Demon continent Alsace in the year 290 after the shattering of the empire.

Where humans rarely come into the world with a core, it seemed to be different with the demons. With them, it seemed that all newborns were born with a core. And this was the point where he differed from his twin, so that he was given away.

The demons had a name for such newborns, Cikart these were called.

The Cikarti were newborns who had not been born with a level three core or with none at all. This seemed to happen more often lately, but he was not sure how long this period was and whether it was years or decades? Normally, these Cikarti were released from their suffering shortly after birth. Since only the strong should survive, so the belief of the demons.So however, he came to the question, why he was still alive? And why he was in a moving carriage with further Cikarti?

Not that he had known all this from the beginning. When he had awakened the first time after his birth, which was an event, which he did not want to live through again. He had been able to determine which race it was. From a human to a demon, that did not seem to him to be a big difference. Apart from the possible horns, the goat-like pupils and the tail. Well, the skin colors that the demons had were another thing that made him tear even further from his former lives as a human. As was his gender or the language he had to learn in order to get any information at all.

Like the fact that he was a Cikarti like all the other children in these wagons. So were all the adults who came in every now and then through the entrance covered by sheets to check on them all. These adults, however, were not like the children at level one or without a core, but at level three or above. Whether this was to be seen as a cross-section of the population of the demon realm, he did not know. What this did tell him, however, was that Demons had a population in which users of the Arcane Energies had a higher percentage of the population than, say, humans. And that he and all the children, as well as the adults who cared for them, were the minority.

But this still did not clarify the question of why he was alive, even though the demons seemed to have an aversion to Cikarti? Nor had he come close to an answer when he had learned the demonic language in its entirety. It had given him only the certain information. Which he had overheard from the conversations of the adult demons. He was careful to use his senses, let alone look someone in the head. Not if he was only level one and everyone around him, with the exception of the newborns, was one or more levels above him. So his first months in his new life were filled with long sleeps and learning the demon language. Which he learned in his waking moments. Then, after he learned the demon language, he was able to get a picture of his situation. To his knowledge of Cikarti he learned the names of the adults as well as something about their everyday life.

It also seemed that none of the adults were his mother or father. This information had been a bit sobering. And he didn't know exactly what to make of it. On the one hand, he would have found out later in life if he had been a normal demon child. But since he was not a normal child, he already knew what to do with this information. Of course, there was a possibility that his parents just hadn't looked after him yet, but since all the other children were visited by their parents and taken outside for a walk. He had to assume that his parents had given him to this group, consisting of former Cikarti.

Which was probably the reason he was still alive. Whyever a society that had members like the Cikarti had a group of them. In which children who are called Cikarti can grow up. Perhaps he would find an answer to this later. For the moment, he could only lie in his crib and think about all this. Perhaps his parents were ashamed and had given him away because of that?

No, he shook his little head, there was no point in thinking about it now, he would find out in due time. Just at that moment, the drapes that served as entrance and exit were pulled aside and Sappho entered. She was one of the demonesses who took care of the newborns. She herself didn't seem to have any children, or at least none young enough to lie here in the wagon with everyone else.

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"Well my little ones, are you all hungry?" She asked with a broad and cheerful smile. She was clearly having fun taking care of all the kids. At the moment only he was awake, all the others were still asleep. In total, there were eight of them in this wagon. What he could say, however, was that this seemed to be the only wagon that had newborns in it.

"Oh, is it just you awake, little Clia?" He had to grimace when he heard his new name, which only made Sappho laugh. It was well known among all the children's caretakers that he didn't seem to like his name.

"What, you don't like your name little Clia?" She asked with amusement in her voice. This was not the first time she had asked him that. This question was always followed by another one, asking him what he thought of this name. Not that he could tell in any way, he didn't want to talk to her telepathically after all. He still wasn't sure what natural defenses Demons had against psions. Most of the time, though, he would grimace, which she would usually interpret correctly and then repeat the question with a different name.

"Mhm let me think about it - "while she walked through the Little Car to see if others had already woken up. - "How about Cali?" As she asked this, she leaned over one of the other newborns to see if he was awake. At the mention of this name, he had to pause and without realizing it, a smile crept onto his features. Memories of his childhood as a boy came back to his mind, in which his friends had given him the nickname Cali.

"You seem to like that one, little Cali?" Oh no. "I've never seen you smile so broadly." She had approached his crib and was now taking him out of it. To feed him, to begin with, women had come who had nursed them all. This was meanwhile however fortunately past and they got a kind of mush to eat.

Every time he had to think back to it, shivers ran down his spine. He was a grown man trapped in the body of a little newborn demon girl and had to be nourished by breastfeeding. He liked the porridge much better, even if it was no comparison to a real meal. But he also had no teeth with which he could have eaten a meal. So he opened his mouth and let himself be fed. His pride as one of the most powerful people of Arkan would not let him starve to death in his new life. Even if he felt like saying goodbye to his dignity, but who would ever find out? As long as he didn't tell anyone, no one would know.

"Always so lost in thought, I wonder what you're always thinking about little Cali." Sappho asked him with a laugh in her voice.

"A newborn who is now already always just lost in thought. I guess we have to be extra careful with you?" She watches him, or her as she saw him, swallowing his porridge.

"At least you don't make a mess like the others when you eat, and also you're always good and eat everything to the last bite. The others should take an example from you. Do you think you could convince them to be more like you?" Just as she said this, another demoness came in.

"Well, are you talking to your favorite Sappho? But you're right, little Clia is really low maintenance." Sappho had to laugh, which was a beautiful sound. She was, if you compared her with a human woman, a beauty. She had long black hair that spilled over her shoulders in waves and reached almost to her buttocks. However, he believed that she was much taller than a human woman. This seemed to be the case for all demons though, they were all taller than the average human. Her skin color was like most demons, an ash black, others were blood red. It was ashen gray or ashen white, which was streaked with glowing veins. This was one of the aspects that all demons seemed to share, their skin was crisscrossed with veins that looked like glowing embers.

What with skin colors ranging from ashen black to ashen gray and blood red, a stark contrast was. A pair of black horns, which like her eyes had something of goats, protruded from her forehead.These were adorned with various jewelry, from golden chains, which contrasted excellently with her pitch-black horns, or pearls on chains and gemstones. Or the glittering dust she spread on her horns, which made them look like the night sky.

He didn't know how old Sappho was, but he estimated that she was a young demoness, nevertheless it was seen that she liked to laugh and smile. Where always her white teeth could be seen when her red lips parted. Which were amazing pointed teeth.

She had high cheekbones with cat-like eyes, in which goat-like pupils were colored in topaz.

She was dressed in a long dress around which she had tied an apron in the front. Probably to protect her dress from food. Around her neck she wore several necklaces, the longest of which disappeared into her cleavage. They were chains with stones, from which she swore that they brought luck or protection.

Some others were decorated with small figures of gods of the demonic pantheon, where the one of Lilith literally disappeared in the bosom of Sappho. Their clothes were mostly dark browns, blues, reds or greens, which were not quite as dark as their black skin. Whereas she was one of the demonesses, which had a quite bright black skin. Whereas this black skin color could not be compared to that of humans, as it always had an ash-like quality to it.

"Cali." Said this only with some amusement in the voice to Sia.