...bearing the fangs...

~

The fire crackled on, though much less of a blaze, and its embers were now red hot. We were settled down for once, and finally just talking.

The newly-named Sefal told me she'd lived two lives, both as witches. In her first one, she traveled the world as a nomad, making connections in every nook and cranny of the planet. But with those connections came a feeling of responsibility for them, and so she became too noble for her own good and died.

She was born again as a fairy, retaining memories of her past life, and so she set out to live a more peaceful, stress-free life, which she did for a few centuries as an un-aging fairy. But with time came skill and expertise, and word of her skill spread far, so once again she was called on to be a hero she wasn't, and those that she trusted eventually killed her.

We clicked very well after sharing life stories.

I could sense her anger with the people of my past and her sadness over people like Gabriel and Hystial, but she had a deep disdain for the ones responsible for my being here.

I didn't mind having the lone wolf mentality a common theme between the two of us. As we went along in the cave in no hurry at all in search of another tomb, this one of some age-old heroes, there was a little less tension between us. At least on a deeper level. By all means did we still spend most of our time bantering and clashing heads, but this time it didn't come from such a deep and personal level of hate.

It was just the two of us trying our best to play a game of dignity to mask the game of charades we really played. The charade of how we really felt.

Sefal tried to teach me magics. Do note the use of the word tried. She didn't teach me the way Lasory did, which I gave her shit for once, only to receive a 10-minute screaming lecture on how he was basically just babying me and I wasn't going to get anywhere with his teachings.

I got the sense that she had the skill he did, but it was kinda like comparing a bullet train and a plane. They move at the same speed, sure, but they're completely different. Sefal seemed like she's had a much more rootsy experience with magic, being she used it in almost every way. She helped light the cave, helped find and kill food, start our fires (which drove me nuts after toiling away at figuring out how to do it the hard way), and a million other things.

My learning was still very lackluster and full of frustration. The fairy spirit pushed me to try a hundred different things, but none of them could stick. I had no luck, and started to consider that I was just straight up magically inept.

I couldn't get a breeze to leave my hands, or flames to so much as think of existing, or any of the other super basic things that everyone and their dog knows how to do. Eventually I just started shouting back at Sefal (since she would of course belittle me every time I couldn't do a spell) and gave up entirely, declaring I was no good at magic and something was wrong with me.

She gave me an earful for days after that, but it didn't stop the fact that I simply could not do any magic.

I stopped listening to her and just did my own thing when it came to combatting the ever-increasing amount of monsters in these tunnels. That much I think had something to do with where we were trying to go: another tomb. We were looking for a much bigger, much more important sanctuary of sorts.

It was the place where these so-called "Golden Warriors" died, which sounds like a joke to me. It had something to do with the Kavari war and this and that and yadda yadda, but Sefal thinks it could have some answers about how to get out of here, and hopefully some really nice loot, too.

I don't mind either of those benefits, for sure.

When Sefal got me back on trying to do magic, she took a different approach this time - trying to figure out what my "affinity" is.

"Dare I even ask?" I groaned while she tried a million different things to figure out what my affinity could be - having me try to cast spells, trying to imagine different things and a bunch of other voodoo shit.

"Do you not know about affinities?"

"Magic has never been one of my strong suits. If that's not um... obvious."

"Ah... well then. A magical affinity is something you're born with. A certain spell or element or niche to casting, per se, that you have a more natural talent for. It's called source magic, and if we can find what yours is, it would make learning how to cast a whole lot easier."

"And you didn't start this sooner why??"

"Hey not my fault you can't throw a fireball."

"Oh you motherf-" I about turned around and started a fight.

She, not surprisingly, couldn't figure out what my affinity was, and decided she would keep at it later. And I still couldn't cast a spell, to which Sefal could only encourage me to "be patient." Yeah right, get a load of that shit.

"I can't be patient about this any longer!! I've done it before! I'm sorry you're too shitty of a teacher but don't pin that on me like I'm not patient!"

"Ohohohoho," she fake chuckled. "That's fine. I don't need to be teaching you anything, Mr. Sorra."

"Don't then," I spat back spitefully. We didn't talk to each other for a while after that. Just huffed at one another and did the same old everything in silence, since it's not like we needed to talk to eat and sleep.

