Reia turned her head down to look at her bare palms.
There had been no gloves that would fit her. She reached
inside and clenched the sides of her cloak to hold onto them before pointing and waving her hands inside it.
Okay, that’ll work if I want to point or look at something.
“You both must be careful. Don’t wander away from me, either one of you.” Then he crouched down in front of her.
“You must stay within my cloak at all times. Your disguise will help to hide what you are. You are right, you look like a short Mavka. The amulet you are wearing will not protect you from these Demons unless they touch it directly. They are some of the strongest.” He reached up to cup the side of her neck, touching her skin directly in a comforting gesture.
“But if there is something you want, tell me, and I will procure it for you. Anything, Reia. Ask for however much your heart contents. I have brought enough crystal to trade, and I can carry it all back no matter how large or heavy it is.”
Heat warmed the skin over her cheek bones as a swirl of tenderness fluttered in her belly, like a torrent of butterflies.
She went to rub her cheek against his bony one and accidentally bashed her mask against him.
“Oops, sorry,” she laughed.
He chuckled in return.
“And be careful of making that noise. Demons here are more human than any you have ever met. They also laugh, but not like you. They will notice straight away.”
“Should I just growl all the time, then?”
He chuckled a little louder this time, his jaw opening to allow it to echo. “Perhaps that will make your disguise more convincing.”
After that, they set off to cross over the clearing that surrounded the village.
There were multiple entrances made by narrow gaps between the bases of the trees that were far more daunting up close. The base of each one was at least the size of their home and the yard surrounding it. She knew it would take minutes to walk around each one if she could. The bendy
roots were bigger than her in height to support their large, twisted bodies.
But inside the village? Reia’s eyes nearly fell out of her damn skull.
It was colourful.
Strips of dyed cloth hung from the very centre of where the twisting tree canopy came together like a dull point before bending down and being lifted at the other ends to attach to the sides. Purple, red, blue, and yellow material fluttered.
Fire torches were lit so frequently that there was a source of light everywhere she looked, highlighting streets, lanes, buildings, and even their entrances. It left the area dim, but gave enough brightness that she could see clearly.
There were buildings made of wood and clay, tall with some having multiple levels. Some had signs like clothier, blacksmith, shoemaker, even a fucking florist.
It looked like her kind had made this place. The buildings, the carts of wares they were trying to sell, the houses painted in bright colours – although they seemed to favour the colour red. It looked like a village she could have travelled to that was further away from the Veil above the surface.
The further humans lived from the Veil, the bigger their towns or cities were and the more advanced they could be.
She’d always wanted to travel to one that had large, unclimbable walls, and she wondered if they would have looked similar to this.
It looked human, as though at first glance she could have been mistaken – if it wasn’t for all the Demons that walked around. But even they were strange and odd, so different from what she’d ever seen.
They were mostly human-shaped. Some had more animalistic feet, others had spikes or fur jutting out slightly, but their faces looked similar to her own. One might have large fangs around their lips while another had a pig-like
snout. A Demon who looked human except his horns walked past her, and she could see many others with different kinds of wings. Most of their skin was black like the void she was accustomed to, as if stars might begin to twinkle like the night sky, but some had patches of flesh. Some brown, and others pale like her.
None were completely human coloured, but it appeared as though they were starting to look like them. She suddenly realised they were. They had consumed enough of her kind to start looking like them, acting like them. Humanity. They were consuming humanity with each person and changing.
They were even wearing clothes, hats, and shoes!
Holy shit. This was so mind-boggling she feared her brain would burst from her skull in an explosion of information overload.
The Mavka, who had been instructed to stand on his back feet as much as possible, whined as he scratched at his snout.
“It smells here. It is too sweet.”
“That is a cloaking aroma to dilute the smell of blood and fresh meat,” Orpheus explained, keeping a firm arm around Reia hidden inside his cloak except for her head. “It helps to stop those who would become crazed by the scent of blood from going into a frenzy. You will shortly grow accustomed to it and grow thankful when we are closer to the markets.”
As they walked further in, the odd Demon walking around became many. They grunted, snorted, and gave lowing noises like cows. One laughed and it sounded like a bird squawking repeatedly.
“Is that music?” Reia whispered up to Orpheus so he could hear her over the bombardment of noises.
“Yes. They have mimicked everything and have figured out how to play instruments they have stolen.”
They’re actually not bad at it. Sure, it wasn’t perfect, but she thought they were better at it than she could ever be.
The music came from everywhere, and she looked up to the top of a house when she thought she heard the banging of a drum getting louder. She saw a lone Demon sitting on the tilted rooftop playing one with their hands.
They passed building after building, and she retreated into Orpheus when they were inside a small crowd of Demons.
