Let me give you a small advice from jumping off a cliff to a 300 feet fall into a river, don't ever try it at home! It hurts like being burnt alive. I have lost some amount of blood from the fall into the water, but I still have a fair amount of blood to keep me alive and heal any injury on me. Things had turned out well on my end from escaping both hell and that castle full of horse people. Zeal side of escaping from hell is unknown to me since he might have destroyed the portal and used the crystal to travel to Tartarus. My bones were repairing themselves as I floated in the running river and then docked on a river bank.

"Damn that hurts like a bitch," I mumbled under my breath as the last bone in my body snaps into place sending a huge jolt of pain throughout my body. Ignoring the pain in my body I lifted myself onto my feet and took a good look at my immediate area. A forest, I was in a forest full of unknown life and wildlife and terrain that I have no idea what it looks like." Well, it's away from the castle, but I need to hunt for food and learn the local wildlife and the terrain."

A growl from my stomach told me that I haven't eaten a proper meal in the last hour or two, the only thing I ate was that delicious banana cake from that one room. Remembering the after taste of that cake slice made me drool a bit, but I was brought back to reality when something splash in the water. There was something in the river that made that splash meaning I could kill for food. Time suddenly slow down as the something in the water jumped out and landed back in. The something was a tambaqui, a relative to the piranha except they eat plant and seeds. Seeing this fish meant I can catch one or kill one for food, but there was a problem I have no spear or fishing spear. I'm now starting to regret on not taking a spear from the barracks for this very moment of hunting.

"I best sharpen a long stick for a fishing spear," I suggested to myself and scanned the area, searching for a five or eight feet long straight stick. Searching around in the woods, but not too far from the river bank, I found a stick that's nearly straight and six feet long. I picked up the stick and walked back to the river bank, I can use one of the longswords to sharpen one end of this stick. After sharpening the stick I took off my cloak letting some strands of hair fall to both sides of my cheeks, I don't have to get my cloak wet anymore so I hung it on a nearby tree branch. With the spear in my hands, I entered in the cold running river and waited for a fish to swim by.

It has been a few minutes of waiting in the river that I caught three tambaqui for my lunch or dinner, actually I don't even know the time right now. I walk over to the bank with my prize from patient fishing and my meal to fill my stomach, sure I don't have a campfire ready, but I can cook without one. Once out of the cold water I place my left hand underneath the uncooked tambaqui and channeled my hell energy to form purple flames in my hand. The raw fish on the wooden stick quickly began to cook enough for me to eat. When the fishes were fully cooked, I put out my flames and started eating the cooked tambaqui.

After finish eating my meal and satisfying my stomach, I disposed of the bones of the fish at the side of the river bank and put my cloak back on. The blood on the cloak washed away from the water giving me no chore of cleaning the blood off. I look up at the sky to see it was night, the moon had a horse head on it and the stars were nearly out of place. It was the most beautiful sight I saw since I have arrived in this world and escape from the castle.

"I should rest, my strength will recover along with my hell energy and blood." I walked over to the same tree, that my cloak was hanging on, and laid down on it. Tomorrow I'm going to have to travel around and try to find a cave, near perfect condition ruins, or find Tartarus.

The sound of running water and birds in the trees woke me up from my slumber, but the sun's ray blinded me causing me to hiss like a cat and block out the sun with my hand. When my eyes adjusted to the light I lowered my hand to see the same river and trees I was around last night. I got to my feet and stretched my limbs earning a satisfying pop from each one. This morning I would be traveling around this forest for a place to stay and claim as my own. I took a look up at the sky to see on the far right was a bundle of gray clouds, it would appear that there's a storm arriving in a couple of minutes.

Time was against me now as the storm was approaching by every second I waste, the rain from those clouds would extinguish my flames making my power useless. I picked up my fishing spear and strolled into the forest in the quest to find shelter. It would be a long journey to find a shelter in this forest to live in, but I feared that the clouds would be over my head before I even had the chance to find one. Trees and vines made my travel difficult to navigate through the forest. An hour has passed from my journey, I pushed aside a branch in my path to make way to a small clearing that's not too far away from me.

