After verifying what her flashy (both literally and metaphorically) spell had done, which was making an ever-burning tree smackdab in the middle of the village, Maua was subsequently roped into a tour around the village.

Once again noting the accuracy of the name she had given the Lost man, which I totally agreed with, my little niece gave her consent.

Of course, Maua being Maua, she only did so after getting an okay from the rest of us. Of course, we all readily gave it, it was such a cute face, and it was obvious that she wanted to see the village.

And thus our little adventure amidst our adventure began. 

All things considered, it wasn’t that much different than most of the villages I’ve been to…if I looked at it objectively.

There were your standard village thingies, like a tailor, a tanner, and a butcherer among the usual farmers and cattle…but that's where the similarities ended…kind of.

It wasn’t that the people were going about their days any differently than any other villager…because they weren’t. 

It was just odd. Even in a world of fantastical beasts and people, heck I’m a fudging dragonoid, it just felt off…but somehow not in a bad way.

Maybe it was the cattle, which looked much like their herders, living silhouettes of their non-blackouted counterparts.

It could’ve been the darkness protruding from the hides that the tanner was working on.

Or maybe the clothes of the same shade that the tailor was adjusting.

Whatever the feeling came from, it seemed to have no effect on the little one of our group.

This probably was due to how the villagers reacted to her. 

Children of all ages ran up to her as we walked down the dirt pathways. They swooped in and wrapped her in hugs.

Maua reciprocated each one of the hugs with a giggle, ruffling the hair of the shadow kids.

It was diabetes-inducingly sweet, but especially when it was an older child.

More often than not, the older children were taller than her, so she had to get up her toes to reach their heads.

It wasn’t only just the children who met the angel girl with warmness.

Rather than that, there wasn’t really anyone in the village that did anything else towards her.

Even the elderly grinned at her from their chairs as we walked past, showering the girl in handmade trinkets.

Maua seemed to thoroughly enjoy the affection shown by the villagers. 

Thinking about it deeper, that made sense. She pretty much said life sucked being in that orphanage after we kicked the bucket. And the first couple of months of her new life weren’t that easy either. 

Well, I guess we’ll just have to make up for lost time. I don’t think that her mothers would object to that.

Eventually, the tour had come to its conclusion.  As we walked around, Maua had also made herself busy naming some more of the inhabitants.

One notable one being the Lost One who had tried to stop Gaul from requesting Maua’s help in the first place. We learned that she was in fact his fiancee. Maua dubbed her Pallas, noting that the girl needed all the wisdom she could get to guide the headstrong Gaul.

Another one that I liked was Melodi. A young teenage girl who was singing a beautiful tune as she went about doing her chores for the day as we walked by. 

With our objective completely, we left the village with Maua making several promises to the children to come back and visit sometime soon.

She also made sure to tease Gaul and Pallas, saying that she couldn’t miss the wedding, dying both the Lost One’s faces in the faintest of indigoes.

We followed swiftly behind the guide, who Gaul had practically forced us to take, towards the exit of Limbo.

Admittedly it was the better choice, as the Lost One had way better bearings than me or VeVe, and we arrived significantly quicker than we would have on our own.

Saying goodbye to the guide, we entered the exit.

For the first couple of minutes, we trudged along the tunnel, which was pretty similar to the first entrance, in silence.

“Well, that was certainly something,”  Asabela whistled, breaking the quiet atmosphere.

“I know right?” Myri concurred. “It’s one thing to theorize that Maua was who we thought, but it’s an entirely different thing to witness proof with your own eyes.”

I couldn’t have agreed more, and presumably, from the bobbing of her head, my girlfriend shared the sentiment. 

The girl in question didn’t respond, seemly lost in her thoughts.

“Maua?” Asabela asked, moving closer to her daughter and poking the girl on the cheek. “You there? What are you thinking about?”

“Oh sorry, Mama,” the angel girl responded absently. “I was just thinking about the second circle.”

“What about it?” I asked, my curiosity piqued.

“Well, everything honestly,” she answered.

“You don’t remember it? You passed through it on your climb, right?” Myri questioned.

