Dancing with Demons

Chapter 2

Life's Little Changes

Yumi awakened, and was surprised by that fact alone. She expected that her scream had been her last breath, her last anything, and yet here she was, awake somehow on the cold stone ground. She grunted and shifted, realizing her left arm was numb, so she pulled it out from under her. Blinking several times she managed to sit up and brush the hair out of her face to inspect her surroundings. After about two seconds, she wished she had stayed unconscious. She was sitting in what looked like a rocky cave, a rather large one in fact, that rose quite high with rocky fissures and the like. She was sitting near the mouth of the cave, and could see surrounding forest about her, almost concealed by a heavy sheet of rain that made the view a dreary gray. But that wasn't what upset her. What did was the four monsters that stood about twenty feet from her.

They were about nine feet in height, with brown leathery like skin and round yellow eyes. Their arms and legs were long, their hands and feet large, and laced with claws that looked like they could rend flesh easily. They had short muzzles that did little to hide the large pointy teeth that lay within them. Surprisingly they wore some type of loincloth that almost blended with their skin, so thankfully she didn't have to know what gender they were on first glance. But did it matter? They were obviously going to eat her!

Yumi held back tears. One moment she was heading out to fulfill her dreams, the next staring death in the face. Where did she go wrong? She knew one thing though, this would surely kill her father. Wiping away angry tears, she glared at the beasts and noticed that they weren't moving. Their eyes were on her, but they did not blink, or twitch one of those sturdy muscles. They seemed like statues, frozen and inanimate. Then one, who was slightly behind the others, shifted its head and took a step forward.

Yumi crabwalked backwards frantically, and gave a shriek as she stumbled over- her packs? Why the hell were those here? She was sure she had left them there on the forest floor…

But now the monster was walking toward her; she noticed how its clawed feet made no sound as it moved. Yumi backed all the way to the far wall and bumped into the rocky interior, too terrified to scream this time. She vaguely noticed that one of its arms was curled toward its chest, as if the arm were somehow injured as it hovered a foot from her, yellow eyes seeming to study her worth. Then it moved the curled arm…and Yumi gasped in shock.

Curled in the nook of its elbow was a baby, or maybe a toddler, with wild blond hair and pale skin. The child lay there limply, as if dead, and Yumi felt a hot rage she had never felt before consume her. This is what they did to their victims? Show them dead children to drive them mad then kill them? Lacking caution in her anger, Yumi grabbed the toddler and almost dropped it when she felt how hot the skin was.

It was...alive?

Grabbing a small chubby wrist, she put her index and middle finger against the vein and listened for a pulse. It was there, steady yet slow, much too slow for a toddler. Quickly looking the child over, she saw that that it was a boy, one in poor shape. She dropped into what she hoped was a doctor mode.

The child's eyes were swollen shut, there was pus around both ears hinting of a severe ear infection. The toddler's throat seemed dangerously swollen- she hoped it wasn't Strep Throat- and it was cutting off the boy's ability to breathe properly. He also seemed to be suffering from a high fever. First things first. After categorizing the child's ailments, she decided that decreasing the swelling of the throat would allow more oxygen in the blood, which, despite the other pains, would at least ease some of the child's misery. She pulled off her shirt and wrapped the boy in it. She had some good tea leaves that reduced swelling and eased the pain of sore throat, and she was grateful that her pack was sitting near her.

She blinked. Was it possible that they had not brought her here to eat her, but in fact nurse this boy back to health? She looked up at the monsters, noticing the one that had given the child to her had returned to its previous position. They were all staring at her still, unmoving statues, and she wondered. Was this child theirs? Had they stolen it from some poor woman to eat and decided to care for it instead, only for it to become ill?

Yumi shook her head. Priorities first, luxury later. First she needed some water. Pulling out the small pot she had packed for traveling tea breaks she was supposed to have with Shirow, she carefully placed the unresponsive toddler on the cold rocky ground and slowly headed for the cave entrance, showing the monsters that she wasn't intending to run away. Their gazes followed her, but they made no moves. She quickly filled the pot by using the sleet of rain that fell along the rocks, knowing that any minerals in the water would be welcome. She made sure there was no sand at the bottom then headed back toward the child. At her pack, she pulled out some tea bags and a small red cloth. Setting the pot down carefully, she slowly gathered rocks and some dry sticks and bramble that she found and placed them together. She then looked at the four monster statues.

