Ch 24
Walking down the gloomy illuminated streets of the dark elf city, locking arms with a smiling woman taller than he is, the boy looks around nervously hoping no one suspects he's a human disguised with dark face paint. So far no one is paying them any attention, but he's still nervous there could be enemies all around watching them. In fact the girl with him was supposed to be an enemy, a demon in disguise working for Vandree even before taking Atrea, and could just be leading him into a trap. But he has no choice but to submit to her demands, they're on a date now.
Earlier, after first entering the city, Melanie happily stares them down the boy and Mizryn. A wry smile hangs across her face as she strokes the pet spider within her arms. Feeling the burning mark in his hand, he knows they've been found out and quickly starts thinking of a plan to get away without causing a scene.
"That's it?" Mizryn asks rather calmly.
This knocks the boy out of his thought process hearing her making the decision for him. "That's it?!" He reacts by softly raising his voice, "We're just going with this? Do we even have time to deal with this?"
"We don't have time to not deal with this. If you owe her a date it's the best way to keep her quiet."
Melanie looks back still smiling. "Believe me, I don't care if miss Vandree finds you or not. But since we're here, why don't we go to my favorite restaurant for a bit and I'll just let you be."
"How do I know you won't do anything weird to me?"
"Would you like that?" She replies jokingly. The boy backs up a bit as she lets out another giggle. "Don't worry, you don't have to do anything you don't want to, just act politely and talk a little and I'll pay for everything. Also, the police girl has to be out of sight through out the event."
Mizryn shakes her head as she lowers it into her hand, she speaks up sounding frustrated, "Alright, just keep the boy out of trouble so we can get through this quick and painless."
Before the boy can say anything, the demon slides along side him and gently grips his hand firmly. The burning mark fades but it's feeling is replaced with the force of her grasp, like she could crush him in a split second. "Don't just leave me with her."
"To be honest, I trust her to keep you out of trouble more than letting you wander alone. Just hold tight, I've got something else to do so just try to have fun." Without a second thought, Mizryn slowly turned and walked off, leaving the boy in her clutches.
"Welp, lets get going," Melanie says cheerfully.
Mizryn begin walking in another direction with the spider following her. The boy is dragged along by the demon before tripping to match her pace. Looking a lot more like a couple, they walk by as other elves all around them just going about their day. The boy can't help but feel nervous surrounded by them as he's lead on by an actual demon in disguise, But for now he just has to go along with her. As they're walking, he hears a cracking noise coming from Melanie before seeing her jaw distorting itself again.
"Does it hurt to do that?" Even though he's being held captive by her, he tries to sound sincere.
"Hmm? Whatth that?" She asks as if nothing were happening, again her lisp is back.
"That thing you did with your mouth, you didn't like yourself that whole time. Is it uncomfortable?"
"No, demonth often need to change their look, even dark elveth prefer we look like them, but moving my fangth around taketh thome extra effort. I'll change it back when we get to the rethtaurant. You don't mind it do you?"
"No it's fine," he responds, "you shouldn't have to do that if it's uncomfortable, I can understand you just fine."
"D'aww, that'th what I like about you. You're jutht alwayth so nithe," she squeaks while pulling him closer to nuzzle the top of his head.
Already being held pretty tightly, the boy feels as her hand tightens around his to a new degree. It's still not at all painful, but he can just imagine what she could do if she used her full strength.
"Anyway, here we are," Melanie turns them towards the boy's side of the street, directly across from them stands a buildings from among many black metallic structures within the city with a wide neon sign sitting across it's face. Bright red letters spell out something in elvish the boy can't understand with bright green marks along the edges. As he's dragged in, he sees the inside appear more welcoming with wooden walls painted with simple looking colors, the lighting dimmed compared to the outside lamps with purple bulbs along the ceiling but he could see perfectly fine. The rooms echoed with casual murmurs and silverware clattering with tables and booths scattered across the rooms with customers sparsely placed apart from each grouping, in the center of the area they entered was a round bar well with stools lining the outside. It had looked like plenty of casual restaurants the boy had been to, easing his nerves as Melanie pulled him along and down into a booth.
Finally Melanie had given him a bit of personal space so that she could stare at him from directly across their table, keeping a neat smile the whole time. She grabbed a menu from a stand in the center of the table and hummed to herself as she looked over it. The boy likewise grabbed a menu, filled with text he couldn't read and images of food he could barely identify. He keeps looking through the pictures of purple meat trying to find something familiar and edible. "Is the mushroom cap good? I didn't know they grew that big down here."
"I wouldn't recommend it," she says while adjusting her mouth again, "it's a very acquired taste, plus there's a good chance it wasn't harvested in a humane manner."
He looks back confused, "How do you farm fungus in an inhumane way?"
"Mushroom people are fine being eaten but they don't appreciate forced labor or being caged before."
The boys eyes widen hearing that the menu serves parts from demi-humans, even if they're plants it's upsetting to think it was a sentient creature. "On second though why don't you order something for me," the boy lets out in frustration, "just don't tell me how smart they were."
"You'd let me order for you? Aww, that takes a lot of trust." She stares back lovingly as he looks down into the menu to avoid eye contact.
Melanie raised her hand to call over an eel mermaid waitress to take take their orders. After some time passed she returned with a strange looking steak while the boy got something called "flumph alfredo", some stringy octopus like meat in white sauce. It tasted fine but after some time digging through his meal the boy discovered an eyeball within, forcing him to take a break from eating.
