"Trust me. If I knew the mother trent would be that dangerous, I wouldn't have sent either of you." Bjorn said. "Besides, if I did plan on betraying you two, I would've died on the spot."
Donovan irked as he pulled Bjorn in the sled alongside Kalika, who kept quiet.
"None-the-less, you both did a good job defeating the monster."
Despite Bjorn's words, this didn't comfort anyone. In fact, Donovan seemed to become more apprehensive.
Bjorn could see that Donovan had a lot of thoughts on his mind, but didn't look to pry. Instead Bjorn kept a lookout for any other rogue trent's that they would potentially come across.
Soon they were finally freed from the writhering forest and greeted with a brand-new clean landscape of sharp yellow grass.
"We're finally out," Donovan said, exhausted.
In the far-off distance, they could see a huge, fortified settlement. It sat in the furthest corner of the plain by a big freshly flowing river that ran back through the forest. Both Kalika and Donovan couldn't help but marvel at how wide open the plain and the large town.
Bjorn turned his body and pointed to an area across from the settlement. "We can set up camp by those trees over there. For now, let's keep out of sight of the guards and residents."
Kalika kept her eyes glued to the unorganized stones of the settlement walls. Soon after, she returned to pulling along the sled with Donovan following the lead.
********
"Wouldn't it have been better to find an inn in the town?" Donovan questioned. He threw himself on a broken log, with his gaze fixed on Bjorn, who was scraping a flat piece of wood, turning it into some kind of long bowl.
"Did you forget already? The pit is the homeland of us demons, and a human like you would be a strange sight. Besides, we wouldn't want a repeat of what happened with you and that succubus."
Donovan became flushed. "Tch!" He pressed his fist against his head in frustration." L-look, I know it was a bad call on my end, but It's not like I was expecting her to rape me."
Bjorn side-eyed Donovan returning to the carving. "Mhmm…"
Kalika coughed. Her eyes turned to a glare as she stared straight at the food she was cooking, waiting for the golden-brown meat to be finished. Not long after, she took the cooked meat and looked for a more secluded place in the forest.
Donovan frowned upon seeing this. "I feel like I'm understanding Kalika less and less… After we fought that trent she…" Donovan grimaced further.
"It does seem like she's been becoming more distant lately, especially after that first bit of trouble you both ran in with."
"Yeah… Ever since that happened, she's been becoming more and more… Distant. And a lot more… Angry…" Donovan noted. "At this point, I wish I knew how to help."
"Have you tried talking to her?"
"You don't think I tried that? She's been spacing out and ignoring me, I'm not there. And the only time she does want to talk or acknowledge me is when she feels like it. And I…" Donovan felt at a loss for words. His arms flumped to his side as he hunched over.
Smelling that the meat was burning, Donovan looked over the fire of the food seeing that one of them was starting to get charred and crispy. He quickly moved to pick it up for himself while setting the other away from the fire to cool.
Donovan sat back down by Bjorn, looking at the slightly burnt meat. A very recent memory flashed in his mind.
"Bjorn, do you remember that black magic she used when she… turned?"
Bjorn raised a brow at the question, stopping what he was doing. "Yes?"
"Well, she used that same magic to kill that trent… And it only took a single hit for her to kill it."
With a piqued interest, he turned back to Donovan with narrowed eyes. "And you're telling me this now? Tell me everything."
Donovan proceeded to explain the event that unfolded when he and Kalika faced off the trent. To the dark magic and her strange outburst of rage, he had mentioned earlier. He even noted how her eyes seemed to have blackened around her yellow pupils.
After listening intently, Bjorn spoke as he continued to ponder. "I see… It's frightening to know she could still use this magic… I wonder if it has something to do with her trouble controlling her emotions… ."
Donovan became visibly confused by Bjorn's words. "What does her emotions have to do with anything?"
"From what I've seen of her and heard from you and what I've seen for myself, I think it's safe to say that she's taken up the characteristic of the lupeus race of our demon kin. One of nineteen. But only four if you're discounting those that are more animalistic in nature.
"Nineteen…" Donovan was shocked to hear this subtle revelation. "And only four that are not… Animalistic?"
