"YOU CAN MAKE SWORDS?"

Loosening her grip Thraah allowed Illia to get free and wriggle to the floor again. The question had an obvious answer to her, even if it was something of an abstraction and not very satisfying.

"UP!"

And up she went, using her freakishly long and boneless arms to reach and drag her up, giving her bursts of speed as she cackled loudly, warning those ahead to flee if they could but not before crashing herself hard against the cell of the screaming man, her body eclipsing the light from him, becoming all he could see for a brief moment of awful and dreadful reality.

"boo!"

And off she went, up and up along the spiral stairs to the next door she could find, which was battered open as she tumbled through like a massive, floppy tumbleweed unfurling in the room to find two women in armour who's eyes became saucers when they saw here. One threw up her lunch and Thraah smiled at the response.

"Are you going to finish that?"

She asked the other, pointing a tentacled finger at the mess on the wooden floor before slithering her other arm under the table and flipping it, sending plates, cards and unlit candles scattering into the air and along the floor and it was then she spied the door, it had to lead outside. It had to and they had to go now that the guards were stunned by the table flip and nausea.

"YOU'RE MISSING IT ILLY, BETTER GET UP HERE OR I'M GOING WITHOUT YOU!"
She didn't mean it but she was feeling herself. This was a wild moment, a chaotic moment that had her dancing on the knifes edge of behaviour but she needed Illy here to remind her or she might do something against the rules, break the game and ruin it.

@Illia
 

"Swords, and a few other things..."

The man lay lifeless on the floor. Not literally lifeless. But the way he flopped around when his cage was banged and lay face down there afterwards gave Illia a little fright.

In slight awe she hurried after the little demon, completely forgetting her act as the other absolutely wreaked terror upon the humans before them-- and Lia’s first reaction was pity. Pity for the way they wretched and shivered and cowered… but then she remembered, hold on a second, they were the enemy. They were the captors. Behind the others chaotic new form she tried not to let the others mischief infect her, and failed with the slightest of wry smiles upon her face. The woman would join in in the others madness in her own little way, picking things up and throwing them (gently) around, looking to the other for guidance in how to be unhinged-- It was mostly new, but it was also sort of… fun?

Was it fun to be a little… bad?

All good things come to an end, though.

“Do not fret, I am coming!”

The beast chirped as she dainty skipped after the other, unable to recognise whether or not the other was fully in control. The moment they opened that door however, the light of the dying day flooded in in shades of a pink sunset, illuminating the silver of the back-up crew who had stationed themselves just a few feet away… five guards, they stood shoulder to shoulder, quivering pikes raised, eyes feverish. This was it. This was the entire rest of the guard in the town, and behind them, allllll those delicious food stalls were either abandoned, or had their owners cowering underneath. The crowds were gone.

“D-Devil!” One called, poking at the air with his weapon uselessly. “G-Give up!!”

“You c-cannot best us, YAH!!”

With the thrust of his hand he threw some sort of… sigil at them. A little vague six-pointed star of woven branches that had one been red with blood, white flowers entwined into the gaps. An… anti-demon charm made in the belief of some old God who did not matter, and Illia, who had seen her fair share of sigils, did her best not to let out a breath of laughter.

“You better run,” She coo’d, peering out from behind Thraah’s monstrous form, “She is going to split you open and use your innards for soup. She’s going to drag your decapitated heads back to your homes to show your families, and then use your bones to trap your soul in the demon world.”

“L-Lies!! We will kill you too, familiar!!”

Illia pulled a very subtle pout at the idea that she was a ‘familiar’.
 
Sweet sweet light and the freedom it belonged to.

It was exhilarating and in her form she exited the door as soon as possible with a mighty SHLORP like an octopus moving through a keyhole.

The sight before her made her smile.

One, two, a whole bunch of targets in armour to play with. To throw and hit and beat and frighten. Illy, a shadow of white and green beneath her was adorable in her monstrous eyes, she really was trying to be scary.

*Demon world*? Thraah did not think such a place existed but she did not mention that, had to not break character.