"I'm going to need fire…for the tea," she said in a steady voice, and inwardly cheered at how calm and cool she sounded. The statues continued to stare at her, uncomprehending or not caring- either she did not know.

"Fire?" she repeated hopefully, and cupped her hands to her mouth and blew on them, as if she were cold- which she was with no shirt and all, and then placed them over the sticks and rocks, pretending to warm herself over them. She did this several times to the point where she was to despair, when one of their heads moved. The statue at the corner, shifted and then it said something to the others. How she knew it was actually speaking and not making random noises she did not know, but she had no hopes of repeating anything it said to the others statues, whose heads began to shift toward it in response.

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"I think it wants us to build a fire," Spayt said, turning to look at the others. Krik was obviously resting due to his mad dash across the country and back to find a healer for Sunny, and wasn't inclined to reply. Tkaa and Tsorn both looked at him with obvious annoyance, though less with Tkaa.

"Well go build it a fire then. Stop wasting time," Tsorn snapped. Spayt resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Just because Tsorn was older than him, he always felt the need to assert his authority all the time. It was annoying, and one day, when he was hopefully larger, he would have to teach Tsorn a lesson. One that hopefully would leave scars.

Spayt sighed and took a step forward, noticing the human backing away. The human was a temptation for them, except for possibly Krik; it smelled good, and its fear was tantalizing. Nothing smelled better than a frightened human. Humans understood pain and death better than animals- or perhaps differently- because they feared both more than say, an elk would. An elk knew when its time was up, knew when to stop fighting. Humans didn't. They fought, they screamed and they cried, they refused to give in to the endless night, and that's what made them taste better than any other living creature.

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Yumi backed up quickly as one of the monsters stepped forward. Was it going to kill her? Yumi watched nervously as the monster bent lower to the ground and sniffed her sticks, before it straightened itself and moved a massive hand over the sticks. Yumi watched in unconcealed fascination as the monster clicked its thumb claw and index claw together in a type of snap that produced several sparks. It did this several times before a small spark managed to ignite, and Yumi bravely came forward to nurse the flame, gently adding sticks and all the while knowing that the monster had not backed off. Then she felt a movement and glanced up to see that it had returned to its position with the others and became still again.

Dropping the tea leaves into the pot, she set it on top of the rocks that sat amongst the flames and left it to heat up. In the meantime, she cradled the toddler and hummed a lullaby she had heard some of the village mothers sing to their children. She caressed the child's golden hair, marveling at how soft it was, and began to wonder how long the statues had the child. There was no sign of malnutrition, and the child was reasonably clean, with small scratched here and there that she could tell were from sticks and twigs. Maybe a few days?

But no, she could tell they must have had the child for some time. One, they would not have gone so far to find a healer if they didn't really care about the toddler. How she knew she was far from home, she did not know, but she could feel it in her bones.

The sound of sizzling water brought her out of her thoughts; she set the child down and pulled out some cups and a spoon. She picked the pot from the fire and poured the tea into the cup. Then she went to the entrance again and filled the hot pot up with water. Immediately the cold water began to warm. Returning the child, Yumi sat him upright and dipped the spoon into the tea, gently blowing on the liquid to bring down some of the heat. Opening his mouth with two of her fingers, she slipped the warm herbs into the child's mouth and hoped it went down the right way. The child coughed, the first sign of life it gave in the first hour, and scrunched its cute face in pain.

"I know I know," she cooed. "but mommy's going to make it all better." She inwardly marveled how easy it was for a woman to drop into mother mode, even when days ago she would have sworn she wasn't ready for any type of child.

But it was so easy to care.

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An hour later, most of the tea had made it down the child's throat, and the obvious results were pleasing. The swelling had gone down drastically, along with the fever that was plaguing him. Yumi resisted the urge to do a victory dance, pleased that she had killed two birds with one stone. With a less pained throat, the child began to whimper often and shift miserably in her arms.

Step Two.

