Guess what!! 300K reads, seggsies!! Crazy. Rlly need to come up with some sort of special for that, don't I.

...Not that I've finished the 200K special. 

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"Did we have to do this in the middle of demon-infested woods?" I muttered, stepping over another fallen log. My... escorts... and I had exited the capital and entered deadly demon woods.

"What, I like to think knowing there could be a whole pack of wild demons nearby adds a little...spice." Cozbi elaborated.

"Y'all crazy. I can get behind that." I was saying when Cozbi in front of me suddenly stopped. I stopped too, glancing at the other two demons behind me, who also stood still. "Aight, this the place?" The two demons pulled back their hoods and I, not to my own surprise, met the figures of Aurelia and Benny. "Omg the whole gang here, we can like have a tea party and maybe not de-limb and murder me because that would suck."

I'd agreed to hear Cozbi out, but I had a feeling that my own opinion or feelings would not change whatever these three had in mind. "Alrighty, I'm just gonna sit my lazy ass down, thank you very much." I pulled out a seat on a log, waiting while the other three hesitantly sat down across from me.

"Why is she perfectly calm?" I heard Benny whisper-speak to the other two, only to be kicked in the shin by Aurelia. The air was thick with tension and awkwardness.

"Who's gonna go first? No takers? Alright. My name's Y/N and I'm sitting on a log in the middle of wild demon forest, awaiting an explanation as to why I'm in my current predicament when I could be back in the castle in a warm and fluffy bed awaiting Mujika's home cooked meal in the morning, which, for the record, I would totally kill someone for if it came to it."

Cozbi inhaled sharply. "Y/N, I need you to come with me back to my tribe."

"Why?"

"So we can use you as a bargaining chip."

"For?"

"With Sonju and Mujika."

"For?"

"Well..."

I leaned back in my seat. "What is it you need? Money? Unfortunately, Mujika used most of the monarchy's riches for the capital's repair and to refurbish starving villages..."

"I have no interest in money." Cozbi quipped. "What we need is..." There was a palpable discomfort surrounding the group. "What we need is humans."

My blood chilled. "Why?"

Cozbi's nerves seemed to finally steel. She now spoke with more confidence. "My people are dying. Recently it's been children and elders. But I fear that a few more years, maybe even months, and everyone in my tribe will have degenerated."

"Degenerated?" I sprang up from my seat. "How? What about Mujika's blood? Have you not had any?"

"Mujika's people weren't the only demons with a special gene." Aurelia took up speaking. "Our tribe was once one of the most powerful and peaceful tribes, thanks to our special gift. We could last many years with only a drop of human blood without degenerating. Some could last several hundred. For many years we lived peacefully, even alongside a small tribe of humans we kept safe from the monarchy in return for meek supplies of their blood. Inevitably, the monarchy found out about us, and they tried to destroy all remains of our bloodline, but, as you can see, some of us remained and managed to escape. Our human companions were slaughtered. Our tribe began to worry as we approached the end of our fasting ability."

This time, Benny spoke. "Around then is when Mujika was elected queen. We were relieved to find out there was a peaceful way to keep from degenerating, and accepted her blood gratefully. But shortly after, the first of our young and old degenerated, and we learned that Mujika's blood does not work on us. Since then, we've lost over half of our tribe members to degeneration."

"The only ones left now are the demons in their prime, and a few of our young. Most of us have lost our parents and grandparents. A few have lost younger siblings or children." Aurelia finished. "We have nowhere else to turn."

"When we heard about the disappearance of humans, we sent a formal meeting request to Mujika. But we were tossed aside and ignored." Cozbi nearly spat out that last part. '

Ah.' I thought to myself. 'Around that time, both Sonju and Mujika were swamped with work- and I was a complete mess. They could hardly afford to let likely human-hostile demons into the castle.' "This is why we're resorting to these sorts of measures. We're not sure what exactly Mujika did with the humans, or whether they really managed to cross over to the human world. Originally we were counting on the greed of royals to have secret human stockpiles left, but after meeting those two... we were pretty positive that they weren't capable of such a thing." Aurelia and Benny nodded in agreement.

I took in a deep breath, trying to take in their words. If these demons didn't eat humans, they would die. But eating humans... "I see your predicament." I spoke softly. "However, I can't allow you to eat humans. But-" I continued hastily when Benny leapt to their feet. "I have an idea or two. I'll just need time. If you could trust me, and take me back to your tribe, I could maybe figure out a way we can settle this peacefully."

The demons looked between each other uneasily.

"...alright."

