The group stopped galloping after a few minutes and then came back at a more manageable pace. Jesse had never been on a horse before and found out that he was pretty bad at riding them. It took him a moment to understand how to stop the horse from galloping away into the horizon, but he eventually did it thanks to Darya, who couldn’t believe he didn’t know how to ride a horse properly. They followed a minor road that went west until the sun started to set. They found a nice place surrounded by trees to set up camp; Jesse started the fire while Vagraad put up the tents, those two being the only ones who knew what they were doing, had suggested Vagraad while glaring at Darya. Leo sat on a rock, fidgeting her cloak, while Darya tried to help Jesse by picking up wood but it was always too young and not dry enough. Once they had finally set up everything, they sat around the fire and ate the bread and dried meat Vagraad had packed the evening before.
“So, when did you start taunting royal guards for fun?” asked Darya, trying to know he previous lover a little better.
“Since yesterday believe it or not,” Jesse answered
“He was born with it,” said Vagraad.
“I wasn’t, I was born an angel,” rectified Jesse falsely offended.
“That’s not what Cecilia said.” mumbled Leo, putting another piece of bread in her mouth.
Jesse looked at her, surprised at first, and then turned into curiosity, “What did she say exactly?”
“That you were always trying to get a fight out of everyone around you, which got her into a lot of problems. Including with the pimps around the inn.” she answered.
“A fight? I was nothing but a nice kid. I just wanted to be friends!”, he rectified, “Only the drags knew I was, at least.”, he trailed, “How about you, Darya?” asked Jesse, trying to take away the attention from himself.
“What?” she blurted out, whisked out of her daydreaming.
“What were you like as a kid?” he repeated.
“I was normal, I never caused trouble to my Ma.”
“Come on, you must have done something that made her angry,” Jesse probed.
“Well,”, Darya looked down, staring intensely at her bread, looking as if she was about to say something terrible for such a calm and shy girl, “I had an imaginary friend called Dun-Dun. She was always around me when I was a child, but she disappeared when I turned 10. She always deterred me from causing any hard times to my Ma.”
“Is that all?” said Jesse, kind of disappointed.
“What?” replied Darya.
“I thought you would have something more exciting to say than an imaginary friend,” he said before taking a sip from his gourd.
“I covered a count’s son in horse waste because Father wanted me to marry him.” Leo said flatly.
A chuckle came out of Jesse as he tried to refrain from it.
“The Count didn’t want him to marry me after that.”
“No wonder! I would have loved to see his face.” Jesse exclaimed.
After another hour of discussion about funny events from their childhood, like that one time the drag queens from the theater taught Jesse how to put makeup on, or when Leo stole books from the library specifically because the Counsel forbade reading them, they decided it would be better to go to sleep. They had a long road ahead of them and they would need the rest, or more especially, the horses would need it. Jesse glanced over at the two awkwardly made tents near the fire and behind the rocks they had been sitting on. Vagraad jumped inside the first one while Darya and Leo looked at each other, trying to see which one of them was more comfortable to be sleeping next to a teenager they had barely met. Leo said it was okay for her to sleep next to Vagraad, and figured that since Darya had already slept with Jesse, it wouldn’t bother either of them. Darya looked awkward for a moment, shortly glancing over at Jesse before nodding at Leo’s decision. Jesse suddenly had the same recoil from the thought of sleeping next to her that he had had while riding earlier. The young demon was torn. On one hand, he appreciated her gentleness and the way she had respected all his boundaries the night they had met, but on the other, it scared him to no end. No matter how soft and patient she was, somewhere deep inside of him, the first slap, the first insult, the first sign of impatience or frustration would always scare him. Being sassy and taunting people because you wanted a reaction from them differed greatly from unwanted anger.
That night, Jesse slept alone outside of the tents. He laid down on his cloak, using one horse to prop his head on its hind leg, to which the horse only sighed deeply before dozing off. His gaze fell on the Leo constellation. It felt weird for him to know Leo’s birth name, but as Cecilia taught him, he didn’t question it. He only respected Leo’s choice of using a different name. Cecilia. He shuddered at the thought of her being in Ravenwood. This prison wasn’t off the coast of Salnas at first. Before the Demon Uprising, the prison was more of a place where people went to be executed rather than held prisoner. The rumors said that demons had tried to destroy it, but the shield spells cast by the eastern witches working for the emperor were so strong that their attacks only made it go farther off the coast, leaving a hole in the coastline and a deep trench on the ocean floor. This was their last battle and Ravenwood became their prison. They executed all of them. Old men that had been young guards at the time might tell you that the sea was red with their blood all around Ravenwood and that villagers could hear the screams from the coast, and made the soldiers posted inside partially deaf. They might even say that their bones rested at the bottom of the very trench their attacks had created. In Jesse’s opinion, old age made their hearing go away slowly. He preferred to mess around with these old men rather than take in their truly horrific stories of how they used to kill, torture, and hunt down demons.
