A Demon's Core

Igneous was impressed with the stamina of the little creature he’d been following. It had so far been flying for half the day without slowing down. He was following it from a distance so as not to alarm it; far enough that he even lost sight of it a few times and had to rely on his hearing to keep track of it.

Once the sun had set, the creature finally descended to find a place to rest. It flew towards the nearest tree and wrapped itself around the trunk, near the top. Igneous landed on the ground nearby and stalked closer to the tree, taking care to be as quiet as he could. The winged lizard gave no indication that it had noticed his approach, so he settled into his rock disguise at the base of the tree and prepared to sleep.

He had observed nothing so far to suggest that the creature was in any way proficient in stealth, so he wasn’t concerned about it escaping while he slept. If it did try to leave, he was confident it could not do so without waking him.

He did wake up sometime later to the sound of rustling from above, followed by screeching and then a thump as something fell out of the tree. It was some kind of animal that had fallen, but it scurried away before Igneous could get a good look at it. The one he had been following did leave the tree at that point, but only to go so far as to find a different tree to sleep in. Once the creature had settled in, Igneous moved over to the new tree and resumed his rest.

The next time he awoke, he could again hear rustling in the tree above, though not as loud as the last time. He partially unfolded his wings and emitted a high-frequency call and listened for the echoes that returned. In this way, he was able to determine that the creature he was tracking was still in the tree. It was hard to make out due to how tightly it had pressed itself against the trunk, but he was certain it was still there. He just had to wait for it to resume its journey so he could continue following it.

After some time had passed, the creature still had not departed. Igneous sent out additional sonar signals periodically to be sure that it hadn’t managed to sneak away from him somehow. Not that he thought it actually could do that without him noticing, it just seemed strange that it was remaining stationary, clinging to the trunk of the tree. He could hear it moving occasionally, suggesting that it was awake, yet it was not leaving.

It could be that the creature was aware of him and was remaining still in hopes that he would get bored and leave, but it did not seem intelligent enough for that. More likely was that it simply did not like to travel at night. Igneous had no trouble flying at night, he preferred it even, but that would not be the case for all creatures. It did not matter overall, he could wait.

When the sky started to become lighter as sunrise approached, the winged lizard finally unwrapped itself from the tree and took flight once more. Igneous gave it some time to put some distance between them before he followed.

As the day progressed, the creature he was following would occasionally veer off course or swoop down in chase of prey and Igneous would take any good opportunity he saw to do the same. If it caught anything larger than a bug, it would have to briefly land in order to consume it and would seek out the nearest tree. It would also stop to hydrate at any body of water that it passed, though it would not linger in any one place for too long, perhaps wary of predators. Given that it was small and alone, there were likely many that could be a threat to it.

Igneous had more leeway to take his time when drinking as there would be fewer things that would see him as prey, though he still remained on guard, just in case. And as long as he did not let his target get too far away that he could no longer hear it, he would be able to catch up.

At one point, in the distance ahead, he noticed large, grey walls. He flew up higher to get a better view of it, he saw what appeared to be some kind of settlement, much like the walled section of the city that the humans lived in, though this one was smaller.

His current path would have him pass right over it. As he drew closer, he could hear various sounds coming from its direction. He was not yet close enough to make out anything specific, but he felt it was enough to reasonably assume that the place was inhabited. Whether by humans or demons, he thought it best not to get too close. As small as it was, the winged lizard could probably fly right over it without even being noticed, but he would be far more conspicuous.

There was also the chance that this was the creature’s destination. If that was the case, then he had reached the end of his journey; he would observe the area for a while to learn what he could from a distance before heading back. Veering to the left, he circled the area in a wide arc to avoid alarming the people within the settlement. Although he accelerated to his top speed to get around to the other side so as not to be left behind by his target, he still ended up losing track of it.

He couldn’t see it anywhere and could no longer hear the beat of its wing. He didn’t think his detour took long enough that it could have gotten far enough away to be beyond his hearing range. More likely is that its flight had come to an end, either because it had stopped willingly or it was captured.

Either way, it meant he also didn’t need to go any further. Since it seemed this was the place he was looking for, he wanted to investigate it. He would try to remain hidden while observing from a distance for now. Once night came, he would use the cover of darkness to get a closer look. He found a place with just enough trees and bushes around that a boulder among them would hopefully not be too conspicuous and settled in to wait for nightfall.

But as he was wrapping his wings around himself, he heard the sound of another set of wings approaching. He easily recognised it as the creature he’d been following. That it was now flying away from the settlement meant that this wasn’t its final destination. But it had definitely stopped there, for what purpose he could only guess. Maybe it was able to avoid being seen by the people there or it was simply quick and agile enough to evade capture.

There was also the possibility that the people there had noticed it and just didn’t care. If that was the case, it would suggest those people may be affiliated with whoever sent it out as a scout in the first place, so this area would be worth investigating later. Once he had allowed the winged lizard to get enough distance, he took off to follow after it again.