"HEY! THAT'S MY FAMILIAR YOU CRETIN!"
As Thraah spoke she spat tongues of fire from her mouth and when her long noodle arms snapped like a whip they discharged sparks of lightning.

One of the guards peed himself and at that moment Thraah lurched forward and snatched the useless sigil and devoured it whole, snapping the twigs in her sharp teeth!

"RUUUUUUUUUN!!!!"

They ran, everyone ran as she cackled and spat gouts of fire to hurry them on, maybe singed a few pantaloons but that was probably fine, they deserved it for locking up a unicorn... and a demon.

Thraah laughed as they went, crying out and falling over themselves. So big was her merriment that it made her sides hurt and she wrapped her wobbly arms about her waist many times, falling back in a writhing mass of mirth.

"This... was the... best idea!"
She made out through fits and tears. Her face blooming a purple green from her cheeks as she looked up at Illia from the ground.

@Illia
 

They ran, all right.

Without any sort of grace or sense about them the men scrambled like insects fleeing a hand that had lifted their rock, clutching at their asses in terror. The threats they called back were empty, howls of ‘getting back-up’... from where, exactly? This village was in the middle of nowhere, help was a day away, and it wasn’t like the common folk were going to rise up and take on a demon, of all things. They feared her. If she could break a sigil that easily, then their homes were in danger; and so home they scrambled to chant their prayers behind locked doors.

The last person to leave was the village priest, who had emerged from the crowd running in the other direction to hold a different kind of sigil (though, as equally meaningless as the first) in the air with furious, nonsensical chanting falling from his lips-- but nothing happened. The moment he realized he standing there alone in front of a literal monster, he too fled awkwardly in a mess of hurried, echoing footsteps.

“... We did it!”

And just like that, the two were alone. In a faire, banners flapping in the wind, rows of stalls with freshly baked goods. To Lia, honestly, it looked a little like heaven.

“Not a single person harmed!” Came the squeak of the little ‘familiar’, who jumped a single time up and down upon the ground and then struggled to find a way to express happiness in a human form. What did people do? Did they pump their fists up and down in triumph, did they sing songs of victory, or did they dance…? As she peered down with a contented smile upon her face at the writhing mass of laughing fiend, a thought struck her like a lightning bolt. If Illia was the familiar of a demon, even if anyone were to see her, they would think whatever form she was in to be something conjured by Thraah herself. Something not real.

Like the fiend herself… she didn’t have to hide.

She didn’t have to hide!!

All at once-- in the blink of an eye-- Thraah is suddenly being circled by a large white beast with a curling tail and clip-clopping echoing in her ears as an entire Unicorn begins prancing laps about her, stopping occasionally to rear or to hop like an over-joyed foal. The yin to the demon’s yang, silver hooves sparkled in the sunsets glow, trailing glistening white behind them as the curls of her fur rolled like the gently-lapping sea. To Thraah’s lack of cohesion she was curves and straight lines and a white silhouette that moved with an unpractised yet entirely natural grace.

“And their bums were ablaze!” The creature whinnied in a manner that sounded like bird-song, tossing her glowing mane about gleaming shoulders, “Talking in tongues, oh, silly, single-minded humans…! They left us their entire celebration, and it is not even stealing, because they abandoned it!”

Yet, all the majesty her form provided her vanished when she veered to Thraah’s immediate left and stuffed her entire nose into a pie. Tart berry and golden, sugared pastry... her tail snapped to-and-fro with reckless excitement.

“The abandonment makes it taste even better than it smells!” Spoken into the large tin that she wore upon her snout as Lia tried to lick all the jam away.
 
Bright light hit her eyes which made her wince and after the adjustment Thraah saw Illia in her natural state, which was awe inspiring.
Contextually she knew what a unicorn was, it's a horse with a horn but she wasn't JUST that.

Thraah stopped laughing but continued to grin her wide monstrous grin as Illia celebrated in style. There was something about how she moved, it was like she was more real than anything else there. The whole bright colours and smells of the festival made mute and faded by the brilliance of her existence.

