The way Harijia is looking at me makes me feel like I'm something delicious. I'm already backed up to the far wall, but if I could I'd back off further. There is no chance to slip past her. Her agile serpent body is blocking most of the open cell door. Even if she doesn't look strong, I don't want to fight her. Her arms are thinner than most I've seen, even thinner than Ara's. The jaws and fangs have receded back into the mouth and her forehead enlarged, rather, she has a forehead at all. This gives her appearance more of a devil-like serpent than a demon-serpent. All in all, she doesn't look dangerous, less so than most serpentlings. However, if she didn't have strength she never would have been able to hold her own down here.
Before I have to make the choice to attack she snaps out of whatever was going on in her mind. She nods to herself and moves slightly out of the way, though not enough for me to pass by comfortably. Seeing my hesitation she moves away further.
"Check in with me every day after feeding. Don't even try to hide, if I have to come and find you, there will be trouble," she says as she moves away and turns around towards her own room at the far end of the corridor.
Taking the chance I bolt in the other direction, shooting past trees and boulders. Only when I feel somewhat safe does my tempo slow. Taking stock of where in the cavern I am, I redirect my path to the nearest wall. Most of the other species seem to prefer climbing one of the trees for some solitude, but the nooks, crannies and ledges of the rocky wall are my hideout. The same goes for the other swarmlings and flying creatures. Most of the swarmlings prefer the lower caves to relax, but there are plenty like me who are very capable climbers or who can fly as well.
It's a bit of a skirmish for the best places to stay. How even the ledge is, are there smaller perches nearby, how broad it is and where it is all play a role in how desirable a given spot is. The one I'm heading for now is directly above one of the swarmling sleep-caves. It's not too comfortable, so only the weakest of us use it often, but it is even less desirable for anyone else. Right now I don't want to be alone any more for a while, but I do not want to have to deal with the frequent challenges happening below.
After a short climb I'm comfortably resting hallway up the wall, about twice as high as the trees. Most of the central clearing is not very visible from here, which is why there are only a few implings hanging out. While we are fine just lazing around, having something to watch is obviously better. For now, this will do. A swarmling with the same basic coloration of black and red as I have starts to check me for parasites. It's not something required here, the place is almost clean of the things. It's a show of deference from someone weaker to stronger or favor from someone stronger to weaker.
Looking at the smaller swarmling, it's the first. I'm a bit jealous as this one has actual wings. With some effort, the spikes on my back can twitch a bit. There are muscles there and I try to use them to make them stronger, but even that much is hard to achieve. This is as good a time to exercise as any while I calm my worries. The swarmling looks at the twitching spikes for a moment before continuing checking the ridges along one flank.
First, the situation with Ara. I will allow she may have had good reasons to act like she did and that she did not realize exactly what she was asking of me. It's enough of a compromise to allow myself to stay as her familiar. I am new to her world, but that goes both ways. As little as is I know of her, she knows just as little of me. It will be an opportunity to learn more about humans which I'm not going to waste. If she orders me to be weak again, though, I will still do the same as I've done this time. It's just not something to allow without a fight.
Then there is Mari. Though I haven't been summoned there again, it's only a matter of time. What Harijia said got me thinking. No-one wants an unwilling servant or something, wasn't it? Well, close enough. It means I could tell her, the mage and the dungeon to let me go. Or I could demand... Something? The whole concept gives me a headache. Instead of the weak giving way to the strong, the weak have a power of their own? It is enough to make me feel nauseous from the confusion running through me.
Last, Harijia. I don't know what she is going to to do. It has to do with me and the unexpected summon. I'm more concerned if it will happen again when I'm not in a place to help myself. The headache is likely to kill me before I can make it back to a cell. The pain is centred on the rune they carved into the skin on my head, but this time the look on her face didn't speak of trying to find a solution for 'my problem', but of an opportunity to take advantage of. I'm not happy with being an opportunity. The feeling I get is that I'm already being taken advantage of, so a little more makes no difference.
A sharp pain on my back rips me out of my musings. Startled into anger, I turn around to confront my assaulter. It's the tiny impling who'd been tending me. Hissing I stalk towards it as it cowers and scrambles away from me until its back is against the cavern wall. Its head moves frantically to find a way out and, once found, it takes off. Unfortunately I'm too late to catch it before it dives off the ledge and flies off. It lands again a few dozen meters away on a small rocky outcrop and I briefly consider chasing after it. Liquid flowing on my back makes me reconsider, first I want to inspect the wound.
It's right where my failures of a third limbs are and as such an extremely hard place to reach. I can only see a tiny bit out of the corner of one eye. With the help of my tongue I probe the area. There is some blood, but not much. Most of it is just.... Liquid? There is no adequate word in my mind for it. As I move around a bit moving my forelimbs almost feels easier, as if I'd been tensing something without realizing. From what I can see and feel on my back, that may very well be the case.
