Kalika and Donovan traveled for some time and forth from the forest to their base, collecting the wolves they've killed.
With their collecting now done, they piled most of the wolves and sprawled out a few on the floor. Donovan pulled one of the large wolves that looked the most pristine and laid it on a boulder.
"What are you doing?" Kalika questioned.
"I'm going to show you how to prepare the meat. Since you're the only one with a workable knife, you'll have to do it for the time being."
Despite, Kalika's initial reluctance, she eventually gave in after a rumbling stomach and the promises of delicious food. listened and followed as Donovan instructed her in draining the blood, skinning the fur and getting the first chunk of meat. It was a process that took them into the night where the finished product eventually became some cubed wolf meat.
Kalika stared at the pile of cubed meat she'd chopped up. not long after Donovan sprinkled them with some tiny white crystals.
"Uh? What are you doing?"
"I'm sprinkling some salt."
"Salt?"
"Yeah. I found it deeper in the cave while you were cutting these up. For some reason the cave has a bunch of em, like the ones my uncle I would collect."
Kalika glanced at Donovan a little more skeptical.
Donovan chuckle, nervously "T-trust me. It'll make the food taste better."
"If you say so..." Kalika moved to skewer the freshly prepared meat.
After a while of cooking and some water collecting, they finally obtained their meal and chowed down.
The slipped the first cube of meat in their mouth, taking in the tender delicious juices. To Kalika's surprise, it didn't feel as chewy as the last meat she cooked. And the sheer flavors reminded her of pork.
"Mmmm~." Kalika easily took one bite after another, effortlessly finishing her meal before Donovan.
Donovan could only chuckle seeing this. "You want another?" He laughed.
She nodded her head, somewhat embarrassed.
He quickly took another two sticks of meat and salted them up before putting them just over the fire to cook.
They both enjoyed the peace, and the quiet crackle of the fire entailed. After spending almost all her time in the dungeon prison, the peace felt almost alien to Kalika, but she wasn't opposed to it. Feeling the warm fire with someone by her side felt like a nice change.
Her tail swayed more from side to side, watching Donovan as he was chipped away at a rock with a smaller rock. It looked like he was trying to make a sharp edge. He caught her glance and quickly averted his gaze and went back to the work at hand.
Soon the smell of the aroma of cooked meat return, along with Kalika's hidden excitement for the second helpings.
"Looks like it's just about ready." Donovan stood back up, checking on their second meal "Yup." He took up his second share, and without hesitation, Kalika did the same.
"What's that smell?" A deep voice said.
Both Kalika and Donovan stopped. They both looked back at the once unconscious Bjorn, who was leaned against the wall.
Bjorn blinked his eyes, trying to reorient himself. "What the-!" His eyes widened seeing Kalika but quickly narrowed. He quickly raised his arm, channeling fire magic. "Where the hell am I!!???"
Kalika and Donovan quickly got on her feet with a glare affixed on Bjorn. Kalika conjured and pointed her blood blade straight at Bjorn. Donovan did the same, taking up his broken pipe pointing it at Bjorn.
Donovan stood and watched as the two had a standoff. Tensions were thick and stares were intense, and despite this, no moves were made.
Seeing that Kalika wasn't making any move, Bjorn quickly glanced around, taking note of his surroundings. He felt his stomach with his free hand, feeling that his wound was no longer there. He took a quick glanced and turned back to Kalika. "What is this? How am I alive?"
"Kalika healed you." Donovan spoke. "She used some of that bright magic to heal you."
Bjorn glared at Donovan. a second later Kalika stepped back into Bjorn's view. It was evidently that she was trying to protect Donovan as she growled.
His gaze became even more intense. But remembering back how Kalika healed Donovan from the brink of death, he understood that what Donovan said must've been true. "She... saved me...? That doesn't make any sense. Why would she spare me?"
Donovan quickly came between the two with his hands raised. "Alright, why don't we all talk this out?"
Bjorn quickly obliged, surprising both Donovan and Kalika. his flames that he channeled dissipated, and he brought his arms to his side.
"Seeing that I'm in no condition to fight, there's no point in keeping me alive..."
Donovan couldn't believe his ears. "What do you mean by that?"
"My legs… I can't move them. I can't even feel them anymore."
Donovan was absolutely shocked by this predicament as Bjorn continued.
"I'm already marked for death. There's no point in delaying my death any further."
"No." Kalika suddenly said.
Bjorn turned to Kalika, seeing that she finally brought her dagger down.
"We need a guide. And I want to find a way out of this dream." she said with a blunt seriousness. Both Donovan and Bjorn could only give a puzzled look at Kalika.
"Dream?" Bjorn questioned silently.
