Chapter Seventeen

Ariya and Lusya had to walk a long way to get to the cave the nice innkeeper had mentioned. It had been early in the morning when they left town, but now the sun was about as high as it got in the sky, though, it was also starting to hide behind the clouds that had rolled in. Lusya had only allowed one short break during the whole trek.

Ariya didn’t feel as tired as she would have expected and it did make sense to take care of the demon as soon as they could, so she tried not to complain about it. She had already convinced Lusya to do this in the first place and Ariya had been able to tell that her badgering had been annoying Lusya, especially when Ariya had called her a Sacred Knight. Lusya disliked them more than she had let on, but Ariya wasn’t sure why. Now Lusya seemed fine, but it was still best for Ariya not to push her luck with any more demands for a little bit.

So, they walked onward for who knew how long, snow crunching and twigs snapping underfoot. Despite the snow on the ground, it was actually pretty warm, so Ariya took off her coat and carried it. She considered asking Lusya to put it in her pack, but Ariya wasn’t sure if that would be too demanding.

Ariya didn’t regret convincing Lusya to do this, though. How Ariya had done it was another matter. She wasn’t proud of throwing a tantrum, or of saying she would hate Lusya. Lusya had already saved Ariya so many times. There was no way Ariya could hate her, and saying so was just mean. Lusya had been mean too, but Mama always said that didn’t make it okay to be mean back. Ariya had heard that lots of times after arguing with Jak.

It was as the sun reached its apex—and also slipped completely behind the clouds—that they came about a craggy mass of rock, like a miniature mountain. Ariya could just make out a hole on one side, which must have been the cave. Lusya slung off her pack and left it leaning against a tree as it came into view and Ariya took the opportunity to put down her coat on top of the pack. Lusya stopped several dozen feet away from the cave. Ariya stopped beside her and cocked her head.

“Get behind me, child,” Lusya said. “It is here.”

“You can tell?” Ariya asked.

Lusya nodded and Ariya hurried to stand behind her. It might have been a little dangerous, but Ariya couldn’t help herself from peeking around Lusya to watch what was happening.

There was a series of thuds and stomps from inside the cave. Then, a huge hand appeared to grip at the edge. It was a sickly, grayish green color, with yellow nails that were jagged and overgrown. The stone forming the edge of the cave crumbled into rubble under the hand’s grip. The hand’s owner walked out a second later and tossed aside the broken shards of rock. He must have been the demon, and he was a giant. The innkeeper hadn’t been exaggerating when he said the demon was the size of a house. And he hadn’t meant a small house, either. This demon had to be over twice as tall as Izurb, and that was with the hunched posture the demon walked with, its neck bent forward. It could have stepped on Ariya’s house.

It was vaguely shaped like a person, but, even without accounting for its size or strange color, it was all wrong. The arms were too long and rippled with misshapen and distorted muscles that squirmed beneath the skin like worms. The legs were just a touch too short, and the head…there was barely anything that could be called one. A long, sinuous neck just ended in a rounded nub with a single bulbous eye and a mouth beneath. A series of whisker-like growths hung down along the length of its neck, jiggling and swaying with every step.

The demon strode toward them. He was clad in just a loincloth, which Ariya tried not to look up. Even if he was a demon, she wanted to respect his privacy.

This was it. Lusya was going to talk to the demon. Ariya was still amazed she would even try. In all the stories about heroes fighting demons Ariya had read, they only had proper conversations when the demon was trying to trick the hero.

The demon stopped a dozen or so feet away and squatted down, his eye locked on Lusya. He let out a laugh, a high-pitched noise that almost sounded like he was wheezing.

“You’re pretty weird. I almost thought you were one of those humans,” he said. Like his laugh, his voice sounded much too high for something of his size, with a slight nasal tone to it. “But I don’t mind having a visitor.” He looked to Ariya, making a chill run up her spine despite the warm weather, and a long tongue emerged from his mouth, licking around his jaw and over his open eyeball. “You even brought me a tasty snack.”

Ariya shivered and shrunk back. She clung to Lusya’s cloak and hid herself behind it.

“The child is not for you to eat,” Lusya said. “I have come to discuss your recent activities.”

“Hmm?” the demon let out a shrill hum. It almost hurt Ariya’s ears. “Are you sure I can’t have a little bite?” He laughed again in that awful tone. “Maybe we could have some fun too, since you seem pretty tough. I tried keeping some women alive to play with, but they all broke so quickly.”

“The child is not for eating and I am not for your entertainment,” Lusya said. “Do not ask again. Do you have a name?”

“It’s Biggs,” he said. “I came up with it myself, not that there’s anyone to call me by it.”

“I see,” Lusya said. She put a hand over one of Ariya’s and gently pulled it off the cloth it was clinging to. “Release me and stay where you are, child.”

