Silvian, the demon archaeologist. That’s how people usually called him. It’s not like he cared, though, more than for the fact that sometimes, that reputation made his selling of artifacts a bit troublesome. It was hard for some museum owners to grasp the fact that a demon, first, was an archaeologist, and second, didn’t want to destroy everything it touched. Yes, Silvian was a peculiar demon. His home-town’s house had been burned by his co-residents, and he wasn’t really welcome in any demon settlement; too humanised, too sensitive, they said. Yet, he was beyond all that nonsense, who cared? His mind only lived for archaeology, and so did his body. Not as a metaphor, though. Two whole days plus a few hours have passed and, right now, the archaeologist Silvian still walks on, checking the soil for possible architectural structures, or old artifacts. Last three months, nothing had piqued his interest much. He’d found some odd tablet, an extinct bird’s bones, some ball-like stones. But those three were pretty common, as he found out later when he attempted to sell them. What he wanted to discover was a fascinating underground city, or an odd out-of-place artifact; well, he was looking for something specific this time, actually...
The sun was rising above the vast desert, and he, with his spade, his penknife, and his trowel, hadn’t... found... a thing. A demon’s luck. But at least he had found out about some areas that weren’t present in the topographical map that he had bought. Time to sell some wool, it seems. He decided to go back to the nearest town for now, where he was ‘staying’. Not that he needed to stay anywhere: it wasn’t unusual for him to sleep on the archaeological sites themselves, or to sleep on the streets, just whatever was fine for a demon. Being able to turn into a sheep had its benefits, too, as did having some connections with the only people who weren’t scared of him: lousy people, smugglers, black market dealers, that sort of people.
-
The city of Almiala. A vast city of architectural wonder in the entrance to the desert. One of Silvian’s favourite cities precisely because of its intricate structure as well as its rich history. One doesn’t have to wander too far from it to find precious relics. Silvian had been staying in this city for the last few months, currently. He had a deal with some black market dealers: in exchange of wool, they paid him and gave him information about relics that were circulating in the market, as well as a place to sleep occasionally.
He’d gone northeast through the desert, now he’d go west. On his quest for artifacts, relics, and legends, what he most wished to find right now were the ruins of an ancient civilization that could give him clues on how to cross to other worlds. Yes, ever since he had found a scroll containing partial information on a portal to other worlds, he’d been searching for it. A wise old man had told him that the place he was looking for could be near Almiala, and so he’s been here since. But well, right now, it was time to drink and eat.
“A glass of water and roasted fish, please.” He said as he sat on a stool at the counter.
The inn-keeper stood there looking at him for a moment. Demons weren’t exactly trusted, anywhere. But Silvian didn’t get the hint.
“The money.” said the inn-keeper in a coarse voice.
“Bah!” he shouted, and left the coins on the table.
-
After he had finished eating, he made his way to the market-dealers he knew, to ask them if they had found any new relic for him. The sun illuminated the vast plaza where a myriad of tents were stationed with their owners behind them: little shops selling all kind of things, from legal things like food and books, to illegal things that only those who were specifically looking for them would find. The noise of the crowds always left Silvian with a mild ringing in his ears as he passed by, but after a short while of walking, he found his dealer. For a moment, the man was puzzled, but then he realised what Silvian was here for.
“Ah, we do have one thing that might interest you, my odd demon friend. But, you’ll have to pay plenty of wool for it.” The man who spoke was a big, muscular man with very tanned skin and a patch in his eye. He spoke in a rough tone, but was well-meaning. He’d grown fond of the demon Silvian, at least as fond as one could grow to a demon, that is.
Silvian, who was dressed in his usual short pants, short-top all-black attire, and had a red flower-crown in his head, answered, “Yeah, yeah, sure... but show me that thing!” His eyes lit up, he was excited, what could it be?
“Hah, always so eager to see these artifacts... I don’t know what you see in them, they’re just old ragged scrolls or old, rusty things... but here you go.” The man handed him a scroll, and sure enough, Silvian immediately recognised it was the part of the map that was missing from his.
“Fascinating, wonderful! Did you know? With this, now I can find this portal that I’ve been searching for, we could travel between dimensions and find new places to explore, to discover, to uncover, new relics and new legends, and maybe go back in time, now that would be incredible, and obviously if...” but the man had gone back to attending his little tent after, probably “portal” was pronounced.
