Gra

“~Ahh~ The ceiling is spinning~ Big sister Gra, the ceiling won’t stop spinning, hahaha~” A sprawled out Vivviv mumbles as her eyes are swimming in her head, her voice all giggly like she is seeing something silly.

The trip here was rather bumpy to put it lightly. Riding around inside of a pitch-black sphere without being able to see, tumbling around every time that that crazy Demon woman with the mismatched eyes, hair, and horns would move too fast or take a turn too hard. The best we could do was to hold each other in the dark and try not to smack into each other.

Pulling myself up on unsteady legs, I turn and ask the Demons a question.

“Where are we?”

“Don’t have much time to explain, we have to go quick. You two are to stay here for now and behave. If anything happens, we will come and protect you, as per the contract, so please just remain here and stay safe.” The man with the burn scars on his face answers me. The crazy woman is already out the door and walking away without a word.

“Wait, what is going on? Tell me-“

“No time, I have to go. Stay here.”

He quickly leaves and shuts the door, leaving us behind to sort ourselves out. Fighting down the rest of my dizziness, I bend over and help Vivviv back up and onto her feet. The dizzy girl stumbles forward into my chest, so I wrap her up in a hug to keep her on her feet. Looking around the room, I find a table and some chairs, so I drag her over and help her into one of the chairs. Once she is seated, Vivviv collapses forward and lays against the table.

“Bleehh~”

I just pet her head and give the room another look over, my eyes widening in shock when I spot a Sister huddled up in the corner, holding herself. She looks me in the eyes, also surprised by our appearance. She is dressed in human clothing, in a tan t-shirt and a pair of black shorts. The clothes are a bit big on her, the shirt hanging down her legs and covering most of her shorts, the light green skin of her legs exposed as she sits huddled up in a corner of the room on a bed of blankets and furs.

“Big Sister Gra, is that you? What are you doing here? Did the Grey Demon capture you too!?” She asks, a look of shock on her face as she looks me over.

“Hmm? Oh, uh, yeah, she captured us. Who are you again? I think I recognize you; you were one of Gov’es’s captains, right?”

“Y-yes… I was. My name is Billybilly. Big Brother Gov’es is dead now…” She says sadly as she hugs her knees to her chest. “The Grey Demon killed him…”

“I’m sorry little Sister. Were the two of you close?”

She nods sadly, “He finally took me as a mate before he died. I had tried so hard to get his attention all this time, and I finally got it. And now he is gone… All I have left of him is some of his hair, and the child growing inside of me.

I watch her as she holds a length of black hair tightly in her hand, the length of it tied to her neck by a line of string. Her other hand covers her stomach where I can see the start of little baby belly forming.

It’s been four or five days since he died. So, she should be giving birth in a couple weeks then, right? Still find it weird that we take longer than the little ones to make children. I wonder how long it takes for a human?

“Big Sister Gra?”

“Hmm?”

“Is the Grey Demon here? I don’t feel her Aura.” Billybilly asks, sounding scared but curious, even hopeful maybe.

“No, she is fighting Father right now.” I tell her simply as I keep petting Vivviv’s head. She is slowly recovering from her dizziness and is now purring under my hands as I run my fingers through her tangled green hair, flowers growing all around her as the flowery scent she produces changes into something sweet and spicy. I like this smell.

She gawks in surprise. “Father is fighting the Grey Demon!?”

“Mhm…” I just hum back in response as I grab a chair and sit next to Vivviv, mentally preparing myself to probably have to spend the rest of the day in this room.

At least Lain was nice enough to save my books. So, I have something to read at least. I wonder if we will get some time for a nap…

Billybilly blinks as a thought comes to her, she is watching me like something is weird.

“Wait, why aren’t you breaking out of here then? We should get out of here and escape! You’re one of our strongest, the Eldest Sister, the Ice Princess! With you, we can get out of here. The humans won’t possible be able to stop us!”

“You want to escape?” I ask lazily, letting myself yawn as the thought of a nap starts to become even more appealing in my head. Hell, Vivviv is already looking like she is about to fall asleep just from me petting her. “And don’t call me Princess…”

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“Yes, of course I want to escape! I keep trying, but every time, the humans keep catching me... One time, when they caught me, they even threw me in this little room, stripped me of all my clothes and then made water rain on me while two of their women scrubbed me down with smelly blocks and scratchy things! Then they pulled at and cut my hair! Can you believe that?!”

“Is that it?”

“Yes! It was horrible. Please, help me escape!” She pleads.

“I mean, like… they didn’t beat you or anything, for trying to escape? They just forced you to take a shower and gave you a haircut?”

“No? No, they don’t beat me… What’s a shower?”

“Ehh~” I put my face in my palm, suddenly understanding some of how Lain felt when she was teaching me and Vivviv about different things. Vivviv and I haven’t had a chance to take a hot bath or a shower yet, like how Lain has described them to us, but they honestly sound lovely and I am looking forward to getting to try it at some point. Apparently, my people have a lot to learn about personal hygiene and the health benefits of staying clean. A lesson I took to heart after Lain taught us how to use the restrooms and to wash our hands. Apparently, if you get too dirty, you can get a sickness and die, and that sounds scary. Especially that one sickness where you basically shit yourself to death...