With the warm water from the pot waiting, she dipped the small red cloth into the pot and began to run the warm cloth over the child's body and face. Wiping his eyes, which were also gummed shut, she grimaced. Hopefully he didn't have some type of conjunctivitis, or some other serious eye infection, because she didn't have any sterile antibiotics for them. The only thing she could do was clean them up so the boy could at least open his eyes, or try to since the flesh was swollen. For his ear infection, which was now probably the only thing that was making him miserable, she could do a little more, and after cleaning them out she managed to pour some medicated water into his ears, causing him to cry and squirm, though she held him still. All the while, she kept a close eye on the four statues, whom hadn't moved even when the toddler cried out in pain. Did they really care? Or was it that they were used to the cries of children? How intelligent were they anyhow?

Smart enough to see through your pantomiming… her brain said, and she conceded to the thought. They obviously had their own language, which said pretty much everything all on its own.

After wrapping the toddler in another of her clean shirts and donning one for herself, she pulled out her camping futon and rolled it out, scarfed down a nutrition bar since she didn't want to make anything else, and zipped both her and the toddler into it.

"What shall I call you?" she murmured, staring at the toddler. Some of the swelling in his eyes had gone down, though to her chagrin she had seen that most of the blood vessels in his eyes had popped, leaving them a gruesome red. Would they kill the boy if there was any lasting visual damage? Hell, would they kill her??!

Yumi tossed the grim thoughts aside and began to wonder again, what to call the boy. "Let's see. If you were my baby, I would call you…Naoe Yep. For now, your name is Naoe." She kissed his forehead and curled up around him. She glanced at the monsters, who had not moved once, then shut her eyes, safe in the knowledge that at least for tonight, she was safe from death. It only remained to be seen, if tomorrow was going to be as safe as today had been.

She wondered how long she had been unconscious from the time she had been kidnapped, to the time she had awakened. Was her father already missing her? Was Shirow? Were they looking for her now, wondering if she was safe and unharmed? Except for a pulled muscle, she felt great, if a little spent.

The onslaught of rain was comforting, as was the small warm body she held. Yumi drifted off to sleep, unaware of the four hungry gazes that fixated upon her.

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Tkaa sniffed Sunny as he stood over the human female that had curled herself around the toddler. Turning from them, he made his way around the small fire and nudged a few sticks into it when he noticed that it was almost going out.

"Sunny smells a lot better than before," he murmured as to not awaken the sleeping humans. "I must admit, your choice in a healer is admirable."

Krik pulled himself out of resting and nodded. It was very rare for Tkaa to compliment him in anything since Tkaa was one to keep his opinions to himself. If anything were to happen to him, Tkaa would take over the pack in his place, and he was sure that Tsorn would behave himself. Spayt, he did not worry about. Out of the four of them, he was the most amiable and adaptable.

"Though it seems strange," Tkaa whispered suddenly, "that Sunny's scent is beginning to change. I sense a…darkness about him. He smells less human now."

Krik lifted his head and sniffed the air through slitted nostrils. Yes, the seal must have weakened due to Sunny's ailment. Already he could sense the source in him, that strange ability that made some humans dangerous and the greater Demons masters. He suspected it was already flowing through Sunny's body.

They only had to wait and see.

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The next morning was pleasing for Yumi, who awakened to see a sitting toddler attempting to eat her hair. Sitting up, she examined Naoe. The swelling of his eyes had gone down, leaving them rimmed pink, though the vessels in his eyes had yet to heal. Getting a hold of his head, she examined his pink ears and thought that maybe another dose would do well for them. Yumi glanced up and noticed that only one monster remained, the one she was sure had made the fire for her, and it was staring at her like they all had yesterday. Turning back to Naoe, she opened his mouth to check his throat, when she shrieked and moved away, fear rolling through her.

Naoe had the teeth of perhaps a three year old, but they were sharp and dagger-like. Yumi felt cold. Had she mistaken this whole ordeal the whole time? Was the child perhaps a monster too, only, it hadn't reached the stage where it began to look like the others? Was one of them its mother- perhaps the one that was staring at her intently, nostrils flaring occasionally. Yumi focused on Naoe's eyes and noticed things she had ignored before. What she had assumed were bloodshot eyes and popped vessels now appeared to be crimson irises and slitted black pupils rimmed with an orange fire that threatened to pull her into them. Gentle flushed cheeks sporting curious markings now seemed sinister and animal-like- perhaps whiskers. She noticed red agitated ears somehow seemed more pointed, and chubby little hands now had small sharp fingernails.

