Demonslayer J, Chapter 2 - Are we there yet? -by Jex "Nu-uh. I'm not eating *anything* you've killed with that sword," declared Angie. "The rabbit did not have an evil spirit to suck. It's not going to poison it," declared Jared, taking a bite. "When's the last time you cleaned it? There could be monster germs on it that got into the rabbit's blood when you skewered it!" "Fine. Starve." Jared gave up, and took another bite. "More for me." And thus went lunch, after Jared had caught a rabbit, expertly skewering it with a hurled black sword. ------------- Lunch over, the two traveling companions packed up their stuff, and continued on the road. The trip was not in silence, however, as a constant growling was heard. "Can you please shut your stomach up? It's setting my nerves on edge, I keep thinking something is about to attack," said Jared, glancing nervously at his sword. "Hey! It's not that loud!" protested Angie. "Next time just eat the damn rabbit," Jared muttered to himself. ------------ Night fell, the stars shining above, the sister moons barely visible. "Okay. If I catch you something, without using my 'big clunky black soul sucking sword,' will that make you happy?" Angie perked up. "Yes!" Jared grinned. "Well too bad. I'm not gonna." "You're so me~an!" cried Angie. "Learn to hunt. Quit complaining," said Jared flatly, chewing on a (different) rabbit. "I'll exorcise your sword!" threatened Angie, arranging her hands in a position to cast such a thing. "Fine. Whatever. I'm going to sleep. Whatever you're going to do, just don't wake me up." The ultimatum delivered, Jared started setting up his hammock. Angie hmmphed, crossing her arms. "I thought we were traveling together! You're supposed to feed me!" Jared ignored her, closing his eyes. Sometime later, Jared shot up, sweat streaming from his forehead. He looked up at the sky. Must be around 3 or 4. He quickly glanced around, then at the jewel in his sword. A pale blue, as before. Angie was fast asleep, having curled up near the (now-dead) fire. "Did I scream...?" he asked himself slowly, trying to recall his nightmare unsuccessfully. His whole body was tense, and soaked with sweat. Sleep was beyond him now. He looked around again, then decided nothing was around, and settled against a tree, waiting for the sun to rise. ------------- Angie yawned, stretching her arms, yawned again, laid back down, got up, stretched, yawned, then stood up. Jared was watching her with an amused smile, trying to keep from laughing. "What?" she demanded. "You've not done this before. Look at yourself, you don't sleep uncovered in the wild. And, your hair is a mess, and a bugnest." Angie shrieked, frantically feeling her hair for anything moving. Jared failed at that, and burst out laughing. "Well, I'm glad I can amuse you," said Angie sarcastically. She was really starting to hate this guy. "How old are you, anyways, Angie? You can't be more than twelve," asked Jared curiously. "I'm fourteen! And a half! Jerk! Aaaagghhh!" Angie frantically started to look for a brush, then realized she didn't bring one. "Heh. Well, whenever you're ready, let's get going. Take too long and I'll leave without you," said Jared, still grinning. 'Grandpa, I swear I'll avenge you. But I hate this guy!' ------------ On the road again, Jared leading the way on the dusty, dirty road. The ground was moist, and bugs and worms were everywhere. Angie was *not* liking that. "Are we there yet?" asked Angie. "Nope, not yet." "Well, how much longer?" "We already passed the city. We're not going to it." "What?!" "Actually, its just about 2 miles more." "But..." "And then we're going another 80 miles to the next one. We can't go to the first one." "Why not?" "'cuz." "Well, I'm going to the one just up ahead!" Angie ran ahead, reaching the crest of the hill. And saw more hill, for as far as she could see. When Jared finally caught up, still walking at his pace, he grinned. "You lied!" cried Angie, stomping the ground. "Yep. Now come on," responded Jared, not missing a beat, the smile on his face saying he was genuinely enjoying this. Angie sniffed, holding back tears, watching Jared continue on, not waiting for her. 'Grandpa......' She wiped some forming tears from her eyes, and ran after Jared. Maybe this was just a test. A test, to see if she could handle it. Yeah, it was just a test. Noone could be that mean. 