Compared to Thraah's chaotic form she was order and provoked wonder rather than terror but the image of her sinking her snout into the messy pie and watching the chunks drip from her horse chin broke the spell and sent the demon clamouring forwards to the same table and with a wide mouthed *SNAP* gorged herself on a whole roast chicken, bones and all.

It was not like Illya was going to eat it.

Gusto was not the word, ravenous gluttony was what she was currently embodying. Her large, long arms reached for more food, favouring the meat to draw it towards herself and before long she was smashing her maw into a small pile of poultry and fish.

"YU GNOW..."
Speaking between mouthfuls Thraah wiped her mouth with a long tendril.
"IB BOES TASTE BEVER!"

The smile she wore was gloriously toothy as she let out a gleeful noise of satisfaction.

@Illia
 

The young unicorn birthed an idea the moment she saw the other devour the chicken; was it the excitement of a heist gone right…? Was it the acceptance of something, someone else that saw her for what she was, and did not immediately seek to kill her? Was it the warm sun about her fur as she found herself surrounded by delights…? It was all three that made the mare want to dance about in an expression of happiness, but the spirit of mischief had not yet dimmed. She briefly fled the gorging other with a hurried ‘wait here’ to hurry down the lane where her nose had smelt something most foul-- the stench had hit her in the same second the fresh air had, but fifteen minutes before. Something like death turned over, distasteful and unsanctimonious, but despite the repulsion she took it up between her teeth and began to drag the object towards Thraah with the same grace that she always carried herself with.

“Here. Do you like… things like this?”

Oh, Illia. That was the villages winter stores, their smokehouse, their reserves.

Dropped to Thraahs feet like a dog retrieving a bone was an entire smoked hog. It’s massive size complimented its gently salted skin, heavy with fat and tinged by the low-kept fires. Of course how could she know humans kept these things for winter-time, when harvests could not grow? The unicorn wiggled on the spot excitedly, puppyish, the spirit of kindness spurred her little ‘present’ because without Thraah, Lia knew she’d still be in that cage for as long as they wanted to keep her there.

“I… wanted to say thank you, for helping me escape.” A tipping of her head, curls tumbling over curls. “I did not think I had the capacity to… act out of accordance with how I am expected to act at home. I am supposed to be dutiful and kind and lawful, but I have discovered through you that it is amusing to just be… free. And act free. And to do what I want… rather than what is expected of me.”

The creatures voice was touched by a bit of shyness and awkwardness; words she had never had to say before. Things she had never thought before. And of all the things to proclaim this to, it was something so hated by everyone else… someone she thought she had to hate. But she didn’t.

“I think I have learnt that you cannot judge a being solely by its species… I think you’re a good demon, Thraah.” So pleasantly uttered as the fiend herself gorged upon the villages treasures. As she herself tried to look regal and sincere and pleasant in the moment, but somehow found herself immediately stuffing her face with the vegetables adjacent the others meat stall the moment the words left her mouth!
 
It was a bit strange.
Thraah found her emotional state drifting somewhere between "grateful" and "affronted".
The salted pig beast was soooooo good looking and the smell, it was like a tickle in the back of her nose that pulled her downwards to it. Her mouth opened with a slow anticipation and she let the globs of drool within land on the salted skin of the offering.

"You think I'm, good?"
In her life, which Thraah had never bothered to measure in years, she had been called all manner of things.
Monster mostly but also other things like hellspawn, bitch, little rat, horrid thing and the like.

"Good" was not a word she was used to, other than being told she did a good job of causing destruction.
Her spiked heart ruptured and bled into her chest a bit while in her malformed brain a spark of lightning made a whole and unexpected connection between thing.

"Is this how good demons get to eat?"
The prospect delighted her, good food and all she had to do was break people out of prison and scare the locals? Easy pickings.
She dove to the ground, tearing into the pig carcass in loud gobbles. Her tentacles flailing in chaotic delight as she gorged herself before raising her head and declaring.

"You're the best Illy!"

Then continued with her sloppy feast in gratitude.

