-Month 1, Day 27-

Cynwrig showed Saria into a human building he told her would be their home for two days. He said this place was called the Little Lamb, which was a weird thing to name a building since it obviously wasn't an animal, but she was able to make out what the sign above the entrance said nonetheless even without him telling her the name. When she first started learning how to read with mister shadow she didn't really know what for. But once she entered this human city, she was sort of happy that Erin and mister shadow forced her to. It was all a bit new to her, so many words were everywhere.

They entered the inn, and the first thing she saw were loads of tables and benches to sit on. The entrance room was bigger even than the mansion main hall where she lived. There were some people talking to each other and at the end of the room was a counter with loads of bottles of all colors. Cynwrig said not to worry about people approaching her as he would just lie to them that she was contracted to him. And it came in handy, because a group of four, three men and a woman, noticed her as Saria and Cynwrig were headed for the counter to rent rooms. One of them spat out what they were drinking and reached for a sword on his back which was actually leaning up on the table they were sitting at.

(Man) "The hell! What's a demon doing here?!"

Everyone present shifted their glare towards Saria. This was different from people on the streets pointing at her. Everyone had weapons. Looking at them more closely, she realized these were probably all associates like Cynwrig, Simon and Tess. Essentially people who might be just as astrong as Cynwrig.

(Cynwrig) "Pipe down, people. She's with me."

(Man) "Cynwrig? You contracted yourself a damn demon?"

(Cynwrig) "A good purchase, isn't it?"

The guy who was yelling earlier went over to Cynwrig and put his arm around his shoulders while playfully poking him with his other hand. Saria let out a sigh in relief. Was she actually afraid of those people for a second? Right, mister shadow was still sleeping. Somehow it slipped her mind that she was defenseless without him to protect her.

Cynwrig just rolled his eyes as he told the man off. He laughed at how irritated Cynwrig seemed to be, since he looked just as annoyed as when Saria first met him. They went to the counter, where a big, muscle-packed man with a shaved head was looking at them from since the moment they entered.

(Cynwrig) "Hey Bob. Two nights again."

(Bob) "Really? Ya bringing in a demon now?"

(Cynwrig) "She is harmless, completely. Trust me."

That sort of comment stung her. Cynwrig had said a couple of times now that she wasn't a threat, but all of a sudden it felt bad to hear it.

(Bob) "S'all I wanted to hear. So, the two of you in a room?"

(Cynwrig) "I'm paying for my own room. She pays for hers."

(Bob) "She does? Heahaha, you're trusting your contracted demon with 'er own money?"

(Cynwrig) "No, seriously."

His laughter turned into a single frown raised. Cynwrig did say she had to pay for her own stuff, and Jack said the pocket money he gave her when she left was enough to survive a good while.

(Saria) "Here is my money."

She plonked down the bag of money she was carrying on the counter she could barely look over.

(Bob) "Oh, ya weren't kidding. Well, would'a been a bad joke anyways I suppose."

(Cynwrig) "You're supposed to pay him an amount of money, not all of it, you halfwit."

(Saria) "Then how many coins?"

(Cynwrig) "You have no idea what money is, do you?"

(Saria) "Of course I do, you use it to get food."

He just glared at her for a moment as if he saw right through her attempt of looking knowledgeable.

(Cynwrig) "Sigh... Okay, so, you know how I bought you the tropicots down at the bazaar?"

She nodded.

(Cynwrig) "One of those cost me 4 clergs. Clergs is one of the currencies you're going to have to get used to. You know what currency is?"

(Saria) "Uhm... It's the coins you use, right?"

(Cynwrig) "Right. You have cotts, clergs, barons and royals, least valuable to most valuable respectively. 100 cotts are 1 clerg, 100 clergs are 1 baron, and so on. So royals are worth a lot and cotts aren't. Got it?"

She nodded again with a determined look. She knew a lot of numbers, mister shadow was teaching her those too.

(Cynwrig) "Alright, a stay here is 7 clergs and 15 cotts, so you will be spending 14 clergs and 30 cotts for two nights here. Just put my own bill on my tab, Bob."

(Bob) "Even teaching her math, eh?"

(Cynwrig) "Oh, did you want to teach her that?"

(Bob) "Heh, I already have my hands full with Mari. Were you that desperate to get a daughter yourself after seeing how good me and Mari work together?"

