Critters System

“Tell me... Did it hurt?”

It was the smaller of the two who’d asked the question. Both of them sitting in that forest of greens and purples, dark in the late red afternoon, on the old wooden pier. The lake below them reflected back a city, one painfully familiar to the speaker. The smaller of the two looked like an ordinary human girl aside from the dyed purple hair. The larger of the two had skin the same color as the other’s hair, six muscular arms, and a heavy crown of antler-like horns.

“When?” the demon responded. “When I changed like this?”

“No. When you realized you couldn’t go back.” The girl was barely holding back tears now.

The demon stretched and sighed. “Yeah. That last night at my parent’s place got bad.”

“But not after your change?”

“By that point I knew there was no home left there.” A moment of quiet, only the wind brushing by the leaves made a noise. “And I think... Anyone who gets here has their mind made up. They know where home is, and where it isn’t.”

The girl broke into sobs now, and the demon gently hugged her. Comfort it had needed too, when it sat in her place a lifetime ago.

The skies dimmed. Gentle ambiance of unnatural insects swelled through the air. And as the reflection of that city in the lake dimmed and became a distant memory, the demon walked away from the pier and down the dirt path into the forest. Above it, a winged creature flew along on unfamiliar wings. There was joy and freedom in her motions.