is Mahkio." (Mah-key-oh)

"So Mahkio, why did you come and see me?"

"I just felt like it." Ai could feel a sweat-drop of exasperation form on the back of her head because of his response.

"If you know so much about me, could you tell me what I am?"

"What you are? Oh that's easy, your quarter-wolf-demon. You don't act much like one, because you only have so little demon blood in you, but you managed some claws I see." Mahkio looked down at her claw he was sitting on. Ai seemed too shocked to speak at the moment.

"Have you ever seen any signs? Something unusual?"

"W-What do you mean?"

"Umm… Like did you have more strength in you than usual for just a moment?"

"Yeah, like the time I ran insanely fast…"

"Ha! See? That was your little demon blood that took over for a short period of time; I was just trying to see if you remembered, because I saw it myself already. You didn't want to get caught so badly that when you were running, you demon blood took over and you ran as fast as a wolf!"

Ai heard voices, they were voices from far away, and she thought that they sounded familiar. But she wasn't too sure where she heard them before.