A ruffle in the leaves made Jesse come out of his thoughts, but he knew it wasn’t anything to be afraid of, so he kept his eyes on the stars. He only saw curly black hair full of floating ribbons and a burlap cloak, sitting on the grass next to him.
“How’s Lizzie?” he asked.
“She died after a few years, she had a long and happy life for a lizard.” answered Leo.
A comfortable silence installed itself in between them. Both of them enjoyed how simple it felt.
“I like the new haircut.” she commented.
“Thanks, I couldn’t do with the long hair anymore,” he replied.
Leo observed Jesse’s face for a few seconds. She thought about the day before, after that moment in the bedroom when Jesse was talking about that night, she finally remembered something else than the hair of the man she had found that night. He was shivering, bruised, eyes bloodshot from crying so much. He hadn’t talked at all, not that he needed to or could. His throat had felt so rough and bruised both on the inside and the outside that he could barely make a sound without the painful pressure tightening around it again. He had taken Leo’s monologue on Lizzie as the moment of rest he had been begging for. She used to be so talkative when she was little, but now, the world of aristocrats had pushed her to keep to herself. She had become nearly silent, keeping her thoughts and complaints to herself, only daring to cause a minor ‘accident’ to those who had treated her like a doll or an airhead.
“You better go back to the tent, it's cold out here,” advised Jesse.
“Vagraad has taken the whole tent for themselves and their breath smells like fish.” replied Leo.
“Makes sense for a shark person,”
Leo and Jesse stayed there the whole night, sleeping against the horse for heat and waking up with the sun the next morning. Vagraad complained about their smell once they were awake and promised that at the first sign of a shop, they would try to get Jesse a cover if he insisted on sleeping outside. The group stayed on the western road and by mid-day, they arrived at a small town, far from the buzzing Outer-Alvoort and the nobility of Alvoort. It seemed calm, too calm even. The wind was one of the few noises, with the sounds of chickens and sheep. The trees were naked of their leaves, resembling giant crooked and dried-up hands more than anything else. The houses seemed small, also all crooked, and empty. A rather small sign was barely standing up, reading ‘Welcome to Yellowseed’. Standing at the main entrance of the town, the group didn’t dare to do one more step.
“Alright, let’s go around that town and continue our path.” said Vagraad
“I agree.”, said Darya, fearfully watching an owl flying above the town, “I’d rather turn away from this town, plus I don’t feel like anything good can come from here.” The witch looked around her, her heart clenched for a second as she recognized the deep scars of war on the road and the buildings that were still standing.
As if on cue, they heard a voice from the unwelcoming town. The voice sang and sounded like one of a child, mixed with tears and sobs.
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“We have to go look, that child needs help.” asserted Jesse.
“Then we’ll need weapons in case anything happens.” replied Leo, taking daggers and cutlasses to give them to the others.
“I don’t care, I’m not going in there,” replied Vagraad, taking the cutlass Leo had handed them.
“As Jesse said, that child needs help so we’re helping them.” repeated Darya.
Vagraad looked at them as he tied the horse’s bridles on the dried-up trees, “I told you, I’m not going in there.” they said again, unsure this time.
“As you wish, my Liege,” said Jesse, briefly bowing down to Vagraad before following Leo and Darya into the town.
Vagraad clutched their cutlass, looking at their friends, walking ahead without them. Slowly but surely, the heavy atmosphere made them feel more and more anxious, the words of Darya on the bad omen were stuck in a loop in their head. They let out a loud sigh of frustration before running up to their friends.
“I can’t promise I’ll fight.”
“Why?”, asked Darya, “you have a sword”
“I faint or throw up when people fight,’’ Vagraad mumbled in embarrassment.
Darya didn’t answer; she knew that most hlêgs had this kind of reaction to violence, but she hoped Vagraad wasn’t one of them, otherwise, she would have never let her grandmother convince her to go.
