I stared at what was previously the content of my stomach, a thick semi-opaque white phlegm like substance. My mouth tasted like salt, bile, and some other taste that was revolting. It was safe to say that I wasn’t doing well in the slightest and there was definitely something wrong with me because I knew that there was no way what was on the floor in front of me was normal. I gagged again at the taste in my mouth and spent the next few minutes emptying my stomach of more of the white phlegm.

After my dry heaving finished, I spat out the remnants that had clung to the inside of my mouth and wiped the small amount of it that was on my face off with the back of one of my hands. That hand was a pitiful echo of the one I had seen in my dream; it was both thin enough to be mistaken for just bone and had a small shake that I couldn’t stop. There was also blood on the tips and underneath the nails but it was dried and not worth worrying about.

I moved myself off of all fours and into a siting position to lean against the nearest thing to me while the nauseous feeling swept over me again. There was something inside me that felt wrong and I wanted it out. It was like a heavy weight that sat just below my gut but this time it wasn’t something that I was going to be able to vomit up. Additionally, my body felt like someone had recently decided to try and see if they could tear me in two by grabbing each leg and pulling as hard as they could until something broke.

Trying to find out why I hurt so much was the best thing for me to do. The clothing I was in was tattered and worn, nothing more than a glorified bag that went to my knees, but I still struggled to lift it up enough to look at my body. Before I could make it that far I noticed blood on the inside of my legs and continued to follow the trail up to and past my groin. My stomach had a small laceration on it that was still bleeding slowly but I could see the wound closing as I sat there.

Even with the wound closed, I still hurt but it was hard to tell now if the pain I was feeling was real or the left over from whatever had happened to me before I healed. Also, the healing that had happened unnaturally fast meaning there was no way that I was alone and that thought scared me.

I tried to think about who would be with me and it was at that point that I realized that the dream was the only thing I could remember. I didn’t know where I was, I didn’t know why my body was in such bad condition, and I didn’t know who I was. There were some things that I did know, however it just seemed like any information that wasn’t purely academic in nature was gone and even then I didn’t know that much.

During this time, I could hear voices coming in my general direction. I knew the language that was being spoken but I didn’t understand the words and when I could clearly hear what was being said this still held true.

I quickly took stock of the area around me noticing for the first time that it was just a barren wooden hut only a dozen or so steps wide. There were a few blankets on the ground such as the one that must have been on me going by its location and the fact that I could see that it was still warm. The only other notable feature was another tattered piece of cloth that served as the door offering little in the way of protection from either the environment or other people.

The drape was pushed aside and the sudden light blinded me since my eyes had adjusted to the darkness of the hut. Once I could see again, I saw that the person who pushed the drape aside was like me, nothing but skin and bones. The only clothing on them was a pair of tattered pants and after a few second I was able to tell that the person was male from their smell. My intuition told me that this man wasn’t here to hurt me and that not only was he friendly, but I also knew him.

As the man took a few steps closer to me I instinctively tried to back away only to remember that I had already put myself against the wall and there was nowhere to go. Seeing my actions, the man stopped moving and sat down in the center of the room. He started to talk even though I still didn’t understand what he was saying but I knew it was supposed to be comforting.

Eventually my breathing leveled out and I was able to move myself off of the wall. I tried to stand only to have my legs give out and seeing this, the man started to stand up. On reflex, I opened my mouth to bear the small fangs that I had and hissed at him. The man stopped standing and resumed sitting where he started, letting me take my time to do what I wanted.

I tried to stand again with limited success and eventually was able to let go of the wall and support myself on shaking legs. Taking careful calculated steps I moved closer to the man and began to look over him in more detail. The hair on his head was coarse and black but it was also long and messy despite being tied back, a sign that there was no way to readily cut it and that it had been too long for a while.

At this point I was right next to the man and even with him sitting, I was only barely as tall as he was. This didn’t deter me from reaching out to touch him and make sure he was really there and not just a hallucination. To his credit, the man didn’t stiffen under my touch or stop me from doing so and let me explore his features with my fingers. I continued to walk around him and noticed that his ears were like mine. I touched them and traced the long thin ear all the way to back of his head. When I touched the end of his ear it twitched and I could feel my own ear repeat the action when it brushed against the side of my head.

