You eyed the sky worriedly. You quickened your pace as you knew it would be dark soon. You should've listened to your grandmother earlier. She had told you to rush back home after delivering the food that your mother cooked for your grandmother, but you didn't listen to her. You wanted to spend more times with her as you haven't seen her for quite some time. Your grandmother didn't have much choice when you were being stubborn like that and let you stay a little bit longer.
You ate lunch that your grandmother specially cooked for you and took a nap. And she forced you to go home so you could be home before dinner. But judging how dark it was already, you might not make it into dinner in time. You were in such a rush that you didn't pay attention to the road ahead of you and you tripped over some rock and you hit your knees quite hard. You almost cursed when you heard someone asking, "Are you okay?"
You looked up to see a tan dark-haired skinny boy reaching out a hand to you. Where did he come from? There were only trees around as the road was just by the forrest and you didn't see anyone else, so how did he appear in front of you suddenly?
"I'm fine," you answered cautiously, not taking his outstretched hand and straightened up yourself. You winced when you felt the pain on both your knees and saw that both knees were scraped and bled a little. You ignored the pain and kept moving forward and annoyed at the fact that the boy decided to follow you.
"I've never seen you around, I'm Bambam" he asked while sticking his arm out, "Where are you going?"
You glanced at him briefly and decided he looked harmless so you answered him but didn't give him your name yet nor shaking his outstretched hand, "I can say the same about you, I never saw you around as well. What about you?"
He smiled a little, "I'm going home. I think you are as well," he decided and you didn't want to give him anymore information since he was a stranger so you didn't say anything else.
The sky was getting darker. The orange hue was replaced by darker shade of red and you barely saw the sun rays. The forrest was getting thicker at this part of the journey and somehow it scared you a bit. You remembered the folklore that your mom told you about the devil in the forrest back when you were still a kid. She told you that all kids should be home before dark because if there were kids after dark in the forrest, a devil would come out and take them into the forrest. And the appearance of a stranger by your side didn't help either.
But he kept walking by your side, telling you stories about anything. Even though you didn't pay full attention to his story, he kept talking. You wondered how he could keep talking for so long and never ran out of topic to talk about. At some point, as you got bored for not seeing your village border even after walking a long distance, you started to listen to his jokes.
"You know English, don't you?" He suddenly asked but he didn't bother to wait for your reply as he continued his talking. "You know the word 'LOVE', right?"
You eyed him from the side of your eyes and nodded briefly.
"What letter does it start with?" This time he paused longer to give you time to answer him
"L," you answered reluctantly.
He nodded and continued, "What letter does it end with?"
"E," you answered automatically.
This time he shook his head, "No."
"No?" You raised your eyebrow at his answer and you could see he strained himself not to laugh before continuing.
"It ends with U," and he laughed but it took a few seconds for you to understand the pun behind the pick up line. You shook your head when you finally got the joke.
"Ay! You smile finally," he pointed and you quickly straightened your face again.
"Ah, come on.. let loose a little. If I have bad intentions, you'd be dead by now," he whined and you thought he was right. He has been nothing but a friend throughout your journey. You started to loosen up a little after that and he continued making you laugh.
"Where's your village? You haven't told me where you are going," you suddenly remembered he never told you about his destination. So far he has been walking by your side.
"Just a little bit after yours," he answered.
"How do you know where my village is? I never tell you that," you scrunched your nose as you tried to remember your conversation with him.
He shrugged, "I just assumed yours will be the first one we come across after the forrest, and mine will be next."
You nodded as it sounded logical. You eyed the sky that has been completely dark already and nothing aside from sea of tress on the left and right of the path was seen.
"Why are you going home this late?" you found yourself asking again.
"Probaby for the same reason as you," he answered diplomatically again and you rolled your eyes.
"Aren't you afraid of the devil in the forrest?" you asked again and he turned to see you, a glimpse of amusement in his eyes
"Are you? Was that why you didn't want to talk to me earlier?" he teased you and you could feel your cheeks heated due to embarassment.
You walked again for another ten minutes or so and whined, "How come we have walked so long but we haven't arrived yet?"
You thought you saw his expression hardened for a split second but returned its playfulness quickly.
"Why? Don't you like spending time with me?"
You looked at him weirdly, "I do, you've been a great companion, but I want to go home already. It's tiring to walk this far."
"Then maybe you can stay," he replied and you stopped dead on your track.
"What do you...?" you couldn't finished your sentence as you saw that you have walked slightly more into the forrest now, and after walking closer to the boy, you could see him more clearly now. You swore he looked like other ordinary boy before, but now you could see a pair of short horn on top of his head, sticking out in between his hair and was that a pair of wing behind his back?
He stepped forward while you stepped backward.
"You can stay here with me," he continued, pointing at the forrest. "It can be your home now."
"No way...," you whispered before being swept off your feet. The realization hit you hard. You should've realized that no one could materialized out of the blue and it should ring a warning bell when you have walked so far yet you never arrived at your destination. And of course he wasn't afraid of the devil in the forrest because he was the devil himself.
