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[b][u][center]The Demon-Touched[/center][/u][/b]

[b][u][center]Chapter 1: Fight to Live[/center][/u][/b]

[b][u][center]By Draconicon[/center][/u][/b]

Bonolo walked from the center of town to the edge, following the public path that passed right down the middle of their small settlement. It was little more than a dirt road, but it was what connected them to the rest of their land, and what allowed the foreigners to come through from the north when they deigned to visit. She had seen them come through merely a week ago, and the shock of seeing such strange people still sat with her, leaving her shaking just enough to rattle the lid of the stew bowl in her hands.

The young woman settled herself, taking a few deep breaths before continuing on. The memory of the strangers continued to play out in her head. Riding creatures of such speed compared to their camels, carrying themselves in armor and strange clothes that seemed to be more suitable for far colder climes than theirs, wearing weapons openly rather than keeping them away. It was like they had come from a place of fear, a place of violence. It had scared her, then, and it scared her now.

[i]They are gone,[/i] she told herself, shaking her head as she pushed the thoughts of the pale-skinned people away. [i]They are gone, and they will not be back.[/i]

That was what the village leader had said, at least. He had told them off, said that their town was not meant to be an outpost for anyone. Not even their own kingdom could claim their land like that; why would they allow foreigners to do something that they would not do for their own king?

Bonolo hoped that the foreigners would listen. They looked angry when they had left.

She pushed the thought out of her head, truly this time, and stopped at the edge of town. The small huts - little more than domes to cap off holes in the ground - that served as watchposts for the guards were all over the place, little pitted spots where they kept themselves awake with small fires, little games, and other things. She flicked her eyes from one to another, trying to remember which one her father was assigned to tonight.

Eventually, she picked the one furthest from the village. He had always been one to push his luck, though supposedly there was no danger tonight. It was a precaution, the village leader had said. She wanted to believe that. She really did.

The clay pot rattled again before she got a better grip on it. As soon as she reached the covered hole, she squatted down -

Only to see two shadows under the covering. Her eyes went wide. Her father was assigned to be alone tonight; had someone come visiting?

The fire under the cover went out, and there was a muffled hiss of pain. Bonolo dropped the stew pot, and the sound of it shattering could have woken a hunting party.

“Father?”

Her voice was strangled, barely more than a whisper, but one of the shadows under the covering moved. Clawed fingers poked out of the small gap between it and the ground, and it lifted up.

Something dark, something with faint feathers and scales poked out of the shadows, but it was not until Bonolo saw the gleaming eyes of the creature beneath that she realized what she was looking at.

It was a demon.

“Ah...ah!”

Her screams rose, as if a spell had been broken. She scrambled back, falling over as her sandals came loose, her rough-spun skirt barely any cushion against the hard-packed dirt of the road. She pushed herself back, kicking and crawling as best she could as she raised all manner of noise.

“Demon! Demon!”

Her screams should have raised the soldiers mere paces behind her, but none of the other holes shifted. There was nothing, no one. She screamed again, hoping to catch the attention of the town, but the creature waved one scale-covered hand, chuckling as it did. Her mouth snapped shut, and when she opened it, nothing came out.

The monster stepped out of the pit. Against the moonlight, she could see more of it than she had previously. It had a beak that was cruel and hooked, long enough to run down to its chest when it lowered its head. Features sprouted along the back of its neck, almost like a ruff, but it was bald along the sides and the top of its head. Long arms and long legs made it seem like it was even bigger than it was, dark feathers, like a vulture’s, hanging down from its arms and along its back and belly.

It moved on legs twice the length of hers, spindly-looking and knobbled in the knee, but no less powerful for that. They had an eerie grace as they carried the monster closer and closer to her, its feathered arms ending in fingers with talons and claws. It clicked its beak at her, eyes glowing with dark orange flames.

