Yami sat on the ground by the café manager's grave and cast the soul signature searching spell, once again, coming up empty. That was…odd. If this was his final resting place, the signature should show an ending here.
Rina stayed silent beside him, sensing his grief, so she sat in her capsule, watching him protectively.
Fine, I'll find another human who was fond of me, Yami thought with finality as he rose to his feet and cast another one, aiming for the elf-looking human who worked at the first establishment that served drinks and raw fish.
Once again, the thread did not appear, and Yami had to wonder if his own memories were warping.
"Atem, we have…15 hours left. You haven't caught the monster," Rina said softly, but she was ignored, because the mage was teleporting away blatantly in the middle of the graveyard without caring who saw him. "Atem! You're acting…dangerously!" She cried as the teleportation light engulfed them and they arrived in a narrow alleyway filled with large, metal boxes.
There was an odd fishy smell that made her clamp her hand over her mouth and nose, but it didn't seem to bother Atem.
He walked right through the door and into a room full of humans that were sitting around taking a break, smoking and drinking. They all stared at him while he stood in the doorway, staring back at them.
"Cos…player magician?" The woman closest to him said, looking confused. "Are you lost?"
The man with light-colored hair stared at him, his eyes wide as he snapped his fingers, pointing, "Hey, from that one shift I don't remember! Years ago! I nearly got fired for that…Manager-san—"
"I remember you!" The woman shrieked, and she kicked the light-colored haired human. "Get your ex-boyfriend out of here! This isn't a funny joke!"
"I don't know him! I don't remember doing what you said I did!" The man replied, chewing on the end of his cigarette. "You said I ditched the shift but I came back! …Right? Hey, who are you? Did you drug my drink?"
The light-haired human instantly grew hostile and rose to his feet, his eyes narrowed, "why don't I remember anything about you?"
"Atem…get out of there!" Rina squeaked, thumping her hands on the glass. "Atem!"
Yami let out a frustrated huff and floated through the door before deciding to visit the final, and last location he thought he'd find the girl. The singing establishment.
"Atem! STOP IT!" Rina glowed at his side and his path was blocked by a magical barrier that was expanding all around him, encasing him in a bubble in the narrow alleyway.
"Rina, I need to check something—" Yami breathed, wondering if his magic had been affected by the Dampening Collar.
"You need to find the Greed and get home!" Rina insisted tearfully, standing up in her container to give him a wide-eyed look. "Please! Okay? When they use a surveillance portal to look back at what we did here, they'll see me, not…doing my job. So, leave the humans alone and complete the objective, okay? You can tell me what's wrong…!"
Yami lowered his head so much, his bangs obscured his eyes, and he nodded. Fine.
He would not endanger Rina's life with his silly disobedience regarding humans.
Seto wolfed down the plates of food that appeared before him, aware that Marik was fascinated with watching him, so he told himself to calm down…. chew…and swallow…humanely.
Bakura's behavior had changed drastically too, no longer munching down his food with his hands like a hungry demon but using a utensil. Like a human. A good human.
"How are we paying for this food?" Marik asked nervously as he wondered just how much gold these travelers had. "Another plate and we're coming up on three gold pieces…!"
I got it covered, Seto thought as he opened his pack with magic to avoid touching it with his hands and levitated five gold pieces out to drop it into Marik's lap. There.
"Oh…" Marik said quietly, weighing the coins in his hands, turning them over in his palms, letting the coolness sink into his skin. Wow. Five large gold. He'd never seen or held this much money before in his life. Dragons loved hoarding, so….this was cute of Seto to share…
"You can have it," Seto said with an encouraging nod, levitating five more coins out and giving them to Bakura who snatched them out of the air and replied, "put that away. You don't want someone to see you levitating money around like this and get the wrong idea."
Seto sighed and cleaned his plate, pushing it aside and rolling his eyes. "Done," he announced, and he thunked two gold pieces on the table atop the seal carved in the wood, seeing it glow and vanish. The change appeared in a pile of copper and silver coins, and he glared at it. Yuck. Change.
"We'll need every bit of it, so put it away…Demon Lord," Bakura said with an edge in his voice and Seto bared his fangs, vanishing the money away into his pack, seeing a couple goblins come up and carry away the plates, their eyes sharp as they eyed Marik and the tarnished brass pieces in his hair, clearly judging him for being a poor elf.
"So," Bakura pulled out the map and pointed at the table. "Planning time. Cleaning spell please, Seto."