Donovan spoke up again. "I-it's like she said. We need someone to help guide us out of the Pit."
Bjorn chuckled. "So, you want me to help two escaped prisoners? How precious."
"Is there a problem with that?" Kalika asked.
Bjorn paused for a moment. He looked back at Kalika with a curious gaze seeing that she was in Donovan's prisoner's shirt. He saw the new horns and the tailed that swayed as she glared at him indignantly.
Kalika grumbled, Irritated by Bjorn's lack of response.
Just as Donovan was about to speak up, Bjorn finally spoke.
"Fine." He said with finality.
"Huh?" Donovan could only look at Bjorn a little more confused. It felt as though there was a one eighty in Bjorn's position.
But I have a condition. I'll show you a location to leave from pit... On the condition that we go to the city of Oar's and that I'm fully healed."
"City of Oar's?" Donovan silently repeated. Donovan glance at Kalika in time to see her avert her gaze.
"Don't look at me."
"You were the one to heal me. So surely you only kept my legs unfixed."
"But I don't know how I did it in the first place. When I was healing you, the magic just disappeared."
an awkward silence filled the room leaving Donovan as the one to break it. "She's telling the truth, "Donovan said. "I was there when it stopped working for her."
Bjorn could only sigh at this news. "If that's the case, I think I may know someone else that could help us in Oar's."
"Really?" Donovan's interest peeked.
"Yes. He's a bit of a strange alchemist, but he might be able to help us. And if we're still near the initial pit entrance, the city should only be a couple weeks travel from here."
"How will we know that you won't go back on your word?" Kalika asked.
"If you don't trust me… We can fill out a contract."
********
Donovan quickly brought over the materials Bjorn described. He brought a bowl of the wolves' blood, and the freshly skinned pelt, still raw with bits of flesh. And something to write with. He simply gave him one of the strangely shaped tools from the goblins.
He laid the fleshy side of the pelt in front of Bjorn. "I haven't had the time to clean this."
"That's alright. It should work all the same."
Kalika stared uncaringly at Bjorn as he wrote down symbols written in the demon language, using the small end of the tool like a pen.
"Is this like with Rakon's contracts?" Kalika asked.
"No. It's a cruder and more basic than how Rakon would prepare it. Luckily, I picked this up while watching him from time to time. It won't be as potent or restricting, but it should work all the same."
"Well how do we know you're not pulling our chain?" Donovan now hovered over the pelt, watching each struck made.
"He's not lying." Kalika said. "These contracts are magically binding. Besides he's actually keeping the contract simple."
"You can read this?" Bjorn glanced at Kalika, surprised.
She looked at the symbols and read them out loud. "Bjorn will work as the guide for Kalika and the human, in return Kalika and the human are to bring Bjorn to an Alchemist known as Cyrus. Any retaliation from any party will result with the penalty of… Death."
"Since when could she read our language!? No matter. That's not important right now." Bjorn thought.
"Hey, isn't that last part extrem- Hey wait a minute!" Donovan pointed at himself indignantly. "My name is Donovan! You hear me! D-O-N-O-V-A-N!"
Bjorn ignored Donovan's complaints, continuing to draw the symbols at the corner of the written contract. on the pelt. With Donovan more quiet, Bjorn proceeded to drop some blood onto the contract.
Donovan watched on from the corner, his ire still visible to both Kalika and Bjorn.
Bjorn turned back to Kalika, who approached. "It's done. Now all you have to do… Is drop your blood."
Kalika took her dagger and poked her finger, allowing a singular drop of black blood to hit the pelt. Donovan caught sight of this strange phenomenon, raising a brow. "Black blood...?"
The makeshift contract erupted in blue flames forcing Donovan to brace himself. "What the hell!?" The fur pelt, made contract, burned away until nothing was left.
Donovan peeked. "So… That's a contract?" he murmured
Everyone gazed upon the scorched mark left on the cavern floor.
Unknown to Kalika, Bjorn peeked back at her, with a determination in his eyes. "I should keep my eye on her for now… Whatever happened to her, I'm sure that Alchemist can figure it out…"And Rakon's bond to come down to the pit eventually..."
"Here." Donovan said.
"Hmm?" Bjorn found Donovan offering him a stick of cooked wolf meat.
"Since your part of the team now, you might as well eat up. It's a little small I know, but we can cook some more."
"H-hey! Isn't that mine!?" Kalika complained.
"O-oh, Sorry." Donovan quickly handed over the stick of meat to a more defensive Kalika. she took and glared with a pout as she took her leave.
Kalika brought her food over to a bed of yellow grass she slept on previously and sat down. "This is my space and my bed. Both of you can stay over there!" She promptly chomped on her food. "I don't need my dream to get weirder."
