The Pleasures of Hell 02.029

~~Mia~~

"Don't kill that one?" Julisa asked. "Why? It's a cannam egg."

"Yeah, but... but it came out when I approached. Was, er, birthed." Mia patted the egg. Yeap, moist. Gross. It was over a foot tall, bigger than the other cannam eggs, and its leathery skin had bumps and grooves along it, like veins. The red blemishes on the nearly black skin were slightly see-through, just enough for her to see that there was something inside the egg.

"And?" Shrugging, Julisa approached, each step making a squashing sound as her gore-soaked T-Rex feet pressed down against the muscly floor.

"I don't know. I was... I don't want to say I was called, but... there's something about the nest that I can feel. It responded to me." Mia gestured around at the flesh walls and the orifices they held. None of them were moving, as if afraid to lay any eggs while demons were around, or maybe unable to, drained, and with time they'd birth a new swarm of hellbeasts to replace the recently dead. Probably the latter, if the history of this mountain was true.

All the demons looked between each other, confused. Even Vinicius raised a brow, though with his demony dragony face, he couldn't raise it very much.

"I don't know!" Mia said. "I don't know what's going on, okay? I don't know shit. All I know is, when I was in the spire, I didn't really feel much, but down here, I... kinda... do? It's so subtle, but it's there, and it took me here. I can still feel it."

"From the egg?" Faust asked.

"No! From the walls! From the... flesh." She reached out and pressed a hand against it. Just like the egg, it had the slightest bit of wetness, like a weeping wound, and was just as warm. "You don't feel anything?" The demons shook their heads. "Well, I feel something! And now there's this egg, and... and... I wanna see it hatch."

"No you do not," Julisa said, and she came closer. "Cannams are not goorts. Some provinces raise goorts to be ridden, but even then, that is a difficult process, and demons often die trying. But tamed cannams are beyond rare."

"Really? I mean, they're dogs, right? Sounds like they'd be easier to tame."

"They are not. Did you not see their ferocity mere hours ago?"

"I suppose." Frowning, Mia squatted down by the egg again and patted it again. "I can't just ignore this, though. It has to mean, something, right? I... wanna take the egg back with me."

Julisa snorted, like an annoyed bull. Every incubus winced.

"You sure?" Oudoceus asked. "It's not going to hatch a puppy."

"How big would it be when it hatches?"

"Smaller than the ones you've seen," Gallius said, "but demons and hellbeasts aren't born children. More like, half children, half adult?"

"Teenagers?"

"Ha, something like that." He and Faust both joined her at the egg, and they poked it with their tails and their devil spade tips. "It'll hatch and the hellhound will start at least as big as a... uh... what's that breed of dog people in the scrying pool say belongs to a queen?"

"Belongs to a queen? What--oh! A corgi! A Pembroke Welsh corgi!" Mia jumped up and clapped. "That's--"

"Not what it'll look like," Faust said. "It'll look like one of those ferocious giant beasts that almost ate you an hour ago. Black spikes, huge teeth, wolf-like?"

"But," Gallius said, "it'll start off as big as a, uh, corgi, judging from the size of the egg. And it will grow quickly."

Faust gently backhanded Gallius in the shoulder.

"When did you see a cannam hatch?"

"Remember Trissa?"

"I do."

"Remember she showed up missing an arm one day, and refused to tell anyone what happened?"

"Oh. I didn't think--"

Julisa snarled and marched up to the egg. Mia put herself between the egg and the giant demoness and glared up at her, which apparently caught the fujara tetrad off guard. It wasn't the first time the demons had been surprised a harmless little soul had had the gal to stand up to them. And if it wasn't for the child of Belial directly behind Julisa, Mia wouldn't have.

Vin reached out, grabbed Julisa by her shoulder, and yanked her back. Yank was a generous word, considering the tetrad crashed into the muscle floor and slid across it a good fifty feet, right across a pile of the gore she'd made. She hopped back to her feet, marched up to Vin, and roared right up into his face. He glared back down at her, rumbling, hands at the ready.

After a few uncomfortable seconds, Mia's leg muscles ready to bolt, Julisa grinned up at the colossus, licked her lips, and stepped back.

"It's your life, little soul," she said, peeking past Vin to smile at Mia. "Romakus won't like this."

"Maybe," Locutus said, "maybe not. He does like to see--"

"Chaos?" Oudoceus asked, laughing.

