-Month 1, Day 18-
The days lately have been great. Saria really warmed up to the Claude pair, and it's been a month since we first met them. Erin explained that a full year was 10 months, with each having 28 days, one week being 7 days. The harvest season was now fully in swing.
Each year, Erin would normally help Jack picking the tropicots off the trees as this would considerably speed up the process, but Erin was in her later stages of pregnancy now and could barely even do anything at this point.
Apparently demons don't give birth like humans do, so to Saria this was a completely morbid experience. Having a kid grow inside of you actually does sound really weird if you're not used to it happening to you as a race. Which beckons the question, how on earth do demons have kids like Saria then? Is this maybe the secret origin behind the legend of that stork that comes carrying a fresh new kid for parents to take care of?
Well, she didn't know how demon kids were made either since she couldn't remember her own birth or that of another kid's. Nobody must have had the obligatory "when demon mom and demon dad love each other very much" talk with her. Maybe demon mom and demon dad never really liked each other very much and demons just pop into the world at random.
Back to the task at hand, both me and Saria were helping Jack with the harvest. Thanks to my Take Over and Saria extending the range of my shadows with her light, we didn't even have to climb the trees. Saria typically just climbed the tree no problems, a true tree climber if I must say so, but picking the fruit like were doing right now was way faster. All we had to do was for me to use the skill on her arms while she was shining a nice bright light on her back. This caused the shadows around her arms to expand, allowing us to reach the fruit on the trees.
What normally took Erin and Jack five or six days of constant work, took us two measly days to harvest everything. A new record, basically. It helped keep Saria's mood up and running to know she was holding the world record in tropicot harvest, but I suspected that she actually likes working like this together with Jack. They chatted about all kinds of things, sometimes joking with each other and also exchanging information about their culture. Although it became apparent that Saria didn't know that much about hers.
The next day, they left for the city again with the entire harvest in tow, aside from a few crates they left behind for themselves. And of course with all the valuables from the monsters who appeared still, but there were way fewer appearing on the orchard in the last few weeks. The crates of food they kept for themselves were all packed away nicely within a large room in their barn which functioned kind of like a large-scale refrigerator. Refrigerators in this world didn't work with electricity like it did on Earth. Instead, they use "crystallized juice" to do everyday work for them. Where me and Saria seemed to have juice naturally within our bodies, humans would gather juice found in the world and use it to produce magic. And yes, using "juice" instead of something more fitting like "magic power" was really messing with me.
Just imagine small crystals that have a specific color. That is crystallized juice. Me and Saria couldn't figure out how they worked, but Jack and Erin were both able to activate them after using specific phrases when touching them. They called these crystals "decadrons". Humans in this world seem use them for all kinds of things. In this case, the refrigerators were packed with water crystals that were modified to emit some sort of cold aura, kind of like very durable ice. If you then pack a room with some crystals, isolate it to make sure the cold doesn't escape the room and occasionally swap out crystals empty of juice for new ones, you had a solid storage room up and running for food.
Even on the farm, Jack used water crystals to water his trees if by chance a drought appears. Those crystals were really something, some used for keeping things cold and others used to just dispense loads of water. He was kind enough to show us, and just by holding it he was able to produce loads of water without the crystal seeming to lose power. But he assured us they had a limit. He also explained that this forest was abundant with juice in the earth of the water element, which enabled the forest to flourish even with very little water supply and rain.
With that kind of technology, it's no wonder they didn't see the need for power or modern infrastructure like on Earth. Having a convenient mini-freezer or water dispenser like that was neat.
With Jack and Erin gone to the city again, it was our duty to watch out for the farm. But with nothing to really protect (thieves wouldn't bother going all the way out here), there wasn't much to do. Fae monsters showed up maybe once if we were lucky nowadays. Saria looked like she was starting to get bored as the evening was starting to come around and all the work Jack asked her to do was completed. Erin had given her what was essentially homework before they left by handing Saria a book with the expectation that she would eventually be able to read it.
(Draven) «Wanna go home? Being here all alone is boring without Jack, isn't it.»
(Saria) "Yeah, we can try our magic then. I want to use a really strong light next time we fight a big monster!"
(Draven) «No way are we aren't fighting something like that again.»
(Saria) "Aw..."