She obviously completely stopped trying to give me tips, which I can't say bothered me at all. Though it didn't help that the amount of monsters was only going up, and they were only getting harder and harder to fight.

So when we ran into a giant tunnel that went straight down, with only a tiny, barely one-person-thick path across it, and we had to take things seriously, I think Sefal clenched her teeth a little bit.

There was a giant group of undead all lined up along the path, and I saw this as an opportunity.

My tail helped me balance, so running along the little path was no issue to me, and with now two daggers in my hands, I hacked and slashed through them like it was nothing, giggling and cackling like a giddy child. At least until one of them got smart and put its weight behind another, so when I tried to push it off, it was sturdier than me, and I was the one who ended up falling.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

"Hahahahaooop-" I gripped onto the stone path with only a few fingers, and heard only moments later the seething anger of Sefal as she had to then blast and blitz her way through the horde herself, then hoist me up. She then proceeded to pick me up by one of my horns and drag me.

We hardly made it to the other end of the bridge before Sefal threw me up, dropped me, then power kicked me about another 30 feet ahead.

"How blind and stupid can you possibly be?? This is why I was trying to train you!" She nearly screamed as she stomped up to me with a fist at her hip and the other pointed angrily.

"Hey, you're the one that decided she didn't want to teach me anymore."

"Uggghh!! I didn't teach you because you needed to realize that you're not that good! You're so caught up in this fricking need to be powerful or something. Slow down buster, nobody's down here to give you a cookie."

"So wanting to survive is a crime?"

"Listen, you need to think. Slow down and, oh I don't know, give the next, maybe five seconds an ounce of thought?" She sounded a little worried, which kind of bothered me. I don't like having people worried about me. "All of your problems stem from a lack of both proactivity and reactivity. You don't plan for anything and you don't adjust at all when you need to."

To be honest I just know I'm gonna win. No point in planning on how I'm gonna get there.

"I would've been plenty fine getting up from that ledge and figuring things out. Or do you forget that's not my first time giving death a knuckle sandwich?"

"That doesn't mean you need to go walking around throwing yourself at everything like it can't hurt you. Don't be a resounding idiot. I know you're better than that."

I clenched my fists and growled in anger, shooting up and storming off. "Maybe I'm not, bitch. Don't try to life lecture me. I had one too many of those people and they either died or tried to kill me."

"Yeah yeah sure well you don't need to be taking that out on me. Sor-ry for looking out for the other guy helping keep me alive. Or are you even doing that anymore?"

"FINE THEN! WHY DON'T YOU FUCKING TELL ME HOW!!" I flipped around in pure anger, and as I talked I sliced my tongue again on what now felt like even sharper teeth.

Sefal's eyes widened, then narrowed. "Don't take that tone with me. I don't have to help you."

I clenched my fists so hard my nails dug into my skin and started to draw blood.

"Besides," I huffed, letting up on my grip a little. "It's not like you stop and hyperanalyze every brawl like you're a detective."

"Well I do, but don't forget that I have far more experience. It comes a little more naturally to me."

"I've been hacking and slashing my way through this cave for probably months now. I have plenty of experience."

She only gave me a mocking snort and shook her head. My hands were open, and the wounds I'd given myself, as well as the arm I'd scraped when I slipped off the edge, started to sting. I guess I calmed down... for now...

~

We shared another cold rest in the empty cave soon after. One of the much-too-close-and-I-really-just-never-wanna-do-this-again rests.

Unfortunately by now we've had to do it enough times that we kinda figured out how to get comfortable and not overstep on each other's boundaries. Well, I suppose that's relative, since even a tenth of this proximity bursts my bubble.

When you don't have the sun to tell you when to go to bed and when to wake up, it's really, really hard to judge when a good time is to go to bed, and to be honest, it's difficult to realize it's a good time to go to bed at all. So Sefal usually goes until she realizes she's just about falling asleep standing up and can barely form a sentence, and we lay down.

In warmer places, this is just her getting some shuteye and me finding food or keeping watch. 90% of that time is me playing with sharp objects to pass the time. I covered so much more ground alone.

