An Angel’s Road to Hell

Cassandra Pendragon

“Why don’t the two of you get a room… to talk numbers of course,” I remarked dryly.

“Why ever not,” my mom replied through a pronounced smirk. With a coquettish wink she added: “I won’t bite, unless you ask really nicely, that is.” Lavian’s feature seemed to develop a life of their own, his lips trembling, his eyes quivering while a sheen of sweat began forming on his brow. The conversation wasn’t going like he had imagined and I couldn’t fault him there, not one bit.

“Are you… serious,” he finally stammered, still unsure whether to address Alassara, Serena, Ahri, my mom or me. The resulting half-pirouette he performed to include us all was quite impressive.

I shrugged and explained: “I don’t mind, she can look after herself and I’m sure you’ll find out soon enough that underestimating her might just be the most idiotic mistake you could possible make. Still… we actually have quite a few topics to address and I’d rather not have your extended family listen in while we discuss them. Somehow I don’t see that happening while you still have a stake in our conversation. Why don’t you… I’m sure Helena would like to see the premises she’s already negotiating for. If you show her around we’ll be finished by the time you get back.”

My mom was already halfway out of her chair, which didn’t leave our waiter much of a choice, but she still said: “I’d love to. If you’d be so kind, that is.”

“Sure,” he mumbled, more of question than a statement really, seeing how he was still reeling, entirely overwhelmed by the whole, bizarre situation. Years of swallowing his own opinions and putting on a good face still made it possible for him to act professionally, even going so far as to offer his arm to my mother. She took it gracefully and allowed him to lead her away, winking at me over her shoulder as if to say: watch and learn.

“The poor man won’t know what hit him,” Ahri whispered after them, shaking her head. “I wouldn’t put it past her to return with the keys and a chest of gold on top of it.”

“Or an indenture of servitude for him and the next generations of his family,” I added while I had to suppress a shudder. Ages ago… well, more like four weeks, I had unsettled Mephisto by making him imagine what kind of monster I might become, combining Lucifer’s powers and my beauty. My mother might not have been as strong as me, nor did she look entirely like an immortal, but, from a mortal perspective, the difference was negligible and she, in contrast to myself, was calloused and self assured enough to to actually make use of her advantages.

A grin spread across my face when I toyed with the idea of simply retiring. Tell her everything I knew, hand over my ring, add another few sparks of transcendent energy to her reservoirs and watch with a big, fat, happy smile while Michael’s carefully laid out and immaculately prepared plans went up in smoke around her nine tails. What sobered me up quickly enough, though, was the fact that she would have actually been much more suited to the task, if I had been able to turn her into a real immortal. Unfortunately, I couldn’t. That was a feat even I wasn’t capable of… yet. Call me conceited but with the way I was changing, was evolving, especially considering the crown I had suddenly manifested, I just couldn’t bring myself to rule out the possibility entirely.

“I… don’t take it the wrong way, please,” Emilia asked hushed tones, “but is there anyone… normal in your family?”

“I’m not that bad,” Reia immediately piped up.

“Give it time,” Ahri retorted. “It’s not even been a month since you found out who your family actually is and yet you’ve already caused enough trouble to last several lifetimes. In a few years… if you’re not as much of a menace as Helena by the time you turn sixteen then I’m a monkey’s uncle.” My little sister frowned confusedly.

“What’s a monkey?”

“You aren’t serious… you are,” Emilia exclaimed. “Have you never… of course not. If you want me to, I’ll show you. They’re pretty cute and clever animals. The bigger ones are even common around here, even though they are very shy. Some walk on two feet, but…”

“Oh,” the young vixen interrupted, “I might have seen their tracks. You know, when you made me stumble through the jungle,” she added scathingly in my direction. “There were paw prints near a spring I couldn’t quite place. Pretty large and deep with five talon like claws.”

“That… doesn’t sound like a monkey at all,” I murmured, scarcely preventing myself from imagining what kind of creature she might have disturbed. And why the hells hadn’t the elves told me? Hadn’t they seen the imprints? “Can you describe them? How large were they?”

“Like this,” she said and indicated a length of maybe 40 centimetres and a width of at least 15. Holy hells, had she stumbled across Bigfoot? “And maybe 5-10 centimetres for the claws,” she added innocently, twirling her multicoloured tresses around her fingers. “So that’s no monkey?”

“No, that’s no monkey,” I echoed dully. “That sounds more like a living nightmare. And it was walking on two legs?” She nodded enthusiastically.

