Despite their ominous visitor last evening, the night went by without any incidents. Except for the fact that Morrigan wasn't able to fully relax in the end even with her guards' vigil doubled. She managed to get maybe a few hours of sleep at best before the loud innkeeper decided to do them a 'favor' and wake them all up for breakfast.

Thanks to the demon maid's hard efforts, the bags underneath Morrigan's eyes were neatly masked, but sadly looking good didn't translate into feeling good. She didn't even bother humoring the innkeeper by descending downstairs for breakfast, instead opting to eat in her room. Horace looked sad and miserable at this rejection but Morrigan was too tired to really care about it.

After breakfast, they didn't waste time hanging around the inn and instead quickly packed up their things to continue their journey further. According to the schedule written by Lucius, they would have to travel rather swiftly for the next three or four days to reach their first destination – Glittering Cave of Magic.

The place itself sounded wondrous. According to Viana it was the place where one could see magic in nature, how it came out from large crystals. From her descriptions alone, Morrigan was itching to paint the place. She wondered what beautiful colors filled the cave. Or if they perhaps reflected on each other's crystalline surfaces.

Unfortunately, it was located in a rather remote location since the high concentration of magic in the area made prolonged stay in its vicinity increasingly unpleasant. Some demons used the location for magical training since their magical reserves got restored much faster there.

However, since there were no demon settlements close to the Glittering Cave, it meant that at least one night the group would have to spend outside. Morrigan shuddered at the thought. She felt like something bad was bound to sneak up on them in the darkness of the Underworld. Like that giant Talpidot monster, she encountered after running away from Demon Castle. One misstep and she could have become its dinner.

"Morrigan, are you excited to see a completely new demon city?" Deziara cheered in the carriage. It appeared that she had no inkling of the troubles that occurred yesterday evening.

"It is a village, not a city," Viana corrected her, appearing rather bored.

"Oh, whatever. The point is that there is something new to see," Deziara's enthusiasm was not deterred, instead she peeked outside the carriage window. "I wonder how long we'll have to travel to get there."

"Lucius has written here that it'll take a whole day of travel," Morrigan said as she read through the schedule that the demon Prime Minister had prepared for them. He had written down everything they might be to be wary about during the journey and at which points it would be crucial to travel with haste and at which point it would be alright to take a lighter pace.

"Whole day? In the carriage?" Deziara groaned. "But we already spent most of yesterday in the carriage."

"No, we rode the carriage only for three hours yesterday. Today we'll be traveling for at least ten hours," Viana explained. While her expression remained largely neutral, Morrigan noticed her finger twitch.

Ten hours in this vehicle that constantly shakes. Even with a car that drove smoothly such a long journey would be very tiring. I hope demon bodies are more resilient to travel than human bodies.

"Ten hours?! Trapped in this box? Are you kidding me? I'll die of boredom. Can't we teleport there?" Deziara whined.

"Azrael could. Perhaps even Morrigan. But the rest of us don't have enough magic reserves to teleport to such long distances," Viana explained, then added after a brief pause. "Also such a way of travel is unsustainable in the long run. It just requires too much magic energy."

Deziara groaned and slumped into her seat, all of her royal grace disappearing. Morrigan chuckled awkwardly, doing her best not to show her displeasure. This was going to be a long, long day.

***

The entourage has been on the road for six hours. Viana and Deziara both had retreated to their own carriages as the long road put them in a sour mood and caused a lot of bickering. Morrigan changed her sitting position every ten minutes or so but no matter how many different poses she tried, she could never seem to find one that would be comfortable for long.

And it wasn't like the seats in the carriage were uncomfortable or hard. In fact, they were very soft, clearly made to make traveling as comfortable as possible. But the constant shaking and rattling seemed to outweigh any benefits the soft cushions provided. Even laying down didn't work as then Morrigan felt like her brain was being scrambled from all the shaking.

The underworld is in dire need of normal roads because this is just atrocious. How is anyone supposed to travel anywhere like this? There has to be a more comfortable way to travel. Aside from teleportation, of course.

Just as she thought of this, Morrigan heard a distinct sound of wings somewhere nearby. She looked out of the carriage and saw Haku, flying above the retinue clearly enjoying the exercise. She gazed fondly at the dragon for a moment and then an idea popped into her head.

"Haku! Fly a bit lower," she called out to the dragon. He obeyed, descending closer to the carriage and making the giant badgers snarl in displeasure at his proximity. Morrigan melted into the darkness and then teleported right into Haku's saddles. The dragon cooed happily and picked up altitude again.

Unauthorized use of content: if you find this story on Amazon, report the violation.

"Princess Morrigan! Please return to your carriage so we can watch over you properly," one of her guards, she couldn't tell which one exactly from so high up, called out to her from below.

"I'll travel on Haku's back for a while," she called back and positioned herself in a more stable manner to avoid falling off by accident. While the saddle was nowhere nearly as soft as the cushions of the carriage, Haku's flight was completely smooth. Not a single shake.

