Held down by skeletons and lying side by side with the others, Fel desperately gropes around with her hand until she can find Andrew’s own lying beside her, grabbing her lover’s big hand with her own in a death grip. He is slowly waking up now himself, and much the same as Fel and Gerald before him, he is greeted to the sight of Blane’s body being eaten into by a Mimic of all things. The thing is practically just a split open mouth at this point and is tearing into his corpse with the gusto of a starving fat kid at an all you can eat buffet. Having already finished on eating his face and moving onto the neck, Blanes exposed and meatless skull is on full display as his face is still facing towards his friends, the sockets being empty as his eyes had been swallowed and several teeth are now missing to expose the inside of a mouth which is notably missing its tongue. Even some of his scalp and hair is missing, where the thing had seemingly been trying to gnaw it way into his skull, presumably in some failed and now abandoned attempt at reaching poor Blane’s brain…

Andrew grips Fel’s hand tightly in return as tears are running down her pale face, her eyes inexplicably drawn to the lines etched into the skull where the Mimic’s teeth had carved against bone as it scraped off every inch of meat it could reach. With her heart pounding in her chest, and her mind rushing with adrenaline and fear, she finds herself inexplicably staring at a loose hair that had fallen from Blane's head and is now stuck in some bloody fat.

On her other side, Laz is slowly waking up last, his eyes going to the scene before them and horror filling his expression at what he finds. Fel, breaking out of her morbid trance, quickly moves her free hand and covers Laz's mouth just as he is about to scream, muffling his cries as the little thief panics and tries to run away.

But he can’t. Just like the others, a massive, horned skeleton is pinning him to the floor, its knee pressed into his lower back with a massive, clawed hand holding him by the back of his neck. No matter how much he panics and kicks his legs and screams into Fel’s hand, he can’t get anywhere.

Above them, resting comfortably on her abomination of bones and nightmares, the Demon waits and watches, her beautiful emerald-green eyes curiously settling on the panicked Hobbit as she watches him for a while. Eventually, she chooses to ask them something.

“What’s with him?” She asks with a finger pointing at the spasming Hobbit, looking like she just asked what kind of weird bug it is that she had just found in her closet.

Fel and Andrew can’t talk. Fel because she is too scared, and Andrew because he just woke up and is still trying to process everything that had just happened. Gerald is the only one that can right now, and he take a quick moment to swallow down both his fears and some spit before carefully opening his mouth and speaking.

“I-I’m sorry. He’s just scared. The Undead... frighten him, please don’t hurt him… please.”

“Hmm…” The Demon hums to herself as she looks them all other like she is examining some foreign creatures at her feet and thinks for a moment.

“I’ve never seen a Hobbit before. Or I guess, a half Hobbit. Are they all like this?” The Demon eventually asks with a nod of her horned head in Laz's direction, her messy hair shaking with the motion.

If she’s never seen a Hobbit before, then how does she know he is one, let alone half? I didn’t say what he is though?

Gerald quickly chases that thought out his head and answers her, not wanting to find out how angry this Demon might become if he makes her wait too long for an answer.

“No. Well, yes, sort of. Hobbits are a rather cowardly race, from what I know…”

“They are?”

“… Yes. It’s because they are small, and some predators like to try and hunt them. At least that what we learned growing up… I could be wrong!” He quickly adds as Gerald realizes that the Demon might take offence to this. She is quite small herself after all. Maybe that’s why she has an interest in Laz?

She doesn’t say anything and seems to just be thinking to herself for a while, no one daring to interrupt her. The only noise is that of Laz panicking under the skeletons grip and screaming into Fel’s hand, and that of the Mimic tearing messily into its meal, the occasional crunching noise being heard as it breaks some cartilage or snaps a thin bone in half to get at the marrow inside.

Eventually, she does speak.

“Guess that makes sense. Plenty of things are always trying to eat me after all…” That last part being nothing more than a whisper to herself though.

“Well! For starters, I want him to stop freaking out now, please. It is rather distracting.” The Demon cheerfully says with the clap of her hands, like she just called for a change of subject at a dinner party.

“I’m sure that if you just give him some time to calm down, that he will be-!” Gerald tries, fearing what might come next. But the Demon just ignores him and addresses Laz directly.