The sounds of other flying creatures could be heard occasionally. Igneous didn’t even have to see them to know they were small, based on how quickly they had to flap their wings to fly. He had seen many flying animals smaller than himself since he was brought to this world, but unlike where he had come from, none of them had shown themselves to be a real threat so he usually just ignored them, unless he was hungry.

But now he heard something significantly larger than most others. It wasn’t anything he hadn’t encountered before, a feathered avian predator that was about half his size, at most. He tilted his head to the left and right to get a better idea of its current location and direction of travel. It was flying at a higher altitude, ahead and to the left and it was getting closer. Under normal circumstances he wouldn’t be concerned as it was not a danger to him, though one had been brave enough to try to attack him once, so they could still be a nuisance. But he had seen such birds snatching other flying creatures out of the air and the winged lizard he was following was just the right size to be easy prey.

He beat his own wings faster to put on speed and turned in the large bird’s direction in an attempt to intercept it, though with the distance between him and his target and the speed of the bird, he had little hope of reaching it before it got to the lizard. Luckily, as he got closer, the bird changed course and came towards him instead.

When the bird was close enough, he tucked his wings in quickly and slashed at it with his claws, then extended his wings again to catch himself before he started losing too much altitude. The bird veered away to avoid his reach, but circled around to come at him again. The reach, flexibility and dexterity of his arms gave him a distinct advantage against the bird, but he still had to be careful as its sharp talons could potentially cause a lot of damage, especially to his wings.

The large bird swooped in to attack several times, but Igneous was always able to fend it off, while turning in the air to keep it in front of him. Unfortunately it had also managed to evade his grasping claws each time, so he could not put an end to it as quickly as he would have liked, but the bird eventually ceased its harassment and flew away.

During that confrontation, the winged lizard had continued on its own journey and travelled far enough that to Igneous, it now looked like merely a speck in the distance, so he rushed to catch up to it.

In the late hours of the afternoon, when the sun hung low in the sky, he saw another wall ahead. Even from as far away as he was, it was easy to see that this wall was higher and longer than the one around the settlement he had passed earlier. He would have to get closer to grasp the full scope of it, but even from just this glimpse of it, he estimated that this place could be as large as the walled off area of the human city, or maybe even bigger.

As he moved closer, the creature he was following flew down to a tree that was still well outside the wall. He slowed his approach and could hear faint chirping from the tree, then three winged lizards emerged from the tree and flew towards the walled city.

He hovered in place for a moment while contemplating how to proceed when he felt a sudden biting pain in his left wing accompanied by a loud bang that he recognised as the sound of gunfire. He immediately sped down to the ground to seek cover as additional shots rang out.

He quickly moved away from the source of gunfire. The trees and bushes in the area were sparse, but he hoped they would help to obscure the vision of his attackers, at least a little. He saw a rocky outcrop to the right and made a dash for it. It wasn’t big, but it would at least be enough to block their sight of him if he could duck behind it.

He managed to avoid getting hit again, though there were a few close calls. The gunfire stopped completely shortly after he had hidden himself behind the outcrop, but he knew that wouldn’t be the end of it. If they were willing to start shooting at him as soon as they saw him like that, he didn’t think they would give up just because they lost sight of him behind some rocks. He ran a hand over the rocks to feel their surface. They had a greyish-brown colouring with a grainy and slightly bumpy texture.

He pressed himself up against the rocks and wrapped his wings around himself, ensuring the injured wing was on the inside so it wouldn’t give him away. The colour and texture of the skin on his wings subtly changed to be more like the rocks he was hiding behind and he waited. He wasn’t sure if he had matched it perfectly, but he hoped it would at least be good enough to avoid notice.

He heard the sounds of approaching vehicles shortly after and when the vehicles stopped, footsteps followed; a lot of footsteps. It was hard to pinpoint the exact numbers based on sound alone when there were so many moving all at once, but there were more than ten, he guessed possibly as many as twenty, bipeds moving around, looking for him.

Several of them approached the rocky outcrop where they had last seen him, but soon spread out to search the area. None of them were speaking and they were doing their best to remain quiet. He could not tell if these bipedal creatures were human or if they were the ‘vukra’ that the imps spoke of with such disdain, but for now, he dared not move his wings to get a look at them.

Eventually he heard a voice as one of the bipeds barked a command at the others to return to base. The words sounded the same as the language used by the imps, which made their identity clear. Igneous listened intently as they all withdrew to the vehicles and drove away. When he was sure he was alone, he shifted his wings slightly to get a look at his injury without unravelling his disguise.

The bullet had pierced straight through the wing membrane and, fortunately, hadn’t hit anything important. It would cause him significant discomfort, but it would not impede his ability to fly. He had not truly appreciated the potential danger of this mission before, even with Magentam’s warnings, but now he realised he needed to be more careful.

He would wait here until late into the night and would make his departure when the darkness was at its deepest. It was time he returned home to report what he had found.