The shuffling of bodies woke me and I opened my eyes to see that the hut was completely full. This meant it was still the early hours of the morning and I was tempted to go back to sleep since I was still tired. There was little reason not to, but I decided that it would be better to try and actually detect the ember spell. I was curious to know what I would learn once I was able to look at a spell and, with the way Grandpa talked about it, it seemed like it would be a useful skill for me to know.

I wiggled my way out from underneath Vilmar’s arm and made my way over to the corner of the room to avoid waking anyone. Once I was comfortable, I cast ember and continued my attempts to trace the mana going to the warm mote of fire in my hands. With the knowledge of how to better restrict what I was looking at, I was actually able to get the very bottom of the spell within my senses.

What I was able to sense reminded me of Grandpa’s horns, it was a mesmerizing mix of intricate patterns and shapes and I tried to expand my senses in hopes of seeing more. I quickly regretted my decision, as it suddenly felt like I had the weight of several people on top of me making it difficult to breath. After what felt like a few hours of struggling I once again restricted my focus to a more manageable state and remained seated while shaking and trying to catch my breath.

Even though I wanted to look at more of the fire, it seemed like I was going to need to be happy with the small portion I could view. It was fairly obvious that the weak point in my attempts was my ability to look outside myself at range and, until I was able to see the entire pattern of the spell, I was going to make very little progress. There wasn’t an immediate solution to my problem until I remembered something that had only been brought up once before.

One of the main things I knew of that set our race apart from others was our horns. They stored mana and better yet they were connected to my body. It meant that I had an easy way to look at mana and hopefully at another spell pattern assuming there was one.

Much like when I first started to try and sense outside my body, I tentatively shifted my focus to my horns. After a few probes I was disappointed to find that I wasn’t able to feel anything. Part of the problem was that my horns felt the same as my body normally did with or without mana going through it and I couldn’t tell what I was supposed to be looking for.

A few people moved around as they woke and started to migrate towards the entryway of the hut and I closed my eyes in an attempt to block out the distraction. The best course of action from here was to look at my horns from a different viewpoint. They were a part of me but at the same time they should be holding something that wasn’t naturally in my body.

Using what I had learned about selectively detecting mana when being healed by Gerin, I tried to figure out what I actually needed to be sensing. What I had originally been looking for was something different than the mana outside my body and that was where I had made my mistake. Vilmar had said the mana was stored there, not that it was different, and I was willing to risk the possible backlash if it meant actually learning more about how to correctly detect mana.

The result was slightly different than what I was expecting and I was nearly overwhelmed by the volatile nature of the mana I sensed. It was a bit of a shock that the mana stored inside my horns was almost as oppressive as it was outside my body and carried the same ability to make me feel like I was drowning. However, these sensations remained at a bearable, albeit uncomfortable, level and I was prepared to push my way through them if it meant I could possibly get used to the feeling if I couldn’t fully get rid of it.

After my first mishap when trying to look at Ember I was in no mood to take this faster than necessary and let myself become more accustom to the pressure I was feeling before trying to delve deeper. Once I felt comfortable move forward with my observations I began to try and get a better picture as to what I as sensing and noticed that there were a few odd peculiarities. The mana wasn’t just stationary inside my horns, it was moving around in indiscernible swirling patterns. When I thought about it, this may be the reason that everything my people did related to circles and circular patterns especially if it was what allowed us to use magic.

My musing were cut short when I heard the sound of someone walking up to me and I opened my eyes to see who it was.

“Oh, you’re awake. You looked like you were asleep over here.”

Vilmar stopped beside me and offered a hand to help me up.

“How are you doing? I haven’t had the chance to see if you were doing alright since two days ago.”

I took his hand and stood while making sure to try and keep pace with him once we headed to the door.

“It was…It was okay. They healed me like they said they were going to and I got to see Grandpa.”

Vilmar looked over at me and I made a point to continue looking forward and not meet his gaze.

“Something else happened, didn’t it?”

A slight twitch ran through me and I hugged myself in hopes of stopping it from becoming a full on spasm. I nodded to answer him but refused to look in his direction while silently praying that he wouldn’t ask me more.

“Do you want to talk about it?”

The worry in Vilmar’s voice was palpable and it took an incredible amount of willpower to shake my head no. It wasn’t something I wanted to dwell on or remember if I could help it. Vilmar let out a dejected sigh and I had to swallow the growing lump in my throat.

“Just…If you ever need to talk. Just know I’ll listen and try to help.”

“I know.” That was part of the problem. It would only end up with both of us getting hurt instead of just me.

Our walk to roll call continued in silence until we took our place in line.

“There’s…There’s a few questions I have. About my parents. You knew them, right?”

“I did.”

“Can you…Can you tell me about them?”

“I can. But,” He paused, “But I won’t.”

I opened my mouth to protest but was cut off.

“I don’t want to talk about them. It feels like if I did that, if I gave you a false impression of them, then that would be betraying them.”

Even though Vilmar stopped talking, I could hear that there were unspoken words following what he had said; I just wished I knew what they were.

“If you have other questions, about anything else, I’ll answer those, but your parents? I can’t talk about them.”

There were other questions I had wanted to ask, about our evolution trait and dungeons, but now I didn’t want to ask them. We stood there as the tension between us grew, neither of us willing to break the silence.

Vilmar began to say something but stopped when Selmet started to call out names, strokes, and jobs. There was no rule against talking while in line, but it wasn’t hard to figure out what would happen if we did. This left us to continue standing in silence until Selmet got to us. He gave Vilmar his job, sorting, and walked up to me.

“Rea. Food preparation and clean up.”

I looked up at him when he spoke and immediately dropped my line of sight to the ground while whimpering quietly. It had been brief, but I had seen the look Selmet had in his eyes as they traced my body. They were filled with greed and ice, but worst of all, they had the same look in them that Adamo’s had when he looked at Ieva, a barely concealed hunger that reminded me of a feral beast.

“Good to know you’re back on your feet.”

He moved closer and roughly ruffled my hair. When his hand was pulled away, my ear was flicked causing me to reflexively flinch and hiss from the pain and noise.

I brought my hands to my mouth in hopes of silencing myself once I realized what I had done but from the glance I took at Selmet’s face it was too late. Something bad as going to happen now; I knew it.

Selmet bent down to bring his head level with mine before placing his mouth next to my ear.

“I think, that you may have been given just a bit little too much freedom while you recovered.”

Each word was spoken slowly with deliberate intent to unnerve me and, even knowing this, I was struggling to keep my breathing steady and my shuddering to a minimum since I couldn’t control my erratic heartbeat.

“We’ll fix this at a later time. Understand?”

“Yes.”

Selmet drew back and looked me over again as I tried to make myself as small as possible. A hand found it’s way to my to my jaw and I was forced to look up at Selmet even though I managed to avoid making eye contact.

“Yes…I think some more training is in order. Tell me, do you remember the three rules.”

I did my best to nod frantically and said them as fast as I could with his hand in the way. Selmet looked at me again with a critical and scrutinizing stare making me try to turn my head away.

“No, no. Look me in the eyes.”

My head was forced back into place and I made eye contact like I was told to. By this time, I had lost control of myself and was shivering uncontrollably while quietly whimpering. Selmet pulled his hand away from my face while patting my cheek with enough force that it stung.

“Behave and maybe you can get away with a light lesson. Do you know where you need to go?”

“Yes.”

My reply was barely audible and was as shaky as my body.

“Louder.”

“Yes.”

“There we go. that wasn’t so hard now was it?”

“No.”

My gaze dropped back to the ground and I tried to make myself small again.

