Demon King's Gardener

“Hold on,” Feyl said, holding up a hand as he got to his feet, “I know this story, and Minaz tells it better.”

“Probably,” the King agreed. He had been told before that his storytelling could be too like a report or briefing compared to the more casual versions told by others.

Braelin withdrew his hand as the valet left, asking, “Demon skin is pretty tough, isn’t it?”

“It is,” Jurao agreed and hesitated before taking one of his partner’s hands between his smaller set of hands, “I believe if my skin were as soft as a human’s, I would have many more scars.”

Braelin snorted softly, “I don’t even have particularly soft skin by human standards - gardening tends to build callouses.”

Jurao hummed, unable to feel the variation as he ran his thumb over his partner’s palm and down to the man’s fingertips, curious at the difference in texture between their skin. Demon skin was thicker and leathery - not quite reptilian, but close. Human skin was… supple, and thin.

Braelin leaned into the King again, watching Jurao’s exploration - then asked, “How did you get that scar, then?”

Jurao glanced at the ropey scar that wrapped partially around one of his smaller forearms before replying, “When I was still a child, I was playing with the bristlespines in the Beast Hunter camp. One’s teeth accidentally caught on my arm - it did teach me more caution, though.”

“What’s a bristlespine?” his partner asked, extracting his hand to trace the old wound with his fingertips.

Jurao considered the easiest comparison, and answered, “A type of demon hunting hound.”

“Ah, I see,” Braelin said.

At that point, Feyl returned, waltzing in with Minaz behind him.

Minaz snorted as she walked around them to lean on the edge of the hearth, “I almost thought Feyl was joking.”

“About what,” Jurao asked.

His Right Hand waved at the two of them, “This - you’re not usually very physically affectionate, Jurao.”

“Mn, that is true,” the King nodded.

Minaz snorted, “Anyway, Feyl said you were going to tell the story about your facial scars, huh?”

“Since Braelin asked about them,” Feyl confirmed, once again sitting in the other chair before the hearth - though he lounged across the seat rather than comfortably leaned back as before.

“I was just curious,” Braelin added, shrugging.

“Well, they are pretty distinctive,” Minaz scoffed, then sighed, “Let’s see… my mom was still General, and I was still being trained as her successor at the time. I was shit at leading people, though, so mom put me in charge of our… problem officers.”

“I was a problem,” Jurao asked.

“No, I was the problem,” Minaz laughed, “I just didn’t know it - and that was why I was put in charge of you, Exka, Apaje, Darve, and Mekkest.”

“I’m not at all surprised Exka was in that category,” Feyl snorted.

“What made them ‘problem’ officers?” Braelin asked.

“Mainly being a lot of independent thinkers that tended to ignore the rules that didn’t suit them,” Minaz replied, “Not that that’s changed any…”

“I had no idea that was why we were put under your command,” Jurao said.

“I’m not surprised by that,” his Right Hand chuckled, “At the time, I thought it was a trial by fire - that I was supposed to bring these unruly officers in line to show what a great leader I was. So I started devising all these training regimes I thought would beat some discipline into them.”

Feyl chuckled, “Physical activity was certainly never going to be a problem for Jurao or Exka.”

“Got that right,” Minaz rolled her eyes, “An Apaje kept sneaking off to nap while Darve did his best, and Mekkest didn’t bother to show up half the time…”

“Darve does not have the best stamina,” Jurao agreed, “I do not recall him having any issues with following orders, however.”

“Yeah,” Minaz agreed, “He just couldn’t physically keep up with the other officers, but damned if he didn’t have twice the dedication.”

“And Mekkest didn’t want to be an officer, either,” the King recalled, “While Apaje was taking care of cer younger siblings…”

“Yeah, yeah,” his Right Hand sighed, “But I didn’t know that at the time - which is what made me the problem.”

“In what way?” Braelin asked.

“It’ll make more sense by the end of the story,” Feyl replied, waving Minaz on.

She nodded to him, “Yeah - so, I decided the best thing was to take my little band of misfits out on a training mission in the Great Western Plains with a band of beast hunters.”

