#fantasywatch

For a while, they traveled on in the dark, her lone figure illuminated only by her staff. “Are we there yet? We’re getting closer, right? How many days has it been now? Ugh, time is torture on this side!” It was not long before his nattering began anew, unaffected by her audible sigh. “You sure you’re not going backwards? Can’t you just open a portal and pop us right to wherever we’re going?” Mei had stopped bothering to roll her eyes, if only to save her energy, the butt of her staff thunking against the ground steadily as she used it as a walking stick. “For the last time, I don’t work with portal magic. That’s one of my colleagues, and she’s very far away right now. Believe me, if I knew how to work portals, I would not…be here…” It had been three days. Their only stop had been to resupply at the village, where Mei gave them the news that the demon in the canyon had been ‘vanquished’ and that their goats would be safe to live out their happy goat lives from now on. Jamison had whispered to her the entire time, suggesting stories about their magnificent battle against one another whilst begging her to play up how powerful and handsome he had been. Mei had found her smile wavering more than once, but the villagers had rejoiced in her victory, rejoiced even more when she humbly refused their tiny offer of payment, given her a nice dinner, and the next morning she had set off in the direction she had come from- with the pesky demon safely stowed in the pin beneath her hat. According to her maps, this part of the road was faster, but she had never used it. Tall black trees rose up high on both sides of them, towering over everything and choking out the light below, casting everything below the canopy in perpetual black and purple twilight. The birds and insects had fled ages ago, and left only silent, many-eyed things that lived in the darkness between the tangled roots. There was no sound save for the sound of her boots and the occasional rustle of the wind that sent their black limbs shaking and clattering against one another, a hollow noise like rattling bones from far above. This forest was very old, very sick, and very angry. Anyone with good sense avoided it. So of course, she was here, tromping right through the thick of it and by all appearances, talking to herself. It had taken some getting used to, hearing that irritating voice in her head, and more than once she’d had to downright threaten him into silence, though it never lasted long before he eventually forgot and began bothering her again. But now she was a little glad of his presence and his chatter. The silence would have been deafening otherwise, and the darkness of the road loomed ahead with no light in sight. Jamison must have noticed her nervousness, uttering an overly-spooky little “WooooOOOOoooooo…” in her head. “Stop it,” she said firmly. “Little too dark for your tastes, eh love? Want me to come out and walk with you, light the way a bit?” She thought for a moment. She’d ordered him to stay hidden for obvious reasons, but there wasn’t a soul around for miles that she knew of, and the oppressive darkness threatened to overwhelm the soft blue light that her staff’s crystal provided. A little taste of his glowing fire, demonic as it might have been, would have been a welcome reprieve. But there was still the chance, minute as it was, that another traveler might be walking along the same road, and after another bit of pondering, she shook her head and knew he could feel it. “We shouldn’t. You’ve already caused enough of a panic as it is and we can’t risk it. Besides, I’m sure everything is fine. It’s just a little…Well, maybe it’s a tiny bit creepy? But only a little.” “Maybe one day I’ll take you back to my place when we find my pal, we’ll show you around,” he offered. “S’nice and bright and hot, not like here.” “There is no way I am going with you to the demonic realm, it’s probably full of fire and chaos and…I don’t know, unpleasant things? It was bad enough in that stuffy canyon. It’s much nicer in my homeland, nice and cool and snowy!” She beamed a little at the thought. “Sounds awful,” he replied promptly. “You’re awful.” “You’ll change your mind once you see it, darl. I’ll show you all sorts of treasures the others don’t even know about. It’ll be nice t’have you around, ol’ Pigface can keep the whole hordes at bay but he is not much for the conversation. Not like you! Now, you, I could talk to all day!” “I know,” she groaned. Jamison already could, and did, talk to her all day. “And don’t worry. I’ll explain everything to my Guild, we’ll find your friend, and then you can both be banished and head back home.” He was oddly silent for a moment, and it almost seemed to echo in the confines of her pointed hat. After a moment, his voice was a little smaller. “Yeah but…ya know. You could come with, for that visit? Or I could stay. I mean, there’s no hurry to anything, right, don’t need to rush these sorts of things! How about we just play that one by ear?” Her footsteps paused. The demon was lonely, and for a moment, she had felt sorry for it. “That…Well that’s to say, it’s not…for me to decide?” “Why not?” “Well you’re…I mean, you’re illegal. You’re not supposed to be here at all. You have your own realm, we have ours, and you’re…well, you’re the epitome of evil?” “Aw, d’you really think that? Like I’m a big, strong, handsome sort of epitome? Flatterer. Charmer. I knew I liked you for a reason.” “Not you, you!” she said quickly, starting to walk again. “I meant demons as a whole. You’re more of a…” She squinted behind her glasses. “I still don’t know what you are.” He paused. “…Stop.” “I mean, I know you’re a demon. Because demons are all-” “Stop!” He said again, more firmly, and this time there was an edge to his voice. “Shh. Listen…” She paused, clutching her staff in both gloved hands. For several very long moments, she heard nothing but the soft sound of the passing breeze up in the treetops