“You seem to have learned one lesson though, so I think a small reward is in order.”

I felt my stomach drop; I didn’t want to know what Selmet considered a reward.

“We did just get a few people back from a rather fruitful hunt. Yes, I think that’ll work.”

Selmet had been muttering to himself but stopped to speak to me after making up his mind.

”You’ll be helping with skinning and tanning instead of food prep. While there, you can eat as much meat from the kills as you can carry in both hands twice but no more than that. Understand?”

“Yes.”

A small bit of excitement leaked into my voice at the prospect of getting to eat meat and I instantly regretted it. Selmet’s face seemed to twist unnaturally to accommodate the smile on it and I hated myself for making him happy.

“Now then,” He grabbed both shoulders and turned me to face a different direction before pointing over my shoulder.

“Just keep heading that way until you reach where you need to be. You’ll smell it before you see it.”

I was released and Selmet continued down the line. When I began to move in the direction Selmet had pointed me in, it took every fiber of my being not to run away as fast as I could.

When I was out of sight of the post yard, I sat down against a wall before curling up into a small ball to try and stop my shaking. The need to run was still pounding itself against all other thoughts I tried to have, but I knew that if I listened to that instinct it would only end badly. I continued to take deep breaths and each time I exhaled a spasm of tremors would run through me before slowly subsiding.

I made sure that my shaking was mostly concealed before standing and walking towards my destination. The rest of my trip was spent trying to get Selmet’s face out of my head until I found the area I was sent to. To be fair, I hadn’t actually reached it yet but Selmet had told the truth; I could smell it. The caustic air stung my nose and made me hesitant to breath through my mouth out of fear of an equality foul taste.

As the skinning area came into view, I became incredibly wary of actually entering it. Most jobs I had seen being done outside of the Demon’s main encampment were done by Deamons. From what I could see, there were no Deamon’s here and the three or so dozen Demons were milling about to occasionally doing something else while talking to each other. The majority of them were around a large fire with three goire corpses hung over it, most likely to suppress the caustic air, with about a dozen more either skinning the goire or removing the meat from cooked ones. It was highly unnerving to not have a single Deamon in the area that I could ask what I needed to do and put me into a very precarious situation.

I was going to have to ask a Demon for help again.

The ramifications of this were still up in the air since the other time I asked for help started out fine but ended awfully. Despite all of my misgivings about wanting to approach and be noticed, I also wasn’t keen on getting whipped.

It wasn’t hard to hear the noise of conversation once I got within earshot but it was impossible to pick out anything being said. The smell of blood had become more prevalent as I got closer and I could tell it was from the goire and not a person which helped settle my nerves. Each step forward put me closer to needing to ask how to do the job I was assigned with more extreme situations coming to mind on how this could backfire with every beat of my heart.

I had forgotten that because of my size I was easily overlooked or ignored and found myself standing next to the group without being noticed. All of the Demons were focused on something else, be it each other or the goire they were skinning, meaning I was going to have to draw their attention to myself. This left me with two options, I could either watch and learn or I could ask now and get some help afterwards. Neither option was good in my opinion since one of them would probably lead to getting whipped while the other put me vastly outside of my comfort zone. They were the only options I had though and at this point I would do almost anything in order to not end up on the post again.

Asking for help now was the way to go, but I wasn’t going to ask without specifically choosing the Demon I was going to try my luck with. After watching the Demons currently working on the goire, I started moving towards the one that looked like he would be the least likely to hurt me if push came to shove. In terms of size, he was about as large as Selmet, but lacked the same aura of blood and malevolence which was part of my reason for choosing him. Another large factor was the focus he dedicated to skinning rendered him mute causing the others to shift their attention past him.

This dedication also meant that he didn’t notice when I was standing right next to him and I tentatively reached out to tug on the sleeve of his tunic before quickly drawing my hand back. My first attempt was unsuccessful and I was forced to tug on the man’s sleeve two more times before he finally turned his head to look at me.

“Yes?”

“I, um, Selmet sent me. To help with skinning.”

I shrank in on myself as I talked because of the look I was being given. The Demon leaned back and wiped his face with the crook of his arm before focusing his full attention on me.

“So then why did you interrupt me?”

My eyes darted around the area I was in for an easy escape route before I dislodged the lump in my throat and returned my attention to the Demon.

“I don’t know what to do.”

The end of my sentence was punctuated by a small whimper from the sudden appearance of a knife the size of my forearm in the Demon’s hand.

“Take this. Go on, I’m not going to cut you or anything like that and you’ll need it. Just be careful; it’s sharp.”

I took the knife and looked it over. It wasn’t like the knife I had used when peeling poetan and instead had a barb at the end of the blade. The blade also looked much sharper than the poetan knife and I was unsure of how to really hold it due to its awkward weight and size.

“Watch what I do here and I’ll help you with your first goire then you’re on your own. First thing to know is that you can’t press the knife too deeply or you’ll burst things inside the goire making the meat inedible and soiling the pelt. ”

Nodding my head, I watched as he used the barb to get the edge of the knife under the goire’s pelt and used the area between it and the blade to cut a line up its stomach. Once he had cut the pelt from neck to groin, the Demon removed the knife and cut connecting circles around the neck and six legs. A final cut was made at the back of the goire circling near its rear before the Demon set the knife down.

“This part can get a little messy and since you’re about half my size you’re going to need to get a little more hands on than me. You don’t have to remove your clothes, but you’re not going to have a way to get the blood out of them any time soon if you don’t.”

He sat the knife down next to him and slid his hand underneath the cuts he made before lifting them up. I could see that he was having to put some force into it but the pelt and flesh underneath it separated surprisingly easily and with very little blood. As the pelt was methodically peeled back I couldn’t help but lick my lips when looking at the red flesh being exposed. I continued to inch myself closer only to stop when a hand was placed on my head.

“What do we have here?”

A small whine escaped me when the pressure on my head increased and forced me to turn around.

“Icuis, did you know we had a rat running around? And next to you no less. What is she here for anyways?”

Before Icuis could speak another Demon from the group walked over and crouched down to look at me. The Demon holding my head let go to stand and take a step back but in turn the new arrived female Demon started to pat me down. I didn’t know what she was hoping to find, but the repeated forceful contact maked me whimper and squirm.

“Actually has a little bit of meat on her still so we can definitely have some fun that’s for sure. Wouldn’t mind turning her into a quivering mess since she’s kinda cute.”

“Armida, Raniero; she’s Selmet’s.”

The female Demon, who I assumed was Armida, stopped running her hands over me with a disappointed look on her face which allowed me to retreat behind Icuis.

“If that’s the case, why is she not with him?”

“He sent her here to lean how to skin and tan. He’ll probably want her to learn how to work leather and sew as well.”

Icuis’ response lacked any real force behind it and I felt that, even though he was giving them a reason not to do anything to me, if they chose to ignore his warning he wasn’t going to stop them.

“I still don’t see why that would stop us. It’s not like Selmet will know if no one tells him and it won’t be hard to keep her quiet.”

Icuis nodded and the two stated to talk in slowly raising voices. The thinly veiled threat combine with the look Raniero was giving me made me shrink in on myself before hissing at him under my breath. A thought occurred to me while doing this and I quickly stopped to speak.

“I’ll tell Selmet.”

This caught both of my possible assailants and Icuis by surprise since I had yet to actually speak up until this point. Armida and Raniero looked at each other before looking back to me.

“We can keep you silent, pain is always a good incentive when it comes to these things.”

“Won’t be worse than what Selmet does. I’ll tell him.”