Seto growled and passed a bubble of water over the already-clean space on the table, and watched Bakura lay the magical map down and trace out their route, talking loudly over the din, "next up, we have an icy mountain to climb, so we need to buy clothes. Warm clothes."
"I know a way around that," Marik said, pointing at the ocean. "I made a friend here. He can ferry us…" he dragged his finger around the mountains in a half-circle, "around the treacherous terrain. He promised to help me again if I ever needed to come back. I told him all about my…sister…"
"Okay, thank you," Bakura patted Marik on the shoulder and addressed Seto. "We still need clothes, Demon Lord. We're expensing it from the…Your Hoard account."
Seto curled his lips upwards to bare his full fangs and stuck his split tongue out again.
"Fair, only because we're making this trip, for me," Seto hissed, hopping off the dining bench and nearly getting stepped on by two grown men who were getting up off their seats at the same time. They had an odd smell on them, and Seto wrinkled his nose, sticking closer to Marik when the man beside him spotted his horns and pointed, "hey! You a little dragon baby?"
"Demon. Lord," Seto hissed, balling his fists at his side when the group of men laughed voraciously and leaned down to leer at him with a glint in their eyes.
"Is your nest nearby, Demon Lord?" The man with the foulest breath and the dirtiest mustache asked, leaning down to touch the child's horn with a large, grimy finger, seeing the boy dodge him and bare his fangs.
"Leave me alone," Seto said automatically, clinging to Marik's arm and feeling the elf tense, turning around slowly to bob his head.
"Please leave the boy alone," Marik began, his throat closing in horror when he recognized a group of ruthless traffickers, and his blood ran cold. Oh dear. They'd spotted Seto as a dragon and wanted to kidnap him.
"How much for just the tiiiny tip of your horn?" The large man asked, towering over the plainly dressed elf and the baby dragon. "I'll….paaaay. I know you like golldddddd!"
Bakura grit his teeth and stood up, rolling up the map and making himself known, "leave my companions alone. They're poor, as you can see. This meal was on me. We're leaving now. Come on."
Seto was picked up by Marik, but he kept his face wrinkled as he stared at the man's aura, remembering him, remembering his ugly faces, and the faces of his companions, his dirty boots, his ugly dragon-hide vest, and the way his soul signature was a disgusting, thick thread that looked more like a pungent smell.
They hurried out of the restaurant and Marik clutched Seto tighter to his shoulder, muttering, "they'll try to capture you and sell you in parts, Seto. Better we leave tonight and don't dwell here. District 1 is unsafe for rare beings like you."
Bakura grimaced and hated the way Marik was hugging Seto his chest while they made their way out of the crowded restaurant alley and arrived in a courtyard where people were milling around a giant fountain.
"There, you're safe," Marik said, setting Seto down on his feet atop the fountain stone edge, and Seto was about to tell the elf that his level was over 700 million when a couple of lizard men District guards wearing dark green robes rushed towards them, shouting while waving their spears, "get away from that water, elf!"
And Seto found himself swept off his feet with dizzying speed as Marik threw him over his shoulder and ran down the nearest alleyway, with Bakura racing behind them, huffing and fuming, "You said you got your water from rain!"
"How often does it rain in the dessert, Bakura?!" Seto shouted back as the elf's blond hair whipped him in the cheek as they ran around a corner, and he saw Bakura turn around to cast a quieting spell behind them to muffle the sounds of their footsteps. Marik wasn't looking behind him to see it, so Seto gripped the elf's neck tighter when they took another harrowing turn around an alley corner and stopped by a tiny stoop of someone's abandoned dwelling.
Lines of laundry were hanging above their heads, and Marik sank into the small step beside Seto, panting for air from the sudden exertion and giving Bakura an apologetic smile.
"There might be…a Wanted notice on my head in this District for stealing fountain water," Mariks said meekly, lowering his head in shame. "I always leave at night, and no one ever notices me or remembers me long enough to arrest me."
Secretly furious, Bakura spared the elf a kind smile back and watched Seto cast a muffling spell on either side of the alleyway and lean against the crumbling wall, giving him a fanged grimace, "yeah, he needs the safe town."
"We all need the safe town," Bakura glowered, sitting down beside Marik on the step to catch his breath, his heart pounding his chest. "Let them run around headless, and we'll leave without being noticed. We need to exit through the back of the town to travel through District 2."
"Where Yami is," Seto said instantly, and Bakura sighed, nodding. "Yes, where Yami is."
"I want to meet this Yami," Marik said cheerfully, and Bakura gave him a tired smile.