The spike-limbs on my back are more than twice as long as before. Under my skin they had been growing, bunched up with two joints keeping them folded together. Now they stand up in a zigzag from my back. Again I try the little twitch and I see them contract. Trying different movements only causes some rotation at the base, the joints don't move much yet. Whatever the impling did must have caused my skin to rip. As I turned, ready to fight, so did they. To my satisfaction, the points are now pointing forwards instead of up. As I relax, they fold back and are almost invisible, ridges of grey on my black skin. The way they fit so snugly further explains why I didn't feel them before.
Still, neither being tense nor the lack discomfort from them are an excuse for why I didn't discover this sooner. Ara's mirror briefly flashes through my mind. It's an ideal tool to inspect myself, but I doubt I'll be able to find anything like it here. Once again I settle down to think. A brief flapping signals the impling returning. As I don't react to it, it approaches and gently touches the spike-limbs. There is no sensation there, but I can feel the force it exerts on the base. It lifts one up and turns it this way and that without forcing it. For a moment I wonder what it is doing, but soon a licking sound tells me it's cleaning them, something I should have done myself. I decide to let it. It is not sure if this is something good or bad, but it deserves a reward.
The thought leaves me dizzy. It is something Ara would think, not me. Why would something weaker than me deserve attention or anything else from me?
The next morning after feeding brings me to the central clearing and then to the corridor with Harijia's room at the end. She waves me away from a distance. Today is not the day she needs me.
I spend my day trying out my new limbs. They're very weak still and I know one good way to remedy that: Getting summoned. As that will hopefully not happen for a while, the fall-back plan is exercise. The ledge above the sleep-cave is my standard place for now. Getting in a confrontation with weak limbs I can't control will force me to back down, even if I could have won otherwise. The little impling proves my point by catching the tip of one limb in its mouth and dragging it to its full length. Even if it doesn't hurt, it's uncomfortable and messes with my balance. It comes to my realization that this will take some time to adjust to.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.
The little impling has been hanging around me since yesterday, probably hoping for more of me to eat. It's a pitiful little thing, maybe a new arrival. The limbs are thinner and weaker than normal and it is missing the tail of an imp. Briefly I wonder how it survived hatching when the brood-tenders cull the deformed. Perhaps the limbs were normal at the beginning and were left behind as the rest developed. Even so, the little thing can fly very well, something it demonstrates any time I lose my patience.
The second day is much the same with Harijia waving me off and me spending my time between training my new limbs and chasing off the impling. They are much more limber by now and I can move them around quite freely now. Where my forelimbs move in an arc in front of me from left to right but have trouble reaching my back, the ones on my back are free in a different direction. They reach from straight behind me to in front of me but a little to the side. After stretching them that far they refuse to fold back on my back without effort and instead rest on my sides, much like imp wings would. They don't reach because my body is in the way, but if they are to actually become wings one day it isn't good enough.
On the third day Harijia doesn't need me either. That day I try my best at an easy obstacle course. It's not just my different weight distribution which throws me off. I'm not fully in control of these limbs yet and it shows as they stretch open at inopportune timing, further messing up my balance. It's a fight against my instincts to keep them closed and it gives me some insight as to what normal imps would have to go through. If it is your instinct to correct your balance with your wings, it requires extraordinary effort not to do so. Luckily for me, the instinct kicked in rather late so I have a solid base to work with where I was not using wings.
Harijia doesn't need me on the fifth or sixth day either and the waiting is wearing on me. Finally on the seventh day she calls me to her as I appear at the far end of the corridor. I approach cautiously, weary of surprises. When I reach her room, a visibly irritated Harijia is slithering back and forth in the small space.
"I have not received a reply to my remark in my weekly report. You don't need to come here any more," she begins. It seems as if she is about to say more, but stops herself. "Enough. Now, go away."
She doesn't need to tell me twice and I return to my exercises. When exiting the tunnel, the little impling is waiting for me. It's still following me around for much of the time. Often it will copy what I'm doing and the obstacle course practice is already showing a strengthening of its limbs. It's not too different from what I did at first, looking at what others did before choosing to do something of my own. I was just a bit less obvious about it. It annoys me and raises my mood to be used as example this way in equal measure.
I don't see Harijia until another week passes. The mark on my head has stopped glowing for a day already, so it's my time to go into the cell again. I briefly consider asking how it is going with regards to my irregular summoning, but decide not to. If she doesn't bring it up, then neither will I. Surprisingly, she doesn't speak to me at all which is unusual for the chatty serpent, especially when it is about her favorite subject, her master and devils. There is some anger bleeding out through her movements, but I can sense it is not directed at me.
