~~David~~
Again, they were too exhausted for sex. He was tired, and they were utterly drained, panting and groaning with every step. They needed sleep, and it wouldn't be long before the demons needed to eat. Grems and imps occasionally glided overhead or ran past, but were far too fast to catch. Not exactly a reliable source of food.
He smiled at Dao as she sat across from him in the small cave, and bumped her closer hoof against his ankle. It was a very small cave, mostly a vertical crevice, one of many, and the amber veins within showed it came to a dead end. A safe place to sleep, mostly.
"It's so weird," he said.
"What is?" Jes asked as she sat down beside him, on the inside of the alcove. Naturally she let Caera take the outside.
"If I want to sleep, all I have to do is close my eyes when it's dark. And I can sleep all twelve hours of the night if I want to, or just eight."
"You've been in Hell, what, four days? This'll be your fourth night sleeping here, and you figured that out already?"
He shrugged. "Can't help it. I like to think about stuff."
Jes rolled her eyes, but ultimately laughed it off as she stuck her tail up from between them, and wrapped it around Daoka's closest hoof. A few tugs earned some clicking giggles from her lover.
"You and Caera will get along, I'm sure."
He smiled at her, and then the tiger lady, who sat in the entrance with her back mostly to them. Keeping an eye on the exit.
"I hope so," he said, "but I never was good at history. Got a shit memory for things like names and places."
Caera half snorted, half chuckled. "I do like those things." She didn't sit very far away, maybe five feet, and her long tail swayed left and right slowly along the stone. If he just reached out, he could grab one of the big spikes lining its top.
But he wasn't that dumb. Jes insisted Caera used to be fun, but this Caera didn't seem like the type. Any demons being 'fun' was a strange idea, but Jes and Dao definitely were. He lucked out, meeting them.
"I don't dream, either."
"Be happy you used to dream at all," the tiger lady said. "Demons never dream."
"Never ever?"
"Never ever."
"That... kinda sucks, honestly. Dreams are amazing things."
It was Jes's turn to half snort half chuckle.
"Scrying pools don't show us what goes on in humans' heads, but it does show us what happens to humans on the outside when they have big time nightmares, or night terrors. Some of the shit I've heard sounds worse than anything I've seen in Hell."
"You haven't seen much of Hell," Caera said.
Jes frowned up at the tiger, but shrugged and resumed playing with her tail, tracing its tip up and down Daoka's leg where it touched David's.
"Correction, then," David said. "Dreams are usually amazing. My dreams were usually fun, stories that played out in my head while I slept. Fantasy, scifi, everything in between, complete with sword battles and romance."
Daoka clicked twice and tilted her head to the side.
"Describe them," Jes said, translating. "What's it like to dream them, specifically."
"Oh, what's it like to dream? It's... hard to describe it, honestly. It's such a mess of images and sensations. I usually know exactly what's happening and why, and even think of it as normal, when I'm in the dream, even though it makes absolutely no sense. And because the dream flows to whatever you think about, trying to figure out the dream always leads down a rabbit hole of one thing leading to another. I could be driving, and think about how the road twists and turns like a snake. Suddenly I'm driving on a literal giant snake, and in my head it makes perfect sense, because of course winding roads are actually giant snakes we drive on. Before I know it, I'm driving a flying car, involved in a film noir mystery, and I'm investigating the giant turtle the city is built on. And at no point do I think any of this is weird."
The two demons with eyebrows cocked them as they looked at him.
"That's... pretty damn strange," Jes said.
"You've never seen or heard someone describe dreaming in a scrying pool? Or down here?"
"Nope. I've seen a lot of things in scrying pools, but not that. Can't know everything."
Daoka clicked away, and gestured to him.
"She wants to know more about you. You know about us now." Jes poked his leg with her tail. "Tell us about you. I mean, more than we already know, nerd."
He frowned, but Jes's smile was playful. No intent to hurt his feelings. Of all the people he'd known in his life, it was the loud, fun types who teased each other relentlessly as a form of friendship and communication he found himself watching from the sidelines the most. How did people enjoy that kind of friendship, every interaction a barrage of playful, sometimes-witty-usually-not insults? Even with his sister, they were usually sincere when they said anything, be it compliment or insult. Usually.
Maybe now was a good time to get used to someone like this? Not like he had much choice.
"Not much to tell, really. Orphan. Grew up with my sister. We bounced around from caretaker to caretaker, and never found parents or a parent to take care of us. I guess we were a little... off-putting."
