Demon Seer 2

by Kurtis Eckstein

  What had I been doing previously? And how had I ended up there?

  ‘Michael, I’ve missed you so much.’

  I slammed my feet into the ground, sliding sideways for a long distance as I tried to abruptly stop, looking around urgently for that first voice. But there was no one in sight.

  Why was the voice so familiar? Who was she? Why was she so sad…and happy, at the same time?

  I supposed I really must be hallucinating it.

  I mean, at this point, what other options were there? Because there was no one around, and people couldn’t communicate telepathically. So then, it was just the silence messing with me.

  Whoever’s voice I was hearing might have been a real person, but they weren’t here right now. If anything, maybe what I was hearing was from a memory, which was frustrating on its own, but at least I knew I shouldn’t be looking for the source.

  Because the source was me.

  I began running again, continuing to move when I heard that second voice in my head, feeling so real that it sounded like someone running next to me, whispering in my ear.

  ‘We can’t just instantly be at full-speed.’

  This second woman’s voice sent a chill down my spine, and made tears appear in the corners of my eyes, along with a deep sense of despair in my chest, though I couldn’t fathom why. Had I lost someone important to me? But who? Why couldn’t I remember who that voice belonged to?

  Why couldn’t I see her face?

  Or was I imagining that too? Imagining that it was someone I knew?

  Ugh!

  Annoyed, I gritted my teeth and tried running harder, deciding to just ignore the voices for now and focus on finding some sign of life, preferably other people.

  It took a really long time to finally reach the volcano, but when I got there, I ended up stuck on the wrong side of a river of lava, flowing from the larger sea into a smaller lake of molten rock in the distance. It was extremely wide – way farther than I could possibly jump.

  Like, the length was easily over twenty semi-trucks lined up from end-to-end, being at least a thousand feet in girth.

  And it was extremely loud too, sounding like all the glass in the world shattering repeatedly. Already, I kind of missed the silence I had experienced for most of the trip, considering how boisterous this humongous river of lava was.

  At first, I ran along the edge of the gushing yellow fluid, trying to look for some way to cross, but then I realized something startling – I was right next to the edge, standing on the sloping black river banks, and didn’t sense any discomfort from the heat.

  And I knew it must be hot, because rocks didn’t melt under normal conditions.

  Again, deciding to sacrifice part of my tail to test the unknown, I reached out to touch the surface and felt…

  Warmth.

  The heat instantly radiated up my spine, like I had just dunked myself in a hot-tub, or under a steaming hot shower. The sensation felt so amazing that my knees almost buckled underneath me, and I probably would have uncontrollably relieved myself had I previously needed to go. I also quickly discovered that I could only ‘touch’ the lava – I couldn’t easily push my tail into it.

  Becoming a little less reserved, I stepped towards it to sink my foot in, only for it to remain on the top, as if I was stepping on a normal rock that was too dense for my weight to crush.

  Surprised by this outcome, I jumped into the river – correction, onto the river – of molten rock, maintaining my balance as the surface rippled beneath me. I couldn’t help but smile, feeling like I was walking on water as I began stepping further away from solid land, enjoying the intense warmth against the soles of my feet.

  Oddly enough, even though the glowing yellow surface was turbulent, I didn’t move downstream much, as if there was a riptide further beneath while the surface remained relatively stationary. Either way, it made crossing a lot easier, with me stopping in the middle to find myself surrounded on all sides by the rippling gold current.

  The sight was nostalgic.

  Unexpectedly, that second voice whispered in my ear again, causing me to glance over my shoulder.

  ‘Not turn him. Exist for him.’

  “What?” I whispered without thinking. I knew I was imagining it, but I didn’t understand what the voice was saying, and I couldn’t help but respond.

  Taking a deep breath – the first one I’d taken in quite some time – I let it out slowly to refocus on my goal, returning to making my way over the rest of the river.