I came to the conclusion that if this man was also the same as me then he would also have horns just like I did. I couldn’t see any on his head and started to move his hair aside to try and find them. At this point I was practically standing in the man’s lap but he still just calmly sat there and let me continue to do what I was doing.

After moving more of his hair around I finally found a pair of conical horns on his head above where his eyes were. These weren’t what I was expecting and I knew they weren’t like mine but I didn’t know what was different. I started to explore my own head looking for my horns and found them spaced out further apart and back more than the man’s. My horns were small pyramids and came to a much lower and duller point than the man’s, but both of us had horns regardless of the differences.

Spending the amount of time I had around the man had let me get comfortable being around him and I turned and sat in the gap he had made between him legs and leaned into him. He was much warmer than the ground and wall that I had been leaning on earlier, even if he was boney, and I was content to stay where I was.

I closed my eyes and leaned a little harder into the man and could now easily feel his breathing and heartbeat. The man started to speak repeating the same five words slowly and quietly. Understanding still escaped me for the moment but the feeling of him speaking reverberated against me helped to calm me more. In my relaxed state I didn’t notice the man raise his hand up to my head and I flinched when he finally made contact.

Instead of pulling away, I decided to put a little bit of trust in him seeing as he had so willingly done the same only a few moments ago. His hand slowly followed my head from the top to the back before he lifted in and repeated the same motion. I flinched again when he placed his hand back onto my head but by the fourth time he replaced it I had managed to resist that instinct and instead found myself purring contently.

The two of us sat there, me listening to what he was saying and him continuing to stroke my head. Eventually I started to understand what he was saying and pieced it together bit by bit.

“Rea, do you understand me?”

I recognized the first word as my name and eventually came to the conclusion that he was trying to see if I knew the meaning of the words he was saying.

The words to reply were there. I knew them but was having trouble formulating the thoughts needed to actually speak them. When I tried to speak, the action aggravated my throat causing me to cough weakly removing the last dredges of whatever I had vomited up and putting it into my mouth.

I leaned away from the man and spat it out, happy to have the foul tasting phlegm gone before I tried to speak again. When I finally managed to get the words to leave my lips, my voice was hoarse and quiet.

“Yes.”

The man continued to stroke my head without stopping and was seemingly unfazed by my reply.

“Good. How much do you remember?”

“Nothing.”

“Nothing? You didn’t remember your name?”

There was a hint of worry in the man’s voice; it wasn’t hard to guess that this was worse than whatever loss was considered normal.

“No.”

“Do you know what your name is now?”

“It’s Rea? Right?”

“Yes, that’s right.”

The man’s body shook as he chuckled silently to himself and he moved his hand to linger around one of my horns, tracing the base of it. The action elicited a much deeper purr from me and was something that seemed too personal to not have been done intentionally. It served to reinforce the idea that he must know me and had done this before.

“So, do you have any ideas as to who I am?”

I shook my head while making sure not to dislodge his hand. I was getting better at speaking and most of the struggle I had started with was gone but this point.

“I know that you’re familiar. I recognized you’re smell. Family?”

He hummed slightly before replying.

“In a manner of speaking. It’s nothing like a parent or sibling but I’ve known you since you were born. And my name is Vilmar. I know it doesn’t mean anything to you anymore but I still think you should know it.”

Vilmar stopped petting me and ruffled my hair causing me to whine slightly due to the absence of the pleasurable sensation I had been enjoying. He then pushed on my back slightly indicating that he wanted me to get off of him.

“I know you probably have some questions and I’ll let you ask them but I need to see how your body’s doing before we leave the hut.”

I nodded and stood, only faltering once before my legs were able to support me. Vilmar shifted to a kneeling position and continued to wait as I turned around to face him.

“You’re going to have to take the sack off. I know it’s embarrassing but please just bare with me.”

