It jumped forward to tackle her. She stabbed upwards at the same time and pushed the sword through its chest in one go. It clawed her shoulder before yelping once more.
It whined and tore at its chest in pain. When she sprinted forward to attack, it whined louder and bolted away with its tail between its legs. She almost wanted to laugh. The Demon was afraid of her, of her sharp, pointy blade.
She went back to Orpheus, dragging him up the stairs slowly, only having to stop occasionally to present her sword to the injured Demon before it scuttled away.
It didn’t want to die, but it clearly wanted her as it teetered on the edge of the porch steps.
She would have rested at the top of the stairs, knowing he was safe, but she thought if she stopped moving she’d permanently collapse. Reia dragged him, little-by-little, all the way to his room.
“Why are you so damn heavy!” she yelled as she tried to push him onto his bed.
After multiple attempts, she managed to hook him on enough that she could throw each of his limbs onto the mattress. He lay on his stomach, partially on his side, but he was finally there – a place where he could rest.
“This has been the most stressful day of my life.”
She sat on the ground with her knees to her chest, facing his bed with fingertips digging into her forehead.
For a little while, Reia sat there, feeling the burning in her tired legs and arms as she tried to calm her breathing. It took her a long time to notice the stench of Demon blood on her, and she hissed in a breath when she touched her shoulder to examine her wound.
She looked at her blood on her fingertips, worried that she’d gotten Demon blood in her wound and it would become infected.
We almost died.
She wanted to wash away the smell and evidence of what she’d just been through. Reia headed for the dining table where she’d seen the large bucket of water he’d obtained for her.
After she grabbed a smaller bucket and dipped it inside to fill it, she carried it to the washroom, peeling her blood-stained gown away from where it grotesquely clung to her skin, the urge to dry-retch heaving her diaphragm. Sitting inside the tub, she used a cloth to wipe down her naked body, dipping it inside the water before wringing it clear.
It took her a long while to clean her body enough that she was satisfied, rubbing the oil Orpheus usually used on her to help wash her skin. It soaked into her flesh, helping to erase the smell. She knew she had just wiped away Orpheus’ spell, but she didn’t care.
She hoped that she could do the spell herself, that maybe he lied to her and had just wanted to touch her. Sympathy at the thought sailed through her; that perhaps he had just wanted to touch because he felt alone.
Guilt also clutched her throat heavily, refusing to ease or lift away. She’d fled, and now he was injured and forced into a sleep state.
Why did I even run away? H-he’s really not that bad.
Reia’s cries echoed against the walls as she wiped at her skin with the oil. This had been a traumatic day, for anyone, but especially someone who had never wanted to be placed in this position to begin with.
I’m so freaking stupid.
Her tears didn’t stop as she tore one of the gowns to bandage her ankle and shoulder before she grabbed another bucket of water, leaving very little behind, so she could take it to him.
Placing the bucket and cloth on the ground, she cut away his shirt with a dagger, thankful he hadn’t been wearing his thick jacket which would have been harder to cut through.
Bit by bit, as she sliced the long-sleeved shirt from his torso, she revealed his body. Maybe, in the beginning, she would have been disturbed by what she saw, but her mind barely cared about their differences as she searched for his wounds so she could clean and bandage them.
He was covered in dark-grey skin from the tips of his fingers to the bottom of his bicep, where short, black, deer-like fur sprouted through his skin, growing in length to be like that of a wolf’s coat around his shoulders, upper back, chest, and neck. His chest was broad and wide, the deer-like fur coming back right above the curves of his pectoral muscles and black nipples. Then it became dark-grey skin once more, spreading over a very human shaped abdomen and hips, his waist tucking in a little more than normal.
More short fur was present in the centre of his stomach in a strip from his chest, over his navel and then to his hips where it grew longer before disappearing behind his pants.
His white rib bones were exposed and outside his flesh rather than hidden underneath it like hers. They framed his chest before circling around to his back where she could also see each vertebra of his spine.