Mina was seriously wondering how Chaeyoung had convinced her to go to that stupid forest to complete that equally stupid quest - guess learning it was an order from Queen Dahyun helped. She couldn’t refuse that. She could’ve said no to Chaeyoung alone, but to a letter signed by their leader themselves ? No way.

She grunted when her boot got stuck into the mud and shook it as forcefully as she could, almost making herself fall back on the ground. She was surely, positively, absolutely lost. Of course a Stealer Crow had to take her map, of course the only spell she had troubles with was the Guidance one. She decided to sit on the weirdly shining rock to take a break letting of her staff for a second. 

A mistake. 

The rock under her suddenly started to move, and she only got a second to understand what was happening before she got lifted into the air as the rock giant that had been resting underneath the ground got up. How stupid of her, she should’ve known. She winced as it started to move around a bit too much, and fingers digging on the only thing she could, which was the rock, and she gritted her teeth as she felt a nail break. 

Rock giants, at full height, could reach something around 20 meters, and with her eyes closed, it was impossible to know how tall that one was. The sudden realization that her staff had probably fallen to the ground and was not by her side gave her a clear message that she was probably going to die. 

She decided to open her eyes only when the big thing stopped moving. And really, it was a nice sight to see, very unusual, but being above all the trees was something she would have wished to do in other circumstances. She slowly and careful sat up on the Giant’s head, trying not to make it feel there was something on its head. But it was slippery, and her right foot hit the side of it with a breaking noise. 

« Well… . » 

she screamed at the giant moving again and at the sight of an enormous hands reaching for her. She had no escape, though, and only moved around once it had gotten a hold of her. She managed to take her arms out of its hand, and was moving as much as she could, in hope that it would drop her. She gulped when it brought her to its eye level : big, golden orbs were staring at her. 

She knew why rock giants hated humans, or non humans for the matter, as long as they knew they were hunted, they were violent. Their eyes were always rare stones, and the inside of their bodies were rumored to be walking mines. But they were hard to find, and only ancient technics could help you bring one out of its hiding spot underground. She wonder why one decided to get up the moment she sat on it. She meant no harm ! 

Until she realized what her staff was made of. Sacred wood first, gem dust second, and that might had been the reason of its awakening.  

It stayed quiet as it observed her, and it really seemed to act more peacefully that Mina had read it would if it encountered a menace. She stared back into the golden stones, her screaming now gone as a tiny bit of hope creeped its way up to her mind. 

But then it opened its mouth and yelled into her face ; hot, dirt sentenced breath hit her face, making her hair fly and her eyes shut. It was loud, and she yelped at the sight of birds flying away as fast as they could. Maybe she should give up on hope. Its opened mouth let her see what its inside were made of, and she gripped tighter on its hold. Very, very sharp black pointed stones were covering the sides of what seemed to be his throat, human atomically speaking. If it decided to gobble her up, she was pretty sure she would end up crushed by the spikes. A death that made her shiver. 

Weirdly, the first person she thought about when the giant began to move its hands towards its mouth was Momo. Then the others, but the Butcher came to her mind first. She waited to see her again, learn all the things she didn’t know, go to her shop a second time. They had promised to meet up again, she couldn’t just die without doing that. But would the demonic entity know that she was currently struggling in the hands of a giant ? 

So she couldn’t give up like that. She focused all of her mind into summoning her staff back into her hand, and her eyes started to glow as she concentrated her powers. It was hard for a priestess to use them without a holy weapon, and the sudden change of mood in the air made the giant stop. She felt sweat drops appear quickly on her forehead; and gritted her teeth. it really hurt, but when she felt her staff hit her open palm, she knew it was worthy. The glow stopped and she raised her right arm, a warm glow swirling around its end. 

« ! Tnaig, enogeB ! em fo og teL »   she yelled, staff pouting straight at the golden stones. The giant screamed as a wide beam hit its face, and it dropped Mina, who quickly cats another spell to float and no straight up fall to the ground. The giant stumbled back, crushed a few trees under its feet before completely falling. 

It made a very loud noise and she felt bad for the animals and creatures living in the forest. However, her guilt completely vanished and got replaced by fear the second her feet hit the ground. She was surrounded by a circle of younger rock giant, still not fully grown but around 3 meters tall each, and she asked herself how she would get out of this gigantic woccy (a woccy being a animal resembling a cow in our world, but that is unimportant right now).

