The moon hovered gently while the stars blotted out black skies, a scene rarely found in heaven where the sun shone cheerfully year-round. It got rather annoying when trying to sleep after a decade or so hunting trip to hell where the sun doesn’t shine. The sight that was neither heaven’s blinding cheery sun nor hell’s enteral black brought peace to this old heart. I was walking about a lovely little forest I had found in the human realm after the Council decided it was time for an old lady to retire.

          Apparently, it was frowned upon to discipline stubborn children these days.

          Regardless, I was rather looking forward to enjoying this long-awaited retirement. Over 2,000 years under my chest, yet I’ve never had a proper vacation. Maternity leave doesn’t count, so this was the most relaxed I’ve been since my half-day “honeymoon” as I believe the children call it.

          Of course, it was only made more fun by the fact that the forest was overrun by little demons. Adorable children, under a millennia old, that decided they wanted to play a game of chase with me. I would run around, pat them on the head when they got tired, encourage them when they “almost” caught me, watched them flare up like a cat that got stepped on, and overall had a great time! I would have retired ages ago if I had known I could find people to tormen- …tortur- …play with.

          Soon it was the children’s bed time and I let them go off to sleep, I almost let them keep playing when I saw them with teary eyes after I said they should go…but I was a mother once and bedtime was important. Children should have a healthy sleep schedule so they grow big and strong, one should never spoil them in a way that might harm them in the future. Except grandchildren, spoil them rotten and let the parents sort them out.

          I found a lovely little lake as I continued, it was spring, so the night flowers were in full bloom against the light of moon and starlight. A breeze rolled lazily by as I raised my wings to air out my feathers, I imagine it was a beautiful sight. My eyes roamed over to my new guest who had walked up to my left and raised an eyebrow at him, asking silently if he agreed that I was a sight to behold.

          “The White General?” His voice was calm, almost amused.

          “Black General?” I felt a similar amusement, we might have matching titles, but in our long, long lives, we had never actually met before. …now that I think of it, that might be why we both lived so long.

          “Heaven held up their end of the deal after all.”

          “Deal?”

          “Retire the old monsters. We’re too powerful for them to control now.” Stretching his own wings to match mine, we stood next to each other, enjoying the calm night.

          I sighed, “So we’re both retired and homeless. I wasn’t aware demons even could retire.”

          “The little brat tried to kill me but gave up when he couldn’t scratch me after an hour or five.”

          “…old monster, eh? You may be right.” I turn to fully look at him. “You know, you’ve killed two of my children, and many friends. Aren’t you worried at all about this old monster trying her hand?”

          “You killed my only son, while I wasn’t fond of the bastard or his scheming mother, I only had the one.”

          We looked at each other for a moment, and realized we felt the same. I felt myself chuckle and he did the same.

          “If either of us felt that way, we would have met long before this.” Laughter poured from his mouth as he said this. My own soft laugh joined.

          It was odd, we had never met before, but I felt like I had met an old friend. We sat down on the grass and accompanied each other with an easy silence that I doubt either of us have ever had. The wind continued to drift by, pausing at times and utterly unhurried.

         As an angel grows old, their hair turns white much like a human’s but at a much slower pace. Demons have a similar mark of aging, but their hair turns black. As a result, my gold armor was switched out with a set of white and I was named the White General. The only color on me was my gold eyes. Blackie over there was similarly dressed in black with his lighter eyes, but it was too dark for me to tell what color they actually were.

        Dawn came quickly now that I had a companion to pass the time with. Before the sun cleared the mountains in the distance, we set off to find a place to stay. Demons don’t fair well in sunlight, they get nasty sunburns with their pale skin, and Blackie boy there had almost transparent skin. I doubt he’s ever seen the sun.

        “I see a cave, otherwise we’ll have to make a shelter.” Rolling my head around it looked like the only place to hide from the sun nearby.

        “You’re planning on staying?” Curiosity bled into his eyes, which I could now tell were green thanks to the overcasting light from the still hidden sun.

        “It isn’t as if I have anywhere to be.” I smirked at him.

        “Fair enough.” He chuckled without a twitch on his stony expression. 

         As we settled into our new cave, as in carving chairs and so on from the solid rock walls, a very important problem came to mind.

        “Blackie! Do you have any games from the demon world we can play?”

        “...Blackie? Hm, I brought a chess set.”

        “Demons play chess?”

        “Naturally, what kind of barbarians do you think we are?”

        “Which set of rules do you use?”

        “Chess has rules?”