I could see that my continued insistence of telling Selmet was actually working as the two turned to actually talk with each other for a moment. Their miniature conversation came to an end and Raniero retreated to the fire and join the rest of the group in conversation while Armida walked closer to Icuis and me.

“If she gives you any trouble or misbehaves in any way just let us know and we’ll be happy to discipline her.”

“I don’t think there will be any issues,” Icuis turned to look at me,“do you?”

I shook my head rapidly and Icuis turned back to look at Armida.

“We’ll be fine here.”

Armida grunted before turning and rejoining the group of Demons in conversation. I felt very tired all of a sudden and leaned into Icuis to stay upright. It had taken a lot out of me to stand up for myself but it had payed off and I was glad it hadn’t backfired on me. This entire time I had been controlled by my fear of Selmet and had forgotten that I wasn’t the only one that seemed to be afraid of incurring his wrath. This wasn’t something that would work with every Demon since I knew Adamo wouldn’t have cared, but for others it would help as long as I didn’t overuse it.

“You’re a clever ginga, you know that? Regardless, are you ready to try skinning one of these yourself?”

“Maybe?”

“Good enough. I’m assuming that Selmet said you could eat some meat since that’s the only time we get you here helping us.”

“He did. As much as I could carry in both hands twice.”

I made sure to say the same things Selmet had said so that way I wouldn’t be gypped of the meat I was allowed.

“Skin a pelt without making a mess of it and you can eat. Did you decided what you’re going to do about your clothes?”

“Staying on.”

“Alright. Let me grab a goire for you and I’ll help you with this first one.”

Icuis stood from his stool while grabbing the goir's antlers to hoist it into the air. From there, hecarried the skinned goire over to another pile before coming back for the pelt. Once he placed the pelt into a cart, he made his way to the untouched goire and brought one over. He laid it down next to his stool and signaled me to come to him.

When I was next to him he sat me down between his legs and started to adjust how I was holding the knife in my hand. Once he was happy with my grip, he moved the legs of the goire so four of them pointed up and the remaining two pointed downwards.

“So starting is actually the hardest part of this.”

He held my hand with the knife in it as if holding it himself and guided me on where to start the first cut.

“The barb makes this easier but it’s not foolproof especially if you apply too much force.”

Icuis pressed the barb into the pelt and I did my best to gauge how much force he was using. Once it was under the skin, he drug the knife down the length of the goire’s stomach and I felt how there was a little bit of resistance in one or two places nearly causing snags.

“That was the hard part and what’s next is much easier. You’ll need to lift the head up to get underneath the neck.”

He leaned over slightly making me do the same and used the starting place for the initial cut to start another around the goire’s neck. From there, he tilted the head of the Goire so it’s pairs of antlers pointed away from us before guiding the knife around the neck. The cut was finished from the other side of the goire’s neck and new cuts were made from the stomach to each leg. This process repeated for each leg and around the goire’s groin before I was shown where and how to pull to get the pelt and flesh underneath it to separate.

Once he finished showing me the last few intricacies of getting the pelt off, Icuis stood and took the goire and pelt to their respective areas.

“Ready to try one yourself?”

“Not really. Could you show me again?”

“Nah, you’ll be fine; it just takes practice. Let me get you a goire and when you’re done with it let me know and I’ll get you another one.”

A goire was placed were Icuis worked before he left another to the left of it.

“If you have any problems just ask and I’ll help you a little.”

I nodded and started the same preparations that I had watched a few minutes ago. The goire’s fur was soft and I was left wishing that I still had my own personal clothing made from it. Once I finished reminiscing, I turned to watch Icuis and make sure he was in the same step of the process I was so I could look over for guidance if necessary.

With the goire’s legs out of the way, I did my best to make the initial cut with the barb but couldn’t get it to pierce the pelt. After several failed attempts and a position change, I tried using both hands for added leverage. The barb cut the pelt but slipped out causing me to fall backwards and smack my head on Icuis’ stool.

I cradled the back of my head while hissing in pain until the throbbing went away. Crawling back over to the goire, I looked at the cut I had made while retrieving the knife. It wasn’t hard to tell I had already botched the cut from the blood around it and more inspection confirmed that I had made it too deep. Despite the set back, I continued to try and create a cut running the length of the goire, struggling with almost continual snags.

By the time I finished the first pelt I was not only covered in blood, and wishing I had taken my dress off, but was also more confident in my ability to skin another goire without making as many errors. Icuis was about halfway done with another goire so I waited until he was done before getting his attention. He looked over the pelt and commented on how it wasn’t bad for first try but wasn’t going to get me any meat.

I thought it was a little much to restrict my meal to mastering a skill I had just learned but sadly I wasn’t the one in charge. Icuis replaced both of our goire without much fanfare and I noticed that he had the same bored look on his face again. Before I started skinning, I removed my dress and adjusted the memorial pouch. I debated removing the pouch completely but instead tightened the string and moved it so it rested on my back to keep it clean. Each cut I made this time was better than its predecessor and I was starting to feel confident with my skill until I reached the goire’s neck.

Be it the angle or too deep a cut, I found myself splattered with blood and struggled to wipe it off of myself without spreading it. I met with little success and when some of it ran into my eye I gave up and fumbled my way off the goire and to Icuis. I had though about using my dress as a rag but that would’ve defeated the purpose of taking it off. A small bloody handprint was left on Icuis sleeve when I pulled it but I was less worried about that than I was being able to see. It took a second tug and a few whimpers but I was finally noticed.

“Gods you’re a mess. What did you do?”

“I don’t know. I cut the neck and it did this.”

“Probably hit a vein and since you were sitting on the goire that would have forced the blood out. Just wait here a second, I need to get something to clean you off with.”

Icuis stood and walked off, leaving me alone and half blind.

“Hey kid.”

I turned to find the speaker and saw that it was one of the Demons in the same group Armida and Raniero had come from. It was hard to find anything that made him stand out and I tilted my head to the side in response to his prompting.

“That skinning you’re doing. Wonder what it feels like?”

I shook my head quickly and hard. The thought of using the knife on a person made me queasy just thinking about it.

“That’s too bad. I’m sure Selmet would be happy to teach you if you ask. Better yet, I’ll let him know for you. How’s that sound?”

A warbling mewl was my response and the entire group of Demon’s started to snicker before breaking down into laughter. They didn’t seem to understand that, while to them it might have been a joke or even worse if they were serious, telling Selmet would most likely lead to him actually trying to skin me. That thought alone made me gag slightly and I noticed that I had started to shiver again.

“Very funny assholes. Do any of you actually plan to help clean the goires?”

Icuis’ reappearance with a wet cloth startled me and I scurried behind him to try and escape the looks being directed at us. I watched as most of the mirth the other Demons were sharing died down before a murmur of negatives echoed through the group.

“Great, so if you’re done scaring the only help that’s been sent our way, I would suggest leaving it at that way unless you plan to get this done yourselves.”

A grumble of complains and insults were thrown in Icuis’ direction but he merely ignored them and turned to face me. The damp rag did a good job of removing the blood from my face and it was thrown over my shoulder once Icuis finished.

“If a splatter happens again just use the rag. You going to be good for a while?”

“I think so.”

“Great. When you finish let me know, same as before.”

I nodded and returned to skinning the goire. I was able to finish without any issues and got Icuis' attention afterwards. He moved the goire and looked over the pelt to see how I’d done this time.

“This is good. You can eat some of the meat off of any goire you skin from now on. I’m trusting you to stop when you’ve eaten what you were allowed, but I won’t know if you were to eat more than that.”

