I was stunned. How did he take this so easily?
But at the same time, I was relieved and happy. The dwarf was right, I would have been too scared to do it on my own. I was truly grateful for the final push in the back.
"Kid watch the tail. You are going to knock my stuff over."
I had been unconsciously wagging my tail. I immediately froze in embarrassment. "Yea… sorry."
"No don't be. Anyway, you two have some catching up to do. So, I will just leave you two alone. If his wounds open up again, I am in the room across this one."
With that the dwarf left the room and I was left alone with my father. I sat down so that I would no longer tower over him. My whole life I had been shorter than him, so now being twice his size felt rather unnatural.
After this an uncomfortable silence followed. Until my father tried to start a conversation. "So… can you fly?"
I lifted my still healing wings and flapped them to see if I could already move them as usual. I mainly could but my left wing was still a little limp.
"Yes, I can fly. but they are still healing so I have to wait a few more minutes, just to be safe."
"Then what happened?"
"Oh, when the roof collapsed, I got buried under a few boulders."
He shamefully looked away.
"I am so sorry. Did it hurt much?"
"You should not have to apologise. You did not know that it was me. And besides, I have had much worse."
"I see."
He still seemed a little down.
Then something with really quiet footsteps entered the room. The small bird walked over to me and started to climb on my tail. After that, the bird sought grip on the scales on my back to eventually reach my shoulders. But after trying for a few seconds, I picked up the bird and just placed it on my head.
However, Quetzalcoatl still wasn't satisfied and managed to climb up one of my horns. Finally, the bird decided that it had reached a good hight and just looked down the room after that.
"Does that bird have a name?"
"Yes. Its Quetzalcoatl… I didn't come up with that name."
"Then who did?"
I shrugged. "I guess it was Allenya, since she was really defensive of that name."
"Oh, can you tell me more about her."
I tilted my head. Quetzalcoatl stared to flap its wings like a maniac to keep its balance. "Why?"
"No particular reason." He spoke with a mischievous smile. I rolled my eyes since I already had a hunch were this was leading.
"Well, she has dark brown eyes, and hair so white that one could easily miss her in the snow. She is kind, and I can't seem to figure out if she is brave or just stupid."
My father listened with more interest than I considered normal.
"She sounds like a nice girl. So, when are you going to get married?"
I let out an annoyed sigh. My father always said something along that line as soon as I mentioned a girl. But this time I was glad to hear it for a change. Because it meant that after all these years he had barely changed.
"No, we are just friends."
"you sure?"
"Please stop."
He shrugged. "Maybe I will, maybe I won't. By the way have you seen my spear? My boss will probably murder me if I come back without."
"It is still in the room with the dead woman. I did not dare to touch it."
He looked back at me with a worried expression. "is it that effective?"
"It did not really hurt me yet, but it drains my magic really fast just by being close to the projectiles it shoots."
He let out a sigh of relief. "I see. I am glad that it did not hurt you."
"We could get it back now. it would safe you the trouble on your way back."
"Are you sure that it is safe for you?"
"No, I am not sure, but it is better to find that out now and not in combat."
I stood up and placed Quetzalcoatl on the floor before I walked out of the room. I could hear how my father stood up behind me and together we walked through the many empty streets that led to the collapsed building.
"By the way, how demonic are you right now?"
Vaguely confused, I looked at my father. "what kind of question is that?"
"Maybe I just asked it wrong. What I mean is how much human is still left? I can tell that you are still you. That much is clear. But it just feels different somehow."
"well, there is no trace of human left in my body, otherwise I wouldn't be a demon, but a cambion. And mentally… I don't know. I guess that kind of goes in waves. I don't know how else to describe it. It is hard to tell from my own perspective."
We finally reached the building. The entire entrance as completely buried under the rubble. But I managed to wipe it away with some earth manipulation magic. While doing that, I tried to keep Elisa's advice in mind, but it still wasn't going exactly the way I wanted to.
Now that the entrance was cleared, I stepped inside to look for that spear while completely ignoring my fathers dumbfounded expression.