Page 7 of Their World

Dhun trotted to the left and looked back to make sure I followed.

“Thanks,” I said and followed him.

I put the book, pen, and water bottle into Dhun’s pack and put my phone in my pocket.

“Ready? I asked Dhun.

He barked his agreement and trotted to the door, where Zoman waited for us.

“Sorry you got babysitting duty,” I said as Dhun led the way down the hallway to start my castle tour.

“The king gave me an order and I will follow it, no matter how menial it may seem to others,” he replied.

“You respect your king,” I stated with a nod. “That must mean he is a good king.”

“Without his leadership, we would have all died without resources to survive.”

The resources they were stealing from my world.

“When did all this devastation happen?” I asked. “Was there a battle or something that destroyed the area?”

“It started with a battle, then the gods cursed us, and we all would have died if the Grand Advisor and King hadn’t come up with this new plan.”

If the portals were random, how did they plan to get to my world to fight? Would they just continue sending as many through at one time as they could? Or had Jol lied about not controlling the portals? That large one they’d come through with the giant werewolf-demon had seemed unique and it had stayed open long enough for Jol to go through to fight.

There was definitely more I needed to learn.

Stopping Dhun, I pulled out the book and started drawing the floorplan as we reached the end of this hallway and turned down another. It was odd that we’d walked down a very long hallway that had zero doors, aside from the one bedroom I was using. Unless it was like the door Jol had opened earlier and I just wasn’t able to see the seams?

That seemed much more probable.

We got to the end of that hallway, but there were two large glass doors that led to a balcony. I pushed open the doors and stepped out, closing my eyes and tilting my face up to enjoy the sunlight. I took a deep breath and immediately regretted it as a foul odor filled my nose.

Opening my eyes, I walked to the edge of the balcony and looked out across the field we faced. Demons milled about, going about their day, but many looked almost robotic as they walked.

“Your water supply didn’t suffer?” I asked.

“Thankfully, it has only had a slight decrease in amount, but the freshness is still good. We do have to travel deeper to obtain the clean water, but we have developed rope and pulley systems to bring it to the surface,” Zoman answered.

So it was just living plants that wouldn’t survive. I wasn’t a super talented elf, but when I had a chance, I would try to use my magic to heal the land, to see if it was possible. If I was stuck here anyway, where was the harm?

One of the demons walking down below wasn’t a type I had seen before. I flipped through the book to a page for drawing the creatures and drew as much as I could tell from this distance.

I sensed Zoman get closer and a second later he said, “You’re drawing us?”

“Each type,” I said with a nod.

“Why?”

“I’m trying to understand you all, and the more I know about you, the better I’ll understand.” I flipped back to the picture of Dhun I’d drawn and showed it to him. “What do you call him?”

“Dhun,” he replied.

I shook my head. “Not him specifically, but his type.”

“Oh, we don’t have names for the differences in appearance. We’re all just demons.” He shrugged.

Interesting.

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