5. Pants-stealing devil

The bonfire in the middle of a circle made of stone burned brightly, illuminating two dried logs, a bunch of damp clothes and a naked form of a girl. She sat against this old, fallen tree, with her knees under her chin. In her hands she held a sketchbook and a slightly sharpened piece of charcoal.

The young researcher just finished another drawing of a drowner and completed a bunch of notes about this beast's kin. Being done with that, she moved on to sketch Chort, the monster she had encountered the day before. She shuddered remembering how disturbing this monster was and how disgustingly he smelled. If she and Lapis didn't take a bath after coming back, she probably would've had a harder time calming down.

Before they just jumped into the pond, their new base of operations, they needed to deal with some things, though. When they were away someone or something brought four long pieces of a dried log. They were arranged in random-looking pattern and it took a lot of time and effort to rearrange them so they would be of any use. In the end, two of them turned into seats and the other two into borders of a makeshift bed. The rest of the evening was filled with building a bonfire and gathering dry sticks and branches both for fuel and for the bed.

Thankfully, the outcome was fully worth all the work. This camp they built was the most comfortable place they stayed in since they first met each other. Peridot could finally wash herself and clean her sweaty clothes while still being able to dry herself off before going to sleep. Although sitting naked just a few meters away from a bathing nymph felt pretty awkward.

Speaking of the nyph… After completing the drawing of Chort's ugly mug, the scientist turned a few pages and half-consciously started to draw her slim, muscular body while half-knowingly staring at the woman-like creature from her warm spot next to the fire. She was doing that pretty often lately and she didn't really know why. Her first and only guess was professional interest but she wasn't quite sure about that.

Maybe she just found the nymph beautiful? She pulled the charcoal away from the page and looked at her drawing with pleased expression on her face. It turned out pretty nice and she was rather proud of it. She was able to capture the nymph's features nearly…

- "What are you drawing?" - she heard a familiar voice from above. A few water droplets fell on her face when she looked up - "That looks really pretty but it's kinda different from how you usually draw" - the nymph's eyes were focused on the freshly filled page.

- "I tried to be… less sciencey about this one…" - Peridot muttered - "I wanted to capture more than just your looks."

- "I can see that. You sketched the water too" - she pointed at the picture. After a moment, she straightened up and stretched her limbs while yawning.

- "Are you going to sit down and dry a little?" - the researcher asked trying to not look at her companion. She clearly didn't mind but for someone raised in strict environment the entire situation was awkward at best.

- "Do I have to?" - she whined. It caught the scientist a little off-guard but she wasn't planning to just give up.

- "I don't want you going to sleep all wet" - Peridot said. When she thought about it for a second, she decided that it probably didn't make any sense - "It would… It would be weird."

- "Okay, if you insist" - Lapis laughed before sitting on the log right next to the girl. She stretched her legs a bit.

It was nearly too much for the poor researcher who started to blush like crazy. Thankfully, it was barely visible in the warm light of the fire.

- "We need to get some more clothes for me…" - she said after a few minutes of silence - "And maybe a blanket or at least a bedsheet or something like that."

- "Why?"

- "I just don't want to end up half-naked. What if my clothes got really dirty? Or wet? Or all torn up?" - she explained - "The blanket would be really useful on colder nights."

- "Do you have any ideas on how to get those?" - Lapis asked. She looked at the small frame of her companion. Her blonde hair were still pretty damp and a bit less messy than usual.

- "The village, I guess?" - the young scientist shrugged - "Though, we would need to go there at night because I don't want to get caught by the guards or something."

- "We can go near the edge of the forest and check out how to do that tomorrow" - the nymph said after a small nod - "Maybe we will find something interesting on our way?" - she smiled brightly. Getting close to the settlement was even more dangerous for her but she didn't really care. Her life was pleasantly busy since she met this weird girl and she wasn't about to just abandon her.

- "That sounds like a plan…" - she nodded and picked up her sketchbook - "I think we should go to sleep."

Since Lapis wasn't planning on doing anything else this evening, she agreed and quickly put on her dress before sitting down on a log to watch her companion. She found herself pretty interested in humans lately, despite seeing quite a lot of them in her life. This was mainly because the young researcher was quite unusual both in appearance and in behaviour. She was, after all, educated and friendly to non-human creatures. And she never even tried to force the nymph to do something against her will which was probably the most important.

