A Demon's Core

Violet could barely contain her excitement as the new day dawned. She had been given another important scouting mission and was eager to get started. This time it was to an abandoned town that might become their new home. Even though she liked where they were currently living, the thought of a whole town just for imps with no vukra or humans to attack them was an enticing prospect.

What she was most excited for, though, were the fruit trees. Igneous had shown her images of rows and rows of trees and multiple orchards. These trees would belong to them and no one would stop them from enjoying the fruit anytime they pleased. They were a rare delicacy where she had been before because they were hard to acquire without stealing. Shopkeepers and market stall vendors were always on the lookout for thieves so it was risky to steal from them.

In the suburban areas of her previous city, some vukra had fruit trees around their homes. Those were the easiest places to get them from if they gathered them late at night when most vukra slept, but they still had to be careful; the vukra would get very angry if they were caught. Sometimes they had biters protecting their homes and trees and that made it much more dangerous. But they wouldn't have to worry about that if they moved to this new town. They would finally have their own trees with their own fruit.

But she had to wait for Igneous as he would be the one to fly them there and he was still sleeping, or pretend sleeping; it was hard to tell. Magentam said they would be going today though, so she just needed to be patient. She was looking forward to flying again; she loved flying and relished every opportunity Igneous allowed her to fly. It was a shame that none of her other friends or her sister could join them so they could all enjoy flying together, but Magentam said it was a long way to go and it wouldn’t be fair to ask Igneous to carry that much weight such a distance.

While she was still here though, Magentam wanted to summon another imp. Violet was glad it was being done before she left, she loved to greet the new arrivals as soon as they appeared. With her shield in hand, she stood next to Rose at the place where the new imp would appear, something Magentam called the rift.

Magentam had once asked how they were always able to find the rift, even when it moved sometimes. It was hard for Violet to explain, but the mana around the rift felt a little different than in the rest of the dungeon; like wading through a stream, only to find a spot where the water swirls in place for a while before flowing on. She could usually sense the difference if she closed her eyes and concentrated on finding it, though Rose was much better at that, but it was easy to feel it in the times when she happened to walk through it.

A light formed in the rift and quickly took on the shape of an imp. When the light faded, a female imp stood before them, looking bewildered. Violet wanted to rush forwards and wrap the new imp in a hug, but Rose would get upset with her if she did not at least let her put on some clothes first.

She was small and cute, though, thinking about it, she supposed all imps were small compared to her now. As soon as she was finished pulling on a simple blue dress, Violet lifted her off the floor in an enthusiastic hug. She was initially startled, but soon did her best to return the embrace, despite her feet dangling slightly above the floor. Violet loved to hug everything that was cute and this new imp was undeniably adorable, just like all the other imps and all the hellhounds and Igneous.

While giving the new imp a tour, Violet eagerly pulled her towards Room 3, with Rose following behind, but stopped at the door. She remembered how most imps reacted upon seeing the hellhounds for the first time, how even she, herself, had been terrified when Noctis first appeared. She turned to the smaller imp who looked at her curiously.

“I’m going to show you the hellhounds. They’re big and they might look scary, but they’re actually nice and fluffy. You don’t have to be scared of them because they’re our friends.” Violet explained. Rose smiled at her forethought but the new imp became stiff as she looked at the door with apprehension.

“How big?” She asked, glancing back towards Violet.

“You’ll see, trust me,” she replied, holding out a hand for the smaller imp who took it in her own.

Violet pushed open the door and pulled her along into the room, but the little imp became completely stiff as soon as she spotted the hellhounds lounging around the room. She tried to pull back but Violet was still holding her hand and didn't let go.

“It’s okay, they won’t hurt you,” Violet assured her.

Rose put a hand on the imp’s shoulder and gave her an encouraging smile. She stopped trying to run away but still didn’t want to get any closer. Violet let go of her hand and called out to the hellhounds.

“Fuzzy!” The smallest of the hellhounds perked up immediately, turning her head to face them. “Hug,’ Violet said, holding out both of her arms.

