The air was cold, soft flakes of snow drifted gently towards the ground, adding to the thick layer of soft powder already covering the ground. Twilight was upon the abandoned city beyond the Wall and although most still slept one walked the streets, surrounded by crumbling building and reminders of the past. Some of it was caused by natural deterioration of the stone; a lot of it was caused by fights between the inhabitants. For life to the south was hard; especially during the winter when food was so scarce. Feet padded silently through the snow as the horse sized creature moved slowly, four log legs kept the dark body out of the show. Its movements were reminiscent of a hunting cat, the way it seemed to stalk even when there was nothing around. Sensitive ears listened for the slightest of sounds, any kind of movement that could have been caused by something unlucky enough to become dinner. For daemons were up amongst the highest of apex predators. The same as the sharks installed fear in sea-farers and crocodiles and alligators terrorised the swamps and waterways the daemon was the fear of the south. There was no creature on land that they feared. Daylight was swiftly disappearing and the darkness was taking hold, their natural element as their bodies camouflaged perfectly with the night. However a crumbling city was hardly a place one would think to see creatures like this. Yet it had been the place the daemons had made their home. The city itself was surrounded by forest, though with the winter the trees were bare and offered no protection against the cold, wind or snow. Beyond the forest was a small stream, iced over now with the winter chill and partially covered in snow, a large stone bridge still managed to make a safe crossing point. Beyond that stream was the Wall; a high testimonial of stone easily taller than a house secluding them away from the rest of the world. Over the years small holes had appeared in it and some ever foolish or curious humans had crossed over for reasons unknown. Most were never heard from again. What actually lie beyond the wall was a mystery to him, however. For even though humans had thought to invite themselves into the daemon’s domain, no creature of darkness had ever crossed over to the human side. It remained a mystery to them. And they were content to leave it that way.

Jeffery stared out at the massive wall taking in its many cracks and splotches of foliage that had managed to grow from it. The wall may have been beautiful at some point but now it was worn and run down much like a sock. Though its appearance was less then great it was still awe inspiring to Jeffery who had dreamt of what was on the other side for years now and today was the day he would put his dreams to rest and cross over. The boy carefully and quietly had snuck his way out of his home that night and was now making his way through the hole in the wall that he marvelled at for years. As he crossed over to the other side he saw a stone bridge that crossed over a frozen stream. Carefully he made his way towards the large bridge trying to stay as quiet as possible.

At first it was a faint scent that hit his nose. Lifting his head Cade sniffed the air and hissed dryly. It was a scent he recognised, a scent that he shouldn’t be smelling. Walking along with a more dangerous intent he shifted so that he was lower to the ground and began stalking through the forest on the outskirts on the city, following the scent as it began steadily growing stronger. Eventually the soft sound of crunching snow reached his acute ears but still the predator remained hidden. He’d circled around the figure fumbling through the now, so that he was between him and the wall, making direct escape much more difficult. A soft, but impatient hiss escaped the daemon’s mouth as he began closing the gap between himself and the intruder. It had been a long, very harsh winter and he was very hungry. Humans were hardly his idea of a meal and this one wasn’t fully grown yet, hardly a meal. However it was better than nothing and humans often made an easy meal, especially when they wondered so willingly into daemon territory like this. He had sometimes wondered why they did this, was life on the other side really so horrible that they would rather risk life with monsters? Or, perhaps they did just not know better. Finally deciding to move the creature began closing the gap and stepped out of the darkness, its dark body shining in the moonlight. A dry hiss escaped the creature’s mouth, the dry noise causing fog the air from the heat of his breath. However even as he stepped closer yet another dark shape appeared out of the darkness just to the right of him, another Daemon, though this one was female and slightly smaller. Cade turned to her instantly growling, the deep noise rumbling deep within his chest as she hissed back at him. The pair of creatures stood rigid as they stared each other down for what seemed like the longest time before Cade burst forward in an unbelievable display of speed for a creature his size and shot straight towards the female, who screeched; a noise reminiscent of tearing metal, as his claws slashed at her side. On almost the other side of the city the screeching noise woke up another residence of the land south of the Wall. Bolting upright she looked around herself for a moment before quickly hurrying off towards the sound of the noise once she realised her den-mate was missing.

Jeffery stopped after hearing a hissing sound but dismissed the sound as nothing more than his imagination. He knew he had an overactive imagination and this justified his put off of the hissing noise. Though he put off the hissing as his imagination he knew that the growling and fighting noises were not his imagination. He turned around for a brief second to see the monsters fighting but began running the other way across the bridge and farther into Daemon territory in the hopes of escaping the monsters.

The cold air stung his lungs as he ran, feet flying through the snow. All around him other dark shapes of daemons were starting to emerge from their dens, some of them looking at him curiously as he ran past, no doubt wondering why he was in such a rush, or perhaps why he was awake at all. Soon the entire clan would be awake. But he didn’t care right now. The only thing that mattered was getting to Cade. He needed to see what all the fuss was about. Another deafening screech echoed through the forest. Now her sight wasn’t nearly as good as the others during the night, hence why she elected to sleep during the darkest hours and did her own hunting throughout the day. As such she didn’t see the other figure running in the opposite direction until it was too late and the pair collided, sending both sprawling onto the cobblestone road in the snow. Mari was the first to recover and she pushed some of her hair out of the way as she jumped back, glaring at the… the human? She’d just smashed into. A confused look crossed her face before she pulled a sharp looking dark blade from beneath her clothes.

Jeffery had been looking over his shoulder at the fighting beast and didn't notice his course until it was to late to do something about it. He crashed into the other human and sprawled onto the ground. Quickly, Jeff got to his feet as he noticed the girl take out a dark knife which made his eyes widen. Jeff didn't know what to do and all he could think about was how bad it had been for him to come through the wall in the first place. Jeffery thought that maybe talking to the Girl and possibly working something out but by the time this thought had crossed his mind he was already high tailing it to his right, not wanting to go back towards the last monstrous Daemon and not wanting to tangle with the knife wielding Human.