"they sure are tall..."

"yeah..."

"well I could jump those if I really wanted to, just like that one time do you remember Varvei?"

"ugh... please don't remind me, I was this close to peeing my pants"

Mars gave a laugh and gave Varvei's hand a rea.s.suring squeeze

"okay I won't do that again, don't worry"

suddenly a pair of soft arms reached around Mars' from behind and covered his eyes

"guess who~"

"Elsa"

"right, here's your price~"

then she gave him a hug from behind before she latched onto his left arm and rubbed her cheek on his shoulder, Mars gave a smile seeing Elsa acting spoiled and walked back to the caravan with the two of them where a group of demon guards were checking over the caravan for contraband, after a few minutes the caravan got the okay sign and was allowed to move into Froset, the capital city of the wasteland, upon entering the city Mars looked around at the buildings, they were made of light brownish stone and at most stood 3 stories tall

"follow me I will show you the way to my home"

"your home?"

the old demon narrowed his eyes and sound a little angry when he spoke again

"where else will you be staying?"

"oh.... well then lead the way"

"that's more like it"

the old demon lead the way through the somewhat narrow streets, along the way the demon inhabitants would stop and stare at Mars and the girls when they walked past, Mars as always ignored the looks he was getting but Victoria was a little more susceptible to the states and soon she hid herself in Mars' shadow, after about 15 minutes of walking they reached a house were the old demon went inside and gestured for Mars and the girls to follow him

"welcome to my humble home"

Mars looked around rude as it might be

'....how is this humble?'

the door they had walked though turned out to be the entrance to a courtyard were numerous servants stood with their head's bow, all of them neatly lined up

"I never knew you were such a big shot old demon"

"well I did well for myself in my younger days"

"I see... well I own a building too, if you're ever in Green river I will be sure to play a nice host"

"well if it happens I will be sure to come and find you, now let's go inside and get some food"

"sure"

just as the old demon was about to walk inside a female demon walked out into the courtyard, she had long back hair and 2 pale horns and a figure Mars only could describe as perfect, when she saw the old demon her face lit up

"dad!"

the old demon's face lit up in a smile

"oh, Julia come here and give your old man a hug"

the two of them hugged then Julia looked over at Mars and the girls with a questioning look on her face, the old demon gave a sigh and whispered something into her ear

"really dad!?"

"yeah, now off you go"

"okay see you later!"

Julia ran out of the courtyard, this puzzled Mars quite a bit so he asked

"what did you tell her?"

the old demon gave a sly smile

"I simply told her that her sweetheart just entered the city and that she should go find him"

"oh, I see then she's Eliza's mother?"

"yeah that she is, now with that out of the way let's get some food"

the feast was a grand one, not only were there pale fish from the underground river there was also numerous kinds of magic beast meat, the only thing that was wrong was that there was little to no vegetables or fruit the only green thing on the table was edible seaweed from the underground river, after eating the old demon retired and Mars and the girls were showed to a guest room were they went to bed for the night.

The next morning after a healthy breakfast Mars joined the old demon in practicing the traditional demon martial art or Kel as it also was called, the art included mostly pins and grapples but oddly enough there was also some kicks in there as well but no punches as Mars practiced he noticed Victoria had disappeared but didn't really think much about it....

'This place is huge...'

two big cat ears stood alert and they flickered slightly with a hint of cat like curiosity as Victoria looked around what seemed like a giant hall, how she got here was a mystery that involved a tumbleweed and a annoying fly which she had chased after, she looked at the walls of the hall as she walked along there were drawings of female demons along with some text in traditional demon language but the grander meaning eluded Victoria as she searched around for the annoying fly that had lead her to this place

'there it is!'

she spotted her pray on the far side of the hall and sneaked over before she pounced

'I got it!'

she did indeed get it, she squished it with her paws, she even felt momentarily proud about having hunted down the annoying fly but soon her ears twitched as they detected movement nearby and she hurriedly hid in a shadow soon a group of demons pa.s.sed by, they were wearing armor and carried spears

'smells good...."

they were escorting a few servants that lured Victoria after them by the smell of the food they were caring, she moved from shadow to shadow and soon the group with the delicious smelling food stopped in front of a door were the servants went in, after some time pa.s.sed the servants left without the food

'in there... slurp'

Victoria wiped her droll with her paw and turned into a shadow that glided across the floor and pa.s.sed under the heavily guarded door before she materialized again and looked around the room

'where is the food... there it is!'

the food had been served on a table, so Victoria jumped up on the the table and was just about to begin eating when she heard movement in the room and froze

"is someone there?"

Victoria stood oh so still and looked at the other person in the room, she was a demon teenager with long silver hair and a piece of cloth tied around her face so it covered her eyes from the edges of the cloth Victoria could see a giant scar that most likely had taken her sight

'what should I do?'

Victoria went over her options in her head, she could kill this demon teenager but she didn't look like a bad person so Mars would most likely scold her if he found out, after thinking at high speed for about half a minute Victoria came up with a plan

"....hi"

"oh my some is there!"

which was to go for it

"I'm... hungry"

and seem pitiful while she was at it

"you... are not a demon?"

the blindfolded demon walked a little closer while she asked, but Victoria just blinked her eyes and answered in a simple way

"Victoria.... is Victoria... you can't see?"

the blindfolded demon gave a weak smile

"no I'm blind"

"okay... so can... I eat... this?"

"hmm... only if you let me touch you"

"touch... me?"

Mars had warned her of strange people that wanted to touch her but the pale fish on the plate seemed oh so delicious

"....fine.... but don't... touch... weird places"

the blindfolded demon gave a wide happy childlike smile and then she visablely suppressed her excitement and put on a serious face

"I'll try not to"

then she slowly moved across the room and slowly reached out with her hand and touched Victoria's fur

"oh.... are you a beastman?"

"Victoria... is Victoria... no one... is like... me"

"....well okay then"

slowly and gently the blindfolded demon's hand explored Victoria's body

"oh my you have horns!"

Victoria tilted her head to the side and asked as her horns flashed

"how... do you... think... I have... been talking?"

"with your horns?"

"yeah..."

"that's.... well never mind"

the blindfolded demon's hands carefully moved exploring Victoria from the tip of her horns to the bottom of her paws

"my oh my so squishy!"

the blindfolded demon giggled when she touched the bottom of Victoria's paws, but suddenly she stopped as her ears slightly twitched

"Victoria you need to hide, someone's coming!"

"okay..."

Victoria blended into the blindfolded demon's shadow and hid herself, soon the door opened an a servant stepped in and looked at the blindfolded demon with a warm smile

"mistress it's time for practice"

"give me a few minutes, I'll be there soon"

the servant bowed, even though the blindfolded demon was unable to see it

"as you wish mistress"