The Mavka’s eyes brightened to yellow. “That territory borders yours.”

“I am aware.” Orpheus moved a low hanging branch to make sure it didn’t brush against her. He was always so careful of her wellbeing. “It means I can aid you. However,”

he said in a dark tone while pointing at him, “that does not mean you can enter my territory freely. It is mine, and if you begin to linger in it, I will fight to keep you out.”

“Orpheus!” she exclaimed, smacking him lightly in the chest. “That isn’t very nice. He’s your friend.”

“Friend?” he asked, cocking his head to the side. “But you are my companion that lives with me.”

“So?” Her brows drew together. “You can have more than one friend. Even ones that live in their own houses and visit.”

“But I do not want him to visit, to be close to you,”

Orpheus shamelessly stated.

“Mavka can be friends?”

“Sure,” she said as she turned away from Orpheus to look at him. “Humans have lots of friends. They generally only live with their families.”

“What’s a family?” They asked at almost the same time.

“Like a wife and husband and, you know, their children?”

Then something registered within her. “Oh, I guess you Duskwalkers wouldn’t know.”

As far as she knew, Demons didn’t procreate. I didn’t see a single child in the village. Or maybe she did but just hadn’t noticed them.

“Orpheus, can Demons have children?”

“Yes, but it is uncommon. Only those in this area do so, and only those that have created some form of bond together. I believe it is becoming more prevalent now as they grow more human, like you saw.”

What about Duskwalkers, then? Orpheus said he’d never met a female one before, did they even exist? Could they possibly be an all-male species, created rather than born?

“Where did you guys come from, anyway?”

They turned to look at each other, twisting their heads in opposite directions as if mirroring each other’s movements.

“I have never discovered the answer to that question,” he said with a lingering uncertainty in his tone. “And it appears as though he doesn’t know either.”

“So, you both just... appeared one day?”

“I don’t think that is the case,” Orpheus answered with a sigh. “I just cannot remember where or what I was doing before I ate for the first time.” He touched his snout. “I remember eating a wolf and my skull formed, but I couldn’t see, could only feel what was on my face. Did you eat a fox first, and then a deer to gain your antlers?”

The Mavka nodded in answer.

“That was when I started remembering things. My antlers caught on everything. I got trapped in thorn vines for a long while before the Witch Owl freed me.”

“I did not form my horns until I ate an antelope,” Orpheus said. “I remember staring down at its hornless form and suddenly having my own. I wandered through the surface for a long time after that, hungry and eating everything in sight. I was not much more than a mindless animal.”

“I was the same,” the Mavka agreed. “I could not speak until I ate a...”

He paused and stared at Reia.

“Yeah, a human, I got it.” His eyes turned reddish-pink, and she snorted a giggle. “I’ve kind of gotten used to the whole humans being food thing for Demons and Duskwalkers. As long as you don’t eat me, I don’t care.”

“She is strange,” he said to Orpheus. “She does not mind that we have eaten her kind.”

He chuckled in return, turning to affectionately bump the side of his snout against her.

“Yes, I have come to discover that myself.”

That still doesn’t answer my question, though.

Did Duskwalkers procreate? Did they give birth to children? What if Reia was to have sex with him? Would they have a child?

No, she thought with certainty. I’m a human, he’s a Duskwalker. We can’t reproduce. It’s not possible.

She wasn’t sure how she felt about that, but a part of her was relieved by the thought.

The journey back had been similar to the one travelling to the Demon village. Little happened, much of it was boring, and there wasn’t anything exciting to look at.

They spoke about the tools they’d obtained for the Mavka, and he pulled each one from his back so Orpheus could explain their uses and what he would need to do with them.

She listened in, thinking about the events that had played out, how she’d discovered what the village was like, how the few Demons they’d interacted with were actually... nice?

Then there were the many questions she’d had answered, and the new ones that had taken their place. Like the Demon King and his castle and why the Witch Owl had gone out of her way to make sure Reia got her books. What did they signify? Why were they so important that she had to have them?

Being curled up in his side was easier since it was thinner than the width of his back, and she was able to straighten her legs freely. She was exhausted, though, from not sleeping in a proper bed. She couldn’t wait to get home, have a warm bath and look at everything Orpheus had gotten her.

He’d almost run out of crystals, but hadn’t minded. She knew how big the original one was before he smashed it, and both her and the Mavka were lucky to have his generosity.

The part that brought her the most humour was when he tried to get her to pick out jewellery, as if he knew most women liked them. Most weren’t particularly beautiful, but

they each had pretty, uncut stones with metal twine holding them together.

There were, however, a few she thought might have been stolen from humans.

She didn’t want any of it. What was the point? They seemed like unnecessary things that would weigh her down.

But with how much he was trying to convince her, she had a funny feeling the last human he took there had wanted much of it.

The amulet on her head was the most beautiful thing she could wear, and nothing could compare to it.

When they got closer to their home, she heard the familiar sounds of the more animalistic, bestial Demons – so different from those she’d just met. She would have told them to grow a brain, but she did truly wonder how many humans they would have needed to consume to start growing skin?

“Oh, go away,” she groaned when she saw one climbing over the roof of the house before it crawled down onto the porch, telling her all the protections were gone. “I just want to go inside in peace.”

“It’s been a few days,” Orpheus said as he placed her down so she could stand. She didn’t need to be under his cloak since she didn’t smell human, but he kept her with him anyway. “Cover your ears.”