I should have done this from the beginning. This is much better than traveling by carriage.

"Hey, Morri! Not fair. I also want to fly on Haku's back," Deziara grumbled, looking out from her carriage window.

"I'll switch with you after a while," Morrigan called back, and then turned her gaze to the dark of the Underworld. Although when looking at it from Haku's back it didn't appear so dark anymore. There were still small lights coming from bioluminescent plants and fungi and even an occasional small animal. They glittered like tiny stars in the darkness providing a path forward.

Even so, Morrigan wasn't sure how the coachmen knew where they were supposed to be going. Every direction looked completely the same to Morrigan. But on the other hand she was never known for her navigating skills.

***

After a few hours, Morrigan couldn't endure flying on Haku's back anymore. Her thighs felt raw and her leg muscles were burning from her constantly clamping down on the dragon's sides. She never expected riding to be so difficult. Deziara, unaware of this, was more than eager to take her place when she and Haku descended to the ground.

"You're never going to get me off," Deziara cheered once Haku took flight again.

"We'll see about that," Morrigan muttered and slowly walked back to her carriage, making sure that her thighs wouldn't brush together. Much to her surprise, Viana was sitting there.

"Let me guess. Your legs hurt and your thighs feel raw," Viana snorted.

"Yeah. How'd you know?" Morrigan asked.

"When I had my tour, I also had the idea of riding a mount instead of sitting in the carriage all the time. Unfortunately, it is not quite as easy as our guards make it out to be," she said and pointed outside. Looking at the guards riding their beastly mounts, Morrigan realized just how much more difficult this whole journey must be for them.

"I'm amazed they are able to endure it," Morrigan said.

"They're trained for it. But I do have to admit that it must take quite a lot of endurance to make the whole journey riding a mount. This is just the beginning after all. It'll only get harder from now on," Viana warned, and Morrigan gently rubbed at her pained thigh.

"Is there a way to make it easier?" Morrigan asked. A small mischievous smirk appeared on Viana's face for just a moment. And then she just disappeared. Or at least it looked like she had disappeared. In reality, Morrigan noticed a small shadow lingering in the place where she sat. Then she reappeared once again.

"I'm surprised you didn't think of this first with how often you like to take shadow form. I cannot retain it for longer than an hour, but as far as I know – you do not have such a short limit."

Morrigan wanted to facepalm herself. How had she not thought of it before?

"Thank you," Morrigan told her sister and then slipped into her shadow form. The rattling and shaking did not bother her anymore for she had no body that could be shaken. The softness of the cushions also didn't matter. She felt the same way she always did when she took the shadow form – weightless and untouchable. Even the pain of her raw thighs became just a minor pang at the back of her mind.

"Enjoy your rest, little sister," Viana said and then left the carriage, going back to her own.

Thank you, Viana.

***

"Princess, Princess! Where are you?" Morrigan woke up from her guards' worried calls. It appeared that at some point she had fallen asleep in her shadow form.

How odd. I didn't think it was possible to sleep in the shadow form since I had no physical body. Maybe I am just resting my mind? Either way, I'm not going to complain.

Morrigan materialized out of her shadow form, much to the relief of her guards, and winced when the pain in her thighs returned.

I'll need to get some ointment on that.

"Wonderful. I never expected you to be in your shadow form. We have reached our destination," Jin informed her and opened the carriage door. She gratefully took his hand and looked at the… Well, it certainly looked like a village.

The place could be easily compared to the mole demon village she had been to before. The houses were simple and small, and the demons walking on the streets were clearly not pure-blooded. Most of them had reptilian features – scales covering some parts of their body, claws and Morrigan could have sworn that she saw one demon have a forked tongue. They didn't have the signature sharp, pointed tail of pure-blooded demons and instead had something akin to a lizard's tail while their horns were relatively small.

The entourage from the royal palace looked completely out of place with their fancy carriages, immaculate clothes and a clearly pure-blooded demeanor. The fact that Haku was sitting among the carriages like some overgrown guard dog only made the difference larger.

"Excuse me, but may we ask who you might be?" one of the lizard demons nervously asked while others observed from a safe distance. Jin stepped forward to answer.

"This is the Royal Entourage accompanying Princess Morrigan on her tour around the Underworld," he stated firmly. All the demons around them gasped and muttered among themselves nervously.

"The Princess? Why is she here?"

"What is this tour?"

"Wasn't there a princess on a tour here once? Some twenty years ago?"

"We merely need shelter for the night," Morrigan said with a smile, trying to lessen the tension. But it seemed to have the opposite effect as the lizard demons grew even more tense. The demon from before stepped closer, bowing his head and not daring to meet Morrigan's gaze.

"I'm sorry, but we are poor folk. We do not have a place where to house so many people," he said, the s's in his speech dragging out longer than usual. Morrigan looked around the village and realized that he wasn't lying. Her retinue had more demons in it then there were people in the village. Even if they were to spread out and each sleep in a different place, there still wouldn't be enough space for everyone.