  Eventually, once I reached the other side, I found myself not much further downstream from where I had begun, since the current hadn’t moved me much.

  I was almost sad to leave the lava behind, having sincerely enjoyed the warmth on my feet. Not that I was uncomfortable now, but I missed the sensation. It had been relaxing. But I had a goal in mind, and I couldn’t stand around forever. I needed to find something in this wasteland…

  Beautiful wasteland.

  It was really starting to grow on me.

  I wasn’t sure how long it had been since I left the midnight dome, but all the time I spent running over the barren landscape allowed me to find peace and tranquility, even despite the earlier turmoil I had been experiencing, with the lava river being the final piece to make me feel relaxed.

  Now the occasional whispers in my ear didn’t make me feel so anxious and annoyed, as was the case when I was still in the middle of the river.

  Or at least, I hadn’t felt anxious, until two demons unexpectedly dropped from the sky right in front of me.

  Chapter 2: Strangers

  Shocked to suddenly have company, a man and a woman – and from the sky of all places – I jumped backwards, my posture immediately defensive. My midnight wings instinctively spread out like giant hands as well, as if they were ready to swipe at an attacker.

  The girl had tan skin and icy blue eyes, but everything else was bright white, including her hair, horns, wings, and tail. She also had a secondary pair of smaller wings that came around to cover her chest, like a pair of white draconic hands cupping her breasts. Similarly, her significantly thinner tail came up between her legs and wrapped around her waist like a makeshift bikini bottom made of white stone.

  She was smaller than me, but the man with her was decisively not.

  He was half a foot taller than I was, and built like a muscle-head bodybuilder, with his wide black tail wrapped around his waist once, the end then curling between his legs from the front, giving him a makeshift pair of small biological shorts. He had gold eyes and charcoal gray skin, but everything else was pitch-black, including his hair.

  Barely a second had passed from them landing, before motion in my peripheral vision made me realize a third was dropping from the sky.

  I actually took another step back as a second man landed behind the other two, having the same coloring as the girl, except that his skin was light gray instead of tan. Otherwise, he had the same icy blue eyes and white draconic features. He was more my size too, being only a little taller, with a thinner muscular build, unlike the darker complexioned behemoth.

  The girl spoke up first, a huge grin on her face, revealing a pair of dimples, her eyes focusing down at my exposed waist.

  “Fa, nis rahsana telma!” she laughed, before her icy eyes looked up to meet mine. “Linsiza kuh maras verah? Mis misaya si nis’tril kimigar.”

  I just stared at her, still defensive, having no idea what she was saying.

  Dammit!

  I hadn’t considered that I might not be able to speak the same language! And that just made me more uneasy, given that it was three against one. Not to mention, I hadn’t known we were capable of flight, already putting me at a disadvantage if they weren’t friendly.

  When I didn’t respond, the girl’s smile faded, replaced instead with a frown and furrowed brow.

  The angelic demon behind her said something in that unfamiliar language, before stepping forward and speaking louder, directing his forei
gn words to me.

  I finally just shook my head, replying hesitantly. “Sorry, but I don’t understand you.”

  His icy eyes widened in surprise. “Thee understand me not?” he repeated in the language I could speak. Or at least, a version of it.

  I just nodded once.

  The girl spoke again in that unfamiliar tongue, prompting him to nod. Her brow then furrowed again as she stared at him for a moment, before she blinked for a long second.

  She then looked at me, showing off her dimples again. “Better? How can thee not knoweth our origin language?”

  I was confused by what had just transpired between them, but pushed it aside to focus on the conversation.

  I didn’t see any reason to lie about my situation, so I responded honestly, still feeling uneasy with the bigger guy just staring at me, his gold eyes unreadable.

  “I don’t know,” I admitted. “I can’t remember anything.”

  Her brow furrowed again. “The language thou art speaking is not quite the one I hast learned from mine brother. May I hast thy speech from thy thoughts?”