“I kept meaning to ask,” Braelin said, “What are beast hunters?”

“It’s fairly self-explanatory,” Feyl shrugged, “They hunt beasts.”

“Animals in the Demon Realm are all hardier and more vicious than human animals,” Jurao elaborated, “Even those that are primarily herbivores need to fight the plants for their meals - so those who hunt animals for food are given a great deal of respect.”

“The practice is declining, though,” Minaz added, “Since we figured out how to manage livestock and all.”

“And your mothers were beast hunters, yes?” Braelin asked, looking up at Jurao.

The King nodded, “They were.”

“Very famous ones, which I found out when we met up with the band we were traveling with for training back then,” Minaz snorted, “The leader actually complained that I should have contacted Jurao’s… what’s it called?”

“Heritage band,” Jurao said, then added, “Most of the current beast hunter bands are run by two or three long-standing families of hunters each - one of my mothers, Emedao, was from one of the oldest three families. Which makes hers one of the three most prestigious beast hunter bands.”

“Which was why I had just sent a message to the closest band - I didn’t think I had the rank to convince one of the big three bands to train with us,” Minaz waved a hand dismissively, “Since I also had no idea what Jurao’s background was at the time.”

“It was nice to travel with a band again,” Jurao said, remembering that time. It had made him feel close to his mothers, despite having only vague memories of them.

“Well, that leader let it go since they’d already agreed to let us travel with them,” Minaz sighed, “Jurao was obviously fine since he already knew how beast hunter bands worked. I started getting a little insight on what the issues he had with authority actually were.”

“Yes, my superiors were not fond of me,” the King agreed, frowning.

“Yeah, cause you would circumvent the chain of command and ignore orders,” Minaz laughed, “It was only in the beast hunter band that I realized you only ignored orders when they didn’t make any damn sense and only circumvented chain of command to get things done as quickly as possible - same way hunter bands are run.”

“I still do not understand why I needed a request to go up the chain of command only to go back down instead of simply talking to the department that would need to approve the request,” Jurao sighed, “It mainly wasted time.”

“Can’t argue with that,” Minaz shrugged, “Anyway, we were traveling with this beast hunter band. Jurao’s having a great time; Exka’s following the band’s leader around like she’s getting ready to join; Apaje’s too anxious to sleep because ce’d never left cer siblings with someone else for so long; Darve’s trying harder than he ever has in his life; Mekkest was off canoodling with a hunter fae ended up marrying; and I was still under the impression that my job was to make the lot of them molded soldiers.”

“Molded?” Braelin asked.

“To make them fit a mold,” Feyl answered, “Like how smiths will pour molten metal into a mold to shape it.”

“Ah,” the human nodded.

“You were very stressed at the time, Minaz,” Jurao recalled.

“I certainly was,” his Right Hand scoffed, “Trying to get the five of you in line was like trying to weave eels into a basket. At some point, I had us running drills at the base of this canyon - which was a mistake when we ran into a den of quad-sabered lionsnakes.”

Feyl rose with a stretch, returning with Jurao’s current lock statue. He set it on the table, tapping it as he said, “That would be the animal this is modeled after.”

“Which is about eight feet tall and thirty feet long,” Minaz added, “And those tails? Can spit acid and breathe out a miasma. They’ve got front fangs with deadly venom, too - in addition to all the claws and teeth they already have.

“So it’s me and five officers I’ve failed to train to my standards, alone in the bottom of a canyon with three of those things,” his Right Hand went on, “Even six experienced beast hunters wouldn’t take those odds. So I decide before they box us in that I would take responsibility for my subordinates and distract the pack so they can escape.”

“Very noble,” Feyl chuckled.

Minaz rolled her eyes good-naturedly, “Yeah, yeah. Except as soon as I gave the order, someone decided to completely ignore me.”

“Because we could take them,” Jurao defended his past actions neutrally.

His Right Hand snorted, “No because you could take them - if you hadn’t been there, I doubt any of the rest of us would have made it out.”

