The night drags on, all the while we wait for Vern to return from checking out the town for safe lodging. I hear nothing but Renda stands up and preps her bow for a shot, this causes me to jump up and draw my sword, not yet knowing what it is that she is reacting to. Silently moving towards a wall that has stopped burning she slides up against it and stands motionless completely focused on listening to whatever it is. I do the only thing I can, stand beside the girl we saved and wait, straining my muscles to no move or make a sound. My breathing becomes calm, slow, and silent. All I can hear is the rustling wind and something that almost sounds like rainfall on rooftops, but there is no rain. Whatever I am now hearing must be what Renda reacted to, how she noticed it so soon I have no idea. I look towards her to see how she is acting. When I turn to where she was standing I see nothing but the wall, she walked off when I was standing there. I bite back the urge to call out to her, I can her the pff pff pff pff sound growing closer slowly, it is impossible to pinpoint its location. All I know is that it is here somewhere around me, and that has me scared. It is the first thing to scare me since the one time when I was only fourteen, attempting to help out the guards during an attack. The fear of death, that is what has me scared. I can feel someone or something watching me, but whatever it is, it is not a devil, they do not attack like this. Unless their strategies have changed. I am snapped back to reality ripped from my thoughts when I hear the pff pff pff right above me on the rooftops. Looking upwards with sword ready I prepare to fight, but all I see is someone in a cloak pearing down at me. All I can make out are the green eyes, eyes that I have never seen before. I don't mean in color, it is something about the eyes, the shape of them and the look in them. Almost a predatory yet kind look. The face slips back over the edge of the house and disappears. Footsteps behind me, possibly an attack who used the other as bait? But no, when I turn around I see Vern walking towards me, and Renda? She is sitting next to the girl again, I didn't even hear her come back. Is she an assassin? She is quiet enough with words, silent enough with her movment, and she hears things that I didn't. I will have to try to keep an eye on her. I am not sure if I can trust her or Vern yet.
"I finally found a place, it is the only one semi-intact. Mostly because it was made out of stone."
"Vern." Her voice lacks the useual calmness and lack of emotion. It is filled with anger, but why towards him? "What took you so long?"
He seems unfazed by her tone, instead he smiles. "I ran into something when i was searching. It watched me from atop the roofs while I was walking down the street."
"You saw it too then Vern."
Even more anger in her voice this time. "You saw it too!" I step back from the amount of anger in her voice, and the force of her yell. Vern and I look towards each other, he just shrugs and moves towards the girl. I follow him towards her and we pick her up. He has her legs while I am holding her by her shoulders.
"Renda, since you have such good hearing, how about you keep an eye out for it." She only stares at me, no trace of anger remaining on her face. Her only response is walking ahead of us with an arrow drawn back on the bow. For the most part it is an uneventful trip towards the building. Every once in a while the silence is broken by Vern telling us to turn. Tired and ready for rest we reach the building that he found and move inside. The door is hanging on loosely, any movement of the door may cause it to fall. The building is one of the factories of the town. They take the skin off the animals and turn it into clothes here, but nothing useful remains, no clothing, no skin, no food. Still caring her, we turn and follow a hallway who's sign said 'Quarters'. The quarters are surprisingly intact with all of their furnishings there. We set her down on one of the beds before we head to sleep. Renda volunteers for the first watch, which means that I get the next watch. As I slip into sleep my dreams are haunted again by the death of my family.
I am jolted Renda yelling for Vern and I to wake up. I bolt upright and take a look around, seeing in the light of the latern, which she must have found after we went to sleep, shadows along the walls. Dark purples and blacks swirling together in various sizes, but the shadow blobs were moving around with occasional whisps of a shadowish tail spiraling a short distance out before disappearing. Peaking out of these blobs are eyes of many diferent colors, mostly yellow. The devils are slowly crawling out of the shadows chittering to one another in odd tongues, yet none of them had mouths. They are short blackish creatures, with antennae, from their body sprouts short legs and short arms. Claws extend from their hands and feet.
An arrow pierces the first devil in the face causing it to flash into a whisp of black smoke. Vern is already up and is casting spells towards them. I retrieve my sword from the bed, but before I can unsheath the blade a devil falls at me from the ceiling forcing me to fend it off with the metal sheath. After repelling the devil I unsheath my sword and charge the nearest cluster. Sheath in my left hand, blade in my right, I spy another type of devil emerging from down the hall that this cluster is in. This devil has more of a look about it, almost making it blend in with the bandits that hunt the area. This devil is still the black shadowy appearance for what passes for skin in their kind. But he has a type of red boots not seen around here. An armored cuirass covers the midsection and shoulers, deep red eyes peer from behind a mask made from a skull. In its left hand is an ax while in its right is a flail. It turns towards me and I can hear not only its roar but also what might be laughter. It raises the flail and smashes the roof behind it without even looking, causing the entire hallway to become blocked off. Isolated in the quarters I halt my charge. Looking around the devils around us are dispatched, Vern is standing calmly beside Renda. It appears that he is defensless, while Renda has her dagger drawn, but it is one of the longest blades I have seen on a dagger, about fourteen inches. I glance towards the windows only to see my hopes destroyed, they are all barred. More laughter comes from down the hall, I look back towards to source, this new devil. He is alone but seems to be in a good mood, that is if it is even possible for these creatures to be happy. But he did laugh. How much do we really know about them I wonder, but now is not the time, now we must fight or our journey will be over sooner than it began.