Page 42 of True Sacrifice
I opened my eyes to see and felt the rustle of wind against my feathers. I spread my wings wide, marveling at the feel of each individual feather. When I was a demon, I needed wings just like this. Turning my head, I spotted the other crow hopping towards me. He cawed and flapped his wings.
“Justice, if that’s you; fly around once and then come back.”I was really hoping this was going to work.
The crow leaped into the air, and I squawked and flapped my wings with joy. It was fucking weird to be a bird. Justice flew back and landed in front of me gracefully, and I only hoped the ability to fly would transfer to me as well. I spread my wings and pushed off the ground. It wasn’t instinctual, but it didn’t take long for me to get the hang of it. Within a few hops, I was keeping myself off the ground, and a few tries later I could make an entire circuit of the room.
I landed next to Justice; I was ready to head out. He took off out the window and I followed. We flew over the palace, which looked like a giant white crystal sticking out of the ground. Rivers of red snaked around the palace, branching out around the base making pockets of stone where other demons lived and worked.
Looking up, the amber glow of the rings above us beckoned me. Justice turned us until we headed towards the outer lands. The further you got from the palace, the more you were in the outer lands. At the very edge of the ring lied the between. This is where the portal to the other rings was. The other rings weren’t exactly simply above or below each other. It would be like trying to go from Earth to the moon.
I flew through the shimmering blue portal, right after Justice. I felt maybe some tickles around my beak, but nothing bad. I emerged into a cityscape that rivaled anything I had ever seen before. It was like they made the entire ring out of Vegas. I had a feeling this was the second ring of Hell and the further out we got, the more rural the demons. You had to have power to be somebody. What I didn’t understand, though, was the differences in the homes. If Hell provided, then couldn’t they just live in a mansion if they wanted?
I followed Justice through all the rings, noticing that each one was distinctly and differently themed. Sometimes the ring hosted sectioning into various themes, as each ring was substantially larger than the last one. The part of the eighth ring Jasper had taken me to was just one tiny village in an entire collection of villages with the same theme, which was next to a cluster of Viking style homes. Maybe this was how they lived, rotating through different life fantasies.
The ninth ring of Hell was open wilderness. There were a few pockets of demons, mostly in nomadic type settings. Animals of all kinds wandered across the mountains and plains of the world. It should have taken me days, or weeks, or months to cover all this ground, but clearly there was magic at work. We flew high above the land, and I took in so much information all at once.
Justice started into a dive over a large patch of forest. It looked almost like the ones I had seen around the mountains of West Virginia. I tucked my wings in tightly and followed Justice. He headed as swiftly as a bullet right into the canopy. Fuck, I hope I don’t hit a branch. I tried to remember exactly where Justice had broken through, and hoped for the best.
The leaves brushed past me as I shot through into the forest. I pulled up quickly as I noticed Justice on a branch nearby and I went to join him. He cawed at me, then took off for another branch and I followed. We hopped from limb to limb, descending further with each move. Justice stopped when we were a few feet above the ground. He used his beak to point at something.
There was a red fox standing below us, digging in the dirt. I looked back to Justice, and he gestured again. He was always calling me his fox. Maybe he wanted me to do something with the fox. I guess I could try to see if I could get into the mind of the fox.
I brought up my mental image of where I was and found that it reflected the forest around me and not the room where my body was. I found the shimmer of the fox easily and I tried to push away from the crow and into the fox.
It was a little more of a fight to take over completely. The fragment inside this one was very aggressive. I poked around to see if I could find any memories, but there was nothing. The fragment settled and seemed to accept me into it completely, and I opened my eyes and saw through the fox’s gaze.
I could smell the leaves decaying at my feet. Little light filtered down so low, but streams broke through, making spots of light on the ground. I stepped into one, feeling the warmth from it as it hit my fur. There wasn’t a sun above us, just bright light.
I heard the snap of a branch, and I froze, ducking down low.
“Justice, is that you?”I wasn’t sure I wanted to experience death in an animal form, it was a bit too soon after my human death.
A wolf howled.Sometimes, I am the wolf.He had said to me the night he asked if I would be his fox. He wanted a chase. I took off through the underbrush, weaving my way through the trees. I let instinct guide my movements, and I reveled in the feeling of the dirt beneath my paws as I ran through the forest. There were small streams and caves all over the place. Other animals scurried from my path as I ran past them. I saw a hollowed-out tree, and I ran straight for it, using it as a boost to jump onto a lower branch of the tree.
He would track my scent, which would lead him here. The log was an obvious choice, so when he went to pounce, I would attack.
Short girl tip 5: Be Unpredictable.
It didn’t take long for a silver white wolf to come sniffing into view. He looked around and then settled his gaze on the log. I adjusted slightly, getting ready to pounce. He stuck his nose into the hole, and I used that moment to make my attack. I jumped down on top of him from the log, biting into the back of his neck. He yelped and smacked his head on the log and even my fox form barked out something that sounded like laughter.
I had fallen off his back shortly after the bite, but I backed away a few steps as he turned and bared his teeth at me. It suddenly felt like my skin was too small and I heard a voice boom in my head. The wolf’s eyes glazed over in confusion. Justice wasn’t in his mind anymore.
“Time to go now, Mor,” Justice boomed inside my mind. He was with me here inside the fox. Time to go was right. The wolf figured out enough of what was happening and that he was in front of a little fox.
I mentally whipped myself back, opening my eyes with a gasp. I was back in Justice’s room. I breathed in deeply, trying to get a feel for my skin again.
“Try moving from full control to only visual before pulling all the way out next time. It gives your mind a few more seconds to adjust, so it’s not so hard on your system,” Justice offered.
“We just left that poor fox back there with that wolf,” I said, appalled at what we had just done. The fox was too far away. I couldn’t go back there without traveling back through the rings again.
“The fox will do what she can, and maybe today her life ends and maybe it does not. That is the way of mortal life.” Justice didn’t seem bothered in the least.
“But the fox and the wolf were only so close to each other because of us. This isn’t the natural cycle; we changed their fate.” I wasn’t sure he would understand what I was trying to say.
Justice put his hand on my cheek, cupping it tenderly. “Us being there today was their fate. And if one of them dies, the fragment releases and can find its way into a new animal. There will be a whole new life and a whole new story to tell. I know you don’t see it yet, but their lives mean absolutely nothing, and neither do their deaths. It’s forever in a loophole. We exist to exist without an exit. The only thing that matters is today. Taking each journey and noticing every insignificant detail. Today, I shared my world with my mate, and I got to chase her cute ass around the woods.” He gave me a tender sweet kiss that melted every single piece of me. When he pulled away, I followed.
“And after all that, she out foxes me, the little demon.” He smiled. I’m pretty sure I was falling in love with this demon.
“I’m feeling a little drained of power. Want to give me a boost?” I said, biting my lower lip. I felt my new sharp fangs pinch into my skin.