Daoka clicked once, head tilted.
"I mean, we didn't really ever try and be... be normal kids. I had my own thing, my own interests. Mia had her own things and interests. And we... we wanted a home, but something about parents, someone else looking over our shoulders, telling us what to do and how to live our lives? It never clicked. So, lo and behold, we never really got a home. But thankfully for us, Mia and I did very well in high school, got some good scholarships, and went to university. I--" He stopped, and smiled.
"What?" Caera asked.
"I just realized. I don't have to pay back my student loans."
Caera laughed, and lay on the ground near him, head beside him and resting on her arms underneath it.
"I got to admit," she said. "That is... a very boring backstory. I mean sure, being an orphan is at least slightly interesting, but it sounds like it led to nothing. You just... lived a normal, boring life?"
"Yeap. And I loved it. Spent my free time just gaming, reading, masturbating, and having the smallest hopes and dreams. Never really wanted for anything. Figured I'd get a job at a game studio, or maybe a software company, and just kinda... laze my way through life, you know? Do nothing, be nothing, just enjoy my little vices."
Daoka clicked a few times and looked to Jes.
"I dunno, Dao. I don't think I've ever known a human quite as boring as this kid."
The satyr clicked loudly as she kicked at Jes's raptor feet with her hooves. Which led to a footsies battle, talons against hooves. Caera rolled her eyes and groaned.
"I'll be your damn parent," the tiger said, "for all of you. Get some damn rest while I take first watch. Bunch of kids."
"Hey," David said. "Why don't I dream anymore? It's just gone, completely. I close my eyes and then I wake up."
After a long, very cat-like full body stretch, Caera sat up again, and turned to face the exit to their small cave.
"Your guess is as good as mine, David. Something with the way souls on the surface do their thing? I don't know. I once found some runes that talked about it, and that dreams were powerful things. But nothing about why, or how they worked."
Dreams were powerful things. Special, then, maybe? More than just the biological brain firing off random crap when sleeping? He lost a lot of things with this afterlife body, things he didn't miss, needing to eat and drink, in particular. But dreams? Dreams he missed.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~Mia~~
She woke up like a cat who'd just been nailed in the forehead with an elastic band. It was a wonder she didn't smash her forehead into Hannah's, but the girl dodged back like she'd done it a million times before. She grinned down at Mia, and held up a finger to her lips. Quiet mode, then. Alright.
Mia got up and looked around. Diogo and his brutes were asleep. So were the two men, the two sex demons, and Loria the gargoyle, bodies laid out against stones, the mountain wall, or lying on the ground as if it were perfectly comfortable. How Mia managed to fall asleep lying on the mountain path, she didn't know, but she was damn thankful she could. One of the best parts about her new afterlife body.
But Scilra the tiger and her fellow tiger were awake, and so was Adron. His shift was over, and he walked toward Hannah and Mia with his usual pleasant grin, tail flowing left and right behind him.
Hannah held her finger up to her lips again. Adron raised a brow, but nodded, once some hidden meaning clicked, and he motioned for them to follow. And considering the evil grin on Adron's demon lips, Mia wasn't entirely sure she wanted to follow him. Him not wearing his armor anymore, meaning his lean physique and muscles were all fully visible, didn't help matters.
A smart woman would just say no thanks and not follow the demon around a big boulder into a small crevice along the mountain wall. A smart woman would lie back down near all the other sleeping demons, where she was safe. Safer. But Mia followed him, leaving the two tiger ladies behind, pretty much confirming she was doomed to be one of those women who found serial killers oddly intriguing, and listened to true crime podcasts all the time.
The crevice wasn't very wide, maybe four feet. It merged at the top ten feet up, and it looked about ten feet deep. Just a cozy little cave for someone that might want to hide, and considering they had to go a little ways down the path and around a curve of the mountain wall to get to it, they couldn't see the group anymore. It was dark save for a few dim amber veins, and they were alone. Yeap, she was doomed.
But she followed them into the crevice anyway. And to make matters worse, Adron stood at its entrance, waited for Hannah to go in, and then Mia, before finally sitting down. She was trapped in there unless she wanted to jump over the demon's legs, and considering the reflexes he'd already shown, that wasn't happening.
"Should be safe to talk here," he said.
"Oh. Talk, right." She nodded. That was all they were going to do, talk. Diogo said the demons weren't allowed to touch her, and she definitely didn't want them to. Nope, she did not.