“Pretty sure it was. There was also something like the trail of a… sled, maybe, but I didn’t have a look around. I was pretty exasperated by then.”

“Might have been for the best,” Alassara replied. “I… I have no clue what it could have been and considering how long I’ve already lived here, that doesn’t exactly instil trust, does it?”

“See? Enough trouble for a lifetime,” Ahri, who wasn’t taking the whole incident overly seriously, quipped. “At least you didn’t start another fight with your human friend.”

“Who said I didn’t? Maybe I buried him right there at the spring.”

“That’s not funny,” I reprimanded her distractedly. Walking on two feet, large, a sled, claws… some kind of beast kin? A race either sneaky or terrifying enough that nobody wanted to know, that nobody had found out or, at least, survived the tell the tale in all those years? Great…

“That’s what he said,” my little sister chuckled and I was perplexed enough at the approximation of an Earthly idiom to let it slide. The youth seriously was about the same, everywhere and always.

“Bears,” Emilia stated quietly and blinked in surprise when she suddenly became the centre of attention. “I… Serena, remember, a few weeks after we arrived, before we met Asra, I fell sick?”

Her sister nodded slowly. “It was bad, how could I forget? Right… one day you suddenly became better. Am I finally about to find out why? Over a decade later?”

A slight blush rose to Emilia’s cheeks but she met her sister’s gaze evenly. “More or less. Truth be told, I… I ran away while you were out, scraping together a few coins. I thought… you know, if I could just find some food…,” when Serena was on the verge of interrupting, her jaws tense, Emilia took her hand and placated her with a smile. “No need to yell at me now. I was a feverish child who didn’t want to cause even more trouble for her hero. Anyways, remember where we lived? That run down hovel close to the outskirts? It wasn’t far to the edge of the woods. I got there without any incidents, but…

I was shivering and sweating at the same time, barely able to put one foot in front of the other. My limbs felt leaden but I couldn’t very well turn around. If Serena kept on spending everything she earned on useless potions and meals for me, she too would soon fall ill and then… I didn’t even want to think about what would happen to us and the more desperate she became… last night, when I had pretended to be asleep, she had prayed at my side. Her voice had cracked towards the end and she had feverishly promised to keep me alive, whatever the cost. I hadn’t been entirely sure what she had meant, but when I had seen her cry silently, I had become scared. The suffocating dreams that had followed had been enough. I had always loved the woods and I knew my way around nature. There was a huge jungle, directly in front of our door, and I’d put it to good use. A handful of berries, maybe some roots and we’d be set for at least a few days.

I didn’t know why, but the natives rarely went there, almost as if they were afraid of what they might find but I was well past the point of caring by now. Like a wraith I made my way through the winding streets, stumbling and panting. The few people who actually stopped in their tracks, eyed me with a mixture of pity and disgust. I hadn’t bathed in a week and only the gods knew how I must have looked or smelled, but none even offered so much as a mouthful of water. Even if I had collapsed, they’d simply have gone on with their lives, the weak girl forgotten as soon as they’d have turned a corner. I gritted my teeth and tottered on until the last houses disappeared and the cool shadow of the trees lured me closer.

As soon as the miasma of the town laid behind me I felt better. Clean air, the song of birds and the rustling of leaves in the canopy made me relax and even though I couldn’t smell a thing with my clogged up nose, I could still remember and imagine while I finally made my way through the first brushes and in between the towering, ancient, green giants. For a second I closed my eyes, allowing the soft earth underneath my boots and the soothing shade to invigorate my exhausted mind, but however long I stood there, I was still sick and my body felt more like a prison with every passing second. I’d have to rest soon and I at least wanted to look for a spring or something edible before I had to sit down.

Determined but weak I squared my soldiers and tried to listen, hoping to hear the gurgling of a hidden stream or the voices of a few animals, quarrelling over berries or nuts, but this close to the edge of the jungle I could only hear the birds above. Cursing under my breath in a way that would have made Serena wash out my mouth I continued on, stubbornly ignoring the rising fatigue in my legs until, from one step to next, I simply couldn’t anymore. I hadn’t gotten far, maybe a few hundred steps, but suddenly I felt like I had hit a brick wall.

The tide was surging in my ears and the world spun around me. Before I knew what had happened I fell, scratching my cheek on the hard bark of a trees. My heart fluttered and at the very edge of my consciousness I realised that I had probably reached the end of the line. Chances were I wasn’t going to get up anymore. Unfortunately I was much too exhausted for even the ice cold panic to penetrate the veil of lethargy and pain and I simply closed my eyes, my last thoughts directed at my sister. She would grieve and she’d miss me, but ultimately she’d be better off without a useless child to look after. And who knew, with a little luck, I might even see her again. It’d hopefully take years, but I’d wait for her, for as long as it was going to take. A small smile tugged on the corners of my mouth and then darkness came.

