“I’m telling you it’s true!” Klemet said and pointed down at the grave where the two dead men lay. “They are the proof! Didn’t the Demon Lord himself let Shala tend to the sick! Are we not standing beside the proof that we still have a future!”

In front of him stood the surviving villagers. They were a filthy, foul smelling lot now, but his nose was now dead to the stench they had to be exuding. Everybody stank, so nobody did. The only thing that still stank as far as Klemet was concerned was their attitudes.

“Even if it’s true, they’re not our kind. How are we supposed to trust them?” The objection came from someone near the back.

“That goes both ways!” Shala insisted from beside her husband. “Do you think it's a coincidence we survived and were captured?! What did Batagan and Liln say on the way back? That there is never just one thing to the Demon Lord’s plans! Layers on layers, you’ve seen it yourself!” She leveled an accusing finger toward the crowd, “There’s more on the line than you realize!”

Confusion began among the humans who stood gathered in the field, they were virtually alone, save for a handful of demons who gave them ample distance to conduct their funeral… and that funeral became the equivalent of a village meeting.

“What… what else is there? We live, or we die… we’re trapped here and-” An objection, albeit a confused one, came up from another farmer and Shala quickly cut him off to squash it.

“The future of humanity!” She snapped, her back went stiff and her other hand went protectively over her belly, “Our children, the place we came from… it’s all on the line!”

“My wife is right.” Klemet added and crossed his arms in front of his chest, he squared himself against them and stared them down one by one, confidence in his position’s security left him firm in his resolve, “The Demon Lord all but said it. He beat an entire group of humans all by himself, remember. Forts have hundreds of warriors, and he, without a sword, freed all his people… I… I can’t imagine how. Cunning or violence, either is bad. But I heard someone say he left the humans in the pit… so I suppose he massacred the warriors and tossed their bodies down there to let his own people free. I’ve picked up bits and pieces from the others. The stolen demons were unprepared villagers who didn’t even know there were violent humans. Now they do. Do you understand? Now. They. Do.”

Heads shook back and forth, a multitude of fingers scratched a multitude of dirty heads.

‘No wonder I was made their Voice… idiots…’ Klemet cursed and spoke slower.

“The Demon Lord sent out representatives to others, what will happen when a hundred demon villages settle here? Can you imagine what kind of force a city full of flying, angry demons would put out there? They could just drop torches on our cities from above and we would be defenseless. And Seven Hills has angered a Lord capable of drawing them all together… so we… we…”

Shala’s eyes became vibrant pools full of emotion that threatened to race down and wash her cheeks as she passionately laid into the assembled humans… “We’re the test to see if humans and demons can still coexist! If we fight, if we make trouble, if we betray… Why should they feed us at all? Why shouldn’t they kill us…? He had us taken alive to prove we as a people should not be destroyed. That’s why he swore on his walls, he didn’t mean some trivial number of us had a future, he meant all humankind! What else could someone whose plans include the rule of the whole mountain range, and gathering all demons into his hands, mean?”

The rumble of human voices were less than convinced. Feet shuffled dirt around, and her husband raised his voice again. “How about this, let’s test him. When spring comes and he gives us lands of our own, I’ll ask that we build a wall around our farms, just as we’re now doing for this land, and that our homes be put inside the walls too. If he agrees, we are his people and I’m right. If he refuses… we have no place here. How does that sound? We can’t do much more building now anyway, and do any of you want to try to get back in the dead of winter?” Klemet proposed, a dreadful shiver went up from them all at the prospect of the inevitable icy death.

“Even if we go back… go back where?” Shala asked with a stare as icy as the death that walking away in winter offered. “There’s nothing left for us there, either that land is his now or the place has been given to others from home. We’ll be vagabonds in winter, with no food or shelter and if we go back to the city?” She crossed her arms as her husband did, “You know what will happen there. I won’t go back to that.”

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More than forty lumps were swallowed in forty throats.

