Into The Abyss (Demons of Astlan) (35 page)

Tick tock tick tock.  How long could he hold it?  It was
beginning to remind him of having to hold his bladder, only worse.  He'd held human form now for almost three hours.  Neither he nor Rupert had gotten any sleep last night. He'd kept practicing his human form throughout the night.  The first ten times had been real difficult. Eventually however, he learned enough tricks to hold it without turning back whenever something shocked him.  After Rupert was able to successfully kick him in the shin without him losing control and turning back, they'd decided they could take some chances.  They needed to, they had several details to work out.

For one thing, Tom needed clothes. These they found in the wardrobe in the other room.  Tom hoped the priest wouldn't notice him wearing his clothes.  The other problem was how to explain Tom.  They couldn't call him Tom, that would be too
blatant, so he suggested they use his middle name, Edward.  Rupert liked the idea and started calling him Edwyrd.  Secondly, how to explain his presence.  Rupert came up with the cousin idea.  Unfortunately, if that were to be the case, they'd have know something about the city.  Since dawn had just arrived, they decided to wander about.

Actually the thought had made Tom nervous, but he'd have to go out some time, better with just him and Rupert rather than with all of them.  Tom had gone back to demon form to rest for a little while, then changed back.  They
’d snuck out, making sure all the others were still asleep and wandered the city.

Actually, it wasn't that incredibly large of a city.  It wasn't that incredibly savory of a city either, but then Tom had little to judge cities in Astlan by.  Tom, or Edwyrd didn't have much spare attention to pay to the city
in any event.  Every other second was spent on concentrating on his human form.  He really didn't want to lose it in the middle of the street.

One problem they'd quickly realized was lack of currency.  Rupert had a couple copper pennies, but that was all.  Edwyrd, naturally, had none.  It would also be doubtful that either Jenn or
Gastropé would have any either, having just been prisoners.  They'd need money to at least get some supplies.  Further, if this Gizzor Del as they discovered its name, was far from Freehold, they'd need horses for Jenn and Gastropé and probably a wagon for Edwyrd and Rupert since Rupert was scared of horses and it was doubtful if the horses would like Edwyrd.

It was unfortunate, but Tom doubted that he could just carry all three of the wizards and fly.   If they could ditch
Gastropé then he could take Jenn and Rupert, one in each arm, if she'd allow it.  With three, though, he was afraid he'd drop one.  Unfortunately, he wasn't sure he could convince Jenn to abandon the idiot wizard in a strange city.  Actually, he wasn't sure he could agree with it either.  It wasn't as bad as just killing him, but the thought did kind of bother him.

Eventually they had returned to the little church place and found everyone awake.  It was then the fun began for Edwyrd.  He was really nervous that under close scrutiny these guys would figure out who he was.  If they didn't believe him, then he
was afraid their disbelief might keep him from holding form before others in the city.  Edwyrd suspected that Gizzor Delians would be much more upset by his form than even Jenn or Gastropé.  Thus it was that Edwyrd stood there while Jenn paced up and down trying to figure out where they were.  Edwyrd hoped she wouldn't return to asking him questions, he didn't have a clue to the local geography.

"Our other problem," Rupert said, causing Jenn to halt her pacing, "is money, Edwyrd here, just spent the last of his funds on his apple and I don't have anything but pennies.  Do you guys have any?"

Jenn frowned and shook her head.  Gastropé just pulled his tattered pockets inside out.  Actually, if they weren't going to attract too much attention, they'd have to get Jenn and Gastropé new clothes as well.  Their current ones were rather ragged and singed.  Edwyrd just shook his head as problems mounted.

~

"Maybe the priest has some," Gastrope' suggested.  "They are always taking collections."

"But that's for their god..." Jenn protested.

"Who needs it more now? His god or us?  Besides if his god is one of the good guys, the money should be for the poor and indigent.  I think we all fit in that category at the moment."  Gastropé pointed out.  He walked over to the priest.  "Any money priest?" he asked as he pulled down the gag.

"Tiernon shall protect me, his sword and his shield shall enfold me."