The group walked around the dismal town, staying alert for potential enemies, and listening closely to find the child. After a few minutes of walking around, they found her. It was a little ttac girl, wearing a torn thick dress and hugging her straw doll. She had beautiful cat-like ears, covered in brown spots, and her cat-like tail had the same ones. Jesse approached her, gradually getting lower to arrive on her level.
“You really shouldn’t, Jesse.” anxiously warned Vagraad.
He didn’t care, of course. Jesse held out his hand towards the little girl and waited for her to take it. She sniffled and slowly looked up at him with her big brown eyes. Jesse made an inviting smile to encourage her to take his hand. She extended hers but in a swift motion planted something in his neck. Jesse felt dizzy and his vision went blurry; he could hear his friends yell in the distance as shapes huddled around them, but he couldn’t make out any words before he felt his body fall to the ground with force.
Jesse regained consciousness slowly. He could hear different voices around him talking to each other.
“Do you think he’s dangerous?” asked one voice.
“He doesn’t have horns or a tail, it’s weird.” commented another.
Jesse fully woke up when he started trying to move around, but found they had tied up his ankles and his wrists. As he panicked and moved around to untie the ropes, the group of ttacs around him walked back, lifting their spikes and pitchforks down towards Jesse.
Jesse froze, his heart beating hard in his chest. He observed the people around him for a minute.
“If you wanted me to sleep here, you could’ve just asked,” said Jesse, trying to hide his shaky voice.
“Shut up, demon!” yelled a small and shriveled old man. His whiskers fell downward, and his age had roughed his fur up.
Even though the old ttac’s lisp made a part of Jesse want to chuckle a little, anger gained him quickly ,“The last dude that said that received a bucket of piss on his face, you should be careful.” Jesse almost hissed.
The young demon had pulled himself against a wall, still tied up, but now fully awake, “Who are you anyway? I thought there weren’t any ttacs in these regions.”
“The ttacs can handle the cold like any other race!” barked a tall ttac woman covered in black fur and white spots next to the old man.
“Then forgive me,” the demon replied, “Could you tell me why you drugged me and tied me up? Not that I don’t like it, I would’ve just liked a little heads up.”
“Because you are exactly what we needed to get rid of that witch out there.” answered the old ttac man.
“What?”
“A witch has been stealing our children and our elders for a little while now. We don’t dare to come out.” quivered someone in the back.
“Why would a witch even do that?” wondered Jesse.
“Well, because she’s a witch!” replied the old ttac man.
“She’s also been drying up our fields!” said another one in the back.
Others yelled in support behind him, shouting about other acts of the dreaded witch. If Jesse thought they could help them, now he knew he couldn’t. Not with such a way of thinking. Suddenly, a thought crossed his mind.
“Where are my friends?” he asked.
“They’re hunting the witch.” answered the old ttac man.
Jesse froze in shock for a second. He couldn’t believe his friends had gone hunting a witch for him. He was just the guy that slept around and put himself in many stupid and honestly evitable situations.
In a tiny village close to where Jesse was, Darya, Vagraad, and Leo were looking at a small old ttac woman with pure incredulity on their faces.
“So,”, started Vagraad, “That’s why you all left the village?”
“Yes,” she answered.
“But your husband told us a witch had kidnapped you. He was even crying.” said Darya.
“Because he’s a half-blind fool that never listens to his wife!” she scoffed.
Vagraad sighed heavily. The group had been so worried about Jesse being kidnapped and just laying there unconscious that they were all prepared to fight this witch even if none of them really could.
“Would you all come back to the village so we can explain everything to your husband?” asked Leo.
“No! I won’t do another single thing for that fool!” she replied.
“But ma’am we have to-”
“I don’t care!” she snapped, walking back to her house.
“This is ridiculous.” sighed Vagraad.
“We have to make her talk to her husband, otherwise we will never get Jesse out of there.” said Leo.
“I hope he’s alright,” said Darya.
The group tried all day to convince the old ttac woman to talk to her husband, but nothing worked. Darya even tried to find a catnip to coax her out of her house, which didn’t work either, even if it attracted all the children to them.
That evening, once all the ttac people were asleep for their four-hour nap, Jesse opened an eye. His arms felt kind of numb, but good enough to prop him up on the wall again. They were all sleeping against each other, snoring loudly or sleeping peacefully. Jesse had multiple occasions where people had tied him up, but never that bad. Who ties up a ‘dangerous demon’ with his hands on the front? Jesse bit the cord to help it slip out and then worked at his ankles. Once he was free he walked out of the room, not without frightening himself by making a bit too much noise when opening the door, causing the old man to turn around in his sleep. As he closed the door, he bumped into someone much taller than him. Jesse slowly turned his head up, looking at the gray feet, then the loose pants, the tight fabric belts, the furry abs covered in a few scars, and then the face of a stoic ttac man looking at him with piercing green eyes. Jesse’s fear turned into something he could work with.