Fuzzy scrambled to her feet and rushed over to nuzzle Violet, who embraced her head while giggling. Calla soon stood before them as well looking up at the new imp.

“New friend?” She asked.

“That’s right, she just arrived.” Rose replied, taking over explanations since Violet was now too distracted.

“I Calla. You name?” Calla inquired. The new imp blinked in surprise and shook her head.

“Not have. Need name?” She asked, looking at Rose.

“Everyone here has a name, but it’s not compulsory. You can take some time to think about if you want one and what you want it to be.” Rose explained

The new imp turned back to Calla, but looked up, shrieked in fright and moved to hide behind Rose. Calla turned around to see Noctis now standing behind her, and with her, the other two also came over to investigate. The shriek got Violet’s attention, who separated herself from Fuzzy to try to reassure the imp that everything was fine. Calla smiled and hugged Noctis’ leg.

“This Noctis. She best friend.” Calla exclaimed. She stepped back from the massive hellhound and held up her arms. “Up?” She asked and Noctis laid down before her.

She climbed over the hellhound’s head to take her customary place in front of the first of the large dorsal spikes. The new imp looked up in awe at Noctis as she stood with the imp child astride.

“Not danger?” She asked in wonder.

“Only to our enemies,” Violet replied with a malicious grin.

“Enemies? Vukra?” She inquired.

“Haven’t seen any of them around here. The enemies we have to deal with are mostly humans and occasionally aggressive animals.” Violet explained.

“Not know humans. Tasty?” That caused Violet to chuckle.

“Yeah, they’re pretty good, at least as much as any other kind of fresh meat,” she answered. “Come on, there are others to meet.” Violet pulled the new imp back towards the door as the hellhounds returned to their lounging.

They briefly stepped into Room 1 to introduce her to Willow and Birch and show her the unclaimed bedroom, which she decided to move into. It might be a bit lonely for her in there for now but she will surely find someone to share it with eventually, Violet thought. After that they headed to the roof to explain the watch duty and meet the two who were currently on watch, Calla’s parents, Lily and Calyx.

As the new imp looked out at the vast expanse of the city, Violet was contacted by Magentam.

Igneous says he is ready to go whenever you are.

Violet let out an excited squeal, which drew the attention of everyone else on the roof.

“It’s time for my mission with Igneous,” she explained when Rose raised an eyebrow questioningly.

“Mission with big rock?” The new imp asked.

“Like we said before, he’s not actually a rock, no matter how convincing his disguise might be. You’ll see, he’ll be up here soon, no doubt.” Rose responded.

“Oh, I need to get my backpack,” Violet said before rushing back down the stairs.

After collecting the backpack from her room, she went over to Igneous to inform him that she was ready. He uncurled from his corner and nodded. Violet didn’t even wait for him as she bolted out the door to head back to the roof. She was bouncing on the spot in excitement as she waited for him to catch up. When he eventually made it to the roof, the new imp stared in shock for a moment, then hid behind Rose again.

“This is what he looks like when he is not pretending to be a rock,” she said with a hint of amusement in her tone.

Igneous stood up to his full height and raised his arms above his head to stretch. He looked like he could even be taller than most humans standing up straight like that, Violet thought. The imps marveled as he stretched his expansive wings out to the sides. Even though most of the imps had seen it before, it never failed to inspire awe whenever his full wingspan was on display.

“I don’t know how long I will be gone, but Magentam said it probably shouldn’t take much more than a day,” Violet said to Rose as she stood by the edge of the roof and waited for Igneous.

“Don’t forget to bring back souvenirs. Something sweet and edible perhaps?” Rose suggested with a knowing grin.

“Right, I’ll bring back as much as I can fit in my pack.,” Violet assured her.

As Igneous approached, Violet faced away from him, with her backpack equipped and her shield on her arm, she raised her arms to the sides. Igneous crouched down behind her and wrapped his much larger arms around her torso. When he was sure he had a firm grip and Violet was holding onto his arms for support, he spread his wings and dropped off the edge.

