Pestillence, Part 2

"Ah, sorry, I didn't realize anyone was here, and then I saw you through the leaves!" Pestilence apologizes as he stands up and stumbles through the leaves towards the women in his new human form.

"Ah! Pervert!" The woman cries as she splashes Pestilence with a powerful wave of water with one hand, still using her other hand to cover her body with her clothes. Seeing the water coming towards him, Pestilence flinches and turns away from the women, as his face is blasted with a wave of water.

"Pssssh!"

Pestilence spits out a mouthful of water, then wipes the moisture from his face as he turns back to face the woman, who is quickly hustling out of the water and away from Pestilence.

"Hey, what's the big idea?! I was just apologizing to you?!" Pestilence snaps. 

"Pervert! Stalker! Help!" The woman cries as she frantically splashes out of the water, desperately trying to get away from Pestilence.

Pestilence raises an eyebrow and sighs as he watches the woman frantically try to get out of the water. Pestilence then recoils when -a second later- he notices that the woman is starting to sink. And then, after another few seconds, the woman is fully submerged in the water, with nothing but her forearm and hand sticking out of the water, twitching ever so slightly.

"EH?! Can you not swim?!" Pestilence frantically cries.

The woman replies with gurgles muffled by the water as bubbles formed in the water above her mouth. And then...the woman's hand begins slowly sinking into the water.

"Ah! She's drowning!" Pestilence yelps. Pestilence then wades through the water towards the woman, and when the water gets too deep, Pestilence swims over to her. Pestilence paddles around the area where he last saw the woman, desperately looking back and forth in hopes of catching a glimpse of her.

"Dammit… where are you?" Pestilence grumbles to himself. After a few moments of looking around, Pestilence locates the woman, who's still in the midst of sinking down into the water.

"Ah, there you are!" Pestilence cries. Pestilence then takes a deep breath in, sucking in oxygen and puffing out his cheeks, before ducking down into the water.

Once underneath the surface of the water, the water is crystal clear and once Pestilence opens his toxic green eyes, he can see through the water with ease. The lake has a sandy bottom that the woman lands on top of with a small puff of sand. The woman's eyes are closed and she isn't breathing. Pestilence lets out a small gasp of surprise upon seeing this, allowing for bubbles to escape his lips. Pestilence then frantically swims over to the woman, wrapping one arm around her and using his free arm to awkwardly paddle to the surface. Once his mouth is out of the water, Pestilence gasps for breath, greedily sucking in air. Pestilence then continues his awkward paddle over to the edge of the water hole. Once he was there, Pestilence dragged the woman out of the lake and onto the grassy surface surrounding the lake.

"Okay...okay...CPR, CPR...how do humans give CPR?!" Pestilence panics as he watches the woman who still wasn't breathing. "Oh...okay, I know! Step one, I need to get oxygen into her body, right?

Pestilence kneels down beside the woman and grabs her nse with one hand and takes the woman's jaw in his other hand, and pulls the two apart, forcing the woman's mouth open. Pestilence then leans over above the woman's mouth and purses his lips together, 'blowing his breath' into her open mouth. But alas, that is to no avail.

"Ah, it's not working!" Pestilence cries after a few minutes of breathing into the woman's mouth. Pestilence then springs off of the ground and holds his head between his hands, pacing back and forth.

"What do I do, what do I do?!" Pestilence frantically repeats over and over. But then, when an idea comes to his head, Pestilence paused mid step. Pestilence then lowers his hands from his head as he turns back to face the woman. "I just needed to get the water out of her lungs…right?" Pestilence asks as he kneels down besides the woman again. Pestilence balls his right hand into a fist then uses it to jab the woman in the stomach (lightly. A medium strength punch from Pestilence would have blown her entire chest open).

Water instantly shoots out of the woman's mouth as she begins coughing up lake water. The woman's eyes flash open as she sits up to face Pestilence, wiping the water from her mouth.

"Why are you touching me, pervert?! Are you trying to kill me?! The woman cries before slapping Pestilence's hands away from her, and spider-crawling backwards away from Pestilence.

"EH?! That's the thanks I get for saving your life?! I was giving you CPR?!" Pestilence snaps.

The woman runs over to her pile of clothes lying in the dirt at the edge of the lake and quickly throws them on before turning back to face Pestilence. "What do you want from me, anyway?! Money? Food? A bride?!" The woman frantically asks as she ducks behind some leaves, hiding from Pestilence.