Bonolo shook her head in disbelief. Demons had never come to her town, not in her lifetime. Her father had told her stories, told her of the deep evil that the demons represented, the hoarding, clasping nature that they had. They were monsters of the worst sort, and they preyed on all those that they could find.

And now, she had become this one’s prey.

[i]No, no, no![/i] she begged, her thoughts echoing around her skull. [i]Please, no, please…[/i]

She wanted to scream, to beg, to do something, but all she could think of was to run. Run before the demon caught her. Run before the monster sunk its talons into her and -

The demon took one more step, and then it could reach her. One long leg kicked her in the chest, pinning her down, and the demon’s talons curled. The pink-ish digits didn’t pierce her flesh, but she felt something else, something almost but not quite solid, sinking into her chest. It grasped her by the heart, and [i]squeezed.[/i]

“...” Her mouth opened in a soundless scream, her back arched from the ground in purest agony. The demon leaned down, clicking its beak, but she heard words in those clicks.

“[b]I came to feast on your warriors...but you...you will be a lovely little treasure to take with me…[/b]”

The demon clenched its talons tighter about her heart, and the pain surged. It was like little knives stabbing into her chest, into her heart and then her lungs. Her skin, already shiny with fear-sweat, pebbled and shone brighter in the distant light of the town torches. Bonolo shook her head, mouthing pleas for mercy, but the demon had none.

It felt like little needles of fire pushing out of her skin as she began to change. Her skin around the demon’s talon-toes began to sprout feathers, spreading out in a slow, black wave from where it gripped her. She felt it, wanted to scream from it, the cursed burning running up to the inside of her throat, down into her stomach, and deep into her lungs.

The demon pulled her up, making her sit up as her body went limp from weakness. She could feel its power seeping through her, and she swore that something inside had come loose, something important.

“[b]They said to kill the warriors and return, to not enter the village. They never said what I had to do to someone that was stupid enough to come outside…[/b]” The demon chuckled in her ear. “[b]I have been meaning to create a new imp...a new minion...you will do nicely…[/b]”

Whatever it was that the demon was pushing through her, she could feel it burning ever brighter beneath her skin. Why she hadn’t passed out, she didn’t know, but she wished she could. Feathers continued to grow along her breasts, over her shoulders and along the top of her arms. The demon’s beak clicked again -

Then, there was the sound of hoofbeats.

Bonolo gasped for breath as the talons pulled back, her heart released. For a moment, she felt that she was sitting up and lying down at the same time, as if there was a way for her to be in two places at once. Then, the disconnect faded, and she was flat on the ground, gasping for breath.

As she tried to collect the air needed to scream, she rolled on her side, and she saw the source of the sound. A camel and rider were coming around the side of the walled town, and the rider was lifting himself up on the camel’s back. He had a bow in one hand, was wrapped in a brown robe and veil, and -

And he had wings.

Her mouth hung open as the stranger leaped from the back of his mount, thrusting himself into the air. He soared as he caught the wind, rising a dozen feet in less than a second. The demon clicked its beak, throwing a hand in the air, but the fireball that flew from its fingers missed the stranger by a foot, or less. The sudden flight had saved the stranger, giving him time to pull back on his bow.

The arrow struck true, hitting the demon in the shoulder. The vulture-like creature stumbled back, only to be hit by a second arrow before the stranger hit the ground, pinning its foot to the earth.

Bonolo had barely managed to get her hands under her as the stranger came running, a third arrow taking the demon in the throat. It went down, gasping, bleeding, but somehow, it wasn’t dead. It wasn’t able to speak, nor was it able to move, but it wasn’t dead.

Then, he was there. He was beside her, kneeling down. His veil hid his face, but she could hear his voice.

“Can you speak?” he asked.

“Y...yus…”

Her voice was weak, guttural, and...and it felt wrong. Like something had changed. Bonolo reached to her throat, squeezing, rubbing, swallowing. She tried to speak again, but it came out wrong. Her voice was hoarse, feeling and sounding ripped apart.

