A World Like That

Chapter XIV

-Ariel-

Over the next few days, he enjoyed Dante's friendship whenever he could get the chance to sneak away. They seemed to have worked out a schedule of sorts, where Dante would work down in Hell the first part of the day while he spent time with his friends. When Dante was finished with his work, he'd head up to Earth and wait for Ariel to join him.

At this point, his friends had become more understanding about him going off on his own for the second half of the day. He hated having to split time between his friends and Dante, but there was nothing either of them could do about it. Sometimes he wished things were different. He wished Dante could meet Jael, Charmeine, and Raguel. He wished they didn't have to hide in the forests and always keep their eyes and ears open.

Sometimes, he even wished Dante were different. He felt bad for thinking it, but Dante's eyes made him hard to read. He hadn't been completely honest with Dante the day Dante had tried to scare him by growling and getting in his face. It was true that he believed Dante wouldn't hurt him, but he hadn't liked it when Dante growled and snarled in his face. Those rows of razor sharp teeth were disconcerting. He'd remained calm, but it had taken some effort.

Today, he was waiting for Dante by the pear trees, but it seemed like an unusually long amount of time had passed. It was possible that Dante had been held up by his father or by his friends, but it didn't make waiting any easier. As he glanced up towards the sun to try to estimate how much daylight was left, he heard shouts in the distance. His heart rate sped up when he realized they were coming from his friends. Leaving his basket of fruit behind, he flew as fast as he could over to the large tropical forest. He saw Charmeine and Raguel helping Jael upwards towards Heaven.

He broke through the clouds right after them. "What happened?" he called out, frantic.

"Jael was attacked," Raguel replied.

Jael sat down on a cloud, golden blood seeping from his lip. Ariel gasped when he saw that several large chunks of feathers had been ripped out of Jael's wings. He hurried over to examine him, shocked to see that not only had large feathers been ripped out, but the soft underlayer of feathers that he'd told Dante about just days earlier had been violently torn from Jael's wings. Jael wasn't missing as many feathers as he'd been after his own attack, but the damage seemed worse.

He helped Charmeine as she pressed white cloths soaked in a healing salve against Jael's wings. Raguel worked to gently clean the blood from Jael's face.

He tried not to think about it, but he couldn't help but wonder who had attacked Jael. He hadn't known many angels to have their feathers ripped out the way his and Jael's had been. And he had just told Dante about the soft layer of feathers that they all grew. He knew Dante wouldn't hurt him, but would he hurt another angel?

"What did this demon look like?" he asked Jael.

"I don't know. They all look the same."

"What color was his hair?"

"Black."

He bit his lip. A lot of the demons probably had black hair. Just because Dante did too didn't mean that he was Jael's attacker. The Dante he knew wouldn't do something like this.

"Can you remember anything else?"

"Why does it matter?" Jael snapped.

"I'm asking because I want to know if it was the same demon that attacked me."

"Well how should I know? I don't know what your demon looked like. It's not important anyway. They all attack us. We don't keep track of which ones are doing it."