《This Life of Sin》


 Just Another Day

    My breath curled up, white before my eyes on the back end of another sigh. Probably my fifteenth of the day despite it not even being noon yet. Probably not the last either. But, hey, I was depressed! Better long-drawn-out sighs than wallowing in self pity and getting nothing done, right?


    My current problem? The weather. I know, I know... who gets depressed over the weather? A farmer maybe? No doubt the early onset of below freezing temperatures bummed them out too but I didn''t know too much about farming to really know that with confidence. No, I was not a farmer. I wasn''t an anything really. Nope, just Cindy the homeless lady. And early winter was a big problem for me.


    Early winter meant that I had to get my financial shit together fast. During the rest of the year, I was fine with roughing it on the streets. It wasn''t ideal but it meant more freedom than the shelters and I kind of liked sleeping outside to be honest. But that was a big "N.O." in the winter. Frost bite was for real, and it was just miserable all-round! So, I had to scrape together some cash, pronto. I''d have to get a hotel or motel room. Something at least.


    I stuffed my stiff hands into my jeans pockets and resisted the urge to grind my teeth. At least I had a semi decent winter jacket this year. If there is a god than I''d thank him for volunteers and people kind enough to donate these things. I often wondered what it was like to be a "good" person. Personally, I didn''t prescribe to the whole black and white notion of "good" and "bad". My world was full of greys, and I liked it that way.


    That being said, my grey was most likely on the darker shade. I''ve done bad things. Somerealbad ones too, in my short thirty-odd-years of living. If there was a heaven, I probably wouldn''t be getting into it. Then again, I didn''t think I deserved an eternity in Hell either. Sure, I was a short, red headed bitch with more than a few personality flaws and skeletons in my nonexistent closet... but did that really mean I should be sentenced to a life (after life?) of damnation? I didn''t think so. But I''m sure my opinion didn''t much count either way.


    Great, now the cold was making me go off on philosophical tangents. I let out another sigh and continued my melancholy trudge down the broken sidewalk. This was a shit part of town. The houses were old and unkept down the side streets, the telephone poles had sneakers hanging off them in semi regular intervals, most of them looking as if the laces tying them there would probably give out soon. Might mean a free pair of shoes if I was lucky enough to be there when they gave out...


    The shops I passed had rough exteriors, some with shitty graffiti and others with the good stuff- the cities attempt to make the downtown look maybe just a little less like a prime place to get mugged. The insides of the shops didn''t look too bad though. Warm and inviting even if they were by no means fancy. The smell of pizza drifted out of Gazzi''s Pizzeria as I passed, and my belly gave a slight rumble. The thing was too used to being empty to put in too much effort in complaining at this point. Still, I''d need to eat something soon. Preferably something warm.


    I looked up at the grey clouds as I approached an intersection. Despite it being nearly noon, the traffic wasn''t all that bad and the world around me was mostly quiet. For a city at least. I hated all the noise that was made in town but in town is where I needed to be. I had some survival skills, I had to with my life, or I would have died ages ago, but not enough to confidently say I could just get a tent and live my life as a hermit in the woods. Especially in the winter.


    I lowered my eyes back down and just barely held in another sigh when I saw that the lights still hadn''t changed. This was one of those crossings that always took forever... Across from me, facing the opposite cross walk, was a kid of about fifteen or sixteen. His high-end shoes told me he wasn''t homeless just as well as his styled blonde hair did so I could only assume he was playing hooky. I didn''t have a watch but if the schools had let out for lunch already than there would have been more kids and more cars about. There was a high school about ten minutes away and Main Street was always flooded with kids at lunch looking to spend Mommy and Daddy''s money on a burger and fries.


    The kid was tall, but besides that and his hair there wasn''t much else I could make out about him. His Puffy Blue winter coat made it near impossible to make out any features and his face was scrunched down into the collar to stop the wind freezing his face any farther.


    Still... I took a shifty look around myself. There was a couple holding gloved hands way down the street behind me and no one out on the opposite side of the four lane Main Street. As for beyond the kid, I t was a little harder to tell as his coat was very puffy. Maybe it was a down jacket? It didn''t really matter. I shook my head to clear it than looked both ways to be sure I wasn''t about to be hit by a car.


    Nothing, good. And the kid wouldn''t be suspicious either. Lots of people jay walked, especially at this light that took forever to change. No doubt, hiss wallet would either be in the jacket pocket or the jeans he wore. With any luck it was in the coat. Winter coats were so easy to get the good stuff out of. So long as the people wearing them didn''t zip up the pockets. And they rarely did. So long as those gloved hands stayed out of the pockets than what ever was in them was as good as mine. I stepped off the curve and hurried toward the teen.


    Was I ashamed that I was thinking about- scratch that, planning on- swiping some kids wallet? Nope, not at all. There was a time when I was about this kids age that those kinds of thoughts plagued me. But that didn''t last long. I needed that money and in the end that''s what mattered. Did that make me a shitty bitch? Probably. Mostly likely.... Okay, yeah, it did. But I could live with that.


    Just as I reached the other side of the street the light changed for the kid. Good, he would be distracted, and it would be that much easier to pick the pocket just coming into my reach... my hand began to snake out in a well practiced move. I was no expert, but it did work out seventy or eighty percent of the time at least.


    Then everything stopped. I wasn''t sure what clued me in at first. The wind no longer blowing? Or maybe the sound going from quiet to nonexistent? Either way, my well-trained Spidey senses screamed "Danger! Something is not right here!". I seemed the kid realized it about half a second after me as he froze with a foot off the curb and his head swiveling from side to side. Weather because I was behind him or because the silence was so disconcerting, he still hadn''t noticed me directly behind him.


    "Wha-" he began in a smooth voice, tinged with confusion.


    But, before the kid could even finish his word, much less a full sentence something even freakier happened. A gust blasted us. But this gust seemed to be coming up from the concrete beneath our feet. Both I and the kid looked down at the same time and my eyes widened in shock. There, appearing before my eyes as if four or five invisible hands were drawing it simultaneously, was red, intricately patterned, circle. It was a luminous pale red and was quickly drawing itself around the kid. I, myself, was halfway in. my foot right behind the kid, my hand outstretched.


    The thought "run" had just entered my head when the circle seemed to complete itself and a bright red light, blasted up into the grey clouds. At that exact moment I felt a searing, horrible, ungodly pain bisect my body from crotch to the tip of my head before all senses ceased.


    I woke up slowly. My brain first registered that I was on something hard. The road? No. it wasn''t cold. In fact, no part of me was cold... was I inside?


    That thought snapped me to alertness. It was never good to find yourself not in the same place as when you fell asleep. Even someone with out vivid and horrible experience with that could figure that one out. As my eyes flew open and a vast night sky greeted my eyes my confusion only skyrocketed. I was outside, but it was a pleasant enough temperature, no wind, no smell... what the hell?


    With a muted groan I struggled to a sitting position. The pain reminded me of another pain, and I shivered and gasped as I remember the light from the circle literally cutting me in half. Oh shit! Was I dead?


    "Yes." Said a voice, making me jump and let out a rather embarrassing squeak of fear. I scrambled to get to my feet only for my eyes to register that the night sky from above was also below me, and a flash of vertigo had me stumbling back down. "Easy!" huffed the voice.


    My head whipped toward the sound, and I was hit by another burst of confusion. A child stood over me. Not the boy from earlier. This one was younger. Maybe eleven or twelve? He was short but had that awkward gangliness that preteens seemed to get. Also, unlike the kid from before, this one had a mop of black hair. Like black. And his face was pale as snow with eyes as yellow as a topaz. He stood, crouched before me, with a pale, slender handheld out before me as if to offer me help. I ignored it and shifted myself to a seated, cross-legged position.


    The kid was freaking me out, so my befuddled brain decided to take in my surroundings. Unfortunately, my surroundings were more night sky. An inky black-blue that went on for ever, filled with stars, blinking in and out all around. I gasped and was sure I was probably as pale as the kid. Nervously, I went to wipe my sweaty palms onto my jeans. It was then I realized that I wasn''t wearing my jeans. In fact, I had none of my cloths on and was, instead dressed in a grey t shirt and a pair of baggy grey shorts.


    Indignance overrode fear and I glared at the kid. "Did you change my cloths?" the reproach was clear in my voice, and I was very much aware that that was really the least of my concerns now. Still, I glared. Don''t show fear, fear could get you killed.


    The kid gave me a dirty, sideways, glare back. His pale arms folded against a black t shirt and his own legs covered by a pair of black slacks. If it weren''t for his pale skin and the absence of stars on his cloths or in his hair, he would have looked like a kid shaped black hole in this endless night.


    "Well, you are a rude one." Huffed the kid. His voice was a little deeper than one would expect to hear from a kid just entering puberty and it made the hair on my arms stand on end. "I will have you know that all this is created from your own mind, woman. I haven''t laid a finger on you." He sighed and took his yellow gaze off me to look around. "pretty" he said wistfully. "But rather empty and lonely don''t you think?"


    Confused and feeling judged for some reason, I continued to glare. In my seated position he was less than a foot taller than me.


    "Anyway," He aid, his eyes returning to mine. They looked old. Way to old to be in the face of a kid. Way too old to be in anyone really. I found myself unable to hold them and instead looked around myself again. "To answer your unasked question: Yes, you are dead."


    Instantly my eyes snapped back to the boy. A mix of shock, disbelief, and a sort of resigned disappointment settled into my heart. "I don''t understand..." I croaked.


    "I know." Sighed the kid sadly. He seemed to take a second to gather his thoughts. "I suppose I should take a second to introduce myself... I''ve gone by many names, but you may call me Kradiff." I wrinkled my nose at the name. who the heck names their kid that? And if he had many names than why choose that one. I heard the boy chuckle. Another sound that seemed too old for his small body. "It is the name most used for me in a certain place... though you may know me better by other names. Let''s just say that I am the God that governs life and death and that watches over the paths that connect all worlds. It''s the simplest explanation."


    Simplest? Like hell that was!


    "Hold up!" I said lifting my hands in a warding gesture. "You expect me to believe that?!" I squawked, feeling a little panicked to say the least.


    "You are sitting on solid ground where there is none, floating in space, while speaking to a child... do you have better explanation?" he asked with a somewhat amused tone, one eye cocked as if to dare me to come up with a better answer.


    "Sure." I snapped at the kid. "Drugs maybe? A sick joke! I don''t know..." I was borderline hyper ventilating at this point. I liked to believe that I tended to stay cool under pressure and mostly I looked at the world with a cynical eye. But this was too much. I flinched again as the remembered pain of being burned in half washed over me.


    The boy frowned. "I should apologize for that..." he said solemnly. "Its why I have come to speak to you. I truly am sorry. You were not supposed to die like that. A mistake, an oversight, on my part that truly can not be forgiven..." Eyes sad, the boy bowed low to me. I had to suppress a nervous giggle over the thought of a supposed god bowing to someone like me.


    "What-"I asked, licking my lips nervously. "What happened?"


    "I guess I should first explain some things to you. First and foremost is that there are other worlds besides your own. Many of them in fact."


    "You mean, like, aliens?" I asked, head spinning. I was open to the being aliens. It made sense to me. Not sure if I believed in them coming to earth and abducting people though...,


    "No- well I mean, yes, there are aliens... but that''s not what I meant." He sighed and seemed to ponder for a second. "How should I put in a way you may understand? Ah, think of it as different dimensions? Or perhaps parallel universes? Hmm. Maybe its more of a middle ground between that two?"


    "Your explanations leave something to be desired..." I reported dryly.


    The kid harumph "I don''t exactly find myself in the position of needing to explain myself all to often you know. Or really needing to talk at all."


    "Okay, okay! Sorry. Please continue." This was all getting way to surreal to me. Just let the little guy explain then figure it out after. Priorities.


    "Your world, Earth, is actually rather special." He spoke.


    "Okay, special how?"


    "Well, in all of these multitude of interconnected worlds, yours is one of the few that abandoned what you would call magic."


    "Magic?" Was this kid serious? Magic. Come on now.


    "Other worlds call it different things. Look, I am attempting to put this in terms you can grasp alright?" Snapped Kradiff, clearly not impressed with his current company. He sighed and straightened out his black shirt be for plowing on. "Magic is the -um- the life force of a world. The energy that keeps things moving and living and growing. But in your..." he seemed to search for the best word. "Dimension? The magic goes largely untouched. It sort of just sits there. Sure, it gets used for the typical things like keeping the world from imploding on itself or making use the rotation of souls is kept on track..."


    He was starting to lose me, but I decided to nod along all the same. My attention span was short, and my patients wouldn''t hold out with him trying to explain it all again.


    Kradiff seemed to suspect he was losing me, however, as he narrowed those yellow eyes down on me and I tried to look innocent. "Anyway," He grumbled. "The point is that this energy is largely unused. No one on Earth is expelling their energies out to cast spells or what have you. This build up is aided by the fact that only humanity has flourished on your world."


    "Oh god." I said, the cynical part of me rearing its head once again. "You are not about to tell me that there are, like, fairies or something are you?"


    Again, the self-proclaimed God glared down at me. But I mean, really?


    "There are worlds with fairies, yes. However, this race never existed in your world. In fact, many of the creatures your people associate with fiction exist in one place or another. The reason the live in your world in the form of stories and such is because some souls have brushed up against these other worlds and when they get reincarnated into your world once again, they retain a sense of what these other people are. That sense eventually made out as vivid imagination and put into stories and such in your world."


    "Wow, I am not even sure what to make of that..."


    " Well, in addition to your Earth being one of the very few worlds to turn away from the path of magic and there fore using more mundane and scientific means to get by, it is also a world that has almost non existent ties to the other worlds, or dimensions I guess."


    "Wait, what do you mean by that?" I asked. It seemed like a very roundabout way of getting to the point he was trying to make here.


    Kradiff waved a thin hand and in the air between us appeared what seemed to be a web of sorts. There were glowing balls of light of varying colors, all connected by thin strands of light. Some of the balls of light had many strands and others almost none. Also, it seemed like the strands of light themselves had varying degrees of clarity. Where some of the threads seemed very bright and clear, others looked pale and transparent. Kradiff extended a hand and pointed to a small, blue, light.


    "This," he said. "Is Earth." What I Noticed first was that the blue ball was one of the brightest in the kid''s web. It was hard to look directly at it. And then I saw the threads connected to it. There weren''t many and all except one was pale to the point of not even existing. "It is so bright because it holds so much unused, built-up mana- magical energies. Most worlds use their mana at about the same speed it is created, and so balance is upheld. Some worlds have nearly burnt through that mana, and others have completely decimated their reserves." Kradiff pointed to a couple 40-watt light bulb like balls then moved his hand to indicate a light that was nearly as pale as the handful of threads that connected it. Lastly, he pointed to a place where there was nothing but two loose threads seemingly just floating on the breeze. "When the mana is gone the world is cut off from the flow..."


    "And what does that mean fore the planet in question?" I asked, suddenly glad for Earth''s bright vibrance. I would have been kind of cool to have fairies and elves running around or little blue dot but at least it seemed we wouldn''t be going to the land of nothingness any time soon.


    "No mana, no life." Kradiff stated bluntly. "It would be a dead world... there have been times when the mana was able, with immense amounts of time, to rekindle itself. But those times are insanely rare."


    "Okay, so as interesting as this is I don''t see what this has to do with how or why I died. Much less what makes me so special to be sitting here having a cat with a child god."


    ''I only look this way because of you!" snapped the boy. "I will have you know that most worlds see me as something far more fearsome. Even most religions on your own world see the god of death as something far more intimidating that a pubescent boy!"


    "Sorry!" I spoke. "I can''t say I ever even thought about it. Till now, if asked, I would have said that no god existed."


    "Whatever." Grumped the god. Should gods really be using words like ''whatever''? "What this all has to do with you is this: Nothing."


    Huh? He had to be shitting me. Nothing? Really?


    Kradiff''s sigh could have put my own to shame. "The truth is that your death was a complete accident. And completely my own fault... as I said I am very sorry."


    "Sorry?" it was my turn to snap this time. "What do you mean sorry? Look," I said, glaring. "My life was admittedly shitty. But it was mine! And all you have to say is ''my bad!''. For real?!" to get myself back under control I clenched my fists and thought back on my death. "Wait. You said that Earth didn''t use its magic? Or mana, whatever. So, what the hell was that red light that killed me? If that was some video game, anime, magic circle bull shit than I don''t know what would be!"


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    "Yes, that was magic. A summoning circle to be exact. But it was not performed by anyone in your world. It was not used to summon some one too your world. Rather it was used to summon someone from it."


    "That- that boy?" I asked, my voice now small. Sure, I meant to rob the kid but who the hell would literally kidnap the boy? That was just nuts...


    Kradiff nodded. "He and four other humans were called from here-"He pointed to another blue light, the only one that was connected to earth of Kradiff''s map by a thread that''s wasn''t ghostly pale. "a world known as Harth."


    "Why there? Why him?"


    "Why him? No reason actually... he and four other random people in the near vicinity were chosen. There was no reason they were chosen specifically. They were just the five people the spell chose."


    Wow, that was sick. So, five people were just minding their business when suddenly they get whisked off to another world? It really was like some messed up RPG plot line.


    "Hang on. It was random? What the heck! What if a baby, or some old lady, were chosen?" I said, confused. If this really was following the plot of some game or manga, then the kid made sense, I guess. Its always some kid just living his life that got scooped up right? But in the games, they are supposed to be like, the chosen ones, or something. Great heroes called to defeat the demon lord, right? But Kradiff said it was just pure chance.


    "It has happened..." Said Kradiff regretfully. "Luckily not often. Usually, the one who uses the spell words it in a way that it tends to call on young, but still adult, individuals that have a real chance of providing aid. Only incompetent summoners would haul over a baby or an elderly person. Though they sometimes forget to add in the ''adult'' part and a small child gets dragged over."


    "That''s... that''s sick!" I snapped. "Who does that? Who would think that the people taken would even be willing to help?! I don''t think I would be. I''d tell them to go fight their own shit."


    Kradiff nodded. "This time the spell was used to summon what could be seen as capable individuals, strong in mana, who could help the kingdom of Larasta combat the coming of the Demon King. I have no say in the spell. I just help the individuals make the crossing. That''s my job."


    I ran a hand down my face in exasperation. "A literal Demon King? To me this all sounds like a joke. All of it is too much to be real."


    "Whether you believe it to be real or not doesn''t change the facts. Earth is often used for these spells. They are dangerous and difficult to preform. Many times, the caster dies or worse. Usually, they are used by the desperate. I assume Larasta feels it was in that sort of situation. At the very least I am sure that they would have had to pay some sort of blood sacrifice. You can''t just summon a soul from one world to another in a permanent way and not pay a price."


    "So, these people will never be able to go home...?"


    "No. not unless someone on Earth devised a smell to summon specific people from Harth to Earth in their lifetimes..."


    "And Earth doesn''t use magic." I sighed. Man, that poor kid... "Okay, where dose that leave me? I assume I wasn''t one of these chosen Summoned ones."


    "No. when I directed the spell to Earth it should have taken people as instructed yet you stepped into the circle in the split second between its initiation and when such a thing would have been prevented... it has literally never happened before."


    "Sounds like the kind of shitty turn my life would take." I said, shifting to stand. Why would my legs fall asleep if I was dead? So dumb.


    "Normally, when someone from Earth dies their soul, as it were, would be put back into the flow of mana to be reborn at some point. Its how it works on most worlds. However, your circumstances are different." He [pointed to the bright thread connecting Earth and Harth. "This tread is normally as dull as the others you see. Its what a normal summoning to Harth is impossible. For instance, those on Harth can summon and form contracts with fairies, spirits, and even demons. All come from other worlds." He pointed to the other bright lines shooting off the blue light that represented Harth. "The mana lines are strong enough between these worlds to make that possible. Earth However, has no natural mana connections.


    Kradiff gave me a sad look. "You were not fully in the circle and so the magic, literally, cut you in half, killing you. But you were in enough that your soul did get pulled over. There is no way to send your soul back I am afraid. I can not reincarnate you on earth..."


    "So, what now then?" I asked, worn out by it all.


    "Well, I have a couple options. I can destroy your soul." My eyes snapped to his in a panic. That sound bad. He waved a hand. "I''d rather no do that of course. The other option is to send you into the reincarnation cycle of Harth."


    "So, I would eventually just be reborn in Harth?"


    "Yes..." A mischievous glint entered those golden eyes suddenly. "But as this was a great injustice to you, I could reincarnate you right away. However, all the babies being born are spoken for the next 100 years or so."


    "Um, okay? I feel like I am missing the punch line."


    "Let me explain reincarnation to you then. Its more rudimentary on your world. Just a rolodex of souls in a line getting reborn into human babies. On Harth however, its more complicated. There are many races that live and prosper there. Humans, beast men, elves of various types, beast with intelligence enough that a human soul would be compatible... and many more besides. Souls are allocated based on many factors, most way too complicated to get into. And since all souls are accounted for the next century, I purpose I send you to Harth in a full grown, magically crafted body."


    "Wait, hang on." I said waving my own hand while clutching my head with the other. Should dead people really get head aches? Seems unfair. "You can just do that?"


    "With a normal, Harthian soul? Nope, not at all. But you are not from Harth. You are from Earth. And the souls of earth have ages worth of stored up mana. Much more than an average Harthian would have. Enough that I could use it to make you a body. Enough that you could choose what you would like to be even. So long as that race is compatible with your soul that is."


    "O-kay? Compatible?"


    "Its not like your path in life is set in stone but each soul does have it own characteristics and habits then tend to fall into..."


    Okay, I saw where this was going now. "Are you saying that my soul is predisposed to being a failure of a human being, destined to continually be reborn to a life of poverty and general waste of space?'' I asked dryly, feeling very discouraged.


    "No... each life is how that person makes it. But the soul does have a tendency towards repeating itself. Would you be destined to be homeless? No. but your soul is of a more cynical type, predisposed to living on the outskirts of society. That sort of thing. But that doesn''t mean that life would not throw a wrench into those predispositions. For instance, one of your former lives was, indeed a thief and a murderer. But due to actions taken in that life and the influence of other souls around yours your soul ended up turning their life around and became someone of fame and heroism. Nothing is set in stone Cindy. "He said and I realized that he used my name despite the fact that I was sure I hadn''t told him. Then again, he was supposedly a god right.


    "So, you''re saying that you can bring me back to life in Harth as a full-grown woman? Would I still have all my memories, or would I appear there as an empty shell?"


    "I hadn''t thought of that, but yes, I could make it so that you could retain your memories from the life you just lost. Though there is no way for me to completely restore the memories of any life you''ve had before."


    "Well, I would like to keep my memories if possible. Amnesia doesn''t look good on me."


    The god child snorted. So many things in that sentence did not belong together. "That''s fine. It would cost more or your mana, but it is doable. Your soul dose contain much more than an average Harthian. Even amongst the non-human races known for their mana."


    "So, how do we go about this then?"


    It was still not full registration that I had died. Much less that I had died due to some magic spell that got all screwy and I was about to get plopped down into another world where ''mana'' was an actual thing and not just a popular term in games. But I was adaptable. And as an added plus, I didn''t really have anything holding me to my previous shitty life either. No kids or husband, and the one brother I did have was and even worse person than me serving a ten year stretch for manslaughter. Dad was dead and mom was as good as. I had no money, no one id call a real friend and no romantic interest. I''m sure the poor bastards who were meant to be summoned had a lot more to lose than I did. This could turn out well for me.


    Kradiff made a scooping motion with his left hand, as if her was trying to hold water, and a small table rose from nothingness. It was silvery and round with one leg, like a table at a diner. Surprised I took a step back just as two stools of the same mercury-like metal appeared at opposite ends of the table. "Have a seat." He spoke. I hesitated for only a second before doing as I was told. Kradiff took the stool opposite. Again, he waved his hand, this time over the table, and a couple dozen blobs of colored metal appeared.


    "Let''s start with figuring out what race you would like to come back as. Many options are already lost to you as they are not compatible with your soul. But we should narrow it down farther. Any suggestions?"


    "Oh." I said, not having expected to be asked my opinion in the matter. "Well, I guess id like to keep a humanoid like body..."


    Kradiff nodded and a wave of his hand had over two thirds of the metal marbles disappear. "How about this: why not pick the type of life you would like to have?"


    "A good one?" I suggested with a roll of the eyes.


    Kradiff laughed, the sound deeper than his child like body suggested. "I''m afraid that''s solely up to you. No, I meant something like what kind of profession. For instance, if we were speaking of Earth I would like to know if you were hoping to be a tradesman, scholar, medical professional? That sort of thing. Its something you can change when ever you like, unlike your race which is permanent till your death. But an idea of what you would like to do in this new life may help to narrow down a race. Some races are better with mana and others are better with physical attributes... that sort of thing."


    "Ummm, okay. Well, I have no clue what kind of professions there are on Harth. The only frame of reference I have would be my limited knowledge things I had read or played. Some sound like what you have explained so far."


    He looked contemplative for a moment before speaking again. "Honestly, those things, in a broad sense at least, are a good frame of reference. There are people who go the route of Healers who also branch off as those who use magic, medicine, or a combination of both. Those who seek combat with mana or sword... its rather a wide set of options. As you are keeping your current personality you should probably look at what your current self likes. Are you a fighter? A merchant? Do you like singing?"


    "Ugh... I''m not very good at anything to be honest. I steal stuff to live or get part time, cash under the table, sort of jobs. I have a shitty personality and what most would call a warped sense of morality..."


    ''Kradiff smirked. Just a slight twitching of the lips but I''d take it as a smile. "Well, you didn''t have the option in your old life, and you have an abundance of mana for your new life, so I''d suggest something that makes use of that mana. Some variety of mage perhaps? There are many types of those and in many different races."


    I thought about it. Using magic would be the best really. I mean who wouldn''t want to if given the chance? Using my pre-stated game reference, I tried to think of what I could be. I some how couldn''t picture myself in a robe and witches hat using a wand to cast spells. Plus, I would guess that being a mage in real life would involve a lot of studying, and I was not good with school. I would call my self a fast learner but the thought of sitting at a desk pouring over books was like torture. I liked animals though. Didn''t a lot of games have magic users who could get like a pet and use it to fight and stuff?


    "I like animals." I said simply.


    "Well, the main path I could put you down for that would perhaps be a summoner. There are those who specialize in summoning from three separate worlds. There are those who can summon from the Lands of the fairies. This is the most common and the creatures from there are many and varied. The least common summoner would be those who specialize in summoning spirits."


    "Like ghosts?" I asked. I wasn''t afraid of ghosts. Admittedly I didn''t believe they were real till about an hour or so ago so maybe real ones were scary.


    Nodding, Kradiff said "That''s one type. A specialized summoner known as a necromancer. Not many go that route these days as it''s a bit taboo as I''m sure you can imagine. But there is another type of spirit summoner: those who summon elemental spirits from the land of spirits. Those are much stronger, but they are very hard to control so not many risk going down that route."


    "Alright." I said trying to rub out the headache that was surely coming on. "So, what''s the last type of summoner then?"


    "Demon summoners." That sounded bad but I waited for Kradiff to explain before saying anything. "These are more common than the spirit summoners but as you can imagine it comes with some big risks of its own. This one requires a strong heart and a knack for making contracts. Normally a new Demon summoner would train for years with a master before ever attempting to summon a demon. So, I would no suggest it to you now."


    I nodded. "To be honest I don''t feel very comfortable with the whole summoner thing anyway. My current predicament has made me acutely aware that it is essentially kid napping. I''m not into that."


    "Understandable." Agreed Kradiff, running a pale hand through his dark messy locks. "Well, there is another type of mage that works closely with beasts and animals of all kinds. They are the Tamers. But that is a mostly abandoned art at this time in Harth."


    "Why?" I asked with a tilt of the head. Was there something bad about them?


    "No major reason really. Its just that, for the most part, Summoning is much easier than taming."


    "It is? How? I assume taming means forming some kind of bond with an animal, right?"


    "Yes. A tamer makes a contract with a beast, monster, animal, or what ever the find and then those who are tamed become the tamers partners. But unlike summoning, which calls your partner on an as needed basis, taming means you need to find a place for your tame to live, make sure its not running wild and killing the village folk and such. So those who wish to be truly prolific tamers need the money to provide land for their monsters. Also, when summoning you have the possibility to get a partner many times stronger than your self in a relatively fast manner. Tamers tend to have to start small and work their way up."


    "So, in other words there is just a lot less leg work in summoning versus Taming?"


    "Yes. Both have their pluses and minuses magically speaking. Summoning requires a constant stream of mana while your partner is summoned but the trade off is that they are strong, obedient, independent partners. Once the summoning is ended the drain on mana stops, the creature goes back to wherever it was before you summoned it, and you don''t have to think of it again till you have need of it. Taming requires a chunk of mana at the initial forming of the contract, and the stronger the tame the greater the mana cost. But after that there is no cost, unless you use tamer specific spells like those used to summon your tame to you or spells to enhance your tame. But as I said before, you must find a place on Harth to house you tames and you also have to train them and train with them. It''s a labor of love I guess."


    I thought it over for a moment longer. "Still," I said. "I don''t like the idea of summoning. But there are things about the taming route that appeal to me. If I stick to smaller tames at first, I can just keep them with me. At least until I make enough money to buy land. It may take time, but I do kind of like the idea of it."


    "We will go with that then. As I said before you can always decide something else later once you get a feal for the land. Its just a way to narrow down your race options for now." He turned his eyes back to the balls on the table and several more of the marbles vanished. There were only a few left now. "Okay, these are the ones I suggest." And a flick of his finger had the balls changing again. They still looked like little balls of metal but now they had things that looked like tails or ears in some cases. He picked up the first ball that had no distinguishing features. "Humans." He said, placing it before me. "An obvious choice perhaps. Humans are versatile in this world, but they have less magical potential than others. But you have a great deal of mana and that can off set the deficit. The summoned Humans slotted to be heroes would be like that. Compared to a normal human you would be seen as a super one. Faster, stronger, and able to surpass the usual limits set on the race. It is why the others were summoned in the first place.


    The next race would be the beast men." He said and this time picked up a ball that had a pair of cats like ears and a tail before putting it next to the human sphere. "They are not particularly strong in magic and what magic they do use is geared toward physical enhancement. They are many times stronger than humans in the physical sense. And predictably, they have better hearing, sight and much else. There are a few races more powerful but not many, especially in the races left here, that can compare in adaptability. They come in many varied types too. Some look like walking talking animals while others merely have beast like attributes. Normally they would not be ideal as tamers but with your mana stores you could make it work."


    "Okay, what''s this one then?" I asked, pointing to one with pointed ears. The obvious would-be elves.


    He pushed the orb forward. "Dark elves. You do not have the predisposition for wood elves, nor for the high elves. Dark elves are as they sound in some senses. They are a race of elves that split off from wood elves a millennium back. In that sense they are a relatively new race. They are more powerful in magic than most races, gaining power in exchange for abandoning the more ''lighter'' sides of magic. They tend to keep to their forests much like the wood elves do, or the high elves to their mountain tops. They would make a great choice for going into taming or many other magic oriented paths.


    "Then there is the final one here. Kind of an out of the box pick really..."


    "Why do you say that?" I asked, though I thought I knew. The ball sported an impressive set of horns, bat like wings, and a long whip like tail.


    "Demons. They have massive magical capabilities both in power and capacity. And, they have physical strength far above that of a human. Even the weakest demon could snap the arm of the strongest human. There may be some hero class humans that come from Earth that could best the weaker demons in a fist fight... but still it''s a stretch."


    "Don''t demons have their own world though?" I asked, confused.


    "Yes, they do. But demons are an odd race in that they can manifest in just about any world so long as the mana lines are strong enough. But your power would be less than if you were on their own world. If ever you wanted to Leave Harth and go to the demon world, you could. It would take some effort on your part, but it isn''t impossible."


    "I can assume what the down sides are but why don''t you tell me anyways, just in case."


    "Even though demons do not go to earth, those there have their own bad tales about the race. To be honest they are not unfounded. They have a somewhat twisted morality, a thirst for violence, and in general take a fierce joy in inciting fear and panic. Free roaming Demons are not a common sight on Harth and those that do try to live there are usually, at best, shunned. More commonly they are feared and hated. Being reincarnated as a demon would benefit your mana and goals quite well, but you may be condemning yourself to a life without companions. Perhaps even a life without a real permanent home even. It is not legal to just randomly attack or otherwise harm demons with out cause on most of Harth but that doesn''t mean it is not still done."