They sat there in the silence of the muffling spell when Seto saw pegasus-drawn carts passing through the alleyway opening, followed by a few adventurers strapped in full gear, and he pointed at it, "let's hitch a ride. They look like travelers headed to the back exit."
Marik grimaced and noticed the red owl face painted on the wooden cart, shaking his head.
"That mark there means they're smugglers," Marik said, pointing at the red stencil of the owl as the cart passed slowly, carrying a giant, lumpy cargo covered with a stained sheet of canvas. "You don't want to 'hitch' anything they're carrying. Chances are, everyone driving that cart has a Wanted notice on their heads."
"Perfect," Bakura muttered, hating that Seto sounded excited by this prospect.
"Either way, they're heading out, so let's go," Seto frowned, hating how much time they were wasting. He dug out the scroll and his stomach churned at how there were 100 people signed up for the quest. 100/500. Not great numbers.
The sign-up had surged this week for some reason.
Marik eyed the trail of carts, pointing at the one that had another bundle of large, lumpy cargo and said quietly, "if your magic can blend us in as sacks, we can head out on that cart."
"Easy. Done," Seto replied with a nod. "Taking the barrier down now. Let's run."
And he got up to run straight at his barrier, removing it the second his face passed the threads, and he quickly hopped up on the back of the cart, seeing Bakura's eyes glowing behind Marik as they quickly followed him onto the back of the flat cart and crouched down. Seto threw an illusion over them both with a wave of his hand, and gave Bakura a nod, "we can move a little. They see lumpy sacks."
Marik shifted and curled his knees up to his chest, trying to avoid the creature tail that was poking out from one of the sacks, and Seto frowned, his anger rising when he wondered if Yami knew this shit happened? Of course he did, right? Mages hunted people with Wanted notices?
His study of District 1 from Dartz's books was that this was the seediest district of them all.
Lax security. Cheap inns. Cheap clothes. Cheap food.
Ogres, goblins, dwarfs, hybrids, elves and all sorts of travelers came here to get drunk, party, or sell something. It was what Dartz described as the 'commerce' city, and Seto's stomach curled when he realized it wasn't just food and goods they were selling.
It also included creatures, creature-parts, hides, and…more.
Baby…Seto! Baby. Baby. Baby Seto. Demon. Baby.
Seto wrinkled his nose and wondered why it sounded like the damaged dragon from Mai's backyard was talking to him, and his horror rose when he realized….it was Anja, the ancient fairy dragon, wrapped up in the giant lump of cloth beside him, so he hastily pressed his palm against the wiggling wall of cloth, feeling warmth seeping back into his palm as he whispered, "…That's me. …Is that you? Anja?"
SETO! BABY SETO! Danger, baby Seto. Danger! The dragon wiggled furiously, and Bakura's mouth dropped open in shock.
"Stop it!" Stop talking to it! Bakura cried, wondering if this demon was really going to get them killed. Marik was Wanted in District 1, and they were smuggling themselves out of the dirty town on the back of illegal monster-sale carts. It didn't get worse than this.
"I know her!" Seto exclaimed, now not caring that the smugglers would hear and see them.
"Shhh! Please! You can free her when we—"
"SHUT THE STUPID DRAGON UP! We're exiting the gates!" Someone called from the front, and Seto froze, feeling the cart stop seeing a human march up with a threatening helmet over his head, and he decided to act. These fuckers had his dragon—well, Mai's dragon—bundled up and ready to be chopped up? Not if he could fucking help it.
A cold hand shot out and touched his arm, Bakura shaking his head insistently, sending him rapid, angry thoughts, 'stay. Down. Remember our goal? Healing spring water? You were the one ranting about not taking side-quests—'
"This isn't a video game anymore! This dragon is a life! Seto raged back, just in time to see the human reach up to give the lump of cloth a vicious punch, and Seto's mouth dropped open in shock when he felt the dragon's pain stab him in the gut, making him retch.
Don't throw up now! Stop play-acting! Are you really 5 or what? Bakura cried furiously, at the end of his wits with Seto's behavior, and to his horror, when Seto raised his head, the whites of his eyes were inky black, and the slits of his pupils had constricted so much, the blue in his irises glowed eerily in the semi-darkness.
He could hear the human at the front bribing the guard, and then feeding him a lie.
