It took us a few days to reach the mountains.
Depending on the way one looked at it, it was either fortunate or unfortunate, but no trumpets called during that time.
Now that the humans were taking shelter in one of the caves, I finally had the time to properly hunt and gather food that could be preserved for a relatively long time.
When I reached the cave again, I fluttered my wings for a moment to get rid of the raindrops that they had gathered. Despite the places where it seemingly rained fire, there was also still some normal rain. And right now, it was pouring outside. So much so that a large portion of the land close to the sea had been completely engulfed by water at this point.
After I decided that I was dry enough I carried the food that I had found deeper into the cave. I had caught some small animals and fish, and even managed to bring back a living cow. And as it turned out there was a wooden cabin far up the mountain. Whoever lived there had stored a large number of vegetables in glass bottles.
With this I was quite certain that the humans wouldn't starve.
I placed the food on a dry area of the cave and suppressed the cow so that she wouldn't dare to move away from the spot I left her.
I was quite annoyed by the sounds that one of the humans was making. It appeared so that it was the one who I had scared a few days earlier. Right now, I was even considering if I should take his life or not. Tough my father was nowadays always close by, preventing me from actually going through with it.
Right now, the man was whispering to himself about how I was the devil. Not like I hadn't heard something like that before.
When he heard the tapping of my claws on the stone ground, he stared to scream about how he would never be safe. In his deliria he started to bang his head against the walls of the cave. Still murmuring nonsense. At the moment that he was leaving the first trail of blood on the stone, I pulled him away from the wall.
"Look human. Your constant wining is getting on my nerves. I let it pass for a few days, but I am certain that I am no longer the only one who is bothered by it."
The man turned pale and tried to crawl away. "Then why are you still here? I tried not to bother anyone anymore. Just what the hell do you want? Please just go away."
I just shrugged. "Let's make it an equal exchange then. I will leave you alone on the condition that you stay quiet."
"And, what if I can't?"
"Then the penalty would be your soul."
"No, no. I can't give you, my soul." He stammered still trying to find a way to get out of my reach.
"Why of course you can. Have you ever seen your soul? Do you even know what it is and when was the last time you felt like it was of any use to you? Besides if you just finally shut up. You won't have to give it anyway."
Like this no matter what happened he would finally stop whining. And even if he did not stop on his own. I would now have permission to rip out his soul so that he would no longer have the motivation and emotion to continue.
"Then if it is so useless. Why do you want it?" the man responded. He was obviously trying to fin a way to get out of this situation since even he himself did not believe that he could overcome his fears on his own.
"Oh no it is not useless to me. To me your souls are just food. And yours does not seem to be that severely corrupted. So, it will taste good as well."
The man stared at me in horror. Tough a human could barely describe their own souls they understood that it was something important. Something that you would want to keep for your self for as long as you existed.
I smiled at his fearful hesitation. "So, what do you think of it? Do we have a deal?"
I stook out my hand to make the deal. But before the man accepted the deal, I felt someone full on one of the spikes on my arm.
I looked to my side and saw that it was my father.
"Can I have a word with you?" He asked with a deep frown on his face.
I sighed and followed him into one of the side tunnels of the cave where no one could hear us talk.
"Care to explain what that was about? Look, I get that you are scared of how the others will react if they found out that you were human once. But that does not give you the right to basically force others to give you, their souls."
I tilted my head while he talked to me. "Why not? I truly need souls, or I would go insane and start a rampage until I have satisfied my hunger. What is wrong with preventing that while finally letting that idiot shut up?"
"Because he is a human. An actual living thinking and feeling human. Don't forget that you used to be a human to."
I heard how sad and desperate my father was because if what I had tried to do. Tough I understood why he felt this, I jet again failed to see my wrongdoings. I may have been a human in the past, but not anymore. So, what was the point in acting like one?
"I'm sorry dad. But to me right and wrong are no longer black and white. It is getting harder and harder to see how my actions are wrong. But just know that now I can still vaguely see the difference between those two, I want you to know that I do not wish to become evil. I don't want malice to be the one thing to guide my actions."
I fell silent for a moment. Then I took a deep breath and continued. "Did… did you know that that man thought that I was the actual devil? I get that a lot actually. But of course, I am not him. I am not even sure if he exists. I have wandered trough the nine circles and I never found a trace of his existence. A while back I was scared that eventually I would grow wicked enough to claim that title. Since there probably is no devil, the spot is open ready to be taken by anyone. I was scared that I would start to take joy in another's misery, that I would bring forth calamity for my own amusement. But now I realise that I don't take joy in those things at all. I have completely destroyed people and could never find any fun in it. yet I did it anyways and was ready to do it again. So, now I am no longer scared to take the place of the devil. If there is a devil, then I have already surpassed him anyways."
My father tiredly rubbed his forehead. "So, your empathy and morals are starting to fade? Great, and what are we going to do about that? Is there really nothing that can stop or reverse this?"
I shook my head. "Not that I know about. The closest thing to becoming human again is simply taking on a human form like how I saw other demons do. But I don't know how to do that yet and it is merely a human disguise. Maybe there is something out there that can stop my mentality from changing any further. but for as far as I know there is nothing that can be done."
I really hoped that my father would stop at this. I did not want him to spend the rets of his life to look for a solution that he wouldn't find anyways.
"Lets just go back to the others." I said while neatly folding my wings on my back. "I promise that now I won't try to steal the souls of humans unless it is necessary. And how about you set some rules for me so that I won't do things you see as wrong as my… condition, worsens?"