    I nodded and began to mull over my options. It seemed that the logical choice would be to just be a human. It was the life I knew well, and I could, conceivably, be on the top within that race. But if I was honest with myself, I would admit that the thought didn''t hold much draw for me. I was sick of humanity. As for the beast men... well it was amusing to think of myself being a badass wolf chick, but the magical limitations made me shy away from that path. If my big advantage in this world was to be my massive stores of mana than I should make use of that advantage.


    That left the last two. It seemed fitting that my soul would be compatible with a race called a Dark Elf, and that of Demons. Id been called a demon often enough. Really, in the grand scheme of things, I didn''t see any reason to discredit the Dark Elves. But for some reason my eyes kept being drawn toward the little demon ball next to my right hand. It may make me a pariah in my new life, but as Kradiff pointed out, I could always take my tailed ass to demon land if shit hit the fan in Harth.


    "I know I am no expert in these things, but being a tamer doesn''t seem to vide with the demon way of life..."


    Kradiff chuckled. "I can''t say I ever heard of one." He admitted. "But they have all the magical power to be an amazing one to be honest. Not much could compete with a demon''s magical capacity. Add it to your own vast stores and its really would be a terrifying amount of mana. Though just because you have a ton of mana wont necessarily mean you will be any good at using it. It''ll take time and practice. So much mana on hand would me that you could tame some truly monstrous creatures. If you worked at it and set your mind to it, maybe you would be the most prolific tamer ever. Perhaps you could even be one of the few tamers in all of Hearth''s history to tame dragons."


    I blinked in surprise. Dragons? That hadn''t even occurred to me but... Hell yeah, I wanted to tame freaking dragons! Bad ass demon chick with a flock of dragons on her side? Wait, would a group of dragons be a flock? I doubted it. Seemed like to lame of a description for that. Still, it would be amazing if I could. And who needed friends with a bunch of fire breathing monsters on your side. Not that I had any idea how I would provide for a bunch of dragons...


    "So? Made your choice?" Kradiff asked. He didn''t sound impatient, and I had no clue if there was a time limit on this decision. Still, I was an impulsive person I didn''t really feel the need to change either. It would probably get me in trouble in the future. It had in the past anyway.


    "I think I will just dive in headfirst and hope it works out he way I want it to." I said, feeling a little nervous. "Please, make me a demon."


    I watched as Kradiff smiled and got to his feet. I figured I should fallow his lead and did the same. He waved a hand downward and the stools, table, and little figures, melted away. With out the furniture as appoint to focus on I felt a little woozy as it seemed I was just hovering in mid air again. Kradiff''s pale hand stretched out toward me, and I sucked in a breath.


    "Is this going to hurt?" I asked, fists clenched.


    "Not at all. You will simply awake as your new self. No pain whatsoever. I''ll be sure to have a pack near you with some cloths and rudimentary supplies. In fact," He flipped his hand palm up and a leather-bound book appeared there. It looked old and the leather was dark. "I am not really supposed to do this, but it''s a rather unique situation. Besides, the spell may not have been initiated by me, but it was I who directed it and there for I feel somewhat responsible for your situation. There fore I gift you this. It is a grimoire. Books used to hold magical knowledge and spells. This one is a Tamers grimoire. They are very rare and valuable, and I will tie it to your soul. This way so one will be able to take it from you nor will they be able to read it."


    I reached out and gently took the book. It was lighter than it looked and about the size of a small sketch pad. I fingered the leather and saw that it had writing on it, but I couldn''t read it. It made me think...


    "Thank you. But a question. Do the people of this world speak English? Or am I going in needing to learn the language?"


    "Yet another thing I didn''t think of. You are right. You would not be able to speak the language so I will be sure to cast a type of translation magic on your new body so that you will be able to understand both the spoken and written words."


    I sighed gratefully. "Thanks that should really help."


    He nodded and stretched his arm out once again. "Alright Cindy-"a smirk twitched his lips and I actually caught a glimpse of pearly white fangs. "Just a suggestion, but you may want to investigate a name change. New name new life, that sort of deal. Not that Cindy is an awful name, but it sort of detracts from your newfound bad ass demon image." Without another word or so much as a goodbye the boy who was a god snapped his fingers and the world went dark.

 The Road to Bellana

    It was like my senses came back online slowly. As consciousness returned to me the first thing, I notices was the smooth feel of grass on my skin, a cool breeze and a warm sun. A moment later, my brain still lagging, I could smell loamy dirt, tree sap and the damp scent of still water. It was then that I groaned and realized that I could hear. Sight and hearing came right on the heels of one another. It was as I opened my eyes and rolled to my side that I noticed the sounds of unfamiliar birds and the sounds of a breeze through trees. The first thing my blurry eyes picked up were a pair of pale hands laying a top lush, bright green grass.


    I wasn''t sure if it was because my brain still hadn''t kicked in or if I was just disoriented, but I spent what seemed like too long a time just staring at the hands before it clicked that they were most likely my own. They were thinner than the hands I was accustomed to and missing the freckles. The oddest thing though was the black nail polish. Another minute passed before it registered that my nails were painted black, but they were black. The thick, pointed nature of them telling me that they weren''t really nails, but claws.


    Right, I was supposed to be a demon now. With another grunt I got myself up to a kneeling position. I wasn''t in pain, but I did feal stiff and awkward. Like my body wasn''t moving the way it normally did. I assumed that was to be expected, however. It was a new, unfamiliar body after all. Suddenly curious as to what I looked like I ran my eyes over pale, toned arms. And, yup, I was naked... two large breasts partially blocked my view of a pale skinned belly. My last body wasn''t fat. I didn''t get to eat enough for that. But this one was toned and muscled. I could just make out a feint six pack.


    A weird sensation on my back side had me confused till I saw the thin, whip like appendage wiggling next to white thighs. I had a tail. This was so weird! I reached out and lifted the thing. It was surprisingly thin, maybe the width of my thumb. And it was long. Id bet it would drag on the ground even if I was standing. I noticed that it wasn''t furred like I would have thought a demon tail would be but covered in small, sharp, serrated scales. If I ran my ands along it the wrong way I bet, I could have broken skin and drawn blood. At the tip of the tail was an arrow shaped, black boney plate. Like the scale it was sharp and serrated but appeared to be made of some sort of horn like material.


    So distracted by the tail was I that I failed to notice the long black hair fanned out around me. No, not black, I saw at once. It was red. But a red so dark that it looked black unless the light hit it just right. Not a natural color from earth. And there was a lot of it too. I was used to my hair being long but not to my knees long. I was impressed I wasn''t sitting on it right now.


    I shook my head to clear it, then took in my surroundings. Kradiff said he would have a bag with cloths near by and I needed to find it before someone found me. Bad enough to come across a demon much less a butt naked lady demon. I seemed to have awoken in a forest next to a small lake. The trees were moderate in size and the water was a clear deep blue, reflecting the clear sky above. It was truly a picturesque view. It took only a second before my eyes landed on the bag. It was small and made of some sort of sack like material with a rope draw string.


    Still feeling awkward in this new body, I stumbled to my feet and wobbled toward the bag. It wasn''t large and whatever was in it was taking up the whole bag. I reached down and lifted it up. At the top of the bag was my new Grimoire. I really wanted to read the thing, but I should probably be dressed first. Beneath the book was the cloths and I wasted no time pulling on the thin pants and grey shirt. I slipped on a pair of leather-bound sandals and wrapped a long cloak around my shoulders. It was nothing fancy but at least I wasn''t naked or running around the forest barefoot.


    The bag was a great deal lighter without the cloths, but it wasn''t empty. Besides the grimoire there was also a small pouch that contains some kind of ointment I assumed was for treating wounds, another pouch lined with wax paper and holding a few strips of some kind of jerky and yet another small bag that held a handful of copper coins. It wasn''t much but it was still more than I had before I got killed. Life was already on the up. Now to keep it that way.


    I walked over to the lake, my gait a little less jerky now, and bent to put my hands in the water and drink. Kradiff hadn''t left me with any sort of canteen so I would drink what I could now encase I didn''t find any water any time soon. Just as I was about to dip my hands in, I caught my reflection and stared. I looked nothing like my old self. The person looking back at me was round faced and pale with silky black-red hair. My ears were slightly pointed, but it was the red eyes that were most startling. That may be hard to explain once I got to town... it took a second before I noticed the horns. You would think they would have been the first thing to notice but they were dark as my hair and to be frank- puny. Like just barely visible through my hair. I kind of felt a little embarrassed. Kradiff didn''t really mention what a demon looked like, so I was probably just going off what earth described demons as... but even Kradiff''s little demon marble sported long, curved horns.


    It was then that I remembered that the little ball also had wings. A glance over my shoulder showed nothing and it wasn''t till I made to reach back and feel for them that it clicked that if I had them they would have gotten in the way when I put the shirt on. A little disappointed I sighed. It was fine though. No need to complain. This new body was fitter and, in my opinion, better looking than my old one. It seemed to be healthy and more than a little in shape. Not everyone got this toned of a body without having to put in the work.


    I had my drink, slung the bag over my shoulder and pulled my hood up over the horns. Better safe than sorry. There were beast men, right? So, if someone saw them maybe I could claim to be a goat lady or something. The tail was the biggest give away. For now, I wrapped it around my waist under my shirt. The eyes would be a problem too though. Not sure how I would explain those away. Oh well, that was a problem for future Cindy, I guess.


    Cindy hu? Kradiff was right about it sounding odd. Cindy the demon? Yuck. Then again, I was never found of my name. It made me think of pink sports cars and vacations in the Bahamas, and that was so not me at all. Most people just called me Cinn anyway. Oh! I liked that. But not Cinn, rather Sin. Yeah. New life new identity. And I was already used to the name, just had to change the spelling. Sin the demoness... I liked that.


    With a smirk I turned toward the trees. Time to start my new life of Sin.


    Kradiff hadn''t seen fit to tell me where the nearest town was, nor did he leave me a map. Was it safe for a god to be so forgetful and absent minded? Either way I had no clue if I was headed toward civilization or not. All I could do was keep going and hope I hit a road or something. I hoped I''d come across something before nightfall. I was used to camping out but that was back on earth. I had no clue what plants or animals would be safe to eat, nor what basic things like weather was like here. And that was not even considering potential monsters.


    I''d been walking for nearly an hour now and the only wildlife I''d seen so far was some birds that looked like one''s I''d seen on earth, and I could have sworn I saw a rabbit dash across my path that had a horn on its head. It was fast, however, and it may have just been my imagination going haywire.


    The trees here looked like earth trees. I saw birch and oak... no conifers yet though. Several pretty flowers that were close enough to ones on earth that I couldn''t tell the difference. But I was not botanist so I could have been wrong. I couldn''t hide my wonder and curiosity. Even though it all looked so close to Earth everything felt different. I wasn''t sure if this sensation was produced by the world around me or if being a demon came with a new sense that I had no way of recognizing.


    The truth was that I was flying blind here. What I was most anxious to do was find a town. Then see if it had some kind of library. I was never a book worm but even I could see the value in knowledge, and I was sadly lacking in that area. Even the simplest of questions by a stranger could out me as an outsider and I could hardly use "I am a demon" as an excuse. No doubt that would get me in even more trouble than admitting I was from another world. I needed information. Information about everything and anything. So, unfortunately, I''d have to hit the books.


    I did have one book on me that I could look at. I could feel the little grimoire in the bag against my back and I was itching to look at it. But that would have to wait. First find an inn or something to stay in, then I could read in the comfort of a bed. Maybe the money Kradiff left me would even be enough to get a room and a meal. Either way I would have to make it work for me. I also had to see about how people made money in this world. No doubt I could get a job... but if this was like a video game that I may have better luck collecting materials or taking out monsters or something.


    A noise suddenly had me stopping in my tracks. It wasn''t that it was loud. It was simply that it was a sound I hadn''t ever heard while strolling through the woods before. A sort of squelching followed by a soft thud. Like a foot being pulled from a swampy muck and then planted on firm ground. I stood, frozen, as I tried to pinpoint the sound. My ears twitched, an odd sensation, and I instinctively pulled air into my nose, scenting the air.


    I turned to my left and narrowed my focus on the short dark bushes blocking my view there. Had there of been anything large I would have been able to see it over the green leaves so what ever was hidden there couldn''t be any bigger than an average dog... throwing caution to the wind I decided to co check it out. If it was a powerful monster in a tiny body than now was as good a time as any to see how strong a newbie demon was. Besides, Kradiff was absent minded but surly he wasn''t so unreliable as to slap me down next to a big bad monster, right?


    Walking slowly, I approached the bush in question. It took about one second for me to feel both embarrassed and amused. Mostly I was indignant. It was, without a doubt, a... slime. Literally. Just as every RPG video game ever, described them as. It was about the size of a fat cat and seemed to be made completely out of some sort of blue, gelatinous, matter.


    "Hu!" I huffed out loud. Figures. I mean, of course there were slimes here. So stupid. Still, this did provide me with a relatively risk-free way to test my strength and also se what happened if I defeated a monster. I held up a hand and looked at it. I didn''t have a weapon, but I did seem to be sporting a set of claws. Besides, as a demon, even a weak one, I should have many times the physical strength of an average human male, right? And in video games slimes were, like, the easiest monsters to beat. I should have this, no problem!


    I did feel kind of bad. The slime seemed to take no notice of me at all and I was planning on just murdering it. Still, I needed to know more about this body, and this seemed to be the best way now. Better slash a slime than wait for something nastier to show up and have my ass handed to me because I didn''t know my limits.


    I glared down at the blue blob as it hopped in zigzags, oblivious, making those squelching, slapping sounds. I flexed my fingers and took aim. There wasn''t anyone here to see me, but id rather not fall flat on my face while attempting to slay my first monster. I drew my hand back then slashed downward at the blue goop.


    Pretty much the second my claws touched the membrane the little guy just popped. And apparently, I underestimated my own strength, because not only did my claws pass clean through the slime but my fist sunk a good four inches into the soft soil beneath it. I hadn''t even been trying to use full strength! Yikes... best to be careful from now on. I''ve been known to punch things when mad and at this rate there will be holes in brick walls.


    I pulled my fist out of the dirt and shook it off. It didn''t even hurt. I punched a hole in the ground and didn''t even bruise my knuckles... Scary. I looked back at the hole and saw that there was some kind of little white pebble next to it. It was too perfectly round to be an actual stone. I tentatively reached out and picked it up. I felt a slight tingling in my fingers, but it wasn''t painful at all. Looking at it closer, I saw that it looked like a pearl, with a sort of milky translucence. Maybe it was valuable? It would look nice in jewelry. If I could sell it like they do with monster drops in games than all the better. Hearing more squelching sounds near by, I smiled. Might as well get some more of these things and see if I could get some coins for them.


    I didn''t really have any way of telling time, but I would guess that I spent about two hours tracking down and squishing slimes. I didn''t find any other types of monsters, but I did manage to collect nearly two dozen little white pearls. I stashed them in my bag and decided that I had used up enough of the day on the task and that I really needed to find some place to stay. Maybe I could even sell my loot. Humming a tune, I continued, hoping I was heading in the direction I needed to go.


    I was beginning to worry that I was, indeed, going to have to spend the night in the forest when I finally broke through the tree line. I heaved a huge sigh of relief when I saw that I was next to a well warn dirt road. I could see the ruts made by wagon wheels and even what looked like the hoof prints of what was probably horses. Not only was it a road but a frequently used one. Good. I had no idea witch direction would be the fastest to get me to town but at least I found the road.


    The forest was behind me and on the other side of the road seemed to be rolling green hills. Maybe someone was using them as pasture lands? If so, it could be likely that I will come across people If I just stick to the road. Farmers or merchants maybe. Well, standing around wasn''t doing me any good. I could tell the sun was getting low on the horizon now that my view wasn''t blocked by trees.


    Turning toward the setting sun, taking the bright ball as a sign of good fortune, I made my way down the road. It was by no means a smooth walk. The road was mostly dry but there were puddles in places, telling me it had rained some time in the last couple days. All the potholes told me that though it was well used it was likely not a main road. That or who ever was responsible for the road was too poor to keep it up or too negligent. Most likely it was just a main throughfare for farmers. This was mostly confirmed when, about half an hour later, I came across my first fenced off pasture. I saw no animals but the fence itself seemed well maintained.


    Finely finding signs of people was comforting. I may not be a social butterfly, but I liked being near people better than being all alone. Surly the town wasn''t far off. I was starting to get hungry, but I didn''t want to break into my only food stores just yet. I''d hold out till night fall at least and see if I could get myself a hot meal in a town Inn or something.


    "Hellloooo!" called out a small voice, startling me out of my musings.


    "Nella!" Admonished another voice and my eyes landed on two children sitting on a fence a little way up the road. Had I not had such good hearing now I don''t think I would have heard the older boy''s admonishment of the little girl. "Momma said not to talk to strangers!" He seemed to be about ten while the girl look maybe half that.


    I did not take down my hood has I approached the pair, but I did try to put a pleasant smile on my face, hoping my eyes didn''t freak them out. "Evening!" I said, only now realizing that the word I thought and the word that came out of my mouth were different, even though my mind also translated the word for me. It was a little disorienting, but I hoped to get accustomed to it. At the very least I''m sure that I would naturally pick up the native language and Kradiff''s spell wouldn''t need to translate for me anymore.


    "We aren''t supposed to talk to strangers." Wined the little girl. She had short, brown curls, big green eyes and a round face. Immediately I would put her and her taller, equally brown haired and green-eyed brother, as humans.


    I chuckled. "That''s true. You shouldn''t speak to strangers. But maybe you could answer just one thing for me?" I directed my question at the boy who looked warry and held firm to the little girl''s hand. Shame my own brother wasn''t ever as diligent as this boy. "I''m afraid I got turned around in the woods. You wouldn''t happen to know how much longer it is to get to town do you? I just want to know if I''ll make it there before night fall."


    The boy looked me over for a second while Nella just watched me, open mouthed. He sighed, then nodded. "Bellana is farther than momma will let us go on our own. But if you are walking, I think you should be able to get to the gates before the sun sets."


    "Good. Thank you so much for your help. Have a good night." I said with a small smile. I gave the little girl a wave as I walked on, and she returned it cheerfully.


    It was great news. So, the town was called Bellana. I didn''t want to make my question too specific as I was sure it would reveal my ignorance. Even if they were kids, it could have meant trouble. So, I didn''t risk asking any questions about the town. I was curious though. It occurred to me then that I could probably run there. I had been walking and fighting- even if it was just slimes- all day and I wasn''t even slightly tired, therefore I assumed that running would probably not drain my stamina much. Plus, given the strength in my arms, it was a safe bet my legs were just as strong. No doubt I would be a fast runner...


    But I had no idea if strange women doing 40 miles an hour on foot would be considered odd. It would to me. I couldn''t risk it. For all I knew I may just get arrested for being a demon. Kradiff said that it wasn''t supposed to happen, but he also said that just because demons weren''t supposed to be killed on site didn''t mean that it didn''t happen anyways. Best not to risk it. Especially since Bellana wasn''t too far away anyways. So, I would just have to continue to trudge along.


    The boy was right though. The dirt road only went on for another fifteen minutes before it connected to a loosely cobbled road that was clearly the main road to and from the town known as Bellana. I was worried at first that I would go the wrong way but just as I was about to throw caution to the wind and pick a direction at random, a wagon came into view. I introduced myself as a disoriented traveler and the man leading the wagon seemed amiable enough to escort me to town.


    "Now, I know that there are little ladies like your self that can hold there own even without a man''s protection...," said the man. He seemed to be an older human male with a lined face, grey hair and laughing eyes. He eyed me sideways with concern as he pilled on the reins of the white and grey mare he was leading. "But still. Any lady should at least have a man or two with them, even if only to avoid the swine that would pick a fight just because they think they can..."


    I laughed. "I appreciate your concern. I can hold my own though. Besides, I am new to this area and have yet to make any comrades." Comrades? This auto translate was weird. I can''t say I ever said the word ''comrade'' out loud before. At least not with a straight face.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "Hmm." He said, not sounding particularly convinced. I supposed I couldn''t blame him. With the cloak on I did look like a tiny little thing after all. He hadn''t mentioned my red eyes either. Maybe they were more common here than I had originally guessed. "New to the area you say? I take it that you haven''t been to Bellana before than."


    "Never." I said, not wanting to supply anymore information that would give away just how ignorant I truly was.


    "Well as the second largest town in the kingdom it''s a busy place. If you aren''t used to the city life it may be a bit of a shock for you at first. Most the small towns in this region are mainly populated by humans after all. You will see a lot more races in Bellana than you are likely accustomed to." The last sentence was almost a question. No doubt he was fishing for hints about myself. Likely he was just trying to be friendly, but I had learned from a young age to never hand out any sort of personal information too freely.


    As such I just shrugged and said, "I haven''t seemed much of the other races, true. But I must admit I am curious about them." There that was non-committal and sounded like a personal tidbit, right?


    "Well, you will definitely see your fair share of them there." He chuckled heartily. His mare''s ears twitched but other wise she just continued with her job of bulling the cart. "A goodly number of the beast-men either live there or come to trade in from the wilder parts. They are a good sort mostly, despite the prejudices and such. Best to be careful of the wilder looking ones though all the same. I once had a good pal of mine get in a bar fight with one of them wolf types. Fellow nearly chewed his arm off before six other folks pried the furry fellow off." The story sounded drastic but the amount of laughter coming out of the mans belly said that it probably was more of a swift bite and less of a mauling.


    "Sounds bloody. I hope he was alright?"


    "Who, Jackson? Ha! He and the wolf were back in the fields the next day thanks to old Lindy and her potion skills. Lucky our little village has such a good Alchemist to be sure. Don''t see them much anymore."


    I didn''t ask why. No doubt it was something most natives would know. Though the ability to make potions, or what ever it was that healed Jackson, seemed like a very handy and profitable skill to have. Something that could heal something as drastic as a nearly torn off arm in a day. Even if it was just a bad bite that would be impressive. Surely someone could even make good money off such skills. I wondered why such a skill would be let to dwindle like that.


    It also struck me just then that all those ''professions'' in video games, the ones I saw as just another way to pass the time, were probably very essential when used in real life situation. I could only imagine how useful something like a ''max potion'' would be on a battlefield or even during a natural disaster... crazy helpful. It sounded like it would be hard work to learn, but maybe I should investigate it? Not just to heal myself during sticky situations but also to heal any partners I may make. Would a potion even work on a monster? I needed to look that up.


    I pulled my attention back to the conversation at hand and smiled at my new traveling companion. "Okay, so besides the people, what''s the city like? You''ve been there a few times, right? Is it as big as they say?"


    James laughed again. "Not nearly as big as the capital city. That place would shock even those used to Bellana I''d wager. But it is many times bigger than any other place in the kingdom. Lord Godric Stellos runs the place fairly, for a Nobleman. I have met ones I liked a lot less. Not that I have ever met Lord Stellos... But he keeps the city clean and orderly, the soldiers there in line, and poverty in check as well as any lower born citizen could hope for."


    Ah, so this world, or at least this part of it, had a clear class system. That may be hard for my little wise ass to get used to. Coming from a place where democracy and freedom of speech was a thing, I''m sure I was bound to have some unfavorable run ins with the snobby elite. Mind you, even back on Earth that happened. The snobs just couldn''t, legally speaking, flog me in the streets. I had a feeling that wasn''t quite as true here.


    "And the city itself is a sight to see. The Market has a massive statue of Lect! Pretty amazing to these uncultured eyes. How he and the other Heroes managed to defeat the Demon King 300 years ago I will never know. I''m sure there are books galore written about it, but my Pa only saw fit to teach me my numbers. Said reading was for those who could afford books... Anyway, they have smaller statues of all the heroes of the last summoning at the cathedral if you wanted to see them."


    "Really." I spoke. The excitement was feigned in my voice, but I was curious. So, the last summoning was three hundred years ago? I wonder if that meant three hundred years ago on earth too. Clearly time flowed a little differently, that or the seasons. Then again maybe I was just in a warmer part of their world. Either way it was going into winter when I left Earth and here it felt more like mid to late spring. Lect? It was a weird name, but I couldn''t pretend I knew what names were being used on earth and when. To me it sounded like a made-up screen name. Not that I had any room to talk. "All of them are there?" I wanted to keep him talking as best as I could. I just hoped he didn''t get too suspicious of me.


    "Oh yes. I suspect there will be new heroes soon enough though." He said with a put-out sigh. "All the signs seem to point to the Demon King coming back after all... I suppose we shouldn''t complain, however. Three hundred years between his rebirth was a long stretch. Almost double the last time he was defeated."


    Wait. This Demon King issue was a recurring problem? What the heck! So, every 150-300 years the kingdom just goes and kidnaps five people form another world, slaps a sword in their hands, and says ''good luck, thanks for solving our problems for us for another century or so!'', and that''s that? Wow. And why would they just kill this Demon King fellow? Why would he just get sealed away?


    "There have been signs?" I pushed.


    He laughed good naturedly again and gave me an incredulous look. "You must have come from way out in the sticks if you don''t know that! Yes, the signs have been cropping up steadily for the last couple years. Monsters have been getting stronger in the higher tiers... so much so that adventures that once could handle level A monsters now find themselves struggling with level B ones. I hear it''s been a real pain for the guilds when it comes to handing out requests and the like. And even merchants like me have had to start hiring guards if we want to sell our goods over any sort of distance from the big towns."


    "Sounds difficult. Sorry you have been having a hard time of it." And I was sorry. No matter what world you came from it seemed there was no escaping some hardships.


    "Awe, I haven''t been having it too bad. Mostly I just haul the surplus produce from a few of the communities south of Bellana to the city and get as good a price for them as I can for the farmers. Its rare you see any monsters above D rank. Its probably how such a large city could be built here in the first place. Any sort of major monster attack is unlikely."


    "I''ve only seen slimes so far myself..."


    "Ha! Yes, this close to the city you won''t see anything more than an E or F rank. Adventurers just starting out in Bellana tend to clear out anything that would drop a Magistone worth a silver before you could say ''slime''. I''ve been traveling theses roads for years and the worst I ever saw was a group of goblins once. They are a nasty bunch to be sure and had I have been alone I would have been a goner, but they aren''t anything an average ranked adventurer couldn''t handle."


    Magistone... that must be what the little white pearls the slimes dropped were. Well at least I had a name for them now. I wondered if I could handle a band of goblins on my own. Also, Adventure guild huh? So, this world really did have much of its culture and make up set up like what would be considered a video game on Earth. If that was the case than I may have to sign up with the guild at some point...


    "I bet slime magistones don''t go for much..."


    "Not at all. Last I bothered to check it was something like three for a copper. You don''t need a guild license to farm them though, and as you said there tend to be a lot of them around. Its why you always see the drunkards at the guild handing them in. A couple hours of slime farming get them a few pints of ale if they are lucky. You ask me, the reason the guilds don''t require licenses to hunt E and F rank monsters I because the adventures wouldn''t bother with them. Let''s the common folk keep their numbers in check with out having to send the guards out on useless missions to hunt slimes when they should be guarding the city."


    "That sounds like a sound theory to me." I admitted. Plus, he was giving me good information now. So, I could hunt low level monsters without one of these licenses and the stones I have on me know I would have to bring to the guild to sell. I was a little bummed that I would only be getting a handful of coppers for the magi stones I had now. Still, any amount of money was welcome. "Are you part of a guild?"


    "Nope, not me. Was never one for adventuring. The thought of fighting monsters when I don''t have to, scares the ghost right out of me." He laughed, giving the mare''s reigns a little tug to get her to pick up the pace. "I don''t do any of the other more specialized jobs either. But I hear the other guilds do pretty good here in Bellana, even without old veggie merchants such as myself helping."


    "All of that aside, you wouldn''t happen to know a good, cheap inn, that I can find a room at this late in the evening in Bellana do you?"


    "Oh sure, there a couple that aren''t too pricy but still are clean and not likely to see you mugged through the night. The one nearest the East gate that we are just about to come up on would be the Birch Tree inn. The land lady there makes the best bread of any inn in town, I guarantee it!"


    "Will you be heading there as well?"


    "No, not I. I had been hoping to get to Bellana much earlier than we are getting there now. Unfortunately, my sweet Netta here went a little lame on me. Hence why I am walking her rather than Sitting on the bench." He said petting the mare''s nose affectionately. She flicked her ears but otherwise ignored her master''s touch. "Originally, I was going to take my haul straight to the warehouse to have it auctioned off but that will have to wait till morning now. It will lose me a little coin but luckily most of the merchandise is root vegetable, so they wont really loose any freshness. Ill must take the whole cart to my brother''s house. He has a small stable and so I shouldn''t have to worry about my wares being stolen."


    "Oh, you have family here?" I asked. I could now make out the walls of the city up ahead of us as we came over a slight hill. It appeared to be about two storeys high with a wooden gate fixed into the stone entrance. I could tell that there seemed to be a small crowd gathered outside of it.


    "Sure do. My bother is a small-time clothier in town working with the merchant''s guild. He does well for himself. I have an aunt in town as well but she I am bit batty. My brother looks out for her when she allows it but from what I understand she mostly keeps to herself in a small house on the seedier side of town. I tried to visit here there once only to have her come at me with a cooking pot! Now I just wait to see her during the times she is at my brother''s house."


    He and I shared a laugh as I pictured an elderly woman hefting a pot and chasing after the large, sun bronzed merchant. It had been a while since I laughed without it just being for show. I was glad that he was pretty much the first person I met here in this world. With any luck most people I came across here would be much like him. I had no illusions that all would be that way but I aloud myself a little bit of wishful thinking.


    "An awfully big crowd outside the gate." I commented at we reach the end of the small line. I counted at least fifteen people, several having carts or wagons with them.


    "A bit more than currently most nights. I guess we weren''t the only ones cutting it close today. The city has a curfew you see. No one in or out of the walls after night fall."


    I figured that that was probably for the best in a world with magic and monsters. No doubt the bad and nasty preferred the night in this world just as much as on Earth, but the ones here had many more ways to make peoples lives miserable. Not that I could really cast any shade on the matter. I was what one would consider one of the ''baddies'' after all. Not that I saw myself that way at all. I did bad things from time to time, but I didn''t think that that necessarily made me a bad person.


    At the gate the people gathered didn''t seemed to be in any duress, so I figured that there wasn''t any major trouble on the road that had held these people up. I decided that since I had a group here to observe then I would do just that. I could tell that most of these people were human. Or at least to my untrained eye they were at least. One person was, without a doubt, a Beast-man. He was nearly seven foot tall and he literally looking like a walking leopard. One wearing a leather jerkin, black pants and brown leather boots. Every inch of his skin was covered in yellow, spotted fur and he literally had a cat''s head. I was fascinated but I did my best not to stare. One, it was rude, but it would also draw attention to me. I hadn''t thought about it till just then but what if those like Beastmen could smell that I was a demon.


    I knew that my own sense of smell seemed to be greater than it had been. Enough that most smells around me were too strong. But just because I had a better nose did not mean I knew how to properly use it. Unfortunately, it would take time to work out all my bodies new abilities. Once I got settled in a little it would be one of my top priorities.


    I saw that what held up the group was that the guards- two men dressed in leather armor and some kind of blue uniform with swords strapped to their hips- had to check the carts before their owners could go through. No doubt making sure that there were no stow aways or illegal contraband being brought into the city. It all seems lay back. More so than any search iv seen cops back home preform at least. Not that the guards looked negligent, just less formal than I would have thought.


    Our turn came up and my friend told me to just go on through. "As I said, I will be headed to my brother''s hose and its opposite the way you will be heading." He spoke. "Just keep walking down East Street and you won''t miss the place." He waved me off with a smile once the guards took a better look at my face and said I was good to go.


    I felt worried for the city folk that a demon could just walk into town uncontested. Though, now that I think about it, I guess that would be racial profiling against my own race. Hmmm. Though even as a demon I found I couldn''t really blame most people for being fearful and distrusting of my kind. I mean, if people like me were what an average demon was like that, we weren''t the most trustworthy of people.


    I passed through the stone gate way without trouble and came to a small-town square of sorts. Though it was more a half circle in shape. Basically, it was just a soccer field sized open cobbled space with a handful of people milling about. There were a few planter boxes in the center filled with sweet, scented purple and red flowers and what appeared to be the towns notice board. As it was getting dark, I decided that I would check out the notices later and would go find the inn for now.


    I noticed that the left side of the street and the right side of the street seemed quite different to my left appeared to be mostly what I would call apartment buildings. Mostly they seemed to be row houses about two or three storeys high with large wrap around balconies. Judging from the state of the people milling around and socializing near the many buildings and the laundry being hung up between them I assumed that this was the lower income side of town. I saw mothers calling their children in for the night, two men holding each other up as they drunkenly sang their way down the road past me, and two women arguing up on one of the balconies.