@Illia
 

“I think anyone has the capacity to be good--”

As the other devolved into a horrible mess of shapes and blurred body parts, Illia took a step back to avoid catching any of the salty pigs juices upon her. She wanted to say that it was easy to be ‘bad’. It took less caring and less effort, but such a thing stated to someone who prided herself on being ‘bad’ after being called ‘good’ seemed to be a confusing mish-mash of words and moral coding that she doubted Thraah cared for.

The equine picked up a bag, a horrid thing made of animal leather that had been discarded on the floor, and then awkwardly with her mouth began to stuff it with as many vegetables as she could navigate without actual hands before shoving her huge head through the loop; it hung like a necklace. A delicious one. Snacks made journeys easier.

“... I may be quite excellent.” Spoken with that trademark Unicorn pride, two hooves stopped lightly upon the ground in quick succession. “... Where will you go now? Sooner or later, the humans will return.”
 
It was her curse, perhaps the curse of all her kind few that there were, that Thraah had foolishly believed that the fun would last forever.
It was always like this for her.
The excitement filled her like a sheep bladder with wine and then emptied quickly due to realities sharp puncture.

"Go?"
It took her a minute to catch up, to realise what Illia was speaking of, the moment hurt in her chest.
Her sharp slit eyes looked about as if she did not understand but it was a faux moment, a lingering echo of confusion. It was too late and she had to admit it.

"I didn't..."
*I didn't think that far ahead.*
"I thought..."
*I thought we'd stay together.*

Slowly she slunk upwards from the ground, her prize forgotten, shoulders slumped and long arms limp. It took a lot from her to not quiver, demon's weren't supposed to be scared of anything. They weren't supposed to feel bad, all the stories said so.

"What if..."
The many voices were extra discordant now and her tentacled "hair" jumped at her own words when she spoke.
"... what if I..."
Almost there, she just had to force it out, below her, on the ground her noodle arms wrapped and coiled about each other.
"... What if I went with you?"

As soon as she had spoken she held her breath. Taking things was easy, she just had to ignore others and get it but she had learned through trial and error that "asking" was dangerous. It gave others the ability to say no.
Thraah hated being said no to.
Still, she asked.
She asked because she was finding she liked Illia and she suspected that Illia liked her too and to a demon that was a rare and precious thing she did not want to let go of just yet.

@Illia
 

The assumption did not need to be said aloud; it was written upon Thraah’s face, like clouds rolling in to dull the sunshine of the moment. Lithe ears lowered upon her head as Lia drew closer to the other gently. The other was uttering words with emotion somehow stronger than her roaring of glee before, and it cut right down to the bone--

How could it be so…?

Could Thraah run like the wind for miles upon miles on end without stopping? Could she scale the face of the cliffs with bounds and leaps? Would she dance the hunters in circles, and cast fair judgement when the moment called upon her to do so? Even if she could, should she be saddled with the task that the Unicorn wished to fulfil...? Illia’s cyan eyes, like jewels upon her face, searched the ground for an answer… but no such thing came to her.

“... If only it were so simple.” Came a heavy sigh, tail curling over itself in a sombre loop. “It is not that I am going somewhere where you cannot follow; it is not that I doubt you would keep pace, or defend yourself in danger. It is simply that I am on a quest by birthright, one that sees me fleeing across the land day by day by day… and I do not think that is the sort of life anyone else should be subjected to. It is not the life of a two-legged.”

Weather. Danger. Forever moving was the life of the beast, the crawlers and sprinters and fliers. They toiled and triumphed whatever condition, the mud that sought to drown, the snow that sought to snap off limbs, the sun that burned on high; and for those who were not born beast, nature was not their solitude. Lia raised her head and leant it gently upon the oh-so-wicked one’s shoulders, locks of white mane blanketing the others skull as she whispered, as if sharing a secret,

“You find somewhere, and you make it your home; somewhere warm and afar from men, somewhere where you feel like you belong, and I swear by my horn, as your friend, I will find you.”
 
