Chapter 3: Demons. Present. Past.

We’re all going to die.

Fangs the size of legs. Eyes like bottomless pools. A tongue dark and hissing, loud enough to make the ground tremble. It was the largest creature Aria had ever seen. She would have preferred if she never had. 

It was heading straight for them. 

Dear Goddess, please spare me. I’m sorry for stealing. I’ll return your flute. I swear it. Please. I beg you. Stop with the snakes. Please. PLEASE. I didn’t survive a massacre to die like this. 

Prayers raced through Aria’s mind as the massive creature gained on them. Abruptly, hands swung her down, dropping her onto the sifting sand. Prone on her stomach, she watched in disbelief as the Warrior went racing back toward the lagging Hero and Cleric. Insanity.

Rolling over, Aria struggled to stand as the ground shifted under her. The snake’s movements were causing the sand to roll like waves, the ripples even reaching her. Stumbling, she spun around, determined to find a hiding place until all this was over. She was not feeding herself to a monster. If she had to get eaten, she wasn't going to deliver herself to the beast. 

Aria wasn't allowed to hide though. The Mage stood ahead of her, arms stretched before him as a crackling ball of lighting formed in front of his palms. He may have roasted a goblin with it, but there was no way that spell could take down the snake behind her. He must be buying time. Aria turned to watch the sparking ball hurtle by her, detonating against the snake’s scales in a shower of gold and a deafening crash. Black spots danced across her eyes, but she could make out the forms of the Hero and Warrior racing towards her, the Cleric slung between them like a potato sack. 

“Move,” snapped the Mage, already running up the embankment towards a nearby dune. 

Aria didn’t need to be told twice. Watching the ripples, she matched her pace to the heaving sand and soon crouched by the Mage behind the dune. Huffing and puffing, the rest of the Hero’s Party soon joined them. 

“We can’t –,” wheezed the Hero as he dropped the Cleric, “look it in the eyes.”

Aria blinked. What is he on about? She glanced at the Warrior. He came from a people renowned for their demon slaying. Surely he knew something about the monster.

The Warrior frowned, “Why?” 

Or maybe he doesn’t…

“It’s a —.” A hiss drowned out the Hero’s reply.

The Warrior shook his head. “It’s a demonized mulga based on the scales. Its venom and size are the greatest dangers.”

“But—.”

The Mage cut the Hero off. “Why is it so big?”

The Warrior peered around the dune, eyes trailing over the snake. It steadily moved forward, stopped, changed direction, and then started again. His brow furrowed as he watched the movements. Something… was off. “It’s old. Very old. It must have been sleeping underground until something woke it up.” He turned to Aria, glancing down at the flute peeking out of her robes. 

Oh… Aria looked back at the Party members sheepishly. 

The Mage tutted, reaching up to pat something by his collar. A flash of golden scales peaked out before Aria glanced away toward the Hero. He rolled his eyes. Beside him the Cleric frowned, hands patting around his belt and inner robes. He glared at Aria, finally realizing that she had stolen the flute back. She glared right back. The flute was hers. Besides, how was she supposed to know her attempt to purify a snake spirit would awaken a demonic snake? Wait. It’s demonic. 

Her brown eyes narrowed at the Cleric’s green ones. “Can you purify it?”

The rest of the Party peered at the Cleric, skepticism written clearly on all three faces. It wasn’t a question of whether the Cleric could do it. It was whether he would die. 

He sighed and rubbed his chest. “No.” 

Aria took a deep breath. He had kidnapped her. Dragged her to this Goddess forsaken Peninsula. Claimed she was— No, it doesn’t matter. No matter how angry Aria was, she didn’t want the Cleric to die. He’s annoying. Weak. Pathetic. Sick…  

Ten years. She had managed to get by for ten years without watching anyone she knew die. She wasn’t going to start now. Especially not with him. Not with someone she had known for those ten years. Not with the one who had held her sobbing self, a stranger then, as they burned her family’s pyre. 

She sighed and stood up. “If the flute woke it up, would it be able to purify it? Or would I just make it angrier?”

“It’s hungry,” corrected the Mage. He indicated his collar, “This little one says all the hissing is about food.”

The Cleric shrugged, “Maybe the flute could.” He paused, a look of absolute mockery on his face. “But we’ll never know, will we? You can’t play it after all.”

“Eh?” Exclaimed the Mage.“You stole from the Goddess when you can’t even play it properly?” His whispered words were almost cut off as the Hero doubled over, holding in laughter. Even the Warrior was looking up to the Stars as if in prayer. 

