Watching Toria try to find a way to sit comfortably on a demon horse amused me more than it probably should have, I kept having to cover my mouth and faking a yawn to disguise the fact that I was cracking a smile every time she nearly fell off or muttered about how impractical they were. To his credit, Feros had tried to find the smallest mare available, but even so they were still hilariously over sized for her and my young stallion was not much better. I had a good six inches on Toria in the height department, but I still was no where close to being as tall and bulky as a true demon so I looked ridiculous on the back of my stallion as well, the difference was I had been forced to learn how to perch on the back of the massive beasts. As a child I had commonly rode between my mother's family land and my father's castle, a trip that required a few day's travel on horseback, both human and demon sized, there was definitely a strong learning curve between figuring out how to ride each of them and the techniques that worked for human horses did not always translate over to the demon variety and vice versa. Human horses could be a bit flighty and nervous unless trained very well, sometimes acting much like prey animals, but they responded well to firm expressions of dominance to reassure them that you were in control. Approaching a demon horse in the same manner risked you getting tossed off and stomped on, they were proud, confident animals with a mean streak a mile wide. Perhaps a trained human warhorse might be an adequate comparison if you scaled up the biggest warhorse by at least double its size, demon horses were not creatures to be trifled with and without extensive training were wild, deadly creatures who'd rather trample you than entertain tolerating your existence, especially the males of the species.

"I haven't rode since I was a child," Toria said with a miffed tone to her voice, "this is much harder than I remember. My grandmother did not like the idea of traveling too far from the castle, always said it was must safer to stick close by, but I wish I would have at least kept up in practive. This seems so much harder than it has to be."

I glanced to Feros with an amused glint in my eye, he returned the glance with a wide smile. He also looked ridiculous on his mare, though it appeared that if at some point he had managed to scale up his body size just enough to make his legs wrap more comfortably around his horse. It was just enough to still be subtle and for some reason I found it disconcerting. Glamours were as common as wearing traditional clothing in the demon world, you could never be sure you had ever actually seen what someone truly looked like unless you were very close to them, but what I was sensing from him was not a simple glamour. Whatever magic he had used to adjust his size was something darker, more chaotic than I was comfortable with being around, it was the same feeling I sensed whenever he very freshly had switched out shells. I had never been exactly clear on just what exactly Feros was and had not been curious enough yet to try to coerce an honest answer from him. Doing so would likely be an exercise in deftly dodging his deflections and doggedly staying on topic until you won his game of attrition. He was not someone who easily gave up any information about himself, he guarded every bit like letting it out would start the path to his undoing. I supposed that for all I knew that would be true, perhaps whatever or whoever he truly was was something so disagreeable or horrific that most people who knew about it woul instantly reject him or pursue his destruction. There were very few creatures I could bring to mind where I could see that being true and all of them were generally much more terrible and horrific than even Feros managed to be on his worst days, so I was at a loss for what exactly he was. There were many realms though, more than I could ever possibly hope to learn about in a single lifetime, it was likely I only knew about a skimming of the surface of the possibilities.

"They are stubborn creatures, it is not a reflection of your rusty riding skills most likely," Feros explained. "Even many a demons have trouble with their horses, the beasts can sense if someone is not worthy to be riding on them. The fact that she is tolerating you at all despite having never interacted with you before today is definitely a tribute to the regal air you exude, she knows you are someone of high standing and she is behaving in recognition of your importance."

He was truly full of hot air, that was the kind of line you might feed a child to make them feel special. The horse was simply better trained than the others, by the looks of it the mare was a bit older than our stallions, probably was just old enough to have settled down and already ridden out her wild, youthful years. Generally demonic horses were not considered truly trained until they had passed their fifth decade, then they had another fifty years of good work in them before they would be retired out and either kept as breeding stock or ended up on a feast table. I had been very, very careful to steer Toria away from ever questioning the kind of meat she was eating at the dinner table at the Castle Drak, humans have a strange, sentimental connection to their horses that demons definitely do not. To demons, horses are just food sources that happen to be more useful as a pack animal for a time.

"I do not think it is the mare's attitude or demeanor that is the problem," Toria huffed, having to struggle to right herself on the comically over sized saddle again. "This is more a beast than it is a horse, I do not think even the largest horse I have ever seen would come even close to this colossus. There is absolutely no way for me to sit comfortably, no matter how I situate myself. Are you sure this is the smallest horse they had?"

"Very sure," Feros giggled with amusement, "I checked the whole stock and the only animals smaller were foals and trust me, you did not want to try to handle one with more energy and youth behind it, nor the mother who would come rampaging after you for daring to touch her baby. You have to keep in mind that the creatures who naturally live in this realm are much bigger and stockier than humans, so their work animals are going to be sized to reflect that. Your mare would be considered too small and elderly for most demon men, she's probably reserved for children mostly."

Toria flashed an angry glare towards Feros before letting out a yelp and struggling to hold onto her perch from her mare making a sudden movement to the left to avoid a large stone in the path we were taking. I was not familiar with the path Feros had set us upon, though I was generally familiar with the area we were traveling through. Castle Drak, unlike the Castle Yser, was set in the middle of a lush farming area with gently rolling hills breaking up otherwise flat and fertile land. It was an ideal area for food production which was part of the political might of the kingdom. Without food coming from my family's lands neighboring kingdoms would be hard pressed to adequately feed their general populace and certainly their royal feasts would have to be much less grand. So far we had ridden on a small, foot worn path between several bigger fields growing crops that I judged to be most like potatoes in the human world. They were starchy tubers that required cooking to make soft and edible, though they usually grew with a thick, leathery skin that was generally dark purple in color. Skin removed and cooked, however, the two were nearly indistinguishable and like the human variety, were a large part of the staple diet for many of the poorer demons. Along with cereal grains, they were by far the most common vegetable to be seen grown outside of the royal fields.