“Wha...what...what…”

Croaking. That was it. She sounded like she was croaking, like she had aged decades in the space of seconds. Coughing, she tried to breathe, only to find it all but impossible to take anything less than deep breaths. Anytime she tried for something shallower, she found herself coughing, gasping.

[i]What’s wrong with me? What is...what happened…[/i]

Her rescuer helped her sit up, holding her for a moment. When she stopped wobbling, he patted her shoulder.

“Wait here.”

“Wha -”

“Wait.”

He walked around her, kneeling down by the demon. The stranger’s veil moved as if he was talking, but she couldn’t hear the words. All she could do was watch as the demon clicked its beak in anger, as the stranger pushed at it, pulling and twisting at the arrows buried in the creature.

Whatever the demon’s ‘speech’ was, the stranger didn’t seem to hear what he wanted. He ripped off the glove he’d been wearing, and she stared.

Human flesh, darkened to the point of deep mahogany, ended below the wrist. From there downwards, he had scales in its place, with fingers ended in blunted claws. He pressed his hand against the demon’s throat, and then a crackling began. The demon squirmed, pulling this way and that, but there was no escape from the inferno already ablaze beneath its flesh. Feathers fanned it, fed it, and the flesh burned from within and without as both layers seemed to catch fire.

The stranger took his arrows back from foot and shoulder, but left the last in the demon’s neck. He sat down beside the burning, flailing corpse, not like he wanted to watch, but almost as if he had to. He sat with the same air of someone that was bound, rather than someone that was interested.

As soon as the demon stopped twitching, Bonolo remembered that she could move. She pushed herself upright, feeling off-balance for a moment, but immediately ran for the other pits. She grabbed the cover on the first one, ripped it off -

Bodies. Two bodies. Both ripped open, both with a narrow hole poked right through their throats.

One by one, she pulled the covers off pits, and in each one, she found the dead. Sometimes one soldier, sometimes two, but always dead, always from a single hole that had been pushed right through the center of their throats. They’d bled out, unable to scream, unable to make a sound as they burbled out their life’s blood.

Soon, there was only the pit her father had been in. She looked back at it, at the strange being that had saved her and killed the demon. Bonolo edged around the road, not taking her eyes off of him as he watched the burning vulture demon, and slowly knelt down by the side of the pit. She feared what she’d see, but she knew she had to look. She had to see if he...if he…

She pulled the cover aside. Her father was there, alright. The stew had rolled across the edge of the pit, falling on his face, his unseeing eyes staring up through the mess. He was gone.

“N-no...nnnnno...no…”

Bonolo struggled to speak, the croaking new voice, the tears in her eyes, everything leading her to fall to her knees.

“I'm sorry,” the stranger said.

“Nnnngh...w...wh...why?” she forced herself to say. “W-why...d-d-do...thhhhis…”

“The demon had no reason. His masters did.”

The stranger got to his feet, shaking his head as he whistled. The camel came at his call, moving swiftly to his side. Bonolo watched as he pulled himself into the saddle, as he looked north.

She swayed on all fours, barely able to hold herself there and not collapse. It wasn’t just the shattering of her world, the death of her father, the death of so many before her eyes. It was something else, something that burned where the demon had gripped her. She could feel it, still, the fire of his touch, the pain that had come from the feathers burning their way out of her flesh, the aching, needling feeling of something gripping her and shaking something loose. She struggled to breathe.

The camel stopped beside her, and the stranger reached down. He grabbed her with a gloved hand, pulling her up to lean against his mount.

“Breathe.”

She tried and failed. It was too much. There was so much...so much…

“Breathe.”

Another attempt, another failure. Shock, pain, everything. The darkness was pushing in, her eyes wet, her face shaking as she struggled to even remain conscious. The stranger slapped her.

“Breathe!”

