A hill loomed before us, the blackened earth distorted into waves and ripples which shifted before my very eyes. “What is it?”

Yuvina set her basket full of meat down and I followed suit. “I’m not sure what it is exactly, we usually just call it ‘the hill’.”

“Uh-huh… and what’s the meat for?”

“To feed it.”

“And why are we feeding a hill?” I felt ridiculous even asking the question, let alone about to do that very thing.

“Because it’s useful.” She sighed. “Just wait here and watch.” Picking up her basket, she scaled the hill. The shifting nature of it made it a little difficult, but she seemed accustomed to hopping over the little waves of earth. As it moved, I caught glimpses of other things beneath the outer layer. Bits of metal and rock lay within, twisting and warping in time with the rest of the hill. Whatever it was, it didn’t seem safe to be around but the demon climbing it paid no mind to the potential dangers.

Maybe whatever magic gripped it, and it was clearly magical, didn’t affect organic matter. It would make things a lot safer, but if that were the case why were they feeding it? Whatever feeding even meant for something that was clearly inorganic. Was it more akin to some kind of sacrifice? It made sense but that didn’t seem to be the case. Once Yuvina reached the top she dropped the whole basket into a recess and made her way back.

Before she reached the ground, the hill stopped shifting for a moment and shuddered. Thin strands of leathery fibre emerged from between the folds and dropped in a little pile. So it was some kind of trade? Was this hill-thing actually intelligent? Or was this a natural result of… whatever it was doing with the meat? It seemed too mechanical for that but maybe that was just how the magic worked. I was brimming with curiosity when Yuvina finished her descent. “I’m guessing from the fact that you guys don’t even have a proper name for it that you don’t know much about it, right?”

“Yep.”

It was as I’d expected but it was still disappointing though I was careful not to let that show. “Is there anyone that does know about it?”

“Maybe. No one I know though. You’d probably have to ask a wizard or something, if you can find one. Though if you do, do us all a favour and kill them while you’re at it, eh?” She winked at me, as if she’d said something humorous.

I was a lot less interested in the subject of killing but it didn’t seem like she had anything else to say about the hill. “Why would I kill them?” Much as I would have liked to just go along with the flow, I really had no idea what she was talking about.

“Wow, you really don’t know anything. They’re the ones who messed up the whole world.”

“Oh. I’ll, uh, keep that in mind if I run into one.”

“It’s okay, you won’t. All they do is hide now, assuming any of them are even still alive.”

I cleared my throat. “Anyway, are the wizards the one who made this hill-thing then?”

“Yeah. Though probably not on purpose. It’s more than likely just a result of the merging.” She narrowed her eyes. “You do at least know about that, right?”

“Yeah. Lady Sarinknell explained it to me a while ago.”

“Good. I was beginning to think you were totally ignorant of our history.”

I laughed. “I am trying to learn, there’s just a lot to take in.”

“I bet. Well, you can take your bucket up now.”

“Can’t you do it?” The climb had looked unpleasant enough when she was doing, I didn’t much want to experience it for myself.

“Don’t be such a wuss; it’s easy. Besides, I thought you said you were going to help.”

“Fine.” I wouldn’t normally have attempted it the climb but maybe it wouldn’t be so bad with my newfound physical prowess. The ground beneath my hands and feet shifting took a bit of getting used to, and I nearly fell off when I was about half way up, but I managed to get to the top. Luckily the hill wasn’t very steep or high. As I neared the “mouth”, I was surprised by the lack of smell. It just smelt like dirt with no hint of anything organic. That confirmed it then; it wasn’t alive. At least not in any sense I was familiar with. Perhaps animated would be a better way to describe it.

Holding the basket in one hand, I knelt down and peered into the recess where Yuvina had dropped hers. The hole was shallow and seemed no different to the exterior; just a bunch of shifting dirt with occasional glimpses of other stuff. Satisfied that I wouldn’t be able to find out more without taking drastic measures, I dropped into the hole. The dirt washed over it in a matter of moments and it vanished without a trace. Well, that confirmed it then; I definitely wasn’t putting my hand in there. By the time I was back on ground level, Yuvina had already collected the hill’s leavings. The bundle of slender strands fit easily within her arms. I gestured toward them. “What do you use those for?”