“No more time to lose, then...” he said to himself and started walking again, this time to the outskirts of the city and towards the desert. But his cheerful strolling was interrupted by a little kid—he couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl—that was pulling on his black ragged sort-of legging. He turned back and crouched to meet their eyes: “What is it, little one?” It was not usual for a kid to even approach a demon, after all. The kid had ragged clothes and was very dirty, so Silvian wondered if they were lost or lived alone in the street. It reminded him of himself, after his house was burnt down and he had to scram and live as a stray person as he discovered what he wanted to be, which ended up being an archaeologist. It hadn’t been easy, since re-constructing ruins wasn’t exactly what demons did, they destroyed ruins... and everything else they set their eyes on. But, back to our little kid, who was probably around 12 years of age.
“You... look happy, shining! Wanna touch your hair, fluffy.”
“Sure...” Silvian crouched more and the little kid touched his hair and his horns. The kid smiled, and they seemed happy.
“Alright, then I’ll be going, kid. For an archaeologist, finding relics or new places is his life!”
After an hour or so, he was at the entrance of the desert, the ruins were the only thing on his mind. He sat on a nearby rock to take a little break, and he thought he saw the kid on the rear of his eye. He turned his head and... there they were!
“Kid, what are you doing here?” Silvian noticed the kid had a trowel. He checked his hands to see if it was his, but it wasn’t. Had he stolen it?
“Wanna explore! I’m Shioria.” the kid exclaimed. It seemed to be a girl, she had short black hair.
“So... you want to accompany me?” Silvian was puzzled.
“Yes, I wanna explore!”
“Uhm...”
“Please... teacher! I even brought water!” She took out a canteen from her little backpack.
Silvian felt great at being called teacher. “...hum, alright! But we’ll have to walk a lot, are you sure you’re prepared?”
“Yes!”
And so the two went ahead and through the desert. Looking at them, one could be forgiven for thinking Silvian was roughly the same age as Shiori, since he was, well... really short. Silvian looked at his map, yes, they were surely going in the right direction. Thankfully, this place, ‘The Desolation of the Lion’, was just about two hours worth of walking.
-
“Well, here we are! Now on to the fun part.” Silvian said, using his hand to wipe off his sweat from his forehead. The sun was scorching hot. And the sand was quite annoying, too, although thankfully the wind was mild.
“Huh? But there’s nothing here, teacher,” and sure enough, there was nothing there, not even ruins. It was just desolate land.
Silvian blushed a bit at being called a teacher. “No, no, it’s not that there’s nothing here, you dummy. Think about it. We are in a desert, which means that these super miniature rocks that we call sand move every day with the wind. And so, imagine if you could build something below all this sand instead of above it, well that’s what The Desolation of the Lion is! A portal, or a city, built underground. And the work of the archeaologist, little one, is to uncover mysteries. So now we have to feel the ground and see if we find a hollow spot, are you following? Because with this hollow spot and our spade and trowel, we can enter that world of wonder!” He smiled at the girl, he could keep talking like this for hours, he was so excited to find this gate.
“Yay, underground city, underground city!” Shioria jumped with excitement, although he barely understood what Silvian was talking about. “Uhm, teacher, what’s hollow? And, oh, oh, what’s your name!?”
“Hollow is like...” he made a shape like a ball with his two hands and showed her. “The space between my hands is hollow, and I’m Silvian.”
“Shilvian, Shilvian! Let’s find the hollow space.” Shioria said, trying to make a serious expression, although she could barely hold her excitement, and she took Silvian’s hand and led him around, jumping at every place. Silvian thought it was fun, and she laughed at being called ‘Shilvian’, little kids had so much energy! It wasn’t long before Shioria exclaimed, bursting with cheerfulness: “I found the hollow thing, I found it, Shilvian!”
He knocked the ground with his feet a few times. And yes, it was hollow below. But Shioria kept on jumping. “Shioria, you can stop no--” and they fell...
They fell down a hole, rather a cave, that was big enough for at least three people, and ended up in a cave with no light. But a faint, blue light could be seen in the distance.
“Teacher Shilvian, is this fine?” Now Silvian took Shioria’s hand as soon as she could find it in the darkness.
“Yes, remember, underground city, right? Just keep near me and we’ll be fine.”
They walked on, hand-in-hand, touching the sides of the cave to keep on the path, following that faint blue light, until they saw... a crystal skull. And behind it, a green door that seemed to be made of plasma. But was this door to be trusted? How could it still be operational? Where did it go? These and much more questions went around Silvian’s head, but still, the thrill of going through it, he wanted to. But he made sure not to take more steps, in case there was a trap.