"Eh… Six gold pieces to write down that we're only taking out one cart of goods, huh? Smithy? Smitheeeyyyy, my man… c'mon, this'll buy a pretty gem for your lady, huh? That's my man, Smithy. Here's six fat gold pieces for you, and don't mind any wiggling you see back there. It's live bait for elf hunters. Nothing special."
Live…bait! Seto's eyes constricted further, and kept his head down, his fury bubbling as he waited for the right time to act. Anja had gone strangely quiet beside him, sensing his anger.
The cart rocked back and forth as they sat plainly on the back, the District guards nodded sleepily at them as they passed, and Seto's blood boiled. Fuck this place.
They traveled out through the tall gates and an ogre rolled the door back down.
Seto glared at the glowing lights coming from behind the giant wall, waiting until they were further down the path before he got up and hopped off the cart, hearing Bakura calling after him in his mind, "Don't…kill anyone! Kaiba?!"
"It's Demon Lord, get it right!" Seto hissed, and he ran down the line of carts to stand in front of the lizardman who was holding the reins of a winged horse that looked at him with dull, gray eyes.
Wow, that was the most depressed Pegasus he'd ever seen.
Usually, the winged horses in District 5 glowed. This poor thing needed a fucking drink of water.
"Kid. You wanna get run over?" The lizardman hissed, tugging the reins to the side. "Go home and find mommy! Hup!" He nudged the horse forward to step around Seto, and Seto eyed the horse, talking to it.
"Stop moving."
The horse stopped obediently and blinked sorrowfully at him, lowering its head.
"Kid… Hey, grunts! There's a baby here! And looks like…" the lizardman leaned out of his carriage seat to leer at Seto, his eyes gleaming in the moonlight. "A baaaby dragon!"
"Demon Lord," Seto said flatly, seeing Bakura helping Marik out of the cart and running off towards the trees, using him as a distraction. "I'm a Demon Lord. Demon Lord Seto."
Other human and hybrid guards had hopped off their carts and come to surround him with their weapons raised, with some tucking their spears under their arms as they laughed at him.
"Wawwwww, I remember being this age," Another lizardman was poking him with the butt of a spear, his forked tongue flicking out. "Demon Lord Seto."
Seto glared up at all the tall men standing around him, seeing someone approaching from the back of the carts with a beast level dampening collar, a cloth hood, and a set of cuffs, and his blood boiled further.
"Yeah, usually people bow, when they hear my name," Seto planted his feet apart and clapped his hands together, exerting force from the air above, making all the men buckle on their knees and drop their weapons as their foreheads hit the ground with resounding thumps! followed by their angry and pained howls.
"And shut up!" Seto cried, sweeping his hand over the circle of bowed heads to cast a dark muffling spell, letting out a stiff sigh. "Fuck. You're all so noisy."
He left the men writhing on the ground and made sure to cast a level 300 invisible net over their bodies to keep them down, thanking Bakura for forcing him to learn it so they could 'catch food' as if they couldn't just buy food at the Districts.
Well, these men are a type of food, Seto thought plainly as he approached the Pegasus with his hand outstretched, hearing the horse whinny and shy away in fear.
"It's okay! You're first! I'll get you some water?" Seto asked hopefully, feeling Bakura and Marik approach him from behind and gape at the men struggling on the ground against invisible restraints, opening and closing their mouths while yelling silently.
The horse was terrified of him, so Seto gave up and called to Bakura over his shoulder, "free the horse! It needs water!" Then he stalked to the end of the cart train to help Anja first.
He climbed up on the flat cart and quickly undid the knot at the top of the towering sack with magic, letting it fall away to reveal Anja, cowering fearfully, her wings drawn up over her head, with dark bruises lining up and down along her long body where the guards had been punching her.
Seto felt an ugly rage consume him as he rested his hand on the first bruise and let his breath out slowly, calming himself as he slowly healed her.
"Heal," Seto said dully, pressing his hand gently on the largest, ugliest bruise by her tail. "Heal." The thin, delicate membrane between her tail wings had been damaged, and it took a considerable amount of effort to close the gaps in the delicate skin.
Baby. Baby, the dragon mumbled, and Seto climbed up to sit on her healed tail to reach higher up along her body, healing as he went, and she lowered her head to let him help with the collar.
Now immensely grateful for his collar training, Seto took a while to find the knot to unweave the lock at the top before moving to the bottom and managing to levitate the heavy metal cuff off from the area around her wings, and healing the raw spots where it had been chafing.
He could see his own mana depleting as he healed her and had to marvel at how this was affecting him because her level was high.
