Wrath of the Devil

Chapter 11: Returning to the Forest

I collapsed to the cold stone beneath my feet. I shivered with joy, and I felt my heart flutter as I embraced freedom. But it wasn't over. Sai.. I remembered sadly. I need to find her again. My desire to be free had overridden the need to free her. I couldn't go back, though, and Sai may not even be there.

The depressing realization that Sai may have only been taken and killed flattened my mood. My tail went limp on the floor, and I let my head fall. Memories of her danced around my head like faeries in a particularly nice meadow.

A tear rolled down my snout, seeping into my ebony scales. I closed my eyes and remembered her scent. It was vivid in my nostrils, the honeysuckle and lilac fought over a canvas of pine. Pine? The only pine trees are.. out.. here.. As the thought bounced in my head, I became aware of her.

I blurted out a yelp and scrambled to my feet. Fully supporting my body on all fours, I stared at her. She smelled like Sai and looked like Sai, but her spirit was broken. Pain filled my gaze as I looked at her, and she collapsed after whispering my name. "Lucifer."

I approached her fallen body. Her legs and arms were covered in bleeding gashes as thick as a small tree branch. Her small body writhed in pain, and I noted that she was malnourished. Her eyes were squinted shut, and she let a pained moan echo the cave. Blood still flowed from a cut on her arm.

I growled loudly, more from the pain of seeing her in such a state than actual anger. I wrapped my claws around her torso, pulling her into my chest. Her shallow breath was warm on my scales.

I sat down, slowly dropping into laying on my side. My tail curved in, and I stayed like that the whole night. Her breathing evened out around one a.m. I opened my mouth slightly and liked her wounds. She let out a whimper, but I continued anyway. My smooth, long tongue lapped away the blood and cleaned out the wounds on her arms and legs.

--------------------‐time skip(seven hours)-----

Dawn broke and washed over my eyelids. I must've fallen asleep not long after cleaning her wounds. I should take her to the stream a few miles north. The thought popped into my mind. I stared down at Sai, her body twitched with pain after stretching.

I cringed at her pain, stretching myself out at the same time. I licked my chops and turned to look at her on all fours. I wrapped my front claws around her torso and legs, bringing her up to my back and propping her up against my neck and shoulder blades.

"Mmeah." She groaned as my spikes rubbed against a wound on her ribs. Wincing at the noise, I carefully strode out of the cave.

I quickly made my way to the stream roughly two miles away from my cave. She moaned in pain when I misstepped on a stone. A few minutes later, we arrived at the slow-moving stream. I stepped into the shallows of the river, and I let her slide down my slicked up scales.

She moaned in pain once more, the cool water of the stream lapping over her wounds. I stood up and walked around her in a semi-circle. She steadied herself on her hands and knees in the shallows of the water. Sai's amber eyes were filled with pain, and tears welled, causing the melted amber to seemingly sparkle and spill over her cheeks.

Sai! I thought sadly, my eyes sad and flat. "Sai." I spoke softly, almost silently, but I knew that she heard me. "Hello Lucifer." Her voice rasped, and she winced as my tail swirled in the water, causing a small current to wash over her exposed wounds.

She managed to crawl up to me, and her hands wrapped around my legs. I moved my tail carefully, and I wrapped it around her torso. I bent down and wrapped my talons around her. We stayed like that for a long time.

-----------------------time skip(two hours)------

After she cleaned up and the wounds were patched by moss and leaves. Her flared jeans were cut into form-fitting shorts, the material bloodied by some patched wounds. Her torso wound was patched mostly my moss and some gauze she had. Sai now rode confidently in between my shoulders.

I strode through the pine forest, ferns curling in on themselves on each side of us. My tail flicked behind me, sweeping my footprints away. My violet eyes swept the forest, making sure that no dangerous creatures would try and get in our way.

When we arrived back at the cave, I looked behind me. Sai had fallen asleep, her legs still where she initially sat, but the rest of her body laid down my back. I slid her onto the floor as the dying light of the setting sun cascaded into the cave. The pale yellow light splashed onto her tan face, and her brunette ginger mix of hair brightened in the soft light.

I knew that everything would be okay. At least for a few weeks. Soon, they would try and find me again. But as I watched Sai carefully in the sunlight, I hadn't cared. I would be fine for a few weeks.

I walked away from Sai's curled up body. It was time to plan how I would kill them.