A Demon's Core

The morning after the humans' visit, before the sun had even properly risen, with the sky on the horizon just starting to brighten, it was finally time for Rose to set out on her expedition to what they'd been referring to as the 'orchard town'. She had spent some time preparing the last few days so she'd be ready to go first thing in the morning.

She had been a lot more discerning when packing than Violet had initially been the first time she went, ensuring that only essentials were packed. But even more important than what to bring was deciding who would be accompanying her.

Violet had enthusiastically volunteered to come along and was quite upset when Rose rejected the idea. She calmed down a little when Rose explained to her that while she was gone, it would be Violet's responsibility to watch over things at home and keep everyone safe.

Rose thought it would be a good idea to bring a hellhound or two if they could be convinced to join her. Noctis refused, believing that her place was also protecting their home and with that, her mate, Fire, would also be staying. But the hellhound pack leader did see value in sending one of their members along for scouting out a new potential place to live, so the task was given to Scar. Fuzzy would be also staying behind at Violet's insistence

As for the other imps who would go with her, Lily and Calyx were initially interested, but they wouldn't leave their daughter behind and Calla wouldn't go if Noctis wasn't going. When asked, many of the imps were interested, but Rose didn't want to take too many along for what was intended to be a simple scouting mission and risk leaving their home inadequately defended, in case something happened while they were gone.

The team that was decided in the end consisted of the sibling pair, Willow and Birch, one of the newer imps, a male named Azal, Jasmine and surprisingly, Onyx after Coal relayed that she wanted to come.

Rose was hesitant at first, because the language barrier would undoubtedly complicate things, but it wouldn't be any harder than communicating with Scar. Igneous would also be joining them, since it was up to him to lead the way, so he could also help with communication if it did become a problem.

Having Onyx along would be reassuring if they encountered any situation where her particular skills could be needed, not that Rose expected anything like that to come up while exploring an empty, long abandoned town. Even so, this was still a new world to the imps and it wasn't like they'd seen everything it had to offer, there could still be threats out there they had yet to encounter, so they couldn't be too prepared.

And so Rose gathered with her expedition team in the hallway, doing one final check to be sure everyone was ready before heading out. Birch, Willow and Onyx each had one of the new, modified backpacks that the humans brought recently. They didn't have much in them though, besides some water containers. Rose had thought about bringing spare clothes as well, but bringing enough for six imps to cover an unknown length of time simply wasn't feasible. However, clothing wouldn't matter where they were going anyway so she chose not to worry about it.

As always, please be careful and avoid unnecessary danger as much as possible. Magentam urged.

"We will, I promise. I'll make sure we all come back safely," Rose insisted.

"Bring back lots of fruit," Violet requested.

"Of course, we'll bring back as much as we can carry," Rose agreed, also looking forward to enjoying more of the sweet and tangy fruit that Violet brought back last time.

With her knife securely attached to her belt and all preparations complete, she turned back to Violet one more time before heading down the stairs.

"Keep everyone safe while I'm gone and try not to get hurt too bad, since I won't be here to heal anyone," Rose warned.

"You can count on me," Violet assured her with a beaming smile.

After that, they made their way downstairs, with some of the other imps following to see them off. Outside, Rose looked up to the roof of the hotel where Igneous was waiting and waved to him. He was peering over the edge, waiting for the imps to emerge and when he saw Rose waving, he spread his wings and dropped off the roof.

Rose and the others took off after him at a brisk pace. Igneous was able to fly slow enough that the imps could follow on the ground at a speed that was fast but still sustainable over long distances, so that was Rose's plan at least until they were out of the city.

While running through an area that appeared to be primarily made up of residential housing, quite far from their home now, Scar separated himself from the group and veered towards one of the houses. Rose brought the imps to a halt and tried to call the hellhound back. Scar paused briefly, turning to look at her, then barked once and continued towards the house.

Not seeing much other choice, Rose and the imps followed to see what had caught his attention. Scar led them to the front of the house and started sniffing around the door. The house had two stories and was one of the larger ones on the street. All of the house's windows were boarded, but it wasn't the only building Rose had seen with boards on its windows so that wasn't immediately noteworthy.

What did stand out, upon closer inspection, was that the boards on these windows appeared less weathered than others she'd seen. That, combined with Scar's interest in the house, convinced Rose that it was worth sparing some time to investigate. She decided to try the most obvious thing first; opening the front door.

She approached the door and pushed Scar out of the way. Reaching for the door handle, she tried to turn it, only to find it to be locked. That happened sometimes, but she wasn't deterred, even with locked doors, most buildings still had a way in somewhere if they were determined to find it.

"Spread out, let's find a way inside, but don't go in alone, if you find something come back and let me know," Rose commanded.

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As the imps split up to search around the house, Onyx was a little slower to react, not initially understanding the instruction, but seeing the other imps inspecting the windows and pulling on the boards, she figured it out pretty quickly. They had to climb up a little to reach the windows, but their claws had little trouble finding purchase on the wooden exterior of the house.