    The right side of the road also had large buildings. These ones were much cleaner however and mostly made of stone rather than the shabbily painted wood on the other side of the road. These building felt more like businesses to me. May the guild offices I was told about? Or maybe its just where the middle class went to work being bankers or what have you. This place may look like a fantasy RPG, but it was a real world with real needs. Unlike video games, real worlds needed city workers and bankers and lawyers.


    I let my head swivel between the two sides, my eyes a little heavy and my belly now very empty. It was only a few minutes later that I saw the smaller building wedged between two larger ones on the right side of the road. A small sign above the clean white door read: Birch Tree Inn in stylised lettering. It was skinny compared to the behemoths next to it, but the Inn wasn''t too small.


    Feeling a little nervous I reached out and opened the door. Even before the white painted wood swung open I could here the happy sounds of satisfied people coming from within. So, I wasn''t too surprised when I stepped into a warm dining room lit by a nice size fireplace on one side and candle chandelier throughout the comfortably sized dining area. Along a back wall next to a pale wooded staircase was a long bar with several men seated at it. The tables were about half full and everyone seemed to be chatting happily enough. No one even looked as I entered. I wasn''t sure why I half expected the room to go silent and everyone to turn my way. My brain still half thought this would turn out to be a comic book or something, I guess.


    Some what self consciously, I made my way up to the bar and stood before the woman on the other side. She was a bigger lady wearing a pale green dress and a white cotton shawl. Her eyes danced with a vibrant happiness, so much so that I almost didn''t notice that they were topaz coloured and had slits for pupils. Once I noticed that I also saw that she had rosy colored scales on her cheek bones and that the color wasn''t just a blush. He hair was a mas of bouncy blonde curls right out of a fifties film. She looked like a cherub without the wings, and I found myself smiling at her.


    "''Evening miss!" She said in a bubbly voice and what I would call a slight southern accent. Though no doubt it had nothing to do with the southern states of America at all. "How can I help you? We have a nice pot of stew on the menu tonight! Martin did some of his best work on it I''d say."


    I didn''t know who Martin was, but id say it was a safe bet to assume he oversaw meals here at the Birch Tree. "Thank you, I would love some. But I was also wondering if you had any rooms available. I know its late, but I only just got into town."


    "Not a problem at all Miss. We have several rooms available so its no issue." She whipped a glass with a clean rag, placed both behind the bar, then waved her hand to someone else in the room. I looked back in time to see a young lady hurrying over. She also wore a green dress but hers was shorter, and she wore a clean white apron over it. "Breena, cover the bar while I get this here young lady settled in. Tell Martin to get a serving of the stew ready too."


    "Yes mame!" Smiled the waitress with a small bow. She hurried to the other side of the bar as the landlady made her way over to me.


    "I hope you don''t mind me saying miss, but you looked bushed! If you like I can just have Breena, take your meal up to your room." She said waving me toward a tight staircase near the fireplace. "A nice hot meal and a good sleep is what you need now I think."


    I chuckled. "That would be most welcome, thank you."


    "No mind, no mind. Now, I''m going to put you in one of the rooms on the second floor. They are three coppers a night. Cause you are staying with us the meal will only be one copper rather than the usual two. For another copper I can get my boy Fenny, to bring you up a hot tub of water and some towels so you can clean up." She was listing all this in a way that told me that she probably did it multiple times a night. I followed her up the stair to the next floor and she led me down the long hallway lined with doors. I could tell that the building was much longer than it was wide. "If the was tub isn''t enough the public baths are a short five-minute walk away. They charge three coppers."


    "The tub would be great." I spoke. I cleaned my self up with far more unpleasant things that a nice basin of hot water and clean cloths. Sometimes I had to go days without even a bathroom sink to wash up in. No need to waste the small number of coppers I had on me just to have a bath when I wasn''t all that dirty anyway. Well, that was a lie. I was pretty yuck after a day of trudging through the forest, not to mention splattering all those slimes.


    "Lovely. Okay, here we are! Room six." She pulled a set of keys tied to a rope out of her skirt pocket and rifled through them till she found the one she needed. She unclipped it from the bunch and inserted it in the lock. Opening the door, she showed me into the small room. "Here is the key. Make sure you keep track of that good, cause if you lose it, it''s a ten-copper fee so I can get the locks replaced."


    "Sounds good." I took the key and glanced around the room. It wasn''t much bigger than a prison cell- yes, I have been in one of those- but far more inviting. A small bet next to a bedside table with a candle on top. Opposite that was a small table and wooden chair with a standing coat rack next to it. There was no window, probably because the Inn was squeezed between two large buildings. Instead, there was a pretty painting of a city square with a handful of children playing a game of tag by the look of it.


    "Now, I''m gonna head downstairs but Breena and Fenny should be by quick enough with your stew and water."


    I nodded and removed my bag to fish out my coin purse. I counted out five coppers and placed them into her work worn hand. "If I wished to keep the room for a few nights, would I be able too?"


    "Oh absolutely!" She chirped. "Just be sure to pay who ever is at the bar before noon tomorrow for however many nights you like. They will be sure to mark it down in the registry. Just don''t forget to tell them your room number." A knock had us both turning, and I saw that Breena stood in the doorway with a steaming tray. "Breena! Good girl. Alright young miss, my name is Sally by the way. You just come give me or Breena a shout if you need anything okay? And once you are done with the stew just put the tray outside the door and someone will come by to pick it up later."


    "Sure, thanks a lot."


    Breena gave me a little bow as she entered the room. As good a one as she could while holding a wooden tray with a small loaf of bread and a steaming bowl of stew anyway. She placed the tray on the table then excused herself.


    "I''ll tell Fenny to get that tub ready." Smiled Sally as Breena preceded her out the door. "He will probably be up in about fifteen minutes. Since its so late ill make sure he waits till tomorrow to come fetch it though. Please enjoy your stay young miss." And with that she gave me a little curtsy and vanished, lightly closing the door behind her.

 Bellana

    The bread was, indeed, very good. But the stew was just as good. I had no idea what meat was used but it was the same color as pork. I decided not to think to hard on it as I may not want to know what kind of animal or monster I was munching on. This world did seem to have carrots and potatoes though. That or vegetables that both look and taste exactly like them.


    I ate the food quick. I was so used to hunger pains that I hadn''t even noticed that I was so hungry. It was as I was placing the tray out into the hall that I found Fenny. He was about half my height and skinny as a rake. That didn''t seem to affect his strength at all, however. He carried the large tub of steaming water like it weighed nothing at all. Like his mother he had scales but his were more of a sea blue and his eyes were red much like my own. I suppose that explained why no one had made a fuss about my eyes yet. Though my eyes were not slitted and seemed to be a darker red.


    "Let me just put this down in yer room miss." The boy said softly. He wore a kind of serious look that made me want to smile. Like he was trying to be more grown up than he was. "Ma says I''m to come get it in the morning. So, you have a good night Miss." He said, gently placing the basin on the floor near the door just inside the room.


    "You as well Fenny."


    He gave me a small smile then excused him self. I was closing my door when I heard a woman shout up the stairs for him to hurry it up. My good hearing also picked up the boys irritated mumbling. I laughed as I shut the door, locked it, and stripped out of my meager grey cloths, the cloak already hanging on the coat rack. I took a few minutes to enjoy just getting clean with the hot water and one of the towels Fenny had carefully laid on the table.


    Once I was done, I decided to give my cloths a little was as well and used the water to scrub the dirt and slime scum off them as best as it could. Wringing the water out took longer than the washing had. I mostly just hoped that they would be dry enough when I got up that I could where them. Normally I wouldn''t be too keen to sleep naked in hotel sheets, but my keen demon nose told me that these were clean. Besides, I was too tired to care.


    I hung the grey cloths, as well as the wet towel, on the coat rack to dry and fell back, naked, on the bed. I was tempted to just go to sleep but figured I should at least glance at my grimoire before I went to La La Land. So, begrudgingly, I got back up, flicked my long hair out of my face and made sure I didn''t step on my own tail as I went to the table and used a match to light the candle there. I reached into my bag, snatched up the little book, and settled back into the bed on my stomach with the leather-bound book on the pillow.


    For the first time I took a good look at the cover. On it was etched a stylized dragon and the words: Taming Magic. I smiled and my tail flicked out behind me. That sounded promising. I honestly had no clue, other than the methods that would be used to tame the monsters themselves, what kind of magic Tamers would even use. With any luck id be at least getting a little peek at that now.


    I undid the leather tie holding the cover shot and carefully opened to the first page. I was surprised to see that it seemed to just jump right into it. There was no cover page nor a table of contents. In bold italics at the top of the page was the header: To be a tamer.


    To be a Tamer:


    The first thing one needs to know about being a tamer is that it is a labor of love. If you go into this line of work think of simply forcing some strong monsters into being your partners, then taking the world by storm than you should probably investigate finding another line of work.


    While a person can, technically, subjugate a mid ranged Monster or lower into serving them the over all effectiveness of this one-sided partnership is minimal at best. Al through out history, the strongest tamers have always been those who take to the profession with an open heart and a eager willingness to grow and learn alongside their monster partners. Also, even if the tamer has the mana capacity to tame the higher A rank to SS ranked monsters, it would be impossible to force those monsters into a taming pact.


    A true tamer usually takes one of two routes to gaining power. The first is to start out by taming several E or even D ranked monsters. The lower the rank and the higher the mana capacity of the tamer, the more monsters that can be tamed at one time. Once the tamers has a handful of these lower ranked monsters they then use them to wear out and them make a contract with a higher ranked monster. Depending on the tamer''s mana levels, usually the lower ranked monsters would then be released from their contracts.


    This cycle continues till the tamer reaches a rank of monster they just don''t have the mana to control. The average cap for a tamer is either one or two B ranked monsters, or an A ranked one. However, in extremely rare cases there have been tamers who are able to tame the coveted S ranked monsters. To achieve this is to put yourself in league with some of the greatest tamers of all time such as the great Elien, an elf tamer who worked with her partner Sorphina, the legendary S ranked, named monster: a winged unicorn said to be able to captivate all who laid eyes on her.


    I mulled that over for a moment. I didn''t much like the idea that, in order to tame more monsters and higher-level monsters, I would have to abandon those I had already bonded with. Also, I didn''t want to tame things like slimes... I had a feeling that anything under a C rank wouldn''t really be what I was looking for. I wanted a partner not a pet and slimes would only be go as pets...


    I didn''t think it would be too much trouble for me to have at least a few higher ranked monsters. Kradiff said I would have a very high mana store within me both as a demon and as a soul transferred over from Earth. Hell, he put it in my head that I may one day, even tame a dragon! I''d imagine that massive flying, fire breathing, lizards would be at least S ranked if not SS ranked...


    What I really needed was to figure out the difference between the monster ranking system. So far, the only frame of reference I had were the slimes I had fought earlier in the day and they were way week. In fact, monsters aside, I didn''t even know where my own powers or limits stood in this world. I had no doubt hat if I was back on Earth, I would probably be the single strongest and most terrifying being on the planet. A bit of a scary thought really. I truly would be a demon there. But I had a strong feeling that I wasn''t near the strongest here. Not in a world of monsters and magic.


    I glanced back at the book and started swishing my tail about slowly. I had it wrapped around me all day and now it felt rather cramped. It was odd having a limb I never had before, and it was kind of hare to control it. The thing seemed to work better when I used it sub consciously rather that focus on it. My eye caught on a phrase in the grimoire ''the legendary S ranked, named monster''.


    Was ''legendary'' another class or was this Sorphina just very famous. Also, what was a named monster? Wouldn''t all tamed monsters have names? Other wise how would you be able to differentiate them. If you had six monsters, would you just call them by their race? What if you had multiple of the same monster? You couldn''t just call them all Slime, right?


    Shaking my head I decided to continue reading. Maybe my questions would be answered the farther along in the book I went. All I could do was read ahead and find out.


    The second way tamers tend to grow is to hop right into taming higher ranked monsters. By this we don''t mean A ranked or anything. But perhaps they would get a respectable C or D ranked monster. This would not be easy and not recommended for those unused to dealing with monsters. The ones who tend to take this method are those who switched from specializing as a mage or some such. Those that can handle such a strong monster with out the aid of a smaller monster. No novice should ever attempt to tackle this way of taming alone. More than one over ambitious new tamer has died in the attempt.


    However, if this is the way you intend to take you should first go to a guild and have your mana evaluated first. It would be negligent to assume you have enough mana to tame such monsters. If one attempts to tame a monster above their mana limits it would kill them on the spot, draining every ounce of mana on the spot. Taming is an art where one needs to know themselves as well as the beast they hope to ben to their will.


    This grimoire will be an indispensable tool for a would-be tamer. With it and a true love of your craft you will no doubt rise to a class of tamer that will have you recognized world round. This text will take you through the basic first, things that any taming instructor would know and impart on their students such as the circles and arrays used to bind monsters to you, basic spells to heal, enhance, and aid your monsters in battle, and the best way to fulfill the needs of your monsters. For optimum results it is suggested that the would be tamer also posses at least a few tamer compendiums or grimoires that list he statuses of monsters. When it comes to taming knowledge is power.


    I sighed and closed the book, my eyes to dry and heavy to keep reading. ''knowledge is power'' hu? Ugh! I hated studying. I smiled to myself; I was still getting excited. I was going to be a tamer. I had my heart set on it now. Not only was I going to be a tamer, but I was determined to be the very best. I don''t know who Elien the elf was but she wouldn''t be in the top spot for long. I''ll be number one!


    When I awoke the next morning, I was extremely confused for about fifteen seconds. One, I was in a reasonably comfortable bed... I could hardly remember the last time that happened. And two, I had a tail. That was the hardest one to wrap my head around for about ten of those fifteen seconds. Then it all came back and I could hardly believe that it had been less than a day since my life ended. So much had happened that if it had all taken place over a week I wouldn''t have been surprised.


    Still, once it sunk in that I was, indeed, in a new world, in a new body, and living a strange new life, I stretched and slid out of the bed. Still nude from the night before I stumbled over to the coat rack to check on the cloths. Pleased that they were dry I slipped into them as well as the sandals and sat back on the bed. Time to take stock of my circumstances and make plans for the day.


    Priority one was to check and see how much money I had to work with. I needed a minimum of three copper a day to continue staying at the inn. True, it was rather nice weather out and I was more than used to sleeping outside, but I was not very comfortable with the idea of some unknown monster sneaking up on me. Not to mention I was sure creepers existed in this world too and no doubt they also had magic or super strength. I was not looking forward to sleeping unprotected till I was sure in my ability to defend myself.


    With that in mind I fished out my coin purse and emptied the contents onto the table. I still had thirty-five copper, plus what I could get for the slime magistones. If I went back out and made sure to fight more monsters, preferably stronger ones than slimes, I should be fine for living arrangements for the immediate future. But I would need to find a way to get more money than what slimes could bring in. My flimsy cloths were not what you could call armour of any sort and once the weather turns cold, I would need warmer cloths too.


    So for today the goal would be to get to the Adventurers Guild and sell them my magistones and also get my mana evaluated, what ever that meant. The grimoire made it clear that I would be a fool to not have it done and then find myself in a dangerous position. I was confident that unless I attempted a B-rank tame or higher I should be fine. But it maybe good to get this evaluation done no matter what. Any amount of personal information about my new body surly couldn''t hurt.


    That decided I repacked my bag minus six copper that I intended to leave with who ever was at the bar for my room. Slipping on my Sandals and cloak I flipped the hood up, made sure my distinctive hair was covered and that my tail was safely curled around my waist. So far, I hadn''t been found out as a demon but there were parts of this new body that couldn''t be explained away the same as my eyes may be able to pass. Especially if those features were seen as a unit. I was bummed I didn''t have wings but perhaps it was for the best. Wings would be near impossible to hide.


    It was still pretty early so I wasn''t to surprised to see that the streets were nearly empty. The bar had a few patrons who looked to be nursing hang overs too. When I gave the girl- a little older looking than Breena had looked but this one was human- my six coppers I also asked for directions to the Adventurers guild. Apparently, it was dead center of town in the market square.


    I continued down East Road at a relaxed pace, enjoying the fine weather and the sounds of a city slowly waking up. It didn''t take too long for the poorer houses to my left to start to come to life: Mothers coming out with the was, men in work cloths kissing wives good by for the day, and small children making nuisance of themselves. The right side was distinctively quieter so I was caught off guard when I nearly ran into a man there while watching the variety of families on the other side of the road.


    "Whoa there!" Said the man as I nearly crashed into his leather clad chest. He was nearly a head taller than me I noted as I looked up to see his face. He gave a little start at first when he saw my face but covered it up with a kind enough smile swiftly. "Best to keep your eyes ahead miss." He chuckled.


    I was probably blushing when I said, "Sorry about that." I wasn''t the type to be so clumsy and absent minded. A by product of being always on alert, suspecting to be mugged or worse.


    "No problem at all." He said with a rather dashing smile. He was handsome with bright blue eyes, wavey gold brown hair, a square jaw and just a fine dusting of five o''clock shadow. He was broad shouldered too, which was kind of my thing. He fit well in what was clearly the guards uniform of blue tunic and leather armour. "Can I help you on your way miss?"


    "Oh, um, that alright. I was told that the adventurers guild was just up ahead so I should be fine on my own. I''d hate to disturb your work."


    "Helping the citizens is my work." He said cheerily. How could someone be that bight this early in the morning?


    "You groping the ladies again Wells?" Snickered a second man.


    I stepped away for the brown-haired man who I assumed was Wells and saw that the newcomer wasn''t alone. Three new men in guards'' uniforms seemed to have just exited a large stone building that, now that I looked I could see that it had a shiny golden placard next to the heavy wooden door claiming that this was the Garrison for the Bellana guard. The one who spoke was even taller than Wells with high cheek bones, straight blonde hair, and dark eyes. The other two were only a little taller than me; one had bright orange hair, a round face and massive muscles and the other was blonde haired, blue eyed and sported a smile that made his lined face look younger.


    "Hardly." Drawled Wells. I could tell immediately that wells did not like this new man at all.


    "Hel-"the man stopped mid introduction when he saw my eyes and his already grim face turned down right dangerous. "Oh." He said in a frosty tone. "Is there ever a time your kind aren''t prowling the streets."


    There was a set of gasps from the other two mystery men, and I saw Wells'' hand twitch, like he wanted to grab the hilt of the sword slug at his left hip. I was immediately wide awake and on guard. This man clearly didn''t think I was what I was. The fact that he implied there were many of ''my kind'' about made me assume that he thought I was a Beastmen.


    "Only the same time your kind are sir!" I said in such a cheery voice that there was no way that I could be accused of being a snot, which is exactly what I was being. Hey, I was a bitch, no one ever said I wasn''t. "Sorry to affront your delicate eyes so early in the morning. Total shamefulness on my part."


    I was met with the expected slacked jawed faces this attitude usually produced. All except one truly pissed off blonde male that is.


    "How dare you!" Snarled the man and Wells took a step-in front of me. "You animals are-"


    He was stopped when a fifth man opened the barracks door. This man was a behemoth. He had to be nearly seven feet tall and I was impressed he could fit his shoulders out the door. He had dark brown hair and a well-groomed beard, hard grey eyes, and a square forehead. It was like they couldn''t get a uniform to fit him, as it appeared that his massive body was about to bust out of the one, he was wearing. I could see the massive hilt of a sword peaking out over his shoulder.


    "Is there a problem here gentlemen?" He rumbled. The men looked nervous, but I just smiled at him sweetly. "The morning shift has only just begun and already my men are getting rowdy?"


    It looked like Wells was about to say something, but I decided to speak up first. "No sir. Your men were just pointing me toward the Adventurers guild! I''m afraid I have yet to get his name but this handsome blonde fellow here was particularly helpful!" I saw the shock and supressed rage flash over his face as I continued to speak to the clear man in charge here. That man was looking down on me with suspicion. "I don''t mind at all as people like me are open like that, but you may want to explain to him that such open flirting may be taken the wrong way by the Nobel Ladies. I''d hate for such a fine gentleman to get in trouble just because he was friendly."


    "...Indeed." Growled the captain, or what ever boss man title he held here.


    "Anyway, I really should be on my way. I have already kept you all from your duties and that''s just plain disrespect on my part. Please, stay safe out there sirs!" I waved cheerily, making sure to flash the bastard of the group a very toothy grin and walked off.


    "Wells, make sure the lady gets to the guild without incident wont you?" Growled the captain behind me and I nearly groan. So much for getting away Scott free. "You assigned to that area today anyways."


    "Yes sir!" Saluted wells and hurried to follow. We walked together in awkward silence for a minute or so before he spoke. "I know Vincent is a complete scum ball miss, but you should not have angered him like that..."


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.


    I shrugged. "I''ve delt with men like him plenty of times before."


    Wells sighed. "Yes, well, Vincent is a noblemen miss. He is working in the guard because his father wanted him to learn ''responsibility'', which is rich man code for making connections in the guard... He could retaliate and get away with it quite easily." He genuinely sounded concerned.


    "My name is Sin, not miss. And nobleman or not I am sure I''ll be fine."


    "Sin..." he shook his head in confusion and continued with his argument. "Given it is the adventurers guild you are headed to, I will assume that you are an adventurer, but even that would not keep you safe once a nobleman has it in his mind to make an enemy of you."


    "Oh, I wouldn''t beat him up." I said with a smile. "Though I can say with a strong confidence that im sure I could. No, the best way to deal with snooty stuck-up blow-hard is to deal a nice dose of public humiliation. If that doesn''t work than I might beat him up."


    Wells groaned. "Just so you know, threatening a city guard is a criminal offence..."


    I couldn''t help but laugh. "My bad." I could see that the road opened ahead. That must be the market square. "Looks like we are about there. You can go ahead and attend to your duties."


    "You seem awfully desperate to me rid of me Sin." Chuckled Wells. "Sorry, but I must stick with you. At least until we get to the guild. What the Commander says goes."


    "Not sure what his mother fed him growing up to make him that big..."


    Wells let out a bark of laughter. "The garrison has been asking ourselves that for years. So far, the best theory I have heard is that he grew up eating dragon steaks."


    "Well, if anything could do it would probably be that. So that other guy with the sour face," I said once the laughter died a bit. "I take it he has a thing against non-humans?"


    Wells'' face darkened a little and his shoulders slumped. "Mostly Beastmen as far as I can tell. You would think, with the owning of beastmen slaves having been abolished nearly one hundred and fifty years ago, that people would stop with it all already. Vincent''s family were once slave traders a few generations back and their distaste for the race still lingers I''m afraid."


    "It''s fine. I am used to people giving me dirty looks and nasty words." I could only imagine what Vincent would say if he knew I was a demon. Beastmen prejudices may be on the decline but from what I understand Demons were probably only pardoned recently. No was as good a time as any to do some fishing on the topic. "I''m sure demons have it harder than beastmen at this time."


    "Hmm. I guess. Even open-minded people are not sure what to make of demon kind. Especially now, given that rumors are floating around that the Demon King may be making his return at any time. When he does, I''ll be willing to bet the bad intentions will only get worse. Luckily free roaming demons a few and far between."


    The coming of the Demon King huh... No doubt he has already come, who ever he was. Why else would the heroes have been summoned after all. This place, even with its flaws, seemed so peaceful. It would be a real shame for it to al go up in smoke just after I got here.


    "I wonder why there are so few demons here. I mean, I have no idea what the demon world is like but if they are, indeed, such a brutish race than id imagine their world must be just as rough. You would think they would want to come here."


    "I asked a fellow in the red Ravens that very question once. He told me that there isn''t much written about demons. But from what he could find out about them, demons lose a lot of their magical power when coming here. They keep their physical strength but not their control over mana. Or something like that."


    "Red Ravens? "I asked, confused. "Is that like an intellectuals club or something?"


    Wells let out a loud enough bark of laughter that several people turned t stare as we entered the massive market square. It was mostly empty, but some stalls were beginning to be set up. And even though it was at least a foot ball field away from me I could make out the large statue of the hero Lect. Several birds took to the sky, and I saw a young boy dash past holding what might have been a stack of newsletters.


    "Have you been living under a rock miss Sin?" Wells continued to laugh. "Sorry. The Red Ravens are one of the nine Royal Squads. The elite of the elite filled with high skilled mages and warriors. Though, the Red Ravens are often seen as the bottom of the barrel. But their head quarters are close to the city here, so we see them often enough. The man I am speaking of is a rather skilled enchanter who also has a deep love of reading. If ever I have a question about some obscure subject, I tend to ask him when I see him. He is full of strange facts."


    "Maybe I will have to keep my eyes open for him then. I am awful as studying myself..."


    "Ha ha. Well, if you need to find one of the Red Ravens, they are simple to pick out in a crowd. All the Royal Squadrons have colored capes and the Red Ravens are a bright scarlet colour. And to be honest they are all a bunch of misfits, so they tend to stand out that way too."


    "Good to know."


    "Well, here we are, safe and delivered unharmed. This is the Adventurers guild. It''s the largest guild in the city and its often very busy."


    We stood outside a tall stone building with large, fogged glass windows that reached at lest two stories high. There was already a small crowd milling about outside despite the early hour. It was quite the eclectic mass of interesting characters. A mix of all races dressed as knights or in robes and witches'' hats. Three women all in separate groups wore next to nothing at all. Had this been a video game that I would have let that pass, but given this was real, how the hell was a bra and panties supposed to save you from harm. Surly magical enhancement could only do so much for armor?


    "This is great, thank you Wells." I said giving the man a slight bow.


    "Not at all. I was headed this way all the same, as the commander said. I''d suggest sticking to crowded areas while in town Miss Sin. I''d rather not have you caught unawares by Vincent if he decides to be truly offended."


    "Yes, I will keep that in mind. However, if you see him again and he seems beaten up... it wasn''t me." Laughing at the mans long suffering sigh I ascended the short stairs to the large, open entrance to the Guild.


    The inside was quite a sight if I had to be honest. Years of watching anime when I could put an idea of what a guild hall would look like, and this place was that but more. I had expected something that looked a bit like the main floor of the birch Tree Inn but with a reception desk rather than a bar and perhaps a notice bord of some sort for jobs the adventurers could take. This place however was far more extreme. For one thing, it was a two-storey stone building with very high ceilings and the glass windows that let in a great deal of light. The main room of the lobby was massive with scattered round tables and along the back wall were many alcoves with receptionists in them. People were lined up before the receptionists and I could see paper and packages moving between alcoves behind them. Was this place a kind of post office too?


    The biggest surprise other than just the sheer size of the place were the notice boards. There were a great many of them along the left and right walls of the building and even more people were crowded around those. Clearly this guild got a lot of work. I wasn''t entirely sure what I was supposed to so I decided to speak to one of the receptionists. I chose the one with the least number of people and waited my turn.


    "Good morning!" Chirped the lady behind the counter once I stepped up. Her hair was an interesting shade of pale orange and she clearly sported cat ears and an orange and white stripped tail. She was dressing in a uniform of grey skirt and a white blazer with a maroon bow tie at her neck. "Welcome to the Adventurers guild. How may I help you?"


    "Yes, good morning. Um, I was hoping you could help me. I am new to all this so forgive me if I seem quite uninformed. I was told that if I wanted to sell some Magistones that I had to bring them here. Also, if I wished to hunt any higher-level monsters with out a license from this guild..."


    "Oh yes! You are quite right Miss. It is illegal to sell magistones anywhere but at a guild. It doses not have to be an adventurer''s guild, any official guild would do. But in order to hunt higher level monsters you do indeed need to get a license from any battle-oriented guild. So, places like the merchant guild or the healer''s guild would not do. So, I take it that you would like to apply for a license then?"


    "Yes please."


    "Very well. First, I must inform you that it will cost ten coppers for a beginner''s license. Some one holding this license can take on F and E class Jobs at any adventurer''s guild. In order to upgrade you licence you first need to have your power level re assessed and you will have to complete at lest ten E class jobs with the guild."


    "Sure, that sounds fine." I got my money out and handed the clerk ten copper. "What does it mean to have your power level reassessed?"


    "Oh you haven''t had that done before either. That fine, many small towns do not have the means. It is something most guilds offer free of charge. Once I process your payment, I will escort you to a special chamber. Within the chamber is a very large magistone set withing a special pedestal. Placing your hand upon this stone will activate the assessment spell. The spell will allow you to check your status at any time simply by touching the invisible magical array that will be place on the back of your left hand. No one will be able to see this information but you as such things can be veery confidential as I am sure you can imagine."


    "I take it there is something in this assessment the guild needs for my licence?"


    "Yes. There will be a particular score given to you on the list you will see. It will be labelled ''power''. This number considers all of your different stats, averages them out and calculates potential. This number is mainly needed for when you wish to advance to the next leveling licence. If your power level meets the required number than when you go to update your license you will not first need to take the assessment test. All you will need is the required number of jobs completed to prove that you have gain the needed job experience to begin taking on my difficult challenges."


    "Okay, that makes sense, I guess. Will this power number be kept private as well? Just between myself and the guild I mean?"


    "It will not be made public no. but it is made available other official bodies, such as other guilds, the Royal Squads, and the military garrisons through out the country. This is done to make it both easier for you to apply for other jobs or licences without having to continually take the assessment and fill out the paperwork, as well as keeping the kingdom aware of the strength of its citizens. Though in all honesty, these numbers are rarely checked by anyone but the guilds during a person''s application. The only time the garrison will check this number is if you are found guilty of a crime. They then need the number to know what level of prison they may need to send a prisoner to."


    "I see." I didn''t like that much but it sounded like there wasn''t much I could do about it. I would just have to hope I didn''t get caught doing anything illegal. I was aware that thinking I shouldn''t get caught rather than deciding just not to be a criminal was a little messed. Why change me now? ''That makes sense as well."


    "Right!" she said with a bright smile. "Well, if you will just follow me, please."


    I was led to a door just to the left of the reception desk, beyond which was a long hallway. The cat lady claimed that behind most of the doors we were passing were various offices. "This one is where Magistones are evaluated, oh and here is where were sort through which jobs should go to which Adventurer class!" And eventually we made it to a door that she held open for me.


    The evaluation room was not very large, and it was also not very bright. As the lady shut the door behind me, I saw that the only light was emanating from the magistone. And what a stone it was! The thing was at least the size of a large watermelon. Its pearlescent surface seemed to swirl like it held a white, milky liquid filled with sparkles. The pedestal it sat on was only remarkable in that it was made of metal and so far, I had only seen larger structures made of wood or stone.


    Nervously I stretched out a black clawed hand toward the stone. I had no reason to assume that this would not work for me the same way it worked for everyone else. After all, this body was made here on this planet. It was just my soul that was not from here. Would that matter to the stone? I didn''t think so, but I was probably the least qualified person on the planet when it came to these things. My fingers brushed the surface, and I gasped when I realised it was warm.


    I slid my hand over the warm surface and the light got slightly brighter. I watched, fascinated, as a blue-black magic circle appeared on the back of my hand. Hu! Fancy. I withdrew my hand then used my right hand to wave over the spot the circle was slowly fading from. It burst to life again and, I shit you not, an actual status window appeared hovering over my hand... like from a damn sci-fi movie.


    Once the initial shock wore off, I took a closer look at the information there:


    Name: Sin


    Race: Demon


    Titles: One Blessed by the Divine, Demon Queen, Mana Keeper


    Profession: Tamer


    Health: 1000 Mana: 20,000


    Phys attack: 150 Magical attack: 30


    Phys Resistance: 150 Magical Resistance: 100


    Speed: 60 Stealth: 50


    Dexterity: 50


    Special attributes/ status effects: Poison resistance 25% (Demon Queen), Fire resistance 25% (Demon Queen), immunity to mind control (Demon Queen), Demonic supremacy (Demon Queen), Mana consumption -50% (Mana Keeper), Linguistics, Devine acceptance (One Blessed by the Devine), Mana Pool -80%, Magical Attack -80%


    Special Skills: Skinning +10% (Tamer), Harvesting +10% (Tamer)


    Power: 80


    I stared at the information in utter confusion. I had no idea what normal stats were supposed to look like, but I felt many of these numbers were way above what a beginner adventurer would have... Like 1000 health? Or how about 20,000 mana?! I knew I was supposed to have a lot but that seems extreme. Ad to that the fact that I apparently had a status debuff that knocked 80% off both that already insane mana pool and off my magical attack. I could only assume that was because I was a demon and no in the demon realm. Wells did just say that demons didn''t like coming here because it trashed their stats. But 80%? What the heck. How strong would I be in the demon realm? Surly even demons didn''t get these insane numbers.


    And what the heck was with the titles? One Blessed by the Divine I guessed was because I was reincarnated by Kradiff. And judging by the buff listed as being bestowed by the title of Mana Keeper, I would assume that was because I was from Earth. Kradiff did say that those from earth were far better with their mana. Still, 50% seemed large too.


