“So here’s the thing,” the man slapped his lips together, a piece of food falling from them in, what Mouse could only assume, the most disgusting way possible. “Demons, see, don’t do that shit.”
Taiga’s foot tapped his, and drew Mouse’s eyes to him. Taiga pointed at his mouth, smiling. Ah. Mouse wiped his mouth, realizing it had contorted into a look some humans found insulting when directed towards them.
“Do what?” A younger man asked. He looked younger than himself or Taiga.
“Think.” The man tapped his temple with a thick finger. He belched a laugh before dropping a thick slab of lamb into his mouth. “They don’t think,” he slobbered the words and meat together in his mouth.
Mouse briefly made peace with angering Taiga by killing the man. But Taiga tapped his foot again, and stared at him. He knew. Mouse clicked his tongue, swallowing the fantasy and his disgust.
“Demons aren’t idiots,” Mouse barked instead to release some of the anger.
The corner of Taiga’s mouth curled. He approved of the addition to the conversation. Taiga continued the thought, “they can display some level of thought. They hunt together, communicate with each other, and can find the vulnerable target within a group.”
“So they’re the same as animals,” the man nodded lazily, “is what you’re sayin’.”
The woman who invited them to the meal, cleared her throat after gulping down a cup of juice. She was tall, well-built, and fierce on the field. The choice of juice surprised Mouse, but she winked at him, whispering how she went too far once while drunk and swore off the stuff since.
“No, he’s saying they’re not dumb.” She slammed her ceramic cup down with a ferocity differing from her tone, “But they ain’t ever been this smart, see, and that’s the problem.”
“I agree,” Taiga nodded, “banding together and attacking a city is beyond what they’re capable of. Has this happened before?”
The younger man thought for a moment. “Well, yeah. But also no. What I’ve seen before now was disorganized. The demons may fight together, but only independently. It was easy to pick them off one by one.”
“But these ones weren’t,” the man slurped another piece of meat into his mouth. Taiga sat diagonally from him, and Mouse sat on the other side of Taiga. Despite the distance though, the man grated on him. “They stayed in a tight circle, dragging prey in to share.”
“They also challenged,” Taiga added. Mouse thought back to the demon he’d killed. The one wielding fire.
And they couldn’t forget the demon issuing orders. “For a small demon, one seemed oddly in charge of the others.” Mouse sipped his mug of tea. His tongue recoiled at the bitterness. He grabbed the cup and spoon of sugar in the middle of the table, and dropped two spoonfuls in. He mixed it, tasting it every few moments to check its taste.
“Ahhh, the one with the four eyes?” Another mercenary sat down beside Mouse, nodding to the other mercs. Mouse scooted towards Taiga a bit.
“Four?” Mouse recalled only two on the thing, blue and glowing before it turned its head upside down.
The younger man nodded, “normal demons can’t flip their heads around like that. The ones that can have two more camouflaged eyes on the bottom of its head.”
“We’re not sure why. Our best guess is that those eyes see differently than the normal ones.” The woman added.
“And we’re sure those types of demons aren’t leaders of any sort?” Taiga considered the information, glancing around Mouse to the new guy.
Another woman, quieter and smaller than the other, shook her head. “We’ve seen them before. They act like all the others.”
Taiga sighed, “So let me get this straight. The demons usually act as animals, for simplicity’s sake. But now they’re showing a higher range of intelligence, with some even showing leadership, even as minor demons.”
A few nods, and he continued, “They’re taking on greater risks, even attacking a larger town. They’re using militaristic strategies and formations to increase their chances of success and damage output.”
“Milita-what? The man blinked, glancing from Taiga, to the buffer woman, to the younger man.
Taiga ignored him, “And do we know why? Or have any theories at all that could substantiate such changes?”
“Subst-what?” The man murmured the question this time, grabbing another piece of meat and nibbling on it when no one answered.
“You mean what can cause such changes?” The man beside Mouse thought about it, before replying, “Well, the last few months, there’s been a large uptick in demon sightings.”
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
“Months?” Mouse turned to him, “we heard there’s been more for a few years now.”
The quieter woman nodded, “Well, that’s true. The last few years there’s been more occurrences. But in the last few months, the number of incidents related to demons has increased a lot.”
“That’s why there weren’t as many mercenaries in town to take care of the attack yesterday. A lot of us were commissioned to other towns or are handling requests for help.” The younger man scooped rice into his mouth.
“So,” Mouse thought on it before speaking further. “The demons attacked the city when a majority of the fighting force wasn’t here to defend it?”
The younger man considered, and nodded, “well, yeah.”
“And you don’t think,” Taiga’s tone turned solemn, “that was by design?”
A few of the mercenaries laughed, “they’re still just demons, you know.”