It may have not been the most subtly dropped remark but, as much as I wanted to eat until I couldn’t move, I was also reluctant to go against what Selmet had said especially when I couldn’t be certain this wasn’t a trap. Either way, I could eat now and I was going to pace myself and take tiny pieces since it would be harder for someone to judge how much I had actually eaten. My next attempt at skinning was without any incidents and I happily cut off a tiny sliver of meat to eat. The meat itself was chew and stringy since it was raw, but the taste of meat and blood made it worth the textural complaints.

When I finished taking my meat from the skinned goire, I alerted Icuis to my need for a new one. He looked over the goire I had finished before commenting on a few areas that it would be good to take meat from to avoid having the goire fall apart over the fire and the way he said it made me fairly certain that he wasn’t going to tell anyone if I ate more than I was allowed.

After three more goire I was feeling confident in my skills and being able to eat helped how I was feeling immensely. I still wasn’t eating very much since I was just letting a piece of meat sit in my mouth so I could savor the flavor until I cut my next strip. At this point I was comfortable enough to divide my attention and listen in on the conversations that were happening around me. There was a lot of small talk that I didn’t care about and frequent comments were made about Deamons and the war. I was only devoting a small bit of my focus to eavesdropping until I heard something that perked my interest.

“You heard about the proposed treaty with the dwarves right?”

“Just that it happened. Why?”

“Apparently they’re willing to agree to a cease fire and to trade the mountains we’ve taken from them for farmable land around their bases.”

“Thank the gods. If they had brought out their stone warriors we would have lost everything on that front.”

I cut off a small piece of meat from my current goire and popped it into my mouth after chewing and swallowing my current one.

“This works better for us anyways, having access to the flood planes near the base of their mountains is going to help tremendously.”

“Once we get some farms there and grow food sure, but that’s still at least three maybe four years away. If things stay how they are now without the rains then the small increase in food from them won’t do anything. Really we need some of the lands the Cynesige Kingdom has.”

“Pft. That’s not going to happen any time soon. They’re pushing us back even with lesser numbers. Doesn’t help that the other human kingdoms keep assisting them. I mean, think about what we were told at our last meeting; six months at best.”

“Five, they gained back the land around the Folikiji river a full fortnight earlier than we thought they would.”

At this point I finished skinning, adjusted how I was sitting to be more comfortable, and settled in to listen for a little while longer.

“Either way, it looks like we’ll have to go another winter here. Hopefully we’ll get some more reinforcements before then. I don’t want to have to deal with the same shit we did last year, the frozen rain sucked.”

“Not like we can farm in these damnable forests anyways. It’s too bad we can’t send some of it back up north.”

The two started to laugh and I tuned them out in favor of listening to a different conversation but quickly stopped when I noticed the same pair that harassed me earlier coming back. I looked around in hopes of finding the one lifeline I had here, but I couldn’t see Icuis and hadn’t been able to smell anything but blood since I started skinning. This left me by myself with no way to get out of what was most likely going to be a very bad situation.

“You know, with that look on your face I would almost think you weren’t happy to see us. Say, you wouldn’t happen to know were Icuis is would you?”

“No.”

Armida clapped her hands and looked at Raniero

“Well that’s a shame.”

A look of mock surprise as if she’d had a idea flashed on her face.

“I know, why don’t the three of us go look for him.”

“I’d like to stay here.”

Both of them kept walking closer causing me to shrink in on myself and each placed a hand under my arms.

“Nonsense, the more the merrier as they say.”

They half lifted, half dragged me to my feet as they passed and I started to whimper when I realized I wasn’t escaping whatever they had in mind for me. This didn’t stop me from flailing my feet and trying to worm my way out of their grip but there was only so much I could do before I gave up.

I could only watch as the area I knew was left behind with no good way to see where I was being taken. The two dragged me around for a little while before stopping a small ways away from where we started. They released me, causing me to fall unceremoniously to the ground.

A brief glance for an escape route let me see that there was a fence surrounding the camp and we were now next to it. Having another barrier to prevent our escape made sense but this was the first time I had actually seen it. If I hadn’t been worried about what was about to happen to me, there was actually a good chance I could have climbed it.

“Get up and stand against the wall.”

My focus changed to the departing figure of Raniero and I looked around quickly to see that Armida was still next to me. Even though I was in the process of standing, it seemed it wasn’t enough and I was lifted the rest of the was to my feet by Armida. She did a quick once over on me before reaching for my neck and loosening the pouch strings. I tried to stop her but was hit upside the head and was left standing against the wall while whimpering. I watched as Armida walked away with the only important item I had hoping the entire time that I would be able to get it back.

“Now this is weird. Hey Raniero, any idea why the ginga would get to have two cores on her?”

“No clue. What do they look like?”

Two clear spheres filled with something were tossed haphazardly to Raniero and I could only stand dumbly as he inspected them. When he finished, he casually threw them back to Armida who put them back in the pouch before dropping it on the ground.

“No clue, but they’re subpar at best so just let her have them. I would say keep them, but Selmet probably gave them to her and he’d notice they were gone. So what are we gonna do?”

The two started to talk and I began to inch my way away in hopes that I could get back to Icuis while they were distracted. A knife embedded itself in the wall in front of my face and I stopped were I was in case there was another one coming.

“Well, I think I just figured out the game we’re going to play. How many knives do you have on you?”

“Enough.”

I hadn’t moved and jumped slightly as I was shouted at and told to put my back against the wall. Once I had finally done so, I looked at the two Demons before deciding it would be best if I just kept my eyes shut. Their talk of knives gave me a general idea of what they were planning and the impact of another knife next to my head made me jump.

The two continued to throw knives at me with the occasional one nicking my skin and drawing blood. There was no way to tell when they ran out of knives so I had to hope that when I heard someone walking towards me it was because they had finished.

“Hey ginga, eyes open.”

I hesitantly complied and got to watch as the knives around me were removed.

“Keep them open cause each time you close them is a knife in you instead of next to you got it?”

I barely nodded since the uncontrollable whimpering and shaking seemed to be the only thing I was capable of at the moment. The two continued to throw knives at me as some twisted game and seemed to be trying to make me flinch with the number of blades that found their place next to my head.

Armida started walking towards me again and I relaxed slightly since I knew they were out of knives. It made sense then, that when another knife planted itself so close to my face that it cut me, that I flinched and closed my eyes while sliding down the wall and curling in on myself.

“That was a dirty trick Raniero. Why didn’t I think of that first?”

A hand was laced through my hair and I was forcibly pulled to my feet.

“Stay standing.”

The next few minutes were nothing short of mental torture as knives flew towards me, each with its own promise to be the one that would impale me. Neither Demon though anything of this and seemed to enjoy the fact that I had been reduced to a sniveling mess. It was hard to say what was worse, this or the whipping, since I knew that one would end.

When a knife did finally strike me, it hit my shoulder and I was nailed to the wall with a loud yelp. Both Demons started laughing at this until they noticed something out of the corner of their eye and immediately straightened up. Another person walked over to me and removed the knife from my shoulder, letting me slide down the wall leaving a bloody streak in my wake.

“I believe that I gave pretty clear instructions to leave her alone if you weren’t going to help with the goire did I not?”

Both Armida and Raniero nodded while saying ‘yes sir’ in synch and I took the time to look up at the new comer. To my surprise, it was Icuis and he had a previously absent air of authority about him that made me want to remain as inconspicuous as possible. He was still wearing the same bored look on his face and was playing with the bloodied knife while slowly advancing towards the insubordinate Demons.

“So then, would you kindly tell me what you’re doing here? Because I know there are definitely goire that still need skinning.”

Armida mumbled a reply causing Icuis to focus on her.

“Little bit louder soldier.”

“We were just having some fun sir.”

Icuis stopped pacing and move to stand in front of her.