Up her long arms went and draped about the long, strong neck of Illia as she buried her head in the soft mane, let the thick ugly tendrils of her own mix gently with them and caress her long face.

Her hold wasn't strong, it was just there to help her remember that Illia was real, that she didn't make her up or that this wasn't some awful dream. She was her friend, she said so and friends don't lie the stories said that too.

"I will, I'll find some place warm and far away from people and I'll wait for you there."
The voices were calmer now, almost singular and spoken hushed into Illia's ear with a gentle squeeze at the end.
"I promise!"
The word promise changed something in the air. Some unseen power quaked at its passing then moved on like a leaf carried by a strong wind.

Thraah meant what she said more than she ever meant anything ever before. More than any promise ever made for just as some creatures of magic are bound body and soul to their word and despite a demon having no such constraints she willed it into being anyway and made a contradiction of herself in its creation by defying her nature.
A demon of all things would keep its promise unto the breaking of the world and if need beyond even that. If in all the countless years they both had to follow she found that the stars themselves dimmed and the sun ceased to rise and even the dark itself faded to nothing she was going to wait for Illia in that place she called home though at the moment she did not know where that might be.

The eternity of their embrace had to end eventually and soon Thraah's arms slackened and she pulled her writhing head away, the tendrils still trailing strands of Illia's white mane as they parted, reluctant as she seemed to be to be apart from them.

"I know we only had the day."
It never mattered.
"... but I'll think of you and I'll not hurt anyone... unless they really get at me. I'll stay good. You'll see when you come find me again!"
Rattling a bit in deep emotion filled breaths Thraah felt a sting in her eyes. Not the pleasant kind from fire or venoms but the kind that happened before her face began to leak a thick green fluid. It formed at the corners even as she spoke and her long thick monstrous hands stretched up to rub it from her cat-like.

"Think of me too okay? Don't forget you promised!"

@Illia
 

It was felt, but not understood; words of power, for things that communicated primarily with them. Illia believed her. She would have done so even if the echoes of the whisper had not perked her feathered ears.

“... I know you will. There is nothing as changing as peace.”

Peace brought the unseen to light. It turned thoughts into action, it warped ones view on the world, it birthed comfort and pleasure and happiness, and there was no greater peace… than home. The return to the familiar, a space in the world where one could be wholly themselves without fear or judgement or persecution, and Lia’s heart often yearned for the peace of the willows and wildgrass; it was only her mind that spurred her onwards into the unknown of the world. But even a demon needed a home, not a cage, not a pyre, not a ritual, and not the stones of some thrown-afar town that would not weep for her demise. Illia’s eyes were kind as Thraah withdrew, the mare barely suppressing a knicker of amusement when it was revealed that the demons tendrils were now coated in long, silvery strands that stuck out like wild whiskers upon her head.

“A day to a beast like me is a moment… but to the moth, it is a lifetime. We measure not the meaning of a feeling in time, but in how long it lives within us.”

Illia spoke gently, for she had no way to wipe away the girl’s tears but with words. She did not feel the same sense of sadness, for Lia knew it was but a brief departure; how could a being be sad if the future looked so bright? Perhaps it was the way of the two-leggeds who did not think in absolutes but pondered upon the ‘maybes’ and ‘what-ifs’, but the Unicorn had no such anxiety. In all honesty, the equine was delighted; not only because of how the day had ended, but because she was happy for Thraah-- what windows of happiness could open for a demon that decided not to play the part the humans had handed them? For a demon who could show the other species that things were not just born and stuck ‘bad’, but that they belonged upon the earth just as much as they, in the natural order of things…? Illia gave an excited whinny, the sound like the trilling of birds as she lightly tapped her hooves upon the ground in a little dance,

“And you’ll show them they were wrong about you when you find your home, a home with a door big enough for me…!” The Unicorn sang with a head toss, hair catching the wind as she drove herself in a wide circle; “I will bring a picnic too, for my first two-legged friend…!”

The beast reared with her silver hooves moonlight, and a horse could not smile, but the emotion played about in her glittering eyes.

“Till next we meet, Thraah, the Good Demon…!”
 
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