When Igneous noticed that the imps were no longer following him, he circled back to find them. Seeing them all gathered around the house, he perched on a roof across the street to observe them.

Finding all of the windows on the ground floor secured and the back door similarly locked, the imps climbed higher to the second floor. Many of the windows had gaps in the boards wide enough to peer through, but all Rose could see when she looked through one of them was the curtains that were pulled closed.

Not being able to find an easy way in, the imps regrouped by the front door again. Rose wasn't ready to give up just yet, but she also didn't want to spend too much time continuing to search for, or forcefully creating, a way in, so she turned to Onyx.

"Can you teleport in?" She asked.

Onyx tilted her head and stared at Rose.

"Teleport. Inside," she repeated, gesturing towards the door. "Did Coal at least teach you that word, 'teleport'?"

Nodding once, Onyx moved to the nearest window, looking for a gap to see through. Not being able to see anything, she moved on to the next window. At the third window she stopped, narrowed her eyes and peered inside, then promptly disappeared.

Rose moved over to the window and climbed up to look through the gap. This window also had curtains, but they hadn't been closed properly and there was a small space through which she could see the poorly lit room on the other side. She also briefly saw Onyx looking around the room before she moved out of view.

All Rose could do at that point was wait for Onyx to either come back out or open the door from the inside to let the rest of them in. The waiting was tense and the other imps whispered to each other about what they thought might be inside. It wasn't too long before they all heard the familiar sound of a gunshot from inside the house and Onyx reappeared outside a moment later, thankfully unharmed.

Rose called for a retreat and the imps darted across the street to hide behind the house that Igneous was perched on. However, to Rose's dismay, she realised that Scar wasn't following and she had to double back.

The fire in the hellhound's eyes flared brightly and he had his head raised, inhaling deeply. Rose rushed to stand in front of him, holding her arms up to get his attention until he looked down at her.

"No. No fire. Just run," she commanded.

Scar huffed directly into her face and the heat of his breath was enough to sting, but the fire in his eyes died down a little and he turned to follow where the imps had gone. Once they were all out of view of the boarded up house, Rose instructed everyone to remain quiet so she could listen for any sounds indicating pursuit.

When she didn't hear anything, she told the others to stay put as she slowly crept around the side of the house they were hiding behind until she could peek around to see the one across the street that they had fled from. She couldn't see any change to the house and despite waiting for a while, nothing emerged to chase them. Returning to the others, she asked Onyx what she'd seen.

"Was it humans?" She inquired, because that seemed like the most likely answer.

"Humans," Onyx confirmed with a nod.

Rose decided that this was definitely something that Magentam should know about, so she reached out across their link to explain everything that had transpired.

No one was hurt? Magentam asked.

"No, we're all fine," Rose assured.

Make a note of the location so we can investigate it more thoroughly…and more carefully when you get back.

Afterwards, she directed everyone to cross over the small backyard and climb over the chain link fence separating it from the next yard, intending to move over to the street beyond to get away from the humans before continuing.

The fence was almost twice her height, but it was easy for the imps to climb and they were all soon jumping down on the other side. Scar watched all the imps climb over and backed up, eyeing the top of the fence. He crouched down and leaped up and over, easily clearing the height.

Once they were all past the fence, Igneous took off from his perch on the roof and their journey continued. They didn't experience any other delays while they were still within the city and they made good time.

When they were finally beyond the city limits and had left the buildings far behind, they were moving through a field with tall grass reaching up to Rose's waist. She spotted some of the large bouncing creatures that often seemed rather abundant in the areas away from the city center. Rose decided that it would be a good time to take a break from their traveling and catch something to eat

Major Adrian Taylor was sitting at his desk, once again reading over the report submitted by William earlier that day. There were some parts of its contents that he found…alarming. He was interrupted by a knock on his office door.

"Come in," he said, looking up from the paper.

The door opened and a soldier walked in. He stopped in front of Major Taylor's desk and saluted.

"Sir, we just heard a report from one of the western observation outposts in the suburbs. They spotted a group of six imps and one large quadrupedal creature with spikes along its back that appeared to be heading west," the soldier stated.

"Hellhound," Major Taylor corrected.

"Sir?"

"The animal with the spikes on its back, it's called a hellhound. That's what the imps call them, at least," the Major explained. "It doesn't matter. Did they give any descriptions of the imps?"

"One of them was black and managed to get inside without anyone noticing despite all the doors and windows being secured, but they claimed that it just vanished when they pointed a weapon at it," the soldier reported.

"I see," Major Taylor said, glancing back down at the paper on his desk. "Was that outpost one of the new ones with external surveillance all around?"

"Yes sir."

"Did they manage to catch the imps on camera?" The Major asked.

"Yes sir,"

"Good, I want copies of the footage as soon as it's available and get me that report in writing," he requested. "Is there anything else?"

"No sir, that's all."

"Alright, thank you for the report. You're dismissed."

"Sir." The soldier gave one final salute and left the office.

Major Taylor leaned back in his chair and sighed.

"I wonder what they're up to," he said aloud.