Chương 90: Chapter 89 - Demon on the Road

"Fence!" Atzi, Paulina, and Aelia shouted together at Fence. Paulina carried on, "You didn't tell me-" Fence put up their claws.

"Ladies, calm down!" Atzi ran up to Fence, grabbing the tiny lizard by the shoulders.

"I need to get there alive!" Fence brushed away Atzi's claws.

"And they will get you there alive. Especially since the job fell through." Paulina interjected, "Fuck that Cory bitch for that." Atzi was silent. She couldn't defend Cory when she was being a bitch. An insane one. She still wanted to date her. Paulina pointed at Atzi.

"Here's how this is gonna go. You get escorted to Mediolanum, I get an easy pay day. I didn't know it was you, but if you keep your mouth shut, I won't carve you a second one. Deal?" Atzi nodded.

"Deal." Fence smiled, showing off their tiny sharp teeth.

"See! Money brings us all together." Atzi glared at Fence. You cheap fuck. There's no way you paid them anywhere near what I gave you. But she sighed rather than say anything.

"... I'm ready to leave whenever." Aelia broke her silence, "The demon will be tricky." She looked at Paulina.

"But so long as you can protect us from attack, I can banish it."

"That's the easy part of the job. The hard part is actually getting Atzi to keep to her deal of shutting up." Paulina shrugged.

"Let's go." Fence pantomimed wiping a tear.

"They grow up so fast. Anyway, here's your cart." They pointed, and then quickly scampered off. The cart in question looked rickety, with a single donkey to pull it. Paulina clambered into the driving seat.

"Time to get this out of the way." - It had taken Paulina a few attempts at shaking the reins to actually get the donkey moving, but it eventually did. And it was at least a straight road all the way, so she didn't have to worry about guiding it. Atzi tapped her seat and readjusted her seating position a few times, trying to find a comfy way to rest her tail. She felt nervous but, somehow, managed to stay silent. Aelia, for her part, was content to not look at her at all. She just kept her eyes on the road ahead.

It was a long ride, but not one filled with insults, at least. After a few hours, Paulina suddenly pulled on the donkey's reins. It seemed all too happy to stop.

"I think we've found the spot." In the middle of the road were a few corpses and what looked like a destroyed cart. The last time she'd passed through, Atzi had noticed the cart, but the darkness had obscured the bodies. There was pure silence from the surrounding forest.

"It's here." Atzi whispered back. Paulina stood up. She withdrew two short swords, one in each hand. Aelia pulled down the hood of her priestess's robes and narrowed her eyes. Atzi tensed up, hand sitting near her dagger. Suddenly, there was a blur of motion across the dirt road and a loud clanging noise sounded out. Paulina flew from her spot atop the cart, onto the dirt. Both of her swords were in pieces.

"Oh fuck." Atzi gawped. The demon leapt from the trees onto the road, laughter reaching from her fanged mouth to her five eyes.

"You're not that strong, but you survived the first blow! Good enough for me to play with!" She swung her size-shifting sword through the air casually, as if playing with it. Aelia began chanting. Since she was paying them to protect her, Atzi took the opportunity to scramble out of the cart and tried to hide under it. From her hiding spot, peering from between the cart's wheels, she saw Paulina get up with a groan. She wiped blood from her chest.

"Damn, what the hells." She coughed. She reached to her belt, grabbing a pouch.

"Take this you freak!" And then she threw it. The demon swiped at it with her sword. Sand splashed out, getting in her many eyes, blinding her. But the demon didn't seem to be bothered at all. She just cooed.

"Nice trick." Then she made another wide strike, her sword elongating. It was a chaotic blow, seemingly without aiming. But her sword was so big, it didn't matter. Paulina threw herself down, avoiding the blow. It swept over her. Atzi heard a grotesque noise. The donkey's head fell onto the ground. And then Aelia's.

"Shit, shit!" Atzi panicked. She scrambled out from under the cart as she tried to think of a plan. She had to salvage the situation before she was killed.

"Demon! I know where you can find strong people to fight!" The demon smiled at her, cooing again.

"Someone trying to bargain for their life. I love this part. Okay, go ahead."

"A deal! Let me" - Atzi remembered Paulina - "let us both live and I'll tell you honestly where to find some really strong opponents." Wait. That statue person in the arena. Fuck, why didn't I think of them! I have to do that next time.

"Maybe! Tell me first and then I'll decide!"

"There's a statue person in the arena in Sostra that's the child of the General. They can fight some of the strongest mages in the city barehanded and win." The demon thumped her sword into the dirt.

"Bring them here!"

"I can't right now! I need to go to Mediolanum!" The demon glared at her. Even Paulina looked at Atzi, as if to ask, 'what are you on about?' Atzi quickly thought up an excuse.

