56 Pet shopping (2/2)
”... I'm pretty sure we will die if we give you our hearts...”
”Ah, Evlin you are no fun...”
”Ok, whos next? Daren you already have your curse so no monsters for you.”
”... Oh no... What a nightmare... I'm so sad...”
”Haha... Very funny... Auren, want to try going next?”
”Mmmm... What monster would match with me...? Oh! How about that one?”
He pointed at a humanoid creature that looked like a mix of a man and a bull. It possessed bull legs and an angry-looking bull-head while the rest of the body looked like it was from a very muscular human. A minotaur.
”All right, just one second.”
Evlin captured the next monster and fused it with Auren. He looked pretty much like the minotaur from before except his eyes were holding very little ferocity.
”Gustav, your turn!”
”Mmmm... That one, the white horse with wings...”
”Oh, a pegasus! Nice one!”
Same process as before, Gustav was now covered in white with a much longer string of hair behind him falling all the way to his shoulders. Two massive white wings were behind him and his two human legs were replaced by four horse legs. He was looking less like a pegasus and more like a centaur with wings.
”You're the last one Ash! Pick a good one!”
”... I don't know...”
”Come on sis, you just need to become a monster for a while... It's not that big a deal!”
”... Ok... How about that one? The plant girl?”
Ashley spotted at a green creature that looked like a young girl covered in green with roots instead of legs attached to the ground bathing under the morning sun on top of a large boulder covered in moss.
”Oh! A dryad! Nice!”
Evlin approached the female plant monster and started the same procedure from before, but something went different this time. As soon as Evlin tried to capture her, the girl slapped her hand with one of her vines.
”Excuse me?? Do you mind?? I'm trying to enjoy the sunlight!”
”Oh!! Sorry... I didn't mean to bother you...”
The dryad actually talked back at Evlin, much to her surprise.
”Wait... You can talk...?”
”Yes... Yes, I can... I can also sing and recite poetry... Now go away!”
”S- Sorry it's just... I never saw a monster that could speak before...”
”What? I'm not a monster, I'm a demon...”
”I... See...”
”...”
”Huh...”
”You have no idea what the difference is, do you...?”
”None at all... Sorry...”
The dryad extended her arms and launched a barrage of vines towards Evlin that made her fall from the boulder all tied up.
The dryad stood up form her sunbath spot and started to descend from the boulder on her vines as if she was an octopus.
”You are not a demon are you...? All demons know that monsters can't talk...”
”Oh... So that's the difference... I see...”
The dryad started to convert her left arm into a huge spike and prepared to stab Evlin's heart.
”I don't know who you are, but you are not welcome here. Farewell...”
As the plant girl moved her arm to piece the tied up Evlin, a transparent shield appeared to protect her much to the dryad's surprise.
”What the...?”
The moment her spike collided with the shield her arm started to burn with immense pain.
”Aaaaarghhh!!! What is this!!!??”
Evlin used her magic to sharpen her armor and proceeded to cut off the vines that were locking her.
”Sorry about that... My friends are overprotective...”
”Friends...?”
The dryad turned around and noticed the rest of Evlin's friends approaching to aid her. She was surprised to see what she assumed were so many demons working together to save her.
”What's going on here?? Who are you all?”
She also noticed Daren and Ashley and made a sour expression.
”You traitors!! You are working with humans!!! Just wait until I tell my superiors!! They all will- Blarghh!!”
Evlin knocked the plant girl out with her wooden fist to make her stop screaming in case monsters would start gathering towards the noise.
”Sorry... She was being really loud...”
Evlin began to look for another monster to fuse with Ashley and started to walk towards a deeper part of the nest, much to her sister's confusion.
”Evie? Where are you going?”
”What do you mean? I'm going to look for a monster for you...”
”But we already have this dryad.”
”You want to fuse with her...?? But... You heard what she said, she's not a monster she's a demon...”
”Yes... And that might be just what we need... If we fuse and I can look into her memories we can gather some useful information about the current state of the kingdom! She was saying something about her superiors...”
”I don't know if this is a good idea... It might not be safe to mix your mind with the mind of something capable of rational thinking...”
”But this might be our best chance!! We can use her to discover secrets from the enemy!”
Evlin still wasn't convinced. Fusing two bodies together was a much more delicate process than Ashley could imagine. Evlin never had too much trouble fusing with Sphinx since the griffin was just like an animal that acted on instinct. Even if they combined, Evlin was still in control due to her more evolved brain. But fusing two beings whose brains were able to act on reason and logic? She didn't know what could happen. Worst case scenario, Ashley's mind could be taken over by the dryad.
”Come on sis!! Let's just give it a try! I trust your magic!”
Evlin hated this line so much. For some reason Ashley always assumed that when it comes to magic, Evlin can do no wrong. She had no idea how hard it was to perform each of her spells on a daily basis to work exactly as she wanted. She really wished Ashley would stop putting so much faith in Evlin's magic all the time.
”Lilith, can you see if anything goes wrong?”
Harpy Lilith proceeded to use her ability to confirm if there was any danger in allowing Ashley to combine with a demon. She tried to observe for as long as she could but could find nothing too out of the ordinary.
”Can't see anything wrong... It seems like she will be ok as well.”
”Can you check if there will be some kind of danger once I return her to normal?”
”I can't sadly... I tried looking further into the future but my power stops working after some time... We will probably run into Marcus at some point... I can't see the future if he is part of it...”
Ria raised a confused look.
”Wait Lilith, me and Auren are also beings of divine energy now... Won't we interfere with your power too?”
”Doesn't seems like it... Maybe its because my power comes from West as well... If anything, I kinda feel stronger when I'm closer to you two.”
”Oh... That's interesting to know!!”
Ashley directed her eyes towards Evlin trying to return to the original conversation.
”So, can we do this now sis?”
”I still don't feel safe about this... Maybe I should do it.”
”No way, I'm the best option for combining with her. If something goes wrong and she tries to take over my mind, you will be the only one capable of bringing me back. Besides, I'm the only one here who has no power, how much damage can she do with my body?”
”You really won't give up this idea, will you...?”
”Trust me, I know what I'm doing.”
”Ugh... You better...”
Evlin aimed her crossbow at Ashley who was closing her eyes as if she was about to jump into a pool while holding the knocked out dryad and showered the two with recreation magic.
After she was done, she noticed Ashley was now green with several leaves coming out of her clothes. Her red hair had been replaced with vines but her legs still remained the same.
”Sis...? Everything ok?”
Dryad-Ashley opened her eyes and started to check her own body. She moved her hand across her arm, then her legs and finally her hair.
”Still feels like me... But for some reason I have this weird desire to take sunbaths and eat people...”
”The sunbath thing must be your dryad half speaking... The eating humans part must be just your usual weirdness...”
”Thanks sis...”
Daren came closer to Ashley. He looked really out of place being the only humanoid individual among so many monsters right now.
”So did it work? Did she had any information about the demon kingdom?”
Ashley closed her eyes and tried to focus and look inside the memories of the dryad.
”Yes!! In fact, I think I just found a shortcut for us!!”