It wasn't long after we had been "employed" by the Claudes that we noticed that there were a lot of smaller pathways through the forest. Some even led to the mansion we lived in. So we had our usual route back that took a 10 minutes by foot. Loaded with a few tropicots for her dinner, we headed home to the mansion.
...
(Draven) «Say, you like them, don't you?»
(Saria) "Huh? Who?"
(Draven) «You know, Jack and Erin.»
(Saria) "It's only convenient to know them because they give me food."
(Draven) «You sure seem to have a lot of fun when talking to him though.»
(Saria) "...I guess they are exceptions among humans if that is what you want to know. They are pleasant to be with."
(Draven) «Right...»
Her confidence in her belief that humans were some sort of sub-race to her own really didn't dwindle. But considering how she has likely been handled by people in the past, it didn't really shock me that she hated them. She was still a kid so impressions would matter more now than as an adult. I wasn't really too fond of being with others either unless I knew I could trust them, so I was okay with a smaller community of people.
(Saria) "Were you like them before you became mister shadow?"
(Draven) «You don't want to know what kind of man I was before I got into this mess.»
(Saria) "But you were human too, so are uncle Jack and aunt Erin different than those you know?"
(Draven) «There were some nice people like that which I knew. My sister and friends especially. But they are gone now. And I've thought about this for a while, but it's bizarre how humans in this world look and supposedly act exactly like the humans from my world.»
(Saria) "They do?"
(Draven) «Yeah, almost makes me think this world was based off my own.»
(Saria) "Hmm... But I thought it was weird how there are humans in your world too."
(Draven) «...Oh. Yeah, I suppose you would think like that if you came from this world and not mine.»
Despite what one may think, she wasn't the dumbest knife in the cupboard. But with humans here looking the exact same as humans from Earth, you could think that this world was some kind of fantasy spin-off from the one I knew. Or maybe my world was a more boring version of this one.
(Saria) "Mister shadow, do you hear that?"
Saria suddenly started dropping what she had in her hands.
(Draven) «What? Hear what?»
Saria was suddenly in alert, her hand on the hilt of her weapon. Her hearing was a lot better than mine while I wasn't using Take Over, probably better than regular humans too. But it didn't take long until I caught wind of a sound too. Something... screaming in panic. Getting louder and louder.
(Goblin) "-oo! No! Stay away you stupid dogs!"
A little green guy, about the same height as Saria, was running along the path we were taking, straight towards us. In tow, two wolves were chasing him. He didn't notice us at all since he was looking at his pursuers.
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Wait a minute, those are regular wolves! They didn't have those antlers all the fae monsters have! So normal animals besides Jack's farm animals exist in this forest after all! But this wasn't the time to contemplate regular animals besides livestock being a thing.
(Saria) "It's a goblin being chased by some sort of animal. Mister shadow, what do we do?"
(Draven) «Hm... we could take them out. Let's just stop the wolves from attacking that... uh, goblin, right?»
She nodded, both to agree with the plan and to answer my question. The control of Take Over was getting easy, and with it I could focus only on using it on her upper body to give it some more power. She drew her shortsword that Jack had purchased for her after selling the pieces of all the fae we beat, together with a few pieces of basic armor and clothing, and called out to the green fellow.
(Saria) "Goblin, stop! We will keep the wolves at bay! Procrastinate yourself behind me! I will offer protection!"
Hey, where the hell did you learn to talk so formally all of a sudden...
He was clearly at the end of his strength. He passed us and dropped to the ground to catch his breath. If we hadn't been here, the little guy would likely be dead very soon due to the predators chasing him as if he were a glorious feast. He looked like he has already taken a bite from one of the wolves and some scratches here and there, so even if he escaped he would be in a tough shape.
The wolves were ten or so meters away and could have made the distance between us much shorter in no time. But they stopped their pursuit full stop without any warning. Out of the blue, they got into a defensive position and started whimpering like puppies. Were they... afraid of us?
(Saria) "Get lost!"
The pack all cautiously looked at Saria for a bit. As loud as she could yell, the wolves got startled and wimped away. She held her sword tight and didn't even show a hint of backing away. But it was weird. My instinct told me they would pounce on us while they had the momentum, but apparently they had a sense of who was the actual prey. It ended up being way easier than expected.
Turning around allowed us to see the injuries the goblin had gotten more closely. Some scratches over his body, but also a deeper wound from what looked like a wolf bite in the stomach area. The goblin was only wearing a basic loincloth like some hermit. It was amazing for him to be able to outrun them with an injury like that. Up close it looked way worse than the quick glance I got when he ran past us.
