It had been a few hours since the Lumen decided to pay us a visit and I was starting to get bored. I thought a walk in the wood would help, but it only satisfied me a little. No one really comes this far into the woods and it has a big enough clearing, might as well spar with my partner.
"PDEE BARMA!" I chanted, causing my hair, the main medium for summoning demons, to go into the portal of Inferno.
Good thing for me that I was wearing an actual robe. Umbra witches can use their hair to turn it into clothing except for our shoes and gloves, glasses don't count obviously. If we were to summon our demons, well let's say that would leave us 10% covered in actual clothing and our hair covering just our private parts and torso. Yeah, I hate it actually. Anyway, my demon partner climbs her way up from Inferno. Any demon we catch to summon in battle are wrapped in our hair, like chains or a spider web in a way, so most of the time we don't know what their skin colour is. She is now out the portal but not in her full height, I only made her a little smaller than the trees, say about 100 feet tall, her actual height is 5 times bigger than that. Through my hair, you can see that her skin is dark green, the decorations on her outfit and wings are gold, and her insect motif is that of a scarab beatle, suggested by the looks of her wings and head piece. The one feature thats normal is her piercing red eyes, like a ruby or some other jewel. She is Madama Khepri, Protector of Time.
"What is it you seek, Rosa?" She asks in her normal demon language, which we also had to learn as well as the angels language.
"I'm bored." I complained, putting on a pout and looking up at her like a child.
She looks around and noticed her height. She smirks and guessed that I wanted to spar. Whatever we feel emotionally, our contract partner will as well. I also took the time to talk to mine and got to know her, though it took a while for her to come round. Some of the other witches thought it was strange but who cares, she's my partner not theirs. As part of the deal we have, the contract states that we have to satisfy the demons thirst for blood and death by killing our enemies, which is usually out of control angels and demons. I can't seem to be able to do so since there hasn't been many of those lately, but Madama Khepri says that sparring from time to time helps keep that urge to kill everything away for a while. She looks down at me with the same smirk and before I had time to register what's going on, debris was flying in all directions. I stood my ground though and stared her down as her face came closer. I looked to where the debris came from and there was her fist coming out of a hole in the ground.
"Still not frightened? Hehe, come on and prove it in battle." She says, rising her fist again.
"Let's tango then." I reply, raising my pistols up, Unforgiven, and aimed.
She attacks again. This time I was able to dodge and launch a log straight towards her head. It makes contact. The dust settled and I saw that she had her arm raised. She blocked it. Khepri stood up and she stomped the ground, causing it to shake and making me loose my balance. She managed to grab me and launch me into the air doing cartwheels. I regain control and looked down at my opponent while still raising up in the air. She returned the log and I just barely dodged it. For a really tall demon, she was really fast. Aw well, you know the saying, the bigger they are the harder they fall. I turned into my Falcon Within form and flew around her. In doing so , I turned some of my feathers into blades and launched them at her and managed to get a few hits in. She surprised me by hitting my back and crashed into the ground, turning back to normal in doing so. Damn she's strong. She was ready to punch me again but this time, with enough strength, I turn into my Tigress within form and ran as fast as I possibly could out the way and behind a tree.
"Come out come out wherever you are." She beckons. It sounded creepy from where I was.
I peeked out from my hiding place and say that she had her back to me. To took my chance and ran towards her knees. Because it's the back of the knee, it would be really easy to take her down. I kicked the knees and down she goes. I ran and did the same thing to her head. She ends up on her back. I look straight into her eyes and she admits defeat. The fight though left me hurt and tired, obviously, but hey, no pain no gain. She stands up again but before fully standing, she offered her hand for me to hitch a ride. I smiled and took the offer. She placed me on her shoulder and begins to walk like it was a daily stroll in the park. We do this every time we fight, I satisfy her urge to kill everything, I get a ride home. Win win. That and she feels kinda bad after beating me to a pulp but I can patch myself up at home pretty quick, so no worries there. Skills and reflexes improve with every battle.
"So what did you think of Balder?" I asked while assessing my wounds, curious as to her opinion of him.
"Just another Lumen to me. Though he is kinda cute." She answered honestly. I thought that. "But keep in mind that we can't break the rules. Thousands of years old yes, but still a strong rule."
"The rules apply to demons too?" I didn't think it was possible.
"Well yeah. Keep in mind that we were once human too." She reminds me. "I thought it would've been gone within the millenia, but I was wrong."
"It it boring being a demon?" I asked, not knowing why I hadn't asked before.
"It has its days like humans do. But we mainly just try to avoid dying and fend for ourselves. We would be lucky if we had allies without the contracts in Inferno."
I grew curious, but also learned new things along the way. The demons we summon might've been enemies with each other and we just make them work together. But it doesn't mean we don't get gossip from time to time. Khepri tells me about a demoness who's causing a bit of trouble in Inferno. She's been picking fights and disrupting the rare peace from time to time. Her motif seems to be that of a butterfly, by the look of her wings, and has a piece shaped like a swallowtail. Sounds like an interesting demon, wonder who will get her as a contract partner. A dog accidentally ended up the hellish world, but it turned into a demon itself and became a force to be reckoned with. It can be very loyal to those who befriends it though, just like it did before the change. Other than that. It has been pretty quiet. While I was listening, I had pulled out a few splinters, saw that the cuts were a little deep, and had a bruised rib, possibly a couple. I can finish patching up in a minute, since we were home already. My room, luckily, faced the forest so Khepri was able to just raise her arm above her head a little and I was finally in my room.
"Thanks Khepri. Rest up, never know when we're going to get a mission." I advised.
"You beat me to the sentence." She smirked. "Get healed up and take it easy."
We nodded to each other and she returns to Inferno. I looked at my shadow and there she was, your contract partner becomes your shadow so you never see your shadow unless they are summoned. I decided that I needed bandages for the cuts on my arms and torso so I left for the medical room. As I slightly limped to the room, I encountered the Elder, who then noticed me.
"Sparring again?" She asked, almost motherly.
"Yes. I didn't get as hurt like I did last time." I relpied, knowing she was about to say the usual comment or suggesting.
"Why do you even bother? Why not change partner? Many other witches did that when their demons hurt them too much." Now she was just bothering me.
This always seems to happen. It's because the other witches find it weird that I got to know my partner. They'll come round, I hope.
"I told you, she is my partner and friend. She doesn't like hurting me, but she appreciates the fact that I help keep the urge to kill us all at bay. Beside, a few years together and we became sisters." I stated.
She acknowledges my answer and handed me bandages and cream to prevent infection. She started doing this after I came home hurt the first few time. I thanked her and returned to my room. After patching up, I decided that it was time to go to sleep. The sun was setting anyway. I lay there, in my bed next to the window, watching as the sky became orange and red. I start to think of Balder. What did he think of me? Would we see each other again? I hoped so. The sun disappeared and was replaced by the crescent moon and stars. But I was already asleep. Thinking of him.