After the storm two days ago, not a single cloud graced the skies. I tried to keep the luggage above us, for shade, but the sweat from the heat was making me cold. I tried to simply keep the bags above Tom and the spider, while I myself, sat on them. Everything just fell the moment I landed on them.

The spiderling waved her spider legs at me and Tom, without a word, simply fixed the luggage into a neat pile again. Stupid bags. I sat back on the cat's shoulder and moved the bags so they'd provide shade for him and the girl while leaving me exposed.

I hugged Tiamat tighter and just let my eyes wander, over the grasses. Everything was just too bright. I buried my face in the dragon.

Around noon, I remembered heatstroke was a thing and pulled out a white coat with a hood.

Before me, was green. The grasses were waving lazily in the soft wind. At the horizon, the sea of green turned blue and seared itself into my eyes. I turned my head back into Tiamat's back. I was drowsy.

Tom was looking into my face. There was warmth in his eyes, I smiled and extended my hand towards his snout. He opened his fanged mouth and bit my arm off. I blasted fire at him.

Ahead of me was burning grass. I looked around in panic and Tom was still carrying me, looking over to see what happened. I giggled.

"The grass is so boring, I thought I'd make it a little more exciting," I said and waved my hand. I laughed, did he notice it was fake? I didn't. I was a little ball of cheer and sunshine.

I reached into my backbag and pulled out the violin. I let it hang in the air before me and moved my stuffed dragon around. After some thought, I laid it flat on my knees and propped it with a manapane.

Then, I attempted to play "The Night of the Tropiques". I kept failing, the memory of the piece unwilling to surface. I kept getting the noises wrong. After the tenth botched pull on the bow, I lowered the violin and exhaled. I shook my head and tried again.

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After burning some grass, Mads kept torturing my ears for the entire day. At sunset, she seemed to finally remember what she was trying to play, as her mistakes began repeating the same melody.

Once the last of the sunlight was gone, I set camp by the road. Mads took a sit in the middle of the dirt and with her dragon, sat on her legs, kept playing.

I set my tent on a pair of sticks and turned in for the night, using the furs for a blanket. Mads kept playing her cheery catastrophe.

I tried clogging my ears with mana, but whenever I fell asleep, it would slowly dissipate and the violins' moans kept waking me up.

After the fifth time, I crawled out. The spiderling was laying out a cocoon, made out of white silk. It was the first time I saw her sleeping bag. The past few nights, she went to sleep after and woke up before me. Back in the temple, she slept inside.

"Mads? It's time to sleep." I implored her.

The girl turned towards me and spread a halo of fire around herself. She looked at me for a while, her face hidden behind the flames. Finally, she shook her head and hid her instrument in the bag. She then curled up, hugging her dragon and waved at me.

I hesitated, but turned into the tent and slept.

In the morning, I was woken up, by Mads playing again.

"Top of the morning!!" She yelled out the moment she saw me, then mumbled, "Is that how that greeting went?"

I shook my head and gathered my tent, then set our luggage into a neat pile. I looked around for the spiderling, and she sat at the edge of the road, looking into the distance and eating a burger.

I picked up the two and after Mads lifted the bags, I took off in a run.

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I couldn't concentrate on my cartoons. Something in the air was wrong since we left the grove. I wasn't sure why. That forest smelled a bit like our garden and I liked taking walks there. We had a lot of cute pets there.

Did Mads not like cute animals? She smelled like the heroes that visited Mother sometimes. It wasn't a spice we put in the food, so I didn't know what emotion that was.

Would Mads smell nice again, if I gave her some of my food? I was always happy when Sisters gave me their snacks. But it was my food. Mother said I shouldn't share it with mortals. She said they were afraid of it.

Ah. That's what it was called. Fear. My new friend smelled like fear. But she wasn't afraid of me and the grove was cuter than me. 

The opening was over. I pulled a box of salty popcorn from the kitchen and became entranced by the heroes final struggle against the Evil God. I sipped the essence of sweet reunions to wash down the salt.

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I was beginning to get the song. The practice helped me, clear my mind. I stretched and looked around. It was sunrise. I must have been playing all throughout the night.