    The single most disturbing thing on this status window was, by far, the title of Demon Queen. Me, a demon queen? What? What the hell was a demon queen? I heard about the Demon King but nothing about a demon queen. It better damn well not mean that I was supposed to be, like, that monster''s wife or something. Or that I was supposed to be the new demon king, though because I was a woman the title got changed to demon Queen?


    My head was spinning from confusion and mild panic. I took a deep breath and shook my head. Okay, nothing I could do about it now. Kradiff most assuredly did not say anything about me having to be the big bad demon king. I''m sure that can''t be the case. I mean the reason the heroes were summoned, and I got killed in the first place was because he was already resurrected right? And if it was some sick joke that I was destined to be his wife... then fuck that. I would be straight up ''nopping'' out of that right here and now. No way would I ever agree to that so I guess the big bad demon king would just have to live with being single.


    I rubbed at my budding headache and shuffled out of the room. The reception lady was still there and smiled at me encouragingly and perhaps a little worried too. I guess I must have looked pale or something. "All set?" She asked gently.


    "Yes, good to go I think." I said, trying to slap on a reassuring smile.


    "Alright, lets get you back to reception so you can fill out that paperwork than."


    The paperwork was straight forward in the end. They wanted to know my name, title (Optional) witched I nopped out of, profession, and any skill sets that I may want the guild to be aware of in case specialized jobs came in. I asked the lady and there was no need to write down profession specific skills as those would already be assumed, so I left that blank as well. The last line was for my power level, and I scribbled in the number ''80'' wondering if that was average or high. It wouldn''t be low, not with the stats I had. But maybe my smaller numbers brought it down to an average number.


    I handed the woman the sheet of parchment.


    "ei- eighty?" she asked, surprised. High it was.


    "That''s what the spell says..."


    "I believe you. These forms an imbued with a spell to prevent false hoods, just as any government document is." Well, that would have been nice to know. "I am just shocked I suppose. Its not a number you see in beginners. With this power number you will not have to take the exam for quite some time. You still must do the number of required jobs for each licence though."


    "I understand."


    "And you are a tamer! That is also a shock. Only because I haven''t seen it before. People usually just go the summoners route theses days."


    "I have been told that before. I don''t have a partner yet, however. I am hoping to find one soon."


    "Hmmm... well if you need a monster partner and you have a beginners license, then I suggest heading to Caster''s Wood."


    "Is that the forest to the east? Because I traveled through there to get to Bellana and all I saw were slimes."


    "Oh no. Caster''s Wood is to the northwest. Many beginners head there for their first jobs as it''s a prime location to find the herbs the herbalists and alchemist ask for on the job boards. The forest to the east is bordered by several small towns and farms and so the monsters get cleared out quick."


    "Alright, thank you. I will look into that."


    "Fantastic! Now, if I remember correctly, you had some magistones you wanted to hand in?"


    In the end I managed to get fifteen coppers for the stones I had. Not much. Once she processed the stones, the receptionist put her hand over my left one and the magical circle lit up again. "There now your status will reflect your Adventurer class as well. Good luck out there Sin the Tamer!"


    I left the adventurer''s Guild more confused than when I went in but at least I accomplished what I needed too and had a direction to go. I looked at the thin sheet of parchment I held in my hand. On it was a job request that I decided I could attempt while also hunting higher level monsters in Castor''s Wood. I hoped to find a monster to make my partner as well. As a tamer, I really had to get on that. I mean, a tamer without a tame was pretty much not a tamer, right?


    This job I got off the E class job board. I could have just tried out the F class ones first, but I was confident enough in my abilities to know I could handle the E class. Especially since this one was just a collection job. All I needed to do was collect twenty of some healing herbs called Savio Root. Luckily the posting had a little drawing of what those looked like so it shouldn''t be too hard to get my hands on. Plus, this job paid two whole silvers. With any luck that would be enough to get me at least a little gear. As of right now the only reason I could even risk going into that woods was solely because I was a demon and my very skin seemed more durable than most other races. Going forward I would need something stronger. Not to mention a weapon. Not that I had any clew how to wield any kind of weapon...


    Nothing I could do about it at this moment. I clearly had many things I needed to accomplish and the best way to do that was to head to Castor''s wood. It irritated me to head out with exactly no preparations at all. That was a good way to get killed, but I didn''t see any way around it.


    I glanced back at the guild as I walked away. I noticed that many people inside were working together to do their jobs, forming parties. If I had more confidence in my scotia skills, I probably could have tried to join up with one of them. I had the shear physical power to at least make myself useful after all. But given my sorry looking state no one would believe I could do what I claimed. In order to get on the team, I would have to reveal I was a demon. That in and of itself would probably turn most away and it would mean pretty much letting the whole city know who and what was. Best not to do that.


    And with that depressing thought I made my way through the Square. It was now getting steadily busier with fruit and veggie stalls popping up all over the place. I decided to stop at the fountain in the center and get my first look at what a previous hero looked like.


    In all honesty, Lect seemed an imposing figure. I couldn''t tell his true height, as the statue was larger than life size, but he seemed well built under leather and mail armor. His hair was long and held back in a tail, his vacant statue eyes looked off into the distance while he seemed to be wearing a cocky smile. At his hip was a long thin sword with an ornate hilt and sheath and a small shield was slung across his back. If someone told me that he came from Earth without me already know that it was fact, I may not have believed it. He looked like he belonged here.


    As I continued my way toward West Street, I thought about the new heroes. It has only been one day, but I was willing to bet that their experience was turning out to be much different than mine. They were most likely in the capital I would say, maybe even in the palace. Id even bet they were being treated like the heroes the people were hoping they would become. But I also be they were much angrier and afraid than myself. I had nothing left to grieve back on Earth, also I had a god give me a bit of a rundown on the situation to begin with.


    That poor kid I was about to pickpocket... What kind of crap was he having to deal with right now. Still, unlike me, he had company. Surly the other four people were looking out for him. I truly hoped that they were older and wiser. People that had good heads on their shoulders and could help the kid through this. Because the people here were going to expect that kid to kill. To kill monsters and at least one demon. Maybe even more... Here, fifteen or so may be seen as an adult but I bet that kid never once thought he would ever be in a situation where his and other lives were on the line.


    There was nothing I could do for him or the others at any rate. And even if they did show up and ask for my aid in slaying this Demon King, I honestly don''t know if I would agree to it. I just wanted to live my life the best I could. I was no hero. I was a demon.

 Life as a Beginner Adventurer

    Castor''s Wood was darker than the one I traveled through to get to Bellana. The trees were the same, but they grew much closer together and seemed a lot older. I could hear many more animal noises and the air seemed heavier, denser, like I could sense the magic in the air.


    Getting here was easy enough, though it did take two hours. I wasn''t looking forward to the walk back while I was all pooped from working but there was nothing, I could do about that now. I didn''t pass anyone on the road, but I was sure I wasn''t going to be the only person wandering around these forests before the day was out. On the class E board alone, I saw at least two other quests for this place. I thought about scooping them all up but required information about this world that I just didn''t process yet. There fore I played it safe and just went with this one.


    It was working out well so far actually. I had already dug up five of the little dark brown roots from the moss-covered earth. They were not too hard to spot as the white flowers the roots were attached to stood out well in the dark forest. It made me realise that there may very well be other valuable plants all around me and I couldn''t even tell. I really needed to get a book on plants so I could figure out what was worth collecting and selling. That was one good thing about this world compared to earth: just about everything was an opportunity to make even just a little money. With a little research, trial and error, and a splash of tenacity, I could easily make enough money to keep me alive.


    Four hours later I was sitting on a mossy rock, munching on the Jerky from my bag, and stuffing my fortieth root into the bag. I had more than enough for the Job and extra to sell. I even manage to pop several slimes. Two squirl like creatures that were the size of a bob cat also met their ends at my claws. This left corpses behind and I regretted not having some kind of knife on me. Being a tamer apparently made me better at skinning and harvesting from monster corpses, but I didn''t have the tool I needed to do it. It seemed like a terrible waist to just leave the corpses there but there was nothing I could do. I couldn''t drag them back with me.


    I did get two larger sized magistones from them, however. They were by no means big, but they were still double the size of the slime ones. I was amused to find that the stones just dropped to the ground once I killed the monster squirrels. Just appeared out of no where and fell to the ground. I hadn''t thought about it when I killed the slimes because they popped on contact. I just assumed that the stones had been inside the slimes and fell out when they exploded. Apparently, these things just appeared out of thin air.


    It wasn''t long after my lunch that I came across my first truly intimidating monster. I had just jumped a log when the bushes near by shiver. I shivered too. Something told me that I was in danger. So, I was mid leap when a massive wolf like creature burst out of the forest exactly where I had been a second before. It was a grisly green colour that made it blend well into the trees, its eyes a pale yellow. Its fangs were massive enough that they distracted me from the two black, ram like, horns sprouting out between its ears.


    The most frightening thing about it though was its sheer size. I hadn''t measured myself since arriving here but I would estimate I was still about the same height I was on earth: a measly five foot five inches. This wolf was at least a foot taller than me.


    As it bared down on me, spittle flying and savage snarls rumbling around me, I briefly thought about taming it. Then I realised I hadn''t read how to do that from the grimoire yet. A massive oversite on my part that I cursed myself for. But looking at the wolf I decided that I wouldn''t want it anyway. There was a madness to the monster that I wasn''t fully comfortable with.


    So that left killing it. I wished I knew some way to see the monsters'' stats like I could see my own. I was just hoping I could defeat this thing at this point. For all I knew this damn dog was the big boss of this forest and I was about to get eaten as a fool. Damn it.


    Still, I took a fighting stance, or my best, untrained, approximation of one. On instinct my tail  unwound itself from my waist and whipped out around me. The wolf lunged and I dodged to the side, slashing out with my claws as the wolf sailed past, a rotted stench wafting off it. I felt pressure, warmth, and wetness on my hand as my inhumanly sharp nails carved through the wolf''s soft flesh. It howled and landed behind me.


    It was faster than I expected as it spun around and lunged again, its mouth engulfing my arm easily. Panicking a little I slammed my fist into its nose and wrapped my tail around its neck. I felt a tingling of the flesh under the scales of my tail, like when the hairs on your arm raise. In a single swift motion, I yanked my arm out of the wolf''s mouth before the jaws could snap shut and pulled my tail. To my shock the world was sprayed with blood.


    Terrified I stumbled back, thinking that the wolf had some how torn my arm off at the last second. It took only a glance to see that that was no the case. My arm, shaking like a leaf, was firmly attached to my body. Then what-?


    There was a solid bump and a sticky warmth on my sandaled foot that made me jump a surprising height. I guess demons had strong jumping power too. I looked down and saw my foot was splattered with sticky red blood. My eyes slowly traveled along the blood-soaked grass and two feet away, where I had just been standing, was a massive, severed, wolfs head. Its eyes were glazed over, and its tongue was black where it hung out of the open maw.


    Hyper ventilating, I stumbled back, hit a tree and slid to the ground. Shivering horribly, I looked over and saw the headless corps gushing what was left of the blood out into the roots of another tree. I clutched at my heart and tried to get my breathing under control. It had been a long time since the sight of blood had sent me into a panic. Not since I was a teen. But now as I sat swimming in it I fought back the old memories.


    Hoping to distract myself I looked to my long thin tail. Had I really ripped a head off with it? It was too skinny you have muscles like that! After a second, I realised that it seemed twice as thick as it had been and there was gore all over it. Not just blood but literal chunks of meat...


    I immediately vomited over the side of a root. The jerky the only thing there to chuck up. Once done I took one big, calming, breath... then another for good measure. Then I looked back to my tail, lifting it to eye level to get a better look. The scales. The scales had lifted on end like arm or leg hairs. But these were hard as rock, sharp as knives, scales, not hair. I hadn''t ripped the head off- id sawed it off!


    I took another deep breath and got to my shaky legs. Well, they didn''t show this in video games. There wasn''t crazy amounts of blood and gore when slaying monsters in those. I pulled myself together and, only a little shaky now, grabbed the fur on the dog''s head and lifted. No magistone under there. There was one of the horns cleanly broken off on the ground though. I dropped the head a few inches over and bent down, picking up the black horn that was about the size of my fist. I didn''t play many video games, but I knew a monster drop when I saw one.


    There had to be a magistone somewhere though. I eyed the main body of the corps. That was going to be heavy. But hell, I had a strength stat of one fifty. That had to count for something. Staggering a little I approached the corps. It smelt something awful. Even if I had a skinning knife I don''t know if id want this pelt. It would take a lot of shampoo to get that stink out. I grabbed two fistfuls of curse, dark green fur, and yanked. It was a little heavy but I manage to lift it up and flip it over with more ease than someone my size should ever been able to do.


    There! The magistone. It was about half the size of a tangerine. Several times bigger than the ones I had already gathered but not even slightly close to the one back at the Adventurer''s Guild. It made me wonder what insane monster they had to kill to get that massive stone. Surly it had to of been an SS ranked monster.


    I reached down and lifted the stone out of the puddle of blood, almost gagging again. Yuck. I really needed to clean up. No way could I walk through town looking like a walking corpse. Not to mention the blood would smell something awful in the three hours walk through the forest and along the road. Id needs to find a stream or something to wash up in. id take walking home sopping wet over the state I was in now any day.


    It took much longer than I would have liked to find a place to clean up. I also had to sneak my way around a group of four adventurers as well. I didn''t need them asking questions. They seemed young and inexperienced. I hopped they didn''t come across any of those wolves. Though there was four of them so maybe they could handle it.


    Luckily the stream I found was deep enough that I could lie down in it and soak all the blood out. I would be giving Sally another copper for a tub of water tonight. Maybe I would splurge and go for the baths. I was so gross I didn''t think hot water and a towel would cut it. But she had said the baths were public. I was by no means body shy. Bathing with a bunch of strangers didn''t bug me in the least, but then they would all see, without a doubt, that I was a demon. And even though I was now feeling that that was a fact I wouldn''t be able to keep hidden for long, not if I was going to stay in town and keep interacting with people, I still didn''t want to just come out and say it.


    I sighed, pulled my self out of the water and began stripping. I had to make sure as much blood as possible was out of my cloths. I wrung them all out and slip the cold wet fabric back on. I hopped I didn''t catch a cold. The sun was warm today but I was in a very shady forest. Then I soaked my cloak and used a thin tree trunk and a stick to twist the cloak as much as I could to get the water out. At least the stone and horn were easy to rinse off.


    As I thought, it was about a three hour walk to get back to town. The hour in the forest was a miserable one but once I made it to the road my cloths dried off fast enough. I had to remove my cloak to get it done though. It was a stressful forty minutes, waiting for the grey cloth to dry, while making sure no one else was on the road to see me in all my black-red haired, horned, clawed, and devil tailed glory. I got lucky though.


    I got back to town with plenty of time to spare. The first thing I did was to turn in the job request. A human woman assisted me this time but she had the same cheery attitude the last receptionist had. She took the roots with a big grin and handed me the two silver coins and a form to fill out to confirm it was me who finished the task and that I had received my payment. That done, I sold her my magistones. The larger one didn''t seem to surprise her, so I assumed that stones that size were not too uncommon here. I ended up getting seven coppers for the squirl stones and a whopping fifty for the wolf one.


    I then asked here where I cold sell dropped monster parts. She explained that I could sell them at the guild if I liked but that sometimes you could get better prices going directly to the venders around town. Either the ones in the central market or the shops located in the southwest part of town.


    I showed her the horn. "Oh, a forest wolf horn. They are used in potion making. We can give you thirty-three coppers for it. You may get as much as forty for it to the right vendor though."


    I shook my head. "No that''s alright. I will just sell it here. I have extra roots as well. Are you able to take those?"


    "Of course! It is ten copper per root."


    I didn''t bother to take another job when I left the guild. Id go look again tomorrow. I did leave with a significantly fuller coin purse, however. I decided to check out the baths after all. I felt so gross it was almost like a second skin of filth.


    As it turns out the baths were just a short way down from the market back along East Road, a couple doors down from the garrison building where I met Wells and the other soldiers. The sight of the large stone building reminded me that there may or may not be a butt hurt noblemen out to get me. I glanced over my shoulders, just to be safe, and approached a clean, white stucco building that was the bath house.


    I wasn''t the only one here. There were groups of girls giggling, coming in and out of the wooden doors, a mother and father with dog like faces, three young doggy children trailing behind, and an older, over wight man grumping about prices while eyeing the girls.


    The inside of the building was just as crowded with people of all shapes and sizes, and it was also warm. Warm and humid. I wandered up to what looked like a service counter and a small girl walked over to great me. She was maybe eleven or twelve with long dark hair that was in a little disarray, probably because of the humidity, and bright green eyes.


    "Good afternoon miss!" She said in a pretty sing song voice. "What can I do for you?"


    "Hello. I am new to this establishment. Are all the baths public or is there private ones as well?"


    "There are women''s baths, men''s baths, and joint men''s and women. This one is usually used by family groups. We do not have private baths, but we do have private stalls. They are just curtained off areas with a wash tub big enough to fit a small child and a spout for hot water to come out."


    "That would be fine thanks. Do you also sell soap here?"


    "Oh, yes, we do! For the private stall it is three coppers, the bar of soap is two coppers. We sell linens here as well if you are interested?"


    Ten minutes later I was in a cramped, public bathroom, sized stall. There was a stone ledge with a tub like the one Fenny had brought me yesterday at the in. Above the tub was a bronze facet. Curious I turned the knob and immediately hot water spilled out. I wondered how they had hot, running, water here. Probably magic I decided.


    If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    I quickly undressed and used the cloth and soap I had bought to begin cleaning my self. The water was a little hotter than was comfortable, but it was better than cold, so I wasn''t going to complain. Finally clean, I used my new fluffy towel to dry off and redressed myself. It was amazing how much better a person could feel just from being clean. I desperately needed new cloths though. All the fighting was taking its toll on my poor grey cloths.


    I left the baths and made my way back to the Birch Tree. They were not very busy now as it was still a little too early for the evening meal. I could smell the simmering meat though and it my now empty belly grumble. I waved to Sally who was setting up the bar and made my way to my room.


    I was beat but I didn''t have time to rest just yet. I wanted to go and see about upgrading my gear. While I was at it, I would get something to snack on. But the gear was the biggest need at this point. Had that wolf even knocked my cloths id be running around naked right now. I desperately need more durable cloths. I doubted I had the coin to afford anything magically enhanced but may be a new shirt and pants, plus some light leather armour. And a new pair of shoes. Sandals provided zero protection.


    That decided, I dropped off my new toiletries, made sure my pack didn''t have anything missing, and hurried back out to the streets. They were much more crowded than they were when I left this morning and I enjoyed myself people watching as I made my way toward the market square.


    I was nearly at the garrison, watching a woman with bright red hair shout profanities from a balcony to an older man, also with red hair, though his was very much greying. The man was clearly drunk and seemed to be begging the woman to let him come home. She was screeching at him while tossing what appeared to be freshly laundered socks at his face while several others laughed. I was just letting out a chuckle my self when I felt the tell-tale flutter of someone shifting my cloak.


    With a snap of my wrist, I snatched my hand firmly around a small wrist. I looked down and saw the horrified, dirty face of an urchin boy. He was maybe seven with big, dark blue yes, messy grey hair, and a set of cute grey dog ears on his head. A glance down showed that he also sported a fluffy grey tail. I gave the would be pick pocket a dirty look.


    The boy tried to tug out of my hold but there was no way he could do it. I saw he was about to scream. Probably to cry child abuse or something. I would have when I was his age.


    "Ah!" I hissed in warning, crouching down to his level. "I wouldn''t do that if I were you." I lied. I totally would have done it.


    "Let me go lady." He hissed in an equally low whisper, rethinking drawing attention to himself. "I ain''t done noth''n"


    "Well, you did nothing very poorly." I said with a little laugh. "You can''t pick a pocket if the person knows you are doing it. That''s how you get yourself a beating, Kiddo." I slid my bag off my shoulder and the kid eyed me warily. One handed, I pulled out my coin purse and took a copper out. I pressed the copper into the boy''s palm. "You take that okay. And best tell all your little friends to not try that stunt with me." I curled the boys'' fingers over the coin and glared down at him, letting him see the glowing red of my eyes and my fangs pocking out.


    I saw the fear enter the boys'' eyes. He probably didn''t know why, but he knew that I was no goat lady and it scared him. Good. It was dangerous to approach what you didn''t know. If he didn''t get smart he''d find himself in a ditch.


    Softening my gaze, I smiled. "I won''t tell you off for stealing. I know what its like having no choice. But a good rule to follow is not to pick a mark you know nothing about. Random people under cloaks could be big scary monsters. Now you promise to spread the word Kiddo?"


    The kid nodded nervously, the fear a little lessened. He was so small. Was he an orphan. Poor thing.


    "Good." I said and pulled five more coppers out and held them out for the boy, releasing his wrist. "A real man keeps his promises Kiddo."


    He held the fist with the single copper close to his chest while eyeing the coppers in my hand. Slowly he reached out then snatched the other coins away, taking a step back. He eyed me like I was a weird bug, then took off into the crowd. I sighed and got to my feet, slinging my bag back over my shoulder.


    "Should you really be encouraging kids to be better thieves?" Said an exasperated voice.


    I hand known he was there, but I made sure not to show any surprise. "Better?" I spoke. "No. Smarter, perhaps." I turned to face Wells head on. There was no way he would find that kid now and I may be new to this world, but I doubted it was a crime to give a street urchin some money. He was eyeing me strangely. "I could tell him to stop but he wouldn''t. Probably couldn''t. But maybe I can give him some advise that will keep him alive for a birthday or two."


    Wells sighed and scratched his head. "I doubt he will try picking your pocket again at least."


    I laughed. "I wouldn''t count on that. An empty belly will make a kid do any number of stupid things."


    "You managed to stay alive for the day then? I thought for sure Vincent would have tried something."


    "Meh. I wasn''t in town most of the day. Out hunting roots, of all things." I walked over to the guard, and we walked side by side towards the market. "Are you still working? They don''t give you much down time in the guard, do they?"


    This time it was wells who laughed, the evening sun bouncing off his curls. "I was just heading back to the garrison when I saw you and was curious. Even under your mysterious cloak those eyes glow like coals. Makes you easy to pick out of a crowd. That and you are short."


    "Gee, thanks. I was just heading back to the market. Today showed me that I can''t keep heading into the forests with noting but this mysterious cloak to keep me safe. Time to get what ever gear I can now."


    "You went into Castor''s wood like that?" Asked a shocked Wells. "There are forest wolves in there. Not to mention several species of giant fungus that can knock a seasoned fighter on their asses. And I have heard rumors of goblin activity. You really should not have been there..."


    He couldn''t see it but I rolled my eyes all the same. Men. "I was fine. Just inexperienced. I took out one of those wolves with out any real trouble with my bare hands- "tail, but he didn''t need to know that. "It just scared the crap out of me. I have no doubt that I can handle anything in there, I just need to educate myself better first before going in again. I don''t need to die because I went and stepped on a poison flower without realizing it. I don''t suppose you know a place I can buy a cheap bestiary around here. That would help."


    Wells sighed again, clearly thinking me a lost cause. "If you want cheap than usually, I suggest just sticking to the market square. You will find better gear at the actual shops, and I would be warry of scammers, but they do have the lower prices. It isn''t a market week though, so it won''t be as busy there with things like weapons and magical items. Mostly it''ll be food stalls and provisions."


    We stopped in front of the garrison and there was an awkward pause. I wasn''t sure why, but Wells seemed nervous. I wasn''t a social butterfly, but I almost never got embarrassed when speaking to people. Usually, I just pissed them off as my filter was broken. Wells seemed nervous though. Maybe he didn''t talk to random, red eyed girls too often?


    "Try to keep out of trouble out there." He spoke.


    "No promises." I replied with a wave of my hand and made to walk off.


    "You two connected at the hip now or something?" Came a good-natured chuckle. The commander of the Garrison was walking toward us with five or six other men. It must have been a shift change for the guard. That or I was suddenly a cop attractant.


    "What can I say, I am just that irresistible Cap." I said, not even skipping a step. "Best no speak to me too much or you may start stalking me too."


    A few of the men laughed and others gave me hostile looks. The commander just smiled and shook his head. ''Keep out of trouble young lady."


    "The name is Sin." I called over my shoulder, giving the group a cheeky wave.


    Wells had been right about the market. There were mostly food venders about. I did get myself a snack of some mystery meat on a stick that tasted pretty good and took the edge off my hunger. It took me a while to find a woman who was selling cloths, but I did get a new shirt, this one black, and a pair of black leather pants with leather lace up pant legs. The pants coast me half a silver but I considered it a sound investment.


    From a man nearly on the other side of the square I found a dark brown, previously used, leather corset that wouldn''t impede my arms so I could still fight with my claws, and a set of fingerless gloves of a similar color. The boots I found cost a full silver, but the merchant slashed them with a knife to prove that they had a minor defence charm on them that would stop them being destroyed by most anything I would find in the Castor''s Wood.


    My pocket change was severely depleted by then, but I was still hoping to find a new cloak that didn''t hang so long and a knife for skinning. I also hoped to get a larger bag. If I wanted to start hauling more stuff home, I would need something better to put it in.


    The knife I got for much cheaper than I thought I would but the bag I found nearly cleaned me out. It was enchanted to hold more than it looked like it could. It wasn''t an amazing amount but what ever I put in there would be nearly weightless too, so it was worth it. It was more of a satchel really and, provided I bought a belt, I could even attach it to my hip rather than have it slung over my shoulder, getting in my way during a fight.


    Exhausted and hungry again, I decided to head back to the Inn. I was ready to do nothing but eat and sleep. I knew I couldn''t go to sleep right away, however. I needed to study my grimoire more. I didn''t find any books on local monster and plant life, but even if I did, I wouldn''t have been able to afford it anyway.


    That night I had a meal of roast beef (?) and steamed vegetables. It was great, especially since it was so cheap. I barely tasted it, however, as I wolfed it down so fast. That done I settled into my bed with the candle lit and opened the grimoire.


    I was confused when I opened the leather-bound cover, but after a second that turned into me being impressed. The book must really be magical because the words that had been written there the night before were gone and all new ones had taken their place.


    This time the header was: Beginner Spells for Beginner Tamers


    All tamers, weather they learn from a veteran tamer or from a book like this one, have a set few spells that are necessary for the job. From the basic contracting spell to the very first healing spell any rooky tamer needs to know, they can be found here in these pages.


    As with any spell, no matter what line of work you decided to go into, tamer spells cost mana. However, unlike many other magic users, Tamers magic doesn''t always just eat up your mana at a constant rate (Like most long cast attack spells including Heat Burn or Frosted Air) or take a big chunk of mana that slowly regenerates (Like the heal spell Mass Heal or the trap spell Pit). Nearly every spell in every class falls into one of these two categories.


    A great many tamers'' spells fall into a third category. These spells tend to take a large amount of mana as the Quick Cast spells, but the mana does not regenerate till the spell has been released. It is almost a mix between the two former spell cast categories.


    For instance, the basic contract spell takes a mass amount of mana that scales up with the rank of the monster you wish to tame. F ranked monster take almost no mana whereas SS ranked monsters take so much mana that it would kill even a skilled mage to attempt it. When this spell is cast, the mana is spent. It does recover over time but not fully. For as long as that monster is contracted to you a small portion (In relation to the rank of the monster) will always be kept in limbo till the monster is freed from the contract.


    For instance: if a contract takes one hundred mana to complete than eventually ninety mana will recover but ten mana will always be lost to the caster''s mana pool till the contract is released.


    This is true for many of the more advanced Tamer spells, such as summoning ones tame to their location. This spell costs a great deal of mana depending on how far the tame needs to be summoned. It is useful in a bind, especially if the tamer has a healthy mana pool, but it is always more efficient to just take your tame with you. A tamer need, always, to be prepared for any given situation. If you know you are going to be traveling over water, perhaps be sure to take an aquatic monster with you rather than sacrificing a large store of mana to summon one from home.


    Further pages held diagrams of magical circles for spells that would be useful to tamers. Casting them meant I needed to be able to picture the circle in my mind and remember the verbal activation. Later, when I become more advanced, I could possibly use the spells with just the memorized array and no verbal command. I thought memorizing the complicated designs would be impossible, but they stuck in my head easily. Apparently, the way the magic worked was that the spell just got engraved into your memory over time. Helpful but a little scary too.


    I decided to take the time to memorize the contract spell, healing spell, and summoning spell before moving on. There were a few support type spells there too, like one to boost your partners strength stat and such, but my head hurt too much to try and memorize them right at that moment.


    I flicked a head a couple pages to see where the chapter ended as I wanted to go to sleep. I was shocked to find that there was only one page left. Every other page was blank... well, it was a magic book. Maybe it knew I was sleepy, and it was telling me to go to bed. The thought made me smile. Id read the last page and go to sleep. Hint taken, book.


    An important difference between Taming and Summoning a tamer must all ways keep in mind is that, unlike summons, who return to what ever world they came form once a certain amount of damage is taken, your tames can and will die. A tamer must constantly be aware of their partners health so that they do not loose their lives. A tamer who lets their tames die purely for the sake of convenience or because they do not care are the absolute worst. If you see that your partner is close to dying you must call them back.


    That being said, you are now the owner of this grimoire. This grimoire is not just a teaching tool but also a magical item designed to give added advantage to its owner. You can always use the basic taming method to tame your partners, however, there is another way open to you. But it is one that comes with certain risks.


    If you so wish it, you can draw out the taming spell on any blank page in this book. You must use your own blood to do this. Then you use the monster''s blood (Or equivalent) to NAME your beast. You write the name above the circle and then activate the magic. The act of naming and of bonding yourselves together with a blood contract is extremely powerful. It takes more limbo-ed mana to do this.


    Any blood bound tame can be summoned to and from this grimoire. Also, the act of blood bonding creates a soul connection between yourself and the tame. This can cause such phenomena as mind speech between tamer and tame. It also makes it so that the contract can never be broken unless death takes either the tamer or the monster. This is not to be done lightly.


    Also, the act of naming a monster is a powerful magic. It imbues the monster with new magic and power. The act of naming is a Devine Magic and costs a great deal of mana. This mana cost is more in the lines of a quick cast and will not hold any of your mana in limbo. It does make it so that the cost of taming and F class monster is more like taming a B class. This is an extremely dangerous magic and should never be attempted unless the tamer has at least 1000 mana for a lower tiered monster. The cost goes up massively the higher you go. More tamers than not have died attempting this.


    And that''s where it ended. No conclusion or prelude to the next chapter. Just a complete stop. It seemed to accentuate the gravity of that last page. A Devine power? So, normally, only the gods could name monsters? I didn''t know enough to be sure... and how is that beginner knowledge?! I can cast Devine Magic?! Hells bells, it only costs 1000 mana for a class F. and by taming that class F in that way I essentially level it up to a class B. And I had a base mana pool of 20,000!!!


    The enormity of just how much mana I did have was suddenly crashing down on me. It was nearly God like. Like I was a demigod of magic. It was insane. Were the heroes like that too? They were still human where I was a demon so the likely had less. Even 10,000 mana would be an insane amount.


    And I had an 80% mana de-buff now to boot. So, if I was in the demon world... I would have 100,000 mana. Holly shit. It didn''t make me invincible by any means, but it was on hell of an advantage. Especially once I learned how best to utilize this advantage.


    I blew out the candle and curled my body around the grimoire as I fell asleep. Suddenly this book was more like a friend than a bit of nifty magic reading material.

 Heroes

    The following two weeks went smoothly if I did say so myself. I still hadn''t gotten a tamed monster, but I didn''t feel as desperate anymore either. After only a couple days of doing jobs in the forest I learned that there was nothing in there that could seriously hurt me so long as I kept vigilant. And with my new bag and knife I was able to bring home enough drops and pelts that I wasn''t hurting for money. I was by no means well off, but I didn''t have to worry weather or not id be able to afford my room and meals at least.


    I got to know the Birch Tree Inn and some of its regulars a little better too. Turns out that Martin the cook was Sally''s boyfriend. Her husband, and Fenny''s father, had been killed before Fenny was born while out adventuring. Turns out that Sally was pretty pissed about that. Apparently, they had the Inn back then as well and there was no financial need for a man with a wife and soon to be child at home to go out and risk his neck adventuring.


    "Its not like the fool was any good at it. He had no magical sense and could barely wield that ridiculous hammer he dragged around with him. He was just a thrill junky fool who didn''t want to give up the fun and settle down." She had said one night while I read my grimoire at the bar with an ale. "I tell you I will not be letting Fenny out doing any of that unless he shows an actual knack for the damned job! No way my boy is just tossing his life away just because all the other kids say adventuring is cool!"