Finally, she managed a gasp. It set off a coughing fit, but she got that bit of air. Even as she slumped forward, he held her up, pinning her to the side of the camel, keeping her from doubling up on herself. He made her breathe, shouting at her every time that she started to slide away, pulling her back.

“Breathe.” Another gasping thing, but not quite as shallow as before. No longer as cough-inducing. “Breathe.” Another, almost normal, almost what a person would breathe like. “Breathe.”

And finally, a deep one. It settled her heart down, but it didn’t get rid of that dizzying feeling of being in two different positions at once. She felt like she was leaning right and left at the same time, and as she looked up at the stranger, it was almost like looking at two different versions of him, one leaning down and holding her, the other sitting up and looking towards the north.

The one doing the looking was a good bit fainter than the one holding her, too, almost like looking at a ghost.

“What...why…”

“How much?” the stranger asked.

“Wha…”

“How much did he change?”

Bonolo shook her head. She couldn’t speak; it was too hard to speak. She gestured at her chest, instead, pointing with her fingers to a spot under her breasts, about midway between them and her belly, and then back up towards her shoulders. It was a slow tracing motion, and by the time she was done, the stranger was shaking his head.

“Too much to ignore, then. Get on.”

Get on - no. No, she had already lost her family, lost everything else. She wasn’t going to lose her home. The young woman tried to pull away, but the stranger had already gripped her by the shoulder, hopping down to put her over the camel. She struggled wordlessly, shaking her head, but the stranger was relentless.

“Nnnn...nnnng…”

“You’re demon-touched. Even if you can control it, you’re nothing but bait now.”

“Nnnot...g-going…”

“You don’t have a choice.”

“Nnnngh...c-can….”

“You mistake me. I’m not saying you don’t have a moral choice. I’m saying you don’t have one. Now get on the camel.”

She tried to punch him in the face.

He succeeded in punching hers.

#

[i]Floating in darkness, fluttering on winds of unreal flame, she drifted. She felt the weight of her body, but in her chest, around her heart, in the core of her, she felt light. She felt like she could drift and float forever, if she just got rid of the rest of that dead weight.

Bonolo looked around, trying to understand where she was. It was a deep, dark place, where the ground shimmered, where the horizon was nothing but night. It was emptiness, emptiness that was filled with heat and warmth. Not the comforting warmth of the fire or the heat that came from the familiar desert, but an oppressive warmth, the sort that pressed down on the skin and made one feel small, that felt like it was trying to turn you into yet another of the little rolled-up bugs that littered the desert, doing anything to escape it.

It was there that she floated, and there that she felt the urge to give up and give in. It would be so easy to just get rid of all that weight, to feel the lightness in her chest be all that was left. To float forever. To be one more drifting thing.

After all, she had nothing left.

Bonolo almost gave in, but then she felt something else. Something in the dark. Something waiting.

Something hunting.

She flailed, and suddenly, she was no longer flying, but failing. She screamed -[/i]

#

“AAAAGH!”

The cry that ripped from her throat felt like it was trying to rip her voice out at the same time. She sat up, feeling that same disorientation. This time, it came with more than a feeling. When she sat up, she stared straight at the burning campfire at her feet, but she also felt like she was staring up at the stars. It was...it was wrong. It was so wrong.

Desperately, she pressed her hand to her chest, hoping that it was just a dream, that she’d not lost -

No. The feathers were there, and so was the difficulty breathing, the croaking, gasping sounds that came with it. She covered her eyes, waiting for the weird feeling of seeing two things at once to fade, to feel that odd sensation of being in two places at once drift away. Soon enough, she was sitting up, and just sitting up.

[i]The stranger. Where’s the...oh, my face…[/i]

Her cheek ached where she’d been punched, and she bit her lip as she touched it. Oh, it was going to be sore, sorer than it was already. He had given her a damn good knock with that, but nothing was broken.

She opened her eyes, looking around, and then she stared.