Before today, Violet never would have thought that she could actually get bored of flying, but she had never flown for so long before. It had been exhilarating at first, as it always was; looking out across the land, being able to see far into the distance and looking down on the world from a perspective that she rarely got to experience.

But they had left in the early afternoon, it was almost sunset now and they had still not reached their destination, though Igneous assured her that it was not much farther. And just as he said, the town soon came into view. Her excitement grew the closer they got to it, but she became confused as Igneous started to descend before they had actually reached it. She understood when she looked down and saw a small river flowing below.

They had been flying for quite a while so taking a break was not a bad idea and staying hydrated was important. Once they landed, she cautiously approached the water, remembering what Magentam had said in the past about possible dangerous things in the river. Of course that was in reference to the much larger river that went through the city, but that didn’t mean that this river couldn’t also hold dangers of its own.

The water moved slowly here and was a little murky, but not so much that she couldn’t see through it at all. She could see a few fish moving beneath the surface and considered trying to catch some, but quickly gave up on the idea; she had never been good at catching fish, whenever she reached for them, they never seemed to be quite where they appeared and usually managed to slip through her grasp. She had occasionally wondered if fish had some kind of magic that obscured vision of them for that very reason. Her sister could probably catch them if she were here; she was good at judging their actual location despite their illusions.

Not sensing anything that seemed dangerous, she crouched by the river’s edge and cupped some water in her hands and brought it to her mouth, Igneous doing the same beside her. She remembered the bottle she brought, realising this would be a good opportunity to fill it, and dug through her pack to find it. As she filled it, she thought that maybe it would’ve been better to fill it before they left rather than relying on finding water on the way. She would remember that next time she went on a long mission like this.

She asked Igneous if she should try to find something for them to eat before they moved on, but he rejected the idea, instead showing her an image of a furred, flying animal. She had seen creatures flying over the town before they’d landed, quite a lot of them in fact. It was hard to make out details about them from a distance, but she guessed that’s what Igneous was referring to.

It was starting to get dark now and she wondered if Igneous would be able to continue. Magentam had mentioned once before that he doesn’t see well in the dark, not like imps. But Igneous showed no hesitation when he indicated he was ready to go and he had no trouble avoiding the trees as he climbed into the air.

They were soon flying through the air again and Violet could hear occasional quiet clicking noises that made her feel a little tingly every time she heard it. It took her a while to realise that the noise was coming from Igneous, which surprised her. She’d never heard him make a sound before; she didn’t even know that he could. She wondered if there was some purpose behind it, but if there was, why was he only doing it now?

Once they reached the town, Violet could see many of the furred creatures Igneous had shown her also flying over it, though Igneous was flying much higher than they were. There were so many that she couldn’t even count them, all flying in the same direction in a long stream.

Igneous let out a different sound now than the quiet clicking from before. It was more like a protracted screech, so high pitched that it was barely audible to her. She might not have noticed it if not for the wave of dizziness that followed. It must have had a similar effect on the flying creatures because they all seemed suddenly disoriented, flapping their wings wildly and flying in random directions, many bumping into each other.

In the confusion, Igneous swooped down and snatched two of them out of the air with his feet before climbing higher again. The two creatures screeched in panic for a while until he squeezed them tighter and pierced them with his talons.

He flew around the town in a wide circle, again letting out more of those clicking sounds, until he eventually descended towards the centre of town and landed on the roof of one of the larger buildings. Once Violet had divested herself of her backpack, Igneous offered her one of the creatures he had caught along with an apology for the discomfort he caused her when he caught them. She laid down her shield by the pack and gratefully accepted the offering.

“You attacked them somehow right? That's why they all got confused?” She asked and Igneous nodded in response. “I wish I could do that.” She said before biting into her meal, savouring the scent of blood and the taste of its flesh. She even enjoyed the bones; they were substantial enough to give it a nice crunchiness, but not enough to make it difficult to eat.

