Boelik (12 page)

What do you mean,
‘appearing’? Out of thin air, or what? Popping out of the ground
like daisies?

“
I’m not sure, which is
half of the dilemma. Normally, when one pops up, I can discern
where it came from, or at least what from. But now…they seem to
simply
manifest.
I have a very bad feeling
about it.”

How does it look around
here?

“
Ireland seems to be fairly
safe for the moment. There are some on the continent, but not as
many as on the more densely populated ones. The more humans, the
more demons are around. But they do seem to be multiplying
exponentially, so be cautious.”

But, Dayo, how can they be
populating so fast without reason? I don’t believe that I
understand the circumstances.

“
Boelik… how old are
you?”

What?
Bo hesitated
for a moment before answering, the question catching him off guard.
I suppose…about four hundred and thirty-six, now.
Why? What does that have to with anything?

Bo heard Dayo sigh. “Four hundred and
thirty-six. We are both old men. And we will both be very old men
to join in what I expect to come.”

Dayo, explain to me what
the devil you are talking about.

Dayo sighed once more, the sound heavy in
Bo’s head. “In nearly two hundred and fifty years, if I gather
correctly, the charge I told you of will be born. That one will be
accompanied by another; and if that companion is what I have seen
it to be, we will have much blood on our hands.” His voice became
lower and distant, as though he were speaking to himself, “The
rivers themselves will run red…”

Why? Dayo,
explain
it to me already! I am growing fed up with your
speaking in riddles.

“
Boelik. I will explain
what I feel comfortable in knowing,” Dayo finally said. “Every
thousand years, demons and other creatures known as morphers come
together and battle to keep the balance. When the demons win, the
world is cast into darkness and morphers have to fight to regain
the world’s balance. When the morphers win, equilibrium is achieved
and demons fall into something of a rarity.”

Morphers?
Bo thought
in a pause in Dayo’s speech.

“
Yes. They are protectors:
they keep demon-kind from running rampant. They are creatures
with—normally—two forms, typically one of a human and another of an
animal.”

Okay? How,
exactly?

“
This world is full of
magic, Boelik, if you look for it. Not just parlor tricks. You
should know this as well as anyone.”

What does all of this have
to do with these charges and the demons?
Bo asked, though he
was getting an idea.

“
Boelik, there is another
thing. This companion to your strange charge will be a morpher
destined to lead the army of such.” There was a pause, and in the
instant Bo thought of the answer to his question, Dayo said it.
“The thousand years are almost over.

***

Bo awakened from a fitful sleep, his heart
beating hard from the recurring nightmare that had been haunting
him for a while now. He dreamt of Ryan dying like Olea, except
instead of being absent, Bo was all too there. A sea of demons
would be between him and Ryan; and no matter how many he ripped
into, ducked under, or leapt over, Ryan’s screams wouldn’t
stop.

And then they would.

So when dawn’s light crept through a crack in
the door and Bo looked over to see Ryan still intact, sleeping like
a lamb, he breathed a silent sigh of relief. He let Ryan doze while
he went outside to sit in the cool, crisp morning air and tend to
the fire.

The sun shone between the trees, casting
strange patterns of light on the ground. Birds sang in the
branches, and soon Bo’s uneasiness faded into a memory just like
his nightmare. Thunder rolled far in the distance, not yet a
threat.

Bo began cooking breakfast and thinking about
the conversation he’d had with Dayo the other night while he waited
for Ryan wake up. “Two hundred and fifty years,” he mused, “is not
a long time. I can see why the demons are getting ready now.”
Thinking aloud as he cooked, he asked, “But where are they coming
from?”

His attention was grabbed by movement from
the house, and he turned to see Ryan coming out the door, rubbing
his eyes, gray hat on his head.

“
Sorry I’m up late,” he
yawned. “It’s strange sleeping under a closed roof
again.”

Bo watched as Ryan plunked down near the
fire. “It’s fine; I’d rather you sleep well before training. It’s
no good to be tired and worked to the bone.”

