The place was silent..... I could no longer hear or feel anything but his dirty breath on my arms covering my head.  I opened my eyes and raised my arms to see him in front of me, air spurting out of his black nose and looking at me wearily.

His big head is very close to my head, but he didn't eat me or kill me.  He's just standing there in front of me, motionless.  As if frozen, unable to move.  I can think of nothing more than that this sight is terrifying and makes my heart beat fast, making my whole body move with its might.  I can even hear his voice in my ear, as if it is there in my mind instead of in my chest.

  

Why is he standing like that?  Why hasn't he eaten me yet?

 

His breath hits my face and his eyes don't leave me, I've never seen a lion so close, I always see them from afar.

Suddenly he raised his head as if he had heard a voice.  Then he turned away from me, still looking at the horizon, and then ran back the way he had come.

It all happened slowly, and I am still amazed at this strangest spectacle in my miserable life.  I couldn't move at all, I'm still on the ground, my body doesn't want to move and my head hurts so much.

"Next!! Next!! Where are you? Next!!" I heard my father's voice, but I didn't answer him.

I'm still sitting on the ground.  I felt my dad's hands grab me from behind so tightly that his grip hurt my shoulders.  My father moved in front of me looking at my face, my body and everywhere, making sure nothing hit me.

And when he didn't find any injury, he squeezed me with a hug, mumbling words I didn't hear into my hair.

He pulled away from me, breathing hard, his eyes worried, then asked

"Has an animal attacked you? Did you get hurt? I'm sorry I'm late and leaving you here alone. Please speak!"

I looked at him with tired eyes and said in a very low voice

"I'm fine...just tired, I want to go home"

He came closer to me as if he hadn't heard what I said.  I spoke to him again

"I want to go home please, my head hurts so much I can't feel my body... I want to lie in bed for a bit."

 

My father looked at me saying I was crazy or something was wrong, but he asked nothing more than he nodded his head in agreement and then he lifted me to stand on my weak feet and we went.

What happened to me in the woods is still stuck in my head like flesh on bone, it's like the horror scenes we see in the plays that people play in the streets and by the houses.  It haunts me in my dreams and sometimes when I wake up I can still feel those eyes watching me.

Because of that I got sick and stayed in my room for days, I couldn't take it anymore or cared about it.  My fever did not stop and I could no longer feel my body or move from my bed.

 

My mother was always by my side, taking care of me and feeding me herbs and all kinds of medicine to stop my fever. Canela kept visiting me every day to check on me and that made me feel so happy and made me feel better, but it wasn't enough.

My father keeps asking me how it happened, and how I survived that lion.  And how and how and many other questions, although I told him hundreds of times the same story and did not change anything I did not leave a single detail, but he always has exclamation marks on his face as if he does not believe and always comes out of my room asking himself how a wild animal ate  Meat would let me live like this while I was in front of him an easy and weak prey like me.  He has a right not to be believed, I myself still cannot believe. 

The days went by and my body started to get better, and my fever was completely gone, but my mom wouldn't let me do anything or help, she just let me watch.

"Because you're still tired," she told me when I told her I wanted help.

She went with Sophie to get food and cooking supplies from the market.  I stay at home alone without doing anything, it is very boring, but I have no choice but to listen to my mother and sit down.

Today I am getting very bored of sitting in my room trying to knit gloves for the approaching winter.  So I left everything in my hand, and went down to the living room to put on my old coat, but before I put it on, I heard the sound of the door of the house slamming open and with it the sounds of many feet.

When I ran to the door, I saw my mother, Sophie, and my father entering with them, with signs of fear and panic on their faces.

"Mom, Dad, are you okay? What's going on?" I asked them, but no one answered me.

Suddenly Liam entered the house screaming:

"They're coming... they're coming."

  

I grabbed Liam's arm tightly and then asked him

"Who are they? Who's next?"

He looked at me with fear in his eyes, then removed his arm from my fist and said,

"fairies"

  

Then he went to shut the door tightly.

The rest did the same, they started closing all the windows and doors in panic.

My father entered his room and then came out with weapons in his hand, Sophie was sitting on the sofa, repeating words that I could not hear well because of the noise that was occurring.

My mom still shuts the windows and the frayed curtains before she pours water on the fireplace.  Someone kicked the door of the house hard!  I heard slashes of the door falling on the floor everywhere, even small bits reaching my feet.

When we all ran to see who did it, I saw something I hadn't seen in my entire life. A tall, burly man appeared with shoulder-length blond hair and white skin radiating from its purity, his cold brown eyes looking at everyone.