"Isn't this great?" Melanie says as she swallows a mouthful of her meat, "elves are great cooks but they don't usually serve meat, with dark elves you get the best of both. We should come back here sometime, or maybe if they open a chain in human countries."
"You know I'm not here for you, right?" he says looking right at her. "As soon as we're done I'm going back Mizryn to look for Atrea and then I'm done with you."
"Aw that's mean, Darling. Talking about your other girls while going out with me," she whines playfully.
"It's a date in name only, you know I only came because you tricked me."
"Is it so wrong a girl wants to spend time with you? What makes that spider girl so important?"
"Well, you know, she could be in trouble here, surrounded by hostile people especially towards her kind."
"So what?" she responds casually, "How is that your problem?"
"Because... because..." the boy tries to think of a response but stops himself from saying something like 'I care for her.' He wants to help her but can't put the reason into words.
"She went with miss Vandree willingly, you didn't have to follow her but here you are. Furthermore, you're clearly not enjoying your time with me so why not just run off and hope you get back home?"
"Well, you see..." The boy considers what she said before trying to deny it, but she's right, there's no reason for him to be here or even stay. "Oh, the government, they made me come."
"Really, you could have said no or taken this time to get turned in to miss Vandree. You'd rather sneak around than just get caught and go home as soon as possible. Why is that?"
"Well..." he keeps thinking of what to say but can't think of a good way around it.
"I can understand not wanting to go on a date here but we could have rescheduled and gone somewhere you wanted. But no, I can tell this is the best time for our date, when you need me to keep quiet and let you get in undetected."
He lets out a deep sigh, "I want to make sure she's happy. I've lived with her for a long time and she's never done something this extreme."
"Hmph, you worry too much," she remarks before going back to cut her steak.
"Yeah, I do. She's never wanted to bother me or show weakness so I don't know what to think when she's in completely new territory and says 'I'm fine'." He looks over to see Melanie has stopped listening, paying him no attention. "Sorry, this is probably the last thing you want to hear while I occupy your time."
"No it's fine," she responds softly, "you're nice to everyone you meet and put others you care about ahead of yourself. It's why I wanted to get you on a date in the first place."
"Really? Thanks."
"She's lucky to have you," she smiles as the boy gently returns one back to her. Just then she looks down at his plate to see he's barely eaten. "Hey, are you going to eat your eyes?"
Taken out of the moment, the boy looks back briefly at his plate to see the remains of some creature looking back at him. Without saying a word he nudges his plate away as she sticks a fork in to help herself. She's already finished her steak and the sooner she helps him finish his plate the sooner he can keep going.
"Melanie, is that you?" Suddenly, a dark elf woman walks over to their table. It's no one he's met but she's dressed very formally, wearing a long dark robe decorated in white web designs and red streaks. She looks right at the demon disappointed. "I thought you were searching the streets like Vandree said."
Melanie quickly chews the food in her mouth to make a response, "I was, but then I met this cute guy and we decided to go get a bite."
The elf looks over at the boy, repulsed by his human like face. Though not as attractive as elven features, she doesn't notice his dark skin is just paint. "You left your post for some trash? Vandree mentioned you were a demon but I never thought she meant we had a succubus working."
The boy hears a sharp snap come from Melanie's mouth, he then sees her normally calm expression broken by rage as her teeth start to show through her mouth, "Thuccubuth, am I?"
The elf woman then turns to the boy, "And you, you really can't get a girl unless it's some hell spawn skipping work? Though with a face like that even humans would feel sick looking your way."
"Hey," the boy says back, "I'll have you know centaur came to me trying to make me her master. I feel I'm very popular among girls."
"A centaur?" the woman chuckles to herself, "if you're getting horses to say you're attractive I'd head back to the surface with the other lesser races."
She lets out a loud laugh while putting her hand to her mouth just before it's grabbed by Melanie. Fire glows in her eyes as she looks up at the woman before making one snide comment, "Did you ever ask why mith Vandree told you I wath a demon?" She then yanks the woman back over her head, hurling her across the room with a crash. "You thhould probably leave," she tells the boy in a calm voice, "thingth are about to get a little rough, and you wouldn't want her to catch you."
The boy gets up from his seat and heads for the exit, looking back he sees the dark elf woman standing back up ready to brawl with Melanie, all the other customers gathering around to watch them.
Outside directly to his left he sees Mizryn walking up to the restaurant, "Oh, I was just about to go and get you. How'd it go?"
A loud crash can be heard from inside as the ruckus starts, she tries to look in to see what's going on before the boy answers, "It's fine, she'll leave us alone for now. Come on, we should get to the mermaid side of the city and start looking."
"Alright," she remarks acceptingly, "you sure she's not just going to become a problem later?"
More banging sounds come from inside, sounding like a table just got smashed in half, "I'm certain she won't bother us."
"Fine, lets go." She then begins leading the boy in one direction of the street talking along side him, "I'm sure there will be fewer people looking for us once we're past the checkpoint but we can't let our guard down just yet. Also I got you a passport, try to memorize your name so we don't get found out straight away.
"Oh thanks." He takes the passport from her and opens to his ID. He then sees an older photo of him with black paint over to make him look darker. The name listed is 'John Smith'. "Is that really the best you could do?"
"It'll be enough to let you through. They don't check to make sure you are who you say, just to make sure you're not who they're looking for."
"Couldn't you have just used my real name then?"
"Hmm, what is your name anyway?"
"Adam Hughman." As they continue walking the boy comes to a stop, realizing his own name just sounds like it was made up and would draw suspicion. "On second thought I'll take this name for now."