Looking over Billybilly again, I do notice some new details that I hadn’t before. Her skin looks cleaner, her hair is shiny and straight, and… I sniff the air a few times to confirm and, yes, she actually does smell better than most of my Brothers and Sisters usually do. Which means not smelling like ash, blood, dirt, and sweat.

“A shower, my dear little Sister, is when you stand under falling water and clean your body. The humans weren’t punishing you; they probably just didn’t like how you smelled.”

She looks incredulous. “Hah? Really? That’s weird… Anyways, will you help me escape?” She asks excitedly. “Then we can get out of here and join our Brothers and Sisters in realizing Father’s dream. We will make him proud of us! And we can get revenge for big Brother Gov’es!”

She’s standing on her bed now, her fists clenched and ready for a fight as she cheers.

I just let out another yawn and answer her simply. “UuuUhhh~ Nope…”

Her bed is looking pretty nice… Oh, she has pillows, nice.

“Ehh?”

With her fists still clenched and pumped, her face freezes as she hears me. Looking like she just heard me say something shocking or absolutely ridiculous, like, that I don’t want to escape and go back to risking my life fighting an enemy that I absolutely can’t beat.

“Ehh… Big Sister Gra, what do mean nope? We need to get out of here. We need to kill all the humans. Our people are fighting out there. Father is fighting the Grey Demon! Why don’t you want to escape? I mean… I know there are a lot of rumors about you being incredible lazy and never wanting to do any work. They even call you the Lazy Princess sometimes, but come on…”

“Oi! I’m not that lazy! And who the hell is calling me Princess!? I just… have better things to be doing…” I say as I look off to the side, trying desperately to hold back another yawn, forcing my gaze away from the comfy looking bed... Vivviv is already dead asleep and drooling on the table now, so I give her a shake and try to wake her, but she just mumbles something in her sleep and smiles, probably enjoying a fun dream right now.

Darn it Vivviv, you’re not helping!

Billybilly runs over to the table and slams her hands down on it as she looks down at me in my chair. “What could possibly be more important than killing the humans!?”

Sleeping, eating, reading a good book, cuddling with Vivviv, sleeping, and literally anything else…

But I don’t say any of my thoughts out loud and instead say, “I can’t break us out of here, because I am their prisoner. The Grey Demon beat me and spared Vivviv’s and my life in exchange for information.”

“What?” She asks, her voice cold as she looks at the two of us with wide eyes.

Deciding to hurry this along, I just work on removing the glove from my left hand. It’s a bit annoying to do, what with my right arm being in a cast, but I love these gloves way too much to not wear them. Normally Vivviv would help me with them, but she is still sleeping… Regardless, I love my new gloves and boots. Being able to actually cover my hands and feet for once? It’s amazing! I tried to make something similar in the past, but they never came out right and always fell apart or were just plain uncomfortable to wear. And to think that all I had to do to get these things was to teach Lain how our magic works.

Easiest deal I have ever made. No regrets. Wait, getting sidetracked…

Finally getting my glove off, I show the back of my hand to Billybilly, letting her see the contract that is etched into my flesh and soul.

Still haven’t figured out how these contracts work yet. I don’t think I would ever be able to fully replicate it myself, but something similar might be possible with time...

Billybilly’s eyes lock onto the back of my hand, and I can tell that the details of the contract are already clearly in her mind, I don’t even have to tell her the details for her to know everything.

Her eyes eventually go to Vivviv as well, before finally returning to me, looking down at me as she looms over us from across the table. I can tell from how she is looking at me that she is pissed…

“What is… Did you? I… I can’t… Y-you traitor!!! How dare you betray us, you BITCH!?!?!?!” She screams as she jumps over the table at me with hate flaring in her eyes.

Well, this sucks…

She slams into me and drags me to the floor, grabbing me by my robes and screaming as we crash out of my chair. I can’t do anything with my broken right arm, but I have no trouble grabbing her with my left by her shirt and throwing her off of me. My skin is crawling just from having her so close to me, so I end throwing her a little harder than intended. Thankfully, I stopped myself from kicking her of using my magic. I don’t want to hurt her baby.

Behind me, Vivviv jolts awake. “Ahh! Don’t put me in the oven, Vivviv is not food! … Ehh?”

She looks around in confusion, blinking as she tries to figure out what’s going on, a line of drool trailing from her lips. I can’t help but look at the little weirdo, my thoughts latching onto what she just said.

Oven? Food? … Oh, Hansel and Gretel. She was dreaming about Grimm’s Fairy Tales… Haha, funny.

“Raaaaahh!!!” Billybilly screams as she throws herself at me again

“Oh, shit!”

“I’ll kill you, you traitor bitch!”

“Get the hell off of me!”

“Ahhh! No one touches big Sister Gra but me! Aaahh!”

“Fuck, don’t pull my hair you little shit!”

“Don’t scratch my Vivviv, I’ll freeze your tits off!”

“At least you can tell that I have tits, you fridged bitch!

“Fuck you! You just can’t see them because my clothes are thick!”

“Yeah, big Sister Gra has great tits!”

“Vivviv, that’s not helping! Just get her off of me! Get her off of me!!! Stop, don’t rip my clothes, ahhh!”

A soldier opens the door and peeks inside, asking, “Is everything alright in… here…? You know what, I don’t get paid enough for this. I’ll come back later…” She says as she leaves and closes the door behind her, a tray of half-eaten mash potatoes hitting the wall next to the door with a loud splat.