I swallowed a lump that had formed in my throat and lifted my clothing over my head and held it in one hand. It was only a moment after I had removed it that I began to shiver and I was surprised with how warm the tattered dress had kept me.

Vilmar quickly looked me over while pressing on various places around my chest focusing mainly on areas where I could see bones.

“Does any of this hurt?”

“No. Should it?”

He sighed while continuing his examination, his eyes lingering on the nearly gone scab just below my navel.

“No. And I’m glad you’re not hurting, that hasn’t been the case other times. It also looks like you were scratching yourself. Don’t do that, it won’t help the feeling go away. Other times it’s usually taken a day or two until your body can heal and get rid of it naturally.”

I nodded slightly as he continued to prod me and move lower. When he reached my stomach, a small press around my navel caused a large amount of pain to flare up and I hissed at him in response.

“Sorry, sorry. This is the first time you’ve hurt there, but that may be the result of you waking up sooner than normal. Alright, I’ll leave you to check out down there”, he pointed between my legs, “After you’ve been given a chance you wash yourself, so it may be a little while. You know what to look for?”

“No.”

I followed the hand motion Vilmar had made and turned around unsteadily. His hands started to search for injuries again starting from the back of my shoulders.

“Cuts, swelling, anything that looks like what’s on your stomach right now. If you see something that’s not the same color as the rest of your skin that’s also not good. If any injury has lasted long enough that your natural regeneration can’t take care of it we’ll have to see if we can convince them to heal you. They like to keep us healthy enough to use.”

He spread my butt cheeks causing me to jump away and hiss again as I turned to face him.

“I know, I know, but I need to make sure your still healing properly. The embarrassment is less important than survival.”

“You’re not doing it again.”

I didn’t drop my glare and continued to keep my distance even when he motioned for me to come closer again.

“That’s fine, I didn’t see anything wrong with the look I did get and your tail still hasn’t grown in so I don’t have to worry about that. And unlike your front, you can’t check back there yourself.”

“I’m still not happy about it.”

“You don’t have to be. Now come here, I still need to check your arms and legs.”

I stayed where I was.

“No more doing anything without telling me.”

“I can’t promise that but I can promise that there won’t be anything else that you’ll dislike before we leave this hut.”

Vilmar’s response was good enough for me to move back to him.

“Left arm.”

I held out my arm and he started from the shoulder again slowly prodding in different ways and making me move.

“Alright, so questions. I said I’d answer them so go ahead and ask a few.”

“What was my relation to you?”

“I knew your father, we were good friends and I was made into your godfather. Right arm.“

I recognized the word god. It was powerful. Everything about it was power.

“So does that mean you’re strong? Being a god?”

“I’m not a god. A godfather is just someone who can replace a child’s parents if they die. If I was strong none of us would be here, but that’s a ‘what if’ that’s not worth dwelling on. Spread your legs a little so I can check the insides, that amount of blood isn’t normal for you.“

“I can’t. I’ll fall.”

“That’s fine, just hold onto me for support. If you do fall I’ll keep you standing.”

I got close enough to hold onto his shoulders and tried to widen my stance only to have my legs give out. Vilmar caught me and pulled me closer to him.

“Put your arms around my neck. It’s fine to grip as hard as you need to so don’t worry about drawing blood.”

I nodded and did as he suggested, whining slightly in slight panic as he moved my legs a little further apart and began to probe them.

An awkward silence settled in the room until one of his pokes caused me to yelp and nearly fall as my right leg gave out. I clung to him as hard as I could and noticed that small claws had come from the ends of my fingers that ended up causing me to draw blood.

“Ah. I. I’m sorry. I -”

“It’s fine. I told you it was okay and it is. So don’t worry about it, alright?”

I nodded and loosened my grip a little, pulling the claws out of his skin made small rivulets of blood form on his back. It took a moment but I figured out how to retract the claws leaving my fingers a little bloodier than before.

Vilmar had bent himself lower and I was now almost leaning over his shoulder with him supporting almost all of my weight. He had placed his shoulder just above my stomach to avoid the area that had caused me to hiss at him and I was grateful that he chose to do so.