“Has anyone ever told you how handsome you are?” asked Jesse, full of confidence, making the man slightly blush.
“No,”, he answered, trying to avoid the demon’s gaze, “But I accept the compliment.” he said in his deep gravelly voice. “you souldn’t-”
“I was about to throw these cords away but, how about we use them?”
Jesse brought up the cords he still had in his hands, briefly looking at them and then looking up at the ttac man, a lustful look in his eyes and a smile forming on his lips. The man blush badly at the sight of it.
“My name’s Jesse, by the way.”
“Mine is Kaede, sir.”
“Oh, so I guess you’re in?” asked Jesse. Kaede nodded more strongly than he wished he had. Jesse’s chuckle made his heart flutter. “You’ll have to make your agreement verbal, otherwise I’m afraid won’t be able to do anything.”
“Y-Yes, sir.” stuttered Kaede.
“Could you show me a nice spot? I know nothing of this village.”
“I know a place.”
Kaede awkwardly took Jesse’s hand and walked him to a small house with an almost giant bed on the second floor. The demon guessed it was his house and his bedroom before they lost their fields and ran to hide from the witch.
“You’ll have to be pretty silent. I’m not really supposed to be here.”
“Me neither.”, replied Kaede, “Sir.”, he added after a look from Jesse. One of the many he would give during the next hour.
After a small rest, Jesse sat up from the bed and scrambled to find his clothes before putting them on. He looked over at Kaede, a small satisfied smile on his face, the mark of the cords still on his fur. The sight of the ttac resting and purring in his sleep made Jesse’s heart fill with a warm and fuzzy feeling, but it was time for him to run away for real now. He hurried to get out of the tiny house he was in and then ran out to find the horses. It took him a few minutes of scrambling in the dark, but he found them, still attached to a tree by their bridles. Right as he was about to finish untying one of them, a blade came close to his neck, freezing him in place. His eyes fell on the blade. A short one with a royal magpie on it. He gulped down hard. He didn’t have any weapons, he didn’t know where his friends were and barely knew how to fight.
“You know, when I said ‘arrest me Daddy’ to your friend, I was just joking, right ?”
“I’m not one to be scared by your race, demon.” said the guard with a deep voice as he spat into Jesse’s face.
“I’m not into that kind of role play, I’m afraid.” replied Jesse coldly.
Before Jesse could attempt anything, a big log lodged itself into the guard’s face, making him fall unconscious to the ground. The sound of someone throwing up broke the suspended silence. Jesse turned around to see Darya with the log in her hands, Leo with fear on her face and her dagger out, and Vagraad further away, throwing up behind a tree.
“Thanks.” said Jesse as he wiped the spit off of his face.
“You’re welcome,“ replied Darya, her eyes glued on the unconscious man.
“That was so reckless, Darya!”, whisper-yelled Leo, “What if he wasn’t alone? He could tell about us and they could catch us before we even get to Ravenwood!”
“She’s right, let’s go, we only have a week left.” agreed Jesse.
“Wait, we will not help these people?” asked Darya as she watched Leo and Jesse mounting the horses.
“Fuck no,”, said Vagraad from behind her, “they kidnapped Jesse, used him to make us do something they could’ve done ages ago if both husband and wife weren’t so stubborn.” they said as they cleaned their mouth and mounted the third horse.
“Wait, husband and wife? Who’s the witch?” asked Jesse.
“Well, the wife had a better idea for watering the fields, used it anyway after her husband told her not to, and then a big split happened in the village and because they’re all stubborn, they didn’t talk to each other and won’t even listen to us.” answered Vagraad.
“Can we at least leave them a message?” asked Darya.
Vagraad sighed.
“Okay, do you have a paper and a pen?” asked Leo.
Darya gave her one, and she wrote the exact situation on a piece of paper and stuck it to the wonky sign before getting back on her horse. Darya looked at the village again. She wished she could have stayed and fixed this whole situation, but the others were right. They didn’t have any time to lose, and they didn’t even want to talk to each other. Or even hear about each other. Darya mounted behind Leo and they galloped away, preferring to follow a small river nearby so that if anyone wanted to follow them, it would be much harder.