Strays: A Romantic Fantasy Adventure

The next few days were spent scouring the book from front to back, and back to front in an attempt to find anything that could be of relevance. But try as the group might, there was no making something out of nothing, and even Hwan, in all his collected knowledge over the years, found himself completely perplexed with the oddity of Zero’s origins. Though they had come looking for answers for Ivy, they only found questions for Zero, and after exhausting all options it was time for them to move on.

“Golden City is six days southeast of here,” Hwan told them during the last supper that they shared together. “That’s the best information that you’re going to get about angels on the land. Perhaps you can find more about the angels who have been killed by devils, or of any that have been taken captive in the library there.”

With that lead in mind, the group left shortly after sunrise the next morning, following behind Ivy as she danced along the path.

“We’re going to the ocean! We’re going to the ocean!” she sang, her arms sweeping through the air while her feet stepped and twisted, spinning her gracefully and swaying her to-and-fro. “I can’t wait to go to the ocean!”

“How many times have you been to Golden City?” Ren asked the elated girl.

She spun to face him, her smile and eyes overflowing with pure ecstasy. “Six! I’m so excited! I don’t have to wear my cloak this time! I’ve always had to wear my cloak! But not now!” A hearty shrill erupted from her and she was off again, twirling at a dizzying speed without a care in the world.

The man watched her with admiration, unable to figure out how the girl could spin like a top down the road without tumbling over at some point when just the mere sight of it left him reeling after a short time. He glanced away before that could happen and set his attention on the demon walking beside him. “Are you as excited as she is?”

Sakura shrugged. “No one is ever as excited as Ivy. I do like the ocean though. I just hate all the angels running around.”

The fallen angel feigned offense. “Well, that’s harsh. Don’t you know who you’re talking to?”

“Take it as you will.” She looked up at him slyly, a smirk across her lips, before dashing off, chasing after the singing and frolicking girl. She quickly caught up with her and began poking her sides, making Ivy squeal as she swatted at and tried to get away from the antagonizing woman.

Ren chuckled as he watched the two scurry after each other, giggling and screaming cheerfully. It was nice to see, and he knew he wasn’t the only one who enjoyed seeing it. He jerked his elbow out, nudging the boy on the other side of him in the ribs roughly. “Why don’t we ever do cute shit like that?”

“I’d rather not.” Zero responded coldly, his gaze following the girl. Though he enjoyed watching, the thought of doing the same thing as Ivy, especially with Ren, was nothing less than disturbing.

“Ah! You’re never any fun.”

Zero was alright with that.

But just because he was alright, didn’t mean the man was.

He peeked over at the angel, observing his lighthearted grin. “We don’t have to go to Golden City,” he offered quietly.

Ren raised a brow at him. “What? And deny Ivy the opportunity to prance around the beach? Are you feeling okay, boy?”

“There’re other beaches. We could go to one of those and stay out of Golden City.”

The man’s face lit up as he gasped. “Are you worried about me?”

“No,” Zero said honestly. “You can handle it, but I know how it is and I don’t like it there either.”

The angel nodded skeptically, roughing up the boy’s hair. “If you say so. There might be something there, though, so it’s worth a look. Besides, we’ve done it plenty of times. What’s one more?”

That night they sat around the fire, Sakura doling out pieces of dried fruit, stuffing one in her mouth with each piece she handed out. “Do you think angel’s blood is tastier than other beings’ blood?” she asked, mouth half-full. “Does every beings’ blood taste different?”

Ivy looked at the dried pineapple with a small pout before handing it back. “I don’t know how you can talk like that while eating. It’s awful.”

The fox nabbed the offering before anyone else could claim it. “Easy. You put it in your mouth. Chew. Swallow. No problem.” She popped the pineapple in her mouth with a teasing grin while Ivy stuck her tongue out in disgust.

“How long do you think it was from the time your father took your blood until I showed up?” Ren asked the devil.

“I don’t know,” Zero told him. “Time was hard to track.”

“What happened after he drank it?”

“He got angry and decapitated me.” The boy paused, thinking back on it. “But before he did, he began acting strangely, like it was hurting him, and said that it wasn’t the same. That there was something wrong with it.”

Ren snorted. “Well, no shit. It wasn’t pure angel blood. And if that was why he was keeping your mother, then of course your mixed blood wasn’t going to be the same. But it’s interesting that he went mad sometime after drinking it. No one knows why devils go mad.”