“Hey, Shioria, hold still!” But Shioria moved had moved her right foot. And the ground shaked for a moment. Out of the roof, as if materialising—Silvian noticed just in time—two arrows that aimed for Shioria’s head had been propelled forward.
Silvian pushed Shioria out of where she was standing, and took the full hit of the two arrows, that he made sure hit him in his right arm.
“Ah, agh.”
“Teacher? Are you okay? I’m so sorry, I took one step, and, and...” she was on the verge of crying, but Silvian spoke promptly: “Hey, hey, no worries, no worries,” he tried to calm her down, but also himself, and that’s why he repeated the words. If anyone touched his horns right now, they’d be itching right now. He was a bit nervous. “As your teacher, I should have taught you the first rules of caverns and secret passageways of ancient civilizations before: “Beware of traps. Walk with care. Always look up, down, and to the sides at every moment. And if you find something strange, immediately stop and look-out for traps intensively,” but it’s fine now, your teacher has an idea.” He tried to reassure her and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Keep still, we’re going to jump, Shioria.” “Jump so far away? You can do that?” Shioria felt so excited that her teacher could do that, it was impressive. He hugged her tight and, with the arrows still in his right arm, he propelled himself forward through the air, grabbing the skull and passing through the door just in time, before an endless amount of arrows covered the whole cave. What lay waiting beyond the door?
-
Shioria? Hector? Arietta? Octav? He saw those faces, and he imagined them falling down a cliff to their certain deaths. He was shaking, and he-- “-eacher, teacher, Shilvian!”
He was panting, his hands were shaking and even his horns were shaking. “Are you okay?” So it had been a dream, just a dream, right? But where where they? Silvian looked around. It was... a pasture. A green, endless pasture. It seemed peaceful, but beyond it lay something sinister and mysterious, thought Silvian, because his dream, his premonition, he had never seen something like that, so why now.
“Ah, ah-I’m alright, Shioria.” Better not mention anything about that dream for now. “Let’s go, onwards to the explore, remember?”
“Uh, but your arm...” Shioria looked at it, but her face showed amazement... there were no arrows there. “Do you heal like that, teacher?” She genuinely wondered, a puzzled expression on her face. But Silvian... hadn’t done that. Where did the arrows go? Was there some presence that could do... magic things at will? From far-away? Silvian had never seen of something like that. Even the most powerful demons he knew had to be at least in his range of sight. But this... how could it be possible?
“I... did nothing. There’s... definitely something wrong her, Shioria, and we must uncover what that something is, for sure.”
A dark cloud loomed in the distance. What did the future have in store for The Great Demon Archaeologist and His Apprentice?
The sun was rising above the vast desert, and he, with his spade, his penknife, and his trowel, hadn’t... found... a thing. A demon’s luck. But at least he had found out about some areas that weren’t present in the topographical map that he had bought. Time to sell some wool, it seems. He decided to go back to the nearest town for now, where he was ‘staying’. Not that he needed to stay anywhere: it wasn’t unusual for him to sleep on the archaeological sites themselves, or to sleep on the streets, just whatever was fine for a demon. Being able to turn into a sheep had its benefits, too, as did having some connections with the only people who weren’t scared of him: lousy people, smugglers, black market dealers, that sort of people.
-
The city of Almiala. A vast city of architectural wonder in the entrance to the desert. One of Silvian’s favourite cities precisely because of its intricate structure as well as its rich history. One doesn’t have to wander too far from it to find precious relics. Silvian had been staying in this city for the last few months, currently. He had a deal with some black market dealers: in exchange of wool, they paid him and gave him information about relics that were circulating in the market, as well as a place to sleep occasionally.
He’d gone northeast through the desert, now he’d go west. On his quest for artifacts, relics, and legends, what he most wished to find right now were the ruins of an ancient civilization that could give him clues on how to cross to other worlds. Yes, ever since he had found a scroll containing partial information on a portal to other worlds, he’d been searching for it. A wise old man had told him that the place he was looking for could be near Almiala, and so he’s been here since. But well, right now, it was time to drink and eat.
“A glass of water and roasted fish, please.” He said as he sat on a stool at the counter.
The inn-keeper stood there looking at him for a moment. Demons weren’t exactly trusted, anywhere. But Silvian didn’t get the hint.
“The money.” said the inn-keeper in a coarse voice.
“Bah!” he shouted, and left the coins on the table.