There was no mistaking it this time. The stranger was there, lying down beside his camel, but there was something else sitting beside him. It had a faint glow to it, ghostly, as she had thought before. There was no doubt that the stranger himself was asleep, but the ghostly thing turned to look at her. It didn’t smile, but it nodded, acknowledging her.

Bonolo stared with wide eyes, but she didn’t scream until she heard the voice in her head.

[i]You’re still alive. Good.[/i]

The scream ripped through her again, almost pulling out her voice once more. It echoed through the desert around them, and the stranger’s real body finally sat up. The ghostly part faded, and the stranger turned to her with obvious irritation.

“Do you have to scream? I was trying to get some sleep.”

“B-but...nnngh…”

“Your throat will heal. Or rather, you will become accustomed to it. But only if you keep talking. Try.”

“Nnnngh...s-so...haaaaard…”

“That’s because the demon changed you. You’re Demon-Touched now. But you can work through it.”

As he got to his feet with a groan, she finally got a better look at the stranger. He was bigger than her by a head, perhaps more, and he was wrapped in less of a robe and more of a tunic, something ragged and dirty that had been repurposed into something more like a wrapping than proper clothing when it took too much damage. He had the veil around his face, wrapped around him from neck to the top of his head, with only his eyes visible.

She hadn’t noticed before, but his gloves were bigger than any normal human gloves, and she remembered the scales that covered his fingers. As she looked down, she could see that his boots were built similarly. She half-expected to see him with a tail, but that, at least, he lacked.

She pointed at him, then at her.

“Yes, me too,” he said as he sat down at the fire by her side, tossing a stick onto the blaze.

“How...when...did it...happen?” she said, forcing herself to speak slower, to take it one word at a time. It was a bit easier.

“Doesn’t matter. Was a different demon. But works the same way, regardless of what demon gets you.”

“Why…were...you...there?”

“I was hunting him. I knew he was coming out of the north, but there were four towns he could have hit. I was at the wrong one.”

“You...knew?”

“I guessed; that diplomat visited all four villages in one day. I didn’t know which one he wanted most.”

Diplomat. It was a word that they didn’t use, but she knew who he meant. The northerners. The foreigners. The ones that had come down and told them to offer their town as a garrison. She clenched her fists, and the stranger chuckled.

“Good. Keep hold of that. You’re in for a rough week.”

“W...Why?” she said, forcing the word out of her mouth.

“You’re fresh-turned. And the one that turned you will be tempting you every night.”

“You...Killed...Him.”

“No. I just burned his body. I don’t know how to kill them. Not yet.” He tossed another stick in the fire. “Just make sure you last the week. If he gets through, I’ll have to kill you, next. I’m not letting him have a free body.”

Kill - no. No, no, no, that wasn’t happening. She didn’t know what was happening, but this creature, this stranger, obviously hadn’t saved her out of the goodness of his heart. He was Demon-Touched too. For all she knew, he was the evil one. And if he was threatening to kill her -

She lunged for the fire, her fingers almost managing to wrap around a burning stick before he grabbed her wrist.

“You aren’t a killer. I am. Try it, and it won’t be me bleeding out on the sands.”

“You...said...you’d...kill...me…”

“Only if the demon tempted you. So, just be smarter than a demon.”

He squeezed her wrist hard enough to make her let go of the piece of firewood, then released her. Bonolo shook her head, rubbing her hand slightly. The ghostly side of the stranger was just visible out of the corner of her eye, and she swore it was watching her, even though he wasn’t.

The feeling was eerie enough to make her look away. Silence lingered for a few moments more, silence that was as unbearable as the weird feeling in her chest, and the pain of her memories. She needed something, anything.

“Why...are...you...here?”

“At your village?”

She nodded.

“I was hunting the demon.”

“Why?”

“How much do you know about the land up there?” he asked, gesturing towards the north.

She shook her head.

“Well, you’re going to get an education. That’s where we’re going.”