    I ran into Wells a few times as well. I like most of the garrison even if they gave me a bit of the side eye. I suspect that they know a criminal when they see one. They may not have seen me do anything shady since I''ve been here, but they could tell I wasn''t new to the criminal scene either. Vincent kept his animosity to snide remarks and murderous looks, but other wise no sort of backlash came from my earlier sass. Mostly, when I passed the garrison, either to or from the Adventurer''s guild, the men there would wave or say hello.


    I got a new cloak. One with a hood, but it only reached the small of my back. It left my hands, legs, and tail free to attack. Though I made sure that my tail was always wrapped around mt belt when I was in town. It looked like I was wearing some kind of black scaled leather belt. I also didn''t bother having my hood up anymore. I did start wearing my hair up in a long tail. I pulled my hair up in a way that my tiny horns were all but hidden.


    I liked to think I looked like some sort of bad ass but who could say for sure.


    As for my adventuring license, I got it up to level C with very little trouble. The Jobs at B-level were on a whole other level from C however, so I hadn''t made much headway moving up to the next level. Besides, I was already attracting attention as a person who shot through so many levels without ever joining a party. In order to advance farther I was sure I would either join a party... or get some tames and make one myself. I was partial to option two. I didn''t mind talking to people, but I hadn''t yet gotten to the point where I trusted my life to them.


    Honestly the most surprising thing over the last two weeks was that there had been no news of there being new heroes. No announcements on the notice boards nor just through word of mouth. I wasn''t sure what the powers that be were waiting for. Maybe they were giving the would-be heroes some time to train so that they didn''t look like complete fools when the queen decided to let everyone know about them.


    There were plenty of rumors about the Demon King, however. Merchants brought news of the out-ling kingdoms that surrounded the mother kingdom of Larasta. Dark monsters attacking adventurers in the Kingdom of Wastes in the north, suspicious happenings in the Kingdom of Fire, People going missing in the Kingdoms of Swords and Silver. And that was just the tip of it all if gossip was to be believed. Scattered stories of ancient monster that hadn''t been seen since the Demon King was around three hundred years ago. And I''d even heard tell that there were odd weather patterns and natural disasters that were suspected not to be natural at all.


    Larasta itself seemed to be largely unaffected so far, but apparently that was to be expected. From what Sally had told me a week ago, generally the incidents begin in the out lying nations and make there way inward to the central kingdom of Larasta. She also claimed that she would not be surprised if the Queen ordered the priests to summon forth the heroes any day now. According to her, if the queen didn''t act soon there may be a revolt amongst the citizen ship in both Larasta and in the kingdoms themselves.


    And so, I wasn''t exactly confused when I saw the massive crowd around the notice boards when I left for the market square this morning. People were huddled in whispering circles or other wise shouting excitedly to each other. I bobbed and weaved through the crowd so I could see the cause of the hubbub myself, already confident at what I would see.


    Sure enough, there was a massive poster on the bord, covering much of the usual posts, and I saw the official seal in red wax at the bottom of it. In huge, stylized lettering, at the top was the heading: Five New Heroes Arrive, The Queen Puts her Faith in their Strength.


    Oh, she does she? I resisted the eye roll. No mention of there being any sort of home-grown heroes either. Like I guess I could understand their need to summon heroes, just a little... but was that an excuse not to at least attempt to train your own soldiers to do the job. If only to help these summoned heroes. Once I learned about my own stats, I sort of understood the need for the summoning. No doubt there were few if any in the kingdoms who had such high numbers without ever even training. I didn''t know the stats of the other Earthlings right now but if they were any like most of my own that we were all probably many times stronger than the average knight or adventurer. I could only imagine how strong we could get with some time and training.


    It made me a little fearful of this Demon King for the first time. Maybe the people of this world really did need the help of those from Earth. I didn''t much like the way they go about it but I''m sure they didn''t exactly have a vast variety of Earthling summoning spells, right?


    "It makes my head spin," said a familiar voice from behind me. I turned and saw that the Commander, who I now knew to be named Commander Steven Rice, standing like the monster sized man he was. "Knowing that I live in these historic times."


    "Scarred?" I asked with a slight smile.


    Rice grunted. "Amazed and, yes, a little afraid. If not for myself than for my people."


    Somber, I nodded. I had come to like many of the people in this city and I would not want harm to come to any of them. "But we are saved!" I said with some small sarcasm. "The heroes have been summoned."


    Again, the commander grunted, now looking at the royal proclamation again. "We will see. This notice only says that they were summoned, not weather or not they are competent."


    "Have they been before?" I asked, glancing at the large statue of Lect which was surrounded by excitable city folk. This was the only time I had seen so many poor and well-off people mingling together. I hadn''t seen too much of the noblemen. Mostly only in passing. For one thing, I was usually out of town on jobs, and for another I was told that they didn''t like mingling with the common folk. They preferred to stay in the northwest part of the city.


    "Eye." Said the stoic man, looking worried around the eyes. "In the previous summoning there were five summons. Most know many tales about Sir Lect, Lady Anna, and Sir Francis. They were true and noble heroes of that age."


    "The other two?" I had only ever heard of Lect. I hadn''t been to the cathedral yet to see the statues. It had slipped my mind. And I didn''t ask about the heroes, I figured that it would draw attention to my ignorance.


    "Many these days may not even know their names, not unless they decided to look it up or paid close attention to the statue''s placards in the cathedral. "He explained. "If I remember correctly, one was named James. I don''t recall his given name. Any story you do hear about him would be ones told by jesters. He went down as one of the most useless heroes in all Larasta''s history. He spent his days lazing about, flirting with women and expecting the people of our nation to serve him hand and foot."


    "Wow..." I said simply. What an ass. I would kind of understand if he just refused to help. After all he didn''t ask to be summoned to a strange world and he may have been taken from loved ones. But what gave the ass the right to treat the people of this world like they were lesser?


    The silence made me look up at Rice, wondering why he wasn''t continuing with his explanation. He was looking at me oddly. It was when he shook his head with a confused smile that I realized my mistake. ''Wow'', was not a word in this world. Perhaps he brushed it off as just another oddity that tended to hover around my mysterious self, what ever it was he went on.


    "The fifth hero was by far the worst in all Larasta''s recorded history. He became a summoner when he arrived here and did quite a bit of good work for his first few months in the capital. Then they say something changed. He and the other heroes would argue often though I do not know what about."


    "Did they just not get along?" I asked. What could the man have done that was worse than treating the people like slaves?


    Rice shook his head. "That I do not know. I do know that he betrayed Larasta in the worst possible way: He joined in the Demon Kings army."


    "What?!" I exclaimed, getting a few scandalized looks.


    The commander chuckled at my disgust, seemingly pleased. "Yes. It was said that he turned on the heroes, killing James purely out of spite and fleeing to the Demon Kings side. Those who do remember him refer to him as Gavin, the Destroyer. Many of Larasta''s bravest knights met their ends at the claws of his demon summons. They say that he was the most talented demon summoner to have ever lived in our great country and he used that talent to betray not only our people, but the people from his own world. By the end of the last war, before Lect made the final blow on the Demon King, he had not only killed James but was also the reason Sir Francis met his end. Not to mention three princes as well."


    "Gods... What an ass." I said, totally irked. What the Hell. Like I was bad enough to be reborn a damned demon, yet I didn''t have the urge to go join the freaking Demon King. Being mad at the rulers of this world for the injustice of being summoned here was one thing but who would go and just murder the whole kingdom? Sure, maybe he had a good reason, I didn''t know him or his motivation. Hell, maybe this kingdom is the bad guy, and the demon king was the good guy. After all I had as evidence was people''s words and the fact that the supposed bad guy was called a "demon king''. And given that I myself was a demon it was a bit of a hypocritical foot to stand on. But I also wasn''t going out and senselessly attacking this demon lord either. I wasn''t set on killing everyone for no apparent reason.


    Rice laughed again. "Yes, I think so too. But both examples show that the heroes are only that in name. until they prove to be worthy of the title."


    I sighed. "You sound smart and reasonable."


    "And that makes you upset?" He asked sound very confused.


    "I hate it when cops sound reasonable. Makes it harder to think them bullies with the law behind them." I laughed. He seemed like a genuine good guy. It was weird.


    Rice got that odd look on his face again and I realized that I had said something strange again. I had to be more careful. I was getting too comfortable with these people and would give myself aways as not being what I seemed. They may not suspect me as being from Earth, but my odd words coupled with my looks may make them suspect me as someone not of this world. I didn''t want to be recognized as a demon nor an Earthling. At least I wanted to keep it hidden for as long as I could, and not let the cat out of the bag with my own carelessness.


    This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.


    "Anyway," I said with a pat on the man''s massive arm. Another sign I was getting too comfortable. I usually didn''t touch people as a rule, and I didn''t like it when I was touched either. "I should get back to work. No one else is going feed me."


    The commander''s face softened, and he nodded. "Stay out of trouble then. And do try and join a party this time." He said in exasperation. "Some people here have grown fond of you and would rather be assured that you would be returning at the end of the day."


    Walking away, I laughed. "Please, we both know your men have bets on weather or not I come back in one piece. Why deny them their fun now."


    The commander''s chuckles faded into the burble of the crowds excited chatter as I finished making my way to the adventurer''s guild. It was nearly as crowded here. The number of people taking jobs got smaller the higher rank you went up. Still the C-rank board was usually crowded all the same, and today was no different. I was starting to recognize other adventurers now. A few were workaholics like me and I saw them nearly every day.


    Several of these people were gathered at my job board today too. I saw Wade, who was a skilled water mage chatting with Melody the healer, who specialized in light spells, and Andrea who was a highly skilled archer. I heard she was only a couple jobs away- and the test of course- from making B-rank. These three often took jobs together, looping in other regular adventurers who were adept at sword play usually, as both Wade and Andrea were long ranged fighters and as a healer, Melody had almost no combat skills.


    This group had asked me to join them a time or two as well, even though they had no clue what my speciality was. I suppose the receptionists my have told them in passing, it was on my license after all, but they really weren''t supposed to do that. The most likely reason for their offer was that I was a solo adventure and there for I must be capable of fighting in some sense, in order to have leveled up as I have been doing.


    I had to turn them down. They seemed like decent enough people, and I may even had said yes if I hade a tame to work with. Unfortunately, I didn''t and therefore have been doing all my jobs with my demon prowess. If I went with them, or any group, they would know immediately that I was a demon.


    Still, I waved to them with a smile when they waved to me and returned to their conversation. I had no issue with being friendly with people who are friendly with me. Though my last interaction with Rice proved that I was getting a little too comfortable with the people in this town. Though I think that I would be found out sooner rather than later. I just hoped it didn''t blow up in my face. If I had too I could just up and leave town, but I was rather comfortable here and really didn''t want too.


    I eyed the board. There were several delivery jobs. I couldn''t understand for the life of me why these were rank C jobs. I usually didn''t take them because they tended to be for the nobles. I didn''t handle snooty rich people well, much less snooty rich people descended from royalty who could get me arrested just for being rude. And I would be rude.


    One job caught my eye. Bandits. It was posted by the garrison apparently. I knew that the garrison was stretched thin. I''d heard wells complain about it a few times. People just didn''t want to be soldiers anymore. I guess the alure of being an adventurer was too tempting. According to him, most people didn''t become a soldier till they found they couldn''t advance farther as an adventurer. I didn''t realize they were so busy that they had to outsource work that had to be handled outside the city walls.


    I hadn''t had to fight actual people since coming to this world. Honestly, I had been nervous to do so. I didn''t know if they would kill me with ease at first. Afterall. These people had years of experience with weapons and that''s nothing to say about potential magical attacks. I wasn''t afraid of that now. No, now I was afraid that I may accidentally kill them.


    When I first saw my stats, I knew for a fact that my mana must be exceedingly high. Even my physical attack power seemed rather big. But it wasn''t till I overheard some adventurers, drunk and boisterous, at the Birch Tree, brag to one another about their stats that I realized that I was under selling myself. Those men seemed to think that their mutual friend, who was not present at the time, had to be bragging. Apparently, that man had claimed that he had a strength stat of 80. His drunk friends had roared with laughter over that, claiming that there was no way ''Sanderson'' could have the same strength as a palace guard.


    Then, a few days ago, I watched in hiding, while a group of C-ranked hunters, took on a small pack of Forest Wolves. There were six wolves and five of them. They had a hard time of it. Hard enough that I nearly revealed myself to go help them before they managed to best the beasts. I knew then, for sure, that I had a monstrous strength. My magical attack power was probably around average for a C ranked adventurer, but I was willing to bet that my physical strength was more on par with I higher B rank or even an A.


    As for the bandit mission... well according to the post, they were a bunch of slavers and murderers. They were wanted dead or alive... It paid well: six gold coins. But it was recommended to bring a party of skilled C or even B ranked adventurers. If I was aloud to kill them then I was confident I could do it. The problem was, should I? if I came in here and claimed the bounty on those bandits all on my own then people would really be talking. Not just because I took all those men on my own, but because I would have killed them all. From then on, I would be a killer in their eyes.


    I decided that I would pass. I''ve seen the way some people looked at the adventurers who specialized in bounties. They had respect but they were also feared. The last thing a demon like me needed was the label of killer to boot.


    This was a dangerous and violent world when it came right down to it. I would kill here. There would be no getting around it. I have killed before. Self defense, but it was a death on my hands all the same. And in all honesty, I had no problem doing it again. I was Sin in name and merit. I had no problem taking a life, morally speaking, If I felt it was justified. But it was something I should probably avoid till I couldn''t avoid it no more.


    With that decided, I instead, turned my eyes to the job beneath it. An escort job. Apparently, a monster dealer needed someone to guard them and their wears to a near by village. The reports of bandits have them worried and they want an escort. The pay for the job was what drew my attention: one gold coin and a dragon newt.


    I had no clue what a dragon newt was, but it had the word dragon in it and there fore my interest was peeked. One gold for a C-ranked escort was low, but maybe this newt was worth more than it sounded? I pulled the job off the board and went to the reception desk to claim it for myself.


    Dragon newts were awesome! That was the answer to my question.


    I stared in awe at the cage in the back of a large, covered wagon as the merchant made herself busy just outside the south gate. I lost interest in her preparations the second she answered my curious question of "what exactly is a dragon newt", by opening the back of her wagon and showing me what it was were taking on this trip.


    Dragon newts were teeny tiny dragons. And they were cute! Their bodies were bout the size of kittens with short scaly legs tipped in needle like claws. Their necks were at least the length of their bodies and their narrow, long snouted heads had bright eyes and lots of sharp tiny teeth. Their tails were longer than their necks, thin and whip like as you neared the end. And they had wings. Delicate, translucent, leathery wings! They were also crazy colorful. It was like a rainbow explosion in that cage. They came in solid colors or with stipes, some had spots... it was eye vomit and I loved it.


    I heard a soft, husky laugh, and dragged my eyes away from the dragon newts to look at my employer. She had a large and generous smile, long, curly black hair, and milky pale skin. Her name was Emelda, and she was a dragon newt merchant.


    "I take it you like them?" she chuckled, closing the back flap of the wagon.


    "I think I love them..." I said seriously. I mean, they were tiny dragons damn it!


    "That''s nice to hear." She said, still very amused. "Come, sit with me on the bench."


    Emelda and I clambered up onto the wooden bench seat and she took the reins of the large work horse she had pulling the cart. A flick of her wrists and we were off. It was my first time leaving out the south gate and I saw that it was very flat out here and that most of the land was dedicated to wheat fields.


    "Most people don''t care to see them much. They are a E ranked monster after all."


    "But they are so pretty." I gasped. I very much could not see how people could not find them amazing to look at, even if they weren''t strong.


    She let out another of those husky laughs. "I think so too. They are not that common in the wild, and they do not drop any good loot. In fact, they only have one monetary value and you need to be skilled to even cash in on that."


    "What kind of value" I asked.


    "The value is in their meat."


    I admit I probably went pale. I mean, it made sense that they could be eaten. Hell, I even read books way back in my old life that claimed people in their fantasy world hade dragon steaks and such. But the very thought of munching on one of those jewel-like lizards was nauseating to me.


    "Oh my god... I hope I haven''t eaten one with out knowing it!"


    "You would know it." She said, still smiling. "For one, the meat is very expensive. You would have remembered buying it as a meal, I have no doubt. Also, dragon newt meat turns a purplish red when cooked."


    I did not eat any purple meat.


    "You have the skill to butcher the meat then?" I asked, now that the initial shock wore off, I was more composed. Still, I think I would turn down any dragon newt dishes if offered, no matter how tasty.


    "Nope, not me. I just bread them for the people who do. I just off loaded some of my newts in Bellana, to a chef there who is a regular client to me. Now we are headed to South Knoll. There is a lord there who is obsessed with dragon newt dishes. His chef is always my second stop before I head to Robles town to unload the rest of my cargo. It''s a long trip and I usually make it fine on my own..."


    "But the Dragon king is back and there are bandits about."


    "Exactly. And so, I am very grateful that you have taken this job. I know one gold is not much, but I did not budget for a guard when I left. This morning''s announcement of the heroes being summoned threw me for a loop. And Then I saw that there were bandits too... I was sure my newts would get taken. Normal bandits wouldn''t be able to do anything with them. They aren''t like wheat after all. It would be clear that they were stollen and the thieves would get caught the moment they tried to sell them. I''m the only dragon newt breeder in the kingdom of Larasta."


    "There are stupid people out there, however. "I said, exasperated for the poor woman.


    "That was my line of thinking as well. So, I offered up one of my newts as payment! A single newt goes for ten gold you know. So long as I give you a receipt you can sell it. I would say you could get a chef to make you an excellent dish, but I can see you would not be a fan."


    I laughed. "The idea of eating a dragon dose not appeal to me what''s so ever."


    She gave me an amused look as we passed yet another wheat field. "They aren''t dragons you know. They are just called dragon newts because they look like little dragons. Dragons can fly and breath fire. These guys do neither."


    "They don''t?" I asked, genuinely shocked. "They have wings."


    "Yes, but they do not fly. Dragon Newts are native to forests with tall trees. They use their wings to glide between them. And unlike dragons, dragon newts are also cold blooded. They need to sun themselves daily or they get sluggish. And as I said before, they don''t breathe fire."


    "They are very pretty though..."


    "They are pretty." She admitted. "Did you know that they were actually kept as pets by royalty once upon a time?"


    "Really?"


    "Oh yes." She said, looking pleased. I realized that she probably didn''t get a chance to spout dragon newt facts often. "It was quite a long time ago. There are paintings of ancient queens and princesses having brightly colored dragon newts draped over their shoulders like shawls. They used to compete over who had the fairest, or strongest, or most shiny newt. I probably would have gotten even more for them back then.


    This time I was the one to laugh. "I would imagine so. And I can see why the ladies of the court would want to have them. And you are okay with me taking one?"


    "If you still want one, of course! I just thought, since you were so opposed to eating them, that you wouldn''t want one. I was going to have you wait till I made my sale in South Knoll, then give you more gold for your trouble."


    "Oh no, I definitely want one!" I said excitedly. "I am actually a tamer." I told her. "I still haven''t gotten a monster as a partner, and I think one of these guys would be perfect."


    "Are you sure?" She asked after a few seconds of silence. "Don''t get me wrong, I am flattered you think so highly of one of my newts... but they are not the strongest of monsters, even by E rank standards. Heck, the reason the royals of the past could carry them around at all was that they are not an aggressive race of monsters, much less a strong kind. The only reason they are E ranked rather than F is because they are rare."


    "I''m sure. Its just a feeling I have. I''ve been looking for a partner but every monster I come across just hasn''t felt right. But your newts do feal right."


    "I''ve never met a tamer so I will just have to take your word for it." She said happily, giving the reigns a little tug to keep the massive chestnut horse on course. "Plus, you made it to a C ranked adventurer''s license without a monster by your, side so I can only assume you are strong even without one."


    "I like to think so."


    "Well, as soon as we get to South Knoll you get first pick. Even before that snoot lord."


    I laughed and stretched. The wooden bench really was not that comfortable. "I thought he was one of your best customers?"


    "He is! But he is also an ass. The man is so full of himself and looks down on anyone not a noble. But I suppose that is the norm for the nobility. They are not all like that of course, but most are."


    "I haven''t met too many myself. I try to avoid them as best I can. I have no ability to stop myself from saying something that will have them chopping off my head."


    Emelda Burst into a ruckus laughter. "Yes, it sounds like it would be best if you kept your distance. For everyone''s sake."

 Dont Fuck With Demons

    We reached South Knoll in only three hours and without incident. It was amazing how much having a ride made a difference. Maybe I should investigate buying a horse. Or even better, tame something I could ride. The idea really appealed to me, and I added it to my mental list of potential tames for the future. It would not help me now, however. The ride here may have only been three hours, but chances are I wouldn''t be getting back to the inn till nightfall.


    "Alright Sin!" Beamed Emelda, her black hair shining just as brightly as my red tinged hair was in the bright sun light. "Here we go. Pick which ever one you like."


    I smiled and gazed into the cage. There were twenty-five of the Dragon newts in all, each one a little groggy now that they had been in the shade of the wagon for so long. It was a little sad that I was picking one while knowing that the others were soon to be prime chunks of meat.


    There were many varied Dragons in there- I''m pretty sure I would always just call them dragons- and it was hard to choose. But soon one caught my eye. There were others that looked prettier, bigger, and even seemed to catch the sun better, but the small dark red one appealed to me. Maybe, because it was a blood red color, or it was the look in its eyes. Either way it was the one I wanted.


    "There." I said, pointing to the dragon in question. It was close to the cage door and laying lazily on the floor. "That red one there with the dark blue eyes."


    "You got it!" She opened the cage carefully but none of the dragons made a break for it. Either they were too cold, or they were too stupid to know that they were on their way to being a snack. Her thin, pale hands circled the little dragon gently and it made a squawking noise but otherwise did not protest. "And here you go." She handed me the winged lizard with one hand while shutting the cage and locking it with the other.


    I held it close to my breast and looked at it with wonder. It was so cute. As if it decided my body heat was exactly what it was looking for it squirmed then clambered up around my shoulders. Its head rested on my collar bone while its tale dipped down under my shirt and curled under my right breast.


    "You know what, he actually does match you." Emelda said with a cock of her head. She pulled a sheaf of parchment out of a pocket and used a spell I had seen used several times now to sign it, handing it to me. "That''s the receipt for the job. As you know, once you give that to the guild you will get your gold. Normally I would make you out a receipt for the newt, too, but if you are planning on making a contract with it, than there isn''t a need."


    "Yes, I will be doing that as soon as I can." I agreed. "How do you tell he is a boy?" I admit I hadn''t given him a good look over, but I hadn''t seen any obvious signs that it was a male.


    She laughed as she tied the flap back down on the wagon. "There are a couple of ways. His wings are wider than a female, his scales are in a darker color while females tend to be lighter and have patterned scales, and also because its snout is slightly pointier than the more rounded females."


    "Dang, you really know your stuff. I have been trying to find some bestiaries to get more know how on monsters but the only ones I have found are expensive."


    "Oh yes. Mostly that is because the only ones who ever went out of their way to write comprehensive ones were the old tamers. I''m sure you know that the art is not practiced as it once was. The books just aren''t being written any more as far as I know. So, they can get pricy."


    "I guess I can see that..."


    "Hey! Once you get good at this, maybe you can write one. Leave something for future tamers and all that."


    I laughed. "Maybe. But I am not really one to have the patients for that sort of thing. Even reading the books makes me antsy. I just do it because I have too."


    "I love reading myself. Anyway, I should be off. I wouldn''t put it past Lord Cheapskate to pay me less for being late."


    "Alright. Be safe and don''t let that lord pay you any less that they are worth."


    "I hope you don''t run into any trouble on the road either. Sorry, you must walk all the way back there."


    "No worries." I said with a wave. I turned and took off at a jog back down the road, while Emelda got back in her wagon.


    I kept going for a few more minutes till I rounded a corner, making sure I kept a hand on the little red dragon draped around my neck, so he didn''t glide off. I was anxious to get out of sight. I was excited to finally make a monster my first tame.


    So, once I came around the bend I took a deep breath, looked around to be sure I was alone, then crouched to the ground. I reached into the satchel at my side and rummaged around till I grasped the grimoire. I had read quite a bit more of it over the last couple weeks, even though half the time it simply showed me passages I had already read I had learned more from it. Mostly on how to care for and enhance my tames, as well as more elaborate explanations of topics already covered.


    For now, I opened it to a random blank page. I removed my hand from the little dragon and used a claw on my right hand to cut into my palm, holding the hand in a way that the blood pooled. Drawing from memory I used my claw and the blood to etch the needed magic circle onto the page. I took a couple minutes as I had to keep dipping my finger into the small pool of blood.


    That done I removed the dragon from my shoulder. He squawked in protest again but didn''t try to make a break for it. "Sorry, little guy." I whispered. "Now what to name you then? Newt? No, definitely not. I don''t care what anyone says, you are a dragon... Oh, I know! I''ll call you Drogin. I like that. Okay, I am sorry buddy, but this is going to sting a bit."


    Deciding that the softest part of the dragon with the most blood vessels seemed to be its wings, I flicked out a claw scratched a line along one of the membranes. Little Drogin did not like that snarled, squirming. I held him tight to my chest, apologizing again, I held him tight to my chest and began Scribbling the name over the top of the circle. "Drrr-ohhh-gin." I said as I scratched out the letters.


    Placing the squirming, unhappy, dragon newt down on the ground I laid a hand on his back, applying enough pressure that he couldn''t make a break for it. Luckily this part was easier. Because I had the book and the circle drawn there, I didn''t even need to hold the image in my mind.


    "Seal." I said clearly and confidently. There was a flash of red, the circle I drew in the grimoire duplicated itself under Drogin and burned brightly. "I Name thee, Drogin!"


    It was noticeable only because I hadn''t ever really used much of my mana before, but I immediately felt a dip in the energies of my body. It wasn''t in anyway draining- perhaps the equivalent of running up a few flights of stairs, but it was an odd feeling. Drogin stopped squirming instantly and I stroked his back affectionately. But things were not done yet. Drogin showed no sigs of distress, but his body began to change before my eyes. He grew bigger, if only by a pound or so, and along his spine grew a double line of horn like bumps the same colour as his scales. His thin shape muscled out more and on the tip of his nose sprouted a tiny white tooth like horn. His blue eyes gained a sort of eerie glow, and I saw the cut in his wing membrane seal up and the wings themselves seemed to grow. They were now at least as long as his body when spread out wide.


    I knew that the naming process could change a monster, but I had to admit that I hadn''t thought it would be in such a visual way. He looked like a handsome little dragon now. His body wasn''t as streamlined as before, and his legs and chest seemed to be more muscular.


    "You okay buddy?" I asked as the glow faded. I removed my hand and allowed the little dragon to get to his feet. Even though he was bigger, Drogin was still only about six inches tall on four feet. His long neck almost making him a foot tall when he raised it high. He shook out his body like a wet dog, stretched his neck up ward, opened his little mouth wider than I thought he could and... A small magic circle appeared right at the opening and a surprising large blast of fire shot four feet into the air. The dragon snorted, clearly pleased with himself, and looked up at me expectantly.


    "Good job." I said breathlessly. I had a tiny dragon that could cast fire magic... Holly shit, I had a tiny dragon that could cast fire magic! I scratched Drogin behind the slit that was one of his ears and he made a pleased humming noise. Getting too my feet with a dragon held to my chest and the other hand putting the grimoire back into my bag.


    Drogin squirmed a little then scrambled up to what I assumed would be his usual resting place across my shoulders. I felt a flash, like an awareness, touch my mind and it felt like hunger. I chuckled. It seemed that Drogin couldn''t speak, that or he didn''t know language yet, but he could convey feelings. And right now, he was feeling hunger.


    I reached into my satchel and pulled out some jerky. I always made sure to have some and some dried fruit on hand. Now that I wasn''t completely poor, I also made sure to have some healing and mana potions in my bag as well. I had used a couple of the healing potions but didn''t see me needing the mana ones any time soon.


    Drogin sniffed the jerky happily before snapping it out of my fingers. Pleased I took a deep breath and started the long walk back to Bellana. But this time I wasn''t walking alone.


    It was when we were finally, nearly, home when I realized something was wrong. I could hear shouting off to the left of the road up a head just aways. I couldn''t pick out the words, but they were angry shouts and what sounded like jeering too. Drogin growled on my shoulder, his little claws poking into my skin. There was trouble up ahead.


    "Easy." I told my new partner. He was untested and the last thing I wanted was for him to get hurt mere hours after getting him. "Don''t do anything unless I tell you. Let''s just see what''s going on first."


    I slowly made my way forward. It was too wide open to truly hide but there were a few rolls of grass near the side of the road, and I decided to use those as cover. I crouched down behind the scratchy, drying grass and peeked around the side. It was still hard to see as it appeared that who ever was making the racket was a bit of a ways into the wheat fields.


    Wait, was that even wheat? I wasn''t a farmer, but I didn''t think wheat grew in early spring, did it? Whatever the crop was it was tall and golden brown. It looked like wheat.


    I could see it moving just a small way into the field. There was a yelp of pain and mixed laughter of a group of men.


    "Anything good?" I heard one ask, gruff and annoyed.


    "Nah, nuh un''liss we be able ter sell books..." snickered another man, his words so heavily accented that it was hard to pick them out.


    "The heck you doin'' out ere'' wit a bunch''a books Sticks?" Laughed a third man, swiftly followed by a slight thump and another yelp of pain. Drogin growled low on my shoulder. "Gunna'' teach all dem street rats ''ow ter read."


    Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    "Sounds like this bunch needs to learn how to read..." I whispered in irritation to my little dragon friend. As if agreeing with me he puffed out a small breath. "Alright, the grass is long so I''m getting closer. Remember, stay put." Another puff and I took that as assent.


    I crept forward lightly. I was always a good sneak, even in my old life. You had to be, to be an adequate thief of any measure. I had no idea if my stealth stat currently was a reflection of my former life, or if demons were just a naturally sneaky bunch. Either way I was confident that I could get close without getting caught. The stiff stocks parted easily for me, and I didn''t have to travel far to find the location of the altercation. There appeared to be about ten rather nasty looking men, all human from what I could see immediately, and all smelling of unwashed bodies and filth. They were dressed in a wide assortment of leather and steal plate armor. I couldn''t see who they were harassing as they all appeared to be blocking my view. It was clear that the person was on the ground however, given the other men were all looking down.


    They had flattened out an area in the wheat, ruining some poor farmers'' crop. I saw loose papers on the ground, an open satchel with a ripped shoulder strap, and one of the men held a blue leather book by the cover, the pages fluttering in a light breeze.


    "Look, I don''t want any trouble guys." Said a quavering voice beyond the maze of legs before me. "I don''t have anything of value on me alright. If I did, I would have just handed it to you..."


    Ouch. This was getting pathetic. Poor sop. These men would have his skin as a rug if he kept up the whimpering.


    It wasn''t a stretch to say that these brutes were some of the bandits that were hanging around these parts. That or, suddenly, the roads outside Bellana were teaming with ruffians. I didn''t want to get messed up with these fools, but I couldn''t just let the guy they had on the ground be turned into a pin cushion.


    "No? Then what are you doing out here all alone then, Sicks?" Asked the first man I had heard. Maybe he was the only one who learned how to speak properly? I saw that he was on the far side of the group with beefy arms crossed over a plate chest piece. I couldn''t see his face; another heavily muscled arm blocked my view at this lower angle. "Or, do scrawny little men wander around out here all the time?"


    The surrounding men laughed and the man on the ground groaned. "I was out here on my own business. If you let me go free, I will cause you no trouble."


    "Trouble?" Said the man I was assuming oversaw this little group. "But you have already caused us trouble. How will you compensate us?"


    "Look-"Said the bandits'' victim in a stern voice. "I am a member of the Red Ravens! Any action against me will have grave consequences for you and your men. Don''t you understand that?"


    The whole group busted into loud laughter, and I cringed at the assault on my sensitive ears.


    "You?!" chortled a new voice. My eyes landed on an extremely fat man who was probably shorter than myself with a sweaty bald head. He was at an angle, but I could still make out the scar along his left cheek and the stubble on his chin. "You ain''t nothn'' but a sick, Sticks. What Royal Squadron would have a runty lil'' thing like you?"


    "Well, he does have the cape Zales. We best stay on our toes." Snorted Lead Bandit.


    "Eye," Laughed the portly Zale''s. "Prolly found it in the trash some place, he did. Poor Sticks be playing dress up."