“You. Stop freaking out and pay attention. If you don’t, I will make you be quiet.” She declares.

This only gets Laz to freak out more, desperately shaking his head from side to side like he is trying to deny reality, his busted nose just spilling more blood all over Fel's hand as he continues to scream and breathe heavily into it. She fights to keep her grip on his face though, refusing to let go, should his screams just push the Demon into killing him on the spot. Gerald and the others can already see the irritation growing on the Demon’s face though, and they try to speak up for him.

“Please!” They try.

But she just ignores them and addresses Laz directly, again, her voice full of finality.

“You will either calm down, or I will make you. Now, be still!” She snaps with authority, her Field pressing down on them and promising Death.

Laz doesn’t listen… His fear is too strong for reason.

With a sigh and a snap of her fingers, a second, louder snap is soon heard. The skeleton holding him down had grabbed Laz’s left arm and broken it in one quick motion, his forearm now snapped cleaning at the middle and bent painfully in the wrong direction.

Stolen novel; please report.

“MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMmmmmmmmm!!!”

His scream of pain is just barely muffled as Fel desperately keeps his mouth covered with her hand, blood and spit escaping through the gaps in her hand as tears fall from Laz’s eyes. But she won’t let him go. No matter what, she doesn’t want to see another of her friends being killed!

Eventually, his screams come to a stop, and he goes still as if in shock, just staring off into the distance with wide eyes and a pale face. When he finally goes limp like a puppet with its stings cut, the Demon looks away from him, losing interest most likely, and addresses the others.

“Consider that a warning. I won’t tolerate disobedience. If I say to do something, you will do it. If I ask you a question, you will answer it to the best of your ability and without lies. If you do as I say, I will not harm any of you further. But… if you don’t, or I find you to be telling me lies, I will hurt you. I might even kill you depending on how badly you anger me. Do I make myself clear?”

Gerald, Andrew, and Fel all nod their heads without a word. Laz is still in shock and can’t, but the Demon doesn’t seem to care about him anymore.

“Good!” She says happily as her smile returns to her face, her earlier anger seemingly disappearing like a puff of smoke in the wind.

“Now then, I have questions, and you, hopefully, have answers. Let’s talk. But first, introductions are in order! Let’s start with you and work our way around, shall we? I’ll go last.”

Gerald, confused and rightfully scared, can only swallow nervously as he tries to think of what to say. An introduction? What is this, the first day at a new job? What should he say about himself, and why would this Demon even care? Better to just keep it quick and simple.

“Uh… Uhm, my name is Gerald, and… I’m an adventurer. Born and raised here in Silest, and I like collecting trading cards?”

“Oh! Nice to meet ya, Gerald. What are trading cards? No, wait! That’s not important right now. I can find out later anyways.”

She turns her attention to Andrew next and Gerald quickly figures out that his turn is already over. Why the heck did he bring up his hobby!? That was so dumb of him, and apparently, Andrew thinks so too, because now he has to share a hobby of his own, or the Demon might get mad!

“Mmh, I’m uh… My name is Andrew, and I was born in a little village with no name, to the south-east of Silest… Uhm, hobbies… I enjoy, fishing, I guess?”

The Demon smiles again, her shark tail wagging behind her as she nods happily.

“Mm, mm, nice to meet you, Andrew. Fishing... Thats with a rod and some string, right? To catch fish? Or maybe a net? Haven’t done that myself yet, unless you count fighting a monster fish under water?”

Andrew just shakes his head no, looking rather rightfully confused.

“Oh, didn’t think so. I’ll have to try it in the future then. Ok, and you?” She says as she then directs her inquiry to the archer.

“My name is Fel, and I am so sorry for injuring you, please don’t kill me!”

The Demon just blinks.

“Ok…”

Moving on from that, the little horned Demon lastly turns her attention to the catatonic Laz.

“And you are?”

Laz doesn’t answer, just still staring off into space. The others try to introduce him in his place, but are silenced by a hand from the Demon, clearly telling them to stop. When Laz still does nothing, she somehow pulls a small rock out of thin air and lightly chucks at him. With a bonk, the rock bounces off his forehead. That seems to do the trick and knocks him out of his stupor.