“Just some fun? I don’t remember you being here for fun, I remember you being here to work. Tell me, is this the loyalty you would show our Emperor; glory and long life to him.”

A small snarl formed on Armida’s face before it contorting into a grimace as both Armida and Raniero repeated the praise to their Emperor.

“His Eminence’s word is law and my loyalty to him and his orders is absolute.”

“Actions speak louder than words ever will and, from what I’ve seen, you’re fine ignoring the orders of a superior officer.” He paused, “You look like you have something to say. Go on then, speak.”

“No disrespect was meant sir. As I said before, we were just trying to have some fun. It’s not often we get the chance to do so since most of the Deamons that we can do things with have already been claimed.”

“And they’ve already been claimed for a reason. Those who have an assigned Deamon, or a ginga in this case, earned it by either their rank or through their actions. If neither of you two were selected for the initial picking it simply means you didn’t do enough.”

Icuis stopped pacing and glanced over at me.

“However, that’s not why I’m here is it? By not following my commands it brings your loyalty into question. In this camp, my word is second only to Selmet’s and you still chose not to listen. It seems to me, neither of you are truly loyal.”

“But sir th-”

“Enough!”

Icuis’ roar ended whatever argument was going to be said by Armida before shifting his attention to Raniero.

“You’ve been awfully quite throughout all of this. Nothing to say for yourself?”

“No sir. We were out of line sir.”

“Better, but not completely honest. Both of you against the wall.”

All three Demons walked towards me and I let out a squeak while curling in on myself more. Icuis ignored me until the other two had lined up against the wall flanking me.

“And what do I do with you? Soiling yourself is one thing since we can clean you up later, but you need to have some say in their punishment and I’m not sure you’re up for that.”

He stood still for a moment before bending down to me.

“Look at me, there we go. Now then, they asked you if you knew what it was like to be skinned right? Come on, you can answer, I won’t do anything to you, I promise.”

I nodded even though I didn’t believe him.

“So I guess it wouldn’t be to far off to say that they were curious then. Alright, up you get.”

I was hoisted to my feet and a skinning knife was placed into my hands.

“Now then, in a second the two of them are going to strip down and you’re going to choose a section of them and skin it. No need to be gentle.”

The sound of movement behind me signaled that the two were already stripping themselves without the explicit command. Icuis turned me around and repeated his instructions again and I swallowed the nausea that was building in favor of trying to move forward.

“Here, I’ll help you with the first one, just like with the goire. See, just get the barb underneath the skin and pull.”

Armida let out a hiss of pain as red line was drawn down the entire length of her thigh. Aside from a few involuntary twitches, she remained motionless and I could feel the little that I’d eaten fighting to escape.

“Next we need to go all the way around so we can peel this layer off. Armida, one step forward and remain at parade rest.”

She moved forward and at that point watching the muscle flexing through the cut was too much for me and I doubled over to empty my stomach. A hand was placed on my back and moved semi-soothingly until I finished.

“Well, at least we know were to draw the line with you. Think you can find your way back to the skinning area?”

I nodded weakly and was helped to my feet.

“Off you go then. Oh, and make sure you eat. Wouldn’t want you to go hungry now would we.”

Shaking my head, I walked over to my pouch that had been left discarded on the ground and returned it to its place around my neck. I took one more look back at Icuis who waved me off dismissively before leaving.

Were I had resisted the urge to run away from Selmet, I held no such reservations in leaving as fast as I could now. It only took me a brief look to find the skinning area again and when I did, I sat down to catch my breath and forget the last twenty minutes of my life. The calmer I thought I was, the more I began to shake uncontrollably until I finally just let myself panic.

It crossed my mind again that I had yet to resume skinning anything and the recent knowledge of what Icuis was actually like spurred me into finally moving. I made it a point to work quickly and quietly even when the three missing Demons returned. A brief glance was all I needed to see that Armida and Raniero both had a pant leg that was much redder than the normal color. Icuis returned to his stool as if nothing had happened and I tried to subtly move as far away from him as I could.

“How’s that goire coming along?”

I jumped while letting out a small squeak of terror before curling in on myself.

“Well this isn’t going to work. Here,” He cut the cut the entire haunch off of the goire he was working on with frightening ease and handed it to me, “eat this and when you’re done I’ll take you to the tanners. It does me no good if you’re too scared of me to work.”

“I-I’m not s-scared.”

Icuis raised his brow in mocking manner while looking at my shaking form. He sighed while shaking his head and went back to skinning.

“Believe what you want, just finish what you’re doing and eat.”

The next few minutes were unnaturally quiet since the only sounds were those coming from the skinning knives slicing flesh. It seemed that the small display of force that Icuis had used put not only Armida and Raniero in place but also the rest of the Demons in their group.

My attention turned to the goire leg I had been given once I finished skinning and I was at a loss as what to do. Not only did it still have skin on it, but the haunch was easily the same size I was meaning I probably wasn't going to be able to eat all of the meat on it. I could use the skinning knife but it seemed like it would be more effort than it was worth when I had perfectly good claws I could use to rip the skin off. It only took a few good swipes, but eventually the skin gave way and I was able to get at the flesh underneath.

Once I started eating, my hunger resurfaced with a vengeance. I continued to consume the leg until only the skin, bone, and hoof were left; surprised that I'd actually managed to eat the entire leg. After doing that, I cracked the bones using the skinning knife and hit them on the ground until they broke and sucked the marrow out. The fatty taste made me shudder in pleasure and I took my time draining the remaining bones.

“Well you certainly made short work of that didn’t you? Made a bit of a mess doing it, but that’s not a big deal.”

I jumped again and caught myself mid hiss before hoping to cover it with by mewing angrily at Icuis instead.

“Easy there, best not to bite the hand that feeds you if you catch my drift.”

He bent down to pick up the slightly bloodied rag from the ground and began to wipe my face off before folding the rag over and getting the blood off the rest of me. My squirming seemed to be expected and I was left in a dirty yet manageable state once Icuis finished.

“Right. Get your clothes on and follow me.”

I did as I was told and made sure to pay attention to where we were going so I could find my way back to the post yard when it was time for roll call.

Once we left the skinning area, the smell of blood faded and was replaced the the same acrid scent that burned my nose when I breathed. I hadn’t been able to figure out what was causing it but the fact that it was getting worse to the point my eyes were watering and my nose was running made me confident that we were heading towards the source. The closer we got to the tanning area, the more sure I was that it was the cause of the air and I started to struggle breathing because the burning was affecting my throat.

“Let’s stop for a moment until you get used to the air here.”

I nodded to show I agreed with the decision and sat down in hopes of being able to catch my breath. A short time later I was almost able to breath normally even though my eyes, nose, and throat all itched. Icuis saw that I wasn’t having problems anymore and continued walking towards our final destination.

This area looked closer to those I was familiar with, a small contingency of Demons with cloth over the bottom half of their face lazily milling about instead of watch the Deamons that were doing the work. Icuis made a beeline for a group of three Demons and called out to them when we were close enough. They snapped to attention and remained like that until Icuis told them to relax. He explained why I was here while giving orders to leave me alone before telling me to find someone to teach me what to do. Once he’d done that, Icuis left me and the Demons standing there in shock at how fast he’d gone through the whole process before booking it.

“Who, um, who should I talk to?”

One of the Demons looked at me before shrugging his shoulders and returning to talk with the pair that were still watching Icuis’ retreating figure with stupefied expressions. I was very quickly ignored and remained reluctant to make my way into the seemingly maze like pathways of cauldrons and vats, all bubbling with foul smelling vapors because of the fires underneath them.

