Leo opened his eyes to a dark sky sprinkled with so many tiny stars that shone and glimmered, he welcomed the cool breath of fresh air that sipped through his nostrils and into his lungs, his chest heaved in a lengthy intake of air and dropped back down as he breathed out.
The air out here was cold, he could feel it despite the thick cloak that wrapped him from his shoulders to his feet, he wiggled his feet beneath the cloak, no shoes. Yes, that was right, he had lost his shoes after his capture, how was it t that he only noticed that now? and the cloak did very little or nothing to stop the chills from engulfing his feet but to the left of him, he could feel some warmth. He turned.
He was greeted by the warm, orange glow of a burning fire and although the fire was small, it managed to warm most part of the left side of his body a bit despite the small distance placed in between them. Taking a palm to his left cheek he felt the warmth there which contrasted to the chills he felt on his right cheek and he wanted more warmth, he threw the cloak off of his body to free his feet and flung it around him to wrap himself to, then he stood up to move closer to the fire and that was when he noticed the person poking a stick into the fire.
"Oh, you are finally awake." She said sparing him just a quick glance then returned back to poking at the fire. The winds in the mountains encouraged the glowing flame but it burned out the wood quickly. The small cave would be warm enough to keep them alive till the morning when the sun's heat would meet them.
"Hmm... Yes." He replied with a hoarse voice, his mouth was dry and his lips charred, his throat ached and he wished for nothing more right now than some water.
"Here." Sheila stretched out her hand, offering him a water bottle. "Freshwater from the stream."
"Thank you." He reached out and collected the bottle, coming to sit closer to the fire with Sheila on his left side.
Sheila watched him gulp down the liquid in a rush, emptying the bottle in minutes and she smiled. "Someone seems to be really thirsty."
He swallowed the last gulp and licked his lips. "I am sorry, I could not stop myself from finishing it."
"Nah," She waved a hand at him, collecting the water bottle that he was offering back to her. "That is alright, we could always get more, the stream is not exactly far away, plus," She reached beside her and produced two more water bottles from her side. "We still have these."
Leo smiled and focused his attention on the fire, bringing his exposed feet right to the base and wiggled his toes. His feet were very dirty and he tried to remember when last he had taken a bath, as a proper bath and he suddenly began to feel very self-conscious. He secretly took a sniff of himself and concluded that he was long overdue for a serious bath, maybe soak up for like an hour to get rid of the stink. He imagined being immersed in a hot bathtub with rose water and scented soaps.
"Hungry?" Sheila broke into his train of thoughts.
Leo blinked and saw that she was holding out a sizeable piece of roasted dried meat in front of him. When last did he properly eat too? He took the meat and bowed his head in appreciation then brought it to his mouth. The meat tasted fine, not exactly mom's home cooking but good, at least it was edible.
He saw her cut another slab of meat off the animal which he had not noticed at first that lay beside her, it was an antelope, a young foal and beside the carcass was her bow and some hand-carved arrows, one of which was still buried into the head of the dead animal.
She dipped the slab of meat she had cut out in a bowl of water to rinse off the blood and then smeared a dark purple liquid on both sides of the meat before impaling it into a thin metal rod then she roasted it over the fire.
"You went hunting?" He questioned. "When did you have time for that?"
"When you were out and unconscious." She gave a straight reply to his question.
"Wait, you mean that while you were out hunting, I was here? Alone? All by myself?" It chilled him to know that at some point he had been left alone in this cave, what if something had happened to him, like what if a wild animal had come up in here and devoured him or worse, what if those demons had found him?
Sheila chuckled, she could hear his thoughts and she wondered if he knew that she could. She looked at him, he probably did not know that she could.
"Leo," she called. "We are in the mountains, demons do not come up here for anything so I knew that you would be safe if I left you for just a short while. And you were."
"But demons are everywhere." He was not convinced. "They could come up here if they really wanted to."
"Leo," she poked at the fire some more. "Even if they wanted to, they would not be able to, remember I told you about the stream?"
Leo looked at her in confusion. "No, what about the stream?" He did not remember her telling him anything about the stream.
"Well you see, the waters from the stream runs directly out from the river Euphrates and it sort of repels the demons," Sheila explained.
"How is that, it is just water so how does it repel them?"
"It might be just water to you but to them, it is one in which they cannot cross or come in contact with. Much like holy water, your can think of it as a stream of holy water."
Leo's eyes widened at the new revelation. "Really?!"
Sheila nodded and hummed her response. Leo looked into the fire, still digesting the information he had just heard from Sheila. It sounded too good, it was too good, he was thinking if he could get a pump and a hose, he could water down those ugly night creatures, saving himself the strength of having to fight them off using a sword.
"How long was I out?" He asked curiously.
"Just a couple of hours."
"Ohh.." That was all he could say and then he went back to eating the rather tasty meat.
"What happened?" He suddenly asked. The last he could remember was watching her fight off some demons while he could only watch from the other side of the shallow river.
"We were attacked."
"Yes, I remember that, I mean what happened afterwards."
"They also attacked you." She looked at him now.