In pain and clearly panicked, he looks around in a hurry, his gaze eventually landing on the Demon and her horrifying mount. When it looks like he is about to start screaming again, she simply raises her hand like she is about to snap her fingers again. Laz freezes… Without even being told, some part of his panicked brain realizes that if he doesn’t do as he is told, his other arm is going to be getting broken as well.

“And you are?” The Demon repeats herself.

“Laz…” He replies simply, his eyes locked onto hers like a rabbit caught at the business end of a crossbow, too afraid to move.

“Nice to meet you, Laz. Sorry about the arm, you just wouldn’t calm down. Now then! You’ve all introduced yourselves, and now it is my turn. My name is Bug, and I am on a quest to reach the bottom of this Dungeon. Well, that’s my main goal, but right now, my goal is just to find a bath so I can clean up. I have been having just one HELL of a day! Anyways, it is just so lovely to meet all of you. When I heard that there were some humans nearby, I just had to come and say hello, you know? Anyways, anyways, not important… OH! This is Mimmie, by the way. Say hi, Mimmie~”

Mimmie doesn’t say hi, and simply continue to feast like it is the end of the world and this is its last meal.

“Ain’t it cute? No idea if it is a boy or girl though… Any of you know how to tell the sex of a Mimic?”

Everyone just shakes their heads no, slowly, and the Demon, apparently named Bug of all things, just shrugs.

“Eh, guess that’s not important anyways… Oh, yeah, sorry about killing your friend. I thought he was faster and would dodge that last attack, but… yeah… Sorry ‘bout that.”

Despite how much they want to curse her out and throw her apologies back in her face, the adventurers wisely choose to keep their mouths shut. Their anger over the death of their friend isn’t worth getting killed over, and they know it. This isn't the first time someone close to them has died in combat, and they have learned the hard way that rash emotions in the moment will just make things worse for them. If they survive this, they can properly mourn his death later. If...

She claps two of hands cheerfully. “So, with all of that out of the way, let’s move on to the questions. But before that, do you have any questions for me?”

A question to ask her?

The humans can come up with several, most of which they imagine would just end with either death or torture. Aside from those, they want to ask, “Why did you do this?” but they don’t, as the answer would probably be a simple one.

Monsters attack humans all the time, often times, it isn’t even because they are hungry. Monsters kill humans. It is as simple as that, and the same applies to Demons.

Unable to think of a good question, Gerald just asks the first thing that comes to mind.

“What are you? What sort of Demon are you?”

Bug just tilts her head to the side a bit, looking a bit confused.

“This is the second time I’ve been mistaken as a Demon… What do you think I am?”

“Uh… Some kind of Imp?” Gerald guesses, hoping that he didn’t just offend her in some way.

“Imp?”

“It’s a, uh… The Church teaches us that Imps are small trickster Demons that like to steel people’s stuff and attack them in the night…” Andrew answers next, being a follower who always attended Sunday school growing up, the old preacher at his village’s rickety little church often teaching the children all sorts of things.

“The Church again…” Bug murmurs to herself.

“What else does the Church teach you about these, Imps?”

Fel answers next, her hand gripping Andrew’s even tighter as her fear grows from what she is about to say next.

“That- That if a woman has sex before marriage, that an Imp will come and… and rape her for her sins…” She says as she looks up at Bug in fear, her eyes darting worriedly towards her boyfriend. Her unwed lover...

Bug just looks down at the woman like she is stupid.

“That’s stupid. I mean, how would the Imp even know? Why would it care? Why should it care? Also, no, I’m not going to mate with you, don’t be weird… Seriously, what is up with all you humans and… hah, so weird… And no, I’m not an Imp. I, am a Gremlin.” Bug says with obvious pride as she raises her scale coated chin and points to herself with four webbed hands, plus the two from her wings, her shark tail wagging behind her as her scales glow with a happy light of bioluminescence, looking absolutely not like a Gremlin in any way, save for her short stature and cute fluffy ears.

The captured humans gathered before her don’t buy it for even so much as a second.

Bullshit! Everyone knows that Demons are liars.

“So,” Bug happily starts after she finishes her preening. “how about we start with that, then? I want you to teach me everything you know about the Church, the Goddess, and Demons.”

The Mad Dogs are in for a long rest of the day…