When the grey skinned imp first arrived, he had been confused. He had no idea how he came to be in this new place. Teleportation was nothing out of the ordinary for him, but this was different. It wasn’t his own power that transported him here and he didn’t even know where ‘here’ was or how it was possible.

  But he wasn’t alone. He was surrounded by other imps, except these ones all looked strange. They were smaller than him and had red skin. He’d never seen imps like that before, all those from his pack, and other packs they occasionally interacted with, looked just like him. While some had lighter or darker skin tones, they all had the same general colouring. He didn’t understand why these ones looked the way they did.

  There was one that was different though. Her skin was purple, a colour that was a rare sight where he had come from, and she was much bigger than the others, even bigger than he was, this was the first time he’d ever seen an imp so large. But if she was the biggest, then she was also the strongest, which meant she was the leader here. If he could beat her in combat, he would be the new leader; then he would get the most food and the best stuff.

  Yet despite his determination, he suffered the most humiliating defeat he’d ever experienced. Even though he knew the odds were against him from the beginning, he hadn’t expected her to be able to completely overwhelm him without ever using her own teleportation even once.

  But after the fight, he witnessed something unbelievable. One of the smaller imps placed her hands on the large one and all the wounds he had managed to inflict during their fight began to heal before his eyes.

  He didn’t understand at all how such a thing could be possible, but he hoped she could also do the same for him. His arm had been injured during the fight and while he hadn’t let that stop him, now that the fight was over and the battle thrill had faded, he was starting to feel just how intense the pain was.

  He held out his injured arm, the smaller imp placed her hands upon it and the pain began to fade. She couldn’t take all the pain away, but it was reduced to an ache that was unpleasant, but tolerable.

  There were many things he didn’t understand about this pack, apart from just their language, though he realised they were trying to teach him. But they also had a specific word they used to refer to him. ‘Coal’ they called him, but he didn’t know what it meant. He wasn’t the only one though, they all had a different specific word that they answered to. The one who had bested him in battle was called ‘Violet’ and the one who healed him was ‘Rose’.

  But that was only the beginning of their strangeness. They had tamed the ruthless monsters that his old pack called the ‘flamebringers’, something he never would have believed possible if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. There was also a mysterious voice that spoke to him sometimes, though he couldn’t find its source or understand its words.

  It was baffling at first that none of the other imps ever teleported for any reason, they just walked everywhere for everything. But soon he realised, it wasn’t that they chose not to teleport, but rather that they couldn’t. Not a single one of them was able to do something that was as natural to him as breathing. He couldn’t decide if that made his loss against Violet more humiliating or less.

  But if they couldn’t teleport, then none of them, besides Violet, would have any chance of beating him in a fight, which means they couldn’t stop him from taking whatever he wanted from them. He may not be the leader, but he could still claim a high position within this pack by proving his dominance.

  Yet whenever he tried, either Violet or Rose would always stop him. He didn’t want to listen to Rose, even if she had a strange healing power, she was weaker than him, so she shouldn’t have any authority. But the strangest thing about this pack was that even though Violet was the strongest, she still deferred to Rose as if she were the leader. He couldn’t comprehend it at all.

  A few days after he’d arrived, he saw one of the other imps plating with something unusual. It was a small, strangely shaped rock that easily glided across the ground when pushed. What stood out to him was its colour. It was blue, another colour he rarely saw in his old home, especially so bright and vibrant as that rock.

  He wanted it and was going to take it.

  “Mine,” he said as he snatched it from the smaller imp.

  The other imp complained and while Coal couldn’t understand what he was saying, he could guess that it was demands for the item to be returned. The smaller male tried to take it back, but Coal was bigger, stronger and could teleport.

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  Coal teleported behind the other imp and shoved him hard enough to push him to the ground. The imp glared up at him and growled, but instead of trying to challenge Coal again, he got up and ran out of the room.

  While Coal was satisfied with his prize, admiring its vibrant hue, the other imps soon returned, with Rose and Violet in tow. Coal frowned, having a good idea of what was about to happen. Rose approached him and held out a hand.

  “Give,” She demanded.

  “No, mine,” Coal refused.

  “Give,” Rose repeated.

