~~Day 54~~
~~David~~
Waking up was a good sign. Moriah lay in the center of the crater, still breathing. Also a good sign. All the girls were still with him, Laoko included. Very good sign.
“Alright,” Jes said, stretching out her wings. “Caera, you and I go?”
The tiger nodded. “Makes sense. Laoko, just point us in the right direction. We’ll go get food.”
“But–”
“You’re still wounded.”
“I no longer bleed.”
“No,” Caera said. “You’ll slow us down.”
Sighing, the tetrad sat back against her tombstone. The crater was surrounded with them, making it a cozy little hideout in an endless land of fog. Not safe in the slightest, but from the outside, it looked innocent enough.
David’s stomach growled, silently, but it did, and he pressed on it as he leaned back on the dirt.
“Probably a good idea we stay here and hide,” he said.
Dao clicked and nodded.
“Las protect,” Lasca said, and she waved David’s knife around. The little lady still wore his extra breastplate over hers. “Five Las!”
“They can count,” Acelina said, voice dripping with sarcasm. But the insult rolled off the Las like water off a duck’s back, and they giggled as three of them swarmed her and hugged her thighs. She did like to sit in her feminine, legs-to-the-side style, practically begging for the girls to swarm and hug them. They did. And she didn’t push them away.
Jes and Caera had a quick sitdown with Laoko, shared some details, and got moving.
“Stay down, stay quiet,” Caera said. She gave David’s cheek a lick, and the two girls disappeared behind the tombstones.
They were gone. Silence fell on the group, and David squeezed the air as his muscles tensed. His breathing quickened. His heart rate increased. He didn’t like that they were gone.
Pain drew his attention elsewhere. His insides had become a black hole, Laoko was only partly healed, and Moriah didn’t look any better.
They all stared at the unconscious angel before David finally came down and checked her wounds. They’d removed some leather straps from some of their armor, and did their best to form a bandage for her shoulder that wrapped around her chest, but it barely did anything. It was a huge wound, half burned, half mangled, and the leather wrap did shit all. But it was better than nothing, and David checked it regardless.
It wasn’t healing, but it wasn’t getting any worse, and she was still alive. If it was like with Dao, surviving the first night meant she’d survive the next, if they got her some food.
It was a few minutes before anyone said anything.
“I suppose…” Laoko said, not finishing the thought. One hand clutched to her side, her three other arms dangled, and she looked up at the fog-covered sky.
Daoka chirped, crossed the crater, and sat with the ten-foot-tall demoness. Her hooves were so much smaller than Laoko’s.
“It doesn’t matter, little riiva. For now, I am stuck with you. But once we reach Timaeus, I am confident he will escort us to the spire.”
“How are you so confident?” Acelina asked. “As the unmarked said, the group has been avoiding demons because they will make their journey only harder, not easier. Timaeus is likely to simply eat the boy, as is Azailia.”
Laoko shook her head. “No, he won’t.”
“And how do you know this?”
“The Grave Valley is not Death’s Grip, zotiva. Would anyone in your spire sacrifice themselves for another?”
“I…”
Silence hit them again. David sat back where he’d been, but Dao stayed with Laoko, and gently clicked a few times once the silence had settled.
“Timaeus will help us because he owes me.” Nodding, Laoko grabbed one of her swords from the dirt and slowly ran its black blade along her thigh armor. “And Azailia will help us because she owes me, as well.”
“A spire ruler owes you?” Acelina snorted.
“She does.”
“I suppose you are quite old then, bolstara. There are few tetrads who can breathe hellfire.”
“I am.”
Acelina got up and slowly walked toward Laoko. Western music played in the background, or at least, it did in David’s head. If the spire mother had had a pistol, she’d have been readying to draw. The four Las backed off and joined David, but they squatted instead of sitting, ready for a fight.
“Explain yourself, tetrad. You know of angels. You know this area’s bailiff. You know this province’s spire ruler. They owe you favors. And yet, you and another tetrad were aimlessly wandering near the border with Death’s Grip? You expect us to believe that?”
“It wasn’t aimless. Teleius and I were investigating the noise and destroyed forest.”
“But why were you out there at all? Why aren’t you in the spire, or a bailiff yourself?”
