Childhood Demons Ch. 04

I see what he has plainly, as bare as they both are. I'd have never given a thought to something that ... modest. And yet, I want what I saw so much."

"Have you ever had a demon before?" Kari asked a little innocently.

"Not a male, no," she admitted, "Not even a full female. Why?"

"Nothing," he smiled.

It made him chuckle and after a moment, they were both laughing as they walked on in the darkness.

---------

The main fight was really not anything which might fit the word. Mostly, the demons were blocking the way back down, killing anyone who thought to try to get past them to escape back down, since it was what they seemed to want to do at the first look they got.

Ahnyazh and Felldis made their approach known with their blood-chilling cries and laughter and before the men knew it, death had taken wings around them all. The demons did nothing once the ones in their hands were dead besides throw them off the ridge and look for the next. Faced with groups, they just waved in certain motions and the men were in agony for a moment before they exploded. By the time that the leaders decided to go ahead and not back, they'd lost over half of their number.

But they couldn't move forward either. The men milled about, fearful of things that they couldn't see in the dark and more than a few were killed by nothing more than the nervous gunfire of their frightened companions.

The way forward was blocked by Kari and Yasmikha in a very narrow draw, and there was no other way around them.

Four men on horseback decided to charge through in desperation, but the draw was too narrow and they lost speed from the jostling, since none of them wanted to be the last one through. The jostling got worse as the demons came from the rear without a sound and tore the last two men out of their saddles. The riderless horses forged ahead in terror and forced their way past the remaining riders.

The third man fell from his mount when he'd been shot off it by Kari. The last one rode on, falling off slowly from the shotgun blast that Yasmikha fired from beside him, less than five feet away after he'd tried unsuccessfully to ride her down. Kari and Yasmikha began to walk forward to the entrance of the draw and from there, Kari handed Yasmikha one of the rifles and they caused more attrition by shooting men from there.

After that, it was just walking through the killing zone, dispatching any who were still alive.

"Leave me to this woman's work," Yasmikha said, "See if you can find us at least five and maybe six good horses. And let one of them be a large one, if you please. I am not a little thing."

"No," Kari agreed with a grin, "It's one of the many things that I am coming to admire about you, Yasmikha."

She glared at him - in spite of his feigned angelic expression as she tried to determine if there had been an insult in it.

She found none and then she threw her head back and laughed in spite of herself.

"And what was that I heard about breeding?" she called as she turned back.

His chuckle echoed down the draw to her, "We met when Ahnyazh and I were six, Felldis was five. We couldn't take our eyes off each other. We were children together, but we only got to actually be together to play a very few times and the rest, we had to content ourselves with looking through to the other plane at each other.

What do you think you would want with the ones who were promised to you long ago?"

Yasmikha shook her head so that he could see it, "Just tell me, Kari.

Does that mean that you'll fuck them or not?"

"Until none of us can stand up," he called back.

Yasmkha laughed to herself. She couldn't believe how she felt, liking him so much after such a short time and in such a shitty place.

"Does that mean that I can have some too?" she called back and she listened as he laughed.

"Yes," he shouted, "but not for the first hour. Ask them nicely if you can join in after that. They like you."

-------

"Jesus and all of the saints in Heaven protect us," one of the men exclaimed, "You want us to ... go with these demons and this ... whatever sort of bitch that she is?"

Kari nodded, "If they wanted to kill you Armando, they'd have done it last night. But they didn't, did they?

No, they were off down the mountain with me, fighting to keep you alive while you were dreaming of big-titted tavern wenches. They kept more than a hundred off your stupid face and you didn't even know.

Go for a walk down the draw if you don't believe me. See the yards of red snow for yourself. There's a meadow at the bottom just before it gets steep, and it's got more than sixty corpses all over it. I think the rest went over the edge."

He stepped back then, clearly annoyed now. He'd expected some trouble convincing them, but he would have liked a little more logic in what they said.

"Look, we're all that's left, us four, and we're three hundred miles and more from Algiers - and that's not even counting the miles just to get off this ball-breaking mountain. Even if you could get down alone, you wouldn't make it very far. A few worn-out legionnaires in a land where we're hated? What chance do you think we have?