    "I am a member of the Red Ravens!" Spat the man on the ground. "I am Zachariah Farset-" The man''s sentence was cut off painfully as I watched Zales pull back his booted foot and kick forward. The air filled with the scent of blood and the sounds of a man in pain.


    Okay, enough was enough. Had it of been a fair fight I may have moved on. I wasn''t one to step in for another''s sake, simply just because. Sorry, but I''m sure I was made a demon for a reason. I really didn''t even feel all that bad about it. But ten on one? And that one being a man these people referred to as ''Sticks''? Even I wasn''t that morally corrupt as to stand by and let some little fellows get murdered buy ten full grown killers.


    "Oi!" I snapped, getting to my feet and stepping out of the crop into the small clearing. I felt Drogin tense on my shoulder, but he listened and did not move.


    Able to see the scene clearly now, I saw that the man on the ground was out matched. At least physically anyway. Magic could change the tide easily, but I had a feeling that if this man could attack with magic he would have. He was, maybe, a few inches taller than my self, with hardly any muscle mass to speak of. Mind you he was fully clothed and curled into a ball on the filthy ground, so I could be mistaken. Despite the dirt I could tell that he was dressed well in cotton and smooth leather. He was also, indeed, wearing a read short cape, but I had no way of knowing weather or not it was one of the capes said to be worn by the Red Ravens. I hadn''t yet seen one since arriving in Bellana after all.


    The man had a baby smooth face, high cheek bones- one had a cut and was freely bleeding- and a messy mop of golden-brown curls. He attempted to lift himself up on one arm and winced. He did manage to open one eye and I saw he had the dreamy baby blues that all the girls back on Earth would have swooned over. I didn''t know about him being a Red Raven, but he was, without a doubt, a nobleman. He may not have money on him now, but he did have money. Not good. If I had to bet, I would say these men would want to hold this guy for ransom.


    "What''s this, what''s this?" Crowed Boss Bandit. Able to see him properly now I could tell for sure that he was a big guy. Not as big as Commander Rice, but still a great deal bigger than me. I''m sure he thought that gave him an advantage too. Of course, this guy had no clue he was dealing with a demon. "A pretty little mouse has come out of the grass."


    The other men laughed and moved, reforming their semi-circle so that they faced me with the man, Zachariah, between us. He groaned and tried to get up again with out much luck. He wouldn''t be much help. But I never thought he would be anyways.


    "Yes. Har har. Look at the little lady." I said, annoyed and rolling my eyes. "Look, let the little guy go and just beat it. I really don''t want to kill you, and I really think that if you make me fight you I will. So, please, just beat it."


    I really didn''t think they would listen. And listen, they did not. Abandoning the man of the ground, all ten men stepped forward with wide grins. Clearly confident in their own bad-ass manliness, they cracked knuckles and chuckled darkly. I supposed that men in every world were just this clich¨¦ on instinct. Sighing, I brought my hands up at the ready and waited. So much for not fighting the bandits...


    I heard the slide of mettle as a few of the men drew swords or daggers. "Don''t bloody here too bad." Growled Boss Bandit. "Pretty little Beastmen still fetch a good price after all."


    It happened quickly from there. Seemingly from my blind spot a fist flew at me, but I heard the whistle of air and dodged easily enough, my body twisting away and my claws flying out, raking across someone''s face. I heard a roar of pain as I skipped out of the way of a kick, then dodged another fist.


    I was pretty sure the man on the ground shouted something, but I couldn''t catch it over the racket the other men were making so I ignored him. I couldn''t afford to be distracted while so out numbered. Demon or not I was still pretty sure I could die to a well-placed sword thrust, even if the men''s fists were not much of a threat.


    And so, I ducked and weaved and lashed out when I could. I felt my claws sink into flesh or glance off metal a few times, but I was also taking hits. A heavy punch to the gut stung like a bitch but at least I kept my feet. Then a sword grazed the back of my calf causing me to curse a blue streak all the while I slashed and elbowed my way through the bodies.


    The second I broke free I spun on my heel. "Drogin, now!" I shouted, sounding more like a snarling animal than not. A bright red circle appeared before my eyes, overlaying my view of several bloodied and shocked faces, as Drogin lifted his head and opened his small jaws. A short torrent of red flames erupted forth and sent four men screaming into the dry grass while the other six dove to the ground.


    I ducked down myself, sunk a fist into Zachariah''s shirt and yanked the man to his feet. Without a back ward glance, I ran for the road. I hopped that Drogin, and I didn''t just set the while field on fire. The last thing I needed was to be pegged an arsonist on top of everything.


    As soon as my feet hit the raised earth of the dirt road, I let the man go and he stumbled back, just barely keeping his feet. "Stay back." I warned him as I spun back to the field. Luckily it seemed that the field hadn''t gone up in flames but there were a few tendrils of smoke. All ten bandits burst out after me. None of them looked uninjured, but all of them did look pissed.


    "You little bitch!" Snarled Zales, his pudgy belly ripped in several places. What could I say, it made for an easy target.


    "Forget it, just kill them both." Ground out the boss. Apparently, he had been one of the men Drogin had caught on fire as his head was smoking, and the hair was patchy and singed. I could smell the nauseating scent of burnt hair.


    "Shit." Zachariah swore behind me.


    Shit was right. I had hopped that Drogin''s attack would have taken a couple of these men out but clearly, they were sturdier than I had given them credit for. I couldn''t keep this up for long. Not while keeping my secret and keeping Zachariah safe.


    Suddenly, making matters worse I heard, "Flare Burst!", hollered out into the evening air and realized that at least one of these men knew magic.


    A ball of oily red flames came at me from the right, and I tried to jump out of the way. I avoided the brunt of the attack but being unaccustomed to having to keep an eye on others, I had left Zachariah unguarded. Three of the men advanced in on him.


    "Force!" Shouted the noblemen and two of the men were forced back about ten feet and knocked to the round by a pale grey magic circle. It was not a powerful attack and it still left one man charging at the pale noble who stumbled back in fright and lost his footing, a sword flying down toward his exposed neck.


    There was no helping it now. With an angry snarl of my own I ran past the men trying to circle me and recklessly plunged my claws into the exposed side of the bandit, my fist sinking in to the wrist. The men behind me thought that they had me off guard. They were mistaken. As I yanked my claws out of the first man my tail uncoiled itself from around my waist and flicked out behind me, swiping across the face of two men and tearing flesh from bones.


    Three men fell to the ground in a bloody mess. One had his guts spilling out, Zales was missing half his face, jaw grotesquely exposed and unmoving. The third man was rolling in the dirt with his hands cupping his face, screaming.


    I didn''t wait and I did not show mercy. I had no hesitation when it was a matter of life and death. I refused to die.


    As my right hand circled around the throat of another man, my tail lashed out, the arrow headed bone plate punching clean through a man''s chest, breast plate and all. As I pulled the tail out with some difficulty, I clenched my fist and tore out the throat in my hands. It was disturbingly easy. Two more men down.


    "Force!" I heard shouted again, but I couldn''t afford to advert my gaze from the battle. I did briefly note someone stumbling in my peripheral vision. He may not have been strong but at least Zachariah was making himself useful.


    I pulled back my fist and punched another man in the jaw, my hand stinging, then spun and clawed across another mans face. Clawing people''s eyes out was always effective growing up. Given that I had actual claws now, the damage was devastating. A roar from behind had me jerking but I wasn''t fast enough to dodge the dagger Boss Bandit plunged into my arm. I screamed in pain but refused to back down. My tail wrapped around his neck and with barely a thought I sawed through, causing the skull to go flying, bouncing down the road in a way that would have been comical if it hadn''t been so disturbing.


    Not allowing myself to be affected, my tail whipped about again causing more screams of pain. A snarling squawk and a slight jerk on my neck had me gasping at first. Afraid my Drogin had just met his end. But a male curse proved that it was Drogin who had sunk his fangs into someone else.


    "Behind you!" Zachariah shouted and then I heard him grunt.


    I spun on my heel once again and saw him fall to the dirt . A man with claw marks across his face stood over Zachariah, the man I had slashed moments ago I assumed. Without hesitation I reached out, wincing when I used my injured arm without thinking, grabbed the man and tossed him away from the downed man. Because of my punctured arm I couldn''t throw the man as far as I had hopped but at least the Red Raven wasn''t in immediate danger.


    Irritated and getting tired I decided to get this shit done with. Flicking out my best weapon, my tail, I waisted no time slicing through the tendons of two more men, plunging my claws into the neck of one and my tail barb into the chest of the other. Looking around I saw that there were eight people dead and disgusting around me. A quick glance and Drogin''s angry growl showed that the last two thugs were high tailing it toward South Knoll.


    A better person would have let them run. Would have assumed they learned their lesson and turned a new leaf perhaps. I was not that naive. I was not a better person. Without further thought I shot after the men, catching up to them in heart beats. The first died to my fist as I landed an inhumanly strong punch to the back of his neck with my uninjured arm. I didn''t even wince at the wet sound of his vertebrae shattering inside his flesh.


    The second man tripped and fell, scrabbling backwards with tear-streaked eyes. I advanced on him with purpose. He was sweaty and covered in dirt and gore, his snot mixing with blood on his pale filthy face.


    "Wai-wait!" He stammered, ands raised to ward me off. "I- I gots kids Lady! You- you wouldn''t kill a man wif'' ki-kids would''ya?"


    "Tch!" I said, glaring down at him. "Perhaps in your next life you will keep your future kids in mind when picking fights..."


    "N-no!"


    "A lesson for your future self..." I said reaching down and dragging a man three times my weight off the dirt and into the air, his feet dangling and kicking uselessly just a couple inches off the ground, I held him up one handed. "Don''t fuck with demons." I said in and icy tone without feeling. The man screamed as I sliced my tail into his stomach twice in less than a second, followed by tossing his twitching body to the grown and twisting my murderous tail around his neck, cutting through vital arteries just to be sure he was dead.

 The Red Ravens

    I walked back to where Zachariah sat in the dirt. He was bloodied and beathing heavy, eyeing me warily. I suppose I couldn''t really blame him. Even if I wasn''t demon, I was the crazy lady that just slaughtered ten men without all too much effort and rather mercilessly to boot.


    The fact that beheading a wolf two weeks ago made me up chuck my dinner, yet the wanton slaughter of ten men barely made me bat an eye, wasn''t lost on me. The truth was that my trauma went deep and I delt with the pain of it long ago and concluded that I was broken. And I''m okay with that. I didn''t see a need to ''fix'' myself. The ''me'' I am now has served me well till fate stepped in and got me lasered in half and shunted off to a weird world. And I didn''t think I needed to change here. If anything, my broken self worked better here.


    The wolf had been a shock. I hadn''t expected it and my body reacted strongly. I knew full well that if those men did not back off when I asked them to, then I was going to kill them. I also knew that I didn''t have the know how or restraint yet to finish those men cleanly. I was a rabid dog with fangs and claws that were too sharp for my own good.


    "You alright?" I asked when he didn''t say anything.


    "I''m alive. And for a bit there I didn''t think I would be... so I suppose I am." He said, stretching then leaning back on his elbows. "I''m in better shape than you are at least." He said giving me the side eye.


    "I''ll be fine." I said, directing my attention to Drogin. I removed him from around my neck where he had stayed dutifully. It hadn''t been perfect, but he had performed his job quite well for us never having worked together before. I was quite proud of the little guy. "How about you Drogin? Are you hurt?"


    He made a little grueling noise and then spread out one of his translucent wings, the setting sun making it shiny a pinkish-orange color. I saw that membrane was fine but one of the joints looked swollen. I clicked my tongue in distaste then knelt next to Zachariah. He twitched nervously when, attempting not to jostle my stabbed arm, I set the little dragon next to him in the dirt.


    "Is that a Dragon Newt?" He asked. Once he seemed sure the monster wasn''t going to lunge at him, he turned curious. "I''ve only seen them once before, but I don''t think they are supposed to look like that..."


    "He is a dragon." I said, glaring and daring the man to argue with the scary demon lady. He didn''t seem intimidated at all. In fact, he smiled broadly. "His name is Drogin, and he is my partner. I''m a tamer." I held out my hand over the small animal which was waiting patiently. "Heil." I said and a pale green magic circle appeared beneath Drogin. The light shone dully for a second longer, the drain on my mana minimal, then faded. Drogin stretched out his neck and then flexed his wing experimentally. Satisfied he scrambled back up my arm and across my neck.


    "This evening just keeps getting stranger and stranger..." Sighed Zachariah, seemingly exhausted. He didn''t look mortally wounded or anything, but he did seem down for the count. "The bandits were bad. But getting saved by a demon who tames monsters is just strange."


    "A man who can''t fight, wandering round the countryside when it is well known that bandits are about seems weirder to me, to be honest." I grumped, stuffing my hand into my satchel and fishing out a couple healing potions. I literally rolled my eyes the first time I saw the glass vials filled with red liquid. Could there have been anything more clich¨¦? But they worked and that''s what mattered. I tossed one to him and he just barely caught it, then popped the cork off the other, downing it in a single gulp.


    Unlike video games the potions were not instantaneous, so as Zachariah drank his a little more sedately, I fished out a bandage and began to wrap up the hole in my arm. Between the potion and my faster healing speeds as a demon it would be good as new in an hour at most. For now, it stung like a bitch.


    "I didn''t know there were bandits about." He said after a few more moments of silence.


    "Its kind of plastered all over every bulletin board in town, right there next to the fancy poster telling us of our great and noble saviors."


    Zachariah tilted his head sideways like a confused child. "I don''t get out much. Do demons see the heroes as saviors?" He said the first sentence mater-of-factly like it was in the way of his question. There was no malice in his voice when he asked, just genuine curiosity.


    "No idea." I said truthfully. "The way I see it, is that I, personally, can just save myself. I''m sure the poor shmucks have enough on their plates to be dealing with then to have to go out of their way to save a demon girl."


    "Shmucks?" He asked, rolling the unknown word around in his mouth and I kicked myself for the slip up again. He seemed to discard it how ever and move on. "Why do you call them ''poor''? They are heroes after all, right?"


    "Why do you care?" I could think of a million other questions that could be seen as far more pressing than my opinions on the heroes.


    "I don''t care. Not really. But I do think it intriguing. After all, most people don''t get a chance to talk to a demon, do they?"


    "Don''t they?" I asked snarkily, as I dragged my battered body to its feet. "For someone who doesn''t get out much you sure picked a bad time to get out this time." I commented, attempting to steer the conversation away from myself.


    "Yeah." he said dejectedly. "I was doing research back at base and realized I hadn''t left my study in, like, a week... The boss gets ticked off when I space out that bad, so I decided to get clean and then get some fresh air. But I got so absorbed in my book I wasn''t paying much attention to where I was walking and ran into those bandits."


    I looked at the guy in sheer disbelief. This shut in had spent a week so absorbed in what he was doing that he forgot to live essentially, decided to go for a stroll to clear his head... and brought a book? A book that he thought was a good idea to read and walk while doing so... in a monster infested world. A crazy person. I risked my life and anonymity for a crazy person.


    Groaning, he got to his feet and attempted to stretch but winced. He side-stepped a body, turning a little green like it just occurred to him that we had been carrying on a conversation surrounded by death, and made his way back to the field. I didn''t bother to follow and instead started dragging the corpses off the side of the road. There wasn''t much I could do about the blood, but I could at least move the bodies so that people didn''t loose their minds.


    "Not sure how I''m going to explain this one back at the guild." I sighed out loud.


    "Just come back to base with me. I''m sure the captain can sort it all out." Zachariah said, reappearing from the fields holding his broken bag and several dishevel looking books. "After all it was my fault."


    "Do you honestly think it''s a smart idea for me to follow some strange man to his ''base'' out in the woods? Seems sketchy too me."


    "I am not a pervert!" He huffed, then sighed. "I assume you don''t want the people of Bellana knowing what you are, correct? Well, I''m sure the captain can say that he, or one of the other Ravens, took out these bandits, and you will be in the clear."


    "You may not be a pervert, but you clearly have a few screws loose. I am a demon, who just tore ten men apart in front of you! Shouldn''t you be worried? Afraid? Screaming for the guards or something?"


    "No." he said looking at me like I was the crazy person. "Why would I think you would hurt me. You just went out of your way to prevent me from being harmed, getting yourself wounded in the process. Besides, just because you are a demon does not mean you are a bad person. There is so little known about your people that it would be foolish for me to pass judgment, just on rumors. I am a man of facts, after all."


    He was a man of many words apparently. The whole time he spoke he attempted to get his pages in order while crouched on the ground. Satisfied he pointed at the two books and said: "Reperay.". the two books made a fluttering noise and I saw the frayed edges repair themselves. I assumed the entirety of the books had been fixed. That done he repeated the process with the bag.


    Curiosity got the better of me and I asked, "That spell fixes things?"


    "Sure does. Well, nonmagical items anyway. I would need my tools and far more complicated spells to fix a magical tool, book, or weapon. But these are easy." He looked up at me with a smile. "Do demons not have repairing spells? Or are they just in a different language? How does demon realm magic differ from our realm?"


    "Woah, woah. Calm down." I sighed and decided to avoid the demon talk, witch I had less information on than him, I was sure, and answered with a truth. "I don''t know much magic. Basically, just some taming spells..."


    "Really? Is that why you came to this realm? Because you had a hard time with magic in your own realm?"


    "Ugh! You ask too many questions. I''m sure you know more than me about it." I sniped.


    He shook his head and stuffed his books in the bag, slinging it over his shoulder and walking a bit away, avoiding the puddles of foul-smelling blood. "No one knows much of anything about demons. The demons that are summoned here are basically mindless puppets while under contract, and the few demons such as yourself that choose to come here haven''t opened up... It is very frustrating. For instance, what does the demon realm even look like? People assume its all fire and rock and misery... but I say no! That sort of environment can''t possibly support so much life, right?"


    I sighed and decided that I might as well follow the guy. He was harmless and would probably die when the sun finished setting in ten minutes or so. There was no way I was getting in the city before curfew now so I may as well go to this base. If it turned out to be trouble than I would take my ass out of there as soon as I could.


    "Oh, here..." he said and stretched out a hand towards me. I stepped away from him swiftly. "It''s okay, I just wanted to get the blood off you. It can''t be comfortable, and, to be honest, its kind of freaking me out."


    I eyed his hand warily then took a cautious step forward. "There is a spell for that too?"


    "Oh yes, it is very useful! Its not a substitute for a bath but it gets the surface grime off at least. Then you could walk around with out the locals screaming crazy demon lady!"


    I sighed and gave him a look that just made him laugh. I had no clue how to handle his type of person.


    "Scuro." He said softly and another bluish circle appeared beneath me, the light slowly rising my body. I watched, fascinated, as flakes of blood and gore seemed to evaporate off me as it made its way slowly up to my head. Once done I examined myself and though there were places in like the folds of my cloths and such, the spell missed, most of the yuck was gone. Handy.


    "Would I be able to cast this?"


    "Perhaps. It''s a simple spell that costs almost no mana. It depends on your affinity to be honest. Scuro is a water-based spell so if you do not have an affinity to water, it may be difficult."


    "... and how do you learn your affinity?" I asked, fully aware that I was treading in dangerous waters about how ignorant I truly was about this world. Being a demon would only excuse so much lack of magical knowledge.


    "Um, you said you were an adventurer, didn''t you?" I hadn''t but I did mumble something about the guild, so I nodded. "The you already did the status exam there. Well, there is another exam you can preform as well, one done mainly by those looking to go into the magical studies, but sometimes others want to know too. It''s preformed at any of the major cathedrals around the kingdoms."


    "Is it similar to the one I did already?"


    "A little. But less impersonal? Maybe? I''d describe it as a religious experience. You basically go and ask the gods to reveal the truth of your soul. Some people can''t stand the truth of what they may see and never go. They just try and figure out their affinity the hard way. It can be a jarring experience after all. They say that the heroes always go through the process, however. But they are closer to the gods so..."


    "How are they closer?" I asked. It seemed that he was having too much fun having someone around who wanted to hear what he had to say to find my questions too strange. The main road split and Zachariah led me down the smaller path. Had I of been back on Earth, I would not have gone down this path in the darkening twilight with a strange man, no matter how innocent he looked. But I was a demon now, and the thought of this guy even trying any funny business was hilarious.


    "Well, it is the God Kradiff, that brings them from their world to ours, after all. Even if the spell is enacted by priests in the capital. They are literally touched by a god. Many people believe it is both this, and the world they come from, that gives them their crazy power and abilities. The strength to take on the Demon King..."


    "What about demons? Can they even go into your churches?"


    Surprised, Zachariah blinked down at me. "I hadn''t thought of that... I was always told that they couldn''t, but I have no proof. Not for free demons anyway. I know that demons under the control of a summoner can not enter. Demons summoned buy a master make a contract with them. The summoner gains use of the demon''s power, both in the form of the demon''s physical form, and in a boost to the summoner''s own abilities. In exchange the summoner trades their soul."


    "Sound like a poor deal for the summoner to me..." I mumbled.


    "Many believe it is. They say it''s a selfish contract and that a few years of power is not worth the loss of one''s soul. And the demons who make the contracts seem to think them a good deal. I mean, most people who make the contracts are human, and humans only live an average of eighty years. Eighty years to your kind is like a blink, right? And after that blink, the demon can go home with the added power of a soul. I''m not sure what your people do with those souls, but I do know that there is a great deal of power in one." He was quiet for a moment, and I was lost in thought, so his next question surprised me when it came, merely because it was so off topic. "What is your name by the way? I''ve just been referring to you as "Demon woman" in my head and its kind of making me feel rude in my own mind..."


    My lips twitched. I could understand that, I guess. "My name is Sin. And I heard you say earlier that you are Zachariah Farset."


    "Zach." He said off handily. "You are a demon, named Sin? A bit on the nose, isn''t it? Is that really your name?"


    "Its the name if had since I first drew breath in this life. I''d say it can''t get any realer than that."


    "If you say so. I kind of like it though... Sin. Alright I can work with that. We are nearly at the Base. I doubt there is many people there, they had to port out this morning to attend a presentation ceremony for the heroes. I saw a note they left me when I stumbled out of my room."


    If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    "I feel like you should probably look after yourself a little better."


    He laughed and it was a warm and comfortable sound. "I have been told that by many people. But the others make sure I have food and water when I get all spaced out like I do. And once I start to stink, they drag me out and make me bathe."


    "Sounds unhealthy."


    "What can I say, my work consumes me." He chuckled.


    "And what is your work? Reading?"


    "Oh no! I''m an enchanter. Mostly of things like trinkets and jewelry. I don''t really work well with weapons and such. I just read for fun."


    Suddenly I knew who this was. "Ah, so are the crazy, smart weirdo that Wells was talking about."


    "Wait, he called me crazy and weird?"


    I laughed. "Maybe not in so many words."


    "Hmm."


    We had left the field behind now and I noted a slight incline in the terrain. It didn''t take long for trees to become more prominent. I may have been a little nervous, entering a forest at night, at one time. Not because of the man next to me, nor even the monsters that could be lying in wait, as said before I could handle those just fine. No, I would have been nervous about stumbling around in the dark, tripping over stones and roots. But working in Castor''s Wood, sometimes even over night, the last couple weeks, showed me that my new eyes could see quite well at night. I couldn''t pick up colors too well, and the more the moon had waned, or the more clouds in the sky, the harder it was to see. But having night vision was quite helpful.


    "Just so you know," piped up Zach after a few minutes of him nearly tripping every few steps, "Your eyes are beautiful, but very scary out here at night."


    "What?" I asked, confused.


    "They glow." He laughed. "Like two rubies on fire in the night. I think if anyone saw them in the dark, they would not mistake you as a beastmen."


    "Good to know..."


    "I think its fascinating. Given you are not tripping over your own feet like me I take it you can see quite well? Is it a heat vision? Or does everything look the same as it does in the light of day?"


    I sighed; this man really did not stop. Still, I didn''t not like that about him. I could be obsessive too. I reached up and stroked Drogin''s head. I had to admit that the thought of coming across and learning about other monster set a fire under my skin and made me excited too. "I see things in shades of black and silver."


    "Amazing! So, its like your eyes are supper sensitive to light? Or wait, maybe mana?" there was a moment of silence then- "Blow." There was a short flash or a magic circle, then a small wind brush past me, the areas shimmering with a glittering bluish dust light. I spun on my heel and hissed at the man. I didn''t even know that I hissed... "Sorry!" he said, raising his hands. "Just wanted to test something. It was just a slight breeze!"


    I grumbled and narrowed my eyes at the man. "So? Did it look like anything?" He asked, a huge smile and a slight note of excited impatient.


    "What do you mean?" I asked, continuing down the path.


    "The magic? Did you see it? I was curious if your eyes could pick up mana or if it was just light."


    I rolled my eyes. "I saw the circle as always." I said simply. "Though there was a slight shimmering of blue light on the wind."


    "Amazing! Wait, you can see the magic circle on even small spells like that?"


    "Yes? Is that not normal?"


    "Not for humans. Nor for beastmen. Elves can, however"


    "Why?" I asked, feeling a little exasperated. I may have amused too if I hadn''t been feeling the exhaustion of an adrenaline crash.


    "Its just a theory, but some suggest that the races blessed by greater levels of magic can pick up on mana levels better than other races. I find it interesting because this seems to prove that what I have suspected of a while may be true!"


    "And what have you been suspecting?" I asked, just because it was easier to go along with the guy''s madness.


    "Well, there is some debate amongst scholars about weather or not demons are even magical at all as an over all race. Most believe that they are like humans and beastmen, where only a very few can really use magic in any significant matter. However, there are people like me who believe that, with out their contracts to bind them, demons fall more into the category the elves do and are blessed with great mana. One way to know weather or not a person is strong with mana is to test how well they can actually pick up on the flow of mana!" He was getting more and more excited as he spoke and barely even registered when I had to grab him to prevent his trip sending him sprawling to the ground. "And being able to see week spell circles proves that you are strong in mana!"


    "Um, I guess I am glad for your discovery... but you do know that that isn''t solid proof, right? Maybe I am just very gifted. What''s to say that all demons are."


    "Oh, nothing really." He said still sounding cheery even though I blew a huge whole in his hypothesis. "But its one step closer. I can''t wait to share this discovery with the others in Larasta!"


    "I really rather you wouldn''t..." I sighed. Yeah, there was no may me being a demon was going to be kept secret for much longer. I felt an ache inside I wasn''t accustomed to and knew it was because I was getting attached. Attached to this world and the people I met here, to the life I was just starting to settle into. I was afraid that the small friendships that had just begin to bud around me were about to be shattered once they all knew that they had been friendly with a demon.


    "Zaaaach!!" I heard a female voice ring out. "Damn it where the hell are you...?" Who ever the woman was she sounded more irritated than concerned.


    "Oops! That''s Sandra. She must have found out I left." He put his hands around his mouth and a braced myself for his shout. "Over here! I''m coming!"


    "Don''t scare me like that kid!" the woman snapped, and I heard her grumble a few words that, had my hearing not been as good as it was, I wouldn''t have heard at all.


    "Sorry!" he chuckled and turned to me. "Sandra is a witch and part of the Red Ravens. She specializes in plant magic and is a competent alchemist too. Unfortunately, she also has a bad gambling problem."


    Wow, this guy had no sense of boundaries. Did he not even think that his teammate may not want to have her dirty laundry and skills bandied about to strangers?


    He was going to tell everyone I was a demon...


    Feeling a little defeated, I helped Zach toward the area the voice had come from. After a second I saw candle light and then a massive building came into view. To others it probably would have just looked like a massive dark shadow with a few widows lit up. But to my eyes... to my eyes the place was lit up in a myriad of colours, almost like it was covered in an oil slick coloured mist that danced and moved over the stones...


    Maybe I should have spent more time out at night after all. Usually, I was in a hurry to get back to town before the gates were closed for the night and then I just spent the night in the inn. The few times I did stay out over night it was out in the forest where there was no concentration of magic, just bursts of it. Clearly this Red Raven base was bursting with it. In fact, squinting my eyes so I could see through the fog, I could see some magic circles on the brick surfaces.


    I stopped in my tracks and Zach looked back to me, confused and a little concerned. "What is it? You can come in. Trust me, someone being a demon is not that big a deal here. Half of this squad has been called one at least once." He said with a laugh, clearly trying to put me at ease.


    "This place is saturated in mana, and there are spell circles that I do not know... what if I just get trapped in there?''


    He looked surprised, then turned his head back toward the two-story mansion. Even through the mist I could make out the solid and massive double door and the many giant glass windows that ran the length of the building. Only the half of the building in front of me seemed to be truly tall. It was two stories, but clearly the first level was double height, so it looked more like three.


    "Oh." Zach said. "Your eyes must be awesome... There is a lot of magic here. It''s a Royal Squadrons Base after all. Plus, half of us are always experimenting with something or the other. I promise, we are not going to trap you here Sin. You could leave right now if it really concerns you. But it is late, and I wish you would stay. You saved my life, the least I could do is give you a place to spend the night."


    I still wasn''t overly comfortable with it but decided to enter anyways. Maybe curiosity was as big a fault with demons as it was with cats? I don''t remember it being as hard to resist when I was a human, that''s for sure. I would have been dead long ago.


    I followed Zach into the building, my body drawn tight like a bow string, completely expecting to be put in a magical bind of some sort. Nothing happened. Nothing but Zach laughing at my tense baring anyway.


    "See, you are fine."


    "And who is this?" I heard a woman ask as a candle was lit up ahead.


    By its light, and the light coming in from the widows I could see that I had entered a rather large room. I could tell that the room, full of wide spaces and some tables and chairs, extend a way to my right. Over there was skinnier than here, where the back of the room seemed to extend back a bit farther. Along the far wall was clearly a well stocked bar, the bottles reflecting the light in colors of amber and honey.


    It was by this bar that the woman stood, holding a decanter and eyeing me like I was a bug. She was taller than me but only by a few inches, her tall, Grass green witches hat added nearly a foot to that height. Her matching dress, long sleeved, body forming, and with an obscene amount of cleavage, showed off every curve as she leaned against the bar, looking every bit the witch, she was.


    She had a very pleasing face and wore only minimal makeup. I wasn''t sure if that was how she liked it- she really did not need any- or if it was just because of the late hour. Sandra had large lavender eyes, a darkly tanned complexion, and a full wide mouth that curved up in an arrogant smile. Her hair, wavier than curly, hung to her shoulders in a purple color that shouldn''t have looked natural but did.


    "This is Sin, she is a demon." Said Zach


    And there it was. Not even in other company for three seconds and he had already spouted out what I was. Called it. Oh well, adapt and move on. It''s always worked before; all I could do was hope that it continued to serve me well now.


    "You don''t say?" Drawled Sandra with a cocked eyebrow as she gave me another once over. "I don''t see any horns. Or a tail. The eyes scream demon though."


    I sighed. No point hiding now. I uncurled my tail and let it rasp along the stone floors, reached up and took the tie out of my hair and let the black-red sheet fall to its full length. Sandra made a long ''hunnn'' sound and came forward. As she approached she reached out a thin, brown hand toward my head. "May I?" she asked, fingers inches from my little horns.


    "I suppose so..."


    She smiled and poked the tip of her finger to the top of one of my horns. I didn''t even feel anything. "They are so small." She said with apparent delight. "I have seen countless demons, and its true that they come in many shapes and sizes, but I have never seen one with such tiny horns." She laughed.


    "So glad I amuse you..." I said sarcastically, glaring at the woman.


    "Sorry." She laughed; I''ve just never had a conversation with a demon before. I have seen a few free demons of course. Even the royal guard who protects the queen has one. But I never had an occasion to speak to one."


    "Well then I am so very pleased to see that I can delight both you and Zach in that regard then."


    "Snappy! I like it." He chuckled before taking a step back. "My name is Sandra, human and witch extraordinaire." She did a slight bow that had me worried her breasts may fall out of the dress. "A pleasure to meet you, Sin."


    "Like wise." I said, not entirely sure I meant it. "Are you the only two here?" I asked. It seemed awfully empty. Sure, it was dark out, but it wasn''t exactly late.


    "No, but almost." She said, sauntering back to the bar. Zach followed so I had too as well. That or stay standing at the door like an awkward freak.


    "I assume everyone took off to the capital?" Asked Zach, hoisting himself up on one of the tall bar stools.


    Sandra rolled her eyes. "You need to get out of your cave more often, Love. But yes, they are at the capital. We received word nearly a week ago that there was to be some big announcement or some such and the Queen called in all the captains. So, Rift took Leon, Dural and Vale with him. Vice captain Honey and most of the others are off on odd jobs."


    "So, the reason they went to the capital was to learn about the heroes then?" I asked.