“I played it last night!” Aria snapped defensively. 

“Hmmm, and see where that got us,” chortled the Hero. He was wiping tears from his eyes. Ass. 

“It doesn’t need to be purified.” They all turned to the Warrior in shock. He ignored them, still watching the snake. It kept on moving forward slightly, stopping, then flicking its tongue. “Snakes use their tongues to scent prey. We reek of goblin, but it still can’t find us. If we’re careful, we can sneak around it.”

“If it can’t find us, why can’t you guys just kill it?” Aria asked. They’re the Hero’s Party. How can they defeat the Demon Lord if they can’t even fight a giant, impaired snake?

The Cleric stared at her. “Aria, it’s bigger than the temple.”

She shrugged. 

The Mage just shook his head at her and stood. “Which way?”

The Warrior pointed back the way they had come the day before and a bit to the right. We need cover.” Dunes covered the expanse ahead of them. A few dried out trees stuck out in patches. “No talking. No sudden movements. Move quietly.”

“And you’re sure we won’t turn to stone if we meet its eyes?” muttered the Hero.

The Warrior gave him a long look before nodding. 

***

The Warrior led the way, followed by the Cleric. The Hero moved in the center of the line up with Aria hard on his heels. The Mage brought up the rear. None of them made a sound. The Warrior raised a hand if they had to stop or turn. They did not run. Their pace was set to a slow yet steady plod in the hopes that it would not attract the demon’s attention. Every hiss sent a shiver up Aria’s spine, her lips uttering silent prayers to the Goddess. Up ahead she could see the Cleric doing the same, sending glances to the Stars. 

They kept on going, not stopping even long after the demon was out of sight and the sun had sunken into darkness. The Hero was the first to pull out his ration of jerky, chewing as he walked, right hand resting on the pommel of his blade. Soon after, the Mage conjured bubbles of water for everyone. 

Aria sipped at her bubble, but held off on eating. She didn’t want much in her stomach in case she got hauled around once more. She was sure that if she lifted her tunic she would find red bruises painting her skin. While it had been years since she had been covered in bruises, there had been a time at the temple during which she had been all the shades of the rainbow. Until the old coot found out. Aria smiled, recalling the High Priest’s chagrin upon learning of her almost daily tussles with the capital’s street rats. He had slathered her child self in balms and dragged her to the temple observatory. 

The stars had twinkled down on them as he listened to how the priests had long given up on stopping her fights. Her rage was a skin she wore and painted onto any who neared her. He had watched her calmly before asking if she knew how souls were made. She had stared at him in disbelief. Who could live at the temple for months without hearing of how Diameer had forged the human soul? She would have had to be deaf, dumb, and blind to not know. The temple’s windows and walls were covered in depictions of Diameer, his forge, the Goddess, and the countless spinning souls she eventually washed in the River. The priests and acolytes often brought up how grateful they were all supposed to be toward the Stars for their existence. 

Aria cursed them all. If the Stars were so great why were her parents dead? Why had the demons torn through her village, filling the air with ash and screams of lives lost? 

She had been a good girl. It’s why she was still alive. 

It had rained the night prior. Her mother had refused breakfast, one hand covering her mouth, the other rubbing gentle circles into her rounded belly. Her father was off to work at the forge. Aria had snuck out, venturing deep into the woods on a hunt for dandelions. She had overheard that the roots could be boiled into a tea that helped with nausea. She had smiled and raced through the forest eager to make her mother and future sibling feel better. 

The silence of the forest had been the first sign something was wrong. The scent of smoke was the next. The wind had blown it her way, not that she had recognized it at the time. What did a seven-year-old know afterall? 

Then came the roars.

Then the screams. 

Little Aria had started making her way home when she experienced terror for the first time. The air in her lungs turned to stone. Her heart raced as if telling her legs to join it in an endeavor to get as far away from the source of those sounds as possible. 

She didn’t move. Not for a long time. Not till the screams stopped, and the scent of blood mixed with the smoke. It was only then that she became aware of the liquid drying to her legs and the damp patches on her dress. 

With measured breaths she had climbed a tree, her father’s voice whispering encouragement while her mother’s scolding echoed not far behind. She had curled up on a thick branch and stared at the star filled sky till darkness took her. 

She had awoken to silence. Only her breath and footfalls could be heard in the forest as she had made her way home. 

And so the temple had found her later that day. A young girl sitting in carnage as tears rolled down her soot stained face, singing the souls of all she had known to the Stars.