'I'll beat your stupid test! You jerk!' ------------- "So how much farther is it really?" asked Angie. "Dunno. Just following my feelings on where it is. I don't even know if we'll cross a town or city," said Jared. "Well, could we go out of our way to stop someplace? I want a soft bed, and a proper bath!" cried Angie. "Man, you're spoiled. It's be bad if we went to one anyways. Nothing alive liked me, people, animals, whatever. The only things that don't hate me are the undead evil things that are trying to kill me. I try to avoid towns. Or people, period." "But..." Angie trailed off. "If we go to a town, we'll be wasting time. If it goes to a town, the town is fucked. Towns are bad." "I could go! I need some real food! Desperately!" "How much more real do you want, than freshly killed?" "......." "Okay. Fine. If we cross a town while tracking it, we can stay at it," said Jared finally. Angie cheered. "Wai! Thank you Jared!" ".....brat," added Jared Angie's cheer immediately soured. ----------------- And night rolled around again, their second night on the road since leaving Terrissia, finding Jared and Angie underneath a huge willow tree. "Hey, Angie. Do you know how to start a fire?" asked Jared, curiosly. "Um....," Angie said slowly, thinking. "Come on, kid. I'll show you how to find good stuff, and start one. You'll need to know this if you want to travel at all." Jared got up, gesturing Angie to follow. Jared pointed to a tree on the way. "See that kinda wood? It gives off a lot of smoke. That's bad a lot of times. You can tell it by the bark pattern." Angie nodded, acknowledging the advice. "This kinda of tree here," continued Jared, pointing at a different tree, "has a certain smell to it when burnt. It repels insects. Although I'd bet they'd still brave it to suck on little girl blood." "Hey!" Jared grinned, looking around some, then sighting what he wanted. He trekked a little bit, through some collapsed branches. Once Angie had arrived, her robes dirty and cut from the branches, he spoke, pointing at another type of tree. "This is the kind you want to use. It takes a while to get started, though. Pick it up, and take it back to our stuff," said Jared. "But it's all icky, and there's probably bugs on it! And I'm not strong!" she complained. "So? Do it." Angie sighed, and picked up a log. It was too heavy for her, so she just took the one piece. Jared grinned, watching her go, collecting the rest of the sticks. ------------ The fire wasn't roaring, but it was going well enough to provide heat and light. Angie was laying on her back, staring at the willow canopy, tired from all the work that *jerk* had made her do. Her stomach was rumbling, too. She was almost tempted to try the rabbit Jared had caught with that sword of his. "Hey, Angie. What was your dad like?" asked Jared. "My dad was a great man! He helped my grandpa with his demon research, but one day he went out to try and get something, and never came back. I'm pretty sure it was some spell component, but grandpa wouldn't ever tell me. But my dad was great! He was kind and understanding and my mom loved him and he would always take me shopping and explain stuff to me and he would always tuck me in and tell me stories and play games with-" Angie went on happily, but was interupted. "Hey. Breath," interupted Jared. "...me. My dad was great. Better than grandpa. I miss them both a lot," finished Angie. Jared looked at her calmly. "I won't stop hunting it till it's dead or I'm dead," he said, as if it was the most important thing in the world to him. His voice was flat, dead, as he said it. Angie set up, looking at Jared, worried. What had happened to him? It was scary to think that it was just fighting demons. Would it happen to her? 'No! Of course not! I won't give up!' she thought, abhoring the idea of being a jerk. It was always better to be nice to people, her dad had said. "I'm going to sleep. Wake me up if anything moves," said Jared, lying down on his blanket. "Okay! Goodnight, Jared!" responded Angie cheerfully. "And quit being so happy. I can't sleep with the amount of sugar you're emitting," added Jared, closing his eyes. ".......", said Angie, instead of saying, 'Well shutup, jerk! I'll be happy if I want too!' Angie sighed, and moved over to sit against a tree, viewing the twinkling stars through the gaps of the willow tree. She sat there for a while, counting the stars and singing softly to herself, softly recalling spellwords, passing the time, all the while getting drowsier and drowsier. This downwards spiral suddenly shattered as Jared screamed, sitting upright, sweating. Angie, now wide