“Why...we?”

“You’re Demon-Touched.”

Bonolo glared at him, gesturing for him to keep going.

“What, they don’t have those down here?”

She shook her head.

“Huh...I guess the rumors were true. Someone really did find a way to stop…” The stranger shook his head. “Demon-Touched. A demon tried to turn you into a lesser demon, but he didn’t succeed. That means you have some of his power in you.”

“In…”

She rested her hand over her heart, over the feathers.

“Yeah, probably. It tends to anchor itself where the demon started the change. Course, getting away before they’re done means that your soul’s jostled loose, too, so that might just be that hanging free.”

Her soul hanging loose? Power of a demon? Bonolo groaned, leaning forward, trying to make some sort of sense of it all, trying to find space for all these new things in her head. Everything she tried only made it hurt more, made her feel even more confused.

Demons hadn’t been seen in her town, in the entirety of the Desert Kingdom, since before she was born. They had been only a story while she was growing up, though some of the men that had gone north said that they were real, that they existed beyond the mountains and in the lower plains. She had never been sure whether to believe them.

But after tonight, she had to believe that they were real, at least.

“You carry the demon’s power. He’s going to want it back, and so he’ll be tempting you in your dreams, trying to make you give it back, to give your body over so that he can come back to this world without waiting to be summoned,” the stranger continued to explain, tossing a few more sticks in the fire. “Even if he doesn’t make you agree, you’re raw, newly-turned. You’re putting off a feeling that any demon will be able to sense for miles. Any of ‘em will make a side-trip to find someone like you.”

“To...turn...me?”

“Or kill you and take the other demon’s power; either way works for them.”

“...You...mean...my people…”

“If you stayed, it would have pulled in a demon looking for food. Best case, it would have killed you and those around you. Worst case, it would have made a town full of demons, all of which would be roaming free in your land.”

Staying there would have ended the ‘peace’ that her people had, the safety that they’d enjoyed from demons belonging somewhere else. Yet, she still wanted to go back. Still wanted to believe that this stranger was lying to her. That had to be the case. He couldn’t...this couldn’t be…

She ran her fingers through the feathers over her breasts, shaking her head in disbelief. The stranger sighed.

“You’re staying with me for now. If nothing else, I can show you how to hide that. Not that hard, but takes a few days to learn. And better learned when you’re not dealing with a demon in your head every night.”

“Why...teach...me?”

“Because I don’t want the demons getting stronger. If one of the others gobbles you up, then that means a harder fight in the future.”

She could understand that. Hell, that was easier for her to believe than a kinder response would have been. The stranger didn’t care about her. All he wanted was for the demons to die. She could understand that. She was starting to feel the same way.

But there was something else, something that she had puzzled together while he was talking. She looked towards the north, at the distant horizon. The memory of the pale visitors popped into her head again.

“They...sent...the demon...to leave...leave my village...defenseless,” she said, forcing every word out no matter how hard it was. “They can...control...the demons...can’t they?”

“Some can. And they are in high demand.”

“Who...did...this?”

“I know the summoner. It won’t take long to find out who paid him.” He shrugged. “If you show any talent, maybe I’ll take you with me. Let you stab him in the eye for this.”

Bonolo was surprisingly tempted. Maybe it was just how angry she was, and how much she was holding onto that anger to not collapse into a puddle. Perhaps it was the demon inside of her, wanting to be angry, wanting to take her from that calm place that she had been. Maybe it was just the chaos of the night, and how she needed something, anything, to feel like she was in control of her life again.

Whatever it was, she nodded.

“I...will...learn.”

“Great. Sleep. You’ll need your rest if we’re going to kill a high priest.”

[b][u][center]The End[/center][/u][/b]

Summary: A young woman is bringing her father dinner one night when a demon and a stranger turn her life upside-down.

Tags: no sex, demon, vulture, human, magic, series, fantasy, transformation, fear, death,