The Better Hunter

They rode on horseback until the blue sky turned pink and orange. Sitri led them across wide open plains and fields, though occasionally he would wander back towards the main road to look around. Ana wasn't sure if he was watching if they were being followed or perhaps that he was looking for another rider that he could attack and steal from. She doubted that he was returning to the main road to get his bearings. The Demon Lord appeared to have a great sense of direction, never once getting lost in the large stretches of grass, when Ana herself had no idea where they were. He never had any problem getting back to that main road.

She was sure as well that Sitri probably could have found his way in the night as well, but when it began to get dark, he found a small area away from the path that was sheltered with trees. He tethered the horse and ordered her to build a fire, then just walked away. She considered running but he never left her sight, and if she could see him, he could surely see her. And aside from remembering the impressive strength and speed of the demon, she got to see it first hand once again, as he crouched down and began to stalk a deer in the nearby field. He moved as adeptly on all fours as he did on two, prowling like a wolf towards its prey.

Rather than build the fire as he told her, she couldn't take her eyes off him. Despite his large stature and blood red skin, he looked human enough, but he was like a wild beast out there, sniffing the wind and moving, always, staying out of the deer's sight. When he got close enough, he displayed that power and quickness that she'd seen before, and in a flash the demon was on the deer. The animal never had a chance. It squealed and kicked, until the demon, with tremendous ease, snapped its neck.

He carried the deer back to their camp site over his broad shoulder just as he had carried her, and with just as much ease.

"I told you to build a fire," Sitri said when he returned.

Ana screwed up her face and shook her head in disbelief. "You're more animal than man."

"That is because I am neither, dear Ana. I am a Demon Lord." He smiled with that toothy grin that never failed to send a shiver down her spine. "Surely your husband hunted when you crossed from Cubano to Coh? You must have ate some meat on that long journey."

That was true, and Ana remembered being impressed with her husband then too. He was completely new to her still, a stranger really, but she admired the skill at which her husband had also stalked his prey, although he didn't move as swiftly or as soundlessly as the demon. More often than not, the deer or elk became alerted and fled, but he was quite competent at catching hare and rabbit. She did enjoy seeing him haul back a deer on the occasion that he did manage to kill one, his muscles bulging and sweat on his face. The manly appearance of her new husband made her body stir in a way it never had back at the church, when she rejected the needs of her flesh in return of Liru's power.

Her body was stirring again now, though against her will. Watching the demon was unlike watching her husband. It was primal, and the skill Sitri displayed in capturing and killing their supper scared her. And when he returned with the animal over his shoulders, his muscles didn't bulge and there was no sweat. It had all just been so easy for him. What else was so easy for the demon she wondered.

Averting her eyes from his wide, body with all of its muscles on display, she tried to straighten out her thoughts. This was the corruption that the temple had warned about. That the moment she allowed her body to dictate her needs, and use another to satisfy those needs, she had opened herself up to temptation. When her mind was no longer focused on Liru, it could be attacked by all manner of perversions and wicked ideas. But she had chosen love, not perversion. Her body was for her husband, and he could sate all of her needs adequately. She didn't need to worry about better. She was guided by love, not the needs of her body.

Much like praying to Liru though, thinking of love did little to quell the tinging of her body.

"Would you prefer if I used a bow and arrow? Is that way of killing more humane?" Sitri continued to taunt her. "I do not feel the kill, so I do not need to distance myself from it. I-"

The Demon Lord stopped and sniffed the air. Ana got very nervous and wrapped her arms around herself. Whatever he smelled on the air seemed to delight him, for he widened his smile, his smirk the smuggest she'd ever seen.

"Are you aroused, Priestess?"

"Never. You make me sick," she retorted immediately, perhaps a little too quick in her hurry to dispel the accusation. "And I thought you were going to stop calling me that, demon."

"My apologies,Ana. The scent of a woman in heat gets me excited. Especially one so pure and vestal as yourself." He was so gleeful he was nearly dancing. "I thought you were being critical of my hunting skills, but it seems you like your men a little wild."

"I don't like my men like anything. I like my one man, my husband, who is all I need. Who has had me plenty, so you should know that I'm not so virginal."

"Oh, I know. Or else I never would have been able to come near you or your home. Your magic has faltered from your time with your husband. That is what you miss most of all, isn't it? That's what you really see when you watch me. Pure, raw, power."

His words sent another tingle through her body, and she had to look away again as she tried to calm herself. She hated that he could see right through her, that she wished she had her powers back so that she wouldn't be in this situation. She hated that he was right, about so many things.

"For now though, why don't you build that fire I told you to make, while I dress this deer." He said as he placed the carcass on a clean patch of grass, and took a knife from a pouch on the side of his loincloth. "I like to eat it bloody, but I imagine you prefer it cooked."

"Who says I want to eat at all?"

"You'll eat because you still hold on to hope that your husband is coming to rescue you any minute now. You won't allow yourself to starve to ****, when you still believe there is an escape. But soon, you will realize that no one is coming. There will be no grand, daring rescue. And then you will know that this is your life now, by my side for ever more.