It was a bit large for her to finish all at once so she offered the rest of it back to Igneous, but after having eaten an entire one on his own, he didn’t want it either, so she set it aside for later.

“Those flying things are pretty cute, do you think they would make good pets if we could catch some?” She inquired and Igneous shrugged. Violet looked down at the street below, on alert for any signs of movement. When she didn’t see anything she turned back to Igneous.

“What do you want to do now? I can see well enough so I’m ready to start looking around, but I can go alone if you’d rather wait until morning.” She said, but he shook his head and informed her that he would come with her.

She picked up her shield and retrieved her knife, along with a belt to hang it off, from her pack and when she was ready, Igneous carried her gently to the ground. There were no trees along this street, unlike most of the rest of the town, and the buildings here didn’t look like houses. With large windows on the front, she assumed most of them were probably stores in the past.

She decided to check inside the building they had landed on and were currently standing in front of first. It didn’t have a door on the roof like the hotel or she would have gone in that way. Looking in one of the windows, she saw a large room with several tables and chairs. It reminded her of the places that vukra would go to be served food and drinks. Imps were never allowed in such places, but she had looked through the windows occasionally. They often threw away food each night so they were always good places to look for something to eat, as long as they were careful not to get caught.

“Should we take a look inside?” Igneous nodded and approached the door and tried to pull it open but it didn’t move, he then tried to push, but still it stubbornly remained closed. “We can get in through a window,” Violet suggested.

One of the windows on the front of the building had lost most of its glass and was more than large enough for Igneous to climb through. Once inside, Violet gave the room a more thorough inspection. On one side of the room was a long counter with taps in a few places and fridges with glass doors behind it. There was one table, at the other side of the room, that was larger and bulkier than all of the others. And while all the other tables in the room were square, this one was rectangular and didn’t have any chairs around it.

She approached the table and climbed up one of its legs to get on top of it. It had raised sides with holes in each corner and two more holes in the middle of the long sides. There were also some balls on the table; she picked one up and it felt like it was made of a smooth polished stone, they also all had numbers on them. She guessed this table must have been used for some kind of game.

She tried rolling a ball into one of the corner holes, but her aim was off and it ended up bouncing away from the hole. She tried again with another ball, being more careful to line it up correctly, and cheered when it fell into the hole. She heard a clicking noise as it fell and moved closer to investigate. Inside the hole was a pouch containing two balls, so there must have already been one in there. She poked at the material of the pouch and found the material to be stiff and brittle, her clawed finger easily puncturing it.

She retrieved the balls from it and then checked the other holes and found a few more. Igneous came over to see what she was up to and she was more than happy to explain what she had found. Not knowing how to play that game as it was intended, they settled for just taking turns rolling the balls into the corner holes from the opposite end of the table.

Violet was surprised at how accurate Igneous was and wondered if what Magentam had said about his poor night vision was actually true; he didn’t succeed with every shot, but he was always close. She also noticed that he made more of those clicking sounds every time he reached for a ball and before he rolled it. Curiosity compelled her to ask him about it, but she didn’t really understand his response; apparently it allowed him to know where things were, even when he couldn’t see them. She had no idea how that worked, but if it let him navigate, despite the darkness, that was all that mattered. Perhaps she would ask him for a more detailed explanation later, but right now, she had something more important to focus on; it was now her turn.

They continued rolling the balls across the table until one of the pouches broke and spilled its contents across the floor. Igneous crouched down to retrieve the balls and place them back on the table before suggesting that they should continue their exploration; though there wasn’t much more of interest to find in this building. There was a door near the ball table that led to a short hallway with two more doors. Each of those doors led to rooms with multiple toilets and sinks; she climbed up to one of the sinks and turned the tap but no water came out.

Another door along the same wall, but close to the long counter led to a kitchen. Behind the counter was a door to a long empty room with shelves along both sides, some kind of storage room, she assumed. The final door at the other end of the long counter was a small room with a desk and some cabinets. Looking around, Violet also found a small metal door behind the desk; it was about as tall as she was but when she tried to open it, it wouldn’t budge.

