Demons POV 

It had been two years since the country of Cora had been taken over by the Oralia empire, overwhelmed by the gap in power Cora should have fallen easily however not many were willing to give up on their country quite so easily leading what should have been a short conquest into several years of long and bloody battles. 

The long years of war had bankrupted Cora and even put a strain on some of the resources of the empire, however that did nothing to stop Coras inevitable fall. To make up for their losses the empire soon implanted heavy tax on the conquered country leading to the widespread creation of the slums as well as the pits. 

However the losses on a personal level were the ones that hurt the most, once the war ended the empire rounded up any high ranking soldiers who had opposed then and had them hung. Effectively crippling the military force of Cora in a way in which it might never recover, this also left a great deal of orphan children with no family and no prospects. 

I sighed as I looked around my room still thinking about the war, afterall it was the reason why I and several children lived on the floor of a decrepit cottage. We simply had nowhere else to go. The children surrounding me were war orphans picked up by me during the soldiers executions, they were the reason I had finally decided to fight in the pits to earn money, despite the fact it went against my morals.

I snorted thinking about it, morals were only for those who could afford them and in this time of high taxes and poverty it was a luxury I could not afford. It was morning now and I had lots to do today in preparation for my later fight, taking out my knives I silently slipped out of the cottage and went outside into the garden to stand in front of the three makeshift targets that I had pinned to some trees. 

Forgetting about all my problems I focused only on the targets in front of me and calmly began to throw a knife at each one in sucession, soon the targets were filled with knives and an hour had been and gone. Sighing at the lost time I gathered my knives and went back into the house where the first if the kids had begun to wake up. 

"Morning Lia." yawned one of the younger kids as he saw me come in "Morning Tom, are you gonna come and help me make breakfast?" Tom grinned and immediately followed me to the only other usable room in the house the kitchen. 

Arriving in the kitchen we quickly settled into our daily routine where Tom quickly went outside and picked whatever edible plants he could find while I stewed the ones we had to make soup. Ten minutes later and the rest of the children had awoken and joined us in the kitchen "Ok, Ok," said I laughed "everyone find a seat outside and I'll bring out breakfast in a little while." 

Tom and the six other kids ran outside while I smiled, they'd had such hard lives for kids and I'd not been able to protect them from the sights of war, nor the deaths of their parents but as long as they could keep smiling I was happy. Finishing tge stew off I grabbed the mismatched assortment of bowls we had managed to salvage/steal.

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Grabbing the bowls I quickly walked outside carrying as many of the bowls as I could, once all the kids had been fed I turned to face them "Ok kids today I'm going to need to go out on a small errand so i'm going to need all of you to stay here for today." the kids nodded except for the youngest Layla who tightly grabbed my shirt "Can't you stay?" 

I gave a sad sigh and picked Layla up and put her on my knee "Sorry sweetheart, I know I said I'd play with you today but it's important." Layla gave me a sad look but eventually gave a sullen nod nonetheless, I almost sighed again I knew me not being here all the time was tough on the kids but I needed to work to get the money we needed to live.

Even if we had food and shelter for the minute things would not stay like this forever and I wanted the kids to have a better life than the one I had given them, or tge one I'd had myself and so it was for their sakes that I had spent night after night moving round lesser fighting pits in an attempt to raise money, but it was not nearly enough. 

Although I had enough to support us the eldest of the kids I looked after, Sophie, was reaching ten meaning if I wanted her to get an apprenticeship or go to a school I needed the money for it before she came of age at ten. And so my only option was to fight "I promise I'll be back early and I'll bring something nice as well." upon hearing this all the kids faces lit up and I couldn't help but let out a smile.

"Ok, ok go clear up your plates. Sophie stay behind a sec." the other kids rushed off and Sophie stayed behind quietly looking at me with questioning eyes "Are you ok Lia, your nit hurt are you?" Sophoe looked at me with worrying eyes, she alone knew what I was doing to warn money so that she knew what to do if one day o didn't return.

"I'm fine Sophie I just have some errands to do today I won't be too long, anyway you know what to do if something happens and you know where the money is?" Sophie nodded her face still painted with worry, I hated to burden such a young child but I had no choice "good girl now remember stay out of the soldiers way and whatever you do don't let them find Layla." 

Sophie nodded again and I ruffled her hair "good girl. I'm counting on you." Sophie gave a small smile and walked back into the house while I took a quarter of the money I made yesterday and went into town, it was time to take care of some buissnes.

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Hiya to anyone reading this, hope you liked the chapter and please leave a comment or review so I know how you feel about the story :)

- Autumn12