When I reached the small clearing I glanced up to see the clouds were above me about to rain on me, fire demons can't use their fire in the rain, but there are some that can use different types of elements. This demon body I'm in can use hell's flames, but it can use other demonic powers like the cryokinesis, lightning kinesis, and other manipulation of black magic though I never have the training to use different elements. There are many types of demons that are in the frozen land to the black abyss. The roar of lightning boomed in the early morning rain storm pulling me back into reality and causing me to drop the spear.

"Uh oh." I ran north from where I had come from and search around for shelter before I found a cave in a small mountain a roar filled the atmosphere. It wasn't the lightning roar that made this roar it was a lion roar coming from the west of the cave. Demons wouldn't care to investigate on the roar, but I wasn't fully a demon. I headed west from the cave and saw a lion with horns, scorpion tail, and wings, it was a manticore from the mythology of ancient greek.

"Back! Back creature of the Everfree, you shall not make a meal out of me." A feminine voice spoke on the other side of the manticore, curious on who this woman is, I wanted to see this person. The manticore let out a growl ready to pounce on the woman, this lion won't be a problem to kill for food and for its lion pelt.

"You better listen to her, little lion or I'll make you." I notified the manticore and step out in the opening, it looked over at me and gave a low growl of hostility. The manticore turned around facing me showing its sharp teeth. This moment on facing a manticore is going to be exciting, but also dangerous at the same time.

"No! No, leave pony folk before the beast makes a meal you." The feminine voice said, trying to warn me. I drew out both swords from their scabbards and lowered myself into a fighting stance, speed is my key on taking this kitty cat down. The manticore lowered itself down ready to charge at me. I didn't give it the chance to attack as I ran up to it and swung my right sword diagonally to the right, slicing through the nose. It let out a roar of pain and swung its left paw, it missed me when I jumped back dodging the attack. The manticore's tail launched straight at me, this caused me to cross both swords into an x blocking it, the stinger was going to be a problem with me because of its poison, the stinger was above both blades. I chopped the tail using the x swords as a huge pair of scissors, the manticore roared in pain and swung its right paw at me, catching me off guard from its attacks. The impact of its paw sent me rolling on the grass with four claw marks on my left side of my body, a blood stain was now on my cloak after the injury healed.

"You're going to pay for that," I said in a dark tone enough to match a demon's. I pushed myself off the ground and glared at the manticore that licks its paw, that it attacked me with, with a bit of anger in my system I charged at its right side and swung both my sword in an upwards x slice. The blades sliced through its fur with a trail of blood behind it, the manticore roar and swung its tail at me, but it no longer has its stinger. I side step to the right and jumped onto the tail for a lift up to its back, the manticore did what I knew it would do I jumped off and ran on its back towards its head. It tried to shake me off its back by shaking wildly to the right and left, but it was no avail on shaking me off. I leaped forward and spun myself in mid air ready to end this beast, I brought down both blades into its skull and pushed it deeper through the skull to its brain. The beast stood still for a few seconds as I pulled both swords out of its skull, blood sprayed on me from the two holes in the manticore head. I hop off the dead creature and walk away from it, a loud thud came from behind.

*BOOM*

That was the sound of lightning I just heard along with a small droplet of rain, it was light, but soon will become heavy. I glance over to where I had last heard of that feminine voice from. My eyes widen on the owed of the feminine voice was a zebra woman wearing a brown cloak over a brown bra and a brown short skirt. She has two gold oval shape ears rings, three gold neck bracelets around her neck, four gold bracelets on her left arm, and two gold bracelets around her right thigh under her skirt. I stared at her for few more second before sheathing my blades and walk away towards the cave.

"Wait for me creature of the Everfree, as neither of us doesn't want to stay in this rain." The zebra said in a rhyme of words. I looked at her then back at the direction of the cave I let out a sigh and gestured her to follow. She didn't hesitate to be by my side, but she is cautious around me. I walked back to the cave with the zebra following behind as I travel back to the cave.

"Tell me why aren't you afraid of me, do you have a death wish?" I asked with a dark theme at the end of my question. The zebra looked at me and smiled like she knew something about me.