They went to sleep less than ten minutes later. Before laying on the pile of sticks and moss, they first doused the bonfire with water from the pond. After all, they were in the middle of the forest.

No matter how hard she tried, the sea was out of her reach. She could only look at the infinity of blue and listen to the waves as her every little movement made the chains around her wrists dig deeper into her skin. For every step of hers, something pulled her backwards. The harder she fought, the more restrained she was.

But she couldn't stop. She couldn't give up. The sea was calling her. She wanted to jump in and be free. To go back to the life she had before. And because of that, she didn't stop fighting for even a second. Pulling, jumping, thrashing around and finally falling on her knees and crawling forward with all her might, she managed to get to the cold, wet sand, despite feeling like her hands were going to be torn off.

She got snatched back before she could even touch the water.

The landing was unexpectedly rough. Instead of sand, there was stone floor. She felt like if someone was beating her for last few hours - every single muscle and tendon in her body was pulsating with blinding pain and her bones were like red-hot metal rods. She could barely breathe let alone moving. There was literally nothing she could do beside laying on the floor motionless.

Suffering.

Listening.

Waiting.

She couldn't even imagine the situation getting worse until she heard footsteps. They were loud and they were getting closer and closer with every second.

A strong hand grabbed her by the throat and lifted her up like a rag doll.

Peridot woke up in the middle of the night. Or rather someone woke her up. With a lot of mumbling, groans and restless shifting. For a few minutes she tried to fall asleep but it didn't work. She spend another few minutes collecting her thoughts while staring at a log that she was laying right next to.

She finally decided to wake up her companion. She deduced that the nymph was probably having nightmares since this was the first time she acted like that while sleeping. After sitting up and stretching a bit, she looked at Lapis just to instantly freeze in place.

Right there, less than twenty centimeters from her face, kneeling on the top of her companion's chest was something. Hunched over, ashy skinned thing with small, pointed ears and rather androgynous appearance. Its legs were slightly longer than normal compared to its torso and its arms, while of normal length, were armed with sharp claws. Its face looked like face of a sculpture made by some common stonemason rather than an artist. Right above its forehead there was a mass of something that looked like hair but had the same colour as the skin, weird texture and were growing into the back of its skull. The weirdest thing about this creature was the fact that its body was partially translucent.

Despite the researcher's movement and all the noise it caused, the monster's gaze was completely focused on the nymph's head. Its empty, black eyes moving as if it looked for something. At some point, its narrow lips parted, revealing a long, pointy tongue and an unexpected lack of teeth.

That was a little too much for the young scientist. Raising up to her knees, she took a swing and slammed her tiny fist right into creature's rough face.

- "Leave my friend alone!" - she screamed dramatically hoping to wake up the nymph.

Unfortunately, it didn't do much. Peridot's fist didn't hurt at all which was unexpected but the monster was completely unmoved. It didn't even look at its attacker. Instead of that, it focused its gaze on one point on the nymph's neck and pressed its sharp claw on her pale blue skin. The scientist gasped when a few drops of dark blood rolled down her companion's neck.

Without hesitation but nearly tripping on the makeshift bed, the girl jumped up and went running towards her bag. Ignoring the cold that was radiating from the ground and the chilly breath of the summer night that was filling her lungs, she reached her things and quickly searched for her sword. Pulling it out of its sheath proven to be pretty difficult with hands as shaky as her were but she somehow managed to do it without hurting herself.

She nearly dropped her weapon when she looked back at Lapis. The beast was now sucking at the previously created wound while the nymph was still asleep. Somehow, all the fear that was accompanying Peridot until now just disappeared. The way the monster was holding Lapis down just made her so furious. This new, weird anger filled her mind completely as she charged at the creature. A wide, horizontal cut connected with the top of the gray skull, sliced through it and lodged itself into the middle of the ashy, translucent back.

Or at least it seemed like it.

If that was a human being, the sword would probably stop on the skull as the researcher lacked the strength to cut through or shatter the bone. Even if it somehow did penetrate the skull, the blow would be most likely lethal. Hell, even the blow to the back would probably be pretty nasty.

