8: The Magic Forest While the center of Leon City had very little green outside of Central Park, a dense forest had grown up behind the large steel suspension bridge to the east. Many myths and legends surrounded it, as well as the odd shivering tale that discouraged residents from venturing longer walks through it. Many times in the past, attempts were made to cut down the trees and to open up the land for more houses and skyscrapers, but something always went wrong when the logging was to begin. The machines started to strike or the forest became home to rare nesting birds, so that the project had to be postponed further and further and finally came to nothing. The inhabitants of the city did not know that in the middle of their mysterious forest, a lonely stone old wooden hut stood, in which centuries ago, two of the probably most powerful beings had settled, which ever wandered on earth. Phaelyn, a female angel, and Ifry, a female demon, had deserted their homeland and their armies after countless battles to build a new life together outside their war-torn world. Their choice fell on the hut near, at that time, Leon’s Keep. Far from human eyes, they lived a peaceful and even passionate life there. The bond that united the unequal pair was formed in their last fight. When both, exhausted from days of dueling, launched a final attack, their heads collided and within a split second they saw each other’s lives flash before their eyes. Saw each other’s ups and downs, their dreams and desires. What’s more, the look was shared with each other. Phaelyn’s normally golden blonde hair was parted in black, hiding a red eye, and a small demon horn sprouted from her head. Ifry’s pitch black hair got a golden patch from which a golden curl curled and hid a sky blue eye. They knew that after this experience they could never fight each other again and fled the battlefield and their world together. Only when they were sure that they were not being pursued did they realize that they had shared not only their appearance, but also their magic, which after years of peace and sporadic use was only a shadow of its former strength. Their power was still enough to drive away curious people or to disable the machines that wanted to burn down their forest.
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