Shi sometimes asked me questions in the next…week? Two weeks? I had long since lost track of time. I answered what I could, since he usually asked about mother, and about my life in the cottage. But some things I couldn`t answer. Sometimes I asked him questions back, and he answered all that he could as well, always gently and calmly. Other than the questions and the weather, I had no way to distinguish the days from each other…they started to blur.
One time, it rained, like it hadn`t since Shi had arrived. It hadn`t started raining till the afternoon, so at least we hadn`t been cramped under the overhang all day. Since we couldn`t build a fire, I cuddled on Koh`s lap, and Shi sat in front of us, but very close, almost touching. Closer than he usually sat, because that was warmer. But it was all right. I didn`t mind Shi being close anymore, and he knew that. When I shivered, Shi and Koh looked at each other over my head, and then Koh bit his wrist as Shi said gently, “I think you need blood, Little One. It will help you stay warm until we can build a fire when the rain lets up.”
Koh let me smell the blood first, coaxing. You need food. They always seemed to think that I`d automatically say no. But I wasn`t stupid—I knew that demons needed to drink blood. And if I was a demon now, that meant me too, as odd as that still was. But demons seemed to eat on a different schedule than humans. Since Shi came, I had only had Koh`s blood a few times, and I had seen Koh drink Shi`s blood once or twice since he`d arrived. At the same time though, I knew that they were only trying to be gentle because before I`d met Koh I`d never had to drink blood. Koh had said something about that in the dream where he`d apologized. And…it was nice, that they cared that much, that they were gentle.
I had only drank a little, when we heard a noise through the rain. Not just any noise, voices. “Ugh, thorns.” A voice was saying. “Remind me, Mikah, Michael, why are we searching through the woods, the uninhabited part of the woods, in the rain?” Another voice replied “Because reports suggest that, insubstantial or no, it holes up in bad weather.” A third voice—very similar to the second—added, “You could have stayed home, Rayanne…it would have been safer for you.” The owner of the first voice—a girl?—snorted. “Yeah right. Like I can leave you two alone for five minutes without some trouble happening. I am still a police officer you know.” Three…three voices. That was a lot of people.
I went to pull away from Koh, but he smoothed my hair gently, with just enough pressure that I knew he didn`t want me to pull away, but little enough that I could have if I really wanted to. Shhh. Shi is here. It`s safe. You need to eat. I glanced to the side and saw that Shi was sitting straight and still, watching out into the rain, waiting to see if the owners of the voices would venture down into the ravine. We were all under the overhang, after all, so maybe they wouldn`t even see us. But why was it that there were always new people when it rained hard?
I was still a little cold though, so trusting Shi, I did keep drinking Koh`s blood. After I had drank a little more, Koh moved his hand, so I knew he thought I`d probably had enough for now. So I pulled away. Well, pulled away from drinking his blood. I almost immediately grabbed onto him in a hug, nervous because other people were nearby. And other people…would they be bad people? I had still never met people other than Koh, Shi and mother. And since Koh and Shi were demons, I`d decided that mother had only been talking about humans when she talked about the people who had hurt her, and who would hurt me if they found me. Were these people coming humans or demons? Koh put an arm around me, but seemed calm, looking at Shi. Koh was sitting just as much at attention as Shi was, but was still calm. I looked at Shi too. We trusted Shi to let us know if there was danger.
We three were quiet, listening to the rain and what carried of the strangers voices. “A ravine?” one voice said. The girl`s voice said “Bleh, that looks like a long way down. Are you two going to risk it, just on the off chance? How would you get back up?” Rain or no, if they came down, they would find us. Why had they come out in this rain? They had said…they were searching for something? Were the people friendly? I wasn`t sure how to check; other than Koh and Shi, I had only ever talked to one person. And it had taken a while for me to realize that they were both good people. Demons. And what if they were searching for me…? Were they looking for me? That thought scared me, and I hid my face against Koh. His arm tightened in response, protectively.
“Don`t worry, Little One,” Shi said quietly, without looking away from the rain. “I don`t think they will dare try to jump down in the rain. They seem to be human.” He sniffed the air a little after he said that, and Koh copied him. I didn`t—how could they tell human from demon? Especially when all I could smell at the moment was the rain? I peeked out to see Shi`s expression again. He was calm too, like Koh.
When the people made no move to jump down, as Shi had said they wouldn`t, Koh hugged me gently, and rested his chin on my head. I was still on his lap, and if we had to be quiet anyway, I stayed cuddled with him. We couldn`t go anywhere because of the rain and the people, and probably even more than a teeny bit of talking would make them notice us. And since we didn`t know if they were good people or bad people, we didn`t want to be noticed.