awake, jumped to her feet, and ran over to Jared. "What's wrong?" Jared blinked, looking up, trying to tell the time from the stars, unable to due to the willow canopy. He stayed silent for a moment, opening and closing his mouth a few times, making sure it worked, then looked at Angie. "It's nothing," he snapped. "But-", protested Angie. "It's fucking nothing! Nothing you need to worry about. And if you're lucky, you won't have to after this is over," he hissed, angrily. "Now leave me alone!" He sat up, grabbing his sword, and stalked off, leaving Angie to wonder what happened. --------- Jared sat aloft, perched in the upper branches of a tree, trying to quell the visions of death and pain. 'I hope to god that that girl dosen't get affected as badly as me, her first time,' he thought to himself. He hated the nightmares. Nearly every night since fighting his first one, way back when, hunting for food for his tribe. He hated the demons that caused the nightmares, that caused those they didn't kill to live in terror for the rest of their life. He hated himself for being such a jerk. He hated everything since that day, the only thing that brought him joy anymore was the death cry of another demon. He hated that little brat. ...did he? 'It's been so long since another person has cared about me, after I changed,' he thought. 'I can't get attached, though. She still has a family somewhere. Her mom, yeah.' He sighed, glancing at his sword, at the jewel embedded in it. Still a pale blue. "Where the hell are you? I'm going to find you, so quit running," he said to himself, wishing the demon would just pop up. "Angie, do you hate me?" he asked the air softly, unwilling to be heard, but needing to say it. He sighed again, leaning his head back against the tree, staring up. "You should." ------------ The sun rose, shedding light in all its glory through the filter of the thick treetops. Birds chirped, animals awoke, and the ground came alive with life. This all went unnoticed by Jared, fast asleep in the tree, and Angie, fast asleep curled up in Jared's unused blanket. Jared awoke when a bird landed on him, and started poking at his hair. He swatted it away, opening his eyes. "I overslept," he said, as one would say 'the bird is red'. He gripped his sword, and tossed it down to the forest floor. He followed shortly after, landing with a heavy *whump*. He made the short distance back to the willow quickly enough, pulling the blanket in it's entirety from on and around Angie with one mighty tug. "Wake up. Let's go," he said to the waking girl. "Mmmhhmmaawwwn...." the groggy girl mumbled, opening her eyes. Jared leaned down, picking up a spider, and dropped it on her face. ....the resulting scream was pretty loud, to say the least. -------------- They two traveling partners trudged along in silence, both wanting to forget what Angie had said immediately after the spider incident. Jared was a bit suprised that she knew all those words, though. And more than a little impressed. They continued trudging along in silence, every so often stopping for a moment, for Jared to check his sword. One such stop, and Jared took longer than usual, closing his eyes, gripping the pommel of his sword tightly. "...it's been close. ....that way," he said, pointing. Opening his eyes, he looked around. "Looks like you'll get your bath after all. We'll be crossing the town of Mariahava," informed Jared. Angie jumped in the air, smiling. "Yes! A bath, and real food, and I can get a mirror and replace my brush....." Jared grinned. "Sure. I'm gonna get drunk." Angie blanched, remembering the state Jared had been in when she had first met him, back at the inn at Terrissia. Jared grinned wider, noting her expression. "Something wrong?" "No, nothing, nothing," assured Angie, nervously. "Come on. Let's go." Angie broke into a run, eager to see civilization. ------------- The town of Mariahava rests in a valley between two mountains, and was home to many farmers who sprawled across the fertile mountainsides like ants. (beef up description) Jared watched the commonfolk, entering the general area of the town. They were all acting nervous, like something had just happened. "Hey, what's wrong? Everyone's acting all scared," asked Angie slowly, staying close to Jared. "Dunno. The demon we're hunting did pass by close to here, though. I can guess." One of the commonfolk spoke up. "Did you say you you were hunting a demon?" Jared blinked. "Yeah. Was it here?" Angie jumped up in joy. "Yay! It's here! We