“Making things, mostly. Boots, gloves, that sort of thing. The stuff lasts pretty well.”

“What is it?”

“Good question.” A good question which she laughed off, clearly not knowing the answer. I doubted knowing would do me any good, but I still wanted to understand it. Unfortunately, there didn’t seem to be any good sources that I could learn about these things from. If only this world had Wikipedia. Or even just some books. I’d barely seen a single one in my time here; it was a little depressing.

Looking up at the sky I realised the afternoon was mostly gone, which meant I should really be getting back to the manor already. I doubted Elmidath cared much one way or the other given that she hadn’t contacted me, but I should have done enough work for her not to complain and I could therefore spend the rest of the day slacking off. I turned to Yuvina. “Well, thanks for showing me around but I should probably get back to the manor. You’ve still got food to prepare anyway, right?”

She sighed. “Yeah, you hardly need to remind me. But I suppose I should be getting back to that. Bye then, hopefully you come to visit soon.”

“Hopefully.” I’d rather just laze around the manor but another visit wouldn’t be that bad. Yuvina was waving goodbye when I phased out and appeared beside Elmidath. Seated in the desk at her room, she lowered the spoon that was halfway to her moouth and looked over her shoulder at me. “How’d it go?”

“Fine.”

“The harvest was going fine then?” There was little interest in her voice, she was clearly just asking as a formality.

“Yep, seems like it was progressing well.”

“Good.”

Seeing that she wasn’t going to ask anything further, I was a bit irritated. “Why did you bother sending me all the way out there if you don’t care about how things are going?”

Elmidath swallowed a spoonful of her meal and stared out the window. “Because it doesn’t seem like you have anything to report beyond that things are going as expected. I only sent you out there to determine that much and for your own education. Well, and just to get you out of the house; you’ve barely done anything the past few days.”

She wasn’t wrong but that was also just how I wanted it. “You’ve worked me almost non-stop since I got here; I deserve a chance to rest. Is that really so much to ask?”

Elmidath scoffed. “If only things were that convenient. I don’t know what kind of life you’re used to but here we work whenever the need arises. There’s no point in complaining, just do as you’re told. Is that clear?”

I had a few choice things to say about her own work ethic and me having to go out there and do most of the hard stuff, but there was no point starting an argument. Better just to act like I agreed and bide my time until an opportunity to avoid work presented itself. It’d be awfully counterproductive if she felt slighted and decided to assign me even more work. Especially given that arguing in of itself was perilously close to work. “Okay, I understand. Is there anything else you need?” There couldn’t be, right? I really wasn’t much use unless there was a battle to be fought.

“Not right now, but I’ll let you know if something comes up.” Taking that as my dismissal I skulked back to my room and laid down on the bed. I wasn’t tired exactly, there was just nothing I particularly wanted to do. It’s not like there was nothing I wanted to do if I had actual options, but there was little of interest in this world. At least in the parts that I was familiar with. I bet the human city where I was summoned had books at the very least. Maybe it even had people who were more or less sane to talk to.

The thought of visiting it crossed my mind but there was no way I could achieve anything like that. Not without being attacked on sight by virtue of my demonic nature. It felt a little unfairly biased for them to treat me that way, but I could hardly blame them. Almost all the other demons were the sort of people they’d want to keep out. It was a pretty long walk anyway, better just to lie here.

As nice as it was to waste the day away here, I quickly grew bored. Compared to my foray into the village this felt a little too dull. Not to say that my trip had been overly exciting but that wasn’t really the experience I was looking for. There’d been more than enough excitement recently. No, the appeal stemmed from learning about the mundane lives of people here and the pleasant lull of interacting with relatively normal people. It probably helped that I didn’t have much in the way of responsibilities in the village, everything was always so serious with Elmidath.

If this is how she was at sixteen, I shuddered to imagine the heights of tedium her adult self would reach. She must’ve gotten that attitude from her father, it made sense given what her uncle was like. I was lucky enough not to have spent much time in his company but he seemed like a real humourless prick. Thank god he was gone, working under him would’ve been insufferable. In comparison I suppose this wasn’t that bad.