But despite all of that, the monster seemed to be alright. Treating the blade as if it was air, it jumped back on its long legs. For the first time, it looked straight at Peridot. Its eyes were dark and empty but its expression was clearly hostile. For some reason it didn't attack, though. Instead, in a blink of an eye, it changed into a marten and disappeared between the trees.

The researcher dropped her sword and panted heavily. Confused, she let her anger slowly go away while she wondered what in the name of Diamonds just happened. She would probably just stand there for a while but a weak groan forced her to stop resting. Without wasting a second, she rushed to her companion and kneeled down at her side. The nymph was slightly more pale than usual and there was a small wound on the side of her throat. She slowly raised on her hands.

- "What happened?" - she asked, her voice feeble - "I feel kinda dizzy…"

Peridot didn't answer. Instead, she hugged her waist, making her fall back on the makeshift bed. She was really happy that Lapis seemed alright. After all - what would she do without a companion like her?

- "Ouch…" - the nymph groaned quietly but quickly returned the embrace - "Seriously, though. What happened?"

It took maybe five minutes for the researcher to tell the entire story. Lapis patiently listened the entire time. Partially because she was interested but mostly because she was too tired to think of anything to ask about. She was also a little bit confused about a few memories that she couldn't quite remember.

- "So… What do you think was that?" - the young scientist asked after finishing her story.

- "A mare, I guess…" - she said weakly.

- "A mare? Like a night-mare?" - Peridot could swear that she read about that somewhere. Probably in a book from some noble's private collection since according to the law, mares never existed. That meant mainly that nobody bothered to print such books anymore and that most of libraries got rid of them long ago. It would probably make her really worried about the future of her own book but something way more important distracted her - "Are you okay?" - she asked. Lapis was clearly having a rather bad time. She was visibly upset - Did you have a nightmare? - her companion only nodded - "Do you want to talk about it?"

- "No…" - she said while shaking her head.

Left without any better ideas, the researcher just hugged the nymph closer. Soon, they both fell asleep.

A loud yawn greeted the rising sun with a small steam cloud that quickly disappeared in the cold air of the morning. The rooster from nearby village just finished its crowing and the only people that were awake were the hard-working villagers and one of the baroness' elite soldiers.

While for most of the peasants that was completely normal, Jasper's handpicked thugs weren't expected to be such an early birds. They were always eating meals with their boss so they just needed to wake up when she did. Unfortunately, sometimes there were matters far more important than a comfortable sleep schedule.

Matters like getting rid of a dead licensed healer - the only person in both village and the castle that could legally use magic and magical items. Imagining the reaction of everyone to the news of this woman's demise was truly frightening. Will there be an uprising of peasants? Will the soldiers rebell?

No… they were too afraid of the baroness.

But the village dwellers might get some funny ideas. It may end up bloody. Additionally, if a lot of peasants died, there wouldn't be enough people to make food.

The short woman sighed as she entered the main gate. She really needed to somehow cover up last night's events. Maybe a monster attack? Bandits attack? An unfortunate accident? 'That sounds way too suspicious…' she thought.

She was able to cross the courtyard without being disturbed. It seemed that all the guards were still asleep. 'Lazy bastards' she took a mental note that she will need to make the soldiers work a little harder - she felt a little bit uneasy that in such a busy time the castle was left unguarded.

Thinking about all those things to do, she arrived at her destination - the baroness' room. She then got a key out of her pocket and silently opened the door. Opening it gently, she peeked inside, wishing to see her master.

The giant woman wasn't on her bed. She was lying in the middle of the cold, stone floor, curled up.

Navy clenched her fist and closed the door.

- "Hey."

Something small, cold and wet hit her cheek. And then again. And again. Then it moved down her face, side of her neck and slipped off its back. She opened her eyes slightly, ready for a least some sunlight to blind her but she didn't find any. There was only a neat, blueish oval of a face and a bunch of hair, heavy from moisture, swinging in front of her nose.

- "Wake up" - the blue lips moved slightly, briefly flashing rows of white teeth and a tip of a nearly purple tongue.

- "I think that I was just lying with my eyes closed for the entire night…" - Peridot said slowly. She could feel the warm breath of the nymph on her skin.