  “What?” I exclaimed breathlessly.

  “From thy thoughts,” she repeated, looking just as confused as I felt.

  Her brother chimed in again, speaking more quietly, almost as if he had just come to an important realization. “He doth not recall,” he considered.

  “Truly?” the girl said in disbelief, before focusing on me again. “As sight becomes us, so doest our minds.”

  “I don’t–” I began, before an unexpected presence appeared at the edge of my mind. My eyes widened in shock as I realized it was her, gently pressing against me.

  But how was that possible?

  And what was I supposed to do?

  I had no idea, and apparently that became obvious, because she frowned again.

  “Thy mind is fastened,” she commented, before nodding, taking a step toward me. “Hither, I shall permit thou within mine.”

  Instantly, the invisible gesture happening at the edge of my consciousness shifted, her gentle push turning into an equally soft pull. I would have thought the difference wouldn’t change anything, but it was like night and day. Whereas before nothing happened, this time I felt myself slowly drawn into her head, while mine remained guarded, her touch surprisingly kind.

  However, I didn’t make it very far before it was like she had handed me an unseen object, one in which I automatically accepted as if I was dying of thirst and she had offered water. Startled, I withdrew in a flash, discovering an instantaneous change occurring in my thoughts, the interworking of my mind shifting permanently as I found myself understanding their language.

  “W-What was that?” I exclaimed in their bizarre tongue – one that no longer seemed so strange.

  She and her brother exchanged a glance, both with smiles, whereas the larger guy finally spoke up, his tone skeptical.

  “How can you not remember something so basic?” he asked seriously. “You don’t know our language, you don’t know how to communicate with your mind, and you act as if…” Suddenly his gold eyes widened. “Surely you’re not…” His voice trailed off.

  “Of course not,” the other guy retorted, almost as if he had heard something in the larger one’s thoughts. “It’s forbidden, and besides, he wouldn’t have managed to get here on his own without some direction. He’d still be in the human world if that was the case.”

  “Maybe he got injured somehow,” the girl added.

  “Injured how?” the larger guy scoffed.

  She shrugged, before dancing over toward me abruptly, and wrapping her thin arm around my shoulders despite her being several inches shorter, not even remotely bothered by my large bony wings curling around slightly from the surprise. Really, none of them seemed intimidated by my massive hand-like appendages sticking out like they were. Her wings were pulled in tight against her back, taking up an extremely small amount of space, almost as if she had thick snowy skis strapped to her.

  “I don’t know, but it could happen. Maybe he lost his head and all his memories along with it,” she suggested with a shrug.

  I was startled by the scent of her breath as she spoke right next to me, with it smelling both sweet and a little sharp, like the scent of cinnamon. The aroma was somehow nostalgic, but I didn’t focus on it for long.

  Previously, I hadn’t bothered to cover myself up, because I was too concerned about my safety rather than public decency, but the moment her warm skin touched mine, my long tail snaked around my waist in a flash, pushing her mostly bare hip away slightly as it did so.

  Given that my tail was at least six feet in length, I would have thought it would wrap around me more than once fully, but I had just enough to cover myself like how the other two men were.

  Needless to say, she laughed, looking up at me from only a few inches away, her dimples reappearing on her tan cheeks as she gave me a playful expression. “Oh, shy now, are we? You sure weren’t shy a minute ago when I let you in my head. You were like a hungry beast taking advantage of my hospitality and trying to steal my chastity.”

  Embarrassed, and overwhelmed a second time by the scent of her cinnamon breath, I looked away, causing her to giggle again.

  “Well, I guess since you don’t know anything, we can help you out with the basics. I’m Jericho by the way, and my brother there is Seth. And then the knucklehead is Reuben.” She grinned widely, revealing her bright white teeth. “Don’t let his tough exterior fool you though, he’s a big softie.”

  The larger guy in question glared at her, prompting her to stick her tongue out at him with a wink, before laughing when he rolled his eyes.

