'Petra', apparently, breaks into a grin and gives Lukas a tight hug. "Hey, Lukas. How you doin'?"

The blonde squeezes her and releases her a moment later, shifting and resting a hand on his hip with a huge grin at Petra. "Pretty good. Could've used you a minute earlier."

She rolls her eyes teasingly at him, sheathing the gold sword without even wiping off the blood. "Oh, you know me. Just passing by."

Aiden shakes his head, a huge smile creeping over his lips. "You bitch. Quit showing up at the last minute."

He gives her a friendly slug on the shoulder and pulls her into a quick, rough hug. "Good to see you."

"You dick, stop getting taller. Gill's the only one that's allowed to beat me," is her cheerful response as she punches him on the shoulder, before she gives the other male demon a mischievous smile. "Hey, Gill. You still denying your crush on Maya?"

Both Maya and Gill turn pink. If Jesse was in any mood to appreciate it, they would laugh. As it is, all they can do is shiver.

"I don't have a-"

"Petra, I think you're going crazy-"

"He's a complete asshole-"

"She's a crazy bitch-"

Petra smirks at the two spluttering demons and turns to Lukas casually, ignoring the fact that the other two are basically pomegranates at this point. "You guys certainly haven't gotten rusty."

He gives her a smirk, tongue poking through his teeth. "You certainly haven't gotten any less late," he replies in the same tone she just used, tilting his head. "Can't imagine Ivor's that pleased about it."

She shrugs. "Eh. He's pretty much letting me roam around wherever I want, anyway. I just gotta go whenever he calls me."

She lifts her hand and tugs her glove down enough to reveal the hint of a tattoo. "It's not often, anyway."

"Still." Aiden is still smirking as he socks her back on the shoulder. "Could've used some extra manpower."

"Heh, you guys had it handled anyway." She grins at them, before glancing at Jesse, who's watching with wide, green eyes from several feet back.

Her smile fades, replaced with surprise.

"Is that...?"

Her boots clop through blood (Jesse forces down a whimper), and she's suddenly kneeling in front of Jesse, leaning forward and regarding them with fascinated red eyes.

Jesse twists their head away a little bit, swallowing hard, but not removing their eyes from her as little shivers go down their spine.

Just in case.

"Holy shit." Petra doesn't hide the fact that she's staring unabashedly at the tiny human teenager in front of her. "You guys are traveling with a human?"

"Yeah, uh..." Lukas scratches his cheek, giving the redhead an awkward smile. "Romeo's orders."

"Huh."

Petra regards them for a moment longer, her red eyes flickering over their pale face, fluffy hair, the pig reassuringly rubbing his face against their leg, before her hand moves-

"Don't- don't come closer-!" Jesse chokes out, backing up and staggering as their foot snags the incubus's body, back thudding into a tree without slowing down. "Aaa- aaaaaah-"

Petra's expression changes- into one that is remarkably like sympathy or even worry, but Jesse doesn't have enough time to really look at it as they keen frailly before she glances at the corpses littering the road not twenty feet away.

She's quiet for a moment, before looking up at the four half-demons. "Let's just get them out of here for now."

"What?" Aiden asks, looking vaguely confused, but Petra's already speaking again.

"You guys... well, you took care of those guys, but you also made it a bloodbath." She jerks her head at the twenty-or-so corpses that are littering the ground, soaking the road coppery red and saturating the air. "Pretty sure humans aren't used to seeing that much blood. Let's get them out of here."

Lukas nods and goes over to scoop Jesse up-

Jesse shivers violently, shrinking away from him. "Don't- don't- don't don't- no- nonono-" They shake their head, tears trailing down their face.

His lips part to reveal his teeth, lips tilting down at the ends. Part of Jesse feels like he's crestfallen, and they can feel guilt twisting their stomach at that.