"Yes. As you can clearly tell, I'm much bigger than most demons you've seen. But that's because my demon kin are of the ogre's descent. Then there's the succubus and Incubus I'm sure that you're well acquainted with. We sometimes refer to them as the cubus race. Then the karnal's and finally lupeus."
"W…Well what's the difference between all of you?"
Bjorn scraped off another piece of the wood, chuckling. "Aside from our size?" He rolled his eyes, continuing his work as he explained.
"Succubus and incubus usually survive through sexual interaction, usually their kind are more deceptive in nature and drain their victims of either their blood or… well I guess life essence is what some of them call it."
"R-right. Right." Donovan slowly set his burnt meat stick.
Bjorn continued. "karnal's tend to be a little smaller and thinner than most but are more mischievous in nature. There's also my kind that could be admittedly, temperamental at times… But we also excel with our pure brute strength."
Bjorn quickly blew into the hollowed wood. "And as for lupeus Their kind are closer to the demon of old. They're not the ones to show empathy often and lack control over their emotions. It typically takes years for them to master the same control as a human child from what I've seen. But their prowess with magic itself is a cut above the rest."
Donovan crossed his arms, pondering to himself. "So that would mean that Kalika should have magic powers."
"Like I said before, having magic and knowing how to use it are two very different things. To have control you'll need to be able to exercise a certain level of discipline to recreate and reproduce the same results." Bjorn gave a quick example by conjuring a ball of earth magic into the tip of his fingers.
"If you can't maintain how you feel when you need to…" The ball of earth quickly misshapen and contorted until it exploded. "Your ability to use magic will start to diminish."
Donovan took note of this, manifesting a fireball in his hand. "Hmmm… Right. So, if I get angry or mad, this can weaken my ability to use magic." He quickly extinguished the fire.
"It doesn't matter if you're happy, sad, or angry. What matters is when there's a sudden shift in your feelings. If your emotional state isn't stable, neither is your magic. And I think this is what might be happening to Kalika to an extent."
"What?"
"Since Kalika is a human turned demon, she probably hasn't adapted to being a demon yet. In her current state, she is probably a ball of different emotions, constantly changing on a dime. For all we know, it'll probably take her half a century for her to fully adapt to being a demon."
"But that alchemist could help change her back, right?"
Bjorn stopped his carving as he thought to himself for a moment. "It's possible. But we won't fully know until he sees her."
"And… what if he can't change her back?"
A brief eerie silence fill the space between the two. Bjorn stopped, pondering for a moment. "Then she'll probably be a demon for the rest of her natural life…"
"I see…" a pit filled Donovan's stomach. He could only wonder how she would react if she was told she could never be human again. Would she sink deeper in this false reality she's creating for herself? "What do we do then? We have to do something to help her."
"Hah. We?" Bjorn blurted another chuckle. "I doubt that I can do much to help. The only thing you can do is bring her back to her sensibilities whenever you can. But just make sure you don't get on her bad side. With someone as unstable as she is, we have to tread lightly."
"Right…" Donovan sighed and gazed up into the pit sky above. "Maybe when we get Kalika out from this pit she'll slowly turn around.."
"That's some wishful thinking… Do you really think she'll turn around so easily?"
"No, I don't expect it to be easy. But it's better than staying in this pit or that prison where we were rotting."
Bjorn gave Donovan a quick glare. "How naive. Your sympathy will be your undoing."
Dononva jumped to his feet. "And what would a demon like you know about that!? Is it wrong to care? She literally turned into a demon because of your kind! And none of that was her fault! There's being punished, and then there's being cruel!"
Donovna clenched his hands. "I just can't stand people who pretend they're the same thing. And more so when they know that it's wrong."
"I'm afraid to tell you , but you're standing on the wrong side of the wall. Kalika's done plenty of cruel things before, especially to those other prisoners."
"S-still… I… I want to help her… I want to help her get out of this pit…. And keep my promise…" A flicker of sadness filled his eyes. "Even if it's the last thing I do…"
Bjorn, scoffed seeing this. "You're too sympathetic for your own good."
"Grr! Say that again and I'll kick your ass!" He retorted.
