A Weapon’s Serenade

The girls had passed many hikers already on their way from the quaint little town of Bottenau through some very lovely nature to another small town called Oppenau. These were their cheat days, a lengthy hike through the northern Black Forest. Well, lengthy in this case was a flexible term. The route they had picked consisted of five sections, intended to be done one a day. With a bit of magical preparation, the girls wanted to go as far as they felt like in one go.

They already had experience hiking through some rougher terrain in Hell, without the lovely paths weaving through the forest here. But unlike other human hikers, they had always cheated. They never carried any luggage around, they always used magic to boost their own constitution and, of course, just conjured whatever they needed on the way. They would obviously cheat here as well.

Anne sighed wistfully as she looked out across the Rench valley. “I wish I could draw…”

Both Melody and Kuria looked at their shared girlfriend with utter bewilderment. “What are you even talking about? You can draw? Really beautifully even.”

Anne shook her head. “No, I can only draw what I imagine. I can’t draw what I see, I can’t visualize it on paper. If I have an abstract thought, I can make that happen, but I can’t translate a real thing into a drawing.”

“Huh. It’s the aphantasia, isn’t it? Abstract works but something real needs to go through the abstract to get to paper and that transition doesn’t work out that well.”

“That’s exactly it. I guess I will have to settle for creating only what I can imagine… oh well.”

“I mean… that’s more than most people can do.”

“I suppose that’s true and I didn’t mean that in a bad way, just making a joke.”

“Fair enough. But you’re right, this is a wonderful view.”

“And we will get plenty more of them today.”

Melody nodded. “Absolutely. You know the couple we saw take a photo of this?”

“What about them?”

“I was just thinking that we are supposed to get retroactive photographic memory when we turn. It’s crazy to know that we will be able to remember this trip better in ten years than we will just next week.”

“That makes me wonder… Kuria, those memories of all those lives you shared, did they also become clearer?”

Kuria nodded. “By a lot, yes. I can even remember every exact word my hosts said. It’s… well, not overwhelming but it took some time to get used to.”

Melody frowned playfully. “That means you also perfectly remember… that.”

“That and many other moments even though I wish I could forget, well, that.”

Anne narrowed here eyes. “Do I want to know what ‘that’ is?”

Kuria and Melody looked at each other for a while before answering simultaneously. “No.”

Their girlfriend giggled. “Whatever ‘that’ was, it must have been quite the thing.”

“It was.”

“It really was. I am sorry that you will remember it too, Melody.”

“Yea, I guess that’s the only good argument against becoming a demon. Still, it’s a price I am willing to pay.”

“A brave choice. I am not sure if I would make that choice.”

There was a moment of silence before the two sisters started to laugh. “You know that we can now never tell Anne what actually happened that day, right?”

“I am well aware.”

“Good.”

“It must not haunt anyone but us.” Kuria grinned. “Shall we continue?”

Melody nodded while Anne sighed. “Sure, let’s go. You two are impossible.”

“And proudly so.”

The girls hadn’t stopped at the next town on this long trail, they had opted to continue through the night. Something only made possible using the night vision enchantment built into their magical tool tattoos. Of course, the protective enchantments and temporarily enhanced physical capabilities were also large parts of making this possible.

It was an hour or two after their usual dinner time when the girls arrived at a nice bench to rest and finally eat some conjured dinner. It didn’t take very long to eat the fake-preprepared rations, a bit of a picnic of sorts. All three wanted to enjoy the scenery but also get moving again soon, with a little luck they could get to the next town before sunrise and maybe even reach a good spot to view it from.

Anne snuck in a quick kiss with Melody before the girls got ready to move on. Annoyingly enough, a group of three young men saw it and were loudly hollering as they wobbled their way towards the girls. These men were clearly drunk.

“Oi! Wenn du so weiter jammerst, machen die’s ja nicht nochmal.” One of the men scolded another that if he continued yammering, the girls wouldn’t kiss again.

“Ach fick die doch. Die vögeln sich doch eh nur gegenseitig und nicht dich, du Trottel.” The other man threw his empty beer bottle at Melody who caught it with ease.

Melody sighed and stepped towards the men, holding the bottle to the face of the guy who threw it.

“Da ist Pfand drauf.” She reminded him that this was a returnable bottle.

“Was willst du denn jetzt?” He drunkenly stammered out a question, asking what Melody wanted from him.

“Dass du dein Pfand wegbringst und uns in Ruhe lässt.” She told him that she wanted him to properly return his bottle and leave the girls alone.

“Und was wenn nicht?” And he wanted to know what happens if she didn’t.

Melody let the bottle slowly dissolve into nothingness. “Dann verschwindet nicht nur diese Flasche, sondern auch drei andere.” She basically threatened to dissolve the three men into thin air.

“Alter, was?” The guy seemed confused.

“Sag mal, bist du eigentlich total bekloppt? Die Alte will dich umnieten. Lass abhauen, das ist es nicht wert.” One of the others seemed to have gotten the hint and wanted to leave, reminding his friend that angering Melody would cause his apparent death.

“Junge, mach mich hier nicht von der Seite an. Hau doch ab, wenn du willst! Ich mach mir hier die geile Magierin scharf.” The bottle-thrower did not get the hint and wanted to stay to flirt with Melody while his buddies were to leave.

“So dicht musste erstmal sein… Pascal, steh da nicht so rum wie ‘ne Tanne und hilf mal.” The other guy asked the third man to help.

Pascal seemed a little out of it too. “Hä? Mit was?”

“Boah, das waren drei Bier, kann doch nicht sein, dass ihr beide so Banane seid. Komm jetzt, wir gehen und hilf mir mal den Yannes mitzunehmen, der lässt sich sonst noch in ‘nen Frosch verwandeln.” A little reminder that they only had three beer and that they really should leave now, else Yannes would end up as a frog apparently got through to Pascal.

“Achso, ja gut, nee, das geht ja dann gar nicht. Der muss ja morgen zur Arbeit.” Pascal realized that having his friend become a frog was a bad idea, he needed to be at work in the morning.

“Wenn dich das bewegt, endlich deinen Arsch in Gang zu bringen. Los jetzt!” The most sober guy urged Pascal again to help.

It took a few moments before the guys had sorted themselves out and vaguely meandered towards the nearest town, back where the girls had come from earlier.

Anne looked at her girlfriends and started giggling. “Were these guys for real? This was too funny to be real. Also, what did you do to the bottle? We can't dissolve things.”

Melody shrugged. “Teleported it very very slowly. It’s with the luggage so we can return it to a shop later.”

“How responsible of you.”

“Hey, it’s like what? Eight cents? That’s like a sixth of a kiwi.”

“We can literally conjure as many kiwis as you want.”

“I know, but it’s eight cents.”

“Fair enough, have your eight cents.”

“Thank you.”

The girls continued their hike through the night. It was beautifully quiet out here in the woods and the clear starry sky gave them ample reason to stop every so often to appreciate it and the beautiful nature around them. Being out here alone, with just the wild animals, beautiful forest and clear sky, and the occasional creek, made cheating the human experience worth it. If they had to take breaks after every section of the trail, they would have never gotten out here after midnight. Sadly, the sunrise wasn’t as easily visible as the girls had hoped, but watching the early rays of light shine through the trees around them was still more than worthwhile. A starry sky and the following sunrise were among the few things Hell couldn’t offer.

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