I drifted off to sleep at some point, because I was woken up by the strangers` voices. “There! Didn`t you see something a different color than the rocks, there?!” I sat up a little, and looped my arms around Koh`s neck. Both he and Shi were awake, and staring out into the sunshine, not moving a muscle, and not making noise. I copied them. They both knew more people than I did, so I would follow their lead. I…I only knew what I`d read in books. Koh didn`t act like anything in the books. Shi acted a little like mother, a little like some people in the books, the good people. I`d copy Shi.
After a long couple of minutes, with the people talking, Shi turned to look at Koh and me. Very, very quietly, he said “They`re going to attempt to come down. If they manage, they will find us. So I will go out and talk to them, and you two stay here.”
A very low growl from Koh said that he didn`t like that idea. Shi looked at Koh questioningly. Wait. Shi nodded, and all three of us simply waited. It took a while, because apparently the people couldn`t just jump down like Shi and Koh did. Was it a demon thing? Since the people still weren`t in the ravine yet, and I was curious, and didn`t want to think about why they might be here, I whispered the question, very softly. Shi glanced back at me and nodded, replying just as quietly. “Yes, Little One, it is. That high a cliff would harm a human at least a bit if they simply jumped down.”
I thought about that as we waited. I would never have tried to jump down—it seemed very far looking down from the top—but Koh and Shi seemed to have no problem. A few minutes later, I didn`t need Koh and Shi both stiffening slightly to let me know that at least one human had dropped down into the ravine—I heard the thump. Shi and I both looked at Koh. Shi didn`t ask anything, but he raised an eyebrow, a question because Koh had vetoed his original idea.
Koh pushed me off of his lap gently. Stay. I looked at him surprised as he motioned to Shi that both of them should go out. I didn`t like that idea. I didn`t want to confront the people either, but why was I the only one who had to stay put? Alone? “Koh…” I protested softly, putting a hand on his arm to stop him.
Koh looked at me, and reached out to smooth my hair a little. Could he tell I was nervous? “We`ll stay right where you can see us, Little One.” Shi promised without looking over. “But please, stay here until we know what these people want.” Reluctantly, I nodded. If they would stay where I could see them, then I wouldn`t be as nervous. Stay. Koh repeated, gently moving my hand off of his arm. And for the first time I could remember, he kissed my forehead. I blinked at him surprised as Shi left the protection of the overhang.
Shi had gone out first, and by the voices, the humans had immediately seen him. Koh followed quickly, watching Shi`s back, just in case. I moved just a little closer to the edge of the overhang, so that I could watch and listen, but tried to stay hidden.
Only one person was standing in front of Shi and Koh. It was a man, a tall man wearing a coat, and he had a scar on his face. He didn`t look very friendly. Koh growled just slightly, thinking the same thing. The man held up his hands. And it was Shi who spoke first. “You`re on our property.” He said calmly. The ravine was theirs? I didn`t think that was actually the case…mother should own most of the forest. She had told me she had made sure to own it, both so that no one could destroy it, and so that I could be safe. Although, if mother was dead, did that mean that I owned it now? I hadn`t thought of that before…but if it was mine, I didn’t mind sharing with Koh and Shi.
The man replied, “We didn`t know. We`re searching for a dangerous creature. A demon.” He didn`t know that Koh and Shi were demons? There was a small thud as a second person came into the clearing. He looked identical to the other human, except the scar, and he was scarier. He seemed more like what I had pictured demons to be from mother`s descriptions. “They`re demons.” He said, almost growling. Humans could growl too?
They were silent for a long minute, everyone was. Hadn`t there been a third person? Where was the third person? How did anyone keep track of so many people at once? Had they also come down into the ravine, or were they waiting at the top…? “We have no fight with you just because you`re demons.” The first man said finally. “But we do need to find the one we`re looking for. It was through the fault of my subordinates that he was summoned. In fact, he looked similar to you two,” the man nodded to Koh and Shi, “except that he was insubstantial.”
My eyes widened. This was who had summoned Koh? Why was he looking for him now? It had been a long while! Why had he summoned Koh? Why…A sound distracted me from my thoughts, as the third person came into the ravine—right next to the overhang I was under. Before I could actually consider what I should do, other than freeze and be silent, my body reacted on its own, and suddenly I was out in the ravine being stared at as I threw my arms around Koh and hid my face against him. His chest was warm, since he`d been standing in the sun for a few minutes. His arms went around me a little tightly. That was ok. My arms were tight around him too. I didn`t like all these people here. Koh and Shi were enough. Why were there more people...?
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