Dao 3 Chapter 17

Tami stopped running midafternoon, when they were well into the forest. “You doing okay?”

Dar leaned against a tree, panting. “Yeah.” He held one of the water skins in his hands, already tipping it back and taking a heavy swig. “I’m not exactly the long distance running type.”

“Couldn’t tell.” Tami smirked. Her sleek form was covered in a healthy sheen of sweat, but she didn’t even look tired.

“Let’s take a break.” He held out her water skin to her before he drank it all.

Tami looked at the waterskin and hefted it several times. “How is this staying full? Does water also come and go around you?”

Dar hadn’t even realized it, but the maids must have been refilling the waterskin every time it went back into his inner world. The thought made him grin.

She took a small sip, swishing it around in her mouth before swallowing. “In the woods, we better slow down, anyway. Wouldn’t want to risk tripping and ending up with an injured ankle out here.”

Dar looked at the leaf-covered ground. She was right. It would be easy to hide a hole or a root and lose their footing. And he wasn’t keen on continuing to run, anyway.

It wasn’t quite a break, but he could handle walking.

“Alright, let’s keep going.” Dar pushed off the tree, taking the water skin and pulling it into his inner world the moment Tami wasn’t looking.

She didn’t even blink when she realized it was gone.

“We’ll keep going through these woods for the afternoon. I’m guessing a little before night we’ll hit the ravine, but once we cross that, we are officially into the hills. At that point, we will start to see devils regularly.” Tami clarified their route.

Dar internalized what she’d said. It also meant that these woods were relatively safe. “So you’ve explained that your family works for Kindrake, but what do you get out of all of this?”

“What do I get?” she asked, confused.

“Yeah. Do you get paid? Is there some value in dao that your father provides in return?” Dar tried to understand more about his traveling companion.

Tami blinked at his question. It was like she’d never thought about it. “My family has money. I have plenty and am paid. But I… uh…” She struggled to put words to her answer.

Dar couldn’t believe it. “You have no idea why you keep doing this, do you? It’s just what you’ve always done. When did you start working for the Kindrake royalty?”

“When I was five.” She said, her eyes falling to the ground. “I’ve worked for my father and for the Kindrake royalty since I was five.”

Knowing that she would be far older than she looked, Dar asked the next obvious question. “And how old are you?”

“One hundred and sixteen.” Tami said.

He couldn’t help himself. He let out a slow whistle. “One hundred and eleven years working the same gig. To me, that sounds like you’re a masochist.”

“I am not a masochist.” She grumbled.

“No, of course not. At least not literally. It just sounds like torture to keep at the same job for that long, though I’m sure the complications of the royal family keep it interesting.” Dar couldn’t figure out how she wouldn’t be bored or wanting something more after a hundred years.

“Well, what have you done with your grand life?” She asked defensively.

Dar shrugged. “Helped those in need. Worked a large number of odd jobs, moved about. Then recently helped a hundred refugees settle in the woods and find their own purpose. You know, build something for ourselves.”

“I do plenty for myself.”

“Uh huh.” Dar made a noncommittal grunt. “I’m sure. When was the last time you just went away on a trip somewhere for fun?”

She stared at him like a deer in headlights. “For fun?”

“You know, go into the woods just to get away from it all, or maybe go find some nice beach and soak in the sun?”

He would have thought he had horns growing out of his head by the way she stared at him. “Never?”

“Damn shame. You aren’t living, just working.” Dar said. She might be a greater demon with three dao, but she wasn’t living. Not as far as Dar was concerned. “Maybe you should do that after we are done here. Just go away, get some time to yourself and think about what makes you happy.”

“What makes you happy?” She asked.

“Family.” Dar said without a moment’s hesitation. “My dao companions, and maybe one day my kids. If I didn’t have them, I’d go fishing.”

“Fishing? For food?” She asked, trying to understand what Dar meant.

“No, not really for food. I might save one and grill it up, but just to sit there and relax. I’d maybe have a drink by the water, listen to the calming sounds of nature, and just watch the world go by. Let the river and the wind rinse away my thoughts and let the ripples settle.” Dar thought back to his past, when he’d take a week off of work and go fishing with a six-pack and a fishing pole that didn’t quite work.