Julisa laughed, too, and joined the other two incubi as she wiped blood and chunks of flesh off her armor and spikes.

"If she insists on keeping the egg," the tetrad said, "then I suppose we should let her. We let her keep the ragarin's leash, after all. She's the Damall's favorite."

That sounded a little close to envy. It was kinda true that Mia had basically showed up one day and became the center of attention, but Julisa was a tetrad! A badass! She was in full control of everyone and everything around her. Mia felt like a rubber duck someone had thrown into whitewater rapids.

Vin rumbled softly, squatted down in front of the egg, and slid a hand toward it. Mia braced to use the leash, but a quick glance into her bodyguard's eyes settled her nerves. He scooped the egg up. Oh, maybe he was going to carry it and--

And then he put it in her arms. So much for helping her. It was heavy, and gross, and big, and unwieldy, and gross, and heavy. She fell, straight onto her ass, and squeaked as she clutched the egg to her chest. It'd probably survive falling, given its leathery texture, but she wasn't about to risk hurting the thing inside.

Why did she care about the thing inside? Dumb question. Show her anything young with a heartbeat and she'd care, care until it hurt, especially animals. Nature documentaries with predators and prey were enough to make her angry and sad as an adult, and enough to make her weep as a child. But even that wasn't enough reason for her to risk her life hatching a hellhound's egg.

And yet here she was, on her ass on a floor made of muscle, cradling a giant egg on her lap with something alive in it that would likely try to kill her the moment it hatched. It was stupid. She was stupid.

She got back up, glared up at Vin, hugged the egg close, stroked it, and gave each other demon a warning glare, too.

"I'm not going to ignore what happened. I felt something. I followed it down here. And then an egg gets birthed right in front of me? A big one? You can't tell me you're not curious."

The two big demons traded quick glances. They weren't convinced.

Faust raised a hand. "I'm curious."

The other incubi eventually raised their hands, but it was obvious Gallius's story of potential arm-losing had turned them off to the idea.

"We even sure it's a hellhound?" Locutus asked, gesturing to it. "Nests usually birth the same sort of hellbeasts, so sure, it's probably a hellhound, and there are probably other, further nests down here, birthing goorts and fallos. But it's not like we know that for sure. It could just be a goort. Big enough egg for it."

Vinicius spoke next. "I smell cannam." He took a deep sniff, not even bothering to lean in for a close one. "Cannam."

Mia smiled down at the egg and hugged it a little tighter. It had just enough give to its texture that it almost felt like a warm leather couch, but not enough give she could sink her fingers into it.

"I'll make sure it's not a problem," Mia said. "Okay?"

Julisa sighed and rolled her eyes, but relented with a four-arm shrugged, and gestured to the path they'd came from. Mia beamed up at her, hugged the egg snug, did her best to ignore the moistness of it, and headed back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

"The fuck is this?" Romakus asked. He sat with Livian in an alcove with some other demons, and the two tetrads both tossed a heart into their mouths. They'd come back from a hunt, and judging from the sizes of the hearts, they'd killed some souls. Mia hadn't even seen a soul in days. How'd they find some to eat in a matter of hours?

"A hellhound egg!" Mia said, and she hugged it tight as she looked around at all the demons. Might as well get this out of the way. "I'm gonna hatch it."

The two tetrads raised eyebrows.

"I'm sorry, what?" Livian asked.

"I'm gonna hatch it! I went down the tunnel on a hunch, and we found a big nest. There were probably more, but we stopped at the first one, full of hellhound eggs." She glared back over her shoulder at Julisa.

Of course, Julisa thought Mia's anger was funny, and she laughed as she sat down with her two tetrad buddies.

"I wiped them out," Julisa said. "Hell will probably just produce more, more quickly to compensate, but..." She shrugged.

"And you allowed this?" Romakus asked, looking past Mia to the incubi.

"Hey, you told us to keep her alive," Gallius said. "We did that."

Romakus laughed, shook out his wings, and leaned forward as he squatted down in front of Mia.

"You're sure that's a cannam egg?"

"We're pretty sure, yeah."

"And they told you how hard cannam are to tame?"

"They did, yeah."

"And they told you cannam have a habit of biting and tearing anything they can get their teeth on from a young age?"

"Pretty much, yeah."

"And they told you hellbeasts aren't surface animals? They get mean, very quickly."

She frowned down at the egg and hugged it again.