"Appraise. Heal. …Heal," Seto rested his hand on the tiny bit of raw scales above her wings and waited for it to heal while he stared at her stats.
Her level was 200k. Not bad.
He'd learned from Dartz that there was no 'level cap' in this universe, which terrified him because he didn't know what level Dartz was at, but probably an insane number. Broken as fuck.
Marik and Bakura were untying other sacks and letting the creatures breathe. When they got to the cart Seto was sitting in, Marik marveled at the delicate dragon, his respect for Seto rising.
"This is your friend?" Marik asked warmly, seeing a large metal cuff discarded by the cart. "What's her name?"
"Anja," Seto replied, running a protective hand down the side of her scaly body and inspecting her for more injuries and satisfied when he found none. "Can you take her off the cart and into the trees for cover?"
Marik swallowed fearfully and nodded, letting Seto place the dragon's enormous, clawed hand in his, and said, "just talk to her nicely. She understands."
O-Okay, Marik glanced up at the dragon's terrifying yellow eyes and noted how it had a teal mane of hair that had been hacked away by the cruel smugglers, and his heart went out to her.
"Can you re-grow hair, Seto?" Marik asked, reaching up to run a hand through the choppy tufts. "She's been…given a bad haircut."
Marik. Baby Marik. Elf. Elf, Baby Seto, Marik, elf, The dragon said quietly in his mind, and Marik jumped in fear, taking a step back and crying out, "she knows my name!"
"Oh she's really good at that," Seto said conversationally, standing in front of a smaller collar Bakura was quietly casting on to block the glow. "Please take her away from the main road. It's dangerous. Demon Lord's orders."
Marik let out a tiny laugh and mustered up his courage to hold the dragon's clawed hand, watching it climb off the cart and walk slowly across the grass towards the trees.
He chanced a glance behind him and saw Bakura's fingertips glowing against the metal collar resting on a small goblin boy, and he had to look away. His suspicions were confirmed.
Bakura was possibly only half-human.
The dragon floated into the trees and curled herself around one, glowing eerily in the moonlight while she rested and placed her giant head on her tail, and Marik marveled at the decorative scales lining her forehead, itching to touch it some more.
"Can I pet you…?" Marik asked gently, and the dragon nodded, pushing her head forward and audibly sighing.
Miss Mai, baby Seto, miss her, the dragon said softly, its eyes flashing dark yellow and then glowing again. Miss baby, Atem and baby Seto, demon baby.
"Ah yes, Mai's…tavern? We're going there!" Marik said with a surprised huff. "You miss her? Well, I'd love to meet her…Was it you that's giving Seto 'demon lord' ideas?" He laughed and gave the dragon's head a playful pat and felt a trickle of warmth travel up his arm, making his heart skip a nervous beat. A-Aw…
He'd never had a pet or bonded with a creature that didn't speak Elvish before…
Glancing over at the line of carts, he was greeted with a strange sight of creatures moving the empty crates into the forest, with Bakura leading the Pegasus with a gentle hand on the nose, and Seto riding on the shoulders of a tall goblin, while gnomes followed behind them in a quiet line, their bodies draped with all the weapons they had taken from the smugglers.
Trying not to feel amazed, Marik stood up to help pick up some crates of supplies and stacked them against the nearest tree, seeing a few creatures offer up bandaged wrists to Bakura, who clamped his pale hand tightly down on the wounds and healed them with soft glows of light.
Seto had gone back to the smugglers on the ground with the tall goblin in tow, and they were half-levitating, half-carrying the struggling men over to the forest edge and tying them to another tree away from the road.
The tall goblin worked fast with four other gnomes, running around the wide tree to secure the humans against one trunk, and the lizardmen against another, tying them up differently to account for tails, claws, and larger feet.
Seto cast silencing spells all around them while they worked on the rope, making sure to weave it tightly, and deciding to make his threads all one color, to make it harder to pick apart.
If Yami had taught him anything, it was to make his spells easy to reverse-engineer.
It wasn't special. It was like coding, in a way.
Mechanics, but artful.
These men would stay silent for a long time and have to communicate by writing, or until someone figured out how to unweave his spell.
"Demon Lord," the goblin grunted and knelt dutifully by the truck full of tied-up men. "What are our next orders?"
Oh, shit, Seto thought with a solid headrush as he fixated on the bloody gash on the creature's forearm and held his hand out shakily to heal it.
The goblin froze and blinked rapidly, flexing his arm gratefully and pulling out his dagger to give it a practiced slash through the air, his face splitting into a wide, toothy grin to display rows of sharp teeth.
