Chapter Text
It was a normal day in Hell, specifically in the Pride Ring. It was in fact the first day that six year old Octavia got to visit the Pride Ring outside of the Palace of Lucifer that she'd vaguely remember visiting before with her parents. The little owl demon was at the playground made particularly for any Hellborn demons, mainly the lower class type like Imps, who had children of their own to play in it. There was a sign that said 'No Sinners Allowed' at the entrance, pretty much warding off the Earthborn souls of people that committed sins or crimes that brought them down here as punishment, and were obviously not welcome at this playground where little imps were playing. Octavia however never knew what 'Sinners' meant yet, so she just marched forth to her first time around other kids while her father Stolas was busy with something close by.
She wore a solid pink dress with starry patterns and light pink sleeves and leggings, a casual wear she liked the most. Her mother wanted Stolas to have her wear a princess gown meant for public appearance, but her father insisted on staying incognito for a casual outing. She didn't care about that regardless as she wanted to have fun today, her black feathery hair being combed was all that mattered. Her radiant pink eyes stared in wonderment at all the things there.
She spotted the merry-go-round that some imp children were playing on, and wanted to ride on it too. She was so excited to try it out, but no matter how much she cried, "Hello! Can I ride in with you, please?!" While waving at them in the process, no response though as the one imp-kid that spun it looked at her with disgust and just kept on spinning the merry-go-round without stopping. She felt pretty disappointed at that, but then they're were the swings at least, surely one swing may be vacant for her to try out. But once she walked over there, they were all seemingly taken by more imp kids. She wanted to ask them anyways with, "Excuse me! May I please play on the swings with you!?" She was told by her parents that asking politely would always work, but the children kept on swinging to the point of flinging almost right at her direction, like if they were almost trying to hit her if she got any closer.
This wasn't going well for her at all, and she was starting to feel sad and couldn't help but ask, "Why won't they let me play with them?"
"Maybe it's because your not an imp like us, birdy!" A childish gruff voice spoke out. She turned to see who it was, and saw that it was three older imp kids standing taller than her, with a big burly looking one in the middle. "You ain't got no reason to be here, you privileged pipsqueak !" He said, acting like as if he was the leader of the bunch.
"But why, I haven't done anything wrong to any of you!" She was panicking as she was backing away. "Was my courtesy off or something?"
"We don't want your courtesy, or your smelly beak poking around here in our turf! Why don't you go fly back to your rich little birdhouse where the rest of your stupid rich bird-brains are perched at?!"The burly imp kid continued with his bullying.
"But my dad, he won't be back in a while! I just wanted to play here!!!" Octavia pleated for mercy.
"Well, we like to play it rough, birdie!" A lanky imp child to the left had said, chuckling like an idiot afterward.
"Shut up when I speak, stupid!" The burly leader imp kid said to him, then turned back to little Octavia. "As for you, shrimp, we're gonna send a message to your fellow bird-brains about treating us imps like crap, a message written with our fists!" He said this while pounding his one fist with an open palm, insinuating something really violent coming.
"No! NOO! STAY AWAY!!! I MEAN YOU NO HARM!!!!" Octavia cried, backing away in fear and dread. She was shaking with her teary eyes covered by her hands. And just when the bully was about to lay a beatdown on her, something miraculous had just happened.
*POW*
"YOU HEARD HER!!! LEAVE HER ALONE!!! " Something taller than the bully had just leaped right in front of him, knocking him down flat on his butt, while the savior stood right beside Octavia like a guardian, while Octavia herself was compelled to gaze upon her in wonderment. She was a slightly taller kid, a wolf-like girl no less, that had white fur and long locks of unkempt hair of the same color, wore a tattered looking denim overall dress with a black sweater that had both sleaves completely torn off, and glared at the bullies with a set of mean red eyes and white pupils. Clearly she stood her ground in firmness and had a look of tenacity, like someone who was used to getting rough and tough.
The imp bully got up furiously. "HEY!!! You stay out of this, Hellhound! This doesn't concern you!"
"It does to me when someone can't seem to pick on somebody their own size!" The Hellhound girl yelled back at him, standing between the bully and little Octavia, whom couldn't help but stand right next to her shaking.
"We're giving ya this last warning, ya little tramp! Step aside while we beat this pint-sized snobby-beaks up, and we might consider letting you go unscathed!" Said the third imp bully that had a bit more bulk in his arms the other two.