And the other part can only see the blood splattered on his orange shirt, the blood smeared on his lower jaw, the fact that his hands are stained red, don't hurt me, don't kill anyone else please

Petra regards the human, before reaching out and scooping Jesse up easily, since they're so small.

Jesse squirms, trying to get out without shoving her or landing on the ground, which has stains of red smeared on the grass from the demons walking back and forth through the pools of blood, breathing growing more ragged. "N-no- no- nnnn- no- aaah-"

"It's okay, it's okay." Lukas's voice is soft now, one hand gently resting on their back- Jesse tries to twist away- he keeps his grip securely on them so they don't just flop out. "It's alright, we're just going to move off elsewhere for a bit, okay?"

Jesse shakes their head, tears coming down their face, knowing that blood is smearing on their clothes, all down their back. "No- no- s-stop-"

"Stop crying. We're leaving. You don't have to see all the bad blood in a second." Aiden's voice cuts through the haze of fear in their head, sounding rather irritated.

Jesse abruptly clamps their mouth shut, a cry dying in their throat.

Don't cry.

Don't cry.

Don't cry.

They stop writhing and go still, enough for Petra to stand up, pressing the side of their head into her shoulder in such a way that all they can see are the trees off to the side.

"You don't see anything?" Lukas leans around to check Jesse, still sounding slightly crestfallen (their gut twists deeper).

"N-no," they manage through the lump in their throat. "Just- just trees."

He nods and glances up at Petra. "Nearest safe area?"

"You're actually not that far; there's a resting spot around a bend about twenty minutes away."

Petra starts walking, Jesse's head pressed into her shoulder as they bob up and down from the walk. Her boots clomp through the blood, making little wet sounds that send a chill up their spine, but they don't dare whimper or cry out again, not after Aiden's comment, not after that.

The sound of weapons whispering signals that they've put their weapons away, even as the wet footsteps slowly turn to dry ones as everyone continues walking.

There is nothing but silence. The whispering wind seems sinister rather than calming now. The eerie black trunks of the trees around them jump out from the normal brown ones, even as the only sound in the air is the soft sound of the wind and footsteps as they move farther and farther away.

And the itching, burning feeling of eyes still boring into Jesse's back.

Petra sets a sleeping human down on the floor gently, making sure not to jolt them awake. The human's been quiet for the entire twenty-minute walk, even though she could feel them trembling from where she was hugging them close enough that she could've rested her chin on their head if she wanted to.

And then they lift their head to look at her, making her blink in surprise. Apparently they haven't been asleep.

"Will that happen again?"

Maya and Gill look up; this is the first time anyone's spoken for the past twenty minutes. Lukas's head lifts to look at them, and even Aiden looks up from where he's cleaning his whip. "Hm?"

Petra notes with amusement that the four of them chime that in complete unison.

"Will... will that..." Jesse gestures weakly at the direction they came from. "Will that happen again?"

"Oh. Yeah." Gill gives a nonchalant shrug. "It'll probably happen again. Many times again."

Maya gives Jesse a slightly apologetic smile. "Yeah... fights like that aren't at all rare in Cosmos. Though, um, I guess we did go a little overboard." She stretches, lacing her fingers behind her head. "It has been a while since we've actually done any combat."

Petra glances at the human, who's taking this in quietly.

Their pig snuffles and noses his way into their arms, which they gladly scoop him up into and press their cheek to the top of his head. "I- I see..."

Aiden grunts. "Oh yeah. You asked why everyone in our world wears black or red or a shade of that sort, yeah?"

The human bobs their head up and down. "Yeah..."

"The reason for that is because blood stains aren't as visible on black or red clothes," Aiden replies, and okay, Petra knows she's blunt, but damn.

She scratches her cheek and gives the human a slightly sheepish smile, the human lifting their head to look up at her. "It... would sort of be a pain to constantly change or wash out the stains."

The human is quiet, although Petra does notice their face going the tiniest shade paler. "... so that's the reason...?"

Aiden grunts assent.