What she said was kind of true. Since the attack, she was constantly waking up, not being able to catch a lot of sleep. The fact that something sinister could just sneak into their camp and harm them made her really anxious.

- "What do you want for breakfast?" - asked Lapis before standing up and stretching. Her naked form made the young scientist slightly uncomfortable. She wondered if her companion ever felt ashamed of her lack of clothing because she sure didn't seem like it.

- "What are my options?"

- "Berries" - the blueish woman grinned.

Peridot groaned quietly and sat up. Despite not sleeping through the night, she didn't really feel that tired. For now at least. It was highly probable that she will be exhausted in no time. But before that, she needed to at least take care of all the morning routines. She took her clothes and went towards the pond while snacking on some berries.

After a while both girls were dressed and read to go. They once again discussed their plans for the day and decided to go to the forest's edge and spy on the villagers. They hoped that it would help them with planning a supply raid.

The trip to the wood's edge was fairly uneventful. Even near the village, there was no one wandering the forest. Lapis wondered if something happened to the local forester since he should probably be hunting yet was nowhere to be seen. Only visible people were working on the fields that separated the forest from a bunch of small, grayish buildings that probably were a lot more white in the past.

- "It's further away than I remembered" - Peridot peeked out of the bushes - "Though, it was dark back then…"

- "Running there will be pretty scary" - the nymph sounded rather absent-minded.

- "Before running, sure" - she nodded - "But when you are already in motion? You're just running and nothing else matters. Your fear would actually give you a boost."

- "Really?"

- "Yeah. One of my teachers said that when humans are scared, their bodies might get better at running away or fighting" - the researcher looked back at her companion - "Or you'd just start trembling with fear. Nobody knows why."

- "Huh... Does nymphs work like that too?" - Lapis asked, suddenly a lot more lively.

- "Uhh… Right…" - she remembered that her friend happened to not be a human - "I don't know. Have you ever felt like that? Like if your strength got boosted when you were in danger?"

- "I guess…"

- "Then we might be similar in that aspect" - the young scientist smiled sweetly before turning back towards the village - "Hey! Look there!"

She pointed a finger at one of the buildings on the left side of the settlement. Someone just came out of it and started hanging clothes and bed sheets on a drying rope of some sorts. White pieces of cloth were moving a little, pushed by the wind.

- "You think it's gonna stay like that through the night?" - the nymph raised an eyebrow.

- "I hope so!" - Peridot said with determination after hiding behind the bushes once again - "I mean… the nights are pretty warm around here…"

- "Well… They might be afraid that someone will steal their things" - Lapis smirked.

- "Worst case scenario, I'll go into their home while they sleep" - the young woman was determined to get some clothes she could sleep in or use when her own would got dirty or damaged.

For a while the two girls just sat behind the plants, constantly peeking out to observe the village and bantering silently. The noon was getting close and it was getting pretty warm. The gentle wind was chasing a bunch of small cumulus clouds over the heads of working peasants.

- "Do you have any plans on how to spend time between now and the sunset?" - the nymph asked. She was getting restless and really wanted to do something.

- "Umm…" - the researcher scratched her chin - "We can…"

She didn't finish her sentence because suddenly something jumped into the forest while making an awful lot of ruckus. Bushes were rustling, random sticks were getting loudly smashed and a weird, goat-like voice was swearing like a sailor.

- "What the hell?!" - the half-human figure stumbled a few meters away from them - "Who the fuck even does that? Disgusting! Absolutely atrocious!" - the creature loudly expectorated and spat on the forest bedding. Peridot cringed a little. This situation somehow reminded her of her time at the university.

The young scientist send a questioning look towards her companion. Lapis only shrugged in response. While rude, the newcomer wasn't looking very dangerous. On the other hand, it was the first time the nymph ever seen this guy so her expertise was rather questionable. Peridot didn't know better, though, and proceeded with a greeting protocol.

- "Um… Hello?" - she said while slowly rising from her hiding place. The creature noticed her immediately and its human face froze in terror.

It was wearing a simple vest that barely covered its slim abdomen and chest while not covering its fur covered legs at all. Said legs didn't look human in the slightest. Being some sort of a caricature of goat's legs, they bended in two places and ended with a hoof. The head also had some inhuman elements. Two stumpy horns were sticking out from the ruffled, brown hair and a pair of long, floppy ears were hanging from its face's sides. The sight of a human-like physiognomy without familiar round ears was quite bizarre.

