To see a human outside in the open was not something one would see every now and then as the humans had long gone into hiding and they hid perfectly well, so well that no other creature knew of their hiding place. But they did not always stay in their hiding place, they could not always stay. Surviving meant staying alive, and staying alive meant eating, to eat you need to have food, and to have food you will need to hunt, hunting always brought them out of hiding but not all of the humans came out during the hunting time.
They had scouts, they had groups, made of the finest and well trained fighters that they had, the quietest and stealthiest of them because coming out meant you were in danger of being spotted by the scavenging demons which roamed the forest and flew above the empty lands, their very sharp eye sight could easily spot any thing moving down below and that could easily put the hiding place of the humans in danger of being discovered. Night time was the only time these scouts came out, once in every two weeks, to hunt, but coming out was not the dangerous part, it was the hunting itself.
Between the human's hideout and the forest was a vast land of nothingness, dry and bare and empty, void of all life forms even of plants and trees and shrubs, stretching out so wide that it would take a full ten minutes to sprint across from the mountains to the edge of the forest on the other side. Ten minutes was more than enough needed time for any thing moving across the empty land to be spotted by a demon flying over head.
There was a lot o cases of that happening, so the men who risked their lives to come out already knew that they may not be returning back. They knew this and they acknowledged it as it was part of life now. This was the new way of living
Sprinting arcoss the vast and empty land alone and on your own was quite easy, much more easier than sprinting back, holding on to and trying to drag a dead animal with you. Not only did it take longer but it was riskier too. And although some of the men made it across the board land, back and forth, others were not so lucky.
This time around it was not the time to hunt but a human had left the hideout and she had done so against the knowledge of the others. If she were to be caught or found out by the humans, her punishment would be just - she had reasoned that many times over - but now, she had something far more important on her mind which she had to do at all cost and that was to find her brother who had suddenly gone missing. Besides, being caught and taken back to the fortress was a rather much more appealing situation to happen than to be caught by a demon.
Leticia tugged on through the rough terrain, up ahead she could see the vast forest that served as a border between the two worlds - of demons and a few loose Angels and where she was, the vast wasteland of nothingness where the war had been fought. The blood spilled and shed on that day had soaked right into the ground, turning the once fruitful land into emptiness where nothing could survive, nothing could grow here anymore and it was now a toxic place but creatures still flew above the place so a "thing" like her, covered entirely in the huge black cloak she had on would be an easy pick for them.
The black cloak she had on stood out sharply in contrast to the brown and empty land, from up in the sky, she would easily be seen, like a black dog racing across this brown land, that was the least of things she wanted to happen, reasons why she only moved at night when it was dark. At this pace, she would get to the edge of the forest before the first light of dawn.
She had left the hideout much later than she has wanted to, that was because she wanted every where to be dark and quiet before she moved and then the stupid guard had been patrolling quite dutifully and without much of a wink of sleep in his eyes, or tiredness in his body. She had waited for almost an hour before she found the opportunity to sneak past him and that was only when he had gone for a quick bathroom break. By that time it was already morning but the atmosphere was still very dark. She chose not to abort instead.
She travelled light, beneath the cloak were two pouches, one half full of gold coins and the other with silver coins. Spending gold coins, she knew, would attract a lot of unwanted attention which was something she couldn't afford to deal with right now. She was a lone human deliberately treading in the world of demons and Angels and spending gold coins? She would not last as long as she had hoped she would if the attention got to her. With Angels, she had a sure chance of being useful and kept alive, with demons she would also be useful but more useful dead. Human blood was like gold to them and they mined a lot of it whenever it was possible.
She should not be out in the open, she should be cowered in the hidden fortress where the rest of the living human population hid; somewhere underneath the mountains. Their total number could not be counted in billions, neither could they also be counted in millions, they were in thousands, less than five thousand people to be precise, living just below the mountains. Reproduction was monitored, food was scarce and so was space but then three years after the great war and they still had managed to remain hidden and alive. Well, the most of them.