don't have to go hunting through the messy forests anymore!" "Shutup, brat," said Jared dismissively. "Was it here or not?" The man nodded. "There were several murders several miles out from here, and a bounty has been placed on the perpetrator. The only survivor described it as a black monster." "Alright!" cheered Jared, pumping a fist. "Double bounty! Who do I see about it?" "Old Man Redfer posted the bounty. He's in the middle of town right now, at the bar." "Thanks! Come on brat, we got some haggling to do!" Angie growled under her breath, and stomped after him. ------------ The dusty, dimly lit bar, that had a sign with a name at one point, but no longer, was virtually dead. The lone customer sat at a table near the door, looking up every so often. This routine differed, as Jared Grange kicked the swivel door open, stepping in quickly. The immediate aftereffect was the swivel door swinging back and hitting Angie Darrows in the face, knocking her over, flat on her butt. Jared looked around, then at the lone person. "Hey, you the guy who put up the bounty on the monster?" he asked, not bothering with the proper etiquette of such a thing. The man, assumedly Old Man Redfer, nodded. "You must be pretty sure of yourself to be so arrogant," he said icily. Jared nodded. "Im the BEST! Jared Grange, Friend of the Country, demon slayer of the highest quality, at your service. ...for the right price," he announced. Jared plunked down across from the old man, peering at him. "You look like a poor geezer, so I'll give you a discount. Nine hundred and nintety nine gold." Redfer gritted his teeth, restraining his anger. "Insolent young man! You'll get no such fee with piss-poor manners like that!" Jared grinned sheepishly. "Well, I normally charge twenty five hundred, a magical item of equivalent value, or your daughters virginity. I *am* the best." "..........", Redfer said, aghast at Jared's brashness. "Tell ya what. I'll kill it for free! But they have a nasty habit of ressurecting themselves unless you kill them right, so I'll only charge for that. Later, old man!" Jared grinned wider, jumping to his feet, knocking over the chair he was sitting on. Angie *glared* at him. Jared took a step back, from the sheer force of that *glare*, then recovered. "What?", he asked, as if he hadn't actually done anything wrong. "YOU. WILL. HELP. HIM." Each word Angie uttered was like a thunderclap from heaven, each syllable striking fear into Jared's heart, hammering it home with a metal stake. Jared coughed nervously. "What? I didn't hear you, brat." "YOU. WILL. HELP. HIM. FOR. FREE." Each word uttered was like a long stormy night, full of deafening thunder and lightning, compressed into a single syllable. Jared coughed again. "Yes'm," he said meekly. He hastily exited the bar. --------- "Are you *trying* to piss people off!? I can accept you're a jerk, but thats. ....just.... Aaauugh! You're a monster! A horrible horrible monster!" Angie ranted, shaking a finger angrily at him. Jared stayed silent, unsheathing his long black serrated sword. Everyone who hadn't fled from the sheer sonic onslaught of Angie's incessant yelling, fled from the ominous looking sword. Even Angie fell silent at this. This mattered not at all to Jared, who closed his eyes, gripping the sword tightly, then opening them again. "Let's go," said Jared, calmly, his voice betraying nothing. Angie followed Jared, who was walking at a brisk place, to the east. "Look, kid. It's here, for sure. When I face it, stay out of the way. They're faster than you think, and most of them have a 'preference' for little girls," warned Jared solemnly. The jewel on his pommel was definitely more vibrant. ----------------- Jared: ...Hey! Dammit! I wanna fight the thing! Don't end it here! Angie: Shut up, you stuck-up arrogant jerk who dosen't respect his elders! Jared: It was bad enough travelling with you. I should just lead you to it, then run and let you fight it yourself. Angie: ....... Jared: Brat. Knocking me out of my bounty. Jared: Well, at least we're gonna open the next chapter with EXTREME RAW BLOODY ACTION! MACHO-STYLE, BABY! Angie: What about me? Jared: Who cares about you, brat. I'm the main character here. *powerpose* Jared: And you better be a hentai love slave, ever-ready and willing to serve and please me in the next chapter! I hate traveling around with a chick who's too young to flirt with. Angie: AUGH! PERVERT! Jared: You're not old enough to know what I'm talking about yet. Angie: What~ever!