I was walking towards the general direction of the supposed home of Satan himself.
Charlie explained that it would only take an hour's horse ride starting from the train station to reach his home.
I didn't know how fast the horses here were, but assuming they moved just as fast as an average horse—maybe even faster—it would at least take 8 to 10 hours to reach his home.
"Are we there yet?" Charlie said, poking her head out of the sack.
"You asked that five minutes ago."
"Well, are we?"
"Not yet. We'll be there in 8 to 10 hours," I responded to the impatient child.
"Uhhhhhhh, but I'm so bored! Can't we do something fun while you walk?"
"We could talk about ourselves and get to know each other."
"But that doesn't sound fun," she said, slumping her head between my horns.
"Well, you could start walking on your own if you're so bored, princess."
"Nope! A princess must always be carried by their dashing knight when they're being rescued," she said like it was an obvious fact.
"Is that true?" I asked, faking curiosity.
"Of course! Mommy told me! And she told me—" Before she finished her sentence, she stopped herself.
"Something wrong, princess?" I asked, curious.
"It's nothing… just… it doesn't matter," she said, looking a bit sad, slumping even lower on my head if that was possible.
"If you don't want to talk about it, you don't have to. We can just talk about something else if you want," I tried cheering her up.
"Ok," Charlie said, still looking a bit down.
I felt Charlie continuing to slump on top of my head, not bothering to move.
I thought long and hard about what to do and had a bright idea.
"Hey, Charlie, since you don't want to talk right now, how about we sing the things we say?" I said to the princess.
This seemed to pique her interest a bit as she was now slightly off my head.
"I'll start. My name is Stygian, I love to loot. When I find a pile of coins, I dive in and swim." I tried my best at rhyming.
Charlie's eyes began to brighten and she quickly joined in.
"My name is Charlie, I love to sing. When I eat my eggs, I become a big old skunk." Charlie laughed at the end, showing she was feeling better.
This went on for two hours.
Charlie had no problem rhyming and adding different subjects to her song, while I… let's just say some things should only be heard once.
While we were singing, Charlie revealed that her mother was Lilith. She's a musician who traveled the different rings of Hell, empowering demonkind with her voice.
Her father, Lucifer, was a king as well as a craftsman. She added that her dad would make different wonders and share them with his people, making their lives easier.
And finally, Charlie… she revealed that she was 50 years old. I don't know how demon royalty ages, but if she's this small at fifty and acts like this, then she most likely ages incredibly slowly—almost at a near halt.
She would occasionally pester me when it was my turn to rhyme about what I was doing here, and like an idiot I revealed small amounts of information about myself.
Not too much—just enough to sate her curiosity.
But to my horror, she began asking direct questions when we'd already finished singing, wanting me to tell her a story about myself.
I tried to ignore her request at first, but she just kept going, not willing to give up.
Reluctantly, I began sharing stories of my adventure here—from the Forest of Death, saving Maylin's family, and finally saving her.
Once I finished telling her my story, I noticed drool flowing down the side of my face. I looked behind me and saw Charlie had fallen asleep.
Slowly, I placed her back inside the sack to let her sleep peacefully as I continued the long trek—six more hours to go.
---
Five hours had passed since Charlie fell asleep and the sun had reached its zenith.
Slowly, Charlie began to stir from the sack. With a loud yawn, Charlie's head emerged from it.
She had drool running down her mouth and her hair was like an untamed jungle.
"I'm hungry," she said to me, rubbing her belly from within the sack.
I grabbed a slice of cooked meat I had turned into jerky from my bag and handed it to her.
She started to chew slowly, not really fully awake at the moment. Looking down towards my stomach, where my bag was placed, I checked how much food I had left.
There was plenty of meat left from the boar I killed and even some unopened bottles of water if she ever got thirsty.
As I walked, she finished her jerky and began to slowly fall back to sleep once more.
She slipped back into the sack and went straight back to sleep.
I didn't stop her. Who am I to tell a princess what she can't do?
As I continued to walk, I felt something was… off.
I didn't know what, but I felt something. I moved towards the ground and felt vibrations.
The ground was shaking… that would only mean—
I looked behind me and to my horror, I saw thousands of imps running on all fours.
They didn't look like the usual imps I had encountered before. They had a frenzied look to them; they were covered in blood—either their own or others', it didn't matter.
"Cannibals," I said with disdain.
I grabbed my nail, ready to fight, but as I reached for it I realized Charlie was still on my back.
I couldn't fight properly if she was here.
I needed to run.
Quickly, I ran towards the direction of Satan's home, hoping to get there to keep her safe.
As I ran, I quickly noticed more cannibals up ahead that were running full speed at me.
Thinking quickly, I jumped over their faces to avoid them and continued to run.
Then, as if things couldn't get worse, they began throwing spears at us.
Not wanting Charlie to get hit, I dropped my bag and quickly turned the sleeping Charlie in the sack in front of me.
This made hitting her from behind much harder but made it much more difficult for me to see.
As I continued to run, I saw a large volcano that towered over the surrounding ones.
That must be it.
I ran faster, hoping to reach it.
But just as we were there, the ground below us collapsed.
I couldn't react fast enough, and that was enough time for me to fall in with Charlie still in front of me.
Thinking quickly, I turned, and using my back I would break her fall.
My body was about to hit the ground.
And there was no cushion to soften the blow.
This was gonna hurt.