Petra turns back to the human, giving them an encouraging smile and sticking out her gloved hand. No sense in being rude. "Hi. My name's Petra. I'm one of Ivor's contracted humans."

The human blinks at her, before shakily holding out one hand and giving her hand a squeeze and a little shake. "So- so you're in Enchantra most of th' time?"

She shrugs. "Yeah, but Ivor gave me the option of going to him when he summons me, since he doesn't really have me do much except help out. So I tend to be wherever in Cosmos."

"Oh, I see..." They give her a tiny, if rather shy smile. "Um... thank- thank you for getting me out of there." They pause, before their cheeks pink and they huddle deeper into the hug with the pig. "I... nn... I didn't expect..."

Petra huffs, sitting back and crossing her legs absentmindedly. "You didn't expect fights in Cosmos to be that bloody?"

Jesse gives their head a little shake. "I didn't expect any fight to ever be that bloody."

Lukas huffs a laugh himself, making Jesse look over at him. He seems to be cleaning those claws he likes to use in combat. "Don't worry, we weren't expecting it ourselves when we first started training. You should've seen Petra when Ivor gutted a demon who was trying to kill her."

Gill giggles at the memory. "Oh man. She just turned this weird shade of green."

"Did not."

"You really did, Petra, I honestly thought you were changing into a swamp monster."

"Yeah, don't get me started on Aiden seeing it," Maya chuckles. "Romeo was talking to Ivor and some demon tried to rob them and he just-" She mimes a little exploding hand motion. "Blood all over the floor."

"Ooooh, yeah, he threw up right on Isa's shoes."

Aiden makes a face. "Yeah, at least she was pretty okay with it, surprisingly."

"Honestly, I think she was more worried that you were sick or something than about her shoes." Lukas shrugs, giving Aiden a smile. "They were boots, anyway."

Jesse pipes up now, looking faintly interested despite the very gorey details. "You guys get trained together...? Do all contracted humans get trained together, then?"

"Nope. Not enough humans come to all get trained together."

"Well, technically, this is actually the most active year for contracted humans or humans coming in twenty years at least for all of the lords," Maya pipes up. "For the past twenty years, humans traveling into Cosmos has become very rare, and... honestly, nobody knows why."

Petra nods, before looking at Jesse. "But we all came this year- I came in August, and they came in October."

"Oh..." Jesse purses their lips slightly, looking up at the sky, before back at Petra. "Is that why those raider people called the four of them the October Children?"

"I hate that name," Aiden grumbles in response.

Petra chuckles. "Yep. I think I got a nickname as the August Girl, but I'm not really sure, since it's not like they say the name in front of me."

"Plenty of people like to say our name in front of us," Gill shrugs.

"Well, it's a lot easier to call us by a common nickname than go 'you four half-demons that Romeo contracted'," Maya points out.

Petra gives a lopsided grin. "Since Ivor and Romeo figured it'd be best to give us as much training as possible, they both trained us all at the same time, so we're pretty tight with each other. Ivor's all the survival and magic, and Romeo's like... some magic and lots of combat."

Jesse hums, thumbing the corner of their mouth. Petra can tell they're still trembling, if the way the pig looks like he's on vibrate is any indication, but it seems to be calmer. "Oh, I see..."

She nods back at them, somewhat restraining the urge to ruffle their (very fluffy-looking) hair. "You okay?"

"Mm?"

"You were all shaky earlier." Petra decides not to point out the fact that they're still all shaky, albeit looking a lot calmer.

Jesse looks down at the pig, who presses his nose into their cheek. They gladly heft him up before lifting their head and giving them all a rather frail sort of smile. "Well... i-if you guys all got used to it after only being here for a few months, then... I-I guess I'll be able to handle it better after a while, too."

Gill looks like he wants to give them an encouraging slap on the back, but being ten feet away, he gives a thumbs' up and a grin. "That's the spirit."