In two days we'd reach the forest.. then why was there a forest just ahead of us? I put the violin down and got up.

The massive oaks stretched high. Was it the same path my parents followed? Did they come from a different direction? It was dark between the trees. At the edge of the wood, to the right from the road, was Tom's tent. I picked up Tiamat and turned away.

To the left of me, at the edge of the road, was a white spider cocoon. I hopped over and tapped it.

Some rustling came from inside, and the spiderlings head popped out. "Is it morning already?"

I looked over to the sun, shrugged and answered, "I suppose."

The little head nodded, and the entire spider came out. Her human limbs just dragging on the ground, while she pulled herself up on the spider legs. She pushed her sleeping bag to the side and it dropped into nowhere.

This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.

The girl came up to me and we walked off to wake up Tom. Once we neared the wood, my skin crawled a little. It was extremely dark between the trees.

I waited at the edge of the road and the spiderling skittered towards the boy's tent. She tapped it a bit and then just lifted the tent flap.

"Wake up." She informed our friend and returned to me.

Tom got up, looked around at the sudden lack of the tent and sighed. He gathered his things, then jogged over.

I picked up the luggage and hopped onto the cat's shoulder. We entered the forest and I hugged Tiamat. A couple of steps in, I secured it at my knees again and got back to playing the violin.

It was bright when the spiderling poked my shoulder. I put down the instrument and turned towards the girl.

"It's where Madeline died, wasn't it?" She asked.

I looked around. The clothes, the carriage and any signs of battle were gone, but there was a circle of shorter grass around the road.

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Mommy was hugging my side and telling me about mister Horace, who would let us stay at his mansion until I could enter the Academy. Daddy said, if I studied well, grandpa would let me live at his place.

I didn't want to. Grandpa yelled at mommy. He also tried to take away Urh'shga Zhagihal, the last time he came over. He said a lady shouldn't hold a stuffed animal during dinner. When daddy tried to talk to him, grandpa shot a large fireball at him. I hated grandpa.

I walked over to the window in the carriage door. There were large trees outside, swooshing fast. They were swooshing almost as fast, as when daddy drove me to aunt Marice last summer. Daddy's car was more comfortable and it had music.

"I don't want to go to school," I complained to mommy again.

"There will be other children, you will have friends your age finally," Mommy said and smiled warmly at me. I loved mommy's smile, even if she wanted me to go to school.

Uncle Sebastian yelled something from outside, but I couldn't understand what, because he stopped half-way through the word. Daddy got up and looked outside.

One of the guards was already by the window and they whispered something to each other. Then the guard jumped up to uncles sit at the front of the carriage and we slowed down.

"Sweety, be a good girl and sit tight. We will come back in a second." Daddy said and left the carriage with mommy.

I waved my legs and thought about what kind of friends I could make. Maybe I'd meet an angel, like Queen Sha'ziob. Then we'd go on adventures and get married. We'd become strong, and I would beat up grandpa for always yelling.

Suddenly, I fell to the floor. The carriage was leaning down and I slid out through the door, that opened on its own. All of our boxes were on the ground and there were people yelling.

I couldn't see mommy and daddy. I run around the carriage... The horses were dead!! I closed my eyes and tried to run faster, but tripped. Someone picked me up.

"Honey, why are you outside?" I heard mommies voice. I opened my eyes, she was holding me. Behind her, daddy was fighting some ugly, dirty peasant. Daddy waved his war pick like a hero in a legend.

Everyone was fighting. There was a lot of peasants. Our guards were cutting them down like grass. I hugged my head into mommy.

But mommy put me down. "Stay behind me, sweetheart." I listened and stood behind mommy.

Someone screamed in a terrible voice. "Die noble scum!!"

"Shoot that man down!" Daddy yelled to a guard with a crossbow.

The arrow flew off and all of the yelling stopped. Daddy dropped his war pick and kneeled.

I run up to him. "Daddy! Are you hurt?!"

Before I could hug daddy, I felt a little woozy, tripped and fell on my back. I tried to look at daddy, but couldn't move my head. I reached out my hands. I tried to call for mommy and daddy, but my voice didn't come out.

Everything was dark. I felt cold. Where was...