When I opened my eyes again I felt much better than I had any right to, the shivers were gone and I was warm, my belly full and the thrumming ache in my limbs a distant memory. Surprised and giddy I tried to get up but the small movement was still too much and, my head spinning, I slumped back down on the heavy, woollen blanket I had been resting under. It took me a second to blink away my tears and get used to the bright, greenish light, permeating the clearing I was in, but I didn’t have the time to fully understand where I was. A deep, grating hum made me look around and the very next moment I froze, my elation forgotten.

A giant, no, a monster, was making its lumbering way towards me, its massive paws cradling a wooden bowl close to its chest. The thing was enormous, at least 2 and half meters tall with limbs as thick as tree trunks and claws that could have pierced armour with a single swing. It walked on two broad, stubby legs, each one as wide as I was tall, and was covered in a fluffy, soft, greyish green fur. Its arms were quite long and ended in dexterous fingers, each adorned with another intimidating claw. Its head was large with two small, quivering ears on top and almost human features except for the tusk like canines, jutting from its narrow mouth. When it saw me stare it paused and scratched its behind, hidden underneath coarse, short leather pants, the only garments it wore, in an almost embarrassed gesture.

“You…awake,” it said haltingly in a broken Trader’s Tongue, its, or rather his, voice a deep, surprisingly soft bass. “Good. Moha was… worried.” Moha, maybe, raised the bowl, his ears twitching like crazy and added: “Rest. Eat. Better soon. Sickness gone but still… weak. Need time and food. Honey and nuts and herbs make you… healthy, strong. Water there.” He pointed at a large sled close by, laden with furs, pottery, dried herbs and blankets, I had completely overlooked. “Can Moha… come closer. No bite. Moha big but friendly.” He emphasised his words with a, what I assumed to be, ingratiating smile, but the gesture lost some of its appeal, considering it revealed teeth easily able to grind smaller stones to dust.

“I…” didn’t really manage to think clearly and nodded when I realise that the words just wouldn’t come. A stubby, wagging tail came into view when he turned around on the spot, almost like an excited dog and lowered himself down on four paws. With astounding speed he cavorted closer, the bowl precariously held between his fangs. Once he reached me he… spat into the thick, golden brown broth within and mixed it around with one of his claws.

“Eat,” he urged, entirely oblivious to the disgusted look that must have already spread across my face. “Back up when the sun… sets. Moha promises. Baramune… medicine good for everyone.” He brought the bowl close to my lips and as soon as the enticing smell of nuts, honey, rosemary and thyme hit me, I reflexively opened my mouth. Without a second thought he gently fed me, his spade like hands supporting my head when my muscles tired. “Good,” he mumbled when I had almost finished. “Now drink and sleep, Moha… watches. You safe here. No predators come close to Moha. Moha strong.” His blackish lips twisted into something like a grin and he even flexed his arms, the bulging muscles easily as large as my head. “No worry. When sun sets Moha will bring you to… the place without trees.” With an almost elegant movement he tucked me in and reached for his sled, producing a small earthen container. “Drink all, then close eyes.” I was well past the point of amazement by now and simply did as he had told me. The water tasted spicy, almost tangy, as if the essence of a myriad of herbs was contained within, but I just couldn’t smell a thing, even though my nose wasn’t as clogged anymore. When I sniffed the air, I could only sense a faint hint of something musky, probably his fur.

“Thank you,” was all I managed before I gulped down the few mouthfuls. My eyes immediately became heavy and while a dreamless slumber was already claiming me I heard him rumble:

“No thanks. You ill, Moha helps. That’s how it’s…supposed to be.”

When I woke for the second time it had gotten considerably colder but a small fire was burning close by merrily, warming my face. My hairy, oversized saviour was cooking some kind of meat on a stick but immediately turned around when I moved. He smiled in his slightly terrifying way and asked: “better? Can return home?”

“I…,” hesitantly I tried to stretch but I didn’t feel sick or even weak anymore, in fact I felt better than I could even remember. “Very much. Thank you again. I think you saved my life.”

“That I did, but no thanks. Only… don’t tell people about Moha. Shouldn’t… interact with humans. Great Mother has… forbidden. Moha carry you back to human people, now. You no walk, yet.”