  I wasn’t focused on that though, instead confused by their names – because while she had spoken in their unique tongue, the names had come out in the one I had started with.

  “Jericho?” I repeated in my first language. “Why does it sound so…” I wasn’t sure how to explain what I was asking, but she picked up on it immediately.

  “Human?” she wondered, her icy eyes curious.

  “Human?” I repeated in confusion. I knew that the brother, Seth, had just said ‘human world’ a moment ago, but I hadn’t understood that either, having no clue what he could possibly mean.

  Reuben scoffed again. “Unbelievable. He doesn’t even know that he was once human? How is that even possible?”

  Seth shrugged. “Obviously he has amnesia. If he forgot our language, then why not that too?”

  Reuben just shook his head. “Well, if you three want to host him, then that’s on you, but Hera and I will have no part of it. What if he is Chrysalis and the Generals find out? Or worse, the Rulers?”

  Seth waved his light gray hand back and forth. “Nonsense, he would have never gotten here on his own, and if he was Chrysalis, then he should remember the change, especially the pain – no one forgets that, especially when it was recent.”

  “No one,” Jericho repeated, her expression dropping for the first time, her tan body stiffening beside me slightly.

  Unexpectedly, Reuben’s entire composure shifted when he saw her reaction, his gold eyes glancing from her to me and back again. His tone was now gentle as he spoke directly to her. “As I said, Hera and I won’t have any part of it, but we also won’t try to hinder you. And we will keep it to ourselves. You three are free to do whatever you want with him.”

  My brow furrowed at that.

  As I had been listening to the exchange, I hadn’t been confused by their term for a new demon, and its close connection to my understanding of metamorphosis, which was thanks to the collision between languages that occurred in my mind when I learned theirs. But I was confused by Reuben’s reference to ‘you three,’ considering he was only talking to two others

  “Three?” I finally interjected when no one spoke up right away.

  Seth’s icy eyes focused on me, sharply contrasted against his gray skin and white hair, along with his white horns. “Oh, of course. I imagine you wouldn’t be awar
e of something even that basic either. My partner, Tamar, is a part of this conversation as well, though only superficially since she and Hera are busy with something else at the moment.”

  Jericho nodded, bumping her hip into mine playfully, her cheer having returned. “They celebrate the anniversary of their friendship every Cycle, leaving me to entertain these two knuckleheads.”

  Rueben scoffed, but didn’t respond.

  I wasn’t focused on it either way though, still feeling confused about Seth’s comment. I didn’t quite understand what he was trying to explain, about his partner being a part of the conversation, which Jericho apparently picked up on, proceeding to elaborate. “Partners usually keep their minds linked at all times, so both Tamar and Hera are aware of everything going on.”

  “Oh,” I replied simply, trying to wrap my head around that. The idea of people having their minds connected was bizarre, and I couldn’t even fathom how it was possible. However, I couldn’t deny that it was real, considering I had just experienced the telepathy myself when learning their language.

  Jericho giggled again, seeming amused at my dumbfounded expression. “Don’t worry, we’ll take care of you. I bet you’ll feel right at home again within a single Gradus.”

  “Gradus?” I repeated.

  Seth sighed this time, while Reuben shook his head, before the former of the two spoke quietly. “He really doesn’t remember anything. I wonder what could have happened to him. Maybe he did lose his head, though I’ve never heard of it happening before…”

  “No matter,” Jericho said with a grin, her mind appearing at the edge of mine a second time. “I can give you that too – just take it easy there, hungry beast,” she teased, her smile widening at my reaction.

  Embarrassed again, I looked away even as she pulled me gently into her head, causing my thoughts to jerk away, like before, when she handed me something else – the method they used to tell time.

  The sun didn’t rise or set in this foreign world, like it did in what they called the ‘human world,’ so they had a unique way to measure the passing days, though I didn’t fully understand it.