He wears a shirt with a buttoned hazel grooved on the buttons line in a beautiful way that reaches the neck and above him he wears a brown cloth coat that reaches above the knee and also the same pattern on it, his pants are darker brown and on his left waist is a long sword.

But what amazed me more than the man himself was his giant white-feathered wings.

  

This guy has wings!!

He has a yellow-orange aura like the sun's rays around him, and his face is the most beautiful I've ever seen.  He stands like this in the doorway of the house without moving, just looking everyone in the eye.

Suddenly he raised his index finger and pointed at Sophie, then said in a strong manly voice

"Sophie Alexander Harth, you have broken the law of the eldest by telling you that there is another world for men, and you must be punished."

  

My father stood in front of Sophie, protecting her from the creature, then said in a trembling voice

"No! She won't be punished, she didn't do anything wrong, she didn't break any law."

 

The makhlouf looked at my father, then smiled a malicious smile and answered him

"Are you calling me a liar? Are you saying that you don't know another world exists? Sophie is the one who told you, and you too will be punished if you don't get out of my way."

The creature took one step, my mother said crying while getting on her knees

"Please! Please let her live....Please don't hurt us, we won't tell anyone about your world."

Sophie kneeled next to my mother and looked at the creature with eyes that did not have fear and said in a voice like a spark of fire

"I haven't broken any law, I have only told my family about your stupid world, they are no strangers to me. So please get out of here and don't come back and I promise I won't tell anyone or let anyone else know."

The creature laughed loudly, placing a hand on its stomach, and when it was finished, its cold look returned and answered.

"Do you think I am an idiot? You humans have lies as easy as drinking water. You have hypocrisy and treachery in everything and anything."

He paused for a moment to pull his sword from his waist, then looked at me in astonishment and pointed the sword at me

"I've never seen her before... Looks like you have a third daughter, does she know too?"

  

My mother jumped up from her place and said in fear

"No! No, you don't know, we didn't tell her anything."

I complete it

"We didn't tell her and she doesn't know, so leave her alone."

I looked at my family and confusion filled my mind, but now everything is clarified, now I know about their secret this and how a part of me was right.

The creature took another step, but it was bigger than before, then raised its sword and said,

"The laws are the laws, and you broke them, although I don't want to do this, but I have no other choice."

Then he attacked us...

Everything happened at lightning speed, my eyes couldn't catch up with all of his movements when he attacked.

First he tries to attack Sophie, but Liam repels him with his sword, which I've never seen him carry before.  He struck his sword with the sword of the strange man he thought was a genie, and their screams echoed in the house.

The genie tried to aim his sword at my brother's chest, but Liam held him back.  The second time, my brother tried to hit him in the right foot, but the genie jumped and kicked him with his muscular legs hard on his stomach, causing my brother to fall a distance away from him and hit the wall.  

The genie approached my brother to stick the sword in his chest. Suddenly my father attacked him, trying to stop him from killing Liam, before my father's sword reached the back of the genie, the genie grabbed him by the neck and then threw him to the wall with a card that made my father not move.

Liam raised himself from the ground and stood on his feet, looked at the genie dirty and re-attacked him with the sword pointed at his head.  The genie smiled and ran quickly, before I screamed to warn Liam, the genie stuck his sword in my brother's chest.

The sword fell from my brother's hand and he bent his head to see the sword and blood flowing from it.

After moments that felt like hours, the genie pulled his sword from his chest, and Liam fell to the ground.  He looked at Sophie, who was standing with my mother in the corner of the wall, with expressions of astonishment on their faces.

My mother screamed as she pronounced Liam's name.  Sophie just looks at the genie with hate flowing from her eyes.  The creature slowly took its steps towards Sophie and its feet on the wooden floor made it move from below.  When he stood in front of her and in front of my mother crawling on the ground trying to reach my brother's body lying cold in half the room.

"It's your turn, Sophie Alexander Harth. Let me finish my job quickly." said the Genie.

 

She spat on his feet and answered him with tears in her eyes

"Go to hell, you disgusting creature."

He extended his hand to grab her by the neck, but my father surprised him from behind with the sword, it was not fast enough, so the genie avoided his hit and moved away from him.  My father advanced again with the sword in front of him, the genie took a big step to the right so that the sword would not approach him, and because of his action, my father's sword was stuck in the wooden wall and hung there.

Tried to pull it but to no avail.  The genie laughed mockingly, raised his sword with both hands, and then simply cut off my father's head.  He rolled his head on the ground with his eyes open.  This scene made all the blood in my head drain its place.