"Know what's funny, Lucia?"
Dante stared off into space; his focus clearly at the night sky while asking Lucia a question.
"What's that?" She answered back. They had just finished a bout of demon hunting on her island; it was for practice this time, not for real.
"Some people don't know when they're sinners."
"What?" Her red brows now clearly drawing together showed her confusion. "Do you think Matier had put something in the pot stew she made?"
"That was hours ago for lunch. I'm hungry."
"We'll be having pizza tonight just for you, Dante." Lucia smiled up at him where she sat; they were on top of one of the cliffs on Dumary Island.The weather was like Dante's eyes at times; Lucia thought with a kind of deep reflectiveness. Although, the changing quick weather felt like there was another demon coming; bigger than the previous ones they've encountered. It was something she felt, something her whole island felt.
She wanted to tell Dante, but allowed him to just relax and not worry about it for now. Dumary Island was famous for these things; it made it the haven of demon psychic phenomenon.
"Aww you didn't have to do that, Lucia. I mean, Matier didn't have to go to all the trouble. I'll eat just about anything. I even had to eat escargot in France, and guinea pigs in parts of South America."
Lucia made a distasteful face. "I don't mind the escargot if it's sautéed right; the right amount of seasoning on it will bring out the salty and special flavor. But, but…..guinea pigs?"
"I know. Oh I did have chocolate covered ants in Indonesia once."
"They don't eat that stuff there."
"Yeah, I know, but in the thicker forests, where the ants bite the hell out of you I had to."
Lucia made another face: "You had to?"
"Yeah, my chocolate bars fell on them and I was really hungry."
She shook her head. "You're really pathetic."
They both laughed. Lucia cleared her throat and took out one of her signature blades.
"I had to use these to cut open a few electrical eels in a Chinese river once."
"I didn't know they had them there."
"Usually no, but the rivers around China are huge. One of the largest rivers are in that country."
"Biggest population."
"And you know what that means, Dante. More demons."
They stopped to watch the stars now; it was getting dark that they realized Matier would call them any moment now for dinner.
"You were saying, Dante. About sinners?"
"Oh yeah. Excuse me; I've got short span attention." He sighed heavily and ran a hand over his silver hair, pushing away the bangs out of his eyes: "It's about Enzo."
She leaned back against the cliff's jagged edge and Dante, being the gentleman he tried to be, took off his trench coat and offered to lay it on her back.
"I can take it." She laughed. "Now what about him? Did he get into trouble?"
"When I was talking about the Divine Comedy and the sinners in hell, he didn't realize that he himself is a sinner."
"What do you expect, Dante? Everyone's a sinner. Just in mild and higher degrees. Some people have no conscience either. They like to sin."
"I know. That's why the world is the way it is today. We have to clean up the mess." Then Dante cursed.
"People don't like to be horrible. They never plan to want to be horrible, but they do and they don't realize it."
"It's not about Enzo being a sinner like everyone else; it's the fact that he is a huge womanizer, he loves women so much he goes to bed with so many of them and he wastes his money on them."
"Gluttony, lust, and greed?"
"Naw, he's not greedy, just more Gluttony, lust, and sloth."
"Sloth. People get into that very easily. It's in the Divine Comedy you're talking about?"
"Do you know about it too?" Dante looked at her.
"No." She shook her head honestly.
"Good." He laughed. "I mean, I'm not the only ignorant around."
"I'm only ignorant because I don't choose to read up on everything, although I should."
"Having knowledge on everything isn't going to make you smarter, Lucia, or wiser."
"Is that an insult?"
He lightheartedly laughed again. "No. It's not at all. I wasn't referring that you're dumb. I didn't realize you take things and twist them around too, as if it's referring to you. Or rather you assume."
"Now that's insulting." She started to get up, clearly miffed a bit. "I don't like being a demon, Dante. I have to live with it for the rest of my life." Small tears started to form at the corner of her eyes. Dante groaned inwardly. He did say to Lady that he wanted to see girls cry but he was just joking.
"Are you serious, Lucia?"
She started to walk away, and then turned around. "Not at all." A smile formed on her purple lips.
"Come here, Lucia." He smiled.
She sat down next to him; he placed an arm around her. "Thanks for putting up with my stupid crap."
"It's no problem at all, Dante. You're the guy who showed me that there are demons, few like you and me that aren't bad. Except you're half; you're lucky you have part human in you."
"Doesn't matter. But as I mentioned about the sins of the people who do really bad things to others, Enzo is one of the worst."
"But if he's just doing it for himself, and not hurting others, would that not be okay?" She was asking out of her naivety and Dante recognized it.
"It counts, because he was hurting himself but he changed. Something made him change to the man he now is. Once, he was pathetic, cowardly, and full of gluttonous sin."
"You sound like a philosopher."
Dante hit his head with the palm of his hand. "Ugh. What an idiot. I told myself I wouldn't do that but this place has got me contemplating. It's like a vacation away from home."
Just then they heard Matier's voice calling them from the kitchen window five houses down. It was time for dinner.
Matier smiled as Dante and Lucia walked into the house; a huge platter was set on the middle of the table.
The old woman didn't have many teeth so she kept her smile minimum. She didn't believe in getting fake teeth either. She brought out the huge round pizza that was in the old fashioned oven; steaming hot crust surrounded a mouthwatering melted cheese, cooked pepperoni, mushrooms, and bits of bacon.
"I thought you'd enjoy your favorite meal, son of Sparda."
"Indeed I will. I think if I keep my gluttony to a minimum; even Dante Alighieri won't take offense to a good meal once in awhile." Dante said, his eyes devouring the huge pizza before him.
Matier looked at them strangely. Lucia shrugged and said: "It's about the Divine Comedy."
The old woman's eyes lit up: "I know that story." Then sadness. "It's too bad people don't follow it."
"If they did, we wouldnt have all this wonderful demon hunting." Lucia smiled.
"True that, and the world would be boring wouldn't it?"
"Somehow, I find that oddly twisted." Dante said while setting himself down. "Your clans have fought against demons for centuries. Why wouldnt you want people to follow the poem?"
"Fighting is all we have been doing for centuries, Dante. We wouldnt know peace if it hit us." Matier had a sad look on her face.
"People do repeat things. Oddly enough, they spout about world peace and crap.It's all hogwash."
They all agreed and decided to stop the talk and get down to eating. Dante should come visit more often. He liked that Matier cooked up a good meal for him.