"Bjorn simply rolled his eyes, ignoring Donovan's words.
Donovan took and chomped down the last of his half-eaten food, then threw it by the wayside. He promptly left Bjorn to his own devices.
"Where are you going?" Bjorn asked.
"I'm gonna check on Kalika."
Bjorn sighed, hearing him. "Remember, don't do anything stupid!"
Donovan Irked with frustration, "Whatever. What does a demon like he know anyways. His kind are cruel monsters so he wouldn't understand."
Donovan hiked under the purple leaves and illuminated the forest in a damp light. He kept his eyes open, and he scanned around for any sight of Kalika. Not long after he finally found her. She seemed to be digging in the dirt to uncover something.
He quickly hid himself behind a tree and watched closely. He noticed that she was staring at whatever she uncovered, gently caressing it. She then gripped it hard and pulled it with all her strength, revealing it to be a large flat stone. She took the large stone and threw it to the ground, away from the hole she dug it from.
She conjured her Dagger and plunged it straight into the rock itself. She began carving something into the stone itself.
She plunged and scraped, plunged and scarped, for a while until she was satisfied.
She took the stone slap back to hand lifting it up. She then plunged it into the ground hard making it stand tall. She brushed at its surface and smoothed out the symbols, making them more legible.
Finished, she stepped away from this small project and sat across from the standing stone. She then spoke with a steady voice.
"Even if this is a dream. You deserve this at the very least… I know you're no you can't hear me, but if by some miracle you can…please just know… If we somehow ever meet again. I want you to be my friend."
Donovan poked his head out further, hoping to catch a glimpse of Kalika's face. He saw as her saddened expression became more sour.
"What do you want, Donovan?"
Donovan was shocked that Kalika could tell he was around. Understanding that he was discovered, he stepped from behind the tree, rubbing the back of his neck. "I was looking to check on you."
"Well, you did what you wanted. So, you can leave now."
Her words felt like a shot in the chest. Despite this Donovan pressed on, approaching Kalika and finally noticing the words on the stone.
"RHONDA ARCHELION"
"Is this your sister or something?"
"No… She was just a maid given to me by my sister Lily." Kalika looked back at the tombstone. "It's just customary for servants to be buried with the last name of their master, otherwise they are said to reach the pits of the demon spawns."
"It was an entertaining fairy tale my adopted father would always tell. The story was called, 'The servant that did good'."
"Oh yeah. I think I remember my mother telling me this story before. But that was before she died." he remarked. Donovan moved in to touch the tombstone but was stopped short by Kalika as she tugged his pants.
"Please, don't touch it."
He ignored her, patting away some dirt from the top of it. "See… nothing weird happened."
"If you don't mind me asking, how did she die?"
Kalika's eyes darkened. "I… I don-..."
Hearing the reluctance in her voice, He didn't pry. Instead, he glanced around, picking a flower from the ground. "Hey Kal. Let's make a bouquet of flowers for her. How does that sound?"
Kalika seemed to light back up. Quickly agreeing to the proposal.
They both searched around, collecting an assortment of different flowers they could find and combined them together. Using a bit of leftover rope, Donovan tied them together and placed them in front of the tombstone.
He then got to his knees reciting a prayer for Rhonda's soul to find true peace in the unforgiving land they found themselves in.
Kalika simply watched on from the side. Despite her doubts about the effectiveness of the prayer, she still appreciated the gesture.
********
Later that night as everyone laid in their fur beds, Kalika looked into the black sky of the pit's ceiling. She turned to a large pouch and searched it until she found a piece of her mirror she liked looking at. "I wonder if I'll dream of Rhonda's memories again…"
She saw her once blonde hair and her green eyes through the false reflection of this mirror. She clung tight to it. The only proof of her humanity that she could possibly cling to. "This dream will be over soon, I'm sure… It has to be…"
********
Elsewhere, far from the boundaries of the settlement, a tall, skinny Blue demon with blue eyes and short white hair. His eyes were lit up as he looked over the town and then at the smoke from Kalika's group's campfire, the demon licked his lips with deep anticipation..
"His champion has arrived...."