As they left the building through the window again Violet realised something strange. She was certain this building had a second floor, but they didn’t find any stairs. She mentioned it to Igneous and he thought for a moment, then gestured for her to follow him. He led her down a wide alley at the side of the building. At the back of the building they found a wooden door. Igneous tried to open it but it appeared to be locked. There were three rows of small buttons beside the door knob but nothing happened when he tried pressing them.

“Let’s see what else we can find. We’ll worry about this later.” Violet suggested.

They made their way along the street, searching each building as they went, until they reached the end of the block, then they crossed the road and went back the other way on that side of the street. Most of them had very little left inside, either cleared out when the humans left or perhaps afterwards, if others came back looking for useful things. But there were some that were worth investigating.

One store still had a wide variety of different things adorning its shelves; nothing that was edible as far as she could tell, but they still warranted further investigation. One larger building had shelves full of books, but she couldn’t actually read so they weren’t much use to her. Though Magentam had offered to teach Violet how to speak the human language, maybe she could ask if Magentam would teach her to read as well. One of the more interesting buildings looked to be a store that once sold tools and building materials. Many of the shelves were empty, but there were still quite a few things left behind that might be worth collecting in the future, when everyone else is here.

Several times she heard the sounds of animals scurrying through the darkness, but nothing that dared approach them. Most of the times she actually saw them, they were actively running away. At one point, Igneous tapped her on the shoulder to get her attention and pointed off into the distance. When Violet looked in that direction she could see something staring at them, its eyes flashing briefly in the moonlight. From what she could make out, it was a small, four legged animal, but different from the one she had seen in the city. It had a much shorter muzzle, but similarly shaped pointy ears. She tried to move closer to get a better look at it, but as soon as she took a step towards it, the creature bolted. She considered chasing after it, but remembering what happened with the creature in the city, she decided it was not worth it… for now.

It took quite a while to search all the buildings on the street and this was only a small section of town. At this rate it would take far too long to inspect everything. They could check out a few houses around the town to get an idea of what to expect from them, but it would take many days to look at all of them and she didn’t think she had that kind of time.

But that could wait until later, right now she was thinking about getting some sleep. But they should take turns, just to be safe, she thought.

“I think we should head back up to the roof to get some rest. I’ll keep watch if you want to sleep first.” Igneous nodded and carried her back up to where they had initially landed.

As Igneous curled up to sleep, Violet began her watch. Not that she actually expected anything to happen, but it was still important to have someone on alert in case of unexpected trouble. She laid on her back and looked up at the stars while she listened for any sounds that might indicate something approaching their position. The stars were always nice to look at on a quiet night, for a while at least, until she got bored; stars don’t actually do much besides sitting there, stationary in the sky.

Clouds are often a little more interesting because they at least move, and they are fluffy, but there weren’t clouds out at that time. She sat up and moved to the edge of the building to look out over the town. There were few other buildings as tall as the one she was currently perched on so there was little to block her view. A light breeze blew and she took a deep breath; it carried the scent of trees. While there were some trees in the city, it was nothing like this town where trees lined almost every street, except this street with all the stores that they’d explored.

Violet liked trees; they were fun to climb and some of them had fruit, which made them even better. That reminded her of the fruit orchards they had yet to visit and how much she was looking forward to it; it was what she was most excited for from this whole trip. She tried counting all the trees she could see from her vantage point as a way to pass the time.

Another breeze blew past and she realised it was a bit chilly, but not enough to be uncomfortable, though Violet did generally prefer warmer temperatures. It occurred to her that it had been getting a little colder recently. She took that as an indication that winter must be approaching and wondered how cold it would get; hopefully not too cold.

She eventually got bored of counting trees and looked for something else to do. She remembered the half eaten animal carcass that she’d set aside earlier and retrieved it, glad that no other scavengers had taken it while she was gone. Some bugs had gathered around it, but she wasn’t concerned about them; it was up to them to scurry or fly away or she would just eat them too.