While there were other things I could have done instead of working, they wouldn’t stop me from ending up on the post again and I spent the next few minutes watching what was happening. The entire process didn’t seem that complicated, but there were definitely a few steps that I was missing from my current vantage point. Despite that, I felt like I had seen enough to at least help move the pelts from their starting place into the first set of vats used to boil any remaining blood or meat off of them.

Because I had taken my time before attempting to help, I was able to make my way to the places I needed to with very few problems. I was still moving much slower than the other Deamons working here since I wasn’t as comfortable with the area or the overall process, but I could still help without getting in the way. Despite thinking this, it became apparent that I’d underestimated how much of an impact my presence would make as I had already been told twice that I was in the way before even finishing my trip to the initial vat.

Deamons kept bumping into me and I was eventually pulled to the side my an older looking man. He took the pelts out of my arms before standing and taking a step back.

“Just stay here. You keep getting in the way and it’s not helping any of us. I know you’re trying, but someone is going to end up getting hurt from not realizing you’re here and I’d rather that not happen.”

He left before I could voice my disagreement and it looked like I was going to be continually sidelined if I tried to do anything. This didn’t stop me from trying to help at different parts of the process, but the results were the same; someone telling me that I was in the way and to go somewhere else. In only a few minute I’d been everywhere I could without any positive results.

The continuous sidelining made the reality of my situation finally sink in. It seemed that the Demons were not the only ones here that were heartless, it applied to everyone but the select few that deemed me worthy of their attention, be it good or bad. To everyone else, I was a nuisance or a problem that they wanted to hand off to the next person once they had finished using me for what they needed. It was hard to keep a positive outlook when it seemed like I was going to end up on the post again.

But it wasn’t fair. Why should I be punished when I tried to work but wasn’t allowed to? Hell, why did I care what happened to anyone else? That thought sparked yet another. Why let myself be sidelined when I could get in their way until they actually taught me what to do? The Deamon man had said someone would end up getting hurt, but if it was me I would heal and it was difficult to actually care about anyone but Vilmar, Lindi, Grandpa, and myself.

With newfound determination, I walked back to the start of the tanning area where people were filling boiling vats with the new pelts and picked up as many pelts as I could carry. I hadn’t even moved before I was being dragged off to the side again by the same man. He tried to take the pelts from my arms but I backed out of his reach and glared at him.

“You’re going to get someone hurt, most likely yourself, so please just stay her and let those of us who can do the work do it.”

“Why should I? Why do I have to end up on the post just because you can’t watch were you’re walking?”

“That’s not what…No, look. We’ve been doing this long enough that it’s become second nature to us. Having someone else here will only slow us down so none of us reach our quota.”

“That doesn’t solve my problem though! Why should I have to end up on the post just because you can’t look down!?”

Our frustrations were rising in tandem but I didn’t care; I wasn’t going to budge on this.

“I can’t let you help. We’ve too much to do and not enough time to do it.”

He reached for the pelts again and I stepped back while baring my fangs to hiss at him.

“Don’t make this difficult the guards are just over there, I could alw-”

“Klemens, just let her help.”

The man was interrupted by a passing Deamon woman with a few fresh pelts in her arms. He turned and gestured for her to join us and she did so.

There were no easily distinguished features aside from visible horns that separated this woman from the others I had seen and, until she was standing next to us, it was nearly impossible for me to make out her scent from the surrounding stench. She shared a few traits with Lindi, such as her lithe frame and the tuffs of fur on the ends of her ears and tail, and I recognized her smell from when I had to work at the party.

“Are you willing to be responsible for her if we do let her help?”

She shrugged.

“Sure; I don’t think she’ll be a problem. You should have just let her help carry things from place to place. We get an extra hand and she doesn’t get in the way which should appease you.”

The inflection in her voice made it clear that they must not see eye to eye but Klemens looked unfazed despite the remark.

“If you want to do it, fine, but she’s your problem now.”

Klemens left and the two of us watched him leave before the woman turned and addressed me.

“I’m Zoja.”

I nodded.

“You have a name?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah. It’s Rea.”

It was weird having someone ask for my name since up until now it had either been known or not cared for.

“Right then Rea, your job is to follow me around with more pelts or whatever I hand you. Sound good to you?”

“If it keeps me off the post then yes.”

“Great, do you know how many pelts you have on you right now?”

I looked down at the small pile of pelts that I’d crumpled up in my arms.

“Um. . .I think I have three of them here, but I can’t tell because they’re folded over.”

“That’s fine. We’ll leave you with that for now since it looks like you can’t carry much more. First place we need to go is to that set of cauldrons over there.”

Even with the high volume of people walking through the few pathways, Zoja set a casual pace making it easy to keep up with her. Her pelts and mine were added to the bubbling pot and I watched as she added in a few scoops of white powder from a nearby keg. She knelt to look at the fire underneath our chosen cauldron before doing the same thing to the adjacent ones.

“We’re going to go get some wood from the stockpile so stay close since it’s easy to get lost.”

I simply nodded and followed behind her while keeping track of where we were walking so I could trace back my steps if need be. The stockpile was about what I had expected of it; a roofed structure with three open sides with roughly cut logs inside. Zoja took a log from the top of the pile and began to stack them on my arms. By the fourth log, my arms were already getting tied and I was having a hard time keeping them up. Fortunately, no more logs were given to me as Zoja piled half a dozen or so logs into her own arms before asking if I was ready to go.

“Do you know Lindi?”

“Name sounds familiar, why?”

“Oh, it’s just that the two of you both have fur on your ears and if she still had her tail I think she’d have fur there too.”

Zoja was silent for a minute as we weaved our way around people.

“I think I know who you’re talking about. I’m from a sister tribe.”

“What about Vilmar? Do you know him?”

“I know him. He’s a good man when he’s not thinking too hard. We’re not from the same tribe though. Why do you ask?”

“Because I don’t know any of this. I only know my own tribe by name because it’s been told to me. I’m just curious is all.”

Zoja dropped the logs next to the cauldron before pushing half of them underneath in into the waiting fire.

“Well, there were seven tribes. Mine was the Kima Tribe and our sister tribe was the Tal tribe. Both of us share similar physical traits but that’s about it. As for Vilmar, he’s from the Furmeir tribe. They were the closest to the Demons before all of this happened and spent a good amount of time herding animals instead of just hunting. Hand me the logs you’re holding.”

I did my best to give her the logs without dropping them and shook my arms out once they no longer had to hold anything.

“What tribe were you from?”

“Nooix. I was told it was because we were of the new moon.”

Zoja stood while picking up a pole and started to stir the pelts around.

“Yep. All of our tribes were named in a similar manner after the moons. ”

“But is it important?”

She stopped stirring the pelts to look at me.

“It’s as important as you believe it to be. Some of us think it’s the most important thing we have while others couldn’t care less. I suppose you don’t really have much attachment to your tribe since you can’t remember anything.”

“Wait a second. I didn’t tell you I couldn’t remember anything, only that I didn’t know about our tribe’s names. Why do you know about that?”

“Sad as it is to say, most of us know you and that your loss of memory is a reoccurring issue. Don’t get me wrong it suck for you, but not everyone views it that way.”

I scoffed.

“Why would anyone ever see this as a positive thing?”

I could hear her take in a deep breath that meant there was a sigh coming and I wasn’t disappointed.

“Some people, like Klemens, envy you because the you don’t remember anything from before you woke up. It’s not great from your perspective since all of this is confusing, disturbing, and painful, but you have what? Three days of memories? There are things that some of us lost that we’d like to forget we lost.”