"O-okay...?" Donovan didn't expect Kalika to be so defensive over food. he chuckled nervously before moving to give his own food to Bjorn. "Here, I'll go make some more now."
As the night progressed with the crackle of the fire blending in with the sound of the night, Donovan was now checking on the new batch of food.
Kalika on the other hand, fell asleep looking at her past reflection through the strange mirror shard. Bjorn took note of this but didn't pry on it. "The less they know, the better..." He thought.
Seeing that the food was finally finished, Donovan pulled the stick the was cooking over the fire and handed it straight to Bjorn.
Bjorn silently accepted the food and took the first few bites as Donovan sate behind the campfire, staring at Bjorn. After a few seconds of eating, Bjorn finally took notice of Donovan. It seemed like he was anticipating something.
Bjorn took another bite from the meat, this time savoring it. "This... Is good."
The fire crackled in the silence between the two. There was something else going on in Donovan's mind, and Bjorn knew it.
Donovan quickly checked on Kalika, finding that she was still asleep. He sighed and brought his head down. His hair hid the frustration in his eyes as he clenched his teeth.
"How could this happen? Kalika was a human not even two weeks ago and now she's-" Donovan, quickly calmed himself, unsure what to say.
"I don't know how this happened either. I'm just as lost as you are… Never in my life have I heard of a human turning into a demon... Never." Bjorn looked upon Donovan with a mutual understanding of his frustrations. "If you're looking to me for answers, I have none. But... That alchemist I mentions might know something..."
Donovan's eyes lit up a little. "Do you think he might know a way to turn her back too?"
"Who's to say. All I know now is, that Kalika seems to be refuting her current reality."
"Yeah, I've noticed. She seems to be more... out of it... What do you think we should do?"
"Just play into it for now. Trying to convince her that she's now a demon will probably do more harm than good. The last thing we need is for her to go on another maniacal rampage and take along with the other's she's killed..." Bjorn took one last bite of his food and set the stick to the ground in finality.
"Damn it!" Donovan's memories shifted to when Kalika first threatened his life with her dagger to his throat. Looking back at it now, it looked more like a cry for help. "Perhaps if I tried to reach back then… This all could've been avoided."
His anger boiling over. His hands shook as he tried to maintain control of his own emotions. "I promised Tilus I would look after her... I was supposed to look after her…"
"There's no point in dwelling on the past," Bjorn said. "For now, we have to make do with what we have now."
Donovan quickly simmered down hearing Bjorn's words. "Perhaps… You're right…" He just as quickly glared back at Bjorn. "But don't think for a second that I forgive you. It's because of demons like you that Kalika's a demon."
Bjorn simply sighed at his remark. "The feeling is mutual. If that's all I'm going to turn in for the night." Bjorn moved his body and laid to his side blocking the only entrance into their room.
"You know your' blocking the only exit. right?"
"To keep any unwanted visitors from coming in." Bjorn said. He closed his eyes leaving Donovan as the only person among them awake.
"I suppose I should rest too then..." Donovan took one final glance at Kalika, concern laced in his gaze. "We will get out of here Kalika. I promise...."
With those final words he finally dozed off to sleep for the night.
********
Elsewhere under the wings of night, inside of a local village above, A being of white with blonde hair, straddled the empty road of the settlement. He wore clothes of a hunter and carried around a black horn with golden symbols engraved in it.
He turned his head, following the direction it pointed. A approached a barrel, opening It up to find a child. She looked at the being with absolute horror, unable to move.
"Human girl…" it reached its out to her. "Both me and God Cassell Thanks you for the sustenance…"
He touched the forehead of the girl, and in an instant, absorbed her into his entire being.
He looked at his hands. "You had excellent magic! You single handedly gave me three years' worth of life. Now I have another hundred years' worth of life…"
He then paused for a moment, as if listening to someone.
"Yes."
"I see…"
"Yes, I'll go fetch him."
He smiled.
"it'll be a fun reunion, I haven't seen Enocht in eons…"
The being, otherwise known as an angel, pulled the barrel to the ground, allowing its contents to spill. It continued leaving the premises of the now emptied village.
Now outside the village, he turned back, enlarging his hand. It grew to a size beyond the village itself.
In a single move, he slammed his entire palm onto the entire village! Crushing it beneath its hand!
With the village now leveled, The Angel of war, Terrocht, continued on a journey with unknown destinations.
"Hmm…? Yes…I don't mind waiting… walking should suffice until I reach my next destination..."
********
"[And I'm sure 'The Evil One' will return in due time…]"
Kalika slept peacefully.
Unknown to anyone however, the reflection from the mirror shard began shifting. The full blonde hair she once had in the reflection was invaded with a few streaks of white hair.