But it wasn’t actually about catching the fish. There was something about waiting that just made everything else wash away. He’d catch a few fish, but his line would often snag before he reeled it all the way in. He’d have to use it like a king pole to get the fish out.

“You are a very odd demon.” Tami said at last. “But I think maybe I’ll consider it. I am… tired.” She looked down and sagged. For the first time, it felt like Dar was getting a chance to see the real Tami.

She followed orders. All she did was stay with the herd and do as she was told. And she did that well. But as a result, she wasn’t really her own person when she was around those with authority. Here in the wild, Dar was starting to see inside that shell.

She was vulnerable and confused. Tami needed to figure out who she wanted to be.

“Sorry to hear that, Bambi. I think some time off on your own would do wonders. Just breathe and feel, don’t try to think. Let it all come to you.” He tried to offer what advice he could, but she’d have to do the heavy mental lifting herself.

“Bambi?” she asked.

“A cute deer from an endearing story where I come from.” He explained.

“I am not a deer.”

Dar poked the small rack of antlers coming out of her head. “You look like you came from reindeer.”

She tossed his hand with a jerk of her head. “I’m a demon, born a demon. My father was once a deer, but not me.”

Apparently, it was a sensitive topic.

Dar held up his hands in surrender. “I retract my statement about being a deer. Still, think Bambi is a great name.”

“Well, it isn’t my name.” She stomped her feet as she walked.

Dar smiled, pleased she was finally showing some more personality. “Fine. I’m just going to enjoy this walk through the woods.” Dar tangled his fingers together and rested them behind his head as he walked. “It is a nice crisp day on the edge of winter. I wonder if it’ll snow soon.” He chatted idly as they walked.

Tami stopped talking to him; he had a feeling after their discussion she had a few things she wanted to think about.

***

Dar and Tami continued their trek with ease until they crossed the ravine.

“We have already made good time. Do you want to stop here for the night?” Tami asked.

Dar looked at the hills looming ahead, and the sun hanging low in the sky. “I’m fine. Doing this in the dark might actually be best.” He knew that his dao of shadows would help him see through the night.

Dar could already see signs of combat past it into the hills. Small trees lay shattered on the ground, and bushes were more often trampled than healthy. It looked like both sides in the war between the two devil species were causing rampant destruction.

“From this point on, let’s try to stay hidden.” Dar drew on his dao of concealment.

But the second he did, Tami let out a shout and her eyes went wide. “That’s my dao.”

Dar paused, realizing she’d only given it to him a day ago. But too late to hide it. So he let a satisfied smile spread across his face. He could see the question in her eyes, but they didn’t have the time to go through it, and Dar still wasn’t positive how much information he was comfortable sharing with Tami. “Not now.”

“But…” Tami clearly wanted to talk. Apparently, she could ignore that things seemed to come and go, but that he had learned her dao in a day was just too much.

Dar continued forward, keeping himself in the shadows as best he could.

Gibbering of gremlins sounded in front of them, and he put a finger to his lips as they crept around the devils. The gremlins were all crouched around something, pulling flesh off of it and feasting. Dar wasn’t particularly interested in finding out what they were eating.

But as the sun crept lower, and the shadows extended, Dar realized his shadow was stretching almost all the way to the goblins. With a flick of thought, his shadow scythed through the weak devils, killing them instantly.

“I thought we wanted them to weaken each other.” Tami whispered.

“Sure, I won’t take all of them down. But I’m not going to miss an opportunity to kill a few if we have it without giving ourselves away.” Dar explained, creeping further through the hills. “And be quiet.”

The demon rolled her eyes but followed him as they wound their way around the hills rather than crest them. The top of the hills would have given him a full view of the area, but it also exposed him. Dar knew he was going deeper into devil territory than he ever had. Stealth was much more critical.