“I…Since waking up, as you put it, every day has been worse than the last. From being whipped to the point my regeneration gave out, to the shame and embarrassment of being turned into a object at the party, to Adamo…”

I steadied myself, tried to stop my hands from shaking, and took a few breaths before continuing.

“It’s been hell. You said it has to be confusing and you’re right. All of these things keep happening to me and I don’t know why. I might not be able to remember things or understand a lot of what’s going on but I still figured out what’s going to happen to me. I’ve seen how Selmet looks at me and I saw what happened to someone else that was looked at like that.

“And from what I’ve been told, that’s going to be my life for the foreseeable future. Unless something miraculous happens or until he gets bored with me. But I don’t know if that will even happen, if I’ll ever be free of this. So I just can’t understand why anyone would envy me for that especially knowing what’s going to happen to me. I just can’t.”

I wiped my eyes with the heel of my hand and looked over to Zoja.

“Because once we leave here, I stop being a person and become an object, just like at that party. And to be continually used like Ieva was by Adamo, like he used me, I’d rather die then have that be my life. But I’m not going to get a choice in it, am I?”

Zoja pulled me into her chest as I started to sob and I was held there and allowed to cry. Her hand gently caressing my head and the protective feeling of her contact helped calm me.

“I hate to say this, but you’re right. We lost our ability to make those decisions when we failed to protect ourselves. I’d like to avoid this topic if only for the reason that nothing good will come of it. But I’m willing to answer questions about anything you want to know.”

I was released and after a final stroke over my horns Zoja returned to monitoring the cauldrons and their fires.

“There are a few things I want to know, about Selmet and Vilmar and the tribes.”

“What’s first then?”

“I’ve been told that Selmet needs my healing to have kids and I just…it can’t be just be because of that right?”

“I don’t know the specifics, but, as far as I know, that’s the only reason he ever took an interest in you. Again, I’d like to stay off of those topics if possible.”

“But why me?”

“You were not his first choice. You’re just the one who survived.”

I voiced a silent ‘oh’ because this response hadn’t been anywhere near what I was expecting. When I next spoke, my voice was barely above a whisper.

“I don’t think I want to talk about this anymore.”

“I think that would be for the best. There was a reason I was trying to stay away from these topics.”

The two of us stayed silent until Zoja started to pull a pelt from the cauldron using the pole she’d been stirring with. After letting the pelt cool slightly she pulled it off the pole and handed it to me before repeating the process for the remaining pelts. Once the cauldron was empty she took most of the pelts from me lightening my load considerably which I was grateful for.

“Can I ask about Vilmar? Because I’ve heard some conflicting stuff about him recently.”

“Sure, give me just a second though.”

She finished readjusting the pelts in her arms and start to walk towards racks that we would secure the pelts onto.

“So what is it you wan to know?”

“I don’t know. Just, something I guess. I don’t really know anything about him aside from what I’ve been told or seen.”

“So the beginning then. Well, as I said Vilmar’s from the Furmier tribe. They’re named after the full moon and are the largest of us in terms of physique. They were also the least nomadic of our tribes with your tribe being the most nomadic. They were actually the closest to the Demons in terms of how they lived.

“They had mostly stable villages that they grew crops around and raised animals. They’re the only tribe that wrote down their history and they started to do it for others too since most of us prefer the oral traditions. This was actually good for us since Demons began to interact more with us and a lot of the negative views they had of us disappeared.

“His tribe was the last one to be brought to the camps because of this and, from my understanding, they would have been completely left alone if it wasn’t for the fact that they were harboring so many of us from other tribes.”

Zoja handed me back the rest of the pelts and started to string one up on a frame, making sure to pull it taut.

“Vilmar was, from what I know, pretty average in most aspects. I’m sure you’ve seen how much larger he is than others but that’s just part of the heritages he evolved. He was fairly skilled in dealing with people and was one of the few who went around collecting stories and histories from the other tribes. Actually, I think he was the first one start writing things down. But that’s really not the information you want is it?”

I shrugged.

“At this point I just want to learn as much as possible. So whatever you feel is important I’m more than willing to listen to.”

“Works for me. I think the things you’re looking for are the following. Vilmar was the chief of his tribe. Now guaranteed he didn’t hold that position for very long by our standards, about twenty years, but it was him who decided to take in those of us that could make it to them when we were being hunted down. He was also responsible for trying to broker a peace between the Demons and us once it became apparent what they were doing but as you can see how that failed.

“I think he blames himself for that. It eats at him because he thinks its his fault we’re all here, because he failed to make peace in time. Most of us don’t see it that way but he’s convinced himself otherwise. He tried to do things peacefully for as long as he could, a fault of his if you ask me, and he resisted actually fighting until it was necessary.

“So then where do you come into all of this. Well, he knew your parents for one, though that’s not really uncommon since we tend to know everyone from the other tribes anyways. He spent a lot of time at the different tribes while writing down things so most of us know him fairly well. I don’t know the specifics but they became friends and once he earned his turn as chief he spent more time in one place meaning they had to come visit him.”

“Okay. And that’s how he became my godfather?”

I watched as Zoja’s nose crinkled in slight disgust.

“I’ve always hated the word; godfather. It’s one that was adapted from the Demons and placed into our language. Thinking about it that something I don’t like about Vilmar. He tried to make us more like the Demons be it how we spoke, dressed, our culture, you name it and he tried to make it closer to what the Demons were doing. I would say that it was a mistake, but maybe if we’d followed along none of this would be happening. No sense dwelling on it I suppose.

The last of the pelts was taken from me and Zoja stood and dusted her knees off.

“You’re what? Fifteen years old now?”

“Sixteen in three months apparently.”

“Ah. Right, so you would have been born when Vilmar was around forty then. He’d been chief for ten years at that point and I don’t think he actually saw you until you were a year old but you’d have to ask he about that. Aside from the basics, like that he’s a good man with a few faults, I’m not exactly sure there’s more you’d care about. Did that help?”

“I mean, yes and no. I still don’t really know him so much as about him.”

“Let me ask you this, does it matter? He may not be exactly who you thought he was but he’s tried to protect you the best he can, he did that for all of us actually.”

“It’s just that…No, you’re right. It doesn’t matter who he was before this, just who he’s been since I’ve known him.”

“And?”

“And despite what my grandfather’s said, Vilmar’s been the only one that I’ve been able to consistently rely on. It shows too, I’ve seen how he tries to act like nothings wrong, but he just looks so tired.”

“To be fair, he’s not the only one that’s tired. All of us are.”

Zoja passed me a rectangular piece of metal.

“Before these all dry we need to scrape them down and dust them. It’s not that hard and you can’t hurt the pelts, so don’t worry about that.”

After a brief demonstration of what to do, the two of us continued to work on the pelts until they were finished. The dusting was easily the worst part as it stuck like the dust from the mines did but this became sticky and smelled awful.

“Now, we’re going to need to wait for these to fully dry. Until they do that, we’ll need to see if there’s anything else we can do here or if we need to go help with something else. Nows a good time for more questions if you have them.”

“Well, recently our ability to evolve and dungeons were brought up but I don’t know anything about them so any sort of explanation would be nice.”

“Sure. I think the better one to tell you about is probably our ability to evolve since you’ll need to know about that before you ever see a dungeon. Chances of that are pretty rare anyways since dungeons aren’t that common.”

I followed Zoja as she continued to check on the fires and other vats, but from the lack of Deamons in the area it was clear that anything that needed to be done had already been finished.

“So I’m going to use myself as an example to explain how we evolve to you. We reach full adulthood by the age of twenty-four and I’ll turn twenty-six this year. As is the case with everyone, I was level one hundred at the time of reaching adulthood and since then I’ve only gained two levels.”