"They did?" How did he not remember that happening?
"You do not remember?" She brought a hand up to brush away the strands of hair by his temple, running a finger along the cut he had sustained when they had bashed his head.
His eyes followed her movement and he winced when her fingers touched the injury which he did not know that he had sustained. He moved his head back.
"Still hurts?" She asked to which he nodded.
"I thought you said that they could not cross over the stream?"
"They could not, well the ones I was fighting off could not. But the ones that attacked you did not need to enter the water."
Leo reasoned what she had said a little. "They could fly." It was not a question but a statement of fact but Sheila answered anyway.
"Yes. They could."
"But I know I must have still been standing in the water when they had come. How were they able to still attack me?"
"They do not need to touch the water Leo, they could fly and it was not your whole body that was immersed in the water."
"Oh, right." He reasoned but still asked. "If they can not cross over then why bother trying to fight them off? Why not just cross knowing that they could not follow?" He threw the last piece of meat into his mouth feeling a bit satisfied.
"They could keep track of us, I do not need a demon knowing my every move, where I am and where I am heading to, and besides it is a good exercise to get rid of them wherever you can. One less demon to deal with."
Leo nodded, she was right. "And what of the others? The other two in the wagon, now that I think of that, I have not seen them around."
She sighed and continued poking at the fire after handing him another piece of meat. "I will have to get them back."
"They took them?" Sheila nodded. "So, like, you are going back there to get them?"
She looked him in the eyes, flashed a smile, and nodded. "I will have to."
"Can I come with you?!" Leo beamed and scooted closer to Sheila, grabbing a hold of one of her legs.
Sheila looked at him and placed a hand on his head. "I can not put you in harm's way and you following me would be dangerous for you."
Leo was disappointed. "So, are you going to leave me here while you go look for them?"
"My goodness no." Sheila chuckled.
"Then will I be coming with you?"
"That is also a no, Leo."
"Now, you are confusing me."
Sheila ruffled his hair. "First off, I would have to take you back to the fortress, then..."
"But that is all the way on the other side. It is still along the way, so I will be coming with you and I can help. You may not know but I am an impressive fighter." He boasted, cutting her off.
"I do not doubt your capabilities although I am yet to see them..."
"...so then..."
"But," she held up a finger to shush him which he did, then she stood up and paced the small space within the cave. She continued. "There is another way to get to the fortress that does not involve us going all the way back and through the forest."
"There is? I do not think so, the fortress was built with only one way in and for safety reasons too."
"No Leo, there are two entries and exits, maybe even three but I know that there is a secret passageway leading to the fortress from behind this very mountain." She watched the expression on Leo's face and she grinned, she would never get tired of getting such expressions from the humans she had rescued and taken back to the fortress using this same passageway.
"H... How did you come to know about this secret passageway?" Leo raised his eyebrows at her, not that he did not believe her but then it was a surprise, a shock, that she, an Angel and an outsider knew of a passageway that he did not, and he was sure that many others too did not know.
"I know the way, I have known the way for a long time now, that is how I have been able to return the humans I rescued from the demons. Besides, who do you think built the fortress?" She laughed and flapped her wings, unintentionally extinguishing the fire. The day was already getting brighter although it would still be up to half an hour till the sun would rise.
"You built the fortress?!" He gasped. Okay, this was too much information.
Sheila laughed some more. "I am just joking with you, I did not build it but, I was there when it was being built."
"How?" He crossed his legs and wrapped the cloak tighter around his body, already missing the warmth from the fire.
"While the war was going on, they had it built, the humans that is, while the Angels stood guard and protected them, fighting off the demons and the other creatures who came to harm them." She sat back down close to Leo and spread her wings so that one part of it went behind him but not too close to him so that she would not burn him, the heat from her wing warming him up.
"And they finished the fortress in ten years?"
"It took them less, the building was already up long before the war, it was the largest underground bunker with networks of tunnels running around it, they just had to fortify it, barricaded most of the exits, and make it somewhat invisible. The whole thing had been under a mountain."
Leo nodded. "Yes, I know that. So you might not be the only one who knows of this secret passageway?"
Sheila shrugged. "Honestly I do not know but I do not think that any other... er... non-human knows about it, so far there has not been a breach or an attack."
"Wow, this is... unexpected." He chuckled.
"I know right?" She smiled and stood up, lifting the remains of the antelope and walking to the edge of the cave.
"Where are you going?" Leo called out. He still did not want to be left alone, not without his sword at least.
Sheila jingled the carcass in her hand. "To get rid of this, we do not want to attract some attention."
Leo stood up and walked closer to her, still holding the cloak around his body. "What kind of attention?"
Sheila smiled and reached out her hand to stroke his chin. "I trust that you will not leave?"
"No."
"Good." She turned immediately and jumped off, spreading her wings and flapping as she was lifted by the winds. Leo watched her fly off into the distance towards the forest and he slowly walked back into the cave.
"More adventure for me."
https://m.goodnovel.com/book_info/31000039026/Paranormal/Hunter's-Chorus?shareuser=22216334&ch=apps
