Lillene

Enjoy!

“Eh?” The man with the wand seemed surprised and turned towards Serenity. “Who’re you? It’s not safe for strangers here.”

Serenity wasn’t certain if he was warning Serenity about the demon or about trespassing. It wasn’t really important, at least not yet. “Are you Mr. Rosemont?”

The man chuckled loudly, but it didn’t seem humorous. “Ah, you’ve been talking to my staff, have you? No one else calls me mister. You call me Rose. Who might you be?” The man’s accent was strong but understandable. It also seemed to wander all over the place to Serenity’s ear. It was possible that it was real, but Serenity suspected it was at least partly an affectation.

Serenity smiled. If he were closer to “Rose,” he’d have put out a hand to shake; as it was, however, a smile was the best option. “Nice to meet you Rose. I’m Serenity. Do we need to do something about the Pride demon before we talk?”

“Pride demon?” The sideways glance Rose gave the imitation lioness told Serenity that he at least knew what Serenity meant, whether or not he’d known the creature was a demon before Serenity mentioned it. “This is a talmis, one of the strongest and fiercest monsters I have available for Tamers.” 

Serenity supposed that the different varieties of demons probably had names other than the ones he knew; the names he knew were descriptive, after all. They were translations out of Bridge; if the demons were known to a group that didn’t know what they were, they’d probably have other names than simply being called a demon of their Passion type.

Come to think of it, that was probably a better way to talk about them; it was certainly less prejudicial than using the word “demon.” They weren’t from another plane and they didn’t serve an ultimate evil; instead, they followed their Passion.More advanced demons usually had more complex Passions; Serenity knew that from his previous life. Even so, demons - no, Children of Passion - didn’t tend to adapt well to living with humans or with most other species. 

That didn’t mean they didn’t form their own societies, however. He’d seen it in Mornmot; now that he knew more about their background, Serenity was fairly confident he’d seen it as both Vengeance and the Final Reaper as well. There were some high Tier monstrous societies with really odd rules that could very well be advanced Children of Passion.  He couldn’t be certain, but it might make some odd things make a lot more sense.

Rose watched the talmis while Serenity waited. After a long moment, he sighed and looked back at Serenity. “She seems pretty calm right now. I take it that you’re a Tamer?”

Serenity shook his head. “I know something of her kind, and they know me. It’s not taming, at least not the way a Tamer would do it.”

The talmis picked that moment to huff, then moved towards Serenity. Her approach made her size even more obvious; she was larger than Serenity thought lions were. Her shoulder was about the same height as his, which put her head even higher. She seemed closer in size to a horse than any of Earth’s big cats, at least as far as Serenity knew. He’d seen bigger ones as Vengeance on other worlds, but they were generally monsters.

Admittedly, the talmis was a monster as well.

Both Rose and Serenity watched as she paced slowly to a couple of feet away from him and overtly sniffed the air, clearly checking his scent. After a moment, she gave another huff that Serenity would have called pleased if it came from Curio, then stepped forward and butted him in the chest with her head. Serenity had to brace himself to avoid being knocked down.

Serenity reached up and gently patted her on the head. When she butted his chest again, he scritched the area between her ears. It took both hands to really get a good scratch going, given her size. She moved her head up into his hands and started purring, of all things. Serenity didn’t think lions purred, but when you got right down to it, how much did he actually know about lions?

She wasn’t really a lioness anyway.

“Not a Tamer, huh?” Rose sounded amused. “If you think you can handle her, we can head back to the barn while you tell me why you were looking for me.”

The words confirmed it in Serenity’s mind: the accent wasn’t at all real. Rose had an accent, he wasn’t from New York City, but he wasn’t from as deep in the woods as he’d tried to pretend at first. Being from elsewhere wasn’t at all unusual; Serenity wasn’t from the city, either. 

“I think we can make this work,” Serenity agreed. “Does she have a name?” 

“Yeah,” Rose said with a frown. “I don’t usually tell the Tamers because they all want to pick their own, usually something related to what they want the monster to do. Most don’t ask.” He paused for a moment, then seemed to remember he hadn’t said the name. “Her name’s Minu. She’s not very good at responding to it. Honestly, she’s not very good at following any directions at all; that’s why we were out here.”

Serenity noticed that Rose wasn’t doing a good job at selling Minu’s charms. Perhaps he didn’t think he needed to.Serenity chuckled and shook his head. “Well, Minu, we’re going to head back to the barn. You’re going to be good and come with us, aren’t you?”

Minu shook herself, which knocked Serenity’s hands away from her head. She made a low grumbling noise that Serenity hadn’t heard from Curio. Admittedly, Curio didn’t tend to be very vocal; he liked hiding, eating, and startling people.

