“This distributor has been blessed with an egg from the queen!” shouted the small, flying demon to Fleurety and Berrick.

Berrick set the egg on his new pedestal and let it go.

Fleurety turned to Berrick and shouted, “Stop!”

Berrick looked at Fleurety. “Stop what? What’s wrong?”

Fleurety frowned at Berrick and said, “The egg is from the queen. She only lays twelve each year. Every egg has the potential to release one of the most powerful demons in hell. If it hatches too early, you’ll have wasted one of hell’s most valuable resources.”

In his mind, Fleurety thought, ‘Could this be heaven’s goal? To rid us of one of the queen’s spawn?’

“That’s fine.” Berrick said.

“It is not fine. You haven’t tested the new method yet. What if it hatches?” Fleurety queried.

“But, Floury. It’s not hatching.”

Fleurety looked at the egg as the small demon set down next to him. It was as Berrick had said, the black egg was sitting on the new pedestal without any cracking.

“Neither did the other at first. How long will this one last?” Fleurety asked.

“This is different. Before I only placed my mana into the stone. It was meant to be temporary, but I still expected it to last much longer than it did. This is permanent. The stone would have to be destroyed in order to remove my mark from it.”

Fleurety looked at him for a moment then shook his head.

“So, the egg is well taken care of?” Asked the small demon.

“Yes, Scirlin, the egg has been taken care of.” Fleurety answered.

“Excellent, I shall report it to her highness, Lady Astaroth, immediately.” The little demon, Scirlin, said, and then flew away.

“Are they always so redundant?” Berrick asked Fleurety.

“Pardon?” Fleurety looked away from the disappearing form of Scirlin and back to Berrick.

“Do they always do so much to accomplish the same goal? I’m already here, which is more than enough, you’re here, and then they also send that little fellow here.”

Fleurety stared at Berrick for a moment before speaking, surprised by the extent of Berrick’s arrogance. “No, actually. Usually, Egg Guardians have no idea whether an egg comes from the queen or not. I imagine you were only informed because you’re young.”

“Hah, underestimated. No matter, I have a lot of work to do, now.” Berrick turned away from Fleurety and tapped the ground with his staff, creating another pedestal. He then tapped the newly created work, discharging energy into it. He repeated this process several times before he stopped.

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“Do you think that will be enough?” Fleurety asked him.

“No, but…” Berrick breathed heavily as he spoke. “I don’t think I can make any more for some time. The low quality of the ground must have drained my mana more than it should have.”

Fleurety had finally returned to his original, nonchalant attitude with a large grin on his face. He looked at the seven pedestals which had been constructed. Each pedestal looked almost exactly the same as the original, and Berrick had created them in under an hour. Even with the amount of detail being put into each; that in itself wasn’t very impressive. However, the ability to mark something as a unique creation was astounding on its own. Adding to it that Berrick had created several of them, effectively making them a series, so soon after being born was a true testament to his worth. Truly, the Egg Guardians were always among the most amazing of demons. When it came to true combat they were not ranked very high, but their unique abilities in relation to the eggs they cared for made them invaluable to hell.

Fleurety was distracted from his thoughts when he and Berrick noticed another egg arriving. Berrick took the egg from the original pedestal with his claw and set it on one of his own. The egg was almost white with a slight brown tint and a purple crystal growing just off from the top.

Since there had been no broken eggs since Berrick had begun implementing his new method, Fleurety decided it was probably safe to assume it really was working properly. Therefore, he left Berrick to his work as an Egg Guardian and wandered off to the cave that was now, technically, Berrick’s home. Fleurety entered the spacious cave and looked around. There wasn’t much left there as it hadn’t been occupied for centuries, yet it still retained some of the intricacies that marked it as the home of an Egg Guardian. A few tiny, broken eggshells were left in the cracks where only someone as observant as Fleurety would notice. Shelves lined the walls of the entrance, meant as some sort of egg storage area for an Egg Guardian long passed. Tunnels led off in various directions which lead to the familiars’ living areas. Fleurety wondered the tunnels for a while; it seemed that whichever Egg Guardian had lived here before was master of several interesting familiars. Before long he found a place that was secluded and comfortable enough and sat down on a stone block. After doing so, he used a claw on his finger to scratch a pentagram into the stone of the ground and muttered a short chant in some demonic language, and the pentagram glowed white.

From the pentagram on the ground came the voice of Azazel, “Fleurety, I trust you have your report?”

“Yes, Lord Azazel. I have observed the new Egg Guardian. He is unlike any other demon I have ever met. Just like the other Egg Guardians.” Fleurety responded.

“Interesting. So you do not believe he is a ‘gift’ from the heavens?”

“It is impossible to tell as of yet, but he has discovered his own method of becoming a capable Egg Guardian. Not the most impressive of his kind, but certainly interesting in his own way.”

“I suppose it is possible that this is simply an unprecedented event, but there is no such thing as too much caution. Continue to watch, and report to me when you have news.”

“Of course my lord.” Fleurety finished his conversation, and the white glow disappeared from the pentagram. He waved his hand over the markings and the stone smoothed over, appearing just as it had before.

Fleurety stood again and walked back toward the entrance, his grin still on his face. When he arrived at the area outside the cave, he found eggs on four of Berrick’s pedestals. Berrick himself was yelling and waving his claw at another purple lizard that was standing lazily nearby. Berrick turned around and hovered toward Fleurety.

“You aren’t doing your job, Floury! This twice-damned Abomination is threatening my eggs!” Berrick shouted.

Fleurety sighed internally and approached the lizard. The lizard lifted a lazy eye to Fleurety’s face, and they locked eyes. Fleurety’s grin widened by a fraction and the lizard’s eyes turned to saucers. In a moment it turned around and disappeared from sight.

Fleurety turned back to Berrick to find him cooing over another egg that had dropped from the distributor. Fleurety sighed to himself again and silently considered his duty.