The four gnomes also emerged from behind other trees filled with tied-up lizard men and knelt on one knee beside the goblin, copying him nervously, and Seto realized they were doing that in hopes of also being healed.
And I shouldn't stop them from kneeling, because I am the Demon Lord! Seto told himself nervously as he went down the line of kneeling gnomes to heal their chafed wrists and bloody shoulders where the metal collars had been sitting.
"Did I miss a spot?" Seto asked, talking about injuries, but a gnome answered him with a squeak, "There are wooden wheels we couldn't dismantle, so we left them against a tree. The cloth that were used as hoods were made into sacks to carry their treasures."
Oh, good, Seto wrinkled his nose and nodded, thanking the tiny gnome, "cool thanks. But I meant to ask if you're still hurt anywhere."
All five heads raised to stare at him incredulously, and Seto felt himself sweat. W-What? Were demon lords supposed to be cruel or something? He was doing what Yami told him to do…being a leader of kindness or whatever.
"Ah, look at our little Demon Lord," Bakura sneered, leaning against a tree trunk and seeing five creatures bowing to Seto a few paces ahead, with the men all tied up in the trees, kicking their legs against the ropes. He was about to make a comment about how disgusting Seto was acting when he caught himself and realized he was supposed to be Ryou—a nice human. Oops.
A few other gnomes came up to his shins and bowed deeply, "thank you for freeing us, Friend of the Demon Lord Seto."
"…That's me!" Bakura smiled shakily and caught a long stare from Marik, and he kept the smile plastered on his face, which slowly began to slide off when the other creatures finished tying up sacks and bowed to him…deeply.
"And Elf Friend of the Demon Lord," another goblin grunted, turning to face Marik who was standing fearfully by another tree with the dragon at his side. "May we repay you with a favor of polishing your hair ornaments?"
Marik's mouth dropped open and he shook his head tensely. N-No…?
"I never take these off," he whispered, and to his horror, the creature insisted.
"Please. For freeing us, I must repay you," the goblin took a threatening step towards the elf, and Bakura stood between them, holding his hands out defensively.
"How about let's all…find a nice safe place to make camp, hm?" Bakura tried for a change of subject, now wishing Seto would come back and assert some authority so they could leave. "We're simple travelers going to the Healing Spring."
"For the damaged dragon who is the Demon Lord's mount? Understandable," the goblin grunted, and he crossed his thick arms across his chest. "Please reconsider the polishing request."
Marik pinned himself tighter against the tree and nodded. F-Fine…
Seto arrived back where everyone had decided to gather and noted the five large sacks of lumpy materials, the dismantled wooden planks from the cart, and sixteen enormous wheels lined up against a few trees. Wow… They worked fast.
"So…Demon Lord," Bakura said with an edge in his voice, pointing up at the half moon above them. "We need to make camp. I'm not traveling through these parts on that moon."
"Why?" Seto asked, genuinely wanting to know.
Bakura was a moon demon, or something, right? He never talked about his own shit, and always ranted about being human.
"Yes, afraid of the dark, halfling?" The tall goblin chortled, coming back to stand protectively beside Seto and hefting another sword he'd stolen on his shoulder. "You can heal our wounds and we're all over level 100. What are you afraid of?"
"Nothing, never mind," Bakura muttered, and Seto frowned, stepping forward to rest his hand gently on Anja's tail, asking him again, "just tell us. What?"
"There are just…spiders, and other things that move around at night. I'd rather make camp!" Bakura snapped, his eyes flashing with an odd glow as he raised his voice. "And we haven't rested. You used a lot of energy healing your dragon over there. Let's recoup and then trek when the sun rises."
"Fine, but not here," Seto threw an anxious look over his shoulder at the town that was only a few meters away, the tall gates still visible down the path. "Let's go deeper and find somewhere away from…them." He pointed at the thrashing masses of men they had tied up to the trees, and the group of creatures nodded, and began to pick up, or levitate some the sacks.
Seto gently hung onto one of Anja's many arms and led her through the trees, hearing her wings rustling against the branches above, and glanced up to see her head ducked down to avoid peeking over the foliage. Aw…
"Should we fly instead?" Seto asked her, giving her large claw a squeeze. "I missed you."
Missed you! MISSED YOU! Demon! Baby! SETO! The dragon screeched, and everyone clapped their hands over their ears, looking frightened while Bakura was the only one who looked annoyed.