-
After he had finished eating, he made his way to the market-dealers he knew, to ask them if they had found any new relic for him. The sun illuminated the vast plaza where a myriad of tents were stationed with their owners behind them: little shops selling all kind of things, from legal things like food and books, to illegal things that only those who were specifically looking for them would find. The noise of the crowds always left Silvian with a mild ringing in his ears as he passed by, but after a short while of walking, he found his dealer. For a moment, the man was puzzled, but then he realised what Silvian was here for.
“Ah, we do have one thing that might interest you, my odd demon friend. But, you’ll have to pay plenty of wool for it.” The man who spoke was a big, muscular man with very tanned skin and a patch in his eye. He spoke in a rough tone, but was well-meaning. He’d grown fond of the demon Silvian, at least as fond as one could grow to a demon, that is.
Silvian, who was dressed in his usual short pants, short-top all-black attire, and had a red flower-crown in his head, answered, “Yeah, yeah, sure... but show me that thing!” His eyes lit up, he was excited, what could it be?
“Hah, always so eager to see these artifacts... I don’t know what you see in them, they’re just old ragged scrolls or old, rusty things... but here you go.” The man handed him a scroll, and sure enough, Silvian immediately recognised it was the part of the map that was missing from his.
“Fascinating, wonderful! Did you know? With this, now I can find this portal that I’ve been searching for, we could travel between dimensions and find new places to explore, to discover, to uncover, new relics and new legends, and maybe go back in time, now that would be incredible, and obviously if...” but the man had gone back to attending his little tent after, probably “portal” was pronounced.
“No more time to lose, then...” he said to himself and started walking again, this time to the outskirts of the city and towards the desert. But his cheerful strolling was interrupted by a little kid—he couldn’t tell if it was a boy or a girl—that was pulling on his black ragged sort-of legging. He turned back and crouched to meet their eyes: “What is it, little one?” It was not usual for a kid to even approach a demon, after all. The kid had ragged clothes and was very dirty, so Silvian wondered if they were lost or lived alone in the street. It reminded him of himself, after his house was burnt down and he had to scram and live as a stray person as he discovered what he wanted to be, which ended up being an archaeologist. It hadn’t been easy, since re-constructing ruins wasn’t exactly what demons did, they destroyed ruins... and everything else they set their eyes on. But, back to our little kid, who was probably around 12 years of age.
“You... look happy, shining! Wanna touch your hair, fluffy.”
“Sure...” Silvian crouched more and the little kid touched his hair and his horns. The kid smiled, and they seemed happy.
“Alright, then I’ll be going, kid. For an archaeologist, finding relics or new places is his life!”
After an hour or so, he was at the entrance of the desert, the ruins were the only thing on his mind. He sat on a nearby rock to take a little break, and he thought he saw the kid on the rear of his eye. He turned his head and... there they were!
“Kid, what are you doing here?” Silvian noticed the kid had a trowel. He checked his hands to see if it was his, but it wasn’t. Had he stolen it?
“Wanna explore! I’m Shioria.” the kid exclaimed. It seemed to be a girl, she had short black hair.
“So... you want to accompany me?” Silvian was puzzled.
“Yes, I wanna explore!”
“Uhm...”
“Please... teacher! I even brought water!” She took out a canteen from her little backpack.
Silvian felt great at being called teacher. “...hum, alright! But we’ll have to walk a lot, are you sure you’re prepared?”
“Yes!”
And so the two went ahead and through the desert. Looking at them, one could be forgiven for thinking Silvian was roughly the same age as Shiori, since he was, well... really short. Silvian looked at his map, yes, they were surely going in the right direction. Thankfully, this place, ‘The Desolation of the Lion’, was just about two hours worth of walking.
-
“Well, here we are! Now on to the fun part.” Silvian said, using his hand to wipe off his sweat from his forehead. The sun was scorching hot. And the sand was quite annoying, too, although thankfully the wind was mild.
“Huh? But there’s nothing here, teacher,” and sure enough, there was nothing there, not even ruins. It was just desolate land.
Silvian blushed a bit at being called a teacher. “No, no, it’s not that there’s nothing here, you dummy. Think about it. We are in a desert, which means that these super miniature rocks that we call sand move every day with the wind. And so, imagine if you could build something below all this sand instead of above it, well that’s what The Desolation of the Lion is! A portal, or a city, built underground. And the work of the archeaologist, little one, is to uncover mysteries. So now we have to feel the ground and see if we find a hollow spot, are you following? Because with this hollow spot and our spade and trowel, we can enter that world of wonder!” He smiled at the girl, he could keep talking like this for hours, he was so excited to find this gate.