"I am not afraid of your appearance nor conflict; your action has proven to be a trustworthy pony." She said with a less bit of rhyming in them. It was surprising to see that she know that I'm not a monster like everyone on Earth thinks of demons, she was probably the first I have ever known that not afraid of me. We arrived at the cave entrance, I gestured her in while I walked around picking up sticks and twigs for a fire, the rain had soaked my cloak and probably the zebra's too. A fire should help dry off and help keep us warm until the storm dies down.

After two minutes of picking sticks and twigs in the rain, I entered the cave to see the zebra holding her cloak close to her. I placed the sticks and twigs in two separate pile, one that will be a fire as the other for fuel. The zebra raised an eyebrow questioning me of a lack of flint and steel, but I don't need those. I snapped my finger creating a spark in the wet wood a few more snaps from my finger the wood caught on fired.

"The fire will dry off our cloaks and keep us warm from the storm, that's raging outside," I said not caring if she disagrees with the idea. I took off my cloak and laid it on by the fire for it to try off, my purple flames are hotter than an average fire making it the best source to dry off my cloak. The zebra did the same thing with her cloak by the fire and sat down by it, there has to be named for her instead of zebra. I sat down by the fire for its warmth and looked up at the zebra, she has the looks of curiosity on her about the fire and about me. " do you have a question?"

"A question I do that is about you; just what creature are you along with your name." The zebra picked up a stick and tossed it in my fire.

"My kind is human, but I'm also a demon, as for my name is Justin or Heartless," I said both my regular and demon name, I leaned forward and held out my arm over the purple flames. The zebra's eyes widen and her pupils shrunk from the sight of the flames going over my arm not burning me." I said my name now it's your turn."

"Ah my name is Zecora and I am a zebra for your info." Zecora grasped hold of my hand and shook hands, her hand was like a human with five digits making me feel like I was shaking hands with a human. After the handshake, we both drew back our hands and put them by our sides. The purple flames were beginning to die from the lack of wood I picked up a few stick and tossed them in the fire, the flames at first didn't have any affects on them, but a few seconds later it started consuming the sticks.

The storm outside was starting to calm down by a notch, the rain was beginning to stop as the entire outside of the cave was dripping with water. Zecora and I gotten up to our feet or hoofs in Zecora's view, we grabbed our cloaks from their spot and put them on. After putting on our cloaks we exited out of the cave to see the rain fully stopped for a moment the clouds in the sky were still there, but darker than they were before.

"We should head to the east for it is freed of beasts and it is where I live," Zecora said and pointed left to the opposite direction where I first went to see that manticore and Zecora. She walked to the direction where she pointed, along with me following her. I can hear the clouds make a rumbling sound meaning that it'll rain soon before we could even reach her home. Not like the condition of the storm I looked down at Zecora who was leading the way, she seemed to know this entire forest like the back of her hand.

We journeyed through the forest for three minutes to another clearing with a huge boulder that looks like an upward cliff all moldy, it was at the other side of the clearing with blooming blue flowers of the two leaves, one on each side of the stem, four blue petals with lightning like veins in the petals. It would have been a perfect time to have a small break and look around the surrounding, but a roar came from the storm with a few drops of rain.

Zecora walked to the at the center of the clearing and looked around at our surroundings of where we are right now. I walked over to her and examined the flowers, they were interesting because of their appearance. When I was a few inches away from the flowers, I knelt down on one knee and reached out to touch one of them.

"Justin don't touch-" Before Zecora even finish off what she was about to say, I touched the plant and went flying with lightning coursing through my body.

"Note to self, don't touch something you're not sure of." I made a mental note of that flower and got back up to my feet, some sparks of blue lightning went crept up my arms and legs before fading away. Zecora ran to my aid and examined my body to see if any major damage was done to me, to do Zecora a favor." I'm fine Zecora, just what type of plant was that?"

"That plant is a Zap flower that is overpowered; they bloom in the storm like these and seize the lightning in their petals." Zecora's explanation was done. She smiled to herself knowing that the Zap flower did no damage to me, but I can feel the lightning giving me energy. A flash of lightning along with a loud roar in the sky, the rain was pouring more than last time before I touched the flower. "The storm will harm if we stay in long."