She fetched her water bottle from her pack as well and enjoyed a little night time picnic on the roof, though she did feel a little lonely without anyone to share it with. Even though she wasn’t technically alone with Igneous there, he didn’t make for very engaging company when he was asleep. Although she could contact Magentam if she got too lonely, she didn’t want to spend the whole time pestering her and being a bother.

She spent the rest of her time listening to the sounds of the night while observing her surroundings. She heard a variety of animal calls drifting through the air and occasional sounds of movement, even saw things moving a few times, but never noticed anything that seemed like it could be a threat.

Eventually, when Violet was starting to feel quite tired, she heard movement behind her and turned around to see Igneous stirring. She rushed over to give him a hug once he moved his wings behind him.

“You’re awake!” She exclaimed as she hugged his arm. “You’ll keep watch while I sleep now?” He nodded. “You won’t get too lonely?” She asked, her tone tinged with concern as she looked up at him. He patted her on the head to reassure her and she giggled in response.

She ran back to where she had been sitting to pick up the water bottle and returned to Igneous.

“I saved you some water in case you get thirsty,” she said, presenting the half-full bottle to him. He thanked her and accepted the offered item.

After gathering all her things together to make sure they would all be in the same place, she lay down on top of her back pack to use it for padding, limited though it may have been, and slowly drifted off to sleep.

The first rays of sunlight were peeking over the horizon by the time Violet awoke. Igneous was crouched nearby, perfectly still, like a statue. His eyes were closed, but she knew he would still be listening to everything with a sense of hearing that was far keener than hers. He turned his head towards her as she sat up, opening his eyes and nodding in greeting.

“Did anything interesting happen while I was asleep?” She asked and he shook his head in reply. “Well, it’s almost morning now, that should make it easier to explore. Where should we start today?” Igneous suggested looking into some of the houses around the town. Not all of them, of course, just a few so they could get an idea of their condition and if they might still contain anything worth scavenging.

“Are you ready to go now or would you like to wait until it gets a bit brighter?”

He let her know that he was ready so she saw no reason to linger here. She picked up the water bottle from where it sat beside Igneous; he had consumed some of the water, but not all of it.

“Do you want the rest of this?” She asked, holding up the bottle. He declined so she drank the rest of it then placed the bottle into her backpack. She re-equipped her belt, with the knife attached, before pulling on the pack and finally picking up her shield. She didn’t foresee any reason for them to return to this spot today so there was no point in leaving anything behind.

Once she was ready, Igneous picked her up and they flew for a little while until Igneous picked a random house to land in front of. The house was encircled by a picket fence that they had landed inside of, though it was broken and collapsed in some places. It was also surrounded by long grass, swaying gently in the breeze; in some places the grass was even taller than Violet.

The house itself had some cracked and broken windows and the paint all over was faded and flaking, but other than that it seemed mostly intact as far as Violet could tell. The front door was unlocked so they had no issue getting in. Inside the house, there was a lot of dust and it smelled a little musty in some places. As for its contents, the whole house appeared to be fully furnished.

The furniture was all fully intact. Some shelves held books and other knickknacks, while drawers, cabinets and cupboards contained a variety of different things depending on what room they were in. Some framed pictures hung on the walls and there were even clothes to be found in the bedrooms. One of the bedrooms had two beds in it and the clothes in that room were smaller than what she found in the room with the single larger bed. Possibly children's clothes, in two different sizes, but still too big for imps though.

She didn’t find anything that was immediately useful, but there were enough interesting things that it would be worth coming back with the others if they moved to this town. She wondered why so much had been left behind here, it was as though the previous inhabitants didn’t take anything at all with them when they left.

Violet suggested moving on to another house to see if it would be any different. After picking another random residence a few blocks away, they found it to be in much the same state; the former inhabitants just left everything behind. After checking a few more houses, each a few blocks apart, they realised that this would likely be the case for most of the town, they even found what appeared to be human bones in a couple of the houses. In only one house did they find evidence that anything was taken when the humans left, with some of the shelves, cupboards and wardrobes being conspicuously empty. This was quite the mystery.