Petra gives another nod at the response, a little bit in approval and a little bit in simply acknowledging the response, before plopping down into a seat next to Jesse and looking up at the October Children. "So, whatcha doing escorting a human, anyway? Are they a new contract?"

Lukas stands up, stowing his claws away. "Jesse, you wanna see some illusion magic?"

"Eh? Oh," and Jesse blinks at him, scrambling to their feet with their pig still in their arms. "Sure."

A tiny smile quirks across Lukas's face, Petra feeling a moment of relief from him before he clops over to a corner of the safe area. "C'mon, it's a bit darker over here, so I don't have to do as much magic to darken it..."

"Okay."

Petra watches them go, before looking expectantly at the remaining October Children.

Aiden doesn't say anything, so Maya sighs and begins, leaning forward and using her hands to gesture. "So, Romeo had us ready to see if any humans with a desire came..."

Maya is a good explainer, and not ten minutes later, Petra's cleaning Miss Butter with a frown on her face. "So you're saying... Romeo's having Jesse help fix the issue?"

"Who knows why, but yeah," Aiden nods, finishing cleaning his whip and flicking all of the blades back into the handle easily. "So we're basically babysitting a human."

"I dunno, they had the incubus handled," Petra murmurs back teasingly, which makes Gill snigger and even Aiden crack a smile.

Maya hums a laugh, glancing over at where Lukas is holding out a hand and making little drops of water travel around his hand, which Jesse is watching with wide eyes and a surprised smile on their face. "Well, Lukas seems to like 'em."

"Lukas likes everyone," Aiden mumbles dismissively, which makes Petra flicker red eyes to him for a moment- he's usually not as cynical about people.

"Well, yeah, but he seems pretty cheerful lately," Gill amends the statement, leaning his cheek on his hand.

Petra glances back at where Lukas is now holding what looks like a fish made of water, Jesse poking their finger into it curiously.

He does have a rather large smile on his face.

She surveys Maya's blood-smeared staff, Gill reloading the handgun, Aiden absentmindedly spinning his whip in the air.

"... how about I go with you guys?"

Immediately, all of them look up at her, Aiden's slightly dark expression clearing, while Maya and Gill's eyes widen.

"Oh, you don't have-"

"We couldn't-"

"You'd-?"

Petra shrugs, giving a particularly stubborn stain on Miss Butter a scrub. "Eh, why not. If you're trying to work on the issue, Ivor's probably going to ask me to help later."

"It's always a second thought for you to do anything. I think he just contracts humans because he likes them," Gill hums thoughtfully, scratching his beard.

Petra rolls her eyes and flips her short hair. "Well, I am very awesome."

This raises a round of titters, but she shrugs and leans back. "But anyway- if Ivor's going to ask me to work on the issue too, I might as well join in now. Plus, the human's pretty damn tiny for seventeen and we don't need them up and dying on the spot if we're trying to fix the issue. More brains are better than less."

Aiden reaches into his pocket, rummaging around as if looking for something. "If you're going to help, we should pay you-"

"No, taking your money feels like a dick move for something Ivor's eventually going to have me do anyway," Petra waves it off. "Plus, if we're solving the issue, money does help some demon's tongues loosen."

"As does the threat of a knife to the tongue," Gill murmurs.

Petra smirks slightly. "I'm all for violence usually, but I don't really think traumatizing the human would be a good move."

"Traumatizing the human would be a very bad move, as I would promptly kill you afterwards," Lukas calls back, making Jesse give a slightly nervous laugh as they continue poking through the water fish, looking rather fascinated by it and also a bit nervous that Lukas is being serious.

"There we go."

A/N: Petra joins the party!

Yay, there'll... probably be more violence later but whatever xD

Responses to reviews! (Well, review.)

Toni42: The others got used to that xD / Yep, but they're hiding it well now xD / Hehehe xD / Take that Aiden, told you vessel creatures are good at combat xD / Ye :3

That's about it. See ya, so long, and g'bye!

x.X. A.L. X.x