It didn’t take long before they walked past what looked like an intense battle between the two sides. Fresh corpses of trolls and mantis devils dotted the woods. Not wanting to pass up the opportunity, Dar deposited them into his inner world as they went.

He found it amusing to do it when her back was turned, but she’d clearly figured out he had some way to store everything he took.

“Why are you collecting them?” Tami asked. She didn’t seem disgusted, only curious.

“Denying the devils here any more food.” Dar told a half truth.

Taking these corpses would likely continue to restrict their food supply, but he suspected the devils had plenty of food. And if they ran short, they would just expand out for more food if needed, like the ettercaps.

These devils were voracious, and in most ecosystems, they were the apex predator.

Tami didn’t comment on his reasoning, staying low and peering through the darkness while he worked.

Buzzing filled the air, causing Dar to duck low next to Tami as he tried to make out what was coming through the darkness.

A troop of flying mantis devils flew through the air above them, like they were on some sort of scouting mission.

Wrapping his dao of concealment tightly around him, Dar waited for them to pass.

“They are more active than last time.” Tami commented as they started moving again.

“There wasn’t that sort of patrol before?”

“Not that I encountered. And I didn’t see graveyards like the battle scene we just passed. It looks like the fight has escalated in just the day since I was last here.”

Dar shrugged. It was in their plan for the devils to kill each other. “Fine by me.”

As they wrapped around yet another hill, the landscape opened up, and a deep depression nestled itself among the hills.

One look was all it took for Dar to realize that it was their target. Insect type devils moved in and out of a massive hole in the side of the hill; the place was a hive of activity.

“You didn’t tell me it was underground.” Dar hissed, his initial plan becoming much more complicated.

“I thought that was a given.” Tami replied dryly.

Dar shook his head, motioning for them to drop it. There was no use arguing about it at that point. He’d have to figure out what to do.

He called on his dao of granite, wondering if they might get lucky, but it was quiet. There might be some of the stone deep underground, but none was within his reach at the moment, blocking out any shortcuts.

A mantis poked its head out near Dar and Tami, startling the duo.

Tami’s sword flashed out, severing its head immediately. Dar then sucked its body into his inner world before it hit the ground and made a noise.

“Okay, we need to push into there if that is where the queen is?” Dar hoped he was wrong.

“It is, but she isn’t too deep underground.” Tami replied.

Dar smiled, glad for at least that bit of good news.

Leading the way, Dar wound around the hive until they reached the hill. Then they slipped around the edge of the opening, plunging themselves into near total darkness.

Reaching out with his dao of shadows, Dar could see perfectly in the darkness and probed along the walls, looking ahead.

It was all one enormous shadow, and his dao stretched far down here as it was all connected. So he used it to understand the structure of the hive.

The hive seemed to wind in a downward direction, with other passages splitting off as it went. But only one direction was as big as the entrance; Dar assumed that was the queen’s path through the hill.

Other weaker devils were working like drones, seeming to be tasked with expanding the hive and cutting it deeper into the earth. They each had a task, some carrying debris to the surface and some digging through the soil with clawed hands.

The mantis devils seemed primarily to be outside the hive, ranging the hills for more prey. Within the hive, Dar spotted large bulky beetle type devils roaming the passages, helping the drones move large stones.

Tami tapped his shoulder and urgently pointed down the main passage. He seconded her feelings of urgency. He did not want to get caught down in the hole with all the devils around them.

Stopping his scouting, Dar moved as she’d indicated, wrapping them both in shadowy darkness to avoid the eyes of these devils.

As they moved, Dar paused, pushing Tami into the side wall of the tunnel as a group of three beetles pushed out a large boulder that would have given them away.

As the beetles passed by, Dar was able to sense their dao. They were all greater devils.

Grabbing Tami’s hand, he pulled her deeper into the tunnels, winding down. With his dao of shadow, he was better equipped to lead them through the dark.

As they reached the center of the colony, they found a massive chamber, one that Dar was wary of probing with his shadows. While the other devils might not detect his use of dao, he had no idea how powerful this queen was and if she would be sensitive enough to feel his dao.