“
So you were serious about
that, huh?” Ryan groaned, taking his meal of rabbit meat from Bo,
who sat next to him. Ryan sat in his signature pose with his feet
stretched toward the meager fire, his strange legs prohibiting him
from mimicking Bo.

“
Of course I was. If
another demon comes along, we don’t really have an extra rod for
you to stab it with. And I’d rather not get stuck in a situation
like before again.”

“
I’d rather not,
either.”

“
Yes, and I have to make
sure you aren’t turned to stone by fear next time, either.
Stupidity and arrogance are bad, but freezing is just about a
thousand times worse.”

“
Sorry.” Ryan glanced away
from Bo, his face becoming a little red.

“
It wasn’t your fault,” Bo
said. “You had never been exposed to that before. I was surprised
you helped at all, to tell the truth. It’s impressive that you had
the guts to do that.”

“
I didn’t think I did,”
Ryan admitted. “But I couldn’t just leave you there.”

“
And I’m glad you
didn’t—that was a pretty messy situation.”

“
I’m glad I didn’t either,”
Ryan said, looking back at Bo. Ryan’s mismatched eyes shone. “It’s
nice to have someone else.”

“
I agree. It’s also very
nice to be alive.” Changing the topic, Bo said, “Eat fast. I want
to get to work as soon as possible.”

“
What exactly is this
‘training’ going to be?”

“
We’ll see. I need to try
you a little bit first.”

“
Try
me?” Ryan asked, giving Bo a strange
look.

“
Test out what you can do.
Preferably by way of a friendly little brawl.”

“
Can…we not do
that?”

Bo shook his head. “Come on, you’re done with
that rabbit.”

“
No I’m not.”

“
Yes, you are, unless you
plan on sucking the marrow from its bones.”

Ryan glanced at the few bones in his lap and
sighed, possibly cursing his famished self. Then he followed Bo as
he got up and walked a little way away from the cabin.

Finding a less dense part of the woods, Bo
stopped and directed Ryan a short distance from him. “I’ll let you
attack first,” he said. Ryan shuffled his feet, looking down at his
shoes. “Take off your shoes and hat if you want.” Ryan did just
that, putting them in a small bundle at the base of a nearby tree.
A breeze blew through the forest, making the leaves whisper as Ryan
faced Bo again.

“
Come on,” Bo said as Ryan
did nothing. “We don’t have all day. If you don’t come at me soon,
I’ll be coming after you.”

“
I don’t like this,” Ryan
admitted.

Bo sighed, closing his eyes for a moment to
gather his thoughts. “Ryan,” he said, opening his eyes. “Do you
think I
like
having to fight you? It’s
simply the best way to do this. You won’t hurt me. Do you think I’d
hurt you?”

“
No!” Ryan protested,
shaking his head vigorously. “I just…”

“
Don’t worry. It’s a
practice round. You don’t need to be good, and you don’t need to
want
to hurt anything. In battle, you just
need to want to
survive
,” Bo said,
removing his cloak and setting it on Ryan’s things.
“Understand?”

“
All right,” Ryan said as
Bo went back to his place.

“
What now?” Bo asked as
Ryan still hesitated, shifting on his feet.

Ryan’s gaze swam with confusion and concern
as he met eyes with Bo. “What do I do?”

“
Oh…” Bo grumbled, rubbing
his eyes with his right hand. He tried to keep the frustration that
was bubbling up in his belly down. It wasn’t the boy’s fault, after
all. “Just charge me.”

“
What?”

“
Come running at me,” Bo
said, transferring a gaze like steel back to Ryan. “Try and hit me.
Do whatever you can to hit me, as a matter of fact; and don’t try
to hold yourself back.”

“
I…” Ryan began.

“
Go!” Bo yelled, making him
jump.

Ryan sped toward him and seemed to aim a
punch at his gut. Bo sidestepped and swung a kick out to knock
Ryan’s feet out from under him. The air whooshed out from him in an
oof
as he hit the ground. He turned onto
his back and stared, dazed, up at Bo as he walked over to stand
above him, shaking his head. “Too slow. You aren’t trying. It’s
only when you don’t try that this is going to happen, I’ll have you
know.”