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I followed behind Cozbi, Aurelia and Benny trailing along behind me. Soon day turned into night, and we paused to set up camp. Benny and Aurelia rolled out packs and climbed into them, Cobzi taking the first watch. 

Earlier, Benny had awkwardly attempted to tie me to a tree, to which I responded, "I may be crazy, but I'm not crazy enough to attempt to run away through demon-infested woods alone without my best friend." 

"Best friend?" Benny had asked.

"In this case, I'm talking about the sniper rifle I keep under my bed."

"...Oh." 

And now I sat high in a tree, carefully slipping my packet of herbs back into my concealed pocket. I would have another 12 hours of non-human smelling. I rested one of my hands against the hilt of my saxe knife- Wonderfully enough, my "friends" here are nice enough to leave me armed in this hell of a forest.

I then leaned my head against the trunk and closed my eyes, taking in deep breaths and listening to the ambient noises of the nightime wildlife. I began to rest, ready to spring up at the sound of any abnormalities out of the norm- like the abnormal quiet rustling that came from below me a few hours later.

I shifted in my now fake-sleep, preparing to unsheathe my blade while something climbed up my tree. 

"Hellooo...?" Cozbi's quiet voice whispered as she approached my branch. 

"What." I quipped, shoving my knife back into my sheathe. 

Cozbi spoke as she hoisted herself up onto the branch I was sitting on. "I was going to quietly come up and check if you were sleeping without waking you, but then I realized that sneaking up on you, regardless of whether you're sleeping or not, was probably not a good idea, so here I am..."

"Good choice." I smiled softly. 

"You look pretty comfortable for someone sitting in a tree. You act like a pro when it comes to outdoor survival."

I nodded. "I've had my fair share of camping in this demon-infested forest." I grinned. "Last time I was with good friends though, instead of possibly-hostile and questionably-trustworthy ones."

"The family you were talking about earlier?" 

"A few of them. A bunker dad, my best friend, and- an emo cyclops."

Clearly, my hesitation did not go unnoticed. Cozbi grinned. "Emo cyclops? Tell me more." 

"Absolutely not."

"Just a bit?"

"No way in hell."

"C'mon, I have another hour of night watch left before I can sleep in peace, at least tell me something."

"You go first, and I'll think about it."

Cozbi paused a long while. "Okay... Y/N, have you ever killed someone?"

I blinked. "Well damn, that got dark quickly. But I mean..." I thought back to Andrew's agents, the ones I dragged into the crossfire of the explosion, and the kids I'd left behind at plant 2 I could've taken with me, who ended up being eaten by demons before we made it back, and Peter Ratri... "I guess you could say my actions costed a few people's lives."

"Good people?"

"A few of them, yes. The others... their deaths were necessary for the survival of my loved ones."

"I see." Cozbi paused again. "My best friend is one of the ones I've killed. And my parents. And my little brother." 

I blinked a few times. "Damn." I shook my head. "That's a lot of trauma for you to be dumping on me right now while we sit on this tree branch." I paused. "...That was insensitive. Please, continue."

Cozbi sighed "My brother and mother, it was after they degenerated to wild demons. Some say they weren't themselves anymore anyway, so it didn't really count as killing them. My best friend, on the other hand, I killed moments before she degenerated. She asked me to, and I couldn't bring myself to refuse. My father... was deemed a traitor by our leader. And in order to prove my own loyalty, I was told to kill him"

"For the record, your 'leader' sounds like a total douche."

"Tell me something I don't know." Cozbi snorted. "Anyhow, now that I've delved into my deep pools of trauma, it's your turn."

"I'd be miffed, but I'm too busy feeling bad for you."

"That was the goal."

I sighed. "My family... It's pretty big right about now, I guess. Mostly kiddoes. We've got a few adults now; a bunker dad and his, ahem, not-boyfriend and a milf. ...There was a time I didn't really consider them my family- I admired them, in a way, and I loved them, too. But I never saw myself in their picture; I made myself out to be an outcast. Of course, I figured out eventually that they saw me differently, and made my own way into their picture. They're all good kids, and I'd give the world for any of them."

"What a nice story." Cozbi smiled. "You're still managing to weasel your way out of talking about a certain someone, though." 

I raised my eyebrows. "Oh, hush." I leaned back against the tree and closed my eyes. "I'm too tired for that right now. Isn't it about time you swapped your night watch with one of the others, anyway?"

Cozbi huffed and pushed herself to her feet, brushing off her legs. "Alright, alright. Night, Y/N."

"Night, Cozbi."

And then the wild demon fell from the sky. 

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Ilyy <3333