Minu headbutted Serenity again, a little softer this time, then walked around him and headbutted him in the back. It seemed like a deliberate attempt at communication, rather than an attack, but Serenity wasn’t certain what she was trying to communicate.

Minu huffed again, obviously exasperated that he hadn’t understood; Serenity had heard that sound enough times over the years to understand what it meant even if he didn’t know what Minu was trying to say. 

When she lowered her head and pushed it into the backs of his knees, Serenity had to move quickly to avoid falling on her. The huff that came from behind him made Serenity wonder if that was what she’d wanted. It didn’t make any sense until she shoved her head through the space he’d made between his legs when he caught his balance, then lifted herself quickly to her full height, lifting Serenity off the ground in the process.

Serenity tipped backwards and had to grab Minu’s neck with his legs to keep himself from falling off her sideways. He pulled himself forward and braced his arms against the side of her head so that he could scoot backwards enough to be balanced above her forelegs instead of clinging to her neck. 

Minu’s intention seemed both obvious and unbelievable now. “You want me to ride you back to the barn?”

Minu pushed herself up to her full height, which turned out to be taller than Serenity thought it was; the shoulders Serenity was sitting on seemed to be closer to Rose’s height than that of his shoulders. Minu made a few small steps, shaking back and forth as she moved.

She also started purring again.

Serenity grinned down at the big cat. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

He’d never have expected a Pride demon to want to be ridden, but that seemed to be the case. It didn’t seem to be denting her pride at all; if anything, she seemed actively proud to have him on her back. It didn’t quite make sense to Serenity, but it also didn’t seem worth arguing about.

Rose was laughing. 

Serenity waited for him to finish. Minu didn’t seem to want to wait, so Serenity tried to direct her to circle the man.  She responded as quickly as she could figure out what he meant, but there was a noticeable bobble when serenity tried to tell her to slow down and she took it as a signal to move faster. Once they had that straightened out, the ride smoothed out. 

It both was and it wasn’t like riding a horse. Admittedly, Serenity had rarely ridden bareback, even as Vengeance, but this wasn’t like that either. Minu simply moved differently from a horse. In some ways, it reminded Serenity more of riding a camel, though that wasn’t exactly right either. He was going to have to get used to this.

Serenity blinked at the realization that he was thinking like he’d keep Minu. Why did he think that? She was a monster and a demon. No, a Child of Passion; the Broken Mirror’s term really was better for her. She wasn’t the mindless attacking or corruptive force the word “demon” implied in English. She was a proud cat-creature, and while some people did compare cats to demons, it wasn’t really a fair comparison.

He was going to have to find out how much she cost, wasn’t he? That wasn’t his goal here and it definitely didn’t help him shut down the trade in demons, but if nothing else he could certainly introduce her to Aki. She’d probably like being the boss of a floor of her own. He really didn’t have the need for a riding animal; flyers were faster and could handle rougher terrain.

Serenity glanced down at Minu and realized he might be underestimating her. Cougars and mountain lions could definitely handle rough terrain; it seemed plausible that Minu could as well. So …. How fast could she move?

Before he knew it, he’d shifted forward, which clearly communicated his desire to move fast to Minu. She gathered herself up for a moment, then she leapt forward, actually clearing the top of Rose’s head in a leap before she landed on the other side of him and sprinted forward. It was far faster than Serenity expected, faster than any car he’d driven. It also didn’t last very long. There were perhaps a dozen seconds before Minu slowed to a walk that wasn’t that different from Serenity’s own walking pace. She panted as she moved, clearly tired by the exertion. Her ears and tail were both up, clearly happy about her jump and run.

It was clear that Minu wasn’t nearly as good for long distance travel as a car or a flyer; she simply couldn’t maintain the speed. She might make a good mount in a fight; that leap was incredible and her speed would be unexpected. A horse couldn’t do that at a similar Tier. The other place she might be good would be as an impressive show mount, but Serenity couldn’t see himself using her that way. What would he need to show off for?

Serenity had Minu stop just outside the barn and wait for Rose to catch up. It took a few minutes, which Minu used to steady her breathing and get ready for another run.

As Rose got close, Serenity realized there was really no reason for him to stay on Minu’s back. He hopped off Minu and patted her shoulder. “I’ll see what I can do about taking you home with me. I’m sure I can work something out with Rose.”

Minu made an odd high-pitched sound, almost a chirp. Serenity blinked, but she didn’t sound upset; if anything, she seemed happy. She shoved her head under his hand, clearly asking for more scritches.

She would probably be pretty expensive, but with luck the prospect of a big sale would make Rose more willing to talk about his supplier, in the context of where Minu came from if nothing else. Serenity was certain that Minu would cost more than was necessary to learn about the supplier, but he was fairly confident he wouldn’t have any trouble affording her even so.

Lillene

Yes, of course the lion demons are Pride demons. No, it’s not a pun.

Well, not just a pun.