Sin Of Greed (Greedy Fox Book 2)

~~THREE~~

The reek of demons followed me for a long time. I wandered far from the strange castle before I felt safe enough to stop for more than a minute. A small steam gurgled happily from beneath a cluster of rocks, shielded by the forest that stretched for miles now.

Grateful to be out of the open plains, I sheltered in the shadows and slunk my way to the rocks.

Terror had shook my bones for most of the run but now only a knot in my stomach remained. I made myself drink and calm my thundering heartbeat. Birdsong flitted between the trees and a soft breeze brought untainted air. I relaxed slowly in the peacefulness, settling myself in the hollow of a large tree with a sigh of relief.

Now I could think.

Ten insanely strong demons were hunting Meliodas, with powers that would make a grown man wet himself. Where they had come from was a mystery but Hendrickson hadn't been with them which meant they seemed to be unrelated. Maybe they had just crawled out from the depths of hell and decided today that they wanted to hunt the strongest individual in Liones.

And I had walked into their midst and reactivated the powers I'd had as a Holy Knight because I'd had the sickening sense that I was about to be killed. If not stronger powers.

The static in my fur responded at even just the thought of it. Mana flowed plentiful through my body, deliciously powerful and straining against the confines of this tiny fox body. Had those demons confronted me, while I might not have survived, I most definitely could have put up a daring fight.

The thought roused a feeling in me, a need to prove that theory right. I shook the stupidity from my head. Now was not the time to play martyr. I had to find the others as quickly as possible, turn back into a human and warn them. As a fox, I was hindered, even though it comforted me to know that I could use magic in this form with ease.

Please don't let those demons find my friends first though.

The hunger still clawed at my stomach but the image of the grotesque ballooning of that bird sent bile straight to the back of my throat. I tried to ignore it as I rested, allowing myself the luxury for a short while. I couldn't smell the demons in any close proximity nor any other dangers I should be worried about.

I chuckled at that thought. With powers, there weren't many things that would be a danger to me at the moment.

The sun had risen quite a bit since I'd run from the demons. I contemplated staying by the stream for the night but delaying sent shivers down my spine. Time wasn't on my side. These little legs could still cover many a mile before I got tired again.

My most pressing problem was... which way was Liones?

Nothing looked familiar which meant I had never been here and Leraj hadn't either if his memory bank was up to scratch. Perhaps I should have paid more attention to which direction that armour-clad demon had blasted off to.

I started trotting along the road just to get myself moving. Blood flow helped the brain, maybe it could fix sense of direction too. By the sun's position, it was a little before noon. Back when I'd 'lived' at the barracks, the sunrise had always blinded me through the flimsy curtain.

Which meant Liones had to be north?

Even my thoughts sounded it as a question. I sighed. "Just wish there was a sign that I was headed in the right direction," I muttered.

A flock of birds burst into the sky with a cacophony of screeches past the rise before me. I slowed, senses on high alert. The animal life had silenced. My ears flattened on my head and I slithered up the rise, just like I'd done at the castle.