And this one here kept us all alive even before the others came. She was the lion that Juan saw in the darkness out there, killing the ones who kept us hemmed in up here, so watch your stupid mouth."

The Spaniard leaned forward, glancing nervously at his saviors, "We've known each other for a long time, Northman. You say that this girl has a boat? What kind of boat? How big? What drives it, the wind?"

"Eleven and a half meters," Yasmikha said as she ran a stone over the edge of her axe blade, "Diesel engine. I have more than enough fuel to get us to Sardinia, Corsica, Italy, France, even Spain."

"And you'd take us for nothing?" he asked and she nodded, "I offered to take Kari and these demons. He said that he wanted you three to have the same chance. I agreed. There are four others on that boat now as they wait for me, my brother and two sisters among them."

She stopped speaking to look over at the other two men, seeing that they weren't even paying attention. She ran her palm past their eyes, because they were staring at the naked demons, who in turn were looking out at the two wild goat carcasses that Yasmikha had dressed out and hung over the back of the two horses who'd carry them down. The men were not listening.

"I can't help them if they're not even listening to me," she said, "They only stare."

Kari spoke to his friends and they changed their appearance in an instant to resemble a pair of clothed middle-aged people, much like anyone and completely unremarkable. The two men jumped up crossing themselves and said that they wouldn't go.

"Fine," Kari sighed, "What of you, Juan? Will you come? I've been told that A'ishah waits there for you."

The Spaniard looked up, "A'ishah? You mean the young whore? What do I care about her? She was just a fuck that I paid for a few times."

Yasmikha leaned forward, her tusks in plain view as she thrust out her jaw, "You have one chance left, Spaniard. A'ishah is my friend. She likes you. She would want for you to get off this mountain to safety. You need me to get you to her and then go north. I am not going back to Algiers. You can even go your way once we get to the plains below if you don't wish to see her.

Is there anything that I have said that you do not understand?"

He shook his head, "I understand. I do not want to go anywhere with her. I have three men to think of."

Yasmikha crossed her arms as she looked at him, "Stay here then and think of men until you are all dead."

Kari shook his head, "Two men is all that you have, Jaun. I'm leaving. All that I ask is that - if you do get back to Algiers, is that you tell them I was killed. But why won't you come with me? These two are as good as dead to refuse. Don't join them, Juan."

Juan sat back and looked through his pockets for his cigarettes. Finding them, he drew one out and lit it with a match. "Northman, what do you know of these ones? How do you know that they won't kill you for whatever reason they might have? To drink your blood maybe, I can't say. They are demons. How do you know them?"

Kari shrugged, "I can't say how they came to be here so that you would understand, but last night, there was a man who had been hiding in that building there since before we got here. He pulled this one out of where she was. He wanted to use her to kill us. This kind eats flesh of one kind or another.

But I know them, Juan. By purest chance, these two, I grew up with them. I've known them since we were children."

The Spaniard nodded, "And in what hell pit was that? You're finally really crazy. I'm not going with you."

As they walked away, Juan ran out after them. "Don't go, Northman. Those three will kill you."

Kari kept walking, "Who's crazy now? They didn't even know each other before last night. Goodbye, Juan, and good luck."

"Where are our guns?" Juan shouted.

"In the house behind you," Kari said, "You just have to break down the door. I want a chance to get away before you start shooting the last three bullets and seal your fates."

"Why so few rounds left?" Juan shouted.

Kari shrugged, "Our sea captain here used a few as did I to keep you safe. Sorry, but that was how it went."

Juan fell silent. He didn't think that they had even a chance with so few shots left. He heard a sigh and when he turned, he almost fell to his knees.

"Please come with us, Juan? We could be together again with no one to pay as I love you."

He stared, his mouth open at the sight of A'ishah standing naked in the snow, "Please come. I'm so cold here. I need you to keep me warm. Please?"

Juan knew for certain that this was not the girl that he knew, and yet ...

"A'ishah," he whispered, "You can't be here ... not like that. You'll catch your death." He walked over to where she stood and took her into his arms. "I've got to go now," he said, "I've got to get you off this mountain or you'll freeze to death."

