Ring of Cren [18+]

Chapter 24

Damion's POV

Arachnids. Furry little daemon helpers, with their bulky legs and smug red eyes and sharp, pointed fangs. Creepy, crawly, critters.

Anastasia held a thin, spectacular sword with an ivory handle carved with crows. A gift from Axe, who had been secretly working on a new weapon for her slighter hand.

With her strength increased from working with the heavy wooden staff all week, she was making quick work of the giant spider infestation at the farmer's loft.

Our princess was flying high and swooping low, skewering the quick, jumpy little things.

Anastasia did not scream at the sight of them, she laughed as she cut them to pieces.

I was helping, of course, as was Rurx, and Axe and Krystoph. We were making easy work of tonight's monster hunt.

I am pleased by her enthusiasm and very pleased she wasn't scared of spiders.

When we went into the Eye and defeated the Cren, absorbing their powers, we had to defeat their true forms. Giant arachnids. She called my daemon a vampire, it was cute how wrong she was.

But I wasn't really sure if Ana could handle the truth of the shape shifting Cren who she was now wedded to. They were never human, not even a little bit.

She was lucky they could shape shift. I guess we were too. That's why we called ourselves the Crows.

Crows ate spiders, and we kept their evil spirits contained within.

"Is that all?" Anastasia hollers at the cracks in the ground of the loft, "Oh, come on, I was just getting started!" she's getting her first taste of blood lust. There was always deep satisfaction in monster hunting.

After sheathing my two swords across my back, I walk into the loft, where Ana is covered in poison green spider blood, her sword glowing luminescent in the night with daemon guts. She watches the fissure in the Earth as it closes.

"It's done... the hunt is over," I advise her, and Anastasia turns to me, about to protest until her powers diminish. The crow wings vanish from her back, the daemon crown, the Ring of Cren, the feather dress, the dagger heels.

Her strength diminishes too, and now she drops the sword.

Ana's old clothes return, loose britches and an oversized shirt, covering her bound breasts. Which she insisted on to run after the monsters from the Eye.

Breathing heavy, she continues to grin, "I had so much fun," our princess is so damn cute.

At my side, Rurx approaches after washing his hands at the nearest well.

His black armour though, as all of ours is, is still very much covered in the green slime. Axe appears on the other end of the loft, hauling in a body of one of the bigger spiders. He tosses it down near Anastasia.

"You know what's next?" Axe asks, seriously.

"No, what?"

"We burn it all," Axe motions to the corpse, "We pick up the pieces and throw them into a bon fire."

"Krystoph is building one in the pit with the farmer back here," Rurx adds, still straight down to business.

Now we all witness Anastasia's grin wipe from her face.

"We have to clean this up?" Anastasia suddenly adopts her Ice Seer tone, flashing her fangs in disappointment, "I thought... they would disappear... or smoke away or something..."

"No, you have to collect all the daemon parts you cut up," I speak up now, trying my best to keep in my need to tease her, oh fuck it, "I told you to keep the cuts clean, Ana – you didn't have to go on swinging at them twenty times."

"You could have told me, Damion," Ana huffs out a breath, "Now there's all this mess and... argh, this is ridiculous!" her tone gets higher and higher.

"...fuck me," I barely keep in my need to burst out laughing as I turn to Rurx, letting him handle this one, "Keep the spoilt brat in line," I whisper this, "She's about to have a tantrum and I'm not cleaning her shit up for her."

Rurx just shakes his head and approaches our disappointed wife.

Anastasia's POV

"It's alright," I hear Rurx approach, while Axe just looks me over real quick, wondering if I'm man enough to haul up my mess of spider parts all around me, scattered all around the barn.

It was very, very, very fun. Hunting monsters. I didn't even have to ask the Cren for assistance. Perhaps they assumed I'd be deathly afraid of spiders? I guess they found out wrong.

"I am alright," I hiss at Rurx, "No one said I... oh, never mind," I was going to complain but instead I reach down to pick up a hairy spider limb and Rurx stops me.

He catches my arm, keeping me upright as I turn to face him again.

I'd been avoiding his eye.

I was low-key scared I'd see the daemon. The red crimson monster who killed men without remorse. I'm relieved to see the human soul staring back at me. My man. My Crow. My husband too.

"You found a Key, in all your butchery," Rurx opens his freshly washed hands, to show me a Key he also washed clean of spider blood. It's got a funny design, a thick round middle and a simple turning Eye, "This is proof they have Priscilla alive in the Dungeons of the Eye."

I take the key from Rurx, it's heavy and solid.

"Hmm... how did she... even end up there?" I wonder out loud, confused, "She must have entered the Eye willingly but, but why... I can't work out why."

"It's possible her mother was Mal, like yours. And the curiosity got the better of her," Rurx explains something so simple, "Some of us, are attracted to darker powers. Perhaps she's cursed... or perhaps she's just stupid."

"Don't call Priscilla stupid or Tristan will have your neck," I growl at him, "And she was very nice to me growing up, we might not have been super close, but she wasn't stupid. She was very smart. Very curious."

"Too curious perhaps, like you?" Rurx answers me seriously, but ends up smiling a little at the end, "Keep that... you can look for her tomorrow, Ana."

"Why not tonight?" I ask this hesitantly. I didn't want to go into the Eye anyway. I was scared of the daemons. I wished to never see the Cren if I could help it. I didn't trust myself.

"You can't face them unless you're sure," Rurx mirrors my thoughts, but speaks in a more gentle fashion, "You have to build that confidence back up... the less you waver before them, the safer you'll be... the safer we all will."

"Can you hear what they think of me, when they take over?" I don't know why I ask this.

Maybe I'm just procrastinating the cleaning of the spider bits.

But still...

Rurx almost answers me, but then he doesn't.

Clearly some things were best kept secret or unknown.

I just nod, agreeing with this silence as being the right response.

"Don't need them, only need my Crows," I tell him, "I best get started on fixing up this mess before we go, or the farmer and his family won't be too pleased with me... ha..." I awkwardly smile.

I turn to clean.

Rurx distracts me again.

This time, however, his hand just slides through my hair – and he gently tugs on my ponytail.

I turn to Rurx in a spin, but he's already walking out of the loft. His hair is also tied back, the luscious brown locks flowing down to his waist.

I think of his fingers stroking through my white, almost grey-silver strands.

I smirk to myself, a light blush creeping up my neck.

I knew what that meant.

Clean up quick.

You have one more duty to fulfil tonight.

Our fun had only just begun.