"How about this! I have a better one! One where you need to let me go to Mediolanum!" She tripped over her own words as she spoke, "If you let me go there, I promise that within the week, Hasen will declare war on Sostra. There will be the strongest soldiers from each side, meeting each other in this area, then. You'll have everything you ever dreamed of. How's that?" The demon tapped her chin.

"Okay! But only you need to go for that. I can still kill her." Then she lifted her sword, pointing it at Paulina. Atzi and Paulina winced.

"She," Atzi made empty noises as she thought, "she can go back to Sostra and get the child of the General." The demon cooed.

"Let's make it a game!" She pointed her sword between Atzi and Paulina.

"You two try to kill each other and I'll let the survivor go!"

"Wh-""Demon's promise!" Atzi asked, "Why? What's the point?" The demon tilted her head like she didn't understand the question.

"Doesn't that mean you get less out of it?" Atzi asked.

"She can go fetch someone actually worth fighting! She'll want to, since you just killed" - she tried not to think about Aelia, restarting her sentence. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"Wanting revenge is normal, right? And this statue person might actually beat you." The demon shrugged, "Neither of you are strong enough to excite me. But making you fight each other would be funny. So I get entertainment now, and entertainment later."

"That's stupid!" Atzi shouted.

"You're stupid!" the demon retorted.

"I don't wanna-" Paulina raised her hand.

"I'll do it." Atzi jumped. Paulina pulled out a backup dagger, turning on her. Atzi pointed a shaking claw at her.

"You're injured."

"And you're an easy kill." Paulina sneered, taking a step forward.

"Besides, I've wanted to do this for a while."

"I don't wanna kill you, it'll make me feel bad every time I see you!" Atzi shouted. Paulina was silent for a moment. Then she said, "You are stupid." The demon added, "Told you!"

"I'm not." Atzi whined. Paulina took another step. Atzi backed away.

"Paulina." She gripped her own dagger, scared. But as she did so, she noticed Paulina making a symbol with her other hand. It was a signal from their old days working together. It meant 'plan'. Atzi quickly let go of her dagger with her other hand, making the same symbol back to confirm. She must be planning for one of us to fake our death here. That's the only thing that makes sense. Paulina lunged. Atzi needed to dodge poorly and be cut, or it wouldn't make sense. Pretend she was weaker than she was.

Plan in mind, Atzi made a clumsy swipe with her dagger. Paulina avoided it before driving her own dagger forward. Atzi tried to act shocked, like she didn't see it coming. That way she could stand still, and Paulina could hit where she was aiming. The dagger slipped into her scales, between her armpit. Atzi shouted in pain as she began to bleed, only slightly faking it. She fell back onto the ground, trying to hide where she was hit, as she spread blood from her armpit further up her chest.

"I don't," she coughed," wanna," and sputtered, "die." Paulina sneered down at her.

"Too late. I hit your artery. You'll bleed out. It'll be painful."

"But I helped you live," Atzi stuttered out, sounding weaker and weaker. She felt it was funny that Paulina didn't know that she had more experience than anyone in dying. She closed her eyes.

'Dead'. The demon laughed.

"Alright, go get me my fight. I'll wait here."

"If you go with me, it'll go faster," Paulina tried.

"And give up my spot? No way!" This fucking demon! Paulina was silent for a moment. Then she said, "Sorry, Atzi." She heard Paulina's boots on dirt as she walked away. Atzi had to stay perfectly still, if she wanted any chance to live. She stayed there in dirt, playing dead. There was a wooshing noise. She figured the demon must have moved somewhere else quickly. But she could easily still be watching. Atzi only had one hope. That someone would pass by and distract the demon long enough for her to run.

Whether that was the General's child, or an unfortunate traveler. She just had to hold out until then. - Hours had passed. Atzi didn't know how many, but she could sense the sunlight fading. Staying completely still for that long was difficult, one of the hardest things Atzi had ever done. And she couldn't even eat the bugs that occasionally crawled over her! She also had to deal with the uncomfortable feeling of blood near her armpit, and the accompanying lightheadedness.

Whenever she heard a noise, she had to stop herself from twitching in anticipation of it being either the demon or rescue. She wanted to crack open an eye, but knew it was a bad idea. She was starting to feel like pretending to be dead was worse than actually dying. - Hours later still, Atzi was on the verge of losing it. Of just giving up and accepting her death. She could tell it was night already. How much longer am I going to need to wait?! It was then she heard the rumbling of a cart.

There was another wooshing noise, and shouting. Atzi scrambled up, running for her life. As she did so, she saw what looked like a merchant's group of guards fighting the demon. She didn't stay to watch more- she could guess they wouldn't win. If the demon noticed her, she didn't chase. - Atzi eventually arrived near the shore, nasty pain from her scarred-over armpit, but still alive. She was also tired, so she wasn't going to bother with the Pangaeans just yet. Instead, she approached the city.