“I’m going to need to touch there again okay? It’s going to hurt so it’s okay if you grip tightly.”

He held onto my leg to stop it from moving and began to touch the area around mid thigh that had caused me to yelp. I started to whine and found myself quickly gripping him with my claws drawing even more blood.

My leg shook unconsciously as my body tried to pull his fingers out of the cut he had found something lodged in. The shaking got worse when he started to pull whatever was embedded in my leg out. I shut my eyes tight enough to start to see stars and didn’t open them until I felt the shrapnel in my leg finally leave.

“Tch. Bone metal. Nasty stuff and a good sign that some of them have started to see you as expendable.”

“Bone metal?”

I still hadn’t opened my eyes but I could feel the cut on my leg healing as I stood there, the small amount it had bled was almost nonexistent in comparison to what my claws had done to Vilmar’s back. It was another thing to ask about once I got the chance.

Vilmar released my leg and I started to tentatively put weight on it until I felt comfortable enough to let go and slide off his shoulder.

“Bone metal isn’t what it sounds like. It’s not a metal but a fungus. It has most of the properties of metal and that’s how it originally got it’s name. If you have large enough quantities it can be used for the interior of armor, but it only grows on bones so finding large amount of it is hard. The main problem is that it replaces bone as it eats them and eventually starts to eat the flesh around the bone as well. This bit here is small enough that it could have been unintentional since this stuff is everywhere around here, but I still wouldn’t be so sure.”

He lifted my leg slightly to make me bend my knee before letting me put it back down.

“Why didn’t I bleed?”

“What?”

“When you removed it. Why didn’t I bleed? Or why did I bleed so little? You’re bleeding and haven’t healed yet. Why?”

“That’s because of what you are, or more specifically what your parents where.“

By this point he had moved on to making sure my ankle and toes were working properly and were devoid of injuries.

“Our race is a little special, we’re Deamons. To others we look like a regular Demon, or at least a slightly warped Demon, but in reality we’re an incredibly distant relative to them. We still have some of their traits though, mostly in the form of things like an affinity for dark magic and our races lack of aging until we reach a certain level. You’re healing though, that belongs to your specific heritage. Most of us have two heritages aside from being Deamon, but that’s not something to talk about now; it’ll take too long. Short answer is I’m bigger, stronger and can take a lot of damage while you’re smaller, frailer, and heal faster.”

I had more questions but was still processing what I had learned. During this time Vilmar move on to my other leg and was content to let me think for a minute. Once I had organized my thoughts I asked what I thought was the next most important question.

“Then where are we?”

“Inside a crappy hut.”

It was technically an answer and a correct one as far as I could tell but it also wasn’t what I was expecting so it threw me off, but that didn’t deter Vilmar.

“Real answer though is somewhere slightly north of where we used to live . I’m not going to bother telling you exactly where because you probably don’t remember much about geography and I know you were taught even less.”

He was right. There was nothing I remembered about the area in my dreams let alone anything outside of that. I was about to ask another question when a voice from outside asked us if we would be out soon. Vilmar had just finished with my other leg and told me to put on my clothes before standing up.

I knew that he would be taller than me but I underestimated by how much. He was over twice my height and had to duck to make it through the doorway. Slowly making my way over to the doorway and Vilmar I found that the room was actually much larger than I first thought when I woke up.

By the time I had crossed most of the room, Vilmar had finished talking with whoever was outside about a roll call. He came over to me and made sure my clothing was on correctly and did on final look over of my face and ears before standing back up and waking to the door.

“You kept mentioning others. Why? It’s obvious that we’re not alone.”

I followed behind him, my legs more or less used to having to continually support my weight.

“Because we’re not here of our own free will. There’s a war happening and the Demons decided that we would be a good sacrificial pawn since our tribe’s villages were small and our race is so rare. They needed labor so they took us from our homes and brought us here. They said it would only be temporary but in reality,”

Vilmar pushed open the drape and I followed him out into the blinding light.

“We’re slaves.“