"Well I saw a drowning woman, and went in to save her!" Pestilence snaps. "What are you doing in a lake, anyway, if you can't even swim?" Pestilence then asked. Sensing Pestilence's genuine compassion, the woman looks away from Pestilence and blushes, before turning back to the human disguised Devil and stepping out of the leaves, facing Pestilence at last.

"My name is Clarabella. I was out foraging for food for my village when I spotted his lake, and I haven't had the chance to take a bath in so long, so I figured that I would take a dip," the woman -now known as Clarabella- sheepishly answers. 

 What village do you live in, anyway?" Pestilence asks.

"Nestant Village," Clarabella answers, causing Pestilence's eyes to widen.

"That's…the human village we just raided…" he softly says to himself.

"Where do you live?" Clarabella then asks, shocking Pestilence out of his whisper.

Pestilence recoils, clearly unprepared for such a question. "Drat, I've forgotten that I'm in my human disguise..." Pestilence mutters to himself under his breath again before turning back to face Clarabella.

 "Oh, I'm just a lone traveler. I go from village to village, exploring the world," Pestilence awkwardly lies as he nervously rubs the back of his neck.

"Really? Isn't it dangerous with all of the demons roaming about?" Claravella asks.

"No...no...not all of them are bad," Pestilence nervously answers. 

"OH!" Clarabella then exclaims as she claps her hands together.

"Oh?" Pestilence asks.

"I forgot to ask the name of the man who saved my life!!" Clarabella exclaims.

"Oh, my name is Pestilence?" Pestilence answers. Pestilence's eyes then widen.

"Pestilence?" Clarabella asks as she raises an eyebrow at the demon.

"AM I AN IDIOT?!" Pestilence thinks to himself. "WHY DID I GIVE HER MY REAL NAME?! SHE'S TOTALLY GOING TO REALIZE I'M A DEMON!"

Clarabella keeps her eyebrow raised in suspension at Pestilence for a few moments, before melting down into a warm smile. "You've sure got a strange name!" Clarabella laughs.

"Hah hah…yeah…" Pestilence awkwardly laughs back.

"So, Pestilence," Clarabella then continues as she peers up at the setting sun. "It's getting late. Want to spend the night at my village?"

"Oh, um-" Pestilence stammers. "I'm alright, I was just going to set up camp somewhere in the-" but Clarabella cuts him off.

"It would be pretty rude of me to not offer food and a shelter for the traveler who saved my life!" Clarabella interrupts.

"Oh…well I can't say no to that offer…" Pestilence awkwardly replies with a nervous chuckle.

"Great!" Clarabella exclaims as she claps her hands together. "Do you have a horse that you need to take with you?"

"Ye-" Pestilence begins to say, but once he remembers Valkyrie's demonic appearance; he shuts right up. "Nope!" Pestilence answers.

Clarabella opens her mouth up to respond, but before she can do so, Valkyrie lets out a small neigh from a dozen feet behind Pestilence, its demonic form obstructed by leaves and trees.

"Are you...sure you don't have a horse?" Clarabella asks as she raises an eyebrow at Pestilence.

"I'm sure!" Pestilence chipperly answers.

"That...wasn't your horse?" Clarabella asks.

"Nope!" Pestilence answers, faking a smile.

Clarabella turns around and shrugs. "Well… whatever. I'll just take you to Nestant Village now!"

***

Clarabella leads Pestilence to Nestant Village, and by nightfall, the two have arrived. But when Clarabella sees the state of Nestand Village -brought near completely to ruin, thanks to Pestilence and his comrades- her eyes widen.

"What happened?!" Clarabella cries as she rushes into the village.

"Demons…they attacked us…" the bloodied guardsman wielding a dull pitchfork grunts.

"But…why…?" Clarabella sadly asks.

"We…didn't meet the quota…" the guardsman weakly answers as he drops to the ground in pain.

Clarabella turns around to face Pestilence, and wipes the tears from her eyes. "We're a farming village, but most of our crops are taken by the Demon King's Army for payment, leaving us to starve," she explains. "And when we don't meet the quota…they do this to us."

"How…terrible…" Pestilence softly replies, having experienced the effects of his terrorists acts upon the human villages for the first time.