The town was under siege. The screams and sounds of destruction outside the house were terrifyingly loud and close. Chesta stood in the middle of the kitchen floor, where he had been for some while, frozen and scared.

'Chesta!' Aunt Brindy came running in. There was blood on her face, from her hairline down around one eye and to her chin. 'They're looking for you, baby! Go to the cellar. Run fast and don't make a sound,' she told him. Her voice was strained; she was just keeping herself from hysteria.

'People are hurting,' Chesta whimpered back.

'I know, baby, but you must go to the cellar quickly. Hide behind the firewood. Don't come out until I get you,' she was desperate. She wasn't sure she would come get him. She wasn't sure she'd live through the attack.

'Aunt-'

'Go, Chesta! Go!' she shouted, hysteria bleeding through and making Chesta's head ache.

Before he'd had a chance to turn, to take a single step, the door flew off its hinges and slammed into the far wall. Aunt Brindy screamed and then was pushed back, hitting the ground and going still, by an invisible force.

'Aunt Brindy?' Chesta whimpered. She lay still, her hair covering her face. She felt as though she were deeply asleep. 'Aunt Brindy?'

Someone stepped over her still body as he stared at her. Only the disturbance of a small, armor-clad foot coming in front of his view managed to make his eyes shift, look up, see the creature stepping over her and slowly towards him.

His breath caught. It was a demon. Demons were attacking the town. It stared through him with blood-colored eyes and advanced slowly, drawing the sword at its side. Then it leapt forward in a sudden flurry of movement and landed on top of him, pouncing like a spider atop an insect. Its sword was held perfectly in the air above him, aimed at him and ready to cut down.

Please don't kill me.

The demon blinked and tilted its head, looking at him oddly. Chesta stared back into its eyes, not daring to blink. It then abruptly stood up off of him and replaced the sword to its scabbard. Then it held out a hand to Chesta. It wanted Chesta to take its hand, to help him to his feet. It had decided not to hurt Chesta. Chesta reached his own badly shaking hand up to take the demon's and it pulled him up without a word, then took his arm and lead him out of the house, carefully around his aunt's still form and into the burning streets.

'What is your name?' the demon asked.

'Chesta.'

'My name is Dilandau. You are going to come with me and be my friend now,' the demon told him in a voice that couldn't be argued with.

'What about Aunt Brindy?' Chesta asked quietly.

'She may not come,' Dilandau said firmly.

'Oh,' Chesta watched his feet for a while. 'Where are we going?'

'To the castle. I will show you to Lord Folken and then you'll stay with me there.'

'Why?'

'Because you are going to be my friend and stay with me forever,' Dilandau answered brusquely, he was irritated that Chesta didn't understand.

'Why me?' Chesta hoped that his questions wouldn't drive Dilandau into anger. He didn't know what an angry demon would be like. 'I thought you were going to kill me?'

'You have the Eye of Apollo. You are a child of gods, and all the children of gods are to be killed or to join the Black Dragon,' Dilandau explained, sounding quite proud of his scholarship. 'Sora said that you are only half a child of gods, so Lord Folken said you would die.'

'Why am I not dying?' Chesta asked.

'Because you're going to come be my friend instead!' Dilandau sighed in an exasperated way. 'I already told you that.'

'That the muse? Why haven't you killed him yet, boy?' a man dressed much like Dilandau asked.

Dilandau turned sharply to the man, looking annoyed, and snapped, 'You will call me "Lord Dilandau".' Then the man looked as though he were hit and fell back to the ground.

Chesta looked back over his shoulder as Dilandau pulled him on. 'Why did you hit that man? Isn't he on your side?' he asked.

'He did not respect me. Lord Folken says that I must not let humans disrespect me,' Dilandau looked slightly surprised.

'I think you could have gotten his respect without hitting him,' Chesta mummered quietly, lowering his eyes so not to see so much of the town's destruction.

Dilandau stopped walking and Chesta stumbled a moment before stopping as well and looking up at him. Dilandau had his head tilted slightly to the side and looked at him with a very slight smile and a strong feel of curiosity. 'You are very strange,' he said after a moment and started pulling Chesta towards the floating sky castle again.