“Maybe it was the devil’s blood?” Sakura suggested casually, rolling a cherry onto her tongue. “Cannibalism is sort of the universal no-no for all beings.”

The angel snagged the sack from her hands, having witnessed the woman already consume most of it, and rolled it up before sticking it into his leather bag for safe keeping. “It could be. Devils do a lot of fucked up things. Even though it was out of the norm for him to keep Lailah, devils do sometimes eat other beings for whatever reason. Cannibalism doesn’t seem that far fetched. It’s possible that the madness is brought on by consuming another devil.”

“Well.” Sakura turned to Zero with a teasing grin. “Don’t go munching on any devils. We wouldn’t want you going mad.”

He nodded with earnest. “I won’t.” It wasn’t something that he wanted either.

Sakura rolled her eyes, tossing her last cherry at the devil’s face. “It was a joke. What did Ren even teach you?”

Zero picked up the offending cherry, looking at it before sticking it into his mouth. “Absolutely nothing.”

Sakura roared at Ren’s expense as he bitterly got to his feet and wandered away.

“A father’s sacrifice is never acknowledged,” he grumbled. “After all I’ve done for you, boy.” He went to the tent, ducking inside momentarily before returning to the group, map in hand, and laid it out on the ground for all to see. “You two have been to Golden City quite a bit, huh?”

“Yeah!” Ivy piped. “But didn’t we go a different route?”

“We’ve only come in from the north,” Sakura confirmed. “Never the west.”

“There’s really nothing for the first four or so days, just a few villages,” the girl pointed out, running her finger along the path they were headed.

Ren had never taken this path either, but one of the names of a neighboring villages gave it away. It wasn’t labeled, but he knew where they were headed.

They should have checked the map before leaving.

He looked at the demon. “We can go back,” he offered. “We’ll turn back tomorrow. Go around and come in from the north.”

“What?! Ivy yelped, grabbing the map and examining it closely. “That’ll double how long it takes us to get to Golden City!”

“It doesn’t matter,” Ren told her calmly. “We’ll go around.”

“Sakura!” The girl twisted towards the fox, pausing and staring at the woman who had gone pale, her eyes lost on the fire’s blaze. “Sakura?”

She blinked and looked up at the girl, forcing a cheerful smile. “Ivy’s right. Six days travel is long enough. Let’s not make it longer.”

Ivy looked at Ren, confused by the angel’s suggestion. “Why would we turn back?”

“It’s den territory.”

Her eyes went wide, and she looked back at the vixen. “We’ll go around,” her voice rushed, forcing it to sound chipper. “It’s no big deal. The north path is the best way into the city anyways.”

Sakura sighed, her tone nonnegotiable. “We go through. We’re not wasting more time to avoid a twenty-minute walk.”

“We don’t have to.” Ren tried once more.

“We’re going to.”

The man nodded, knowing full well her mind was made up and she’d head that direction in the morning with or without them. He plucked the map from Ivy’s hands and laid it back out to observe. “We should be there late afternoon tomorrow if we leave early.”

“We go straight through,” the demon stated. “And we’ll camp at sunset. We’ll be a ways out by then.”

Ivy stared at the woman feigning a careless attitude and felt her heart sink. Sakura had told her years before how she had left the den after the death of her parents when there was no one willing to care for her. However, it always seemed to the girl that there was something more than just that for being her reason for leaving. Though Sakura would grudgingly return to Hollis when needed and be out of sorts during their stay, she would fly into a rage anytime someone told her to return to the den. It was a place that the demon obviously despised, and even though the girl wasn’t sure why, she wanted to protect her from it as best she could.

Ivy crawled over to the woman’s lap and wrapped her arms around her shoulders, nuzzling her head under the fox’s chin. “If they say anything mean to you, I’ll beat them up.” She sniffled, trying to hold back the intense rush of emotion that overcame her.

Sakura laughed at the docile girl’s sudden threat. “Really now? Is that right?”

“I will. I’ll punch them. With my hands.”

“Oh wow, very scary.”

“And I’ll pull their tails.”

“That is painful.” The fox nodded, smoothing down the girl’s hair and laying a kiss on top.

Despite Ivy’s best efforts, the tears began to fall and she burrowed her face into the woman’s chest. “I’m not afraid,” her sweet voice muffled.

“Of course you aren’t,” she agreed softly and laid her cheek on top of amethyst waves. “If anyone should be afraid, it should be them.”