Klemet made his final argument, his call to action, after a lingering look where the fresh-turned earth concealed the corpses of the deceased, the poisoned unfortunate and the one Klemet himself chose to remove. ‘I passed my test… our first test, I think. I just have to push a little harder.’ He told himself and with the greatest force of conviction he could manage he leveled his finger toward the clutch of humans and spoke almost loud enough for the demons themselves to hear…

“This is our last arrow. Do, or die. Prove ourselves and we can still have our own land, and at least this lord doesn’t act like the ones in the city. Quarter rations is a feast compared to there. So… do we try like my wife said, or… do we maybe condemn all humanity by proving we can’t share space with demons? The weight of the world is on us, and we’re the only ones to know it… what will it be?”

Liln stood at Sadrahan’s side at the outcropping that was, thus far, the only entrance to his inner sanctum, in his arms was Lamashi, who pawed and clawed at his body in the way small ones did. ‘In no time at all she’ll be using those claws to climb on everything. We may even need to bring some wood into his cavern to give her things to climb up, otherwise who knows what she’ll do.’ Liln considered that, but noticed that her Lord had his eyes looking down on the world below. Far to the left of where he stood, a human was minding sheep and goats while a demon was using a hammer to pound a wooden fence pole into place.

Ahead, she watched a group of humans stand and touch the corner of the wall, ‘They’ve been coming to that every day and touching it like it’s a sacred relic. Are they really that enthusiastic about his promise?’ She wondered, but it seemed possible. ‘Every time he paces the wall they make, the humans seem to swell up a little more… has he… won them over? They’re supposed to be prisoners. Or… were supposed to be prisoners.’ She rubbed her temple and then looked down below to the right. There she saw a human making repairs to a tool, affixing an improvised handle to a broken mattock, and in the far distance beyond the fields, hunters were returning with a bounty from the forest.

Inside the cavern, a few isolated dead ends were converted into places to hang the meats, fruits, vegetables, and whatever could be gathered. Keeping them clean of insects, bats, and other small creatures required a constant guard, but thanks to the freezing depths below, rot was kept at bay while the drying could be completed.

Sadrahan however, was silent, saying nothing about anything, only his eyes gave away his awareness as they moved to and fro about the settlement. “You weren’t joking about your son.” He said at last and pointed toward the sprinting figure.

Assamo was leaning forward, his legs, once scrawny and weak, were now thick with muscle, his arms pumped back and forth and chunks of dirt flew up behind where his bare feet were digging into the ground.

Liln couldn’t help but feel a sense of pride. “I told you. He is very fast, so are some of the other young ones, but he loves running even more than they do.”

“I can see that.” Sadrahan chuckled as the boy moved fast as a freshly launched arrow around the far end of the field, the area ‘marked’ by long ropes to show where the wall would be when it was completed. “But where are the other young?”

Liln pointed her arms left and right. “Along the mountain range, they’re exploring some of the caves here, so far they’ve found very little. More of that glowing moss, bats, white scorpions, some underground streams and small ponds, and shiny rocks.”

“Shiny rocks?” Sadrahan asked, “What kind of rocks?”

“Blue ones that sparkle in the sun, green ones like the moss, white ones that break everything they hit. The caves run deep in these ranges.” Liln said, but while she spoke to Sadrahan, she kept her eyes on her son, ‘What a flier he would have been…’ She closed her eyes and tried to remember the first time he tasted the air. It seemed like a dream now, everything before the mountain was becoming more and more ephemeral, and like any dream, the more she tried to cling to the memory, the more it slipped through her fingers like dissipating fog.

“We should bring up some of those white ones, maybe we can turn them into tools? And maybe we can find more metal rocks for when we get a smith or two…” Sadrahan trailed off and pointed to the north along the range.

“We have visitors.” He said in a low voice, his fingers spread so that his claws were tense and ready for use. “Go, get Batagan, Sarthas, get everybody ready to fight if we have to.”

“Humans?” Liln asked, the dots in the distance were hard to make out still, though she squinted and tried her best to see.

“Maybe. Maybe not. They’re walking. It could be humans, it could be demons, it could be some of the other races I’ve heard of, and no matter who it is, I don’t know what they want, so get everyone ready. The weak to the cave, the rest to the wall.” Sadrahan ordered, then spread his wings and handed his daughter to Liln. “Protect her.” He said, and without waiting for word, he took to the air and headed directly toward the approaching dots.

‘He didn’t even hesitate…’ Liln thought with admiration and rushed to carry out his orders.