(Goblin) "You! You're demon! Don't eat me, I will give all my money!"
(Saria) "...Huh?"
(Goblin) "No! You get money!"
(Saria) "...What is he talking about?"
All I could respond with was a metaphorical shrug. The guy was beyond himself of fear for us.
(Goblin) "Ah, I give you choker! Please take choker!"
What he displayed as some kind of "choker" was just a rope with a tooth attached to it. Even Saria cringed from looking at it, not wanting to touch it and backing away a step. As I thought, she had a very faint sense of regal air over her when dealing with people apart from Jack and Erin, as she just replied with a silent "disgusting" to the supposed gift she was receiving. I was at a loss at where she got that from though.
(Saria) "I don't want your stupid choker. It smells. Here, let us heal you and you can do whatever you want. That's what we are doing, right?"
(Draven) «Yeah, whatever. We saved the guy so might as well try asking him if he knows a good way to make money around here.»
The goblin was still really afraid of the demon before him, but it soon became less of a hassle as he experienced the warmth of her healing ability from afar. But... Yeah, Saria quickly got tired of this guy.
(Goblin) "A nice demon? You're nice demon? Never met a nice demon. Do you have food? Or money so I buy food?"
She kept rolling her eyes and looking away from him. It became apparent that she found him ugly and smelly. Besides, I don't think it needs any explaining that asking for money from the girl that just saved your life would irritate some people. This guy had no decency and was as probably dumb as a rock.
(Goblin) "Goblin chief says demons are tools, you know. Is that weird?"
Saria stopped and put down her hands in a sigh.
(Saria) "...Can I kill it now?"
She whispered that in a dead serious tone to me.
(Draven) «Alright, let me just heal him so we don't have to listen to this thing anymore.»
(Saria) "Fine..."
The goblin who suddenly had a terrified face again after seeing someone ask if they could kill him had a new shocked look when I used a full Take Over. My apparently nightmarish form gripped the goblin and I made use of the Shadow Substitute skill. It provided faster and more effective healing, but really took a toll on my juice reserves. Nothing would happen anymore today besides us walking home to the mansion, so I could waste some juice on this guy.
(Goblin) "A- Angry demon! I give you money, no more!"
I practically held him down to just get it over with. It took only a few seconds to use the skill. The first thing I noticed was that I didn't feel as tired when using the skill now as I did the two other times I used it. I wondered why that was. With that thought in mind, I released the grip on him in hopes of him realizing I just helped him so he could give me something in return.
(Draven) «"So? A thanks would be welcome."»
(Goblin) "Bad demon! No!"
And he ran away in panic.
(Draven) «...What did I do?»
(Saria) "He was probably afraid of your scary voice."
(Draven) «What? I don't have a scary voice.»
(Saria) "Oh, it's very scary."
(Draven) «It is?»
(Saria) "Ve~~~ery."
...
(Saria) "Don't goblins normally only live in the mountains? I think they work with the dragons there. Guardian told me once."
(Draven) «Haha, what are you asking me for? I've already told you that there were only humans and normal animals in my world.»
(Saria) "Aw, but that sounds so boring. You don't have any stories of battles that you can tell me at all?"
(Draven) «Heh, I could talk for days about all the things I've done. Or the wars humans had. But you're just going to call me a boring fart if I did. It doesn't have anything exciting like magic or demons.»
(Saria) "Nuh-uh, I promise I won't say you are boring."
It turns out that at least the goblin made for a good ice-breaker to talk about something.
I was starting to get a grip on how to properly use Take Over now too. The sun was still up as we arrived at our home, the mansion, and the next thing I wanted to try was using the skill completely isolated in a specific area of Saria's body. Namely, her mouth so that I could talk through her.
Fine-tuning my control to this degree was surprisingly tough compared to just using it on an arm or leg, and it's definitely a work in progress. What I had in mind for fights was more specifically what I tried just earlier with the wolves. Using Take Over on the upper body served as a kind of armor and also gave Saria more stamina and some strength to fight with herself.
But I also accidentally managed to somehow use Take Over in a more subtle way, kind of like causing the shadowy veil that was created with the skill to be shareable in control with Saria, allowing us both to command movements over her body whilst keeping the strength boost and also allowing Saria to use her own magic. I could do it with her fingers, but it was way too difficult to control refined Take Overs like that.
