Chapter 11
Scarlet and Damon sittin' in a pod…
I believe you all deserve some sort of justification for the almost-kiss in the previous chapter, but you have to admit that it was pretty funny that Dustin started dancing with the prince. Anyway, back to explaining myself, to start I would like to point out that it was Ethan who wanted to kiss me. He made the first move. While yours truly here just shut her eyes, pretended it was Damon, and- wait WHO DID I PRETEND ETHAN WAS?
Alright, ya know what; scratch what I just said about me imagining Ethan was Damon. I don't want to kiss Damon anymore than I want to kiss Ethan. And no, I am not falling for Damon! It's not clever writing at all, its cliché, so cliché in fact that they even have a word for people falling in love with their kidnapper, Stockholm syndrome or something like that. Therefore I would never stoop so low as to give you people that kind of predictable ending. If you haven't noticed, my life happens in random spurts of craziness. Apparently fate likes to mix it up a lot, keeps us on our toes.
Well since it appears I'm only digging myself in deeper with this failed clarification attempt, I'll just get back to the story.
Damon had expertly hidden himself from his family yet again. This time he had plunked himself at a ratty old restaurant where all the men went to get away from their wives. The whole place was filled with drinking husbands complaining about the nagging and ordering they deal with at home.
The restaurant itself looked at least 100 years old. The bar and stools that were made of lava stone were cracked. Mugs of bronze were dented from years of abuse. Hanging flame-colored cloth from the ceiling was the only bright thing in the entire lot, and there were bottles of liquor rotting on top of the cabinets.
Although the décor left a lot to be desired, the onion strings were excellent. Damon picked at his food and tried to forget about how Ethan put his arm around Scarlet and called her his fiancé. He tried to forget how much it hurt when Scarlet's face lit up as she saw him. Now that his thoughts were stirred up, Damon felt like desperately punching something. But since he couldn't, he just sat there looking at his cracked tabletop, hoping the earth would split and swallow his twin up.
"You, my friend, have the face of a broken heart." The bartender stood by Damon's table, casually wiping a mug with a towel, "What's got ya troubled, son?"
Normally Damon wouldn't have answered, but then again normally he wouldn't be this upset about Scarlet, "My jerk brother stole my girl." He shoveled some onion strings into his mouth, trying to drown his sorrows in fried, foul smelling vegetables (it wasn't working).
"Oh," The bartender said with a sympathetic look, "You've got it rough, pal."
"You don't know the half of it," Damon grumbled.
The bartender wandered away for a moment before setting a mug of whisky down in front of Damon, "Here, it's on the house."
Before he realized what he was doing, Damon took a big swig of the whisky and slammed it back down to the table, "I don't really drink."
The bartender laughed and sat on the opposite side of his table, "You do now."
"Yeah, I guess I do." Damon still didn't look any better.
His bar companion noticed the solemnness of his face, "What's your girl like?"
Damon instantly sat up straighter, "She's really pretty for one thing, smart, funny. She's a little on the shy side although she'll never admit it. I can be insensitive at times, so she always talks back to me, but I need someone like that to keep me behaving myself. She makes me smile, which I hardly ever do, and even though we fight I hope she knows I'll always be there to protect her, no matter what it takes." He took another gulp of his drink.
"You speak very highly of her."
"Well, there's a reason for that." Damon pointed out.
"That reason would be…"
"I love her," This small statement shocked Damon to his very core. He'd never acknowledged his feelings until it was too late to do anything about it.
By now the entire restaurant was listening. "Aww!" They called and circled around the table to listen more.
Surprisingly, Damon felt at ease surrounded by a lot of big worker guys.
"When did you two start dating?" asked one.
"Who broke up with whom?" Called another of the men.
Damon shifted in his seat, "That's just it, we were, um never really going out in the first place."
"WHAT?" Everyone gasped in unison.
The bartender jumped up, "Then what are you waiting for, son? Go to her!"
"Yeah! You can't just sit here and let your brother have her!" A man said.
The others agreed.
"Alright," Damon marched towards the door, "I will!"
A chorus of cheers followed him out of the bar.
Not losing sight of his mission, Damon found Scarlet sitting with Jem and Christopher at the bar.
He stopped right in front of her, "Scarlet I-"
She looked up at him with big hazel eyes, "Damon?"
That's really cute he thought as Scarlet tipped her head to the side in a questioning manor.
"Are you blushing?" She asked.
Damon cursed under his breath and tilted his red cheeks from view, "Of course not! I'm just very frustrated that you are all partying when we should be getting on to the City of Gales!"
"If ya w-nted us to g- you coulda just s-id so," Chris mumbled with his mouth full of pear.