- "I was… I mean… I wasn't…" - the creature uttered while looking like it was about to start choking on its own tongue - "Are you from the village?"

- "No?" - the confused scientist answered - "I kinda live in the forest right now…"

- "Oh thank fuck!" - it nearly dropped a bottle of wine it was hiding behind its back. The relief was probably caused more by the presence of the nymph who just peeked out from the bushes than by the human's answer - "What were you doing down there?" - it raised its eyebrow.

- "Spying on the village" - the researcher stated without a moment of hesitation. Lapis didn't say anything. She was too busy coughing and trying not to laugh at the same time - "Are you okay?"

- "Yeah…" - her eyes were full of tears, corners of her mouth curled up. She tried not to look at her companion.

- "What for?" - it asked before opening the bottle and sniffing its contents - "I'm Knesmug by the way. What're your names?"

- "I'm Peridot and this is Lapis" - she pointed at her blueish friend - "We need to steal some clothes" - she decided that it was probably safe to say in such company. As far as she knew, fauns weren't usually against such immoral practices. She also hoped that she guessed the creature's species correctly.

- "Don't bother" - the faun cringed - "Those clothes are probably soiled. Like everything. Even this wine sucks. They fucked everything up again…"

- "What do you mean?" - the nymph asked after finally collecting herself.

- "They did something" - he winced - "Now everything around there smells and sticks to your fur like fucking honey" - he once again spat on the ground. The researcher was pretty sure that he managed to hit the same exact place - "But back to you, lass. Do you plan on sneaking into their homes in the night or something?"

- "I… um… I thought that maybe somebody would leave their laundry on the drying rope…" - the scientist looked at her shoes.

- "Well, they definitely won't" - he laughed and took a big sip from the bottle. He gagged for a while before continuing - "Fuckers ain't that stupid…"

- "So I'll…"

- "But!" - he cut her off - "But what if they forgot to hide it? You see, I can help them out a little in forgetting to do something like that."

Both girls stared at him for a few moments. They both still remembered the encounter with the Chort.

- "Would you really do something like that for free?" - Lapis asked slowly.

Knesmug grinned and throw the half-full bottle away.

- "This wine was awful" - he sticked out his long, cherry-coloured tongue - "And I'm a very spiteful creature."

- "You think it's gonna work?" - Peridot finished packing her notebook into her bag. After spending pretty much the entire day in the company of a faun she wasn't sure about him being able to do anything, let alone something paranormal. He wasn't completely useless, though. He managed to remind them about the summer solstice that was supposed to happen on the very next day and informed them about changes in the villagers' behaviour. They were way more nervous than normallyl and apparently it was caused by whatever the village dwellers did that was irritating Knesmug so much.

- "No idea" - the nymph answered - "It's the first time I've ever seen this guy."

- "Well… I hope it will" - the researcher took a deep breath - "I don't want to go there to find nothing."

- "You really want to go there alone?" - Lapis asked for a fourth time.

- "Yes. And yes, I'm sure" - she smiled - "If you stay here, you'll be able to come and rescue me if something bad happens" - that was only partially true. The young scientist decided to by herself mostly because she was concerned about her companion. The nymph seemed rather uneasy when they talked about this entire operation earlier. She figured that her companion might have been afraid of humans.

- "Okay… But be careful out there! I heard that if they catch somebody stealing something, they'll cut the thief's hands off" - Lapis warned her.

- "They won't catch me" - the researcher grinned and put her bag into her companion's hands - "Hold onto that for me, please. I won't take long."

After saying that, the girl peeked out of the bushes and looked at the settlement. The last lights were long gone and only the half-moon and thousands of stars were keeping the area from being completely hidden in the darkness. A bunch of white shapes right next to one of the buildings showed that the faun wasn't lying.

Peridot smiled to herself, feeling more nervous than ever, and jumped out of her hiding. The fall was a little bit longer than she anticipated but she managed to safely land right next to the wall of wheat. It was high enough to tickle her belly but it wasn't going to stop her. Without hesitation, she run into the field and towards the left side of the village.