"Have you ever wondered about what makes food different between the different realms?" Feros asked.

I did not know if he had some sort of ability to spy on my thoughts or if he was merely following my gaze out into the field and extrapolating, but I sincerely hoped for the later. Deep down I suspected the more uncomfortable theory was closer to the truth, far too many times Feros had opened his mouth around me to voice exactly what I was thinking or something so closely related and out of context from the previous conversation to make it unbelievable that he could just have coincidentally come up with it himself. When I had first started living full time in the demon realm and met the trainer when I was a young teen, I had voiced my concerns to my father and they had been waved away, told that such abilities would have gotten him singled out and beheaded long ago, but the explanation had never sufficed. Seeing my father and Feros interact over time, I was certain he was more careful to not voice my father's thoughts back to him, and cut down on doing it so obviously within earshot.

"Yes I have and I think you know that," I said accusingly.

"Why of course, you're a bright girl, you obviously would think about such things." The goofy grin never left his face as he gazed out over the field we were passing. "A lot of the foods, especially vegetables grown as basic crops in each realm tend to mirror each other very closely, most of them even taste very much the same and are prepared in similar ways. I once had a mentor who was very interested in the topic, he would realm walk very commonly specifically to go find out about their general food culture. He would trade work, sometimes magical, but often times even physical labor for a meal with commoners, nobility, and even royalty of the realms to taste as much of what they had to offer as possible."

"I did not know you were trained by a culinary enthusiast," I commented, "you do not seem to care much for food yourself."

"Eating is a waste of time for someone like me," he said casually, like that statement did not just pose more questions than it answered. "I think it was much the same for my mentor as well, but we all have our hobbies, his just tended to be culinary in nature. Much of his adventures were completed in his early life, by the time I was under his wing his traveling days were behind him, but he loved to regal me with all sorts of information about the wide variety of food that existed and his theories as to why between our lectures and training."

"So tell me then, why are these tubers here almost exactly like potatoes in the human realm?" I queried. "I have always thought it to be a strange coincidence."

"On the contrary, it is very logical why they would be similar," he corrected. "Humans and demons are not actually that different if you want to get down to considering basic biology. Sure lots of ambient magic has greatly shaped how demons have developed, but they still have a base need to eat and their bodies are built in a similar way to humans, both need starch, fat, and meat to grow and fill out. It makes perfect sense that demons and humans would want to work to cultivate an easy to grow, dense, starchy vegetables to fill out their stomachs easily. Before there were kingdoms and massive farms like this one, people would need something like a potato to grow and ensure their food needs would be met. Pair that with the fact that you can chuck these vegetables into a dark hole and forget about them for a few months and come back to them still edible makes them a nearly perfect food. Once they had something like a potato, it was simple enough to go out and hunt down an animal for the fat and meat requirement, rounding out pretty much everything someone needs to survive. See? Logical reasons why these things would develop similarly, yet independently."

"I did not realize you were a scholar on the subject, you still hold surprising mysteries even after I have known you for so long."

"Oh my dear Mistra," he chuckled, "you are still so young to think that you have known me for overly long. A few years or more is not a long time to me, centuries may be closer, but I am afraid that there are very few that I would put into the category of being an old friend. I see time differently from you, my ideas of young and old are relative. I have seen and experienced things from a time period you might not even be able to comprehend."

The hairs on the back of my neck stood on end and a chill ran down my spine. For the first time since knowing Feros I felt like I had been given some honest information about his background, which either meant he was beginning to trust me, which I found doubtful, or my desire to figure out what exactly he was aligned with some part of his bigger plan. I definitely did not like feeling like I was a part in any plan of his, his plans were designed to be all about the payoff for him and neglecting the collateral damage done to everyone else involved.

"You should like every older person I have ever known," Toria said. "They always talk about how younger people can never possibility understand what they have seen and done like their lives and that things done decades prior were something so spectacularly different that a younger mind could not wrap itself around the concept. Getting older seems to instill a staggering amount of arrogance for many people."

"My queen, you are human and therefore some of the weakest and most fragile creatures in the realms, it always amuses me when humans talk amongst themselves about their lineage and brag about the accomplishments their great, great relatives only a century or two prior. Many creatures outside of your realm do not even leave infancy in the time it takes for a human to be born, grow up, and expire from old age. Humans do not live long enough to even begin to approach anything like true glory. Their lives are but a sputtering flame barely holding on while they burn just bright enough to feel accomplished, yet expire too soon to be mature enough to know that they know absolutely nothing. Even the oldest of human sages and wisest of wise men are laughable children anywhere outside of your realm. It is hard to match the knoweldge and experience of others who have lived hundreds, maybe thousands of years or more to your seventy or eighty on average. It is not the fault of humans, it is merely part of your plight to grow quickly and expire even quicker. Either the old gods did not like humans enough to give them enough time to reach true clarity or an early human angered one enough to get them cursed forever more.Yet, I agree with you on one point, humans are typically by far the more arrogant of the lot."

In the bright moonlight I could see Toria's brow furrow into a look of contemplation, sometimes I forgot that her worldview was so much smaller than mine. Had she not been born a Yser she would have likely lived her entire life without even an inkling that something beyond her own realm of existence existed. The entirety of what was possible was so much more vast than what she could yet perceive and I longed for the day when she finally had a breakthrough and her ambitions led her to something greater than a relatively small plot of land in a backwoods realm with little special about it. I often felt that while Toria was born human, that her mind and spirit had been destined for something much greater.