Ryan coughed and stared up at Bo: his demon
eye seemed to take in every detail, while his human eye seemed to
plead for pause. “But I can’t try.”

“
You can and you will. This
needs to happen whether you like it or not, and my feelings don’t
matter in this either. If I had it my way, I’d kill every demon
that might come for us and change every human’s mind about us, but
I don’t have that sort of power. So take it like a man, get up, and
try again,” he ordered, offering his hand to Ryan and pulling him
up.

“
You’re a very hard
teacher,” Ryan grumbled.

“
Well the demons aren’t
going to sit you down to have tea with them. Now try again—and for
goodness’ sake, try and
hit
me this time,
not just…whatever it was that you began to
think
about doing.”

The day wore on and Bo continued to assess
Ryan’s abilities. He had Ryan climb trees and jump down, had him
try to leap into the branches. He even hid in the treetops and had
Ryan find him just by searching for abnormalities in the leaves.
The whole time, Ryan was reluctant to hit Bo. Not once did he
manage to even touch him.

Now Ryan sat low in a tree, exhausted,
leaning against the trunk. Bo turned to look over at the sunset
through the trees as he felt the air getting colder and deemed it
time to go home. “All right, Ryan. We’re done for today.”

“
Yes,” Ryan panted, sinking
down from the branch he perched in.

Bo sniffed and promptly snorted. “Oh, we
stink. Very badly.”

“
Really?” Ryan asked,
sniffing himself. He snorted as well, shaking his head. “Oh, that’s
bad. That’s very bad.”

“
Time for a wash. In fact,
probably long overdue,” Bo sighed. He glanced over at Ryan as he
picked up his cloak. “To the river, as long as you can stand in
it.”

Ryan scowled as he gathered up his own
things. “Maybe, if it isn’t as strong as it was.”

“
There hasn’t been a strong
rain in some time. You should be fine.”

The two made their way to the river, the rosy
sky easily lighting their way. They placed their clothes by the
bridge and stepped into the gently-flowing creek water right next
to it. Well, Bo did. Ryan stood at the shore, reluctant and staring
into the water. “It’ll be fine,” Bo coaxed. “Trust me. You can
stand in this.”

“
I don’t think it’s a good
idea.”

“
Ryan, it’s not as though
I’m making you cross a river here. You can step into the shallows
and sit to wash, even.” Bo gestured with an open hand to a shallow
bed near the shore.

“
Maybe I can just scoop
it?” Ryan suggested.

Bo shook his head. “This is an irrational
fear, and you know it. At least bathe in the shallows.”

Ryan sighed, and was about to walk in when
the two heard voices.

“
Right now of all moments,”
Bo hissed, glaring into the woods. Flicking his gaze back to Ryan,
he growled, “Ryan! Grab our things and come in here at once. Keep
them dry—we’ll need them later.”

There was no more trepidation on Ryan’s part:
he did exactly as he was told, only wincing some as he entered the
cold water. Bo took the clothes from him, careful to keep them over
his head as he ushered the boy under the bridge, hiding them
both.

The voices grew and Bo could tell now that it
was two young girls. In honesty, that made him more anxious than it
would have if it were a horde of men out for blood; he peered at
Ryan and hoped he wasn’t curious. Not only did he not have time to
train Ryan in the fine art of making friends, they had no time for
a boy’s first love. So Bo had no choice but to look up and hope the
two would pass by without Ryan seeing.

Footsteps thundered overhead, making Bo wince
with every echo. Ryan gave him a curious glance and Bo covered the
boy’s mouth with his left hand as he looked like he was about to
ask something. Ryan stared down at the hand, eyes wide, then up at
Bo’s face. Bo removed his hand and put a finger to his mouth in a
‘sh’ position.

It seemed like forever before the voices and
footsteps were a distant murmur. Ryan and Bo crept out from under
the bridge, the sounds of the creek overpowering the voices of the
girls. “I think we’ve bathed enough,” Bo said, casting his eyes up
at the sky, turning violet now.