"I ain't backing down, you little twerps!!!" Said the Hellhound girl as she gone on her hands and feet in an attack position growling. Octavia did not wanna hafta see a fight break out because of her sake. However, that really wasn't the case. In a show of cunning and trickery, the Hellhound girl quickly raised back up to kick the burly imp right between the legs. “Owww!!! He screeched like a little girl as it rendered him shocked and weakened (somehow), leaving the other two imps just as shocked too.
"BALE!!!" Cried the Hellhound girl, who then turned around to grab the little owlette and dash through the opposite direction.
"Urrrgh! GET HER!!!" Cried the lead imp bully as he struggled to get up, and all three of them went after her.
The Hellhound ran straight towards the direction of the dome-shaped jungle gym, even if it meant plowing through a sandcastle another imp kid was making joyously, and although she only half destroyed it, the imp bullies pursuing her ended up crashing it all down back to grains of sand, leaving imp kid building it sobbing in despair. Once the Hellhound got close to the jungle-gym dome, she started climbing up even with the little owlette still wrapped around her one arm. When she reached to the very top that no other kid could climb to, which didn't stop the imp bullies from barely being able to climb up themselves without tripping or falling, she made it to the edge that was thoroughly close to the castle-themed playground set that kids would go in, and prepared to leap.
"No, wait!!!" Octavia said when she realized was she about to do.
But the Hellhound girl made the great leap anyways, and boy could she jump, as she somehow made it over that gap between the jungle-gym and play-castle with only a minor slip when landing on the roof of a flat-top tower. By then, the imp bullies charged towards the play-castle and tried to find some way up there, but it wasn't accessible for any normal demon kid that couldn't jump good. Eventually, they gave up, but not without a threat given.
"You can't hide up there forever, you bottom-feeding hellhound! We'll beat you and your bird buddy to a bloody pulp when you get down!" The lead imp threatened, shaking his fist furiously at them.
"I like to see you try, you stinking tub of guts!!! But first you'll hafta work your way up here for any chance to, which I doubt you will!!!" The Hellhound girl laughed wholeheartedly.
The lead imp bully growled, but then a disgruntled feminine voice cried out, "Come on, kids! It's time to go, NOW!!!" From which all three imp bullies sighed in disappointment, and the leader turned back to declare, "I'll get you next time, stupid mutt girl!!! That's for sure!!!" And they all left the playground.
The two girls were left standing there on the surprisingly sturdy flat-top tower, taking a breather in relief. "Well, we showed them at least." The Hellhound said with a hint of pride.
Then Octavia jumped to the hellhound girl to hug her. "Oh, Thank You! Thank you so muuuuch!!!" She said all teary-eyed, finally relinquishing all her repressed emotions from that whole fiasco.
The Hellhound girl just stood there surprised and baffled, not knowing what to make of the gratitude she was showing right now. "Urgh! Hey! Let go of me, before anyone sees us!" Was all she respond with, only slightly nudging her off out of embarrassment.
"Okay!" Octavia let go of her eventually, but was still tearing up.
"I'm guessing you're not used that kind of 'warm welcome' then?" The Hellhound girl asked her.
"I'm not even used to going outside of my own home! I just wanted to play out here, and then they tried to hurt me for no reason! I was terrified! It's not fair!!!" Octavia let out more.
The Hellhound girl just looked at her in realization of whom this owlette is really like. "Yeah well, life's not fair in general. That's a pretty big rule to follow while living in Hell. Or in your case, living in the world outside of your probably cozy little home."
Octavia just stood and gazed at her, not liking this lesson she was being given already.
The Hellhound sighed. "Look, the point is that you need learn to stick up for yourself sometimes, if not all the time. Otherwise, people in Hell are just gonna eat you up, whether it's with actual forks or with their words or fists, and then spit you out. And even if things don't go right for you in the end, you can't just give in or run away from it.”
“But didn't we just-” Octavia was about to point at what they just previously did.
“Yeah, I know, I know! But that's just the 'occasional tactical retreat' as big people would put it!” The Hellhound quickly defended. “But sometimes, you still have to fight back eventually, especifically if you wanna be independent or just stay one-piece. You get what I mean, kid?"