"It's Demon Lord Seto now," Seto said, getting tired of repeating himself, but Dartz said that was the key. Repeat it until even he believed it. His soul signature would never change if he didn't.
Anja stayed silent, and Seto bit back a smile, thinking maybe she thought it was cringy or ridiculous too.
They pressed on through another thicket of trees, so much that Seto wasn't sure where they were going, and he could feel everyone's unease, particularly Marik's, on Anja's other side. He was visibly trembling, either from cold or fear at all the new creatures trooping with them.
"Is this far enough, Demon Lord?" A raspy voice asked from the front, and a hybrid beast with a moth's head slinked up to him with a bow. "I no longer hear…human heartbeats that isn't belonging to your…ffffriend…"
Bakura clapped hand to his chest nervously, wondering if his heartbeat was indeed…human. Because it wasn't. Nice of this creature to lie for him though…
"His heartbeat sounds human?" Seto asked curiously, again genuinely curious. "Because he's not…fully…h—"
"Yes I am!" Bakura insisted loudly, his eyes flashing in the dark again. "Seto, be nice. You promised."
"Yes, Demon Lord," the moth-headed man said with another dramatic bow. "His is the only beat that sounds human. We are far from the town and any paths. We can clear some wood here and make camp."
Interesting, Seto thought as he nodded and swept his gaze around the thicket of trees, quietly muttering, "appraise…" And the forest floor lit up for him, even telling him the heights of trees, how many people surrounded him, and all the materials in the sacks were a jumbled mess he couldn't bother to read.
"Yeah, here is good," he announced, and everyone obediently dropped what they were doing and began to spread out. "Wait!" He called, and everyone froze.
Sweating, Seto caught Bakura's grimace and said, "I need to…establish the safe boundary. I'll draw lines. Anja can…stay here…with Marik."
"And I'll come with you," Bakura sighed, his heart threatening to explode from his chest with plans he needed to share with Seto about ditching the small group of creatures they'd unexpectedly taken on.
Seto nodded and felt Bakura stick to his side, predictably, raining a mini-rant down on him in his mind, "how on earth have we suddenly become babysitters to an entire…army of smuggled creatures? We have limited magic, you have limited magic, regardless of your level, Demon Lord!"
"Relax," Seto gave Bakura a shrug. "They'll leave us alone when they find out we're journeying up a mountain to a healing spring. They have lives too. Start marking the safety barrier here. Dartz said ten paces out in every direction should be enough."
Bakura let out a huff and continued, "and I don't want Marik to think I'm a freak!"
"He saw you healing goblins and dwarfs," Seto answered calmly, trailing his finger through the air to outline their territory border. "You're at least half-something in his eyes. Better figure it out. Master Dartz said to be flexible."
Bakura let out another huff and added his thread of magic to Seto's already existing one, following the child in front of him, his heart pounding. He didn't want to make any mistakes with Marik who was already quiet and fragile from his isolation underground. Telling the elf he was a demon was probably the worst thing he could do right now.
They circled around the entire camp which had begun to take shape as the other creatures used the cart planks to build small huts, while a magical fire burned in a stone pit where a couple of gnomes were roasting something that smelled delicious, and in a second stone pit, was a large pot of soup. The wheels had been stacked and levitated into makeshift beds as the cloth sacks were spread out over them, and one goblin ran a rudimentary cleaning spell over the blood stains.
Seto saw this and hurried to help, leaving Bakura to set up the rest of the barrier.
Marik sat beside the curled-up dragon, amazed at all the creature teamwork.
It was…peaceful, and amazing. He was accustomed to seeing violence when creatures mingled, but there was even a tiny hybrid human with a large rat's head and tail helping three dwarfs pry nails out of the wooden planks to smoothen it out.
Cups and bowls were being passed out, and Seto held a bubble of hot water suspended in the air as the team of gnomes and the one tall goblin levitated the cutlery through it to wash off the filth and set it on a tray that was bussed over to the fire by another hybrid beast with a frog's head.
"Demon Lord, you are most kind," the gnomes at his elbows said warmly, giving him big, impish smiles. "We were being shipped off to build District 2's army camp, but we're much happier travelling like this!"
Seto nodded and tried to smile, but it only came off as a fanged grimace.
Hopefully Yami was doing okay in District 2.
He finished cleaning and suddenly felt extremely tired. Appraising himself, he opened his palm to stare at his stats, amazed that his magic sphere was in the red zone. Wow.
So it was possible.
He could eventually run out of power.
He needed to level up.
