Demonic Devourer's Development

I didn't listen very closely to what Rosha told me about her business expansion. Everything was going well, and the rest was beyond my understanding, anyway. Names, net profit, revenue—I knew the words, but they didn't end in sentences that held any meaning for me.

Rosha looked amazing when she was as happy as she was when she shared all this. With her beautiful eyes sparkling and a bright smile on her curved lips, she looked more seductive than every. I couldn't stop but remember the good times we shared…

Eventually, Rosha noticed that and paused with an exasperated shake of her head. "Alright, if you aren't listening, I will stop torturing your ears. You probably won't know what I talking about, anyway."

"Even I don't know what are you talking about, and I help you keep the books!" Risha complained jokingly.

I grinned. "It's two against one, Rosha."

She snorted. "Alright, then tell us about your adventures, Voren. Surely they were more interesting and didn't go down to trudging through caves and smashing cave spiders." Rosha looked at me with a self-assuredness of someone who knew for sure that it was exactly like she said.

I made a half-shrug. "Most of it, sure." I wasn't gonna lie. "But I've seen some really interesting stuff. Like, remember the rumours Yvenna brought about ruins underground? Well, turns out, they weren't ruins! There had been an actual human village there. Or, well, three quarters human and one quarter the bugmen they bred with."

"Bred?" Rosha balked. "I don't know what to point out first—how impossible this is, or how disgusting!"

"What do you mean, 'had been', Voren?" Risha asked another thing. "It's not there anymore? Did you bring these people to the surface?"

As I looked into Risha's innocent eyes, I even felt a tiniest smidgen bad when I crushed her naïve idea. "No, of course not. They thought I was a monster and attacked me on sight." I shrugged. "Really, and not forget the part where most of them were in one or another way mutated because of the bugmen I mentioned…"

Risha's face fell. Rosha patted her on the shoulder, and even without a nasty glare at me! I was making progress in this socialising thing.

"Don't be so sad, Risha. You know as well as I do that not everyone in the world are good people and deserves to live. I can't imagine what sort of people would choose to have children with monsters, no matter which kind."

"I don't know… Maybe they had a good reason? Maybe there were special monsters, too…"

"Oh, and I saw a dragon, too," I switched the topic before Risha asked more inconvenient questions. Then I would have to give her over to Bishop in hopes of him convincing her for the better… Though, I would be better off doing that, anyway.

"A dragon? Which kind? Did you kill it?" Rosha's eyes sparkled with an avaricious gleam.

"No. It was awfully strong, I could tell with a glance. It was… I dunno, a cave dragon? With wings, but they were more like an additional pair of claws, and it was blind like the most of the monsters in there. It also had no scales, but had whiskers. But that's not the weirdest monster!"

I told my captivated audience about the furrypede, and about the disgusting hand-worm, and about the flesh-eating fishes and other weird monsters I've seen in the caves. Rosha lamented from time to time that I didn't bring any "souvenirs", aka materials, while Risha just oohed and aahed at my descriptions of the fights, which grew more and more detailed as the time went on…

Until suddenly, Rosha jumped out of the table. "Crap! I forgot about work! How long did we sit there?" She looked into the window, where the sun was steadily climbing up over the sky. "Too late!"

"No one knocked very hard on the door, so maybe we can just keep talking for now? You didn't tell us yet what you did after that lizard bit you!"

I shook my head. "You distracted me. I actually had something else to say. Rosha, Risha, I've been in Tinaris before I got there, and left the loot I found in the caves with Bishop. I also had him do something special I want you to see… so I want you to get with me there in a few days' time." I hummed, then added, "I will even carry you over the air so it will be faster."

"You will carry us? We will fly? Oh, I want to go!" Risha clapped her hands in a childish excitement.

"Loot? I thought you ate everything." Rosha leaned forward. "What loot?"

I grinned. "This is going to be a surprise. I think you will like it. In fact, I can't imagine anyone who wouldn't like this thing… And the other stuff would be more for your liking, Risha."

"There's also the other stuff? One stuff and the other… Did you bring only two things out of the entire mountain? What was the point of making you a bag, then?" Rosha frowned at me, but she couldn't hide the interest in her eyes at this point.

"I told everything I wanted to. You should point me at something I could dress into and go back to work." I looked at the emptied from food table, and added, "You can point me at food, too."

"Oh, let me just clean everything up and I will cook something special for you. You must've been missing decent food a lot in these caves, Voren. When I found that recipe, I thought you will like it when you return!" Risha stood up from the table, then looked for askance at her sister. "You won't need me right now, won't you? I've cleaned everything up last evening, and the rest—"

"Go, go." Rosha stood up too with a dismissive wave of hand at Risha. "Let me point you at something to hide your face from people and I will finally get to my work."