Once I'm in the cell she repeats the ritual, the runes light up and the white light and crushing sensation take me. This time there is no recognition. It's not Ara and I don't believe it is Mari. Returning to my senses, the first thing I notice is the lack of light. It's a starry night above me while below me a glowing circle is fading. In front of me is a devil. The red skin and horns are unmistakable. Left of him is a human in dark brown robes and on his right side four other swarmlings, who are cowering and trying to look small.
Two of the other swarmlings are shaped a bit different, like I am. One still has wings and looks like he should be able to fly, the other is a spawn who looks like she is almost twice the size of a normal one. The other two are a normal spawn and a scamp, almost looking out of place to me in this company.
The devil terrifies me. If the one who re-did the rune on my head was scary, this one tops it easily. At least a head taller, it is wearing a dark red robe with armor made of some kind of scales underneath. While devils normally don't have claws, this one makes up for it by wearing heavy clawed gauntlets. He simply exudes an aura of power and threat easily recognizable to me and my fellow swarmlings. It's the devil who speaks first.
"This should be enough." He glances at the human beside him. "Or do you want me to call in more than this?"
The man slowly shakes his head. "No, the guards are.... distracted, and there are no warriors inside. This should be enough. Just make it quick."
It surprises me I can understand him, but his language is very similar to what Ara uses. Am I in the same place?
"Very well. Kill all the humans who are inside or enter the building there." Pointing with a hand over my head I look in that direction.
There is something there I barely recognize as a building. It's fully made of wood and most of it only one story high. Compared to the structures of the devils or the place Ara has her room, it's weak and tiny. Feeling for certain I shouldn't challenge this devil I turn around and start for the building in a quick run. Overhead is some flapping as the imp flies ahead. Surprisingly, I'm the fastest.
The door is closed and I don't even bother with it. Harijia tried to explain door handles once, but my claws don't allow me to use them easily. This looks like the front of the building and if I've learned one thing by now about bigger buildings, it's that they often have more than one way in and the main entrance is the hardest to get through. Veering off to the side, I make my way around. Behind me, the large spawn slams into the door, making it creak, but it doesn't break.
At the rear of the house I find a smaller building attached to it which smells of animals. While it is mostly closed, there is an open window at the top. As I climb up the horses below start to get unruly. The stench of horse manure and piss coming through the window at the top nearly makes me gag and it doesn't get much better when I climb through. That humans can stand any of this is probably only because of their tiny nose.
Inside are two horses and another closed door. It doesn't look half as sturdy as the one outside. I might be able to carve through it with my claws in a bit of time, but time may be running out. Humans are shouting inside the house, asking what is going on. The noise of the other swarmlings trying to break through the doors and the shutters must have woken them up. As I consider my options it all becomes irrelevant as the door is opened from the inside. A young-ish man and woman, as far as I can tell, stumble through, the man immediately going towards a rack that holds leather things.
The woman still has time to shout, "leave the saddles, we'll ride bareback!" Then I drop from above on the shoulders of the man and her scream turns into one of fear. My claws dig deep in the flesh of his neck, piercing the windpipe and his breathing immediately becomes troubled as blood instead of air flows down to his lungs. As good as dead, he is no longer worthy of any attention and I turn to the woman. Before I attack her I lick my muzzle clean. Human blood has less taste, but is still quite good and it seems a shame to waste the man. However, work first.
After her scream the woman has not reacted. She seems frozen in fear, which simply makes it easier for me. I jump at her and grab hold of her shoulders with my front claws while my rear claws pierce her just under her ribs. Just like when the devils caught me and first brought me to Harijia, I push with my rear limbs and my claws tear through flesh and guts. It's much easier this time, probably because the clothing is not as tough. The woman lets out a strangled cry that turns into a moan as she falls backwards. The way further inside is now clear.
Through the door is a room with shelves with stuff on it. It probably serves a purpose, but most I don't recognize. Some hammers and other tools are the best I can do. A door on the far end opens into a corridor. Several other open doors line it, but before I can take a closer look a crash, a roar and a scream further ahead signify the big spawn breaking through the front door. The shout is from a human, the roar from the swarmling, so I assume they're now fighting. As I move to head there, a sound warns me something is happening behind me. From one of the open doors a man has appeared and he is running towards the exit.
I'm much faster, so it's nothing to worry about. No effort is needed in any case. As the man steps through the door he immediately stumbles out again, backwards, with the normal looking scamp biting his throat. It must have followed me when I went around the building, found the way by itself or was attracted by the blood. It doesn't matter, the man is dead.
The question now is where next. Ahead is the room with the entrance. Sounds of fighting are coming from there, making it both attractive and not. There is also a staircase leading up. By the sounds coming from there, the imp still hasn't managed to break through one of the shutters. There are also some interesting scents in that direction. Having made up my mind, I head up. First the stairs go to the side, then they turn around to go back over the corridor I was in before. At the top I find myself in a long, straight corridor, again with doors. What is it with humans and doors?