Damon shrugged angrily, "Where's Dustin?"
The three burst out laughing, causing Christopher to spit pear out at unfortunate bystanders.
Poor Damon looked confused, "What?"
Between giggles Jem said, "He's dancing with Ethan."
Swiveling his head, Damon saw that his brother was dancing with his friend. If he wasn't so embarrassed about what he almost said to Scarlet, Damon would've laughed. Instead, however, he just streamed towards Dustin and yanked him by his horns (still underneath his hood) back to the rest of the group.
"WHAT THE HECK ARE YOU DOING?" He screamed, threatening to tear Dustin's horns from his scalp.
"Ow, dude that hurts," Dustin replied swatting at Damon in attempt to gain his release.
Again Damon looked like an overworked nanny. He shook his head, "I always knew you were gay, but I didn't think you would be this public about it."
Dustin's face turned red with anger, "I'M NOT GAY!"
Unluckily for our favorite little half demon practically the entire city heard this. The music had stopped, no one was dancing, and everyone was staring at the source of the outburst.
Much quieter Dustin said, "That was really loud wasn't it."
"Yes, yes it was," Christopher replied.
Scarlet looked uneasy, "Um-guys? Why don't we head to the City of Wales now?"
"City of Gales, you mean," Jem corrected.
She waved Jem off in a 'whatever' gesture and hopped off her chair. Jem followed, then Dustin, who was rubbing his head in pain. Chris took the opportunity to shovel as much fruit into his mouth as possible, and Damon (Staying as far away from Scarlet as he could) pushed him along, saying that there's plenty of food in the Air province.
Christopher swallowed his fruit, "Yeah but the people there are freaks, and they eat weird stuff."
Scarlet made a pfft noise, "Like you guys aren't freaks."
Jem and I convinced everyone else that traveling by the elfin black market would be much faster than walking, especially because, as I just found out, the entire Air province is covered with mountains with a city atop each one.
"I'm just a little sad that I didn't get to talk to Pip," I said as we entered the oak tree on the street of the City of Flames and into the elf underground.
Dustin piped up, "Don't worry, Ethan said that him and Pip would be heading to the City of Gales soon."
"You would know," Christopher smirked, and Dustin wacked him upside the head.
"There's nothing wrong with being gay, Dustin." Jem stated then put his hand up before Dustin could hit him, "Hey now, I know you aren't, but if you were it's not like we wouldn't be your friends anymore."
"Yeah," I agreed, "We wouldn't like burn you at the stake or anything."
Jem shuddered.
"Sorry, bad choice of words," I apologized.
Greg the elf waddled up to us, "Alright, there's only one pod at a time and it only holds two people or three if you can squish so pair up."
Apparently we took too long to choose partners because Greg just grabbed me and Damon. Shoving us into the small pod he mentioned that ladies go in front.
This pod was smaller than the other one Jem and I rode in, so instead of having his knees up against my back, like Jem did, Damon had to extend each of his legs on either side of me.
"It's gonna take a little while to warm up," Greg stated, "So just chat amongst yourselves."
This is awkward I thought as we sat in silence, "Soooo…"
"So," Damon replied.
"How did you guys find out about this in the first place?" I asked.
"These elves go around and steal items from people to eventually sell here." Damon explained, "They even have ports to other worlds, so we used them to find you."
"Wait, so these can help me get back ho—" I was cut off by the abrupt jerking of our pod. It launched itself forward at an incredible speed, and I promptly started screaming my head off.
All of a sudden I felt a hand clamp over my mouth and an arm snake around my stomach.
"Would you shut up!" Damon commanded, "We're not in danger so there's no need to scream like a banshee."
My protest was muffled by his hand over my mouth.
"Don't try to defend yourself when you know I'm right." He scolded. I bit his hand.
"Why don't you trust me?" Damon asked.
Oh gee maybe because you kidnapped me! I thought.
He sighed, "Have I ever put you in a dangerous situation?"
I was about to start yelling at him about all the time's I've been in dangerous situations, but I stopped. Most of the time I had gotten myself into those positions and Damon has just always come to my rescue.
As if he read my thoughts, or my face, Damon said, "Exactly, the safest place will always be with me."
Somehow that statement made me feel comforted. I leaned back against his chest and closed my eyes. It was actually quite relaxing, listening to his breathing, and I had nearly forgotten where we were going. Damon slowly took his hand off my mouth, like he was weary that I would resume screaming, and wrapped it around my waist.
This is sappy I know, but, in order to keep my mind off the ride, I nuzzled my face into his shoulder and let my mind drift into peaceful slumber.