"Well you can enfold yourself all you want later, just answer my question or I'll enfold you inside out."  Gastrope's right hand started to glow.  Jenn grimaced at Gastrope's trick of using Were Light to threaten the priest. 

The priest turned whiter.  "In the big robe
’s pockets in the wardrobe."  Gastrope' regagged him.  Jenn walked over to the wardrobe.  Strange, it didn't seem like there were as many clothes in there as last night.  She must have been more tired than she thought.  She reached into each of the pockets in the only robe left.  In the back pocket she found a small green pouch.  She took it out.

Pulling its mouth apart, she gently poured three gold coins and nine silver ones onto her hand.  Not a lot, but hopefully enough.  She showed the others. 
Gastropé nodded and looked down at the priest.  "Thank you for your donation, gentle sir."  A lot of his courage had come back now that the demon was gone, and he was away from Exador.  "Now you could perhaps tell us how to get to Freehold from here?"  He brought the intensity of light on his hand back up into the visible range as he removed the gag again with his other hand.

"Don't know.  I...I...never heard of the place."

"Never heard of the place."  That gave Gastrope' pause.  If a supposedly educated priest had never heard of Freehold, it couldn't be too close. 

"Turelane?"  The priest shook his head.  "What about the wizard Exador?  You ever hear of him?"  The priest was about to shake his head, then stopped and thought for a moment.

"North and east, I think.  I'm not sure though.  He came to visit  Duke Swery about four years ago."  Gastropé  looked over to Jenn.

"Well it's something.  Maybe we can find a sage with a map.  Look," she turned to Edwyrd, "you're Rupert's cousin you should know where he lived."

Edwyrd took a moment, "I know where he lived before he went off to school."

"Oh."  Unfortunately, Jenn didn't know where that was.  It wasn't clear to her that a little kid like Rupert would know how to make the necessary coordinate translations between the school and his old home.  It would probably just be easier to find a sage.   "Ok, gag him again.  I guess we'll go look for a sage.
”  Gastropé complied.

"What are your plans
? You said you were passing through," Jenn asked Edwyrd.

"Well, since he seems to somehow have gotten
separated from his teachers, I feel it's my duty as his cousin to make sure he gets back safely."  Edwyrd responded, also starting to pace slightly.

"So you're coming with us."

"Looks that way."  Edwyrd smiled rather shyly.

"Fine.  Now we've got to go out and get supplies and directions.  The problem is, I don't want to leave the priest alone."

"I can watch him," Edwyrd volunteered.  Tom really didn't want to go back outside again so soon.  He was afraid he was going to lose it any moment.  If these guys would all leave, he could go into the kitchen away from the priest and turn back into his true form. 
True form!  Aaaggghhh
, Tom thought. 
What's happened to my mind?  This is my true form, not the demon one.

Gastropé
looked at Edwyrd closely.  "Aren't you even going to ask why we have a priest tied up in his own temple? Before offering to guard him?" Gastropé asked suspiciously.

"Well...Rupert explained to me that he was this evil priest that had captured you after his henchmen attacked your caravan and killed a bunch of the people.  You managed to turn the tables on him and now had him tied up so you could get away.  Isn't that what happened?"  Edwyrd asked, as if trying to confirm Rupert's story.

"Close enough," Jenn said, trying to cut Gastropé off before he gave too much away.  "Rupert, do you think it's a good idea to leave the priest with Edwyrd?"

"I'd trust my cousin here, with my life.  The priest won't get away while we're gone."

"Ok then," Jenn looked to Gastropé for agreement.  He just sort of shrugged, apparently having nothing else to offer.  "You wait here for us, with the door locked behind us."  She said to Edwyrd.  "We'll be back in an hour or so and we'll knock like this," she demonstrated.  "Don't untie him for anything."

"Sure."  Edwyrd said, looking a little less tense for the moment.  Jenn went and opened the door carefully, looking to make sure they weren't observed.  She
motioned for the others to precede her out the door.  When they had, she said "bye," to Edwyrd and shut the door behind her.

