Chapter 1: Watch Out for Flowers

In a beautiful and secluded garden a demon stood up from behind some bushes. He was good looking and might have passed for a fit young man with black hair and olive skin from far away. Closer, his short, dense, silvery -orange fur would be obvious, as would his triangular ears.

His name was Eigis.

Eigis gave a wide yawn, showing a mouth filled with pointy teeth. The fight had been long and painful and worst of all, had ruined his clothes. Once elegant, they now hung torn and bloody. Most of his whiskers on the left side of his face bent in wrong directions. His fur was dirty and on end, and bruises covered his crafty, triangular face. One particularly nasty one circled his left eye. Brushing himself off, he strode over to the middle of the garden.

There stood a stone arbor wrapped in vines and yellow roses. Under it a young human warrior sprawled deep in sleep. He slumped against a marble pillar of the arbor. Chocolate colored curls framed a long nose and strong jaw. Though dinted and caked in dried blood and dirt, most of his silver armor still shone in the light of a new day. He clearly worked hard to keep it in good condition. Near one limp hand lay a katana with a distinctive green and silver wrapped hilt. Its slender, single edged blade was dark with blood. Even someone who knew nothing about swords could tell it was the work of a master sword smith.

The demon picked up the weapon, careful not to cut himself while cleaning off the deadly sharp blade. Sliding the shinning sword into its sheath, he picked it up. His smile flashed bright as the sun rising in the East in front of him.

“I’ll take this,” He told the sleeping warrior. “After all, you won’t be needing it after you’re dead.” The warrior didn’t respond, of course, because he was asleep. A magically enchanted sleep, as you might have guessed.

Poppies, flowers associated with sleep and death, bloomed all around the sleeping warrior. More, twined with vines, wrapped around his arms and legs and chest like chains. The warrior didn’t realize the poppies were enchanted. Anyone who passed through them would fall into a deep sleep until the one who planted them told them to close.

These poppies were actually a special kind called demon poppies, because only demons could plant and command them. Demon poppies were distinguished by a single gold, black silted eye in their centers. The eye closed inside their petals when commanded to sleep. Besides red, some were a deep purple. There was also a rare sort that was black, and caused death instead of sleep (but Eigis didn’t have any of those.)

Eigis slipped the katana through his belt and yawned again, showing a long, pointed blue tongue. His teeth were long and sharp, slightly curved. Although he didn’t look it in his human form, he could open his mouth as wide as a snakes’ if he wanted to.