    "Seems to be the case. I am not surprised. Things have been getting dicey for a while so anyone in the know was expecting this to happen sooner or later. I wonder who these new people are and what they are like..."


    "Well," I said, deciding to risk fishing for information again. I sat on a stool, mindful of my tail, and set Drogin down on the counter, stoking his back as if he were a fluffy cat. "What were the last heroes like? I mean I know the general history, but personality wise... or maybe more like their backstories?"


    "Hnnnn. I am older than many humans but not nearly old enough to know them personally." Said Sandra, pouring herself another drink and not offering one to either me or Zach. I figured Zach probably shouldn''t drink. For some reason I felt as if he may blow things up. For science. "I hear that the world they come from is very strange though."


    "Yes, I have heard that too!" Smiled the boyish enchanter. "I investigated it once, trying to see what I could find from old reports and the like. Apparently, there is no magic there at all! Or at least the people there have no knowledge of how to access it."


    "I have heard that too. And, that there are not other races there. Just humans."


    "You don''t say." I said, simply. "Not even demons?"


    "Nope. I read in the records that the humans there told stories of the other races, like they once may have met the other races far back in their history and now all that is left are legends." Explained Zach. He looked like he needed to lie down and sleep but at the same time, wired, as if the very thought of sleep was laughable. "Can you believe we live in an age where the heroes have come? I wonder if I will be able to speak with one of them!"


    "Zach, Love, the heroes being here is a biproduct of the end times. Do try and not sound so excited about that." Reprimanded Sandra, sounding exasperated but unsurprised. "Our Squad has a bad enough reputation; we don''t need the kingdom thinking we were looking forward to the Demon King''s return."


    "I am not excited about that." Zach replied with a slight frown. "Though if I could interview him as well that would be fascinating!" He continued, his face saying only that he was very excited.


    Sandra rolled her eyes at me. "This one has either got his nose stuffed in some old tomb, or he is tinkering with some odd bauble or another." She explained, using her drink to indicate Zach.


    "I didn''t see you complaining when I enchanted that bauble on your hat!" Huffed the half unconscious man. Literally, his eyes were too drooped to even properly glare at the witch.


    I looked up at the lavender hat in question and noted that there was, indeed, a small golden chain wrapped around the base with a large amethyst in a golden setting dangling from it. If I squinted, I could see a feint haze like the outside of the base had. What kind of enchantments did it contain?


    "That aside," said the witch, Sandra. "You should get off to bed Zachariah. You are dead on your feet. When was the last time you slept?"


    Zach shrugged. "I guess you are right. I''ll just show Sin to a room she can use first." He finished with a yawn.


    "Um-"I said awkwardly. I had no shame. I''d take a free room any day. But this was, essential, a military base that would be full of super powerful people who- by admission of two said members present- were probably mentally unstable. Did I really want my demon ass here for the night? What if one of them wanted to off the demon in the night. I wasn''t cocky enough to assume that I could take on people like these. Zach, maybe, but I had no doubt that most of the people in this building would be able to kill me, an untrained demon with a tiny dragon.


    "Its fine." Yawned Sandra clearly tired herself. "Trust me, no one will care much. You got in, didn''t you?"


    Well, that was a disconcerting comment. What the heck did that mean?


    A wicked grin spread across Sandra''s face. "This place is spelled to ward off anyone with ill intent. Even if someone was powerful enough to get through those wards there would at least be an alarm going off to warn everyone."


    I glared down at the drowsy Zach. He had said that it would be fine, He never once mentioned wards.


    "What? I knew you would be fine. I told you." He said, clearly confused as to why I was upset with him. "You are a good bad person."


    "That doesn''t even make sense..." I growled. A literal growl. Apparently, I hissed and growled. Who knew.


    "Come on. There should be a couple rooms on the first floor you can crash in." He said with a sleepy wave of his hand, sliding off his stool. "Don''t forget your newt."


    "Dragon." I corrected. Though, Drogin was most definitely a newt. "And his name is Drogin." I said, accepting defeat and getting to my feet. Drogin had fallen asleep, so I scooped up the small, red, dragon into my arms and shuffled off after Zach, past the bar. I nodded to Sandra who gave me a cheery wave and downed the last of her amber drink.


    We pass the tight set of stairs and headed down a tight hallway. "That''s the guild office." Said Zach waving a hand at a door as we passed. "You will usually find Captain Rift there if not in the common room. And up ahead there is the baths. Left side for women and right for men. And at the end of the hall is the training room. I avoid that like the plague." Apparently, Zach decided he was going to play tour guide. I wasn''t sure why given I was just crashing here for the night, but I''m sure he would still do it if I brought up that fact all the same. "And tuning left here is the first-floor rooms."


    As we walked down the hallway, I glanced at he stones walls and doors. It was dark in here, with nose of the sconces lit that lined the walls, but I could see fine. Zach was seemingly fine as well, no doubt due to this being a stone paved hall without roots. That and his knowledge of the place that is. Even here I could make out feint magic circles and even whisps of mana here and there. Now that I was aware of it, it was suddenly much easier to see.


    "Okay, this one is empty." Said Zach, coming to a stop at a door around the center of the passage. "My room is one door back the way we came and across the hall. Though, most of the time I''m in my workshop."


    "Alright." I spoke. I scratched at the bandage on my arm. It was nearly healed now but the process itched like crazy. "Thanks."


    Zach smiled kindly. "You were the one who saved me Sin. I thank you." He chucked then interrupted the laugh with another yawn. "Giving you a place to be safe is the least I could do. Well, I will see you in the morning then." And with a cheery, if lack luster wave, Zach stumbled down the hall. True to his word he only went one door down and across the hall before nearly falling into his room with a muffled curse that made me chuckle.


    Sighing in resignation, I opened the door to my temporary sleeping situation. The inside was surprisingly spacious. Nearly three times the size of the room I rented at the inn for sure. Like my room in the inn however, there was no window. I suppose that was to be expected given my back wall was shared with the training room. Along the back wall were several empty bookshelves, a small bed, and a bedside table. To my left was a couch and a small sitting room table, while to my right was a round dining table and four chairs. Another glace and I saw there was also a desk against the right wall just beyond the dining table.


    It still wasn''t all that late. had I of not just been in a life-or-death fight after using up a chunk of mana on taming Drogin, and had I been at the Inn where I knew where the candle and matches were, I would have had my customary look at my grimoire. But I didn''t have it in me to hunt anything down, so I simply headed straight for the bed. I carefully crawled onto the covers and kicked off my boots before settling Drogin into the hollow between my side and arm. I was asleep before I even realized it.

 The Squad Returns

    I was the smell that woke me up the next morning. And I mean it woke me up from a dead sleep. I may have even risen from the bed like a damn possessed thing from the Exorcist. It wasn''t a bad smell. Actually, it was an amazing one, and I found myself following it like a zombie.


    Somewhere behind me there was a cranky squawk followed by a thump and a scuttling. I was still half asleep as I opened the strange door and entered a hallway that was unfamiliar, stumbling after the smell. Somewhere in the back of my mind I remembered that I was at the base of the royal squad known as the Red Ravens, but for now the smell held all my conscious thoughts.


    I took a right turn with the scuttling following at my heels. Bare heels as it turned out, given I left my boots on the floor of the room. I stumbled out into a wide room, took a left, and saw that the smell was coming from the bar. With a groan, I stumbled that way and sniffed. I knew that smell. I needed it.


    "Er, ''ello?" Said a confused voice that I ignored.


    "Oh, good morning, Sin." Chirped another. "No worries, Dural, this is Sin. The stray demon I told you Zach brought home."


    "Coffee." I grumped, hunting for that delicious brew that I could smell. When was the last time I had coffee?


    "What?" laughed the strange man. Now that the beverage I could smell was being denied me, my brain decided that he was worth inspecting. I was too not awake to realise that I was seeing a dwarf for the first time.


    Dural was around four and a half feet tall with thick brown hair and a long-braided beard draped over a cotton shirt and hang past his knees. His eyes were aggravatingly bright and awake, a deep green color that popped next to his rosy cheeks.


    "Coffee," I repeated. "Now, please." I added because I was half asleep and the smell was torture.


    "Sorry Luv, but I haven''t the foggiest what it is you are saying Lass." He turned to look at someone behind me.


    "Good morning, everyone!" groaned a loud voice I realized was Zach''s, but I was still focused on locating the liquid gold. "Good morning, Sin." He hopped onto the stool nest to where I was standing. A little growl of irritation and Drogin appeared next to me where he promptly took his place on my shoulders. "He didn''t look very happy on the floor. What''s going on?"


    "Seems ur'' demon lady is look''n fer something."


    "For what?"


    "Coffee." Said Sandra.


    "And what is coffee?"


    "Haven''t a clue?" She said with a sigh.


    "The smell." I huffed, my head hitting the bar. I so was not good with sudden wakefulness.


    "Yeh mean the Fiervir?" Asked the dwarf, showing me his metal mug which did indeed seem to have the lovely black fluid in it.


    "Coffee." I stated.


    "Sorry Luv, but this be Fiervir. Made from dried then roasted Fiervir root, then steeped in hot water."


    "Maybe demons call it coffee?" Zach asked the room.


    "Either way, yer more than welcome to it." Laughed Dural the dwarf. He placed the cup he held on to the bar in front of me. "You take this one. I haven''t touched it yet." And with that he went a little farther down the bar and began pour himself another mug full, from a pot he had set on a bar rag. "Never met none but the dwarves who like Fiervir." He chuckled.


    I took a sip of the strong brew and sighed happily. I wasn''t a fan of black coffee but damn, any coffee was good right now.


    "How can you drink that?" asked Sandra, sitting on the stool on my other side. "It is bitter and vile." She was dressed in another lavender dress this morning, this one had gold filigree though and the cleavage wasn''t quite as dangerous.


    "Agreed." Said Zach.


    "Perks you up though." Laughed another new voice. Beginning to be caffeinated now I decided that I could look and see who it was.


    I blinked in surprise because for a split second I thought the seven plus, foot tall man I saw sitting there was Rice. Then I realised that this man was probably closer to seven foot even, with black hair and much wider in the shoulders than Rice. I blinked a couple times then returned to my coffee without comment. Coffee before confusion. My motto for the day.


    "Is there any sugar and milk here?" I asked the room at large.


    "Eye." Said a confused Dural. He bent behind the bar and opened a box there. White smoke wafted out and I knew that it was an ice chest. Sally had a larger one in the kitchens at the in. It was essentially a fridge in a box. It was kept cool when an enchanter infused it with ice magic. The dwarf pulled a white, glass bottle, out and laid it on the bar next to my mug. Reaching a little farther away, he lifted a round clay dish and laid that next to it as well.


    I opened the lid of the dish and found unrefined, brownish yellow, sugar as well as a tiny spoon. I scooped up two spoonful''s and put them into my mug as the others watch, then I poured in a little milk, giving it a stir. Sighing happily, I set to drinking my coffee. Fiervir. Whatever.


    "Is that better?" Asked, Zach, fascinated.


    "Much better." I spoke. I reluctantly handed him the mug. "Try."


    He didn''t even hesitate, despite claiming he hated the stuff mere seconds ago. Clearly nothing would get in the way of learning something new. He took a sip and wrinkled his nose. He handed it back to me.


    "Still not for me. But it is better. Not nearly as strong and with a sweetness to off set the bitterness."


    "I want to try." Whined Sandra.


    I sighed and pushed the mug her way. "Just so you know, demons don''t like sharing." I literally had no clue if that was true. But I didn''t like sharing and I was a demon... so it wasn''t a total lie right?


    "Then doubly thank you!" She said and took a sip. Her eyes widened. "Its good!" She exclaimed.


    "Really?" Asked Dural, fuzzy eyebrows raised.


    "Dwarves never tried adding sugar and milk to - fiervir? - Before?" I asked as Sandra set my cup back in front of me and hurried behind the counter to make one of her own.


    "Sugar is expensive in our mountain cities." Explained Dural. "And the own''ly milk we have ready access to is from the Kavda goats. It makes a good cheese... But not too pleasant to drink."


    "Well, I like mine this way."


    "So, demons like fiervir?" Asked Zach.


    I rolled my eyes. "I like it. Can''t speak for an entire race, however." The life giving caffeine making its way into my system began waking me up nicely. I turned to the other man in the room. "I don''t suppose you are related to Commander Rice, are you?" I asked him.


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    The man sitting at one of the round tables laughed. It was a deep and hearty laugh of someone who did it often. He was dressed in a heavy canvas like pair of pants, a thick leather belt and the first tank top I had seen in this world. His exposed arms had a great many scars on massive muscles. Leaning against the table was a massive sword in a red leather sheath with huge leather straps I assumed were used to keep it fastened to the mans back. The damn thing had to weigh at least as much as me.


    "Right you are. Steven is my younger brother!" Said the man. "I am Captain Rift Rice of the Red Ravens. Now who, may I ask, are you?" He still had the smile when he asked but I could hear the clear threat in his voice. If I said anything that he didn''t like I may not be finishing my coffee.


    "My name is Sin. I''m an adventurer from Bellana. Lovely to meet you." I swear I did not try to say that last sentence with sarcasm. I really, really, did not.


    "And you are a tamer?"


    "Yes. I see I was right in assuming Zach is completely incapable off keeping anything to himself."


    Rift roared with laughter again. "You have him pegged right."


    "Hey, I can so keep a secret." Whined Zack, looking a little hurt. The room at large snorted with a dismissive laugh.


    "Well, Sin the demon who is a tamer, from Bellana, you may be happy to know that I was sure to send word to the adventurers guild that some of my men took out some bandits along the old South Road late last night."


    "I am, yes." I spoke. "Thank you."


    "Thank you for looking out for our Zach. He is a damn liability in a fight, despite his willingness to try and help, but his brain is a gift."


    Zach grumbled next to me, and I smiled. He was week but he had not hesitated to try and lend me aid when I stepped in to get him away from the bandits with that ''force'' spell of his. He was absentminded and distractable, but I could tell he was brave and kind as well. Probably a much better person than myself.


    "You should probably put a bell on him. Then you will know when he gets out." I said, drinking more of my life sustaining beverage.


    "I may just do that." Gawffed Rift. "The world is getting a little too dangerous for someone who has a nose in a book while he walks to be out and about without back up."


    "Speaking of which," said Sandra holding her own cup of Fiervir like it was birthday cake. "Spill. I tried to get the details from Vale, but he brushed me off to go to the training room. Honey and Leon went straight to bed. I must know what the heroes were like!"


    Zach and I perked up as well. I was very curious about the other people from my world. I still mostly felt bad for them, especially the kid I saw get scooped up, but I couldn''t deny I was wondering if they were settling in the same as I was.


    "There isn''t much to tell really." Said Rift unhelpfully. "Its not like we had a chance to speak with them. They stood there as the Queen and the head priest introduced them and then it went straight to talks about how we were going to handle the Demon King situation." At this he turned to me. "I don''t suppose you have any insight into that do you?"


    "Why?" I asked, stomach sinking. I had no knowledge about my own race, much less about one specific dude. Even if he was a famous one. "Because all demons must know one another. There are a lot of us you know?" I had no way of knowing that for sure, but it seemed a safe guess to me.


    Rift narrowed his eyes on me suspiciously. I glared back. "Look." I said, irritated. "I admit I don''t have much, but what I do have and care about, is all part of this world. If I had some wisdom that would help me protect that and I thought you could help, then I would tell you." I nearly said ''Scouts honor'' but clamped my mouth shut before it could leak out. Damn it was hard watching everything I was going to say. If I kept being a chatter box like this, it wasn''t just going to be my demon-ness that was going to be exposed.


    After another second, he sighed and scratched his nose. "Fine. Keep your secrets. For now."


    I continued to glare daggers at the man. "I think I like your brother better."


    Rift looked genuinely shocked. "That stick in the mud. Tch!"


    I snorted and returned to my quickly cooling coffee- I mean Fiervir... damn it.


    "Well, you can tell us what the heroes looked like can''t you." Sulked Zach, completely ignoring the tension between me and his boss.


    "Oooh yes!" Purred Sandra. "What do they look like. Any handsome other worlders for me to ogle amongst them?"


    "You would ask tha''." Mumbled the dwarf with an amused smile.


    "Well, one of them is barely into his man hood." Huffed the captain. "Had a hard look in his eyes though. I know they have been here for a few weeks. No doubt they have been training and such. He was tall for his age I suppose a little gangly, with blonde hair..."


    "Must be hard for the kid, com''n ere'' with out a say in it..." Sighed Dural.


    "Well, you guys'' kid napped him. Can''t imagine it was very fun for him." I snipped with out thinking. The group looked at me surprised so I decided to just roll with it and get it off my chest. "What? You didn''t think the people brought here had lives? The kid probably has parents you know. Siblings? Hopes and dreams for the future. All that snatched away because a world he didn''t even know existed needed him to fight in a war for them. Pretty shitty deal if you ask me."


    Rift eyed me like I was a bug he found interesting but wasn''t quite sure if he wanted to keep me in a jar or just squish me. I didn''t know what it was but there was a look in his eyes, one that I had seen in his brothers too, one that made me uncomfortable. Like they could see things about me I rather they didn''t.


    "We, really don''t have much of a choice Sin." Said Sandra sadly. "Without the insane powers of the heroes there is no way our people could defeat the Demon King. Even if all the armies of Larasta, from all nine kingdoms, joined their forces in one great assault, we still would not be enough..."


    I knew that. Or at least I assumed it. The people here did not seem lazy, or overly eager to shirk their duty and pass it off onto strangers after all. "I am not saying that that isn''t the case. All I am trying to say is that you can''t exactly expect an eagerness out of them. You said it''s only been a couple weeks after all. No doubt these heroes are still mourning all they had stolen from them."


    "Well, what about you?" Asked the narrow eyed, far too perceptive, Rift. "You are not from this world. Yet you are fighting off ten bandits all to save a man you didn''t even know the name of."


    "I wasn''t taken without my consent though now, was I?" I snapped. It was true. I wasn''t kidnapped. I was killed, though, but I was over that now. Honestly, the life I was making for myself here was far more fulfilling than the one I had taken from me on earth. "I don''t have anyone waiting for me to come home back where I am from."


    "What''s the demon world like?" Chirped Zach, his whole bearing perking up as his insatiable desire for new information reared it head.


    I turned my stoney eyes on the man child "Who knows." I said quite truthfully. Zach slumped sadly.


    "I feel for them Sin," said Sandra, shaking her head at Zach. "I really do. It can''t be easy on them. But our kingdom is full of people who would die without the summoning. We do what we can for those brought here against their will, you know? In fact, they are not made to fight at all. They have the choice. The last heroes are proof of that. Only three of them were any help and one actively worked against the others! History tells us that the last coming of the Demon King was nearly the end of us all."


    I sighed, "Yes, I understand."


    Rift sighed, clearly deciding to drop it, and went back to describing the heroes to Sandra. "The other four were adults at least. All are men except one... I can''t remember their names or anything. It was a very brief introduction. I do know that the Queen is going to be sending them out soon."


    "Out?" I asked.


    "Yes. Essentially, the queen is sending the heroes out to introduce themselves to the kingdom. They will likely go out in two separate groups, guided by some of the knights. It''ll be a mission to get the heroes acquainted with the kingdom as well as get them experience fighting the monsters and minions of the Demon King. It will be a long campaign and the queen will want the people behind the heroes. I''m sure no one wants what happened in the last age to happen again this time."


    "So, when are these heroes supposed to show up here?" I asked.


    "Well. Bellana is the second largest city in the kingdom of Larasta, so I would imagine that they will be sent here first. My guess will be in about a week, maybe a week and a half. The capital has access to a large teleportation stone that lets them send people to the main cities across the nine kingdoms. It''s a one-way transport but it is useful when in a rush."


    "Even if it means knocking out three strong magicians to do it." Added Zach, off handily. "Poor construction in my opinion."


    "And you could do better?" laughed Sandra with glittering eyes.


    Zach, sniffed in disdain. "I wouldn''t know now, would I? They won''t let me look at the thing."


    The others laughed and I smiled. I may not have known him longer than a minute, but I could still imagine him trying to sneak into wherever this stone was and try and tinker with it to make it work better.


    I sighed and got to my feet. It was time to get out of here. I did not want to be interrogated farther. Besides, I had to go pay Sally more copper or she may well rent out my room to some one else when I don''t show up.


    "I''m getting my boots and then Getting out of here." I said, walking past Zach and making my way back toward the hall. "Thanks for the coffee, but I need to get back to Bellana."


    "You are leaving already?" He asked. "You haven''t met everyone yet though."


    I laughed. "Why would I need to meet everyone?"


    I hurried back to the room, pulled my boots on and got back to the common room just as fast. Some how this felt awkward now and I just wanted to be gone. I waved at the four Red Ravens and beat a hasty retreat to the door.


    "See you around Sin." Said Rift, behind me. I didn''t look back, just tossed a wave over my shoulder and left the building.

 When Demons go to Church

    For three days I laid low at the Inn. I didn''t take any jobs from the Guild; I didn''t head out into the forest to look for drops and magistones. No one seemed suspicious of me. There was nothing connecting me to the bandits and the Red Ravens took credit for their deaths. There was no real reason for my caution, only a force of habit. You do something wrong; you lay low. Let the heat pass on and keep your nose out of trouble.


    By the fourth day I was bored. Bored and frustrated. I needed to get out and power up. The fight with the bandits proved that I was woefully lacking. Yes, I did win. And I won without too much effort. But it proved to me that when it came to facing multiple enemies I was at a huge disadvantage. I was a a close combat fighter without any mid to long range moves. My abilities with magic were beyond lacking as well.


    I had Drogin now and he was a great help. But he was also originally an E ranked monster. Even evolved by his name as he was, he could only do so much. He was a tiny little thing after all. At least his fire power adds some much-needed mid range support. But when it came right down to it, what I needed was to get out there and get myself some more tames. Unfortunately, I had a problem with that too: There really wasn''t anything near town that was worth my time. In all honesty, Drogin wasn''t a smart choice, more of an impulsive one. I needed more power, preferably long ranged.


    I was at a loss as to what to do about it and so I decided to do what Zach had suggested: go to the church.


    I still had no way of knowing weather or not I could even enter the cathedral. When on earth, I always heard people joke that demons, witches, and vampires would burst into flames if they even tried to get close to a church. I had to admit I was a little nervous as I made my way up North Road. The cathedral was on the northwest side of town, just outside the stone wall that kept the nobles all safe and separated from the rest of us commoners. I''d never even tried to enter that side of town and was glad that the church was on the outside of the wall.


    It was a massive building, easily the largest in the city and that was saying something. After all the Guild buildings were rather large too. The cathedral had several tall spires and a great deal of stained glass. It looked a lot like a church I would have seen back on Earth, minus the crosses and statues of Jesus, Mary and assorted angles. It was beautiful and intimidating.


    It was also busy. There were people of all races and stations milling about the place or coming in and out of the open doors. No one paid me any mind as I ascended the white stone steps, and headed through the doors.


    There were no pews. That was the first thing I noticed. There was no seating at all as a matter of fact. No chairs of any kind and a lot of tall, white marble, pillars rising to the vaulted roof. The stained glass made a myriad of colors all over the massive room and as I walked, they shimmered over me too. Once I passed the first pillar, I saw the statues. I don''t know why I assumed there would only be five of them, but I had been wrong. Apparently, there was a statue of every hero since time immemorial.


    I passed several dozen statues, unable, immediately, to tell what the last generation was and what was even later heroes. They were indeed all human however, and all races. It wasn''t till just now that I realized that I hadn''t seen any other race of human besides Caucasian since I got to this world. None except perhaps Sandra who had more of a Sunkissed look about her. But these statues clearly came in every shape and form of humanity that Earth had to offer. Were there no other races of humanity on Hearth? I supposed that it was what it was, but it did make me curious about the world I had been brought to.


    I was about halfway through this revelation when I realized that I was in the church and not dead or in flames. A jolt of anxiety flashed through me before I sighed, and Drogin made a comforting peeping noise. But that made me tense again, as I hadn''t even thought about weather or not, he would be able to get in. I cursed myself for not leaving him behind or maybe summoning him into the grimoire. He could have died due to my carelessness. That was not acceptable.


    "What troubles you, young lady?" The voice took me by surprise. I had gotten so used to my superior demon hearing letting me know when I was being approached that I apparently began to rely on it too much. I had to be more aware. Clearly today was just not my day.


    I turned, trying not to televise that I had been startled. I came face to chest with a man. He wasn''t massively tall; I was just short. He wore white robes adorned with a pale blue sash and a silver, heavy, chain necklace. He had greying brown hair, hard brown eyes and a square chin that was clean shaven. His smile was genuine however and I relaxed a little.


    "I am not exactly troubled." I said to the man. My tail twitched from around my waist, and I hoped no one noticed. "I was just thinking about a mistake I had made is all."


    The man nodded. "Here is as good a place as any for such contemplations." He glanced around the church as if assessing that it was, in fact, a good place to have some deep internal monologues. "I hope you do not find me overly nosy, but do you mind if I ask what brings you here?"


    His question did not disturb me, but I could feel the hair on my arms raise as well as the scales on my tail. After a second, I realized why. There were other robed figures around me, pretending to be minding their own business. I could tell they were watching me, however.


    "I was told that I could get an assessment here, to see where my magical affinity lies, amongst other things. Was I told incorrectly?" I made no effort to hide the fact hat I knew that the priests were surrounding me.


    "You were not." Said the priest. "My apologies. We mean you no harm. Its just, by all rights, your little friend there should not be able to enter this place." He said, pointing to Drogin who glared at him. "This place should be fully warded against monsters and demons. So, I am sure you can imagine our alarm to find that one can just waltz in here. Even one as small as this one."


    Ah, so apparently demons and monsters really couldn''t enter churches. I was nervous about myself, but I really didn''t think I would have too much trouble getting in. I had a skill that aloud me entry into all sanctuaries after all: Devine Acceptance. I was ashamed that I hadn''t considered Drogin though.


    "As such, miss, I must ask how you brought a monster in here."


    "I''m sorry. I honestly didn''t think about it when I brought him in. Perhaps because I am a tamer and Drogin is my partner, and that is why I can bring him past your protections."


    "A tamer you say. Perhaps." He sighed and waved a hand. The other priests seemed to just fade back into the crowd. "I also apologies Miss. Theses are trying times, and I thought it best to err on the side of caution."


    "Its fine." I spoke. And it was fine. I could hardly blame anyone for looking out for themselves and others, even if it was at my own expense. "Drogin will not hurt anyone."


    "Well, you came here to commune with the gods, did you not? Then follow me and I will take you to the receptacle of the gods. This way."


    Following a guy who was about to attack me if things hadn''t turned out the way he wanted, seemed a little hazardous. Still, I came here to do something, and my senses were telling me that I wasn''t in danger anymore. Drogin didn''t seem worried either. So, I decided I would follow. No doubt my lackadaisical attitude to danger would be a problem real soon.


    "Some one just left, so there shouldn''t be a problem getting in. If only large sized magistones were easier to come by. Then we could have more conduits to speak with the gods. But they are rare and so it is only here and in the capital that the church has them. Many citizens must travel far for this."


    "What about the other eight kingdoms?" I asked conversationally.


    "Hmmm. I believe each one has at least one Seeing stone. If they didn''t then I would imagine that ours would have been moved to one lacking." We reached the back of the church, and my eyes were caught on the elaborate painting there. It was clearly an array of frescos depicting battles against the Demon King.


    This marked my first seeing of this Demon King, and what a monster he was. Each painting we passed showed him painted a little differently, but everyone showed him as being of an insane size. Like a mobile hillside! In each one he was a dark, purplish color with massive horns and wings that appeared to block out the sky and leave the land in darkness. From him ran fire and blood and shadowy monster attacking all that they could reach.


    "Stirring are they not?" Asked the priest. He hadn''t introduced himself, but neither had I. It was probably for the best. It felt odd to introduce myself as Sin in a holly place... "Each one of these is ancient of course. There are rooms in the cathedral that contain newer renderings of the great battles. The newest being three hundred years old, so even that one is very old."


    "The Demon king is truly a beast it seems." I said quietly. "Yet he does not look anything like any demons I have heard described before. It would be scarry if summoners could call up such a monster."


    "Yes, they say the Demon King is from a very distinguished line of demons. As most people know, each demon family looks different. Most are big, red or black, with massive horns and thick tails. Others are smaller and speedier. But none are as fearsome as the line of Demon Kings. Perhaps we should be grateful that they are so rare a line and one that no one knows how to summon, else we would find our selves having to fight them much more often."


    No kidding. Still, I finally learned something about my people it seemed. So, there were different families in the demon world, and each of those families looked different from one another. I wondered what family I was from then. If I ever found them, how would I explain myself? Well, I didn''t see that being an issue for the near future Sin, so I''d put it on the back burner for now.


    Perhaps more pressing would be the Demon King. I had no idea the sheer scale of the guy. I was imagining some super buff guy at about eight feet tall with massive curly horns, red skin and he could breathe fire or something. I didn''t realize the heroes would have to take on a damn mountain.


    "So that is one of the antient heroes then?" I asked, pointing to a small, man shaped, white smudge at the mountain''s feet.


    "Indeed. This is a battle that happened nearly six thousand years ago, but it is one of the most famous, so we know a good bit about it. It is famous because this battle was fought by a single hero."


    "Just one?" I asked, shocked and rather appalled.


    "Oh yes. Five had been summoned as always, but the other four had died before the final battle in smaller skirmishes. The great hero Jonas, had to defeat the demon king himself! Well, he wasn''t technically alone." Said the priest and pointed to a reddish smudge next to the white one. "He was a summoner of spirits. It is said that he had the power to summon a spirit of every element. As you can imagine only a hero could possibly accomplish such a feet. Between the hero, his spirits, and the efforts of the knights the Demon Kong was eventually put down. They say it took them seven days and seven nights to accomplish this feat."


    Well damn. Seems like Jonas was a bad ass. At least he wasn''t completely alone.


    Show and tell over, the priest leads me farther past more of the frescos, each depicting another mountain and more smudges struggling to take it down. And soon this same scene would be coming about again. A new mountain, and five new smudges... I guess no matter what world you come from, history always repeats itself.


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    I was led to an arched hall lined with more stained glass on one side and paintings on the other. We eventually reached the end, and the priest opened a plain looking door, holding it open for me.


    "Take all the time you need Miss. And have a good day."


    "Thank you, you as well." I said before entering the room. He shut the door behind me, and my paranoia thought I would hear a lock click but all I heard was the sound of retreating footsteps. I sighed in relief and examined the room.


    My first thought was that it was plain. It was very plain compared to the rest of the church I had seen so far. The walls, the floor, and even the ceiling seemed to be made of a pearly white substance with out crease or separation. Withing the room were two low couches of dark wood and a dark blue velvet. There was a simple coffee -Veirfir? firvier?- table made of the same dark wood and that was it.


    Confused, I spun slowly on my heel, taking the whole room again, thinking I must have missed something. It was as my back was to the couches that a very familiar voice sounded from behind me.


    "We meet again!"


    Shocked I spun the rest of the way around in a flash, almost dislodging a protesting, Drogin. What I laid eyes on was none other than the child god Kradiff sitting on one of the couches with a small smile. I blinked twice, not because I was seeing him once again, but because what he was wearing was so jarring. I had become so accustom, over the last few weeks, of seeing people in leather armor, magical robes, or actual mail, that seeing a child sitting on a Victorian era couch wearing modern cloths was disturbing. He sat with one sneakered foot tucked up under him, the other dandling over the edge of the seat. He had on tan cargo shorts and a black hoody with a picture of a dragon biting its own tail on it. One arm was flung over the back of the couch and his messy hair stuck out at odd angles.


    "Kradiff!" I exclaimed. "What the heck are you wearing?"


    The boys smile fell, replaced by mild irritation. "I told you before, you are the one who makes me look like this female!"


    "Okay, okay." I laughed. "Sorry. Really though, what are you doing here?"


    "Well, this is a place to commune with the gods is it not?"


    "True. Though I rather thought that was just hypothetical. Plus, wasn''t there supposed to be a massive magistone here?"


    "The room is the stone." Stated Kradiff, like I was the slow child and asked what green was. The walls and such were the same pearlescent color as the magic stones... "This is the size of a stone rather unheard of to be honest. They don''t come this big anymore."


    "I don''t understand..."


    "This, and stones scattered throughout the cities of similar size, are as ancient as the worlds we all come from. Basically, these stones are what is left of us gods when were left our physical forms behind."


    "Seriously?!" I said, weirded out. "Is this your-"


    "No." he said with a shrug. "Well, maybe. I couldn''t possibly remember back that far." He sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "Didn''t you come here for a reason?"