When he blinked, he found himself in the arms of one of the demons, the male, who smiled softly.

"So she is more to you than just a fuck," Yasmikha grinned, "Why not let your heart guide your actions? It's a lot more honest than your brain, Juan."

He shook his head, trying not to lose his bladder on the spot, "No. This foul fiend will drink my blood."

He tried to pull away, but the demon took him by the face so that he couldn't look anywhere else. "I can drink blood, but it is not what I want. I crave meat most of all. But I want to try to live on what you eat to see if I can. Come with us. We promise not to harm you."

"But you're ... not A'ishah," Juan stammered.

The demon shook his head, "No. I only used what I saw in you for that. Come with us, and you can see the one that you want. As much as I would like it, I'm sure that she would be happier than me to hold you while you fuck her again and again."

Felldis smiled a little shyly, "What I would like ... just for me ... is that you teach me how you eat. I would try to learn to like it and if I could, then I would want you to teach me how to cook it for myself.

If A'ishah agrees to share you, then I would be happy to make love with you, the way that you wish for, but have never tried with more than two others in your life. Those times live on in your mind. I want to see myself in there as well. Could we?

Or must I turn into one of the boys from when you were all eighteen? That summer on the farm? Remember those times in the sun of the orchard? Those nights where the three of you fucked each other senseless in the barn?"

Juan started to pull hard to get away, shaking his head in horror.

"Those nights where you fucked each other after all of you had fucked the farmer's daughter? You remember pretty Esma, don't you? She was the one that you killed together because she was going to -"

"NO!" the Spaniard screamed, trying desperately to yank himself free from the grasp which held him so securely.

He found himself on his back where he'd landed, lying on the frozen, snow-covered ground alone.

He saw the demon step forward into his field of view, looking down at him, "Or is that getting a little too close to why you are here in the first place? They still want you for that murder there, don't they, Juan?"

Felldis was beautiful, but his expression changed then, "Don't you dare to call me a foul fiend. I am neither one.

You can put your holy words into your curses all that you want. It changes nothing. It buys you nothing. If I were you, carrying what sins that you do on my soul, I'd get myself to a church and spend the rest of my life in there, seeking atonement for the crimes that you've committed."

He nudged the human's face with the claws on his feet, "I'd have spoken all the rest of the things that you've done, but you're not worth my breath."

Yasmikha and Kari got onto their horses and turned away to ride off. The demons looked back and then took off, to land astride the horses behind the others.

They were two hundred yards down the slope, picking their way by the time that the men stood at the top and began shooting.

"I am losing faith with you and how you choose your friends," Yasmikha said, "I like your childhood ones, make no mistake in my meaning. I just have no use for the ones who have guns."

Ahnyazh said, "They are not shooting at us. The other two have shot Juan."

Kari nodded, "Well there's brilliance for you. No matter what he's done, he was their only hope to get off this mountain alive."

There was a ricochet off a nearby boulder and they flinched for a moment.

"NOW they are shooting at us, Ahnyzh said.

Kari looked at her and nodded sadly.

She spread her wings and seeing it, Felldis did the same and a moment later, they were climbing as they flew of out of sight around the mountainside. Yasmikha and Kari rode on.

The demons were back a little later, looking well-fed and bloody as they stood rubbing snow on their faces and chests to get clean. After that, they landed on the horses again. Yasmikha turned her head and looked at them, though she had trouble seeing Ahnyazh there behind her, "There is a girl on the boat. Her name is A'ishah."

"The one that was spoken of," Felldis said and she nodded, "Do not tell her what happened. She said that she did not love the Spaniard, but I think that she probably had some feeling for him at least. If she asks, do not tell her what was said or anything. Above all, do not say what he said of her. Tell her that you saw no one like that."

They nodded and the group rode on in silence for a time.

Yasmikha looked across and saw Felldis sitting behind Kari with his eyes closed and a little smile on his face.

"Tell me friend," she said quietly, "I know of how our large companion was saved. But I don't understand what I'm looking at over there. Your brother looks to be in love - or do I see things wrongly here?"

