Play With Your Food

Cerveras sat on the roof of a cheap house, in his demon form, sprawled in the sun. He liked doing that (must've been part of his serpentine nature). He opened his orange eyes, with slits for pupils, and then he saw an odd sight. A raggedly dressed human, trying to run away. Must've broken loose, he concluded. The human hadn't seen him, and was running away from the city.

Fair game. Cerveras smiled, flicking out a forked tongue, crawling down the roof, his razor-like claws leaving makrs on the roof. He slithered down and followed the human.

Idiot. It was nothing but barren, arid landscape for miles around. He was easy to spot, and anyone who saw him could easily pick him off.

Like Cerveras intended to. He slithered closely behind the running human. He was a young man. Clearly an escaped prisoner. Cerveras let out a low hissing sound. The human stopped suddenly, and turned slowly to face the demon, who had a sickening, serpentine grin on his face.

The human was terrified. He knew he was going to die. Cerveras grin widened and his mouth opened, revealing two large fangs, like those of a viper, from which he spat a stream of venom into the man's face. The man instantly screamed, bringing his hands to his face, as an unsettling hissing noise was heard. The man stumbled back and fell down, his hands uncovering... his face was no longer there. Just a disgusting, bloody mass, with anything resembling a face having been dissolved off by the corrosive venom. Cerveras walked forward, sizing up his meal, as the man went through his final spasms before dying.

Danny watched all this. Though a twenty year old woman she sat upon a post her teddy Boo-boo in her lap. Her eyes were wide as she watched the man die with his face being obliterated to nothing.

Pulling her teddy close like a child would she whispered in to the teddies litte ears, "Did he see us yet Boo-boo?" She seemed not really afraid of Cerveras but much more afraid of the man with no face. Clearly she was human perhaps wrong in the head by the way she sat rivited to were's the man's face used to be.

He was dead she knew that much but even so she seemed worried. Leaping down from the post she picked up her back pack. The head of a unicorn sticking out of it. She muttered, "No, no I'll be okay. Boo-boo's here." She didn't move but waited for Cerveras to move first.

Cerveras lifted his head up, and looked... he saw something rather perplexing... a twenty year-old woman, talking to a teddy bear. A human. And a very odd one at that. He looked at her curiously, snaking up to her. "Well, what are you doing out alone out here?" he asked, with a sly glint in his eye. "Not particularly a nice home for humans..." he flicked out a forked tongue.

Danny watched him for a moment but smiled. Not saying anything as her gaze traveled over him. Almost as if she was sizing him up except for the fact she was human after all. Hugging the bear a bit tighter she looked back up at his face, "Danny, you are?"

She didn't really seem nervous as she watched him as if this kind of thing happened every day. Meeting a demon face to face. Though her gaze did flicker to the body. As though that wasn't something. Well in truth it wasn't.

Venom was definitely a different form of killing from the usual snap of the neck and a gulp down. Though Danny did meet that flickering tongue with out fear.

"Cerveras." The demon said. She was a curious individual. He wondered whether or not he should kill her. She was amusing, if a bit odd. And it's not like he needed another meal right away, what with a dead body close by. "Not scared." he said, looking at her more closely. "That's interesting."

Danny looked seroiuse, "Boo-boo protects me." She held out the little teddy to let him inspect it. It's head slightly rolling to one side from weak stuffing. She smiled a smile that looked so different from a grown womans smile. It was like that of a clumsy child learning to smile.

Cerveras took a step back, incredulous. A teddy bear... he laughed. She obviously was not completely right in the head... he could have some fun before killing her. Then again, considering her outrageous manner, she might very well be someone's pet... and he didn't want to get in trouble with other demons... any more so than the man he had just killed (which he figured would be easy enough to rationalize). He looked at Danny again and grinned. He extended his fangs and shot a small bit of venom at the teddy bear.

Danny dropped the teddy instantly, shaking her fingers to get the venom off. It had hurt her and she started to cry. Sitting down on the ground she looked at her hands that smoke and melted like the mans. In her fretfulness her toys reacted.