Laoko aimed her red glare at Acelina’s black mask, but it didn’t last. Sighing, she looked to the side, let her arms hang limp on the dirt again, and her sword slipped free and rolled down the crater.
“The favors they owe me are from a previous time, Acelina. A time that no longer interests me.”
“Why?”
“Because I learned life can be lived differently.”
Acelina stood up straight and tilted her head. Her confused look.
“What?”
Laoko smiled. “If we live long enough to see Azailia, I will tell you. For now, let me rest.”
Daoko nodded, grabbed Laoko’s sword, and helped hook it on the tetrad’s back.
“Until then.” Acelina sheathed her six shooter and sat on the opposite side of the canyon from the tetrad. It wouldn’t take much to spark that relationship into an explosion. Best to keep them at a distance.
It wasn’t even Laoko’s fault. She was being secretive, sure, but she was helping them, and she’d said more than she’d needed to. Whatever her motivations, she was by far one of the most reasonable demons they’d come across, and David wasn’t about to waste that just because Acelina couldn’t help but start fights wherever she walked. The sooner they dropped her off at Azailia’s spire, the better.
But he’d miss her.
Dao chirped a couple times before sitting with David again, and cozied up against his side. It wasn’t long before he lay on his back again, and she on her side, snuggled to him and rubbing her forehead against his temple. Every so often her big ram horns nudged his shoulder or head, but after weeks of this, it felt normal. Relaxing, even.
Hours passed. A lot of them. He got up and paced, but Dao pulled him back down. Right, stay low and stay quiet.
“They’re not back yet,” he said.
“Of course not.” Laoko gestured out at the tombstones. “The hunting ground is hours from here.”
“They could be hurt.”
“Possibly.”
“Really hurt.”
Laoko watched him, expression neutral. “Yes, possibly.”
“I… fuck.” He hugged his knees. Dao rubbed his back and chirped in his ear, but it didn’t help. His brain plummeted into a downward spiral, and images of Jes and Caera dying stuck in his brain. Eaten by remnants? Not likely. Eaten by other demons? Very possible. Caught by the rider? Very possible. Found by angels? Maybe, but the angels wouldn’t attack them without reason… right? Maybe–
Noise outside the circle brought everyone to their feet in seconds, but David’s heart rate finally slowed when Caera stuck her face in between the tombstones and walked into the crater. Jes followed her, carrying an armful of hearts against her chest. Some big, some small.
He ran over and hugged Caera’s head. Caera blinked at him with her single eye, and nudged her cheek into his.
“Worried?” she asked.
“Yes, I was worried.”
“The boy,” Acelina said, “is a weak-willed creature.”
“Come on, David,” Jes said. “Since when did you get so worried so easily?” She stepped around Caera, but David grabbed her tail as she walked by. “What?”
“Sorry. I just… I dunno. It kinda got to me for a bit there, not knowing if you’d come back.”
Daoka chirped, joined them, and helped her girlfriend with all the hearts. A big one for Laoko. Four little ones for the Las; probably human. Others for Acelina, herself, and probably Jes and Caera, too. Quite the haul.
“Dao wasn’t worried,” Jes said. “Don’t worry if she’s not. I mean, come on, Caera and I were some of Zel’s best. You think we can’t handle ourselves?” With a satisfied grin, the gargoyle squatted down beside the angel, a small heart in hand. A human heart. “I guess we force feed her?”
“Don’t,” Laoko said. “Not with a human heart.”
“What? Why? That why you told Caera to bring back some demon ones, too?”
“Yes. You cannot feed an angel a human heart.”
“Why?” all the Las asked.
“It… is beyond my knowing. Feed her a demon heart.”
That felt kinda weird. Wouldn’t an angel be better off eating human? Or, would that be some kind of blasphemy? Whatever the reason, David walked down the crater, Caera at his side, and he combed her hair as the two of them sat around the angel.
Jes shrugged, tore off a piece of demon heart, and slipped the meat into the angel’s mouth. No good. The gargoyle pushed a claw between Moriah’s lips, and judging from how far she pushed, literally forced the meat down the angel’s throat.
Moriah opened her eyes.