Demian

Demian was not yet ready to go to bed. He was trying to stay up longer by asking for a glass of warm milk. He liked to be spending the holidays at his grand-parents because whenever he asked for warm milk before bed, his grand-mother would never say no. 

His grand-father was looking tired. He had been reading the same page of newspaper for quite a while now, at first Demian was thinking that it was really interesting but now he was sure that his grand-father was also trying not to go to bed by pretending to be reading. 

He drunk a bit of milk really slowly knowing that he would have to leave the kitchen as soon as he had finished. It was warm and sweet in his throat, he really liked the taste of milk before bed.

He slide out of his chair forgetting about the milk and pulled on his grand-father's sleeve. If there was one thing that would make his grand-father wake up that was the one.

"Please grand-pa, tell me the story!" he said.

"No again it's too late, and you already know it on the top of your head", his grand-mother complained.

But his grand-father didn't listen and picked him up to place him on his knees. 

"So which part of the story do you want?" his grand-father said.

Demian's eyes brightened.

"From the beginning of course!" he exclaimed.

His grand-father laughed and bent to bring the glass of warm milk at the other side of the table closer. Then he started.

"The most difficult thing you have to do when you are an explorer is to find a crew that will never let you down and will never go for mutiny. You need loyal people who would follow you to their death if needed. If one decide to act on his own it can put the entire crew's life in jeopardy. As a captain you need to stand firm on your ground and that's what I did. I knew the red Ylocs where around and nobody would tell me otherwise."

"But they started the mutiny" Demian said avid for more details.

"Oh they did, the poor men were starving", his grand-father answered.

"So you went on your own", Demian answered.

"Oh, yes I did", his grand-father answered. "And there are still people thinking I am insane for it."

"But you brought back the red Ylocs" Demian said with admiration.

"I would say that the red Ylocs brought me back. You see when I was on my own at the top of the mountain, the great Ylocs was calling for me. Several men had been lost looking for it before, but nobody ever found it before me and the reason is that it didn't want to be found back then, but it wanted me to find it." His grand-father answered.

"But why, grand-pa, why did the red ylocs only wanted to see you and not someone else?" Demian asked.

"I'm afraid that only the great yloc himself can answer this question" Demian's grand-father answered laughing.

"If you are done with your milk it's time to go to bed now", Demian's grand-mother said.

"I didn't finish yet", Demian answered as innocently as he could but his grand-father gave him the glass. 

"She is right, it's quite late already, I'll tell you the story tomorrow", he said.

He didn't yawn but Demian felt like he wanted too, he seemed so old and tired lately.

Demian finished his milk and stood up reluctantly, he wanted to know more about the red ylocs. His grand-father had told him the story again and again but it was not yet enough to fill his heart. He kissed his grand-parents on the cheeks and climbed the stairs to the first floor. He was sleeping in his uncle's old bedroom, his grand-mother would open the window everyday to get fresh air so it was still cold inside. He climbed on the unusually high bed, instead of throwing the old mattress, his grand-mother had put the new one on the top of it. He always thought that his grand-mother was strange somehow, nice but strange. She would always do strange things like that, and the milk before bed. He thought it was because she was old. He turned off the light. The moonlight was still enlightening the room, showing the ylocs drawn on the wallpaper. Some where originals, some had been draw by his uncle and his father when they were children. He didn't dare to draw some more, his mother had always told him that it wasn't good to draw on the walls. He started to count them. He had troubles to separate them. There were three sorts of ylocs, the blue ylocs which liked to swim, the yellow ylocs which Demian liked the less and the red ylocs, the ylocs from the mountain far away discovered by his grand-father. Demian liked the red ylocs the best, he wished to have his own yloc already but he was still too young. All he could do was to get ready.

He stopped counting them, he had done it multiple time but it always ended up making him feel dizzy so that he still didn't know how many there were. Once he had finished but he had forgotten the number the next morning. He closed his eyes a little dreaming about his yet to come ylocs and about all the places so far away they would visit together.

Demian is one of the main characters of Attic Mirror.