“But I couldn’t have fought them alone,” the King frowned, “I just knew we all had the skills to handle the situation.”

Minaz shook her head with a smile and sighed, “Yeah - see, I gave the order for them all to run, ready to face my noble warrior death when Jurao goes,” she lowered her pitch to imitate him, “‘Apaje, I’m going to toss you up the side of the canyon.’”

“Ce’s an archer,” Jurao nodded, “Ce wouldn’t have done us any good on the ground in that situation. And if any one of us needed to survive, it was cer.”

“Apaje came to Caslavven from further south,” Minaz sighed, “Hard to find many demon archers, but the best ones come from the south, where it’s more popular. Apaje’s no exception - though the look on cer face when Jurao literally just grabbed cer and threw cer up the side of the wall was fucking hilarious in hindsight.”

“I did warn cer,” Jurao said.

“Yeah, about one second before you did it,” his Right Hand laughed, “Anyway - with our resident archer scaling the cliffside, Jurao turns to Exka, and before he even says anything, she goes,” Minaz took up an excited posture very reminiscent of his current General, and said, “‘You’re tossing me over to the other side of the lionsakes, right? Please? Say you are!’”

Feyl scoffed, “That certainly sounds like my cousin…”

“And I was,” Jurao nodded, “We needed to divide them before they surrounded us.”

“Yeah, and now Jurao’s tossed three people around ’cause he sent Darve along with Exka,” Minaz shook her head, “Seriously, did you even need the power boost of Ascending?”

“That was rhetorical,” Feyl cut in before Jurao could reply.

“Ah,” the King nodded.

Braelin snorted, then chuckled before asking, “So what happened next?”

Ah, he’s feeling better, Jurao thought in relief.

“Next, of course, he turns to Mekkest and asks if fae has a counter miasma bomb,” Minaz scoffed, “Who would even think of that? I mean, fae did because apparently beast hunters just carry one or two on them at all times. Jurao figured Mekkest’s lover would have insisted fae take one for training near a canyon. Jurao had one, and Mekkest had two, so as long as the two of them each hit one target, we wouldn’t have to worry about that.”

“Except I gave mine to Mekkest because fae was the fastest and had better aim,” Jurao added, “So Minaz, Exka, Darve, and I would distract them while Mekkest disabled their miasma ability.”

“‘Don’t engage, hit and dodge back so you don’t get caught, and watch out for the acid,’” Minaz said, imitating Jurao’s lower voice again. She scoffed, “Didn’t even give me a chance to agree, just ran in, and I had no choice but to go along.”

“That makes sense,” Braelin chuckled again.

“I got my scars from an acid spray grazing me during the fighting,” Jurao added, touching the side of his face as he thought about it.

“Apaje took out the first one,” Minaz mimed firing a bow, “Right in the eye, dropped it dead. From the height ce was at, I would have called it impossible. Jurao took out the next one - got a lucky opportunity and took it.”

“The first one dropping startled them,” Jurao agreed.

“Jurao got the last one, too, but I’m sure he’d rather I credited Darve,” Minaz snorted.

The King nodded, “He has an analytical eye - he’d been studying their movements during the fight.”

“‘Darve, assessment,’” Minaz quoted Jurao again, “Didn’t expect that to be the first words out of Jurao’s mouth after killing a lionsnake. And Darve just yells out for Apaje to shoot the last one in the back behind its ruff and Jurao to rush the thing, and wouldn’t you know it - the arrow in the back made the thing surge up, exposing its belly for Jurao to gut it.

“And that,” Minaz sighed, “Was when I realized what my mother had actually wanted me to learn by putting me in charge of those five - they weren’t the problem, I was. I didn’t take the time to learn anything about them, so I had no idea what their actual strengths were or how best to use them. Not fitting the mold of your average soldier made them valuable assets - but I couldn’t look past the strengths they didn’t have.

“That was also the point,” Minaz grinned, “When I realized my mother intended for Jurao to be her successor instead of me.”