I tremble against the girl, daring not to look behind me. I somehow know that I don't want to catch glimpse of what the old lady has become. The wind outside the cottage has picked up, and is now howling around our shelter.
The girl stiffens up a little, then guides me to sit on the floor, but I don't think she's overly stressed about this situation. She speaks in a tone similar to burnt sugar.
" you think that you intimidate me? Puh-lease. I've dealt with Sentinel babies more threatening than you!"
She's obviously lying, the slight tremor in her voice show as much, but this potentially vital piece of information doesn't seem to compute in the old lady's mind.
She snarls and hisses, obviously not liking being compared to whatever one of these ' Sentinel' thingies are. Then I feel a gust of air, and hear the sound of something going 'woosh woosh'
Then the old lady speaks again, and my protector responds with barely a moment's pause.
" I AM THE DEVOURER!!!!"
" whatever you wanna tell yourself, Sulphur-Face."
The old lady shrieks with a rage I've never heard before, and I hope that the girl has a plan besides being a smart-mouth towards our captor.
" I AM THE FEARSOME ICHIANASA!!!"
" and I'm the fed-up Mara. Nice to meet you."
Another scream, then the sound of something breaking. I hope that my protector- Mara- is safe from harm.
The old lady hisses, and I hear the sickening sound of something heavy being dragged across the floor. Then a sickening thud.
Then- to my relief- Mara speaks again, her voice thickened with disgust and hatred for the creature.
" well that was more disgusting than a Corrie's hind end."
I cautiously open one of my eyes, then the other, and see Mara standing over the fallen she-devil with a sneer on her face. She's hefting a long pipe in her hands and the end is covered with syrup-like black blood. I gulp before pushing myself to my feet and stumbling to her side.
I now feel much safer knowing that she is on my side.
Mara wipes her hands on her shirt before awkwardly pulling me into a one-armed hug, and I hug her back with both arms, as tightly as possible, only letting go when I hear her ribs start creaking. Creaking ribs are usually a warning that the ribs are about to break.

She looks at me with questions hidden away in her eyes, but she doesn't give voice to any of them.
Instead, she kicks the corpse- most likely to make sure that the creature is actually dead- then she adjusts the grip she has on her pipe, grabs me by the wrist again, and drags me out of the back door- which I hadn't even noticed was there! Let alone that it would have spared us both from dealing with the monster violently.
Once we make it outside, I collapse to the ground and start crying, my shoulders quivering with each sob.
This is all so confusing.... My home burning around me.. Dip being torn apart... the old lady that wasn't an old lady??? How did all this happen? The day started off normal...
" you're rambling." Mara growls, and I blush when I realize that I was voicing my thoughts aloud. She looks at the sky and grimaces.
" we need to move unless we want to be chow for the Others."
I look up at her, confused as to what she means by these 'Others'
She rolls her eyes and groans loudly. I turn away and hide my face in my hands. I don't really want to look at her right now, for fear that her judgemental gaze would melt every last scrap of determination that I have.
" don't you know ANYTHING????? Uggghhhh..... I'll explain then.
The Others look human, but they aren't human, and they like nothing better than a nice, fleshy meal of human flesh- which they normally get by raiding burial sites around towns. They also have the nasty habit of kidnapping people before they die."
I blush, and wonder why I've never heard of them before.
If they're this much of a problem, then I shouldn't be ignorant.
" you're rambling again.." Mara growls, her eyes flashing with dark fire. I blush more and apologize again, wondering how she's managed to put up with me.
I wonder if I rambled before the fire... before Dip was slaughtered.
I guess there's no way of knowing that now...

In an attempt to take my mind off of Dip, I look across the fields, and- for the first time- I notice that there are no artificial lights polluting the atmosphere with false brilliance, no unnatural noises rising from any man-made landscape, just peaceful, gorgeous, green. The twilight dew reflects the ink-dark sky that falls over the world like a silken cloak, and the only noise is that of crickets and night-dwelling birds.
Mara glances at me, and I blush lightly, wondering if I've given voice to my foolish thoughts yet again. She doesn't say anything, so I assume that I'm free to admire the nocturnal beauty of this new world.