"There's a reason I found this egg. I don't know what it is yet, but I want to find out. I'll be careful. If it's a problem, I'll take care of it."

The gorujin tetrad laughed as he gestured past her to the colossus towering over them all.

"You mean your bodyguard will."

"No, I will!"

Predictably, that got her more laughter, from all the tetrads.

"Mia, my dear little unmarked soul, you are the most harmless human to ever enter Hell. Literally. And you expect to murder a hellhound if needed? You didn't see how much trouble we had?"

"I... I saw."

"Not to mention a hellhound you hatched yourself. You think you can handle that?"

"I don't know. I just know that something drew me down into the tunnel, and when I visited, this thing came plopping out right in front of me." She waved the egg around, gently, careful to not jostle the deadly little puppy inside. "Maybe the nest responded to my presence?"

"Maybe," Livian said. "You know who else is running around with an unusual ability to tame hellbeasts?"

Mia froze, body going cold. "The... the rider."

"The rider," Romakus said with a big jackass grin. "Interesting, to say the least."

"I'm not the rider! The rider was... his aura was..." She stomped her foot, and marched out of the alcove. "I'm not like him!"

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

She and the four incubi sat together in her alcove, while Vinicius sat back against the wall, far away enough he was free to ignore them, close enough he could reach out and crush an incubus if needed. He'd growled at the incubi earlier, too. Was he being protective of her? Because that was pretty awesome if true, but also, problematic. She needed a protector, but not one that made enemies.

Why he was being possessive of her, if he even was, was an entirely different question with a bunch of ramifications she didn't want to think about right now. She had a bigger problem! A problem she'd scooped up entirely of her own choice.

"How long will it take to hatch?" she asked, legs apart and egg sitting on the ground between her and her new friends.

"Not sure," Faust said. "In the Scar, there are fallo nests we keep under control. The spiders hatch about a month after birth."

"A month. But, for a spider. Mammals--well, hellbeasts aren't mammals, but, uh, probably longer?"

"Probably," Gallius said. "You're gonna drag it around with you everywhere?"

"I mean... I guess? It's not super heavy. Maybe fifteen kilos?" With a big smile, she held her arms out at her sides and flexed her biceps. "I can handle it."

The incubi all oohed and aahed, and nodded between themselves, impressed by her immense strength.

She liked these guys. They were fun.

"It's pretty large, though," Locutus said. "Unwieldy."

"I've been thinking about that. It's pretty common in some places in the world for moms to work fields, even with a tiny baby. They usually keep them in some sort of shoulder sling, or more complicated ones that go over both shoulders and hold the baby to the chest. Can we make something like that?"

Oudoceus laughed. "It's not a baby. I don't think you'll need to be that careful with it. As long as you don't drop it too hard, on rock, it should be fine."

"True," Faust said. "Hellbeasts aren't fragile, eggs included."

Mia frowned down at the egg and gently ran her fingers around its contours.

"I dunno. It's still an egg, right? And there's something alive inside it. I don't want it to get knocked around and hurt and stuff."

Gallius reached out and touched the egg, and Mia slapped the back of his hand. He laughed and withdrew his evil digits.

"I hope you know the responsibility you've picked up, here," Faust said. "You have to go on a journey to save the world, right? You really want to carry this egg around? And then it's going to hatch and you're going to have to feed it."

"I've thought about it. I have to feed Vin, right? The puppy can join him."

Vinicius growled and looked to the side. His tail was as still as a rock. He didn't like the idea.

"Not a puppy," Gallius said. "I mean, mostly not a puppy."

"Dogs are always puppy. Puppy puppers. They never grow up."

The incubi looked between each other, wincing.

"Did you not see what the cannams did? Those fights can go a lot worse. Hellbeasts kill demons, often."

She mirrored the wince, but pulled the egg closer to her, anyway.

"I'll raise him to be nice!"

They all looked at each other again, clearly not believing her. She didn't really believe herself, either. Every hellbeast she'd ever seen had been a bloodthirsty, hungry, raging animal, be it goorts or wurms or fallo spiders or hellhounds. That'd be no good to her, and potentially deadly to her. It wouldn't be the first time a human had adopted an odd animal, and of course it grew up to kill or at least maim the owner, eventually. There was a reason a lot of animals were illegal to own, on the surface.

"Okay, I don't know if he'll be nice," she said. "He'll--"

"He?" Faust asked.