Snap the alligator burst out of the bag crawling up to her it seemed a bit more alive and almost looked slimy as it licked the rest of the venom off of Danny. Danny promptly hugged Snap but her gaze was on Boo-boo who hadn't moved and was still smoking.

The others came out living trying to comfort the crying Danny. These were her friends. So of course she looked crazy talking to them, "Boo-boo?" She gently turned over her friend and part of him had been eaten away. Crying harder she hugged Prance, "Why did you hurt him? We didn't do nothing."

This was something Cerveras was not expecting. Her toys were coming to life. He backed up, unsure of what to do. "Uhh..." oh dear... things weren't looking well. He always made a point of never attacking a stronger party than himself. Hey, he was vicious, not insane. He backed away, thinking he should just take the dead body and get away from this weird girl

Danny didn't let him. Pushing up from where she was sitting and brushing some of the stuffed animals from her lap she came forward and grabbed two of his fingers with one of her hands.

"Help me fix him please?" She begged the tears now only streaks across her face. She didn't dare look at Boo-boo but instead looked in to his face. Waiting for him to say yes as any child would assume.

Cerveras froze. He was feeling a mixture of awkwardness and fear. He didn't dare refuse... this woman had magical powers, and he didn't want to test them. He looked at the teddy bear. "Umm..." okay. How to fix... he'd need cloth. He looked over at the man he'd just killed. Plenty of cloth on his clothing. "Okay, let's try this..."

He walked over to the dead body, feeling very foolish, and praying that there weren't any demons to catch him doing this. He used his claws to cut off a portion of the clothing and walked over to Danny. "Will this work?" he asked, showing the tattered garments.

Danny nodded sullenly and sat back down. Tugging Boo-boo in to her lap. "String now too," she said as she began ripping the cloth to fit the hole. Somehow she didn't mind using a dead mans clothes. Having lived in Alasantres you had to rely on what ever you could get. Legs came forward carrying a little pack of cotton to replace the stuff that had burned away.

By now the venom had burned it's self out so she was free to touch it as she needed.

"String..." he muttered, looking around... he went back to the body. Maybe the guy collected string to keep in his pockets...

He was a bit surprised how well that guess worked. He had a small ball of string crumpled up there. "This work?" he asked, holding it up gingerly, so as not to cut it with his razor-like claws.

Danny smiled and took the string. Turning Boo-boo over she took the needle that Legs offered and stitched up the back. Turning over she re-stuffed him and stitched his other side. Setting him up right Boo-boo didn't move but Danny hugged him close.

"Thank you," She said now smiling happily. The others gathered around her. Though the little unicorn stood in between Danny and Cerveras. Clearly glaring at Cerveras.

"Err... you're welcome..." he said, backing up. "So, uh... will it be alright if I just go now?" he asked a bit nervously.

Danny frowned and looked troubled as she looked up at him, "I forgive you. Why are you gonna leave?" She seemed genuinely confused as she got to her feet straightening her black dress a bit. Looking at his face. Fear was simply non-existent it seemed. She had always been saved if something bad happened so she really didn't have much to fear any way.

"Uhh... well..." Okay. Cerveras wasn't scared anymore, he was embarassed. "I'm late for my lunch break." he said quickly, walking over to the dead body.

Danny nodded a bit confused. Lunch break? Having not worked a day in her life the meaning escaped her. Danny knelt and placed the animals in to the bags in certain pockets. Prance went in last and stuck her head out of the top. Boo-boo she held in her arms as she got back up slinging the back-pack over her shoulder. "I should get some food as well. Tweety," A little raven clawed it's way out of the bag and sat on her shoulder looking like he was brooding. Though something silent passed between them and he was gone. Now only one of the many scavengers birds that prowled the sky.

Cerveras was very much eager to get away from this weird, weird girl. He was glad she was pretty much letting him off the hook. He grabbed the body he had killed earlier, and with a puff of smoke, he and the corpse were gone.