“I don’t see why this matters.”

“Give me a second and you understand. So by the time we become adults we’ll have finished evolving. We get one evolution when we enter puberty, one about halfway through it and then one at the end. These are simply changes to our bodies that help us in one manner or another.

“I had my first evolution while we were still fighting for our freedom. At the time, I was too young to help with the more important jobs but I was still able to weave cloth and make repairs to clothing that was damaged from fighting. Because we were trying to protect those of us that fought, we’d weave mana into the threads to strengthen the cloth and the more experienced weavers would add small one time use enchantments to them.

“During that time the little work I was able to do felt very useless and I decided that if I was going to chance that then I needed to learn how the elder weavers were enchanting the cloth. I learned very quickly that it took a very large amount of mana to make these enchantments and that after they were used they needed to be made again.”

“That sounds different from the enchantments that I’ve seen.”

“It is. There are a few ways to enchant things but I’m only slightly knowledgable in the one way. Now do you want me to continue with what I was talking about or ask a few more questions?”

“No, you can continue. Sorry for interrupting.”

“It’s not a problem, just try to wait until I’m done before asking anything else. It’s hard to keep track of what I’ve told you.”

Zoja stopped for a moment to gather her thoughts and stir a few cauldrons we passed to make sure there was nothing in them still.

“I used to sing and make clothes for people because that’s all I could do. I wasn’t a great singer nor an outstanding weaver, but if my singing helped ease those that listened to me or if the small burst of speed from one of my enchantments saved someone when things went wrong that was all I could ask for.

“But to give that burst of speed to someone when you’re not skilled and you’re under pressure to give that ability to many people is difficult. The easy answer was that I needed more mana to work with and so because of that, I evolved to have larger horns. Hold this for a second.”

A forgotten pelt was handed to me while Zoja fished around the cauldron with her pole looking for any other stragglers.

“All of that sounds really tiring.”

“It was. Most of us passed out from over using our mana at least twice a day if not more. How’s that pelt look?”

I shifted the pelt in my arms while looking it over. Aside from feeling extremely thin, there were a few places that had torn and now had holes.

“Not great. It has a few holes.”

Zoja set the pole down and quickly examined the pelt in my arms before handing it back to me.

“We’ll have to throw this one out. It was left in the vat too long and there’s no way to fix it. We’re basically done here for now until these soak for a little longer or finish drying. How do you feel about cleaning off?”

“Yes please. My whole body has felt sticky since I got here.”

The pelt was taken from me and thrown into the dying fire underneath the vat changing the color of the flames to a sickly green. I made sure to stay away from the fire and readily fell in behind Zoja when she stared to walk away.

“So where was I?”

“You just told me about your horns.”

“Right. So that was my first evolution. It was done to try and increase my ability to do something I wanted to do. The other two I’ve done have both been to increase my chances of survival here. I don’t need as much food because of the one and I have less problems breathing because of the air here than others do. They were not the choices I would have liked to make, but they were what I could do with the energy I had available to me that would help.”

“And that’s it? No changing them? And what does energy have to do with this?”

“That’s right, we get three evolutions. I made the best with what I could and they can’t be changed even if they won’t help me in the future. As for the energy thing, it’s exactly that. How good the food you’re getting is, how much sleep you’ve had, all sorts of other factors that play into just how much energy you have to do things. Typically, the better health you’re in the better the evolutions you’ll be able to do. Honestly, the best way for you to learn about them is just to have your first one. What else do you want to know?”

I spent the next few minutes as we walked trying to get better clarification on what Zoja had told me about evolutions. She was able to give me a few more examples of other people but it really did seem like I wasn’t going to understand what an evolution entailed until I had one.

Our conversation finished a short while before we reached our destination and I was content to follow behind Zoja in silence while she told me a little bit more about the differences between the tribes. I hadn’t been paying as much attention to where we were headed as I should have but I wasn’t going to worry as long as I could find Zoja again. While we weren’t pressed for time, using the position of the sun it was fairly clear that another roll call should be happening soon.

Regardless of that fact, the knowledge that I was about to be able to clean myself off was incredibly relieving. Most of the blood I had on me had hardened into an aggravating layer over my skin and the sticky feeling the fumes of the vats had caused was beginning to become equally annoying.

My expectations were fairly low on what to expect and I wasn’t disappointed. A few barrels had been set up with water in them and the few lingering Deamons seemed to be finishing with their clothing. I wasn’t going to to complain since being able to wipe the muck and grime off without having a time constraint was welcome.

The ground around the barrels had turned into a soft mud and a few large flat stones had been placed nearby to try and mitigate the issue. Despite being about the size I was, I was able to easily climb up the side of a barrel with my claws and test the water. The water looked and smelled clean enough and seemed to be tepid after sitting out in the sun.

While I had been testing the water, Zoja had taken her clothing off and placed it into a separate barrel.

“Come on, we need to put your clothing in this one.”

“Why?”

“This barrel has a few alchemical ingredients in it that help get the smell and other chemicals out of the cloth. The water may smell bad and look grimy but it does the job.”

Even if I was reluctant to put my only article of clothing into what looked like incredibly filthy water, I trusted what Zoja said since she had been dong this for far longer than I had.

Once our clothes were soaking, Zoja picked up a metal cup and started to wash me off from the top down. The water proved to be colder than I thought it would be and I was shivering by the time Zoja started to clean herself off. While I waited for Zoja to finish, I picked up another cup and rewashed a few areas that still felt sticky.

Zoja removed our clothes from the water and wrung them out into the barrel before giving me back my clothing and redressing herself. Even thought my dress was damp, I willing put it back on since having to deal with the cold for a little was fine if it meant feeling and smelling clean.

Once we were ready to go, the two of us set off towards the post yard. It was hard to judge what the actual time was and how much we had left before roll call started, but it was clear from the lack of anyone around us that we were the stragglers. Most of the journey was spent talking about whatever came to Zoja’s mind and it was nice to listen to her talk since I could tell she was enjoying it.

Having someone I could ask embarrassing or awkward questions was nice if only because I had a few I’d been saving and didn’t really want to know their answers. Fortunately, none of them were going to be vital to my survival moving forwards so I wasn’t that concerned about not asking them yet.

When we finally reached the post yard we needed to separate to go to our places and I made sure to memorize Zoja scent in case I needed to find her again. Finding Vilmar wasn’t hard to do since I could actually smell things again and I took my place next to him while we waited to be given our next set of jobs. I tried to find Lindi but was unable to either smell or see her which was mildly concerning.

The same tense air formed between us again and neither of us broke it before Selmet started to speak. We were sent off to different jobs and the idea of Selmet doing it intentionally crossed my mind but I wasn’t about to try say anything against it.

By the time the day came to a close I was too tired to think and simply collapsed against Vilmar when we sat down with Lindi for our evening meal after roll call. I ate quickly and was happy to listen to the mummer around us while unsuccessfully fighting off sleep. Their conversation had seemed scattered and Lindi remained still most of the time and winced every time she had to move. The two of them talked for a while before I was picked up by Vilmar to head back for the huts.

I grunted slightly while repositioning myself to look over Vilmar’s shoulder and watched Lindi collect our dinner bowls. Her movements were stiff and I caught a few glimpses at bruises dotting her body. In looking down, my line of sight ended at the food left over in the bowel before they were picked up by Lindi as she stood.

I hadn’t payed much attention to our food since I had woken up but, because its poisonous nature had been pointed out to me, I noticed that Vilmar barely ate any of the contents of his bowl. It was a concerning though that stuck with me as I was finally overcome by sleep.