Saria herself was making process on her light too. If the whole shtick of demons was to create heat, I thought that her light should be able to create heat as well. After all, light is just energy or something like that, and energy creates heat. And she had a shortsword now, which we used to help her grow her durability. Being able to train like this was really the life, and it made Saria just slightly more confident in herself since we came up with interesting ways of using her magic for fights.
After all, there are real monsters out there, and if that giant bird from back then has a couple cousins or three, we definitely needed to get the basics of combat down. It's nice that I can slice most things in half without much effort, but as Jack told us, some more powerful monsters can shield themselves with some sort of magical barriers. The sharpness of the claws I could create matters very little in that case. Blunt weapons are always stronger weapons against shields, and punching a barrier just causes more damage to Saria than the barrier.
After a good night's dining on her precious tropicots (seriously, she doesn't eat anything else) and a night of sleep, we got ready to go back to the farm early in the morning. Jack and Erin would be staying in the city since they needed to get Erin checked at the doctor. Apparently they are advanced enough to assist with that kind of stuff like pregnancies and whatnot. So they would stay in the city for a day.
Which means we had to feed the three fauns they have on the farm, which are basically a sort of crossbreed between a sheep and a cow, the ideal animal to have going around when living by yourself. It provided both milk and wool.
No goblins or wolves were to be met this time on the journey back to the farm, and every chore was done after two or three hours. Saria actually started reading some book about birds out of boredom after we were done. Exciting.
(Saria) "Gaaaah, there is nothing to do..."
(Draven) «We could just practice magic again, but you're not in the mood, are you?»
(Saria) "Noo... I wish Jack or Erin were here... Jack always has good stories to tell."
Patience, kiddo. I'm sure they won't take long until they get back from the city today.
The sun indicated that it was a bit past midday now, and all hope was lost for the demon kid who started rummaging through the house to find something interesting to play with. That was until she perked up all of a sudden again in the kitchen, hearing something.
(Saria) "Huh? Someone is calling my name."
That could only be the Claudes. She rushed out, completely disregarding the fact that many of Jack and Erin's containers for their personal belongings were still open after her illegal rummaging of the house and hopped outside to greet them.
(Jack) "Saria! Are you there?!"
(Saria) "Hee~~~ere."
(Jack) "Thank god! Quick, help me get Erin inside!"
Erin was lying in the cart pulled by the horse. She looked like she was in pain and had a solid grip around her waist.
Hey, hey, wait a minute, is she...
(Jack) "Erin started having serious cramps a few minutes ago, I think it's time. Oh, what do I do, what do I do..."
(Saria) "Cramps? What is that, Erin?"
(Erin) "Jack, calm down already you- Ah! Dammit, this hurts!"
(Draven) «Saria, we'll carry her inside. I'll Take Over your arms so we can carry her, but we need to put her on a bed or something. Can you do that?»
(Saria) "Okaa~~~ay."
I used Take Over and her arms swiftly turned dark with my shadows. There was still no way that Saria could lift Erin by herself. Now to get that old man to calm down.
(Draven) «I'm trying to borrow your voice a few seconds.»
She nodded and was already headed towards the back of the cart to carry Erin out.
(Draven) «"Jack, it's me. Calm down, man."»
(Jack) "Mister shadow? Sorry, sorry, you know how it is. Wait, no, you don't know. It's just, why did it happen here and not earlier? Damn it, I can't remember what the doctors told me to do at all!"
(Draven) «"We'll carry her inside. I've got no idea what to do either, but uh... go and get some... Blankets or something, I don't know, and meet us in your bedroom."»
(Jack) "Yes, yes! Of course!"
He hurried off inside faster than I had ever seen him running before. We made sure to carry Erin as safely as possible ourselves. The bedroom was most likely the best choice to do this. Personally I was only guessing how to do any of this. Like hell I ever helped a pregnant woman giving birth.
(Saria) "Are you alright Erin? Do you need something to eat? Do you want one of my fruit?"
(Erin) "Heh, honey, don't worry. That's not the problem. This kid of mine is really making a fuss right about now."
Together we carried her into her bedroom, brought her a glass of water, and hoped nothing would go wrong as both Jack and Erin tried their best to execute the advice they were given by their doctor in the city.