Run

You and the demon stare at each other for several too-long moments before you kick Aegis into a full gallop towards the road. He whinnies and leaps through the thicket of trees almost effortlessly and you wonder if you should have been pressing him harder a moment before. The demon explodes into motion, weirdly jointed legs sending it flying through the air. too-long limbs clawing at the tree trunks to propel itself faster. Its tail flicks and you hear a dozen sharp THUNKs as a barrage of stingers batter the wood around you, you flatten yourself as tightly to your mount as you can, hanging on for dear life as Aegis fled from the monster. After a minute or so of hard riding you can no longer hear or see the demon crashing through the trees behind you and you breath a sigh of relief.

Aegis seems to agree and he slows to a trot. Then a fast walk. Then a slow one. "Hey there Aegis, I don't think he's that far behind-" without warning the warhorse's knees buckle and you are thrown free of the saddle, landing in a heap on the forest floor. Dazed and winded, you struggle to your feet, looking confusedly back at Aegis. He's lying on his side, breathing heavily, limbs twitching as though still trying to walk. You rush to his side and to your horror you find a dozen or so stingers embedded in his flank, "but you're an animal, demon venom shouldn't effect you..." You pull half a dozen of the stingers free before you realize something is wrong. Your fingers are clumsy and weak, barely able to find purchase on the thorny projectiles. You examine your arm, the one you'd used to shield yourself, and yes, you find three long stingers pinning your shirt to your skin.

Barely able to struggle to your feet, you stagger towards the road. Aegis had been a faithful steed and you felt genuinely saddened at leaving him behind but you had to think about your son. He'd probably be fine anyway, demon venom barely effected animals, and you seriously doubted the venom was designed to kill... right? A strange numbness is setting into you, tracing the throbbing spread of heat through your body, seeming to spread from the inside out. Your hands roam your body, searching for stingers, and you pull more than half a dozen from your skin. How could you take so much? A few more and you'd have taken almost as much venom as Aegis... was it your infernal offspring? Was he lending you some kind of resistance? The thought brings you hope and pride even as you weave drunkenly through the trees. You can see the road, it's just ahead! Maybe you could call out or... something. The hopelessness of your situation sets in as the sounds of something crashing through the undergrowth somewhere behind you. How were you going to get out of this one? Maybe the demon would just fuck you and then leave? As if. But maybe you could escape once it thought it "owned" you. Nobody owned you but Master.