"Anyways how is the situation going and how are the others doing?"
"We managed t receive reports of various demon sightings close to the entrance," Beatrice replied. "The numbers seem to grow each day and we are expecting a breach within a week. This is also why we decided to summon you now. we assumed that you would appreciate this more than to be summoned in the mist of battle."
"Thank you, Beatrice. But what about the others?"
"They are fine. Most of them are probably taking shelter now or preparing to defend themselves." The dwarf answered while he circled around me. He had seen the new spikes that had now reached my tail. Now he probably wanted to get a good look overall to see if anything else had changed.
I found it hard to tell whether he was disappointed or proud. The changes meant that I was growing in strength and thus I must have killed and eaten a lot. It also meant that I was less likely to go insane by supressing my violent urges to much. But killing was killing non the less, and I had done it a lot.
"Also, I think that it would be better to warn you beforehand. Your fa… I mean Dave is called to join the defences. So, whatever you decide to do, if a group of humans stands in your way you might want to watch out."
I was glad that the dwarf swallowed his words at the last moment. If anyone here found out that I had a human father, they might start to question curtain things. And I was scared that if they found out that I used to be a human they would feel like I had been lying to them the whole time. And they may leave me.
I knew that that probably wouldn't be the case, especially for Noah and Beatrice. But still, I did not want to risk it.
Since it was quite clear that no one would be able to come here from the heart of Atlantis, I spend the following days in the ruins. The dwarf, as well as Beatrice and Noah were all declared missing. Atlantis could no longer afford to keep its gates open and they would not be able to return until after the attack.
Within the ruins I mainly talked with those who were still here and visited Moenen who was still guarding my prisoner. I also tried to practice healing magic again, but in the end, I lacked time and I had to go back before anyone noticed that I was gone for too long.
I played around with Quetzalcoatl a lot. I was surprised to see that the green bird was happy that I had returned.
I even managed to fall asleep. It was not that I was tired, not at all. It was just because of the uncertainty of what might happen next, I wanted to be as rested as I possibly could. Tough I soon came to regret that when I finally woke up.
Since I could not secretly infiltrate someone's mind when I slept, and I would naturally not notice anything else around me. the dwarf decided that this was the perfect time to teach Leonor about demons and with that, me in particular.
I was awoken by the dwarf carefully moving one of my wings to properly expose my back.
"Do you see how above and below the wing the scales slightly overlap? This characteristic only manifests in demons that have the potential to grow wings. It makes it easier for them to grow as the demon gets older or stronger."
"Wait, then are they not born with wings?"
"Some of them are. Others might grow them later, but most of them never grow wings at all."
The dwarf slowly let go of my wing and let it fall back in place.
"That is why if you look at the legs you can see that their digitigrade. Along with this keeping the weight of the knees allowing this type of demon to grow pretty large, it also allows him to jump incredibly far and run a lot faster than any human. A draw back from this is that it requires a lot more energy, but that shouldn't be much of a problem for him."
I found this all verry annoying and I was just hoping to fall asleep again. but that was a verry hard thing to do with them continuously circling around me. I slightly moved my tail in hopes of letting them know that I was not as deep asleep anymore so that they would leave me alone.
Leonor probably noticed my action and stopped moving. "How long does he usually sleep?"
"Depends on how tired he is. Some demons sleep for thousands of years only to stay awake for millions. But for as far as I know, Rubedo usually sleeps for a day or so and stays awake for months after."
"And what if we accidentally wake him?"
"Then he will probably just be annoyed. But he is a lot tamer than most other demons so I doubt that he will do anything."
"Easy for you to say. I have seen him rip apart an entire horde of wendigos." Leonor replied while still writing a few things down. "No but seriously. He is not going to suddenly get up and set us on fire, right?"
"Nah. If the kid would kill us because of that I would have been dead long ago."
I slowly opened my eyes and got up. The dwarf was facing away from me so he could properly speak to Leonor. But she could see how I rose up behind the dwarf.
The dwarf could immediately tell from her expression what was happening. He turned around with a wide smile. "Good morning Rubedo. Did you sleep well?"
I flapped my wings for a few times and then neatly folded them behind my back. "About as well as once can sleep with someone playing around their wings. Could you ask next time?"
"Were you going to cooperate?"
"No."
"Then what is the point of asking?"
"That I won't do this the moment I wake up."
Before he could reply I knocked him over with my tail.
"Yup I deserved that."
"This matter aside. Did anything happen while I was asleep?"
"Not as far as I know," Leonor said. "But it is not like I know how things are here usually."
"Actually. I saw some people dig a slot around the main entrance. Oh, and they placed large containers with water to the sides. My best guess is that it is holy water so it's probably best if you don't come close."
I nodded and picked up Quetzalcoatl who happened to walk by. I placed the bird on one of my horns since it usually liked to sit there. There it let out a happy chirp, completely unaware of what was about to happen in a few days.