Octavia, being a little more intelligent than given credit for, decided to comment with, "Yes, I think. Thank you again." She did a courteous bow afterwards out of politeness. "My name is Octavia. Of the Goetia family. And your name is?"
The Hellhound girl gave it a moment before she willingly answered with, "Call me Loona."
"Loona, it's a pleasure to meet you then." Octavia said, going up to take her hand to shake it as another show of gratitude.
"Uhh, sure, I guess." Loona just let the hand shaking happen, despite not being sure on what to feel of it.
After Octavia let go of her hand, she then asked, "Do you....do you mind if we play together today, when we get down from there of course?"
Loona wasn't too sure on what to feel about that either, but she smiled anyways with her response being, "Okay. Get on my back then, and hold tight!" She turned to show her back to her for an offer ride down, from which Octavia obliged to without saying. Climbing onto Loona's and holding tight around her neck (but not too tight though), Loona aimed for the slide that was just below them, made the leap to the beginning of the slide as they descended down smoothingly, or as smoothingly as she can get after flying off the slide and landing hard on the sandy floor with a thud, a dramatic way to get down that should've scared Octavia at first, but thanks to her newfound nimble friend, she couldn't help but feel excited at that landing and finally understood what adrenaline felt like. They both laughed afterwards.
They went up to the merry-go-round that had the same kids still spinning on it. So Loona grabbed one of the bars to halt it, which thankfully didn't spin too fast to do so, but had those kids fall off from it still. "Time to quit hogging this thing, booger-brains!" Loona declared, and they all scurried off out of fright. This left the two girls to spin it around for themselves, indulging in the fun it could provide, chuckling away in the process. When that was enough for them, they aimed for the swings that were now vacant, and they both swung so high, that Loona actually made a jump for it, literally almost pulling off an acrobatic flip but also landed on her tush instead. "Owww!" She let out, but not painfully it seemed.
"Wow! That was amazing!" Octavia applauded, as it was still pretty impressive to her. "I wish I could do that!"
"Well then, why not try?" Loona said, still rubbing her aching butt.
But Octavia couldn't, not physically or willingly, and she knew that. This lead her to slowing down her swinging to the point of stopping. "I....I can't."
"Awww, come on. You're a bird demon, aren't you? Weren't you taught to fly, or how flying works?"
"I'm an owl, to be honest. And my Dad said I could 'expand my wings' someday, whatever that means, but I don't even know much about that, or how it works at all." Octavia got off the swings when she said this.
"Ehh, oh well. That's okay. You're pretty cool anyways, wings or no wings." Loona complimented her, even patting the top of her head.
"Really? Oh thank you, Loona. I hope that--"
"OCTAVIA!!!!" A shrilling voice cried out.
Octavia turned to see not her adoring father to come pick her up, but her mother coming up to her instead, in all her regally dressed glory, crown and all. "Mother!!!" She said in surprise. "Mother, look! I made a new friend here! Her name's Loona and--"
"I do not care about that right now!" Her mother started yelling and picking her off the ground. "What do you think you are even doing here?! HERE!!! In this disease-riddened place surrounded by all these lowly filthy imps and their repugnant children?! They could've hurt you if I hadn't come in time!!!"
"But they didn't! Loona made sure of that! She saved me!" Octavia defended, pointing to Loona, who looked aghast by her shouty mother.
"Urgh! That hellhound! How putrid!!! You should never even approach those flea-bitten strays at all!!! I told Stolas he should never have taken you out here! But does he listen? NOOO!!!!" Octavia's mother just kept on shrieking, shaking one fist in the air while at it.
"Please stop yelling, mother! I hate it when you yell!" Octavia was covering her ears while cuddled into her mother's arms.
"Well you can thank your father for that!" Her mother went on as they were leaving the playground.
"But, what about Loona? My friend!" Octavia climbed to over her mother's shoulder to see behind her, she could barely make out Loona as she was just standing there whimpering, too scared of her mother to go after her, but instead just reach a hand out to her with absolutely no avail.
"You don't need friends, my dear! Especially not ones picked off the streets like that tramp!!!" Her mother objected. "We are going home!"
Octavia could only just wave at her newfound friend that she already may never see again, tears starting to appear, even silently saying "Goodbye" to her.
"Bye." Loona quietly responded back, waving at her. She could not help but feel the exact same for her. She had no friends once again, and was left pouting, standing there a bit till she decided to leave, trailing off slowly alone.