Before we even had the chance to continue our journey a howl from our behind stopped us. I turned around to see five wooden wolves, one of them was bigger and had darker wood than the others, they all share the same glowing green eyes. Zecora got into a fighting stance, but I raised my right arm up stopping her from what she was about to do. I walked in front of her and drew out my left sword with my right hand and pointed it towards the wolves. The darker one snarled at me showing its jagged wooden teeth, the others barked and began to circle around us. I grabbed Zecora's hand with my left and kept her close by me, the wolves snarled at my action and closed in on us.

"Zecora, stay by me," I commanded and channel my flames into my sword, the purple flames coated the blade from the hilt. The wolves backed away from us afraid of the fire, but that all changed when the rain made contact with the flames making a hissing sound. This is what I was afraid of the rain for even if I poured all my hell energy into a short dagger the rain would just put it out like it was dipped into water. I took this free opportunity and high tailed it with Zecora, she ran along with me I still have hold of her hand in mine.

The wolves started howling and gave chase after us through the forest, they're lucky that today was raining that gave them an advantage over me. We ran through the forest evading anything that was in our path. Zecora was still behind me because I still have her hand in mine. We made it to a tree big enough that the wolves won't be able to climb up, but the problems were that we have to stop and that one of us can climb up the tree.

"Climb up that tree Zecora!" I said and stopped right in front of the tree. Zecora looked up at the tree then at me, she not sure about something." Don't worry about me, just get up there I'll deal with the pest." Zecora nodded and let go of my hand and started to climb up the tree, she didn't have any trouble on climbing up the bark to the branch. Once she was up I turned around to see the pack of wooden wolves already here for us, but that's not going to happen. With the sword in my right hand I lifted up and walked forward towards the pack, they all snarled showing their wooden teeth.

"Shall we?" I asked, one of the wolves darted at me and jumped up into the, I swung my arm to the right slicing the wooden wolf in half, tree sap colored the ground, but was washed away by the rain. Another jumped at me and this one got lucky, it snuck behind me while I had dealt with his friend, I felt his wooden claws dig its wooden nails into my skin, drawing out blood, and sunk its teeth into my neck. I grimaced from the bite and grabbed the wooden head of the wolf with my left hand and pried open it maw, then threw it off of me to the ground, I raised my right foot up and stomped the head of the wolf, tree saps and twigs flew after the heavy stomp. The wounds and rip from the wolf healed instantly along with the cloak, but the blood from the bite marks and claw marks soak the spots on my cloak. The other three circled around me enraged about losing two wolves from their pack, two wolves had jumped at me at both sides, I didn't have a chance to kill one of them before both of them bit down both my arms and made me cross both my arm at opposite direction. I tried pulling back my arms from the wooden wolves jaws, this caused them to chomped down on my arms and ripped a bit of skin. The darker brown wooden wolf sprung toward at me, I raised up my right leg and kicked it square in its heads sending it flying back at a tree, it shattered into sticks from the impact. After that both of the wolves holding down my arm let go and looked at their fallen brother, I pulled out the other sword with my left hand and swung both blades separate at the two wolves.

POV Zecora

After the listening to Justin's fight, I climbed down to see something that gave me a fright. He was sitting in the middle panting heavily from his fight, his cloak was covered in blood on the arm, back, and neck. I ran to his aid to see if he was all right from his clash, only to see that he was alright. Justin heard me from his behind, but when he got up and turned around I find a frown on his mouth.

"You think of me as a monster do you," He said with a sad tone in his voice, he turned his head away in shame. I walked up to him and patted his shoulder drawing his gaze I smiled at him.

"Fear not my friend; you are not a demon," I said and grabbed his hand within mine before I gave him a smile. He was confused by my act of not seeing him as a beast, so his surprised expression, vanished away with a smile.

"Thank you Zecora."

Author's Note

Zecora's rhyming was a pain in this chapter, but I managed to get through. If anypony could help find errors on Zecora's rhyming please tell me so I can fix it. Hope you enjoy the fight scene in this story again not that good with grammer.

Edited by Lone