Ahnyazh looked across for a moment as she held onto Yasmikha from behind, not being too sure about sitting on moving livestock. "You are right. We have loved each other for a long time, all of us. But we never had the chance to be together, other than a few times when we played as any children do. Our mother told us that he was for us. She said that we would be a little changed after what we did to keep his life inside him.

For a week, we were against him almost always. Humans cannot stand heat like that by themselves. If they have a fever high enough, their minds can be damaged, and they go into spasms where their bodies try to bend themselves in two backwards. But as we held him between us, his mind came to stay with ours. I remember having Kari and my brother inside of my head, and for a time, I was in Felldis' mind too. We stayed like that for a long time.

So after that, we have always wanted to be together, but we couldn't because we had to go back to our side, where he couldn't follow. The others of us would have smelled his human blood and he'd have been taken in minutes.

All that we had was the ability to touch our hands together against the border between us. We could only come to visit him for short periods. All of us knew that one day, when we were older, we would have each other to love and breed with. Felldis and I have always only done so much because the third one of us was missing."

Yasmikha thought about it, "So Kari likes males as well?"

She felt Ahnyazh shrug, "Others? I cannot say. But I know that he craves Felldis as Felldis aches for him, just as he craves me and always has from when we were little. If it had gone the way that it was supposed to, we'd all have been happy. Now, we need to learn of each other again, and this time it will be harder, for we are all of age and breeding together comes into it. We must have changed to each other at least a little.

But to answer you, yes. We are three who love each other. I will bear their spawn when it is time. I can tell that you like him."

Yasmikha chuckled, "Do I hide it that well? I first saw him, and only in a few glimpses maybe a fortnight ago, many miles from here. From that, and meeting A'ishah, I learned that he would come here. So I came, wanting to meet him. I knew nothing of his attachments with you and your brother.

Yes I like him. I can't recall ever knowing a human man that I liked much at all, so I am surprised at myself. Tell me something else; is what you have between you all that there can be? He told me not to be dissuaded after you left to begin the fight."

"No," Ahnyazh replied, wanting to find a way to perhaps be a little evasive until she had time to feel what Kari felt.

When it came to her mind, Yasmikha felt Ahnyazh nod to herself against her back, "He likes you. I can feel it. Felldis as well. I like you too, Yasmikha. I have never seen one of your kind, though I know of them. Why do you ask? Do you wish to bear his spawn too?"

Yasmikha's eyes widened to hear that, "I uh ...

Not just yet," she said, "I might be a little slower to make up my mind about that."

"Ahh," Ahnyazh said, wanting to tease a little, "So you saw him and had to know more, yes?"

"Yes," the she-orc nodded, "He is very good to look at - quite obviously - especially to a girl as ... "

"Beautiful?" Ahnyazh suggested.

The orc was flustered at that, "No - I mean, yes - I mean ... that wasn't what I meant. What I meant to say is that girls like me, the -"

"The lovely kind, yes, go on," Ahnyazh prompted.

"No! That wasn't what I was going to say," Yasmikha said, a little frustrated, "Why do you keep trying to put words into my mouth?"

"I spoke no falsehoods," the demon stated, sounding a little reserved and chastised, "You are those things. Do you not own a mirror?

Tell me when you have a moment. I would be happy to show you exactly the way that you look. I am what some call a shapeshifter - a deceiver. But that is only what I use to secure myself a meal sometimes. I could show you what others see in you, especially Kari, for I can see into his heart very clearly. I think you would be surprised at what he carries there for you."

Yasmikha was surprised already.

Actually, she was a little astounded. "Really?"

"Oh yes," the demon replied airily, "He has hopes where you are concerned. Is it alright for me to say that to you? He has never found a woman of just the right ... size, who is so lovely to his eyes. A man like him can have hopes like that. Every woman that he has ever known was too small to him, save only one.

I should say it better. He likes small females very much. He only feels that he would need to treat them like the most delicate things, out of fear to harm them, the way that some humans enjoy having delicate treasures. But you and I both know that a male of his size also wants to breed with a female who can take what he gives ... if the mood is on him.