    "In a hurry?" I asked, amused. "Hot date?"


    "Hahaha. Very amusing. I am a god you know?"


    "Alright. I''m sorry." I laughed and decided to take a seat opposite of him. "I did come here for a reason, you are right."


    "Well, what can I help you with?"


    I chuckled again. What would he say if I asked for three wishes or something? He had to be the most ungod like God I had- well not met, he is the only one I''ve ever met... I think.


    "I was told that if I came to the church, I could get some kind of deeper evaluation than the stats listing I got from the Guild. I feel like I am in a bit of a personal growth slump. I figured what I found out here would lead me to the path I should take."


    "Hmm. Troubles already, huh? Well people do come here to discover their magical attribute. Usually, people who are having a hard time getting theirs to surface."


    "Would you be able to tell me mine? Oh. I was also wondering why demons and monsters weren''t aloud in the churches. Like what the heck! Aren''t they- or we I suppose- governed by you guys too?"


    "Well, your first question is easy, and somewhat relates to your second. You do not have an attribute in the strictest sense."


    "What!? Why?" I exclaimed.


    "Calm down. Its not that uncommon to be honest. Though you have a reason for it. You are a demon. Demons have their own magic, unrelated to the natural magic of this world. It is part of the reason why summoned demons can not use magic here. Demon magic requires free will and there fore one under the influence of a summoning contract can''t use their magic."


    "But I have used magic-"


    "Yes, you used taming magic. Despite the high mana cost, most taming spells are simple at their core. I am sure you, and any free demon could manage the simpler spells of this world. Especially if used in the old tongue."


    "Huh? You lost me again."


    Kradiff sighed and rolled his eyes. "I am sure you have noticed by now. Some people cast words in the common tongue while others cast in a different spell language." He pointed at my satchel. "Your grimoire is written in the old speech."


    I nodded. I had noticed that though I didn''t really pay it any mind. Zach had used the ''force'' spell, hadn''t he? But also, he used spells like ''Scuro'' to clean things.


    "Well spells are naturally better in the original language. And it is in this language that the demons still speak. They cast their spells and even talk to one another in this language. Or at least the purest for of the language still around."


    "Why doesn''t everyone use the old spells then? If they are better that way I mean."


    "Mostly because they can''t. Especially for the weaker magic races. The more simplified spells and languages that the other races use were developed for them to use magic at all. The elf races, some of the fae races and the demons are the ones that can make full use of this magic. The more powerful the spell the harder and more dangerous it is for the less magically inclined races to use."


    "As for demons specifically. Well, they have immense power in the demon realm but can barely use the magics of this world at all."


    "Then why did you say I could be this race when you were laying out my options?" One of the first questions he had asked was weather or not I wanted to use magic. Shouldn''t demons have been ruled out if I couldn''t even access the full magical potential here?


    "Because you said you wanted to be a tamer." He stated. "Had you said you wanted to be an elemental mage or a healer I would have taken demon off the table. But you wanted to be a tamer. Tamer magic is simple, expensive magic. And I gave you the grimoire because it had the spells you needed in the old language. Plus, the other benefits of course." His eyes flicked to Drogin.


    "So, I can only use tamer spells in this world then?" I asked. "Or other super simple spells? No elemental magic at all?"


    "Nope, not with Harthian magic anyway. You cold always use demon magic though. Besides the limiters placed on demons in this world, demon magic should work fine for you. You just need to find a teacher. Which I admit, will be hard. Free demons are not exactly common. And the ones that do come here usually do because they are so weak in magic that their lives are horrid in the demon realm and so they come here where their physical strength is an asset."


    Oh. So that is why Demons come here of their own accord.


    "Okay. At least I know now. What about my second question then?"


    "Ah, yes, about the church. For demons it is a two-fold problem. The first I already mentioned. Demon magic and Harthian magic are not entirely compatible, and churches are sort of focal points for that magic. An interesting fact is that, as much as demon abilities and such are limited on this world, it is even worse in the opposite. Literally no non-demon native things can enter the demon realm! If you were to go there right now, even the cloths you are wearing would rip off your body and you would appear in Demonia as naked as a baby."


    I resisted the urge to say, ''like when I came here.'' As I didn''t want to distract him farther. This god really was scatter brained. Could he not go more than ten minutes without going off on a tangent?


    "You said something about two-fold?" I prompted.


    "Right. The other reason is for the same reason monsters normally can''t get in here: Because the general belief of the people is that demons and monster shouldn''t be able to get into churches and other sacred places." When I looked confused, he smiled. "As proven by the way I look every time I appear before you, the power of belief is a big thing. It is a magic all on its own that can change the world and the hearts of the people. And I don''t mean knowing. You can know something and still not believe it. For instance, I told you earlier that I was once a creature that had a magistone big enough to build a room in. you now know that, yet I am still a small child to you. Because you believe that is what I look like. It would take an awful lot of work and convincing and time to change the mental image you already hold of me."


    "So because the masses believe that there is no way evil beings like demons and monster could possibly enter a place as inherently connected to the gods, they made it so that they cant?"


    "That''s it, you got it." He smiled happily. "You can enter here now because of your connection to me which gave you the title: One Blessed by the Devine. You can get into any place considered sacred. As for your new little friend, he can get in because you gave him a name."


    "A name? Really?" I said disbelievingly. Seemed fishy to me.


    "Really. You didn''t just look at him and say ''hey, you are Fred now'' did you?"


    "Well, no. I did what the grimoire said, and I sealed our contract in blood and named him that way."


    "Yes, that was a spell with two purposes. To bind your pet to you and the book as a bonded tame, and to give him a name, thus increasing his power. Think of most people''s names more like nick names. What you did was give him a true name. And when you have a true name then you know yourself fully, and when you truly know yourself then you inevitably evolve and gain power. Its why the spell is so draining Sin. It is literally a divine act. By naming him you did something that normally only divine intervention can accomplish. Very few in the history of this world have ever been capable of this."


    "I have heard of named monsters before." I disagreed, a little panicked. Who was I to have this power? I wasn''t even all that strong in the grand scheme of things. Surly most if not all the Red Ravens were stronger than me. Zach exempted of course. And there were, what, eight other squads full of people just as strong. I was better than average. That''s it. "Some elves in the past..."


    "There have been other named monsters. But most that get the names get them naturally. They get them the same way the churches became demon and monster proof."


    "People believed them?"


    "Yes. Say there is an incredibly powerful dragon, it has been terrorizing people for ages and some of the greatest champions have fallen before it. Eventually the people give it a name. eventually they use that name in fear, in rage, in awe. And so, eventually, all that turns into power directed at the dragon. And that is how named monsters come to be. Incidentally, this happens with dragons a lot. They are big and scary, and they live a long time."


    "So, naming one in a matter of minutes... that would be pretty crazy right?"


    Kradiff laughed. "Quite."


    I placed a hand on my bag where the grimoire sat. "Who was the writer of this book you gave me that they can make such spells?"


    "Who knows." He said with a shrug.


    "You have to be the single worst liar ever." I huffed, crossing my arms. Now I was acting like a small child.


    All he did was laugh louder. "I am glad you appear to be doing well Sin. Please continue to grow. Become happy and content. Live a life full of adventure."


    His genuine well wishes pulled me out of my pout. He looked so calm and wise at that moment. So much gentleness in his eyes that I really did believe he wished that for me. A warm feeling filled me that I was unaccustomed to. Its very strangeness made me uncomfortable while at the same time filled me with a happy sort of buzz.


    "Ugh, what ever. I''m leaving." I said jumping to my feet and heading for the door, shoulders stiff. As I stepped through the door, I could hear Kradiff''s laugh, but when I looked back the room was empty. Not even the furniture was in the pearly white room anymore. Was it all a fabricated construct of my imagination? At this point, if the easter bunny popped up, and told me Santa Clause caused it all and the Gingerbread man was the real Demon King, I would take a second to consider it...


    Shutting the door behind me I looked down the hall. I was confused at first but not entirely sure why. Then I realized that it was much later in the day than it should have been, the light coming through the stained glass looking more like the warm rays of sunset rather than the brightness of mid day. Did time flow differently in there? There was no way I had spent half a day chatting it up with a god was there?


    I began walking past the artworks, only half serious when checking to see if the depictions of the Demon King were in anyway shaped like any sort of cookie. I was just about out of the hall when I heard hurried footsteps and froze.


    "-imagine what would have-!" The priest had been mid sentence when he rounded the corner and nearly ran into me. "Miss!"


    "Sorry about that." I said, holding out a hand to steady the guy. "What''s the hurry?"


    "You apparently." Sighed another voice, this one I knew to be Commander Rice. Sure enough, he and Wells had been hurrying just behind the priest.


    "Oh?" I guess I was in there for a bit. "I wouldn''t have thought a girl losing track of time was something the city guard needed to be involved in, however."


    "Well-"Began Rice when Wells piped up and interrupted him.


    "Its not true, is it?" He asked, eyes narrowed but a look of concern and even panic on his handsome face.


    "Enough Wells." Rumbled the Commander. "Not now."


    "Is what not true?" I asked, now alarmed and confused.


    "I told you that such a rumor is impossible sir." Huffed the priest, clearly annoyed. "I was concerned for the length of time she was communing, hence why I came to get someone, but these foolish rumors- now! She is in the church!"


    "Someone want to tell me what is going on?" I snapped, now also annoyed. What rumors? Was it such a huge deal to spend a couple hours in a room? For all they knew I fell asleep while praying or whatever it was I was supposed to be doing in that room.


    "Best we discuss this some place else." Said Rice. He reached out a hand and put it on my shoulder causing Drogin to glare.


    "How about you just tell me what''s going on?"


    "Damn it!" Snapped Wells, irritated. "Stupid Vincent has been running around since noon, flapping his gums."


    "I have barely seen hide nor hair of Vincent in weeks." I said, now angry. What the hell has the little shit been up to now? Did he somehow find out about the bandits?


    "He has been shouting out to the whole city, anyone who will listen, that you are a Demon!" Snapped wells.


    I froze. I knew that Rice would be able to feel my stiffness through his hand on my shoulder. Drogin growled, his little claws digging into my other shoulder.


    Oh no...

 Outcast

    I did not know what to say to that. What could I say other than yes. Sure, I could lie, but it would be any easily discovered one. And why was I so affected anyway? I knew. I knew from the very beginning that I couldn''t hide what I was forever. And with blabber mouth Zach finding out I guess it was a shock that it took three days for it to get out. But I was affected. I was afraid and felt sick. Why?


    I walked numbly ahead of the Commander. He still had a hand on my shoulder and guided me through the nearly empty church. I could feel eyes on me as I walked. Wells and the priest hurried behind us. Wells was nattering on about how much of a jerk Vincent was, while the priest grumbled about heretics or some such. I was not paying attention.


    We exited the church and stepped out onto the stairs. The street was empty and there was a cool breeze. The city was bathed in an orange glow, yet it seemed so lonely. I could hear children some place close, I could hear birds and I could even hear the market workers in the near distance shouting and talking to one another. But somehow, I felt alone. Worried.


    Rice continued to gently push me forward, his touch light and warm. It was as we passed through the marketplace that I realized that I was even letting a man touch me. When was the last time I aloud anyone touch me for a prolonged period. I really couldn''t remember.


    "There is the wretch!" Exclaimed a triumphant voice. It was this that brought me out of my stupor. We were in front of the guild hall, I saw. I wouldn''t say it was crowded by any means, but there was a fair sized group of people gathered. Mostly adventurers that I recognized in passing, a couple guards, and a handful of regular citizens. My eyes landed on the flushed and victorious looking face of the guardsmen, Vincent. "Come to face the music, have you?"


    Music? Exactly what was this guy''s problem. Was he such a weak willed person that his ego was still this bruised? Gods, what a pathetic man.


    "Shut it, Vincent!" Snapped Wells, "We have had enough of your lies." I saw him actually reach for the sword at his waist. The idiot. Was he seriously going to risk his job and possibly even his freedom for the honor of a woman he barely knew? Where Vincent was too big of a tool to be tolerated, Wells was the opposite. Too righteous. It could very well get him killed one of these days.


    "That is enough Wells." Sighed Commander Rice. "Vincent, you had best get yourself under control or I will have you flogged for insubordination and attempting to incite a mob."


    "He can''t be aloud to keep spreading these senseless rumors." Growled Wells.


    "Rumors!" Snarled Vincent, an almost manic look in his eyes. "Truths! I had my suspicions but now I know for sure. That -woman- is a demon!" He screeched, a wavering finger all but up my nose at this point. I thought about snapping it but figured it would only escalate matters.


    "Vincent, stop-"warned Rice, his hand tightening on my shoulder.


    "No! I will not be silenced! The people have a right to know!" Spittle was flying from his lips and people were starting to look at him like he may have lost his mind. But their eyes also flicked nervously to me. "She is a demon. I heard none other than Zachariah of the Red Ravens say it himself. He was in town a few hours ago with that witch Sandra and he was discussing how excited he was to get to question an actual demon! And that Sandra didn''t even rebuke him or call him a liar! She told him that he was supposed to keep quiet! Ha! So now the government is hiding demons among us too?"


    I saw the fear entering the peoples eyes. Saw those who were beginning to gather whisper and point. Suddenly I was as mad as I was cold inside. Like a battle of ice and fire in my veins. So, they feared me huh? Why? What had I done to any of them to earn that fear- that scorn- I saw forming in their gazes. I felt Rice squeeze my shoulder again, but I reached up and brushed his hand off. Enough.


    "What the hell kind of proof is that?!" Snarled Wells.


    "A government plot?" I spoke. My voice was low as I took a step away from the commander toward the crazed man. "What kind of stupidity are you spouting?"


    "I heard-" Shrieked Vincent, his hands raised and his eyes scanning the crowd. Like a preacher summoning his flock.


    "You heard? From what I understand, what you heard was a young man eager to discus things he was curious about. Then a woman chastising him for speaking about something that someone may not have wanted known."


    "You admit it then- "


    "Admit what? What have I done wrong that requires admittance? Not that you are anyone qualified to be judge and jury of anyone''s miss deeds."


    "You are a demon!"


    "Vincent this is the last time-"shouted Wells, also taking a step forward.


    "So what?" I said, still calm. But suddenly you could hear nothing but the crows over head. "I have not lied about that. You most definitely never asked. Not that I would be required to tell my personal information, Vincent of the city guard. What business is it of yours what race I am?"


    "She admits it." He breathed. I didn''t look back but I heard a breath rush out of Wells and Rice just sighed. "You hear that? She admits it!"


    "I am sorry, but I feal like you think I was holding in some deep dark secret. Some soul shattering fact that you somehow exposed."


    "You were hiding it!" He snapped; his eyes angry now. "You did not tell anyone. You hid your horns as best you could! And where are your tail and wings huh? Hidden!"


    "For convenience sake." I said simply and unwound my tail from around my waist. No point to keep it hidden now. I heard several people gasp and begin to whisper. I got irritated when many took a step back. "I may not have been here long, but I learned pretty quick that people knowing about me would cause difficulties."


    "That''s because you wer-"


    Again I cut the man off. He was so annoying. "I am not ashamed of what I am. Not even the slightest bit. Why should I be? This body I have is healthy and strong. I can make good honest money with it, I can live and grow and be a part of society. I can protect myself with it. I can protect others." I glared at the gaping man. "I see that you seem to think that I will be arrested. Maybe you thought that the people or the guards would rise up and attack me?"


    "You are a demon!"


    "Yes. Now show me where it says that that is a crime." I heard whispers and felt many hate filled glares. I hated it. I hated it. "Is it a law in this country that demons may not be abided? I was under the impression that a free demon had as much rights as any other race in this kingdom as well as the eight others. Was I wrong?"


    "You were not." Said the commander behind me. I dared not look from Vincent, who was the threat, but he sounded angry.


    "Good. Well if you are done with making a spectacle of my personal life, I have had a long day and plan on leaving now." With that I gave the group a sarcastic wave and walked off. I held my head high and looked at no one, just the empty space ahead that led to East street.


    "Sin..." Said a soft voice that I knew to be Wells. He sounded strange but I didn''t want to look. I didn''t wasn''t to see the face he was making.


    Suddenly there was a scuffle and I almost turned around, but then I heard Rice snap: "Don''t even try it boy!" And then a series of curses from Vincent.


    Let the commander handle the moron. I was not going to let any of them make me feel small or ashamed. I chose this life. I chose this body. Not many could say they got that chance and I damn well sure wasn''t going to be made to feel that I was less than. I was not.


    I returned to the Birch Tree. Clearly word had not reached here quite yet as no one was looking at me differently. Sally gave me a big hello, and I saw Fenny clearing tables... It wasn''t till I was halfway up the stairs to my room that I realized that I had wrapped my tail back around my waist at some point. A habit.


    Tears began to prickle my eyes and I cursed softly. I entered my room. I was dark without windows but I could see just fine. I shut the door and wobbled to the bed. I slid to the floor and I could feel a tightness in my chest and a weight in my gut.


    I had promised... A long time ago, I promised myself that I wouldn''t cry anymore. Crying did nothing but make you feel worse. It didn''t change the past, it didn''t put food in your belly, and it sure as hell didn''t make people see you any better. Crying was for the weak. Crying was for people who could afford to be weak.


    But apparently, I really was a shameless demon because clearly promises meant nothing to me. And I cried. Big fat tears, holding back sobs that shook my body. Claws piercing flesh where I clutched at my tight chest, the other hand pressed tight to my stomach. I ground my face into my knees, a punishing hurt for being so stupidly weak. For being a fool and caring.


    Drogin made a sad sound and crawled to the floor with a dull thump. He did not leave me. His cool little body pressed against my hip. And I cried.


    It was mid day when I woke up and got ready to leave. This time I did not leave anything in my room. I didn''t have much in the way of belongings anyway and the little I had fit into my magical satchel just fine. Drogin made a sad noise as he settled himself in his usual spot and I left the home I had for the last month. I had been a good one. The best, and longest, one I had had in an exceedingly long time.


    I was met with strained whispers when I reached the main floor of the inn. I knew my eyes were red and puffy. I did not paint a pretty picture. I am sure it was the tail that had them all hissing though, not my pink eyes and pale face. I didn''t want to but I found my eyes darting to the bar.


    Sally was there. Her eyes were wide, one hand clutching her ample chest and the other attempting to push a curios Fenny behind her skirts. I wasn''t surprised. But I would be lying to myself if I didn''t admit that it hurt. I tried not to lie to myself as best I could. I sighed.


    "Thanks for everything." I said simply and gave the woman a short bow. She had been kind. More than kind to a complete stranger. No doubt she was questioning that habit right now. I hope she didn''t change though. The world- every world- needed more people prone to random acts of kindness and good will. The Gods know that I wasn''t much in that regard.


    It was a beautiful day once again. It was disconcerting how many beautiful days there were here. Surly it had to rain at some point? The crops would be hurting if it did not rain soon. Then again, I suppose farmers could hire someone proficient in water magic to water the crops during drought... Also, I guessed it would just be far to clich¨¦ for it to rain on a day I was feeling like crap.


    Well, I wasn''t feeling that bad actually. To my surprise the crying had turned out to be quite cathartic. My face was tight, my eyes hurt, and I had a bit of a headache, but other wise I felt... okay. Lighter even.


    I let my tail brush against the dirt of the road and I felt rather free. So some-maybe even all- of the people I had begun to see as regulars in my life were going to look at me in fear or hate. That was fine. I was a woman of action. I was going to continue my life here as best as I could. Either the people here would come to accept me as I was, or they wouldn''t. It was not my responsibility to prove anything to them. I shouldn''t have to justify my existence to anyone. If it got too bad here than I would move on.


    I turned and headed for market street. Some heads turned and whispered but it wasn''t too bad at first. Then people noticed the tail. Some people glared, a few looked at me curiously, many out right turned tail and fled at speedy walks. A few mothers clutched their children close. Was there a rumor out there that said demons ate kids or something? I could very safely say that I had not once gotten the urge to eat a person, no matter the age. Why were people so stupid?


    The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    I decided I would go to the adventurer''s guild and just get a job. It maybe better to get out of town and get some work done for a couple days. People could just see for themselves that I was still just Sin, the adventurer who worked too much.


    However, when I reached the guild I stopped. It wasn''t that there was an angry mob there waiting for me, because there wasn''t. A few loitering groups stared and whispered but that was it. Yet, when I looked at the open doors there was an oppressive feeling. I realized that I didn''t want to go in there. It had become a sort of second home to me these last weeks and now it felt ruined. Tarnished some how. It had been a place where people said hello to me in the morning, asked if I was well or how my last job went. The receptionist was kind and polite. All things I did not have in my last life.


    And that was the issue, I realized. I felt my old life closing in on me, squeezing out the new. People weren''t going to look at me like they did Sin, the adventurer. People were going to look at me the same way they did Cindy the thief, Cindy the homeless person, Cindy the murderer...


    Like last night, my chest constricted. I refused to cry this time though. I got that out of my system last night and hoped to hold out for another ten years or so. But I could not go into that building and see those stares. I was no fool, or brave knight to face stupid people head on for the sake of honor or pride. Fuck honor and pride. I turned tail and fled. Or walked away anyway. Maybe I did have a little pride after all.


    I was surprised to find that where my feet took me was the cathedral. Maybe it was because it was where Kradiff was, metaphysically speaking at least. Sure he was a forgetful child god... but he clearly had never judged me. Never looked at me coldly, or hatefully. He had accepted and guided me. Oh shit... was I a church person now? I literally felt myself flinch and then chuckle. I ascended the stares, knowing full well that if I was going to get hateful stares anywhere it would be here, as a demon entering a church with a little monster on my shoulder. Talk about blasphemy. This time it didn''t bug me as much as facing the people at the Inn or the Guild did.


    The church was actually emptier than it had been last time I was here, the day before. I didn''t know why but I did amuse myself with the thought that it was because of me. I did not attempt to go to the sanctuary again. No doubt other people needed it and I had occupied the place for a good chunk of a day yesterday. Besides, the idea of crying to God like he was able to fix all my problems for me was pretty cringe. Instead I wandered over to one of the stained glass windows, pretending that I didn''t notice the eyes of a half dozen priests on me, and sat on a widow sill.


    I bet I made for an interesting sight: a dark lady, back against the wall, one leg up and bent at the knee, the other flat on the floor, red eyes gazing uselessly out a yellow pane of glass as sunlight washed multiple colors across myself and the stone floor my long black tail slithered against. ''A Demon in Church'' I imagined the painting would be called, and a breath of amusement left me.


    I don''t really know how long I was there, just contemplating where I was going in this new life, when I felt someone approach me. He stopped a good ten feet away and waited.


    "Something on your mind Commander?" I asked, not looking from the window. I would know his scent anywhere. I had most people in town I came across often enough memorized by now. Surprisingly, Rice and Rift actually did not smell too much alike. Maybe it was normal once people left the nest. The only real familiar connection I had to compare it to was Sally and her family, but they spent most of their time together.


    "A few things." He said softly. "May I approach?"


    "Did you think I would bite you if you didn''t ask first?" I turned to face him so he could see my smile and know I was joking. Weather I was demon or not Rice would have respected my space. He had been like that from the beginning. It was nice to see that at least somethings hadn''t changed.


    A small smile touched the mans lips and he walked nearer than sat on the other side of the window sill. I had to pull my foot back a little to make room but I didn''t mind. I liked Rice, I realized. I maybe I always knew... It was so rare for me to like anyone though. But I guess I had grown to like quite a few people around here. It was kind of why I was in this emotional predicament I was in I guessed.


    "You knew." I said, before Rice could speak. "That I was a demon I mean. Before you came to find me at the church. Did your brother tell you?" I asked. It was not accusatory. I couldn''t blame the captain for trusting his brother with a secret, especially one that wasn''t a secret at all. I intentionally hadn''t told anyone in the Red Ravens not to spill the beans. For one thing, Zach would never be able to keep his mouth shut, and for another... Well, it just felt wrong. I wasn''t ashamed of what I was. It was as I told Wells, I only kept it hidden for convenience sake. It honestly did not even occur to me that it may actually hurt people. The look on Sally''s face this morning... I never intended for that. For her to look so afraid and betrayed. I guess I underestimated the level of animosity the people here had toward demons.


    "No. Well, yes, he did. But only because he knew that I already knew." Said the commander. He was looking at me and not even pretending to look out the windows.


    "You did? And Wells? The whole guard?" How? Did I let something slip or were the eyes actually that much of a give away after all?


    "Ah, no, Wells did not know. I am afraid he got quite the shock yesterday. The other guardsmen did not know either. I did not tell anyone."


    Poor Wells. Should apologies to him as soon as I could. I was still in the firm belief that I had done nothing wrong. But that still did not mean that my silence hadn''t hurt some people. One day I would like to properly apologies to Sally too.


    "How long have you known?" I asked, confused.


    Rice laughed. "From the day we met." At my concerned look he smiled. "There are a few things I should explain. When I am done there are some questions I would like to ask you. You are free to refuse them of course. As you quite correctly pointed out yesterday, it is not a crime to be a demon. That fact is why I did not reveal to anyone what you were.


    Now, as for how I knew, that requires a little back story. I don''t know how long you have been out of the demon world but If I had to guess it was probably around the time you came to Bellana. So I don''t know if you know too much about the heroes. I don''t mean the current ones of course, I''d imagine that they are not known by many at the moment. But do you know of what becomes of heroes once they get here?"


    I did not correct Rice of his assumption that I was from the demon realm. Another lie by omission that could bite me in the ass later but I just could not unload that whole bag of mess right now. "I assume they go and fight the Demon King." I stated matter-of-factly.


    The commander nodded. "Yes, though that often can take months or more likely years before the confrontation between the heroes and the Demon King. In the meantime they train and they fight the ever more violent monsters and minions the Demon King sends out. This is a war not a single battle I am afraid. And so, the heroes get to know people of this world. Not only that, but they must come to terms with the fact that they can never return to their old lives back on their own world."


    "That makes sense."


    "It has to be a hard thing to have to deal with, being taken against your will and made to fight a monster. Then to find out that you can never return home." Rice shook his head sadly. It was my sentiments as well. "But they do what they must to keep us safe, most of the time anyway. They get stronger, gain powers and skills. But once the demon king is defeated what do you suppose they do then Sin?"


    "I''d imagine that they try and make the best of their lives in this world." I said. There wasn''t much else they could do after all.


    "Yes, most of them do that indeed. You get the odd handful over the millennia that have taken their own lives or even traveled out of Larasta''s borders in search of a way home. But most settle down here. They are seen as great heroes as they should be and as such they tend to live out their days as honored noblemen in fine estates. They take wives, have children. Or husbands I suppose..." He added with a chuckle.


    I was failing to see the point I assumed he was getting to. "Okay. But what has this got to do with my so called secret?"


    "Well, as I said before, the heroes tend to pick up skills. They get them from the gods, or from some grand quest. Who knows, there are many ways to accomplish such feats if you have the power. And if anyone has power, it would be the heroes. Anyway, these powers, or skills, are sometimes passed down through their family lines. I am- and Captain Rice as well of course- descended from one of these heroes."


    I blinked in surprise. I suppose if I had ever stopped to think about it I would have realized there would have to be people descended from heroes around. It only made sense after all. "Well, okay... I take it you are implying that you inherited some power form this hero ancestor of yours then?" Was it height? Cause this guy was massive.


    "I did. Both my brother an I did in fact. It is actually rare for it to happen, especially as the blood dilutes through the generations. But Rift and I both inherited this gift from our predecessor."


    "And what is that gift?"


    "It is known as the Decerning Eye." Said the commander, a little sad eyed. "It is a skill that costs quite a lot of mana to use, as well as puts a strain on the eyes. We have had people in our family go blind from over use of it so we have always been taught to use it sparingly."


    "And you both used this skill on me I take it. Was I really that suspicious!" I snapped, mildly offended. "What the hell, does this Decerning Eye do exactly?"


    Rice laughed. "Sorry, but yes you were very suspicious when we met. I assume my brother thought the same."


    I grumbled under my breath. I mean, I guess I really couldn''t blame them. I was a snarky shit when I first came across Rice and I had just taken out ten bandits and reviled I was a demon when I came across Rift...


    "The decerning eye, essentially, allows me to see a persons statistics, weather they know them their selves or not. And you seemed to be hiding something when we met, and had the air of a woman not unfamiliar with criminal activity if I must confess."


    I sighed, irritated. Damn cops, sticking their noses in where they don''t belong. "So you saw right away that I was a demon? Well, I guess I am grateful you didn''t spill the beans on me from the start. Especially if you found me suspicious."


    "Well, I did see you were a demon. However I did not see that you have any statuses or titles that labelled you as a criminal. Normally id see ''thief'' or ''murderer'' or some other such title. I saw none of those..."


    Oh. Oh, I saw where this was going now. Now I could see that we were about to get to the questioning part of this conversation. He saw all of my stats.


    "To say I was surprised by the shear numbers I saw there would be an understatement. I had investigated demons twice before you and neither came close to several of your numbers to be quite frank, even with the massive debuffs your kind receive to your magical powers upon entering our world. But it was your titles that truly shocked me. As you can probably surmise I have some questions."


    It was my turn to sigh. I couldn''t meet his eye because I knew I was probably not going to give him the answers he sought.


    "You can ask... But I can''t say I will answer. Or even that I can answer, as I have a few of my own about the whole thing that I am still trying to figure out..."


    "Very well. I said at the start that you had no obligation to answer me. I suppose the most pressing one I have is- Demon Queen?"


    I flinched. "I''m afraid you first one is one I can not answer. Not for stubborn reasons, but because I don''t know myself. When I went to the guild I was as shocked as I am sure you are. Not just from the name but the clear implications. All I can say with certainty is that I am, and have never been, in contact with the Demon King. Nor do I have any ties, or intentions to him. Before I came here I never even heard of the guy..."


    "Really?" Clearly that peeked his interest. I suppose it would. I cursed myself. Of course, it would be odd for someone who was a demon to never have heard of the freaking Demon King. Stupid big mouth.


    I shrugged. "Maybe I am the only ignorant demon. I don''t know. But the guy sounds like an ass and I may not know the people of this world- hell, I may not even be that good of a person- but I have no evil or ''world domination'' intentions toward this place. That I can promise you Commander. I really love this world..." And I meant that whole heartedly. Shit may look grim right now: for me personally, and for the world in general, but I did love it here.


    "Alright, I believe you." He laughed, clearly reading the surprise on my face. "I can tell people do not tell you that very often. I come across liars all the time. Ether you are speaking the truth, or you are a very good liar. I like to be the optimist."


    "That may get you in trouble one day." I grumbled, embarrassed and rather happy. I realized that no one had ever told me that they believed me before.


    "Perhaps. All right, my next question then. You have the title of ''One Blessed by the Gods'', why?" He gazed around the church for a moment before his eyes settled on me once again. "I would guess it is how you can enter this cathedral when it is supposed to be off limits to monsters and demons. I can assume that your little newt can get in here because he is your tame."


    "Dragon." I corrected, petting Drogin''s little red head. "This one... this one I could tell you, but I honestly do not want to." I admitted, sound like a petulant child. I blushed.


    But Rice only laughed. "Alright, I guess I will have to accept that for now at least. Though one day I would like to know the truth behind it. As you can imagine it is not a name that the gods bestow all to often. The heroes obtain such a title of course but there have been others. It was this title that stopped me from detaining you when I saw the Demon Queen... I decided to wait and watch. I am glad I did."


    "Me too. I would verry much like to not have to break out of a prison, thanks."


    Rice laughed. I had the feeling he actually thought I was trying to be funny, and not serious as I really was. Like hell I would be rotting away in some prison cell.


    "You are a good person Sin." He said, taking me off guard. "I know you do not believe that of yourself. I can''t say why you do not see it but you do not. But I thought you should know that, at least one person in Bellana has faith in your good heart. Demon Queen or not, I know that you love this city. You love the people in it, from the little urchin children I have seen you giving food or coins to, to the commoners you greet with respect no matter their race. Even the nobles, with a couple of exceptions for those like Vincent who had the poor sense to ridicule you first, you treat with respect."


    All I could do was blink. I didn''t think I was doing anything ''good''. I knew what it was like to be young, cold, and hungry, so I gave the kids something to eat. I had the spare money after all. And who doesn''t treat people like people? I mean, why wouldn''t you? You would need to be a complete tool like that Vincent to do other wise. How would any of that make me a good person? I was pretty sure it just made me a normal one at best.


    Rice stood, reached down and patted my head between the horns, and smiled. "You take all the time you need here. I''m going to leave you to it. Come tell me if anyone gets aggressive, yes? Please do not clobber rude citizens."


    I chuckled at his disappearing back. See, he knew I wasn''t that good of a person.