(Cynwrig) "You're so funny, did I ever tell you that?"

The man named Bob laughed hysterically , and even Cynwrig let out a snicker for the first time. Bob counted the money she had to spend for the stay and told Saria that she had 53 clergs in total in that pouch of money of hers. Which meant, if she had to stay in this city, she would be spending a lot of these coins each day. She cursed herself for letting her food go to waste, by hand-counting she could figure out that she was only able to buy a handful of fruit. She was sort of wondering why you needed to use these coins to get things though. Everything was just out in the open and anyone could take the food on this bazaar without giving away coins. Maybe there was some sort of barrier that prevented anyone from taking things without first paying coins.

Bob gave them both keys for their rooms. He made sure to quickly explain to Saria how his inn works. Everything from when there would be food, to where the bathrooms were. Apparently humans needed to use those.

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(Bob) "Oh, and remember! It's sixthsday today, so we're having bards over for dinner in an hour."

(Cynwrig) "Ah yeah, I forgot. The ones you bring in are always good. Thanks. See you later."

Bards? That was a new word she hadn't heard before. Cynwrig told her to follow up the stairs in the back of the dining room up to their rooms. There were two single rooms right next to each other. Saria first followed him into his room, not really knowing what to do in the room she now owned. He unpacked stuff and took off a lot of his equipment that he had been carrying around all day. Nothing more than a sheathed sword and normal clothes were left on him now, which was a weird look on him. Saria had only known this man for two days now, but every moment she saw him he was fully kitted out with all kinds of tools.

Something she didn't realize was just how heavy his equipment was. She could barely even lift the giant exploding sword he had on his back. And just when he realized Saria was bored with nothing to do, he sat down at the table in his room with her to talk about what to do the following day.

After a while they moved back down to get something to eat. Sadly, and very predictably, her favorite fruit was not something they served here. The main dish was apparently faun meat with salad as a side. Lots of people were starting to gather, all of them equipped with weapons requiring Cynwrig to tell every new person who saw Saria that she was his "pet". Every time he said that, she had an image of a "piggy" flashing in her head, which was just demeaning to think about.

Amidst the sea of armed people that entered, a couple of weird looking humans were setting something up close to where they were sitting. Cynwrig told her these were the bards that Bob mentioned earlier. Their food came out, and the meat looked disgusting to her as usual, so she gave it to Cynwrig in exchange for his fair share of salad and began munching on that.

(Cynwrig) "Are you wondering what the bards are doing?"

He was referencing the people that were setting up. Saria nodded in response with her mouth full.

(Cynwrig) "Have you ever listened to music?"

(Saria) "Mushic? Whatsh shtaht?"

She spoke even while frontloading all kinds of alright tasting food into her mouth.

(Cynwrig) "Well, you'll hear in a minute or two. I'm actually kind of interested to see if demons like listening to music as well."

She just raised a brow and kept her eye on those people. They were carrying mysterious... weapons? No, they looked more like tools than anything. The three humans finally started talking into some sort of cone to get everyone's attention as Saria was just gulping down her cup of water after finishing her food. The cone he was talking into somehow made his voice louder than normal.

(Bard) "Customers of the Little Lamb! Thanks for having us again!"

Everyone who was seated applauded them. The bard speaking bowed as a formality. He introduced themselves, but Saria forgot everything he was saying on the spot, she was curious what they were going to do above else, but didn't really give a care who he was. Saria got a quick look at Cynwrig who just looked at the three performers with a smile. She found his smile creepy though, which he noticed and just rolled his eyes in response.

(Bard) "Let's hear it! What do we want to hear?!"

He asked and several people responded with the same thing. The legend of the maiden of light. The bard laughed and nodded towards his companions, as they finally brandished their tools. The audience stopped being talking, and the moment the man strung his hand along his instrument, Saria's eyes opened wide. The other two joined in and it was pure harmony to listen to. She listened to it fervously.

They sang of a maiden of light, a human that was shunned by everyone for having eyes that shine. But instead of bearing contempt for those who hurt her, she would help those who hated her. As the song went on, even her hair began to glow a gentle color as she aged, with the song eventually culminating in her death after helping a man up a river he was drowning in after the same man she saved pushed her into the river he was just saved from. Even though assumed dead, the next day she would show up at this man's home with food because he was starving, saying she was sorry that she scared the fish he tried to catch away. The man eventually broke down in tears to ask for forgiveness. Without hesitation she forgave him, revealing her wings after having been reborn that night as an angel, shining brightly in her full glory.