“Yay, underground city, underground city!” Shioria jumped with excitement, although he barely understood what Silvian was talking about. “Uhm, teacher, what’s hollow? And, oh, oh, what’s your name!?”
“Hollow is like...” he made a shape like a ball with his two hands and showed her. “The space between my hands is hollow, and I’m Silvian.”
“Shilvian, Shilvian! Let’s find the hollow space.” Shioria said, trying to make a serious expression, although she could barely hold her excitement, and she took Silvian’s hand and led him around, jumping at every place. Silvian thought it was fun, and she laughed at being called ‘Shilvian’, little kids had so much energy! It wasn’t long before Shioria exclaimed, bursting with cheerfulness: “I found the hollow thing, I found it, Shilvian!”
He knocked the ground with his feet a few times. And yes, it was hollow below. But Shioria kept on jumping. “Shioria, you can stop no--” and they fell...
They fell down a hole, rather a cave, that was big enough for at least three people, and ended up in a cave with no light. But a faint, blue light could be seen in the distance.
“Teacher Shilvian, is this fine?” Now Silvian took Shioria’s hand as soon as she could find it in the darkness.
“Yes, remember, underground city, right? Just keep near me and we’ll be fine.”
They walked on, hand-in-hand, touching the sides of the cave to keep on the path, following that faint blue light, until they saw... a crystal skull. And behind it, a green door that seemed to be made of plasma. But was this door to be trusted? How could it still be operational? Where did it go? These and much more questions went around Silvian’s head, but still, the thrill of going through it, he wanted to. But he made sure not to take more steps, in case there was a trap.
“Hey, Shioria, hold still!” But Shioria moved had moved her right foot. And the ground shaked for a moment. Out of the roof, as if materialising—Silvian noticed just in time—two arrows that aimed for Shioria’s head had been propelled forward.
Silvian pushed Shioria out of where she was standing, and took the full hit of the two arrows, that he made sure hit him in his right arm.
“Ah, agh.”
“Teacher? Are you okay? I’m so sorry, I took one step, and, and...” she was on the verge of crying, but Silvian spoke promptly: “Hey, hey, no worries, no worries,” he tried to calm her down, but also himself, and that’s why he repeated the words. If anyone touched his horns right now, they’d be itching right now. He was a bit nervous. “As your teacher, I should have taught you the first rules of caverns and secret passageways of ancient civilizations before: “Beware of traps. Walk with care. Always look up, down, and to the sides at every moment. And if you find something strange, immediately stop and look-out for traps intensively,” but it’s fine now, your teacher has an idea.” He tried to reassure her and put a hand on her shoulder.
“Keep still, we’re going to jump, Shioria.” “Jump so far away? You can do that?” Shioria felt so excited that her teacher could do that, it was impressive. He hugged her tight and, with the arrows still in his right arm, he propelled himself forward through the air, grabbing the skull and passing through the door just in time, before an endless amount of arrows covered the whole cave. What lay waiting beyond the door?
-
Shioria? Hector? Arietta? Octav? He saw those faces, and he imagined them falling down a cliff to their certain deaths. He was shaking, and he-- “-eacher, teacher, Shilvian!”
He was panting, his hands were shaking and even his horns were shaking. “Are you okay?” So it had been a dream, just a dream, right? But where where they? Silvian looked around. It was... a pasture. A green, endless pasture. It seemed peaceful, but beyond it lay something sinister and mysterious, thought Silvian, because his dream, his premonition, he had never seen something like that, so why now.
“Ah, ah-I’m alright, Shioria.” Better not mention anything about that dream for now. “Let’s go, onwards to the explore, remember?”
“Uh, but your arm...” Shioria looked at it, but her face showed amazement... there were no arrows there. “Do you heal like that, teacher?” She genuinely wondered, a puzzled expression on her face. But Silvian... hadn’t done that. Where did the arrows go? Was there some presence that could do... magic things at will? From far-away? Silvian had never seen of something like that. Even the most powerful demons he knew had to be at least in his range of sight. But this... how could it be possible?
“I... did nothing. There’s... definitely something wrong her, Shioria, and we must uncover what that something is, for sure.”
A dark cloud loomed in the distance. What did the future have in store for The Great Demon Archaeologist and His Apprentice?