Ariya hesitated a moment, then reluctantly opened her other hand. “Yes, Lusya.”

“Biggs,” Lusya said, pointing toward his cave. “Follow me. We will speak over there.”

She walked toward the cave and Biggs moved back there as well. They did not enter it, but stopped just outside the entrance. She gestured for him to lower and he crouched and leaned in toward her.

Lusya started speaking, too quiet for Ariya to hear. Biggs nodded along with whatever she was saying. He would occasionally look at Ariya or comment. It seemed like he was trying to keep his voice down, but it was still loud enough for Ariya to catch a lot of what he said.

“Hmm…So that’s why you’re weird…Really?” He glanced up at Ariya. “And that’s the girl? Uh-huh…That would be nice…But the humans in that village are so tasty…I don’t know. I guess you have a point.”

Lusya nodded and said something else, then started walking back toward Ariya. Biggs watched Lusya in silence for a second, then let out a loud sigh.

“But I really want to eat those villagers,” he said.

Lusya stopped and looked back at him. She was close enough now that Ariya could just make out her words.

“Restrain yourself,” she said. “If you have the intelligence to do any sort of cost-benefit analysis, then resist temptation and bide your time.”

Biggs’ one eye narrowed, and his tongue once again lashed over what passed for his face. When his tongue returned to his mouth, Ariya could see his own saliva dripping down his head. “I don’t know for sure that your plan is going to work.”

“I will succeed,” Lusya said. “And you will die if you do not heed my commands.”

Biggs let out a low, rumbling growl, his gaze locked on Lusya, who stared right back at him. He broke eye contact first, looking off to the side and grumbling something incoherent to himself. Ariya wasn’t even sure he was saying any actual words. He slammed one of his fists into the ground with a boom, sending up a plume of snow and dirt.

“Good,” Lusya said. “Stay in hiding until further notice.” She continued returning to Ariya and waved forward when she got close. “Go ahead of me, child.”

Ariya nodded and turned. Normally she was next to or behind Lusya, but Ariya wasn’t going to complain about putting Lusya between her and that monster. It seemed like Lusya’s plan to talk to him had worked, but he was still scary. Even now, not even looking at him, she felt so scared she feared her legs would give out.

They had only taken a few steps when Biggs let out a rage-filled roar that shook the ground around them. Ariya heard a serious of rumbles, like trees falling, and turned to see that the source was Biggs, charging at them and making those awful sounds with each footfall.

“Screw the Demon King!” he screamed. “I’m hungry!”

He raised a massive fist to strike at them and punched. Lusya turned, almost casually, and put out a hand as if to catch the blow. Biggs’ attack crashed into her palm with a deafening bang.

Now, even if people said she was smart for her age, Ariya knew there was a lot she didn’t know or understand about the world. One thing she was pretty sure about, though, was that you usually didn’t break your arm swatting a fly.

Yet, even though the giant’s fist was bigger than Lusya’s entire body, it was his arm that crumpled like paper with a horrible crunching sound as his blow struck. The limb scrunched up as it collapsed, splinters of shattered bone stabbing out from its flesh. Sprays of black-colored blood spurted from the wounds to stain the ground and run down what was left of his arm.

And Lusya stood unharmed. The only effect the impact had had was knocking off her hood and making her cloak flutter a little.

“Foolish creature,” she said, with a hint of irritation, which itself was some of the most emotion Ariya had ever heard from Lusya.

Biggs’ wrecked arm fell to hang limp at his side. It had looked wrong before, but now it was so damaged it didn’t even look like an arm. Despite the fact that he had just tried to crush her, Ariya couldn’t stop herself from feeling a pang of sympathy for him as she looked at it. He bared his teeth in a snarl. They were yellowed like his nails and erratic in shape. A sharp canine and a blunt molar sat right beside each other at the front.

With a thunderous roar of pain and anger, his remaining arm came swinging around in a sweeping, open-palmed blow.

Lusya moved to block it so quick Ariya saw little more than blur, then Lusya was someplace else. She caught the incoming hand and splintered bone blossomed from the flesh. The wrist bent at an unnatural angle with a painful snap when momentum tried to carry the arm onward while Lusya held firm.

While she was watching in wide-eyed fear and awe, Ariya didn’t notice something flying at her until it was too late. A piece of some kind of debris struck her in the shoulder and tore through her dress and skin. She let out a cry of pain and stumbled back until she toppled onto her bottom.

She felt warmth radiating from her shoulder and something wet. She craned her neck to see a gash with blood leaking out. Fighting back tears, she prodded at the cut. The stinging that brought forced her to pull her hand back, fingers stained with droplets of crimson.

She tried not to cry. She really did. But it wasn’t long before she let out an anguished wail that faded into powerful sobs while tears streamed down her cheeks.