He looked around. They were in a forest, surrounded by tall, green trees. Far away, he could see the outline of some sort of mountain, or something, through the trees.
Daren looked to his left, and was surprised to meet the startled gaze of a dark-haired man lying nearby. The man rolled his eyes skyward, and said, �Spoilsport!�
Daren blinked, confused. �Uh�who are you?�
The man snorted. �What do you mean, who are we? We followed you humans through the portal.� Then looked down at himself. �Aahh! What�s going on!? We�re human!�
Daren blinked, then finally nodded in understanding. This was the demon, Taisser�tialdusk. Except, he was human. Also, there were two of them.
Sure enough, a second dark-haired man stood up, meeting the startled gaze of the first one, and Daren.
�Aahh!� The two men shouted. �What�s going on!?�
Daren had to fight back a laugh. �Oh, I get it.� He said. �I think when you went through the portal, it turned you human. I guess since you had a split personality, it�split you in half, gave each personality a different body, or�something like that.� He finished, and shrugged.
Both men just glared at him. �What do you know, you�re just a human.� One said.
"I'll bet it was the Ancients!" the other said. "They set a trap for us!"
"So, what are we supposed to call you two, then?" Daren interrupted. By now he had figured that since the two former demons were now human, they had been stripped of their demonic powers, and rendered mostly harmless. Judging by the extremely annoyed look on their faces, he was right.
The two former demons glanced at each other before one spoke up. "I'm Taisser, he's Tialdusk."
The other man protested. "Hey! How come I have to be Tialdusk!? Why can't you be Tialdusk, and I'll be Taisser."
"I claimed it first."
"Claimed it?-"
The two bickering men looked up as Daren stood up and began to walk away, staring at something through the trees. "Huh, what are you doing?" One of them, Taisser, asked.
Daren pointed. "There's someone over there, maybe they can help Kita!"
Taisser rolled his eyes, glancing at the unconcious girl. "Frankly, we're surprised she's still alive at all."
With a glare at the demons, Daren turned and ran to the two people he had seen before. A man and a woman stared at him as he approached. The man frowned before speaking. "What's wrong? What are you doing here?"
Daren gasped for breath before answering. "My friend, sir, she's hurt. She was poisened, and now she's dieing. Can you help her?"
The woman nodded. "Lead us to her. Aseth and Kinth can carry us back to the Weyr."
Not pausing long enough to ask what she meant, Daren raced off, the two people trailing behind.
The two former demons, Taisser and Tialdusk, looked up. "Back already?" One asked.
"Is she dead yet?" The other one piped up as the woman knelt beside Kita. Daren glared at them both, and the man just looked confused.
The woman frowned. "She's still alive, but she's getting worse. We'll bring Aseth and Kinth out here." She said, nodding to her companion.
Suddenly, two large, winged creatures emerged from the forest. They were huge, dragonlike creatures with smooth hide and insectlike, faceted eyes.
Daren's eyes widened when he realized he was looking at real, live dragons. The woman smiled reassuringly at him. "Don't worry," She said. "Aseth and Kinth won't hurt you."
Daren still eyed the dragons nervously. Nevertheless, he helped the woman lift Kita onto the back of the green dragon. "My name is Seras, by the way." She said. "And this green dragon is Kinth."
"Daren, and she's Kita." Daren said. The man spoke up as he helped Daren onto the back of his blue dragon. "And I'm T'lem, on blue Aseth." He said, patting the smooth hide on the back of the dragon's neck.
With a flap of their great wings, the dragons took off with their riders and two passengers.
Back on the ground, the two demons glared at the departing shapes in outrage.
"Hey! What about us!?"