I did get some practice with my spear, though. That was mostly just a "I'm bored of knives so I want to change it up" type weapon. I'm not good with it at all. Like it's tragic to see my performance with it, but it's still fun.

When it's cold like this, as in near frostbite levels of cold, and we don't have resources for a fire, she falls asleep quickly while I lay on the cold stone and feel the feeling in my fingers and toes slowly disappear, but know that if I get up, it only gets worse. One time I even had to wake Sefal up and have her use fire magic to warm me up.

She wakes up relatively shortly since this isn't exactly an ideal rest, more of a long power nap, and sometimes she doesn't want to get up, so we'll talk for a little while.

"Why don't you ever sleep?" She asked once.

"I can't. Believe me, I'd be doing enough sleeping for the both of us if I could. Why, do you know something?"

"Nope. I've never heard of anything like it. I like my sleep quite a bit, so in the interest of some sympathy, I can at least try to help figure it out for you when we're out of here."

By now we were a lot less awkward about the very tight gap between us. You know, staying warm enough to live, and all, but it's still not exactly fun for me.

"So what exactly are fairies?" I changed the topic.

"Protectors of life. Or at least that's what we call ourselves. It's true that we have a much deeper relationship with living things, and our magical abilities reflect that, but really we're just glorified elves that are damn hard to kill."

She paused noticeably.

"To be honest, fairies are very prideful beings. As soon as you gain even a little bit of rank, you're taught that you're the best thing that ever lived and that no other creature could ever amount to you. We cut ourselves off from humanity and thought we could control people. We couldn't."

"What's the difference with you then?"

"I'm a part of the so-called 'fairy cycle,' where it's said that someone who lived a virtuous enough life is granted a second chance, sometimes even more than that, to live as a fairy and remember their past life to do better. So I knew how dark the royals can be."

"Royals?"

"Story for later," she said. I could tell it was just a long story and she didn't have an interest in specifically not telling me, which kind of made me feel better.

"Tell me about demons, then," I asked, figuring she was my only source of information, and quite the abundant one.

"Aha," she chuckled a little, turning over to face me, with the many hides we used to keep us warm tossed up from a bad night's rest and revealing quite a lot of... well... big.

"And will you please cover up before you finish that!"

She only rolled her eyes and made minimal effort to do so. "Demons. I mean, they have quite the reputation, as I'm sure you know."

I nodded.

"Demons used to be everywhere. And not all in a bad way. They were an abundant species who, leading up to the true depths of the Kavari war, had integrated into and outright created so many societies and civilizations. Whole kingdoms were made entirely of them, and a lot of the species was quite truly peaceful and not a part of the Demon King's agenda.

Of course, there was an even more vast number of them who were part of the army, ravaging and conquering and killing endlessly, and after so many years of this, people no longer cared how much or little, if any, connection any demon had to that war. They were attacked anyways."

The story sent chills down my spine.

"Whole empires crumbled, even adamantly neutral ones. Innocent people who weren't even demons, even women and children of any race, were shown no mercy or discretion."

I can see now why there's so much animosity. In a way it was a little disheartening to know I was now stuck with a target on my back, and a big red shiny one at that, but in other ways it felt kind of nice because at least people would probably keep their distance away from me. I have a very big bubble and it's very easy to pop.

"To think I figured I was escaping from a place of miserable war. It's just as bad here," I said.

"It's easy to say how sad and brutal it was, but on the other hand, the sheer vastness of the Demon Army, and the unspeakable things they did stands to reason that it would leave a bitter taste in the mouths of the millions of orphaned children, among other people. Which isn't to say it was justified, but I can't blame them."

Her tone darkened.

"Their tactics were cruel and unforgiving, and the crimes against humanity they committed day after day are so evil they're forbidden to even be spoken of in most places. They ripped innocent people apart and made examples of children, even infants and babies, and that's only the start of it."

"And you're saying people expect that again??"

"Wouldn't you?"

I sighed and stood up to end our rest. "I guess that complicates things a little. I can't have any peace and quiet in my own couch in front of the fire if the whole world's on fire before I get there."

Sefal narrowed her eyes. "What are you getting at?"

"Wanna fight a war with me?"