Chapter 9: Chapter 9, in which I encounter a demon

"What was that?" I immediately shot up from my seat and tried to look at the explosion site.

"Sit back down and eat, it's not our problem," Paige said and dug into her ribs.

"I'm gonna check that out," I said and set down my food, and walked toward the explosion.

"Your loss, by the time you get back, I might eat your ribs, too," Paige shouted after me.

I wouldn't be mad if she did that (as long as she bought me some more after), she looks like she might need it, she's skin and bones.

As I walked up the street, the smoke got thicker but I couldn't smell anything that would indicate the explosion, there was no burning, nothing, just a semi-translucent black smoke.

As I walked further up the street, a pit in my stomach formed. Something was seriously wrong here.

The smoke around me thickened in an instant. I was about to sprint back to Paige when out of the corner of my eye I saw her already running toward me.

She was screaming something I couldn't make out and when I turned around I was met with the same hooded guy from the first inn.

Shit.

I took a sharp step back and summoned my new sword, but did not make a move to attack. The last time I attacked him, I nearly got blasted.

I took another step back, but he kept moving toward me. Finally, Paige arrived at my side.

"Thank fuck you remembered," she heaved. "Don't take your eyes off him and keep purposefully ignoring him, as long as you don't acknowledge him as a threat he can't hurt you."

The man continued following as I walked back, slowly being pulled by Paige.

Then, all of a sudden, she pulled me down and her sword flew barely a centimeter above my head as I fell to the ground.

When I looked in front of me, the dark figure tumbled to the ground, along with the detached head.

"Now look," she instructed and helped me get up.

The corpse suddenly burst into flames and only ash was left after it.

"A normal sword would have cut his head off, but it would have eventually fused itself back together. That was a demon, Vik. A young and stupid one, but a demon nonetheless."

"Do all demons look human?" I asked. This was not what I imagined when she kept referring to them as demons.

"No, only the weak ones."

I swear I am both scared shitless and in awe of this girl. And this world.

***

I had to admit, I didn't need to eat the second plate of spiced ribs, I wasn't that hungry, but they were so good.

The night was quickly approaching and Paige had been begging me to finally go out for dinner.

Asrin was awake as well and he needed food too.

"Come on! There's no way you aren't hungry!" she protested. "Eat good food while you can, when we go on the road and you realize how bad my cooking is, you'll be beating yourself for not eating," she warned as she left through the door, Asrin firmly planted on her shoulder.

She kept doing this thing over and over again, leaving and expecting me to follow.

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I reluctantly rolled out of bed and walked out too, closing the door behind me.

"See, it's not that hard!" Asrin screeched. "You should listen to your lady, she knows what she's doing!"

An awkward silence followed, and neither of us seemed to be able to break it for a few minutes. I even saw Paige's face grimace at Asrins choice of words.

The place where we ate earlier was already closed, so we had to walk further to find a little tavern.

When we entered, we found it already packed. As we were searching for a potential place to sit, I noticed the Apprentice Blacksmith from earlier sitting at one of the tables.

I placed my hand on Paige's shoulder which made her jump.

"It's me," I assured her before pointing out the young man from earlier.

"Worth a shot," she replied and dragged me up to the Apprentice's table, where he was sitting alone.

"Care for some company?" Paige asked once we got there.

He looked up at us and with a defeated look on his face, he nodded to the empty chairs at the table.

"Rough day at work?" I asked sarcastically, which made him chuckle.

"You bet. The old man is furious with me," he shared and took a sip of his drink.

"Hah, FURIous," I laughed, then both Paige and the Apprentice followed once they realized.

A surprised look from Asrin was shot at me from Paige's shoulder.

"What, I'm funny!" I said, putting my hands up and shrugging my shoulders as if I had been caught.

"I heard from the townsfolk that someone had slain a lower demon next to square, I guess that was one of you," he said, looking between the two of us.

"Vik found it, I killed it," Paige explained. "Also I don't think we've introduced ourselves properly, I'm Paige Furi and this is Viktor."

"Brian," the Apprentice said and extended his hand to shake Paige's, followed by mine.

"And I'm Asrin, their Dragon-Protector!" the little dragon said, flying over the table and extending its small hand-claw as well.

"It's the first time I've seen a dragon this small," Brian said as he shook Asrins claw.

After getting some recommendations and ordering an obscene amount of food, we dropped off Brian at his house and returned to the inn for the night.

"Dibs on the first shower," I said as we entered our room for the night.

"Are you serious?!" Paige objected. " I was looking forward to it!"

"I'll be fast, I promise! Unlike you, I'm not going to use up all the hot water," I replied and grabbed my towel from the chair.

***

I was about to fall asleep when I heard Paige hiss at Asrin to check if I was asleep. I, of course, pretended to be so.

Why did Paige sneak out of the room at this ungodly hour?!

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