Running through the farmland was hard and exhausting. She nearly tripped on the unnaturally shaped ground and the night critters moving beneath her feet made her heartbeat faster. This trip soon turned out to be uncomfortably long. At some point she even had a feeling that her destination was getting further and further away with her every single step.

Thankfully it was only an illusion. A figment of imagination created by a stressed out brian. She managed to calm down a bit after arriving at the village's hedges.

Looking around, she realised that it was the first time she was seeing the crooked buildings from such a short distance. The settlement was old and ugly. The grayish plaster was crumbling away, the straw roofs were in an awful condition and the paths between the buildings were muddy despite of a rather dry season. Random little benches were littering spaces in front of pretty much every homestead and the fences were in no condition to protect anything.

Soon, she noticed the building with the drying rope and started walking in its direction. It was no bigger or better looking than any other. There was a bench on the right side of its doors and a small shed-like structure used to store the firewood on its right side. The shed's doors were partially opened, revealing that it was halfway filled with wood. The researcher was pretty sure that she could easily fit in the remaining space and still close the doors if such a necessity appeared.

Leaving all the frightening thoughts about getting caught, she cautiously walked towards the drying rope. There wasn't a lot to choose from and all the laundry was covered in stitches and patches but she wasn't really in a position to criticize. Starting with two large bedsheets, she completed her crime. She took some trousers, two linen shirts and a neatly decorated dress, folded them nicely and wrapped them in the sheets.

With the stolen goods held closely to her chest, she started to make her way back but suddenly something caught her attention. A sound of slow steps, mucking of the mud. Something was coming from the village and Peridot didn't waste a second.

Being way too far from the field, she jumped towards the shed, opened it and climbed on the pile of wood. Somehow, she managed to not make a lot of noise and not destabilize the pile too badly. She closed the door, leaving only a small gap and waited in silence, her prize pressed against her mouth.

The steps grew closer and soon drowned out the noise of the researcher's heartbeat. Anxiously, Peridot leaned towards the slit and tried to see something in the darkness before silently gasping.

There was a monster outside of her hiding.

It had a rather slim and short body, covered in a woman's clothing. Its face was partially covered by a shawl but the researcher could still see its long horns, dog-like ears and a beak-like structure sticking out of its face. The creature was walking on a pair of hen's legs, yet its hands were surprisingly human-like.

Despite being quite small, the monster had an aura of malice. It definitely wasn't there to steal some trinkets or piss into the well. Stealing dreams and drinking blood was way more plausible. Or taking children away. Peridot wondered if she could be counted as a child since she didn't really see herself as an adult.

Thankfully, she wasn't able to test that - the monster didn't linger in front of the shed for too long. The noise of its steps got quieter and soon completely disappeared into the silent night. Only a barely audible sound of doors being opened and closed acted as an answer to an unasked question: where did the monster go?

The young scientist, trembling with fear, opened the shed and carefully jumped down from her hiding place. Feeling a giant lump in her throat and her heart trying to free itself from her chest, she started running towards the fields. After easily jumping over a fence, she landed waist-deep in wheat. This time she was able to completely ignore all the little creatures squirming under her feet.

They weren't as scary as the hundreds of inhuman eyes that were glued to her back for the entire time she was running through the farmlands.

Somehow, in her blind escape, she was able to find the place when she had left Lapis. After jumping into those familiar bushes, she immediately dropped her loot and fell into arms of the confused nymph, tears crawling down her cheeks. It was probably the first time she cried out of fear in her officially adult life.

- "Are you okay?" - the blueish woman sounded genuinely concerned. She put her hands on Peridot's shoulders and looked at her closely - "Did something happen?"

- "There… There was a monster…" - she sobbed - "And it w-went into the bu… building. And… And then I ran but there w-was something lu… looking at me…"

Lapis nervously peeked out of the bush and quickly scanned the farmland but she didn't see any movement. She hugged her companion closely.

- "Calm down" - she whispered to the girl's ear - "There's nothing out there, you are safe."

At least they didn't slept directly on a bunch of branches and pieces of moss that night.

Well... that was an awfully long break. Sorry for that. Now, though, I'll have more time to write since the lectures and exams on my university mostly ended and my graphics card died.

I hope you liked this chapter - share your thoughts and opinions in a review. The next one will be ready "soon".

~MS