The Pleasures of Hell

Chapter 01.009

~~Day 21~~

~~David~~

"Oh, I get it." He pushed the spike to the side, and it did bend, barely, right at the skin. "It's not hard all the way through. I figured it'd be like your horns."

Caera shook her head, and sighed as she relaxed on the ground, a long, sexy sigh. She was on her side, legs and arms out to the side, exactly like a cat would when lying down like that, in that completely relaxed way. It was adorable. It almost made him forget she looked like a big wingless dragon with a mostly human face, who just also happened to have a slightly feline body shape.

He pressed down on the hard skin and muscle between two of her back spikes with his elbow, and leaned into it, hard. At one point he had to get up and press all his weight down on the elbow, until the muscle underneath loosened. Caera outright moaned at one point, and her tail bounced against the ground, its tip wagging.

The spikes on her back had a decent amount of space between them, big as they were. And it surprised him how much he could bend where they connected to her spine, despite how hard the spikes were. It made sense. If the spikes were rigid at the connection point, all it'd take would be one bad fall or getting snagged on a rock or something and Caera might break her spine. But these had bend to them at the connection, like a really tough tree branch.

"Feel better?" he asked.

She nodded as she rolled back onto her hands and feet, stretched out classic cat style, and then rolled back onto her side, back spikes aimed at him once again.

"Yeap. More, please."

He laughed, and got to work.

The four of them still hid in their cave, and after a day of zero nearby activity, they felt a little more comfortable with relaxing. He still had his armor on, and even had his big sword he could barely use nearby, just in case. Unbroken, but still, better than nothing. Caera had taken off a few chunks of her armor, the black plates that covered her chest and bits of her back.

Talk of ancient languages, or saving Mia, killing Diogo and Tacitus, and killing Cainites, was all put on hold for a day or two to just sit around and recover.

Dao and Jes sat behind him about ten feet away, still in their armor save for the parts on their damaged limbs. The satyr's right arm and left leg weren't as swollen anymore, but she made effort to avoid moving them. Same for Jes's right ankle and wing. They said they needed another day before they could risk using those limbs, and another day after that before climbing any mountains. And another day after that again before they could risk fighting. A long time to heal by demon standards. They'd been bad breaks.

Which of course had them all thinking about one thing. A giant invisible monster hunting David.

"No signs of the monster yet," David said as he drilled his elbow between Caera's shoulders.

"Nope. Whatever it was, it went away when it realized it couldn't touch you, or even lift up a rock without it breaking apart. I'm guessing it wasn't easy for it to even... exist, or whatever it was doing, considering it didn't walk away. It just stopped being there."

"Agreed. Whatever it was, it went poof. I mean, even more poof than being invisible. Think it'll find me again?"

"It found you walking a random path in the mountains," Caera said. "So, maybe. But you were out in the open where anyone could see you, too. If I had to guess, hiding in a hole like this will keep you safe for a while."

"A guess," Jes said, with a quiet slap of her tail on the floor. "A big guess."

Dao clicked and chirped, and poked at Jes with her good arm.