Mouse thought back to the demon with fire, and how they knew to use it against Taiga. They learned too fast to consider it simply as a coincidence. He opened his mouth to speak, but Taiga tapped his foot again and shook his head.
Mouse leaned over, “why not?”
“Because we’re not sure yet, and honestly that’s frightening. Look at them.” Taiga nodded to the mercenaries. The younger man and the man who sat beside Mouse chuckled nervously, their eyes full of unspoken concern. The quieter woman, too, only laughed when the two other mercenaries looked in her direction. “They’re aware. They just don’t want to be. So leave it alone.”
Mouse peered into his mug, swirling the tea a moment. Taiga was right, as always. He’d leave it be. He drank down the rest of the tea. Any further conversation from the mercenaries didn’t focus on the demons or the attack.
“Want to go now?” He murmured to Taiga, who nodded.
He excused them while Mouse rose, bringing his and Taiga’s cups to the dish bin near the kitchen. Taiga met him by the archway, and he waved at the mercenaries as they left. He was silent as they walked north, passing by a few makeshift tents setup from the day before’s attack.
“You sure you want to do this?” Mouse fell back a few steps, hoping it would make Taiga stop. It didn’t, and he kept up a few paces behind while Taiga nodded.
“They said it’s pretty bad.”
In the early morning, upon returning from the stables to check on and feed Sweet Bun, a woman dressed in the blues of medicine and doctors waited for them in the guildhall. The guild commissioner recognized Taiga and had called him over.
A man he’d saved during the demon attack had little time left. He was asleep when the doctor visited them, but Taiga agreed to visit him upon finishing their conversation with the mercenaries.
Mouse disagreed with the decision, but Taiga wouldn’t heed such complaints. So instead, he took to sulking behind him as they walked towards the gate. There, a larger tent stood amongst the rubble and chaos from yesterday.
Taiga led the way, ducking through the tent’s cloth flap. Upon entering, the stench of infected and burned flesh made Mouse’s nose wrinkle. Vomit and puss stopped his feet at the entrance. The cries and groans of agony swept over him.
A man on the cot closest to him had his leg near severed. A single flap of flesh secured the knee and below to him. His voice of crackled breaths begged the doctor hovering beside him to not take his leg from him. Without his leg, he could not return to the fields.
Taiga told Mouse to wait outside, his eyes unaffected by the scene around them. Mouse shook his head, “I’ll wait here.”
Swallowing nausea, not wanting to add to the stench already plastered to him, Mouse stepped to the side of the door flap to make way for a kid carrying a bowl of water and a cloth.
Taiga strode in, his eyes focused ahead and unwavering despite the cries around him. Third row from the end, he turned and slowed down. He approached the woman beside a cot, the same woman who found them that morning. They spoke for a moment, before she stepped back and let him pass.
The doctor’s eyes found Mouse, and she made her way over to him. He considered walking out to avoid dealing with her, but he stayed in case Taiga needed him. She wore a thin smile as she approached, one Mouse did not return.
“You don’t want to see him?” Her voice grated his nerves.
“I don’t know him,” he replied curtly.
She over exaggerated her nod. “He doesn’t have very long. An hour at most.”
“Hope less than that.”
She spun around to him, her eyes flashing predictable anger. “How could you say such a thing?”
He only glared back. “Because you’re a bitch who went and found the person who happened to save him in hopes at least someone would visit him before he died. And Taiga will stay beside him until he’s dead.”
“And what’s so wrong with—”
“Because he’ll stay by his side until he’s dead. Are you deaf?”
They stared each other down, Mouse flexing his hands to release the heat rising through him. She huffed, “There’s nothing wrong with making sure he has someone by his side as he dies.”
“You piece of shit. You only care about some guy who’s gonna drop dead any minute,” he watched her visibly redden and puff up her chest, “and not about the person you’ve asked to sit by the side of a dying man who will have to carry that with him for the rest of his life.”
She paused, and this time spoke a little more humbly, “no one forced him.”
“You did. By asking. You guilted him into staying beside a burned mercenary he hardly knows. What, did you want him to regret saving the damn guy?” He spat.
“You have no empathy—”
“I’m not the only one.”
Her hands shook as she squeezed them into fists. Then, she swung one out, pushing the door flap open, “get out.”
“No.” he shrugged, “someone needs to be here for him when he finishes. And considering you’re the one that made him go through it, I’d say you’re not exactly…” he thought on it a moment, “qualified.”
“You’re not welcome here,” she snapped.
“And?” He let out a laugh at her idiocy, “what are you going to do? I don’t think a single person in this whole damn town except Taiga can make me move. You certainly can’t.”
She swallowed, and walked out. She cursed under her breath until he was well out of earshot, which, of course, made him smile. At least he got to ruin someone’s day for Taiga’s sake. He waited until Taiga found him, only after the man passed.
