Reincarnated into a Snow Griffin-Chapter 92

"Demons, like humans, tend to stick together, but there are many races beyond only the silly skin colors the humans use as a reference for themselves, which led to the many smaller clans of demons forming as well as the important major clans with their many branches and the most powerful species and riches: the Blood Drinking Demon Clan who the current Demon King belongs to at the moment, the Fallen Demon Clan, the royalty, or so they say, the Immoral Famish Demon Clan which belongs the deadly sin demons, a nasty bunch that lives up to the name of their clan and, the one important here and in question, the Ghost Demon Clan, the most strange and mysterious of the bunch, and the most troublesome to deal with too."

That is so much information that is hard to keep up. "There are so many here?" He nods and I stare at the fire for a moment, letting the information sink in.

"Indeed there are, and we had to find trouble with the most bothersome of the lot to deal with." He says and I force a yawn down.

"How so?"

He clicks his tongue, thinking, and as his gaze goes to stare at the wall he leans back onto me, and for a moment the weight of his warm body against my side makes me hold my breath.

"Oh, you are so soft." He says, out of the subject with a swift distraction, reaching out for the soft feathery fur of my belly, but before he can do that I smack him on the back of his head with my tail.

"Ouch, what was that for?"

"Don’t put your dirty hands on my fur." It takes a moment but he finally gets it, looking down at his hands stained with apple juice, and chuckling he takes a tissue out to clean them up.

"Oh, for a second I thought you meant another type of dirty..." That earns him a second whack on the head, but having such a fluffy full tail I doubt it is actually doing any damage at all, and still he would put his hand on his head in a dramatic way and exclaim ’ouch ouch ouch’ every time.

I start bouncing my tail up and down the floor, impatient with him stalling, and as much as he seems intrigued by such proximity with this form of mine, I did not expect that he would grab my moving tail and hold it on his lap.

"Y-you!" I start to complain but of course he chooses that moment to continue the very important subject and, as his hands only rest on top of my tail with the occasional scratch, and as fighting over it would make me lose an important explanation I see myself letting it go... for now.

"You had contact with the place I presume, the Ghost City." With his back on my belly he occasionally looks my way while talking, but mostly his face is turned to the flames and illuminated by the dancing shadows, making me end up staring at his sharp handsome face while he spoke. "From all the demons races and types, the Ghost Clan is the only one... made."

"You see, it is common knowledge now that a demon needs human heritage on the bloodline to pass over the barrier and done correctly can even enhance the power of the demon line on contrary of pure blooded believes, and there was a time were... sacrifices were made in search for answers. And while doing so you can imagine what a bunch of demons in a small space did; rage war against each other."

My tail twists on his hand as I think about it, and the island may be big and even have enough space for them all, but the mere thought of being imprisoned inside would have been enough to put everyone on edge, beyond being a prison for life as it would have been so for generations of demons to come, and that would be enough to drive people mad.

"Between the differences and prejudice, clans were made of similar behaving and looking demons, and as such their power grew to trample over the smaller clans, until only the major ones stood, and wanting control of the island they fought countless times."

"However, as it always seems to be the case, the birth of the next Demon Lord united them all, and you have to understand that is not politics we are talking, or a matter of bringing all together to fight a common enemy, no, demons work in a very rudimentary simplistic way, that the strongest of them all takes command."

... So the new Demon Lord just came and beat the shit out of everyone?

"The Demon Lord was very... convincing, but when he came to be there were years of fighting before him, and the region you saw was where most fighting happened, right at the central plain area of the island where all the clans converged... And that’s when things get tricky."

"In an attempt to bring all demons together not only by force but by getting rid of years of hate the Demon Lord decided to make a city right at the center of the island, on top of the strongest reminder of all the war, the graveyard of many generations of demons."

"With the lost knowledge he built the city in a day with the base of others around the astral plain, but nobody knows what went wrong after that; if he awoke the spirit of the dead and cursed the land, used some sort of forbidden magic, or even tested a way to get rid of the barrier and end up blowing up out of proportion, but one thing for certain..."

"One day the city, flourishing and filled with life and demons, was overtaken by a deadly mist that dragged anyone who got too close inside... and none ever made it back alive... except for one person."

A mist that affected the entire area? And stays there until these days, causing strange anomalies and having great side effects, and where did all the demons in the city go? Did they all die? How about the Demon Lord? And what could be our target doing there? Were we here only to fetch a body in the end? Or a ghost even...

So many questions that I’m sure many demons must have done along the years, and even more strange is that one had gotten out... and it seems clear to me who we have to find tomorrow to ask some questions, I just hope everything goes smoothly.

"Do you know where this person is?" I ask but frown when I receive no answer back, and when I look down towards him I found out that Ethan was sound asleep against my belly, hugging my tail while slightly turned towards my furry belly, with an even breathing and laying in such a peaceful manner that I ended up staring at him for long minutes, at his usually mischievous face now serene and calm, eyelids flustering ever so softly and his mouth slightly parted, fingers grasping at my fluffy tail as it he would do to a pillow, before a small smile curves my beak as I lower my head over my paw to rest as well.

All those questions can wait, for tomorrow will be a long day.