This child wasn't human!

In fact, if Yumi really looked, she would realize that Naoe was no longer sick and was actually in high spirits. He made a strange clicking sound from the back of his throat and reached a small hand toward her foot, deadly eyes cheerful, and strangely innocent.

When she had awakened, Naoe was attempting to eat her hair. What if it was more than just child curiosity? What if Naoe ate humans along with the rest of them? Yumi glanced up at the monster that stood across from them, really looked into those yellow slitted eyes and realized how hungry this monster looked.

"I think I better leave," Yumi whispered, feeling terrified. The toddler turned and crawled over to Yumi's pack and began to dig into the contents, picked up a spoon and experimentally chewed on it. The sound of twisting metal came unwelcome to her ears and Yumi staggered to her feet. "I'm going now," she said between gasps as she stumbled toward the entrance. "The boy is alright now, so I-I'm gonna go home." She glanced at Naoe, whose crimson eyes were staring after her curiously and gnawing on the now mutilated spoon. "Y-You can keep my stuff. I don't need it."

As she made it to the entrance, the monster made a move toward her. Yumi screamed, turned, and fled the cave.

It happened so quickly. One moment there was jagged rock under her feet, the next she was falling, crashing into everything, feeling pain in every bounce until there was a loud snap in her ears that blocked out all sound and she could no longer feel herself fall, only the world twisting end upon end.

Then she stopped falling and the world righted itself, the sky stopped twirling. It was partly cloudy today, but the sky was a beautiful change from the dreary cave ceiling. There was a ringing in her ears that wouldn't go away, but she knew not to move until her body accessed the injuries first. Strangely, black dots began to appear in her vision, popping up and disappearing, only to show up again. The face of the monster appeared above her, and she could have sworn there was a complete look of surprise on the gruesome features, like it had not expected this.

More black dots appeared, and slowly Yumi began to understand what happened, and mostly, why she not only hadn't got feeling back, but couldn't move.

The cave had been at the top of a rather steep rocky hill, and she hadn't known that, seeing as at the time she had gone to the cave entrance, it was raining very hard. That loud snapping noise must have been her neck breaking, and these black dots that increased must be signs that she was dying. She felt fear, wanted to cry or perhaps hyperventilate, but her breaths became shallow, her own heartbeat, which was the only thing she could hear, became slower. Most of her vision left, except for the two yellow glowing eyes which took up what was left of her sight. It was a pity this was the last thing she was going to see.

Gods she wished she could see her father. This was going to kill him.

She wished she could have been a medic Nin, like her mother had been.

Then the eyes were gone and darkness came.

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Spayt hovered over the human female, watched as the warm brown eyes began to lose focus as they stared at him, and then its breaths become short and few. Then it stopped breathing and became still, eyes becoming glassy.

This was completely unexpected. Spayt hadn't a clue as to why it had its flight of terror, since he hadn't done anything to warrant it. But it had run and managed to kill itself in the process. The smell of its rich blood oozed out of the many broken bones and gashes it had accumulated on the way down. Especially from the neck, where the bone had snapped and was protruding out of the flesh. A scuffling alerted him and Spayt turned to see Sunny carefully make his way to his side, metal object still in his drooling mouth. Spayt frowned. How did the clumsy child make it all the way down here, when he had trouble walking on a flat surface without falling on his face?

"Wud 'appen?" Sunny asked suddenly, startling the older demon. Sunny had just said two words almost perfectly in their language, with the right hiss on 'happen'. Spayt stared closely at the toddler and noticed the changes. Sunny was making the clicking noise that was commonly associated with curiosity while his now sharp teeth gnawed on the metal utensil. His now slightly pointed ears were twitching at new or enhanced sounds and his small button nose was twitching at the smell of blood. But the most noticeable trait was the crimson eyes and slitted pupil that was ringed with yellow and orange.