But it meant that everything left behind was theirs for the taking so Violet considered it to be incredibly lucky that there was so much just waiting here for them. The others would surely be ecstatic when they hear about it. While she did see many interesting things during her search, the only thing she took with her for now was a knife that could fold to allow the blade to be hidden within the handle. Not especially useful when compared to the knife on her belt, but it was just so fascinating that she couldn’t leave it behind.

Leaving aside the enigma of the houses, they decided to move on to their next objective: the crater. That’s something that Magentam had specifically asked them to investigate. As they flew towards it, Violet saw a herd of animals below, some grazing, others just lounging around. They had a funny look to them, with long, flat feet, thick tails and arms that seemed disproportionately short. The most interesting thing about them was the way they moved; Igneous was flying much lower than the night before and when some of the creatures noticed him flying overhead, they fled, but rather than running on either two or four legs, they instead bounced.

She watched them in fascination until Igneous had left them far behind. She hoped she would get a chance to examine them closer later; they looked so cute and fuzzy and she wanted to give them a hug. She would have to be careful though, even from above, she could clearly see they were significantly larger than she was and just because they were eating grass didn’t mean they weren’t dangerous.

They continued flying towards the crater. As they got closer to it she could feel something changing in the atmosphere. The difference was subtle but she was sure of it by the time they landed at the crater’s edge.

“Do you feel that? I think the mana’s different here, like there is more of it.” Igneous didn’t respond immediately, but he eventually nodded.

She could feel it more as she descended into the crater. The difference wasn’t enormous, there certainly wasn’t as much mana as her current home, but it was more than anywhere else she had been in this town. The obvious assumption was that whatever created this crater was also responsible for the increased mana, but she couldn’t see anything that would explain it.

“Rose would be better for this,” she said to herself.

This crater had clearly been here for a long time, judging from the grass and small plants all around her. If there was anything to find here, it would probably require some digging and she didn’t want to spend her time blindly digging around in the dirt. She didn’t dislike digging in general, but there was something more important she wanted to do right now.

“Do you see anything interesting?” She asked Igneous, who was picking at the grass. He looked at her and shook his head. “Should we move on to the orchards then?” She grinned in anticipation, unable to contain her excitement. This is what she had been looking forward to the most.

Igneous flew straight up to get his bearings and locate the closest orchard. Seeing the long rows of trees, Violet became more excited with each moment as they flew towards it. She could no longer hold back her elation as they touched down and rushed towards the nearest tree. There was a lot of fruit in varying stages of development as well as many white flowers that she thought were quite pretty.

Remembering that most fruit started off green and changed to other colours as they ripened, these ones appeared to turn orange, she searched for one without any green left on it and found one on the ground that had not yet started turning brown and squishy, not that brown, squishy fruit were inedible, but they often did not taste as good. The one she picked up was orange all over and still firm. It was a bit bigger than both of her fists together and shaped like a ball that had been squished a little. She brought it to her nose and inhaled deeply, detecting a pleasant and slightly sweet fragrance.

She bit off half of the fruit and found it absolutely delightful. The skin didn’t taste too good and it was a bit chewy, but the flesh inside was sweet and incredibly juicy, with just a little bit of tartness that made it delicious. Looking down at the other half still in her hands, she decided to try removing the skin from it before eating the rest and was glad to find that it was easy to peel. Discarding the skin, she popped the other half into her mouth and let out a joyful squeal at its sweetness and then searched for more.

When she had found two that looked good, one for herself and another for Igneous, who was waiting nearby but showing no interest in the fruit himself, she offered him the second one, but he seemed reluctant to take it.

“It’s really good if you peel it first,” she assured him and he hesitantly accepted it.

