In The House Of The Succubus

Preparations | Chapter 8

Only one day left until Iria Bahamoth's visit at the Vandela Mansion. The slaves and servants of the house were already preparing the dinner tables in the gardens and even began to cook the food for tomorrow.

Fii was assigned to the kitchen while Sevara helped decorate the gardens.
Ever since yesterday, when Viridia made Fii her personal slave, she has become more and more anxious.

Even as Viridia's personal slave she had to work like before and she stayed in Sevara's room, but now she had to fear Viridia's visits all around the clock.

Due to this she had problems focusing on her work and that bought her more than just one ranting from Ravla in the kitchen.

"Listen, you're utter garbage! We're preparing a feast for the queen of demons! I can't have someone like you ruining all the food in here. Everyone else is dumb enough as it is! Please leave the kitchen now!" Ravla shouted once he had enough.

After informing Jill about it Fii was reassigned to the scullery where she also caused a total mess and so she was sent to Jill again right afterwards.

"What to do with you..." Jill wondered, "You could help with the preparations outside... But you're known for your escape attempts and you've already escaped from the gardens once before... Hmm..."

"I promise I won't try to escape, just please put me in the gardens with Sevara!" Fii begged.

"No, I won't. I don't trust you enough. I can't just send you to your room though... I guess the prisoners need feeding. I can send you down there with one of the servants."

"I-I see..."

It was decided and Jill ordered one of the servants to come in. Just a minute later a man in dark red leather armour reminiscent of an adventurer entered the room. He had short brown hair and an eye-patch to cover up his missing right eye.

"This is Hannibal. He's the one responsible for the dungeon and its prisoners. I advise you to listen to everything he says."

"I understand..." Fii said and left for the dungeons with Hannibal.

Fii was nervous. She had problems trusting people she didn't know and that was especially hard with someone as intimidating as Hannibal. Luckily he was the one to start the conversation.

"So you're that harpy I've heard so much about. You've got guts trying to escape twice."

"Huh...?"

"Not the talkative one, are you? You don't have to be afraid of me. I don't bite. Not as much as the creatures that are locked in this dungeon, at least," Hannibal claimed, "I've heard you like being together with Sevara. Something about that Naga that caught your eye?"

"W-what do you mean?"

"I'm asking if you got feelings for her. There are a lot of rumours about you two going around in the mansion. I've never been the gullible type, but I want to know if there is some truth behind it all. So are you two together?"

"N-no! We're not that close! It's just... She's the only person I really trust..." Fii replied before they stopped in front of the dungeon entrance.

An eerie, cold white mist was flowing up the stairs. Hannibal crouched down and put his hand into the mist. A fine layer of ice now covered his fingers.

"The bandersnatch... I hope he's only hungry," Hannibal said and they continued down the stairs.

The entire floor of the dungeon was covered in a cold white mist, which was slowly creeping up the walls.
The water, which previously filled the gaps of the stone ground, was frozen solid and the carcasses of dead rats which froze to death were lying all over the floor.

Hannibal sighed in relieve when they arrived at the prison-cells of the chimera and the bandersnatch. They were both still in their prison-cells.

The chimera was freezing and was greatly uncomfortable in the cold air without any clothes. The bandersnatch on the other hand sat against the wall of his prison-cell like a drunk person. His torn mouth was wide open and the white mist was gushing out of it almost like a liquid.

"What is he doing?" Fii wondered as she stepped closer to the bars of the bandersnatch's prison-cell, but before she could get close she was stopped by Hannibal.

"Don't go near his cell. He's hungry. The bandersnatch will release a freezing cold substance when he's hunting to wear down his prey. That wouldn't be much of a problem, but that substance can destroy the bars of his cell if it gets too cold," Hannibal explained.

"What!? The bars get destroyed!?"

"Only if we don't feed him and it gets too cold. That's why we can't just starve him to death. And getting him out of the cell to face execution is too dangerous."

"Why would he need to be executed?" Fii wondered.

"The bandersnatch is a cold blooded killer. The faster you kill it the better. But the problem is: How are you supposed to do that? That's why mistress Vandela keeps him in here and hopes that he will die of boredom or old age," Hannibal said and threw a cow leg into the bandersnatch's prison.

The hollow eyes of the bandersnatch immediately lit up and he lunged at the cow leg like a monster. He ripped it apart with his claws and devoured every piece of it, tearing out massive chunks of meat with his brutal teeth. Fii had never seen such brutality, even if he was only eating a cow leg.

There was no feeding frenzy she could compare the bandersnatch's behavior with. Even piranhas are more civilised. In the end there wasn't even a bone left of the cow leg.

The bandersnatch licked the blood from his claws with his three toothed tongues and proceeded to bite off his own spikes when they had just a drop of meat or blood on them. They regrew immediately afterwards.
Once he was done he returned to the far end of his prison-cell and sat down against the stone wall.

"What in the--"

"You see now why he's so dangerous? He can even grab you when you get to close to the bars, so stay away," Hannibal advised her, "And now to the chimera."

Even though the flow of the mist had stopped it still lingered in the air. The chimera was still freezing. Hannibal threw a piece of meat into the prison-cell, but the chimera remained on the ground, shuddering.

That's when Fii decided to run up stairs. When she returned she had a very large piece of cloth in her mouth.

"What's that?" Hannibal asked her.

"It's a piece of the curtains," Fii said after pushing part of the curtain into the chimera's cell.

The chimera noticed how close Fii was to the bars and rushed towards her. Her large hands couldn't fit through the bars, but her fingers did.
She grabbed Fii and tried to get her into her prison-cell.

Fii was screaming in terror and Hannibal drew his sword, but once the chimera noticed the cloth in her cell she let go of Fii and pulled the piece of cloth inside.

"Are you okay?" Hannibal asked the harpy.

"I-I am... That scared me. At least she got the cloth to keep herself warm."

"You're a strange one, Fii," Hannibal shook his head and sheathed his sword, "we'll feed the scylla next. After what happened just now I don't think I'll let you near the hatch or you might end up as squid food."

"O-okay."

After Hannibal had fed the scylla they left the dungeon and returned to Jill.
After thinking about where she should send Fii next, she ultimately decided that it was no use and sent her to the gardens to help with the preparations.