“Yeah, I did…but I wasn’t conscious for circles two through five. I only remember one, six, seven, eight, and nine.”

“Ah that’s right,” Myri said. “Well, it's okay, Murua and Kna’Ve have been there and told us beforehand so we prepared. One of them will get you up to snuff as we walk.”

Taking that as her cue, my girlfriend began her explanation.

“The second circle is known as the circle of Lust. The terrain is arduous to traverse, being made of nothing but stones with steep inclines and declines. Within the circle are massive thunderstorms that attempt to drown those who enter in rain or smite them with lightning. Strong gusts of wind attempt to blow them off of high places and ultimately to their deaths. There’s also a rumor about some people being whisked off by the wind to a courtroom where they are judged and subsequently punished or let go.”

“I see,” the blonde girl nodded. “So what’re the preparations that you’ve brought?”

“These!” Myri stated proudly pulling several bright yellow rain jackets from one of her bags. 

“Rain jackets? Or are those ponchos?” Maua asked incredulously. 

“Ponchos,” Myri replied. “ I wove these from my own silk with the intention that they would help use insulate against the lightning.”

“Plus, we don’t really have to worry about drowning…” Asabela added. “We’re sea-kin afterall.”

“That just leaves the wind,” I said. “Which we admittedly couldn’t figure out…so we’re just going to go with the flow.”

Myri proceed to pass out the ponchos, which she custom-made for each of us. Mine had cutouts for my horns and wings. VeVe’s had two hoods for her heads. Asabela’s had several zippers that could be unzipped so she could use her tentacles without shredding the clothing. Like mine, Myri had cutouts for her horns as well as a pair of zippers on her sleeves for her extra arms. And of course, Maua had two sets of cutouts for her horns and slits in the back for her wings if she decided to materialize them.

And she looked downright adorable in the weather clothing. To the point where Asabela got a nose bleed cute.

After she finally got the blood to stop running and everyone was recharged on their Mauaium we continued our journey.

—⁕🎕⁕—

Minos sighed as he reorganized the papers on his desk from the last hearing.

His job was getting bland over a entirety of doing it.

None of the cases were exciting anymore.

This person disrespected the Ruler of All…sentenced to eternal damnation.

This one committed genocide against their own race…sentenced to eternal damnation.

This one was a scumbag to their parents…eternal damnation.

Oh, what's that? Someone did something wrong? What is their sentence? Yep, you guessed it…eternal damnation.

He was tired. He needed a break. A vacation.

He let out another sigh. The Ruler had been revived in the ninth floor rather recently, and actually had climbed out of hell.

Unfortunately for Minos, he missed  the chance to meet them…else he would’ve requested some time off.

He desperately needed some time off to spend with the wife and kids.

Letting out one more sigh, he called for the next case to be brought in.

“Please bring in the next case.”

“Excuse the interruption, Lord Minos,” a puff of smoke arose in front of him and a woman appeared out of it.

Tall and curvy, sporting a set of horns and small wings, and a spade-tipped tail, the woman was the caricature of a succubus. And from her attire, she was a secretary. 

“What is it?” Minos asked lazily.

“There’s a group of five intruders entering the circle.”

“And? That’s scarcely something worth reporting.”

“Well that’s the thing…they’re not exactly normal. Two of them are immensely strong. Another two are of the same caliber as those two but they seem to be weakened. And the final one…we can’t get an accurate read on.”

“We can’t get a read on one of them?”

The secretary succubus nodded. “Yes, my lord.”

‘This could be interesting,’ Minos thought.

“Alright, you’ve caught my attention. Halt the next case and bring those intruders in…IMMEDIATELY!” 

“I send someone right away, my lord.”

A smile crept its way onto Minos' face as his secretary poofed away.

‘Well, maybe today won’t be so boring after all.’

Lulla

Hi guys! Well, this is getting out later than I would've wanted...but my wifi decided to just drop abruptly last night...and I just got it to cooperate. So yeah that's that. So if you commented and I didn't reply...thats why. But anyways. Hope you had a lovely day and thanks for reading!!!