She got her shielder ready as she hit the ground with the tip of her staff, and tried to look at tough as she could. 

But she heard a slicing sound, and one of the rock giant suddenly fell into pieces, colored dust escaping her body. The newt actions happened very quickly : something, or someone she couldn’t see was attacking and killing the giants one by one with an incredible speed and strength. She heard a laugh resonate in the air, and she knew. 

« Momo ! » 

the demon finally appeared in front of her with a satisfied grin. Mina let her shield disappear, and thanked her friend warmly, ready to dive into a hug, but Momo seemed to have other plans as she dodged and went for the corpses of the giants. 

« Thank you for the loot ! This is awesome, I hadn’t seen that many rock giants in centuries ! You must have woken up the father or something. Really impressive spells, by the way. You’re stronger than Jihyo but I think Chaeyoung and Sana would have done a better job. » she crouched down to grab the precious materials, rare stones, dusts, whatever her hands could grab, and threw them in her bag that didn’t seem to have an end. 

Mina’s hand on her staff tightened, and she didn’t hesitate to hit the demon’s head with it. 

« How dare you ?! I just almost died like 3 times in the span of 20 minutes, was ready to give up on everything only for you to come save me and only care about the stupid creatures and talk abut how good my friends are ? Are you that insensitive ? » Mina was fuming alright, and Momo seemed genuinely sorry. 

« I, i came as fast as I could when I saw the giant- »

« Woccy, Momo ! I’m aware what you’re capable of, you could’ve came here way faster. »

A heavy silence fell between them, and Mina waited for Momo to say something, but the woman didn’t seem to do anything else that dumbly stare at her. So she turned around, growling in anger at the situation, but also because she had noticed her cape had been thorn off on the side. She had tp focus on what the Queen had asked her anyway, get these stupid plants and get back to the town. 

A hand on her wrist stopped her. 

« Wait, I’m sorry, I’ll help you get the plants you’re looking for. » 

« How did you know- »

« Mind reading. »

Mina gave a weird and worried look to the demon. 

«… I don’t actually use it all the time. I’m sorry. Again. do you accept my help ? » 

« Okay. But then you’re treating me to dinner, I won’t forgive you that easily. » she pulled her arm out of the demon’s hold and turned back around, ready to take care of her quest. 

It didn’t take long to find them with Momo’s knowledge, and the demon ended up giving away one of her precious herbalism book to the priestess. They decided to rest at the river they had been walking near of, and Mina took that opportunity to take off her boots and walk in the water a bit. She laughed when Momo used one of her tricks to make the water move and splash her face. It turned out even better when the liquid suddenly lifted up under her feet and would follow he every steps : it was like walking now water. 

Momo acted as if she was going to drop her a few times, before joining her in the clear lake. They played around a bit, until the demon accidentally let her trick go and Mina fell in the water. But the Butcher was quicker, and she ended up under the priestess, stopping her from hitting the harsh ground. 

Mina got completely lost in the red orbs that were the demon’s eyes the moment her own eyes landed on them. They seemed to shine brighter than any diamonds she had ever seen, and she unconsciously reached for the woman’s face. Momo was too shocked to even react - it had been a while since she had had a pretty lady lay on her stomach, looking at her like she was the sixth member the Magical Founding Mothers. She gulped as Mina leaned more, inches by inches, before grabbing her by the shoulders and pushing her away.

« Hey, w- » a splashing sound and a yelp. « what the heck, Momo. M-maybe you didn’t want this but there was no need to push me like that ! » Mina sounded hurt, and Momo regretted her actions.

« Once again, I’m sorry, but I was afraid you were influenced by my attraction ability. » Mina looked at her with a puzzled face. « I haven’t used it in ages, even thought it was gone, and it works when people stare at my eyes for too long, so I thought- »

The demon couldn’t finish her sentence as a pair of plump lips crashed onto hers. It took her a short while to react before the kissed the priestess back, with as much desire and love as the woman that was now startling her laps was doing. They only stopped when they heard a loud growling, sign that a much too dangerous beast was around, and Momo quickly grabbed Mina by the waist, throwing her above her shoulder before grabbing their belongings and running away. 

« Hey, what are you doing ! I can walk by myself ! » Mina was punching her back, but the giggles the woman was making told Momo that it was all right. 

« I have to protect my most precious prize ! I’m not letting go of it ! » 

« You’re ridiculous ! »