Like the last time she'd seen it, the stonework of middle Mediolanum was a mix of red and yellow. But there was no smoke, no wooden walls, no war. Just a peaceful looking city, surprisingly active for the time of night, mostly activity from the unbroken docks. Atzi wandered around for a few minutes, looking for a place to sleep. Eventually she gave up and approached a sweaty looking dockworker.

"Hey, where's an inn in this place?" He was chewing loudly on something, not stopping. He pointed down a street.

"Can't miss." Atzi grunted in response, and wandered the way he'd pointed. Eventually, she found it. It was bigger than Hemm's and painted yellow. A sign out front advertised it as 'The Old Home'. Atzi slinked inside. There were a few tables set out. Some sailors were up, gambling and drinking at a table to themselves. The place was otherwise empty. Near the back, there was a long bar with a bell on it. Atzi stepped up and rang it. She waited around, impatiently tapping her clawed foot for ten minutes.

Eventually, an old man - appropriately wrinkled to match the name of the place - stepped from the back in linen robes.

"Need a room for tonight, or whatever. How much?" Atzi asked. The old man smiled a toothless smile and held up four fingers. Atzi dug out some coins from her tail pouch and set the bronze on the counter. The old man scooped them up, grabbed a key, and led Atzi through a side door. After a short hallway, the old man opened her door and then tottered off. Atzi slumped inside, shutting the door behind her. The room wasn't bad, but nothing fancy either. Though it did have a large window facing toward the docks.

Atzi stripped off some of her dirtier, bloodier clothes, and then collapsed into the bed. She dreamt of Aelia's corpse. - Atzi slept all the way through to the afternoon. When she woke up, she slipped her dirty clothes back on. She was hungry, but she wanted to get the Pangaeans out of the way. Then she'd use her money to eat as much as she wanted. She stepped out from the inn, walking out from the city towards the northern beach. It was quite beautiful when it wasn't being assaulted and full of rocks and fire.

Once she felt she was a good enough distance away that nobody could be watching her from the city, she took out the whistle and blew. A few minutes later and a shark head bubbled out from the water.

"Who are you?" came a masculine voice. Atzi felt disappointed that the shark woman wasn't there.

"It's just you and not Gene too?"

"She's still underwater. I don't recognize you, weren't with the others when we boated 'em over here." He didn't sound suspicious, so much as confused.

"That's cause I'm with Sostra. I'm one of the prophets of their godscouncil, even. We wanna talk to the Forest, directly. I'm their representative. Alana, Daisy and the others agreed, so they lent me this whistle. You know how hard it was to get here? A demon almost killed me-" A fury of bubbles shot up from the water.

"What in the almighty Forest?" Then the shark man dived back below.

"Hey, get back here!" A minute later, he popped back up with the scarred shark woman, Gene. She asked, "They gave you my name. Why?"

"Oh, you weren't running off." Atzi sighed in relief.

"I asked. I said 'hey, at least give me a name to say so I don't look like an idiot.'""There's only one reason they woulda gave you the whistle. So, what, you want to negotiate to help us in the war with Hasen?"

"Basically. I need to talk to the Forest directly for that. You have drugs to communicate with her directly, yeah? Fancy yellow paste?"

"Blue paste."

"Right. Yellow was... that's the one that makes you dumb and lazy? Red makes you hyper? And black makes you horny. Right?"

"Are you here to negotiate with the Forest or ask for drugs?"

"One of the gods really likes good drugs. She insisted I ask. Honestly." The only reply was more bubbles. Atzi continued, "I'm here to talk to the Forest though, yeah. That's the important part." A mass of bubbles came from Gene, and then the shark man, and then back and forth some more. Atzi realized they were communicating in a way that she couldn't hear them. Then Gene said, "Alright, since you only need the drugs, we'll bring you some." Atzi whined.

"No! I need to talk to the Forest!"

"Yeah?" Gene sounded confused.

"That's what the blue drug is for, stupid."

"Wait... the blue one works even outside Pangaea?" Atzi scratched her head.

"Why wouldn't it?" Atzi shrugged.

"I guess I just thought it needed you to be in the jungle."

"You do need to be near trees. That's it, though."

"Sure." Atzi looked further up from the coast. There were plenty of trees.

"I can find some around here somewhere."

"But, you gotta give us back the whistle. Can't have you keeping it."

"Sure." Atzi tossed the whistle towards the water. Gene bobbed out of the water, raising her hand to catch the whistle. As she did so, Atzi could see the slightest curve of the shark woman's breast out of the water. She stared. She deserved those little rewards. Gene dipped back underwater, such that only her head was visible.

"Half a day, be back here." Atzi nodded.

"Got it." The two sharks left. Atzi turned back towards the city. She had half a day to kill, and she wanted food and a drink. And when that was done, she'd get to talk to the Forest again. And ask more questions.