Chapter 8 - Betrayal in Demonia, the Land of Demons
After dressing up in shining armor, Max arrived on the black tarmac, where his griffin Damien was pawing at the ground.
Ariel the cat was lying on Max’s shoulder, dozing lazily.
Max rubbed his aching shoulder.
Since the fat was so large, Max’s shoulder was getting sore.
As he approached the tarmac, church bells rang sonorously and he paused to take in the religious site. Beside the tarmac was a gigantic black cathedral, its steeples piercing the sky.
The archbishop was greeting parishioners at the front door, but Max noticed the same poor villagers. Most were dressed in rags and a few children were even begging by the cathedral’s door.
The sight bothered him. He wanted a prosperous empire where nobody would be poor. Max resolved to do something about it the moment he returned. But first, he had to focus on the monumental task in front of him.
He had a province to tour. He had to rally the troops so that he could reconquer Purgatorio.
But still, his heart ached at the poverty of the people. His people. His people were poor so it felt like he was too. He wished he had time to go out and mingle among his people, let them know he cared about them and their plight. But he knew he had a lot of state business to attend to.
“I wish I could do something about those children,” he said, eying the children in rags begging at the cathedral’s wooden door.
“Your treasury is empty now,” said Ariel. “Reconquer the provinces and those Lords and Ladies will provide you with gold.”
“You’re awake,” asked Max.
Ariel had been so lazy and sleepy lately that Max was surprised by the sound of her calm voice.
“Yes,” said Ariel, opening one eye. “I have to be. Since Julius isn’t coming with us, I’m going to be your tour guide. I’ll be your encyclopedia. I know everything about the Supernatural World. I’m over 1000 years old, after all. Of course, not as old as the Supernatural World itself, which formed around the same time as humans first appeared in the Natural World.”
“My people are suffering. How do I make it better?” asked Max.
He was serious about training for his new role as Emperor. He wanted to learn everything about being a good ruler, to live up to his father’s expectations and to honor his murdered parents.
“The Empress was a tyrant,” said the cat. “She made citizens pay exorbitant taxes to build her statue in the Grand Hall. Don’t copy her.”
Max soaked in the information. It was all the more reason for him to become a just ruler.
“Got cha,” he said.
He had more questions, but they would have to wait.
At that moment, the Duke of Demonia had joined them on the tarmac. “Are we ready to go, sire?”
“Yes,” said Max, eying his own griffin, who pawed the ground even harder, stirring up dust.
“Good,” said the duke, his cape fluttering in the wind. “I’ll lead the way. We’re going to the deepest cave in the world: the Krubera-Voronja Cave, in Georgia, on the coast of the Black Sea.”
“How are you planning to get there?” said Max.
“I have my own form of transportation,” said the duke.
And then, he started to transform.
Max thought his vassal the duke would turn into a stereotypical bat, but Duke Oscuro surprised him by turning into a giant mosquito, complete with long legs and huge yet delicate wings.
Max turned to Ariel. “Don’t vampires turn into bats?”
“Not in this realm,” replied the cat. “Vampires are pesky parasitic blood suckers and bats aren’t pesky enough. Now mosquitoes! If they don’t annoy you in the summertime, then you must have a very high tolerance for bug bites.”
The wings of the giant mosquito began to flap, creating so much wind that Max was forced to take a step backward.
Ariel cried, “Let’s go! Get on Damien!”
With the wind blowing into his face, Max scrambled into the seat on his griffin’s back and then grabbed the reins.
The griffin stopped pawing the ground and began running at full speed.
Soon, they were airborne.
Max looked down at his beautiful Imperial Capital. But Max knew it was only a facade. It may have been a beautiful city, but the poverty there marred its beauty.
As the wind caressed his face, Max began to relax and enjoy the smooth ride to Demonia. There had been so much on his mind lately that he just wanted a short break. He had to deal with so much: the poverty of his people, conquering rebelling provinces, and ruling well.
On the ground by his feet, the cat yawned and stretched.
Looking at the cat, Max was curious. Why didn’t she want to return to the Supernatural World? Why had she been so reluctant to come back? And why didn’t she tell him about his supernatural heritage in the twelve years she had been with him in the Natural World?
So, Max asked, “Why didn’t you want to come back? It’s so beautiful.”
He indicated the puffy white clouds and bright sunshine.
Ariel began kneading the ground. “If you must know, coming back here brings back too many bad memories.”
“How so?”
“I’m not a cat by birth. I was permanently transformed into one. This is a punishment. This is a curse,” she explained, pointing her fat orange paws toward herself.
“Punishment? What’d you do?”
The cat began to groom herself by licking her paws. “I used to be a princess of one of your provinces. I was the daughter of the King and Queen of Fairies, the Land of Fairies. I used to be a very big and gluttonous fairy. One day, I was returning home with my ladies-in-waiting after a day out when I saw a thin old man by the side of the road. He begged me for a morsel of food, but at that time, I was too selfish. Even though I had a lot of food and I was already full, I kept eating. I wanted to keep all the food for myself. So I laughed at him and then ignored him. Disappointed by my lack of compassion, he called me a gluttonous fat cat, said that I deserved to be one and then cursed me with the transformation.”
Max listened with his full attention. It made sense to Max. So that why the cat was so fat.
But there was still one thing he didn’t understand.
He said, “But I’ve never seen you eat a lot...”
The cat glared at him. “Don’t you think I’ve learned my lesson?”
Max nodded. “I guess.”
The cat went on, “The man turned out to be a Cardinal in disguise. He was traveling the Supernatural World, imparting the teachings of our Holy Universal Faith to others in a very crude but effective way. He refused to change me back. When I went back home, my parents decided they didn’t want a far cat for a daughter, so they sent me away. I bounced from place to place until the Emperor at that time, your grandfather actually, took pity on me and gave me a home in return for serving his family. So, you see, I am bound in servitude to the Imperial Family.”
He asked, “How can you change back into a fairy?”
Ariel shrugged. “No idea. But after twelve years, I’m used to it.”
He felt sorry for her. Surely no one deserved to be cursed as a fat cat forever.
The cat continued, “I don’t even know if I want to change back. Besides, both my parents are already dead. And it’s not like they would want to see me even if they were still alive.”
She began licking her paws again.
Still feeling sorry for Ariel, Max thought there was a lesson in her story. For one, it was confirmation of his own personality trait of compassion. Contrary to the opinion of his foster mother, it paid to be compassionate toward others.
Ariel added, “And that’s why I didn’t tell you about your supernatural heritage. I was hoping by ignoring the Supernatural World and pretending like it didn’t exist, I’d never have to come back here again and face the bad memories. But then I realized that you can’t ignore your problems. They don’t go away by themselves
.”
Max was glad that he never ignored his problems. He always confronted them head on. That was why he agreed to accept the crown. That was why he was going to go to these rebelling provinces and defeat them one by one.
Up ahead, buzzing loudly, Duke Oscuro in mosquito form was soaring through the air, doing loop-de-loops without a care in all the Supernatural World.
How Max wished he could as carefree as the duke.
It was then that he realized something.
Accepting this new position as ruler was going to be challenging. Carefree days were over for him.
He was going to have to grow up.
He was going to have to say goodbye to his childhood.