As they creeped closer, Dar spotted a pile that caught his interest.

Corpses were stacked on top of each other, like a food store in the middle of the colony. Several worker devils were next to it, pulling down a body and devouring it.

Dar thought about his options before making a decision. It was likely he would flee when they were done here. If he could do this quietly, he could take these for his dao tree now.

He pivoted to the chamber and unleashed his shadow dao once again, cutting the workers down before drawing them and the mound of corpses into his inner world.

Taking another step, he quickly scanned for any threat as a result of his actions. As he searched using his shadow dao, he realized that the room they were in was not the only one.

“What are you doing?” Tami hissed from her location, crouched at the entrance. Another dead drone was at her feet. “We need to get in and get this done before we are noticed. I didn’t sign up to become bug food.”

“Calm down.” Dar finished and came back over to pick up the drone she’d killed. “They haven’t noticed us yet.”

“Yet.” She emphasized. “They will realize something is wrong.”

Dar thought she was giving the devils more credit than they deserved. So far, he hadn’t found one that was intelligent enough to rub two brain cells together if it wasn’t about killing and eating. He figured the creatures operated largely on instincts.

“Let’s keep going.” Dar moved towards another of the food stores, but Tami grabbed his arm.

“This way.”

Dar was going to object, but then he felt a beetle devil shift towards them.

He pulled her close and clamped his hand over her mouth. She was shocked and about to fight back, but then realization dawned on her and she froze.

The beetle devil wandered their way. It was a large creature, another head taller than Dar, even when it wasn’t standing up straight.

Its body was supported by two sets of legs, either for heavy work or for stability given their large, shelled backs.

Dar had no doubt that thing could wrestle a troll, and he wondered if their chitinous back would open up into a pair of wings.

On the back of the devil’s head was the start of a large barbed horn that wrapped around to protrude where its nose should have been. It chittered as it probed the food store entrance.

Dar was close enough to see the sharp chitinous fangs in front of its mouth.

The devil checked the food store, pausing in confusion and looking around. The moment it realized that everything was missing, it screeched.

Acting quickly as it opened its mouth, Dar wrapped the room in shadows and used the dao of quiet to prevent its warning cry from getting out of the chamber.

Dar tried to silence it completely, using his dao of shadow to stab at the devil, but its thick armor made the shadow bounce off its side.

Tami tried to back him up, using her speed to reach the devil quickly. Unfortunately, her sword had the same effect as the shadows. The devil’s armor was strong.

Dar had avoided pulling out his weapons in front of Tami, but they didn’t have time to be indecisive.

Pulling The Black Knight’s ax from his inner world, Dar charged the creature. Swinging in a high, overhand arc, he chopped at the beetle.

Even with the unnaturally sharp blade, Dar’s weapon only buried itself a foot into the creature.

The beetle jumped back at Dar’s attack, its back exploding in a flurry of wings. The devil shot back forward with a speed that surprised Dar.

Dar barely managed to grab the horn before it gored him, wrestling with the beetle to keep its sharp mouth away from him.

“Tami, use the ax.” Dar had dropped it to hold on to the beetle.

The deer demon was there in an instant. She grabbed it and jerked, but it didn’t move. “What is this made of?”

The beetle tried to throw him to the side and nearly succeeded.

He didn’t have time for this. “You can do it.” He encouraged her.

Veins popped out of Tami’s arms as she raised the pitch black ax high into the air before hammering it down on the beetle’s back.

The devil squirmed and tried to roll away from Dar to deal with Tami, but Dar held its horn tight, preventing it from moving.

The first few hacks, the beetle, grew more and more agitated, but soon it slowed down with each swing. It died slowly as Tami whacked it to death, severing it in half.

“Can we finish this up now?” She huffed, leaning on the ax.

Dar took his ax back from her and sucked it and the beetle into his inner world. “Yeah. Let’s get out of here. That thing… was too dangerous.”

“That was too fucking close.” Tami gave him a small glare, clearly blaming him as she picked her sword up off the ground and sank it into the sheath at her hip. “Let’s get this done.”