  Coal narrowed his eyes. There was no reason for him to listen to her and no reason for her to be in charge, even if the others obeyed her. He glanced at Violet who was looking down at him with a frown. He didn’t understand why Violet wasn’t the leader, but he saw it as an opportunity. He couldn’t beat Violet in a fight, but he was confident he could beat Rose. Once he had proven his dominance over her, everyone who looked to her as the leader would have to acknowledge him as the leader instead.

  Rather than hand over his blue rock, he shoved Rose away. She stumbled backwards, but as he stepped forwards to press his advantage, he was tackled by Violet and crashed onto the floor with the larger imp coming down on top of him. He looked up at her and saw fury in her eyes.

  That wasn’t how it was supposed to go, he was supposed to be fighting Rose. He didn’t want to fight Violet right now, especially since he knew he wasn’t going to win. He teleported a short distance away and tried to surrender, but she charged at him again, slashing with her claws.

  He dropped the blue rock, no longer caring about it when faced with his current situation. He needed both hands to defend himself, but seeing her rage, he feared she would not stop even if he gave up after she had already rejected his surrender already, so he prioritised teleporting to keep out of her reach.

  Despite doing his best to stay away from her, she kept chasing and her speed was incredible. She was unrelenting and every time he let her get too close, it meant more pain and more blood. But he soon realised it wasn’t just Violet he was dealing with. There were other imps in the room besides the one he took the blue rock from and they had seen the commotion from the start. Even though they had not intervened before, they were no longer acting passive. They didn’t chase him as fervently as Violet, but they would still lash out at him if they saw an opportunity. This wasn’t how a leadership challenge was supposed to go, it’s supposed to be one on one. For a brief moment, he considered himself lucky that the flamebringers were not also present.

  Eventually, Rose called the others off and they stopped chasing him, though with one look at Violet, he could tell she was still seething. He had inflicted a few minor injuries on Violet as he defended himself, but they were quickly healed by Rose. He cautiously approached, hoping to also be healed, but Rose just glared at him briefly and walked away.

  It made him wonder if her mysterious healing power was the reason why she was the leader and why the others worked together to defend her. Would she deny healing when it was needed to anyone who disobeyed her? Whatever the reason, he knew it wouldn’t be wise to challenge her like that again.

  He skulked away by himself to find an unoccupied room where he curled up in a corner to sulk. He stayed there for the rest of the day and even after it got dark, he remained where he was throughout the night, even falling asleep at some point, still sitting alone in the corner.

  Once it was light again, he decided to seek out Rose. She was wary as he approached, but no one moved to stop him. He knelt before her and bowed his head to show his submission. She placed a hand on his head and he felt the lingering pain fade as the wounds from the day before were healed.

  After that, everyone acted like it didn’t even matter. The imp he tried to take the blue rock from even offered it to him freely, but after the trouble of the day before, he no longer desired it. It was yet another thing he didn’t understand. In his old pack, if someone challenged the leader and lost, they should expect to be mocked and ridiculed by others and to be treated poorly by the leader for a while. But that wasn’t happening here, it was like after he had submitted to Rose, nobody cared about what he’d done anymore.

  Later, he went out hunting with some other imps, including Violet. He was the first to catch anything, as he saw something flying overhead. He teleported up into the air to grab it and though he missed on his first attempt, he teleported again as he began to fall and successfully caught it the second time.

  He teleported back to the ground when he started falling again. From that height, he might have been able to land safely if he’d just let himself fall, but he wasn’t completely certain of it and didn’t want to take the risk.

  The creature he caught screeched and struggled frantically in his grip so he quickly pierced it with his claws to put an end to it. It was small enough that he could easily hold it with one hand so it would not be especially filling, but it was a start.

  He tensed as he saw Violet approaching, expecting that she would demand he hand over what he had caught as it was always expected that those higher in the pack hierarchy should eat first. But that didn’t happen. Instead she patted him on the shoulder and though he couldn’t understand the words she said, the tone sounded encouraging. Then she walked away, leaving him confused.

  As the group continued, he observed how they divided things. Prey hunted collaboratively was shared evenly among the group, but smaller things that were easily caught by an individual were left in the hands of that individual, though sometimes they still decided to share it anyway. And through it all, Violet never used her strength to claim a larger portion than anyone else.

  This dynamic was completely different from how his old pack did things and he didn’t understand, but he was starting to.