above. But Jamison’s tension put her ill at ease, and she swore she felt an icy chill travel up and down her spine, goose pimples raising all over her exposed skin. In a nervous motion, she leaned suddenly to smooth and adjust the bottom of her skirts, adjust the garters beneath th- There was a PTING!ing sound that rang out like an alarm from the treetops, and something whizzed past her ear where her head had just been, trailing a venomous glowing red. She startled, synapses firing at random, and tried move both forward and backward at the same time, feet falling out from under her as she was knocked onto her rump. She tried to collect herself, blood pounding in her ears and almost drowning out Jamison’s bellowing in her head, but even as she flailed both boots in the dirt for hold, she flopped foolishly from side to side like a newborn colt. At a loss, she brought her staff into the ground, the crystal glowing white-blue as ice rose up from nowhere in front of her with a whoosh and crackle of crystalizing air and moisture. She heard the thud, saw the ice splinter where another of those spells hit her barrier. Something loud popped in her ear and then exploded into reality. One moment there was nothing but licks of frost flickering through the air, and then Jamison was suddenly there, bringing with him his own whirling storm of ash and cinders, yellow and red and mixing with the softer blue of her frost motes. He uncurled out of the nothingness, reaching down and grasping her by both arms to haul her up off the ground. His pointed ears twitched and he smiled down at her, but it wasn’t his usual smile. This one was a leering grin that stretched out his features and bared almost every single one of his sharp teeth, lips pulled up to reveal pinkish red gums and the yellowed roots of his fangs beneath. “Think that one shaved a few hairs off you, love. Come on, come on, get yourself together!” Irritation took over panic and she found her nerve again, planting both feet down once more, if only just to spite him. “I-I’m fine! It came from up there, up in the branches.” “…Ice us up to our left, darl! Wait, I mean, other left! No, first left!” She flailed her staff to and fro as his directions changed, and managed to bring another icy barrier up on that side, just as there was another sharp ringing noise from the darkness overhead. A red glow hit the barrier yet again. Jamison put his back to hers, head tilted upward. “If it’s up there, we're nothing but targets down here,” he said. “Okay, we’ll just…we’ll just…” She looked around frantically, starting towards the tangled roots of the forest off the road. “Just give me a moment, we’ll try to find somewhere more sheltered, maybe if we get some cover, I can wall us in, we can make a plan!” “No time to hide! We’re going up there!” “W-wait! How are you g-” She cringed back as a pair of black and red wings, bony and ribbed like a bat’s, seemed to explode from his back, unfurling in a rush of wind and a flurry of glowing orange embers. They found the air and grasped it, flapping mightily as his arms wrapped around her and they went hurtling back up into the air. Mei remained crushed against his chest, clinging onto him with her cheeks flushed as she held her hat in place. He offered her a smarmy, fang-toothed grin, with that same cocksure confidence as always. Their eyes met, dark brown locking with glowing yellow… It was all quite gallant until she realized that only one of his wings was actually effective and they were completely out of control. Whatever had taken out the limbs on his right side had mangled that right wing along with it, and it was crooked and torn, flapping frantically to make up for its lacking power. They were still technically in flight, but she realized that it was wobbly and steering was clearly not an option, and the unlucky demon’s flying ability was at about the same level as a very desperate chicken. He couldn’t fly very far or very high, but his struggling took them up into the trees and away from the open ground. Jamison overshot the limb he’d been aiming for, flinging out his metal claw and sinking it into the dense black bark of the trunk, leaving long raking marks in the wood that slowed them to an abrupt halt. It almost jostled his precious ice mage right out of his grip, and she was yelling something he didn’t really bother listening to as he wedged his other long arm up and under her breasts, gripping tight around her ribcage to keep her and all her silly poofy cloth from slipping free. He managed to deposit her onto a thick branch, hunching over her to make sure both feet were planted- His shoulder exploded in a spray of molten black ichor and he screamed, mouth stretching and dripping fangs inches away from her face as it spattered over both of them. He fell forward onto her, leaving the horrified little ice mage with both arms wrapped around his bleeding form, his wings sagging. The light shifted, filtering through the maze of bare branches overhead, illuminating the scene eerily. She tried to lift Jamison back upward, shoving and pleading, as a figure rose up from several yards away. It looked female, tall and lithe and beautiful in an otherworldly way. Her skin was a ghostly blue pallor, her lips painted dark and her eyes a luminous yellow that almost matched the fire demon’s…although as Mei looked on, several other eyes seemed to open from nowhere as well, covering the top half of her face like a spider’s. She didn’t seem to wear robes or clothes, but dark shadows seemed to cling to her skin, bathing her in bluish-black from the neck down, shifting and wisping eerily over her skin. She strode forward, spike-clad heels digging into the wood beneath her and her manicured black claws glowing the same dull red as the spells that had nearly killed them both already. The woman’s lips twisted into a poisonous smirk, lifting one hand to blow them a kiss as dangerous-looking red vapor drifted over her palm. “Hello.”