Well I did almost kill a bunch of adults, and healed a ton of creatures of varying levels, Seto thought as he recalled all the numbers from his appraisals, and he walked to sit down beside Anja who was perched atop a flat, wooden wheel and felt her drape the end of her tail lovingly over his shoulder, tickling his cheek.
"Did anything bad happen to you?" Seto asked nervously, eyeing the tufts of teal hair that were missing from her mane, and his stomach wrenched with fury and sadness again. "They cut your hair…"
Miss baby, Seto baby, Miss Mai and Atem, miss baby demon, miss baby. Baby, the dragon replied calmly, blinking its large yellow eyes at him, and Seto leaned his head on her scaly body.
Okay, Jesus.
"Missed you too," Seto said sleepily, feeling something heavy land in his lap, and he glanced down to see a hearty bowl of soup alongside a large plate of meat.
"The soup is made of the finest vegetables from the District 5 Royal Gardens, to be smuggled into District 2 for prison guards to fight over," the moth-headed man said with his head lowered, his anger visible in a dark purple cloud around his shoulders. "And the meat is roasted orc, courtesy of our…captors, which we will consume with respect."
Orc?! Seto reeled, thinking Yami only ever fed him…bird-like meat, prey-animal types of the tiny variety, never anything as sentient as a fucking ORC.
He clapped a hand over his mouth and swallowed thinly, his eyes watering, and the moth-headed man's big eyes gleamed in the firelight.
"Are you going to be sick, little one?" The man asked, taking the plate away with a stiff bow. "Understandable. You are a noble lord. We will leave this in the forest as an offering to nature, and anyone who is hungry enough will respectfully consume it."
I'm going to hurl! Seto thought wildly as he took deep, shuddering breaths and felt a warm hand come up and down his back.
Marik had gotten up to circle around Anja to sit beside Seto, noting that the child wasn't pretending to heave this time, and had really had a bad reaction to hearing about roasted orc.
Bakura approached them and sat right on the ground with his bowl of soup, his brown eyes wide as he noticed the way Seto's hands were trembling against the sides of his bowl.
"What? Found a bug in your soup, Demon Lord?" He asked teasingly, and Seto nearly shouted, "they killed an orc and the body was going bad so they're roasting it!"
Bakura swallowed the sour lump that had come up and turned to face the fire with a shrug.
"Circle of life, kid," he said, trying to sound unfazed, but his voice shook. D-DISGUSTING.
"I can hear your thoughts," Seto said nastily, giving Bakura's shoulder a nudge with his knee. "Sit farther away from me. You thought it was disgusting too."
Bakura hastily sipped his soup and said nothing.
The tall goblin approached them with another respectful bow and a pretty array of fruits stuck on his sword.
"For your mount, Demon Lord," the goblin said grandly, banishing the fruit-laden sword. "We picked the finest out of their packs."
"Aw…!" Marik gushed, seeing his favorite crispy apple on the tip, and he shakily pointed at it, "May I have that one right there? I love apples."
The goblin held out his palm cheekily, "for your brass fixings to be polished in time for you to wear tomorrow, you may have this apple, Friend of the Demon Lord."
Marik turned red and touched the ornaments in his hair briefly before he nodded and slowly pulled them off to set them in the goblin's palm. In return, the goblin picked the apple off the tip and handed it to the elf, leaning the fruit-stick-sword beside Seto and then awkwardly dashing away to show his other goblin friends his treasure.
The white pegasus was grazing in a small patch of grass, being brushed lovingly by two dwarfs.
Seto sipped his soup and appreciated the mild flavor, seeing his health and magic slowly replenish. He could feel Anja lowering her head to delicately chew the fruit off the sword, and he made sure to levitate it up for her so she could eat them off the end, one by one.
The chatter in the small campsite was pleasant, and Seto finished his soup after a few more sips, feeling warm and sleepy. This was…actually kind of nice…
He closed his eyes and jerked awake again, realizing he'd dozed off, and someone had come to put a clean blanket over him made of a soft, strange silk.
Trying not to think about what creature had died for it, Seto closed his eyes and leaned into the dragon's soft body, noticing that she was also asleep and had laid herself out in a way that made her a nice pillow with a cloth draped over her body for eight to ten heads of creatures all laying across her lower tail, while her upper body was closer to his head.
Marik and Bakura had set up a tent beside the fire, and Seto saw the residual threads of a muffling spell around them, and tiredly closed his eyes again, trying not to miss Yami, but it was hard.
Author's note:
wawww…seto is a good demon lord!