Tom went to the door and put the bar across it.  He looked over at the priest who was staring at him with pleading in his eyes.  "Sorry," Tom said.  "But I've got my instructions.  How can I trust you after what my cousin says you did?"  The priest shook his head.  Tom shrugged an apology and went into the kitchen.

As soon as he was out of sight of the priest, Tom started to relax.  The change hurt still, but not quite so bad.  Suddenly, Tom realized he had a problem.  His clothes!  Already his legs were constricted in the pants, and the shirt had come untucked by his growing taller.  He concentrated on halting the process.  It wasn't easy and the breaches creaked as if the stitches were about to give way, and then it stopped.  Concentrating on his human form as hard as he could, he felt the clothing get looser again. 

Heaving a sigh of relief, he quickly stripped the clothes off into a pile. 
Finally,
Tom thought and let the change occur.  He gritted his teeth, but the pain almost felt like pleasure, this time he controlled it a little better.  He changed slower, less abruptly.  Finally he could completely relax.  He was himself, or rather, he corrected sadly, he was his demon self.

This was really bothering him.  This horrid demon form just felt so much better.  Even now, not under any pressure, just thinking of trapping himself in that flimsy little white bag of flesh that was his old body made him feel uncomfortable.  Why?  A week ago, he'd have thought that's all he wanted.  Actually, even now, he'd love to go back to his normal old life.  At least he thought he did.  It was just that his old body was so weak, so flimsy.  Actually, he thought, and this really disturbed  him, it was rather ugly. 
Ugly? Like who should talk.  This demon form was monstrous, as a human he at least looked normal.
  Why then, did he all of the sudden find normal so repellent?

Tom rested his head in his hands.  Looking down at the pile of clothes on the floor, he thought how lucky he'd been not to rip them to shreds like the Incredible Hulk.  A thought struck Tom suddenly.  He looked at the clothes, he looked down at his body, his demon body.  He was naked!  He'd been running around naked all this time as a demon!  It had never even occurred to him!  Here he'd gone out in public, flown around, hung out with a girl! naked!  Even now he was sitting here in the nude, and other than the fact that he didn't want someone walking in and seeing a demon, he didn't care if they saw
him without any clothes!

Tom was shocked.  Not by his nudity, but by the fact that he didn't care about it, not before, not now.  Intellectually, he knew he should be embarrassed to have people see him naked. Well, not exactly embarrassed.  He
gave a small smile of pride looking down between his legs.  Not embarrassed at all. 

Humor aside, he should feel uncomfortable naked, he always had before, now he no longer did.  It was like he had no shame.  Kind of like Adam and Eve before the apple, he thought suddenly.  He supposed, though, that at least for the
sake of others, he should put something on, even as a demon.  Looking down at the clothes however, he remembered how strange they'd felt, even on his sickly, oversensitive human skin.  They'd been most uncomfortable.  Not as uncomfortable as the thought of wearing something now in demon form, but they hadn't been pleasant.  At the time though, the sensation of needing to blow up had overwhelmed him and he hadn't noticed the additional discomfort.

He tossed around the idea of a loin cloth, but even that sounded kind of restraining and unnatural.  He'd only be wearing it for others, and they hadn't objected before.  Actually, his demonic privates hanging out in the wind probably didn't disturb humans as much as simply his overall demonic presence did.  He guessed it would be kind of like trying to cover up one part of a giant toxic landfill in your backyard with a throw rug.  Actually, it was also a
moot point for the moment, since he was planning on only going out in public in Edwyrd form.  Edwyrd would have no choice, society would demand clothes on him.  Not to mention the fact that his tepid looking skin would probably get sun burned and otherwise damaged without clothes. 

That was really one of the nice things about his own nice burgundy colored hide.  Not only didn't he get sunburned, he didn't really feel hot or cold unless he was trying to.  He also usually didn't feel swords
, daggers and spears either.   Dragon blood and other demons hurt, but not much of anything the humans had thrown at him even bothered him.  He almost had to laugh at the guy in Exador's camp who whacked him with the sword.  Poor fellow didn't stand a chance in hell.  Literally.