Bond of a Demon

Chapter Twenty Nine

The cave might have been ice cold, but the inside of the room that held the shard, was actually fairly pleasant. The air was warm and damp, and it was lighted with strange, glowing crystals that danced along the ceiling of the cave.

"It's kind of... beautiful," I commented, looking around. Ghirahim nodded in agreement. We came to a stairway, lit by more of those crystals, and I noticed the steps were cracked and worn down. What is this place?

"This all feels so... familiar," Ghirahim said softly as we ascended the steps. Lumious flew ahead, giving us a little more light, and Zeefa sat on Ghirahim's shoulder. I looked at him skeptically.

"Really?"

He nodded, "It might be nothing, but with this situation one never knows." He fingered his lower lip thoughtfully, his glowing eyes dimming slightly. I looked ahead and stopped, raising an eyebrow.

"Well this make a lot of sense," I said sarcastically. Zeefa flew toward the wall and ran her tiny hand over it, examining it. Well, she should have ran her hand over it. Instead, however, she went right through it!

"Zeefa!" Ghirahim and I shouted together as we lunged forward. Just as Zeefa had, we walked right through the wall as if there were nothing there at all! On the other side, was a wide room that looked like an ancient sitting room for royalty that hadn't been touched in years. And scattered all around it, were creatures I'd never seen before, but they didn't exactly look friendly. They had no eyes, but their ears were quite large. They had black and brown fur covering their bodies and impressive claws. Their long lean bodies stretched about six feet, but they were hunched over. One turned around and opened its mouth. I saw two things, drool and fangs. I tensed up, but didn't dare move or make a sound. This must be why Zeefa hadn't said anything to warn us before we'd moved forward. What I didn't understand was why they hadn't heard us scream Zeefa's name. Did that wall block out the sounds?

Lumious flew toward them without warning. I ground my teeth together to keep from saying anything and looked at Ghirahim hastily. He was staring at me with an appalled look I'm certain mirrored my own. We looked back and I saw something astonishing. He was flying all around them without their notice. He wasn't exactly quiet about it either. Maybe they can't hear despite their large ears. That wouldn't make sense though....

He looked back at us like he was shocked we weren't doing anything, "Well come on! We have to help them!"

Zeefa shook her head, flying slowly toward him, "They can't be helped at this point. There's nothing we can do."

He glared deeply and clenched his fists, "That's not good enough! There has to be something! Link?" He looked at me with pleading in his eyes. I didn't know what to do, mostly because I had no idea what was going on. I looked to Ghirahim for translation, but he looked as clueless as me.

Zeefa returned and said, "They were once... humans." She avoided eye contact with me as she spoke. I felt a chill run through me as my eyes snapped back to the depressing sight. Looking closer at the creatures, I realized I didn't see anger or any sigh of being vicious. They actually stood without doing anything. They seemed... lost.

"What do you mean Zeefa?" Ghirahim demanded with surprise and anger in his voice.

I looked back at her as she continued, "When humans get caught by the demon DeLuc (Day Luke) they are taken to a dungeon and transformed into these creatures. At first the transformation only happens during the full moon in the human world, but if it isn't helped within the next moon cycle, they lose their senses and become this. They are beyond help now." She looked at them sadly, "That's why this place looks familiar Ghirahim. Wenta took us here. That was when he started to go dark."