"I... uh, I guess that doesn't fit, does it?" She shrugged and patted the egg. "Whatever. He'll be my pupper."

"Pupp--"

"Pupper! All wolves and dogs are puppies, even the deadly ones." They'd never understand the strange, mindless devotion humans had to dogs. "Come on, I'm not an idiot. I know this is going to be dangerous, and probably a problem, but I can't ignore what happened. This egg means something!"

"Can you still feel the nest?" Oudoceus asked.

"No. I mean, kinda? If I had to, I think I could follow the feeling back to the nest, but it's so subtle. And when I was down there, I felt more of the same, in other places. I was... sensing the nests, I guess. All the nearby ones."

"Not the egg?"

"No, it was the nests. But the nest responded to me! I think. It felt strange, where the egg was born, and... yeah." She patted the egg a couple more times, gently of course, and the puppy inside stirred. "I'm getting slammed with so many weird quirks about me, what I am, and a part of me just wants to hide and pretend I'm not strange. I've never been the center of so much attention." David was probably hating every moment of being the center of attention. Loving the sex powers? Probably. Center of attention? Kryptonite. "But, this is important, save the universe important, and I'm not going to hide from it."

"Brave," Gallius said.

Mia laughed and leaned over her egg so she could smile at the incubi.

"I mean, come on! How many stories have you read about a protagonist who does everything they can to avoid accepting their fate? They run around in circles, deny obvious stuff, and are absolutely convinced the crazy things that keep happening have nothing to do with them." They raised eyebrows, not understanding. "I have to accept it. I'm special, or cursed. Either way, I will not stick my head in the sand and pretend shit doesn't seem to be happening specifically to me, or because of me, or something. Me and the other unmarked, wherever they may be."

"Brave and smart," Locutus said. "I mean, you are unmarked, and wearing an angel rune."

"Yosepha wishes her potram was as sexy as yours," Faust said, smile turning devious. All it took was a playful, handsome smile to bring back the memory of him and Gallius, erect, looking Mia up and down after she'd come back from seeing the angel and gorujin fucking.

She clutched the egg, her egg, and frowned at him. But try as she might, she couldn't keep it up as Faust smiled right back at her. Damn sexy mischievous bastard.

"The four of you would want to fuck that angel even if she was still in her armor," she said. "Horndogs."

"True," Oudoceus said. "Silver and gold armor are pretty sexy."

They all laughed. God, to just laugh again was amazing.

Mia looked down at her egg, squinted at it, and found movement. The creature inside was definitely alive, the leathery skin thin enough she could just ever so barely make out the shape of something inside. It was small, but it'd grow, like any creature in an egg did.

Hopefully, this wouldn't end up like that twisted idea she'd once heard, where special agents in training had to raise a puppy, only to have to kill it to complete their training. She didn't know if it was true, but the thought was enough to make her want to puke, literally. That wouldn't happen to her, no way. If the hellhound couldn't be tamed, she'd just release it somewhere far away.

And besides, it wasn't like Hell would set her up just to be miserable like that. Would she?

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

~~David~~

The path ahead was low in vines, but high in remnants. They found the remains of vines, too, as if someone had taken an axe to them to clear the path. Probably accurate.

"I can smell them," Caera said, bringing her nose to the ground. It was mostly a human nose, but with a slight cat-ish snout, and fit the whole 'tiger lady' shape of her well. He liked it.

"Sure you don't want me to wear the armor again?" he asked. "I can--"

"No. We know where they are. We know who their leader is. We know what they can do. All that's left now is to kill them all, and if we have to run past you to make that happen, you could get hurt. If we use a sin aura, the Cainites might attack you even if they didn't want to. Better you just stay back." She gestured back with her tail toward the following demons. "We're ready."

They were ready. He had his dagger. Las had found small swords, bigger than his dagger, heavier, but they were strong enough to wield them one-handed. Daoka didn't have a weapon, but she didn't need one with her horns. Jeskura didn't need one either, but she took a sword, too. Most surprisingly was Acelina, armed with a giant axe, one even a Cainite would have struggled to wield. On top of that, she'd found armor, big chunks of black metal they'd strapped onto her body to cover her breasts, thank god, some of her stomach, her quads, and, most importantly, her shins. She had the longest legs, hardest to guard, especially from thorny vines

"When we find them," Caera said, "stay with Acelina."

"Yes ma'am."

"I mean it, David. Unless you can pull some magical power out of your ass, stay out of the way as much as you can."