Only some minutes had passed, but to her it felt like an hour. She was entranced and as the song ended, she looked at Cynwrig who had been staring at her for a while.

(Cynwrig) "You like what you're hearing?"

(Saria) "It's amazing! Is this music?"

He nodded and her focus fell back to the bards. She clapped together with the rest of the audience while the bards bowed collectively. They started playing more music until the end of the evening, telling all kinds of tales with the entire room chanting along.

As the bards left, Saria had slowly fallen asleep at the table they were sitting at. Cynwrig did think about waking her up so she could go to bed herself, but instead he just carried her up to her room and tucked her into bed. All of her energy was spent clapping and trying to sing along to the others. At the end of the day, he realized she really was more like a human kid than a demon.

...

Huh? I woke up all of a sudden in an empty room. I looked around and saw crude walls around me. A mixture of what looked like bones, dirt and pelts made up the walls. Looking up, the roof was made of wooden sticks and pelts of slain animals on top of them acting as a roof. Rugs on the floor and a shabby looking table being the only things even resembling furniture. Where is this? Didn't I pass out in a forest?

(Guardian) "Why are you sweating?"

I instinctively turned around. A man, no, a fully grown demon was standing at the table. It was blurry, I could barely make out the enourmous horns portuding from his forehead and his wings. He had a mighty brown~ish aura as he glared at me with burning red eyes.

Ah, another one of Saria's dreams? I peeked at what she was dreaming here and there, but her usual dreams were always more abstract than this. This was a vivid dream, letting me believe that this was something from her memories she was reliving. Last time I saw something like this was when I first met her.

(Saria) "I just... had a bad dream."

I became nervous as he approached me. I felt like a small child, more so than usual. He grabbed my hand and pulled me up by force, dragging me to the table. It hurt.

(Guardian) "No further progress on your magic?"

He let go once I was standing next to the table.

(Saria) "Ow, ow."

(Guardian) "That hurt?"

(Saria) "...Yes."

He rubbed his temple with his fingers while obviously contemplating something.

(Guardian) "My apologies. But if that hurt then you're far away from the strength of the other demon kids around here. Any progress on your magic?"

(Saria) "I still can't use it."

He was looking at me with constant contempt. It made me more and more nervous about what he would think of me. I was weak, I couldn't even control my magic when all the other demon kids created at the same time as me had mastered their use of juice perfectly already. I cursed myself over and over again for being created with a body that could only use light, an element demons could only be ashamed of using.

(Guardian) "Little light, we created you with unique powers, and you do nothing but squander your powers."

I could only look down. I tried, but nothing ever worked.

(Guardian) "What a waste of the maiden's soul. Sooner or later the others will find out what powers you hold. But we will have nothing to show for."

(Saria) "I'm sorry, I just can't..."

(Guardian) "Empty words."

I closed my eyes long ago. I knew why he dragged me here.

(Guardian) "Now, eat."

Half a woodboar was on the table. A native monster that Guardian forced me to eat even if I refused. I gulped, wanted to say no, wanted to shake my head, but I knew I wouldn't be able to eat anything but the food he brought me. He wanted me to embrace eating meat, despite being unable to swallow a single piece of it.

(Guardian) "Eat!"

...

Suddenly, I was ejected from the dream. I could see straight up, this time the roof was properly made with wooden planks. I wasn't in the mansion, but it seems I'm in a safe spot.

The first thing I hear is heavy panting. Saria must have woken up from her dream in a cold sweat and caused me to go back to reality at the same time. I could see her and feel her in distress. That dream must have made a number on her.

(Draven) «Wide awake, Sunshine.»

When she heard me talking through her head, she got up in a sitting position on the bed she was lying on. She looked directly at me in front of her. The sunrise was currently shining through a window, but I had enough strength to pretty much bend myself up on the bed to greet her.

(Saria) "Mister shadow!"

She beamed a massive smile and fell over forwards on the bed, trying to hug me, but what she really accomplished was just grabbing the edges of the bed with her hands while on top of me.

(Saria) "I missed you so much!"