And then it all made sense. Swollen eyes for the change, swollen throat for added vocal cords, bleeding ears for the enhanced hearing, and the brief moment of stuffy nose for the enhanced sense of smell. Sunny had not been sick as much as simply going through the change Krik had once whispered of. So was the human female necessary then? Had they really needed it then?

Seeing the crimson eyes upon him, Spayt felt inclined to answer, though he wasn't sure how much the child would understand.

"It is dead. It broke its neck." He pointed to the piece of bone poking out of the female's neck. Sunny stopped chewing on the piece of metal and stared intently at the corpse, body gone still with thought, unnatural for a child.

"Why?" he said suddenly, and Spayt started in surprise. It was not an empty why, but a 'why did she die' which meant that Sunny understood the concept of death, which was impossible at his age.

But he was moved to answer. "Terror. Terror makes a thing a fool."

Sunny remained still, and perhaps thoughtful, as he stared down at the human corpse.

"What happened?" a voice inquired and Spayt turned to see Krik calmly approaching the scene. Not too far back, Tsorn and Tkaa carried a large fat female bear. Krik stood near the body looking annoyed. Spayt shrugged.

"I don't know. It suddenly grew frightened and ran and killed itself on the way down. But look," Spayt said as he saw Krik grimace and Tsorn giggle. "Look at Sunny. He is well again, and more like us-er or at least like our kind."

Krik looked at Sunny, who was staring absentmindedly at the corpse, chewing away at the piece of metal in his mouth.

"Sunny," Krik called, and the crimson eyes looked up at him expectantly. "You will do well here." He then turned to Spayt. "Take the human female inside. We will dine on her cold flesh along with this healthy bear we have found."

Spayt nodded eagerly and picked the human up by its damaged neck. He watched as Krik picked Sunny up by the legs and sniffed him over before trudging up to the cave.

"Be serious Spayt," Tsorn hissed with a malicious giggle. "you killed the human so you could eat her."

Spayt scowled in reply and headed up to the cave, human female tight in one grip.

Only Tkaa stopped and picked up the piece of metal that Sunny had dropped when Krik picked him up. He then headed solemnly towards the cave. He'd been the only one, he was sure, to say that they should let the human female go once Sunny was well. Tsorn had blatantly disagreed, saying that they shouldn't let such a meal pass them by. Krik had been indecisive, since he was more concerned about the safety of the pack if they let her free. He was sure Spayt had wanted to eat the human as well, but if Krik wanted to let the human go, Spayt would have backed him up immediately. Such was his loyalty.

But now the human was dead, by mere accident, and Tkaa felt they no longer had any choices. Alive or dead their fates were sealed. None of the others knew that he had agreed with Tsorn the first day they had come across Sunny in the forest. They should have eaten him along with the human he was with and be done with it. He alone felt the sense of death that surrounded the infant, that if they let it live, they would meet such a gruesome end. But Krik had wanted to keep it, Spayt had backed him up, and Tsorn had shut his mouth. He, had not opened it at all. Maybe he should have. Maybe by his own silence he had sentenced them all to death.

Tkaa sighed and entered the cave, seeing Krik divide the human up and give a severed hand to Sunny, who chewed on it hungrily. He still liked to chew things.

Well it was all too late now. Sunny was no longer exactly human, he was part of the pack, and the human was dead. Best to meet this straight on.

He accepted the human thigh Krik tossed his way.

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Takezo stood stony faced and shadowy eyed amongst his late wife's friends, former teammates from when she had been a medic Nin. Each one had held Yumi at least once during the time when she was a child, each one had been called a guardian of some sort. Now they had gathered to find Yumi, who had disappeared. One shinobi held a scroll in one hand; he claimed that he would summon a pack of wolves who would be able to hunt Yumi down.

Takezo handed his wife's hitai-ate, which no longer smelled of her, but Yumi, who used to wear it and pretend she was a medic Nin.

They would find his daughter, or exact vengeance on the ones who had killed her.

TBC

Naoe is pronounced (now- weh) or more reasonably, (now-way). Though it really isn't important since this chapter was the only one where that name was used. And yes, I felt like a real idiot killing Yumi like that.