Sadrahan’s emergence into the open gave him the perfect view down below, cheers were rising and open claws were raised toward the sky, and not far away, the reason was evident.

Liln was walking at the head of a column of wagons full of demons, behind them came a multitude of horses, far more than should have remained even with good hunting along the way. And behind the horses staggered a long line of rope-bound reasons why all this was so.

“Humans? Humans. Humans?!” Sadrahan’s words deepened in their loathing the closer they came and the more of their faces he could see. They were a downcast lot, eyes down at the dirt, a far cry from the pride on display at the mine the demons were pulled from. They had typical farmers tans, typical peasant haircuts, the women’s hair ranged from long to short, long and unbound for the single, braided for the married, short to the shoulder for those who’d born children.

Their eyes darted around, a few clung to one another, or tried to as much as their rope-bound wrists would allow. They were coated in mud and more than a few had streaks of blood in their dirty hair or staining their clothes.

Without thinking he held his red palm out so that they appeared to be walking over his fingers, and closed his claws over them as if to crush them in his grip. It felt good to imagine, a warmth gathered in his gut as his heart raced in his chest.

When he was finally seen standing on the outcrop, his fist closed and steady glare downward caused consternation among the humans, cries of alarm went up from the population. From where he stood, the sun struck him and cast a towering shadow against the mountainside, his wings spread wide and made him appear even larger.

Adding to it all, the rescuees took up his name like a call to arms, “Sadrahan, Sadrahan, Sadrahan!”

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Assamo racing nimble as a mountain goat down from spot to spot, racing to greet his mother, and she waved up to him from the front wagon. “Lord, see what we’ve brought you!” She called out and waved toward the wagons.

‘Tools?!’ He realized, he’d been so caught up with the sight of the humans that he missed the rest, that tools enough for two villages lay organized from one wagon to the next. Hoes, mattocks, axes, shovels, hammers, and more.

The response of the demons to himself seemed to set the humans further on edge and their shaking knees gave out one by one and two by two until they were one and all down in the dirt.

Sadrahan jumped from the outcrop and floated down toward the ground, landing close to Liln and her son, no sooner than he touched down than Assamo went down on one knee, and Liln quickly followed, their heads bowed to him.

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At his back, and in the wagons, seeing the decision of the pair and seeing the way the humans prostrated themselves with faces down in the dirt, the rest of the demons got down and knelt as Liln and Assamo were doing. ‘What just happened here?’ Sadrahan wondered when he found himself towering over every demon in the area as the only one on his feet.

He reached down to Liln, his heart thudding in his chest at the unfamiliar circumstance, intending to help her up, but with her head bowed she didn’t see his gesture. “Liln.” He said her name to draw her attention upward, she raised her head, and brushed her dark hair through the fingers of his hand, she stopped dead in that position, and smiled up at him with fangs flashing happily in a broad, cheerful smile.

“I’m glad to receive the Demon Lord’s favor.” She said it loud and clear.

‘I- I don’t… what?’ Sadrahan was at a brief loss and mentally lunged for the first thing he could think to say, “You brought a great many tools. I’m impressed.”

‘I see,’ She thought, ‘so the humans are tools. That makes sense, I thought we’d be killing them to make the fields fertile, but maybe if we get some work out of them first that would be better.’ Liln considered and immediately recognized the wisdom of her Lord’s decision not to kill the human captives.

“You hear that, human filth?!” Liln shouted, “The Demon Lord has chosen to spare your pathetic lives on one condition! That you work! It is his fields that you will till! It is his crops that you will harvest! It is his lands that you will work! And you will work them till you die! Be grateful, because in my short sightedness I was going to use only your corpses!”

Her words carried over to the little sea of humans, their bodies were already trembling and shaking while face down in the dirt. They raised their heads, and across their dirty faces little channels of cleanliness were carved like riverbeds by their copious tears of mingled fear for the future and relief that they had a future to fear for.

“Thank you! Thank you, Demon Lord! Thank you!” Their cries of gratitude came out just as Liln commanded them, though as he listened to their cries of ‘gratitude’ Sadrahan felt the hollowness of it from them. Their relief was like that of Ita Mal.

‘They’re glad to be alive, but they’re no neighbors or friends of mine… they settled over the bones and ashes of our lives, I don’t know how Liln got the idea that she did, but it’s a good one at least, I can’t very well let them go and tell the other humans where we are. And I can’t just feed layabouts.’ Sadrahan thought and looked at the sky, the leaves were turning more every day as winter raced toward them all, ‘It won’t be possible for them to leave soon even if they want to. Not once the snows come.’ He reached up, removing his hand from Liln’s head and scratching his horn.

“Sarthas can give them a space to plant.” Sadrahan finally said, but then as the cries of human fear and relief faded, he looked down at Liln again and asked…

“How did you manage it with only the starving to help you?” Sadrahan asked, and Liln looked over her shoulder toward the dark fleshed Batagan.

“My Lord,” the bat-demon said, “I saw to the heart of your orders when you left, your desire to test our worthiness, and when Liln told us what you said before you left her for us, we knew what your test was meant to be. So it happened like this…”