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"... mommy?" I opened my eyes. I still couldn't move my body. I tried to struggle and my bindings loosened. I looked down at them. It was some sort of blue silk weaved from mana.

The spiderling was hugging me and had a conflicted look on her face. I laid back down.

Fuck. I breathed out slowly. "Thank you, I'm alright." 

I tried to collect my thoughts. The bandit attack, my... Madeline's parents' death. Right, spiderling said they died here and I collapsed.

"Hey, how did you know Madeline died here?" I had to ask.

The spiderling looked away, then peered deep into my eyes. "I waited for a friend. When a little girl died near my portal, I asked one of my Sisters, to find a soul that would make for a good friend."

"Find?" I pressed.

The girl nodded. "To whisk one away from the paths of reincarnation."

So I wasn't killed to be her friend. I blanked out. I wasn't sure what to think... about anything. I felt tears in my heart. I think they were there from the moment I woke up in this world. I just kept running and laughing, not thinking about my deaths, too deeply.

"Do you want a burger?" The spiderling asked. I was hungry. "What kinds do you have?"

The girl let a small pile of burgers fall out of nowhere. "This is human." She pointed at one in brown wrapping. "That one is elf and next to it is a gnome." She pointed at a green and blue ones.

"I also have dwarf, lizardman and a few giants." She gestured towards an orange, yellow and grey wrappers. "Oh, and the best is the dragon." This time she pointed at a black wrapper.

I was tired and hungry. "Human." I could go for something simple. I picked up the brown wrapped burger and took a bite. It was good. Tasted a little like frustration, ambition and gluttony.

"Ok. You won't get more." The spiderling picked up the black one and put the rest away.

I munched two more bites.

I was eating a human burger. While chatting with some sort of spider demon, whose sister could whisk away souls.

I looked up.

I turned my gaze towards the forest. It wasn't all that dark. Here and there, sunlight filtered through the canopy, creating beautiful pillars of golden light. It was so green.

Bugs and birds, sung all over, spreading a peaceful melody.

I got up. "I will be gone a while." With those words, I picked up Tiamat and boosted a couple of times, above the trees.

In the distance ahead, was a much larger oak, easily twice the size of all the other trees. I boosted towards it.

Slightly winded, I landed at the top of the humongous tree. Its branches were populated, by small white eagle-like birds, with snake tails. A couple hopped over towards me cooing. I smiled at them and sat down.

I put the burger on a manapane and fixed myself with a few more, to not fall off. Then I placed Tiamat on my knees and petted the teddy a bit.

The moment the birds noticed my toy, the birds hissed and flew off. For a moment, I was surrounded by the flutter of white wings and then they were gone. High in the sky, like a tiny cloud.

I wondered, which of my mothers, told me the tales of heroes climbing Great Oaks, to find what they lost. I just sat, looking over the sea of trees and letting my thoughts drift.

It was the Earth one. The one here, told me of Overlords conquering nations, defending their homes from heroes... Right, I was a devil now.

Well.. she told me those stories, but then she'd sit down at her laptop and write emails to her business partners. Grandfather was an old Overlord. Mom ran from home, to live with dad. He was... an accountant?

He was rather clumsy with his weapon.

I thought back to the Leshy's grove. I felt fine? No. My hands trembled a little. But I began to recall the excitement I boasted to Tom.

Absentmindedly I grabbed the burger and took a bite. It really was one, damned good burger. I laughed. The first fucking, genuine laugh in the last few days.

A devil was afraid of the dark.

The bandits. They were all dead... but they somehow killed a bunch of nobles, in the middle of the Academy territory. They couldn't have gotten here easily.

Now I had a more sinister smile on my face. I chewed through the rest of the burger.

And fell from the tree in a coughing fit. Too much food. I puffed a couple of times, then boosted back towards the road.

I landed in a tumble next to Tom and the spiderling, who were playing something in the dirt.

I grabbed the cup next to the spider and took a large gulp.

With my throat cleared, I sighed out. "Hey, once we finish school..." I paused to wait for my friends to look up to me. "What do you say we hunt some cultists... and put some fire under one Leshy?"

The spiderling nodded. Tom looked conflicted, but after a second nodded too.