Tales of Death´s Daughter

“And with a loud bang, Lucy Worchester and Ellie Maus cleared the way to the next level. Looking at the beautiful twins, none of them could comprehend their awesomeness.” Clara recounted while her sister giggled.

“How could they be this cute? Lucy thought and couldn’t help but to look dumbly at the two of them. A bit annoyed, she shook her head, despaired a little and then jumped down the hole, leaving the twins with Ellie.” Clarice added with a wavering voice, but still sat beside her sister as I jumped down the hole.

“Could you please stop narrating everything we do?” Ellie asked, followed after me into the next level of this dungeon which looked suspiciously like mine.

“Get down here.” I shouted upwards as I couldn’t see any reason for them to wait any longer.

“Kay!” Both of them said and jumped down the hole we made one by one. “Helooo?” Both of them shouted into the tunnel, only to be met with utter silence.

“Should we search for them?” Clara asked loudly.

“Please let us search them!” Clarice nodded approvingly and both of them grabbed one of my hands each.

“Please!” They said in unison, but I could only shake my head. As irresponsible as they were, I didn’t think I could let my eyes of them for one second.

“Nope. We’ll dig until they eventually come by themselves.” I explained slowly.

“But we are bor-“ The two twins apparently heard the noise the same second I did. It sounded a little bit like water flowing … just thicker.

“Ellie, dig as fast as you can.” And then, I heard the screaming. A girl and a boy were running for their life as fast as they could.

“Over here!” Clara shouted out and waved towards the two in the distance, even though they weren’t visible yet.

“We have snacks!” Clarice said loudly.

Ellie was still hammering into the floor with her spear as the two arrived and looked behind them.

“The dungeon … it’s a slime!” Who the fuck would come up with this shit? Well, I could hardly contradict them as the walls in the distance bent inwards and turned into a rather thick liquid to a certain point.

Immediately, Sofie froze the ground where Ellie was working, sadly with no visible effect. Only part of this dungeon was a slime, not everything.

“Do slimes like snacks?” Clarice drew her blade right away, staring at the approaching wall of slime saddened.

“Is that our fault?” Clara copied her sister immediately and went as far as pressing out a tear for the imaginary snacks … or they viewed the others as snacks, I couldn’t tell.

Well, it didn’t seem we were in any trouble though as Louis faced the approaching slime, extended his hand and froze everything in front of him, including the approaching slime.

“But …” Well, were less than happy with that development.

“Meanie.” They put their swords back and crossed their arms in front of them at the same time.

And in the meantime, I quietly patted the flask in one of my pockets while watching Ellie drill a hole into the ground after finding out that earth magic didn’t work at all.

But at last, we made another hole in the ground while I listened to the clanking sounds above. Shortly afterwards, the others jumped down the hole once more, but I waited several seconds while more and more stones fell through our previous digging adventures.

In the end, it was Hannah floating downwards and not the slime monster I kind of expected.

“Yo.” I said, took her hand and floated downwards with her into a place that didn’t look like the ones before.

We were in a dark chamber with no glowing moss whatsoever. Only Sofie’s magic gave us vision as the ball of brightness floated away from us, following an higher and higher ceiling until it didn’t shine upon the ground anymore. This place was massive.

“Great. Any ideas?” Hannah asked into the round quietly.

“Dig?” Schwarz proposed.

“That would be too easy.” Louis created a few bats right away and sent them flying wherever they wanted. For minutes, we waited while looking at him, at least until I could feel my strength wane slowly.

“Lucy …” Clarice pulled on my sleeve a little bit and rubbed her eyes.

“We are tired.” Clara added, yawning loudly.

“What? Can’t they just stay up a little while longer?” Schwarz asked indignantly and looked down on the two of them.

“It’s the sun, Schwarz. Vampires are getting sleepy whenever it’s rising. It’s affecting us wherever we are, even underground.” I explained and took both of them into my arms. “We might need to make a break here.”