She peeled hers carefully and took note of the shape beneath the skin; it was a bit lumpy and had slightly indented lines running from one of the somewhat flat sides to the other, looking like it might be segmented. She tried pulling it apart and it easily separated into two halves; from there she found that removing individual segments was not only easy but also a little fun as she took it apart and ate it one piece at a time. Igneous, however, had not taken as much time with his, simply devouring it in a couple of bites, much as Violet had done with her first one

“It’s good, right?” Violet asked, but his response indicated that he didn’t particularly enjoy it, though he did not dislike it either. It was okay if he didn’t like them, Violet thought, it just meant there would be more for everyone else.

She did a quick mental count of how many imps were back at the hotel and spent some time searching for enough ripe fruit for everyone to have one and some for the hellhounds as well.

“There’s still room for more in my pack, do you think there might be different fruit at the other orchards?” She asked after placing what she’d gathered into her backpack.

Igneous nodded and sent her an image of a larger, rounder fruit.

“Oh, those are the ones you found the first time you came here.” She remembered he’d shown her those images before and only now thought about how they were different from what they had found here. “Let’s go,” she said, lifting her arms so Igneous could pick her up.

They flew across the town again to the orchard Igneous had visited last time. When they landed, Violet searched for a fruit that seemed ripe. When she found one that was orange all over, though it was a lighter shade than the smaller fruit from the previous orchard, she marveled at its size. She knew it would be bigger after what Igneous had shown her, but only now that she was holding on in her hands could she really appreciate the difference; it was more than twice the size of the fruit she had in her pack.

Peeling this one was also far more difficult; the skin was thicker and it clung to the flesh much harder. After making a bit of a mess of it with her claws, she decided to just use her knife to cut it into wedges. Cutting it open, she was surprised to find it red inside. Biting into one of the wedges, they were also sweet and delicious at first, but that was followed by a slightly bitter aftertaste that she did not enjoy as much. She offered a wedge to Igneous but he declined, so she finished them all herself, they were still good despite the weird after taste.

They were also just as juicy as the smaller fruit and she had to lick a lot of the juice from her hands when she was done with them. She got most of it, but still worried she would feel sticky later.

“Can we stop by the river on our way back? I’d like to wash myself before we head home.” She requested and Igneous nodded.

She searched around for more ripe fruit, only a few this time though. She didn’t feel she would need as many, partially because they were so big, but also because she didn’t think they would be as popular as the smaller fruit. There also wasn’t much room left in her backpack for more than that.

“Do you think there’s anything else we need to check out?” Igneous thought for a moment, then shook his head. “Let’s head to the river to get cleaned up then.” Violet suggested.

Once at the river, Violet considered washing her clothes as well; apart from fruit juice, they were also stained with some blood from the flying creature she’d eaten the night before, but then she would have to deal with her clothes being wet during the trip home. Even if she changed to the spare clothes she brought, that would still mean the wet clothes would be in her pack for the journey and she didn’t like that idea either

She decided she would take this opportunity to bathe herself before changing into clean clothes, but would wait until she got back to wash the dirty ones. Carefully approaching the water, she looked around for any sign of danger. Not seeing anything, she stripped off her clothes and waded into the river. She didn’t have to go far before the water reached her thighs and she felt like that was deep enough.

In the past, she had never really cared much about hygiene; not to say that she never bathed, but it wasn’t a high priority for her. Until she was summoned by Magentam, that is. Rose always insisted that everyone should try to keep themselves and their clothes at least somewhat clean and Violet had come to feel that she did actually prefer being clean over constantly being covered in dirt and grime. She knew some of the others felt the same way, but even the ones that still didn’t care weren’t going to disobey Rose, because she’s the boss.

When she was satisfied that she was clean enough, she stepped out of the water and dug her spare clothes out of her pack. Once dressed, she put her old clothes into her backpack and looked over at Igneous. He had also washed himself in the water and was now sunning himself to dry off.

“I’m ready to go whenever you are.” She declared.

The sun was high in the sky as they began their long journey home. Violet couldn’t wait to get back and tell Magentam about everything they had found, but then she remembered, she didn’t have to wait.

‘Magentam, we’re on our way back now. We found a lot of interesting things!’