*Two minutes ago*
-Oh my god! The demon is dying... I need to light a fire immediately! Daggers never say nonsense!
Martiza took the wood in her teeth and placed it in the stove. She almost filled it to the brim. She placed a small flint stone next to the shaft.
The fox began striking the flint with her ice daggers for a spark. But due to the daggers' extreme sharpness and their icy nature, the flint simply broke without producing a spark.
And it was at that moment that the fox began to truly worry: if the demon really did die, then everything she had done would be pointless, and she would have to find a new place to live.
Looking around the room for something that might help, her gaze fell on the sword. An ordinary metal blade. An idea formed in her mind.
She walked over to the sword and, taking it in her teeth, began to try to strike the flint. But again, a problem! Because she was holding it with her mouth, she couldn't find the right angle or force.
And then, again, Martisa felt a slight fear for the child, and more so for her own fate.
-Damn demon! I spent so much effort, and now he's dying of the cold... What if...?
The fox picked up the flint sword and the board and held it to Kali's face. She was already muttering something, her eyes half-closed. Well, most likely it was just some incoherent sounds, but at least she was conscious.
-Come on, come on...
Taking the hilt in her small hand, Kali didn't move.
The fox's face was filled with anger and just as much despair. She was angry that this demon wouldn't be able to fulfill its role and enrich Martiza, and despaired that she would most likely have to live alone in this dangerous new place. Most likely, there's a territorial protector here too.
-Dead...? If that's true, then...
Her fingers clenched, her arm muscles tensed, and her sword trembled.
-ALIVE! Then there's a chance!
Placing the flint under Martiza's sword, she began to angle it just right. Finally! The perfect angle! Only a spark remained!
But the half-dead girl couldn't wield the sword.
-Fuck! Just strike already!
Biting the demon's hand and hilt, she made a quick strike against the flint, sending a multitude of sparks flying, but not a single one ignited a fire.
-HOW!?
The daggers whirling around Martiza flew up to the wood and began to cut it into tiny pieces. Wood shavings—that's what they wanted to show the fox.
To Martiza's surprise, the fox quickly grasped the idea and began frantically gathering shavings with her sword and the demon's hand. Little by little, a small mountain of those very same shavings formed.
Without thinking, the fox struck the flint again quickly, and oh gods! It really was fire!
Slightly grimacing from the flames, the fox picked up the burning wood with the shavings and brought it to the stove. Throwing it inside, she watched the fire begin to grow. How beautifully it shimmered with different colors in the dark room.
This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it
Even though it was incredibly beautiful, for Martiza it only meant the demon's salvation. And for her, it meant drought in the fields. It was also unpleasant for her to feel it, but it wasn't fatal.
Running to the child, she bit his boots and carried him across the cold floor to the stove. Looking at him, she exhaled, grabbed his legs tighter, and jumped onto the top of the stove. Laying Kali down on the warm stone, she did so.
With a soft yelp, the fox flew off the stove. Her paws burned and stung like hell; if she'd spent any more time on that damn stove, she'd have to truly heal her wounds with a healing sleep.
The demon's skin began to turn pink, his breathing became more even, and his face became calmer. All this made the fox smile. After all, sometimes she was lucky.
-I need to go get some more firewood.
Stepping out into the blizzard and closing the door tightly behind her, Martiza moved toward the shed. For an ordinary person, or rather an animal, it would have been difficult to walk in such a snowstorm, but she didn't mind. It was like a knee-deep snowdrift.
Refreshing her sweet paws, she grabbed more wood and carried it into her house. Having placed all the wood right next to the stove, the fox left the house and went looking for food for herself.
-Oh! What's wrong?
After a brief squabble with the daggers, she was forced to go back into the house. There, the daggers were pointing at the child.
-So? What should I do to you?
With a happy expression, the fox hurried outside to find prey for herself and her demon.
It's hard to find anyone in a snowstorm, but snow wolves are often found. They're usually weak, which is why they haven't yet acquired my intelligence. Continuing on through the pitch-black darkness and snowstorm, she dodged around trees and snowdrifts like a fish in water.
*HOWL*
-And here come those weaklings.
A pack of wolves emerged from the snowstorm. First there were five, then nine, and then eighteen. They were wolves with very thick fur, quite small, just a little smaller than Martiza. Their faces were vicious, and their open mouths, filled with teeth, should have inspired fear.
But to me, they were like snowflakes on my eyelashes. All eighteen wolves attacked at once. Five wolves were in front, the youngest. They attacked first so the veterans of the pack could seize the moment and hit their targets with ease.
Their movements were slow, and their unused abilities indicated they were truly ordinary animals. As soon as the distance between the fox and the wolves became two meters, Martiza said, "[Zero Evasion]." Disappearing from her position, she reappeared to the right of the blow. There she began wielding her daggers to deal with the wolves. A mere second later, the five wolves that had attacked first exploded in a blast of ice, their bodies frozen solid.
-[Zero Peaks].
The last dagger flew toward the fleeing wolf. The dagger cut through the body, starting from the tail and ending at the mouth.
-A perfectly clean cut! I'm a master!
Having completed her brief wolf genocide, Martiza took several frozen corpses and bound them to herself with ice. She leisurely strolled home, enjoying the snowstorm. Even in complete darkness, the fox walked steadily toward her home. As if the snowstorm and the night with it didn't exist for her.
Seeing the familiar outline of the house, the fox smiled and entered the house, having previously left the frozen bodies of the wolves outside. She entered and quickly glanced at her demon. He was lying on the stove, smiling in his sleep. Her smile wasn't particularly wide or even happy; no, it was a smile of relief.
Seeing that the stove was running low on fuel, the fox slowly opened the hot door with her mouth and, through the pain of the fire, threw in more wood. Closing the door, she hurried outside to make herself dinner.
The frozen "statues" stared intently at the fox, if only they could watch. They were already dead anyway.
-Come on, dagger, I'm counting on you, haha...
The dagger flew up and began cutting the wolves into large chunks of meat, discarding their guts and blood. All that was left was tasty meat, at least as tasty as wolves could boast.
The fox had seen how meat was cooked with fire in the villages she visited. What if she tried it too? Maybe it was really tasty? Even though they used fire, it shouldn't ruin everything, right?
Taking a hefty chunk of meat with her teeth, Martiza entered the house and approached the stove.
-So... What should we do?
Ta-da, cool, huh? Two chapters in one day. Well, I wouldn't say it's a particularly cool chapter, but still. There'll be another chapter tomorrow (hopefully :)).
And just a little bit more to go until 300 views, yeaa