“That’s actually a good idea. Sofie, shall we do the first shift?” Ellie asked while I bought the twins down until they laid on their side, Clara hugging Clarice from behind. Laying down on my side as well, I extended my arm which they promptly used as a makeshift pillow. Hugging both of them with one arm, I closed my eyes swiftly feeling how the usual energetic vampires settled down as well.

An hour later, when everyone was asleep but two of the heroes, Ellie sighted quietly.

“They are kind of cute when they sleep, don’t you agree?” Sofie whispered quietly.

“They are vampires, all three of them. You have seen their actions on the ship … and Lucy basically admitted that she wasn’t immune to their racial instincts.” Ellie replied in a hushed voice, slowly walking away from us a little.

“But look at them … sleeping in each other’s arms like they are some siblings.” Well, I just couldn’t bear the thought of being alone and as these two basically begged me to be close to them, I didn’t decline.

“Maybe they already are …” No, we weren’t. I didn’t feel the bond I had with Albert and Tom, not even remotely. They were from a completely different bloodline and nothing could change that. “… Sofie, you have to stop searching for the good in everyone. It’s … it’s not appropriate when dealing with demons.”

“… I know. But I want to give them a chance.” Sofie admitted and sat down on the ground a bit away from us. They were too quiet to wake anyone up, but I could still hear them very well.

“That might come back biting you.” I see what you did there Ellie. Nice one.

“I just can’t help myself.” Sofie said quietly.

“Why are you still trusting Lucy in the fist place? She has done everything she could to push us away from her.” Wait … did I? Have I murdered any innocent person in front of them? Surely not.

“Because she is my friend. And she’s Irminsul’s friend. That has to account for something, right?” Well, no?

“And if your patron goddess isn’t as she seems to be?” Ellie asked, knowingly repeated the same talking points the demon king apparently had used.

“I won’t believe the demon king, not before I have seen actual proof. Irminsul was there for me when nobody else has been.” Yeah, and so was I. But she was getting all the credit for it, which kind of sucked in hindsight.

“You are naïve.” Ellie stated.

“Where is this coming from?” Sofie asked defensively.

“Look at our group. We are literally the textbook example of one set up for failure. We can’t trust each other, some of us are behaving irrationally and now we have three bloodthirsty monsters in our group and a complicit elf. I don’t want to think about the worst that could happen either … but it’s my task to plan for all eventualities. Sofie, you have to keep an eye on them the whole time, okay?” Ellie asked and paused a little as the twins stirred in their sleep at the same time.

“… I don’t like watching them. It would feel like a betrayal.” Sofie said.

“Me neither … trust me. I really wish I wouldn’t need to mistrust Lucy. I want to see her as my friend … but I don’t know if I can do that.” Ellie admitted. So far, they hadn’t revealed anything that would make me want to get rid of them, but I still wasn’t entirely sure I wanted the three of them to live on.

“What about Louis? What’s on his mind?” Sofie asked a bit curiously.

“He … he is wary. She changed too much for him. But I think he still trusts her decisions. And so far, I can’t complain either in that regard. We have gotten far because of her but …” Ellie trailed off in the end, probably because she feared speaking it out at all.

“But what?” Sofie followed up.

“I worry what comes after we have defeated the demon king.” So she did that there was a possibility we weren’t bound by friendship any longer, which was quite honestly miraculous.

“I see … but first we should worry about how to get there in the first place …” Sofie said, knowing full well that mistrust was poison to teamwork.

“Right, so I was thinking-“ Ellie’s voice died down the moment Hannah turned rolled around on the hard floor and sat up.

“Some of us are trying to sleep here, you know?” She asked grumpily, robbed over towards me quietly and laid down behind me on her side. Then, she forced her upper leg in between mine and and her hand in between Clara’s back and my belly. Her breathing slowed down shortly afterwards yet again while her body heat radiated through mine.

Some bonds in this group broke down, if they weren’t severed already. But it was also true that others strengthened and two new ones – which shape I couldn’t make out yet – were in the process of forming.