Not an Elf

Chapter 2

Five years.

Five years.

Rin had long since given up hope of getting back to Assiah and Gehenna and that whole mess.

It didn't seem too problematic in his mind. His classmates either disliked him, feared him, or were indifferent. And his brother...

He loved Yukio, he really did.

But he was scared of him. He was.

Yukio was just so... cold. He wasn't the same person Rin had grown up with and protected, and it was scary.

Rin sighed as he prepared bread and ale for another customer. At least he had a job.

Butterbur gave him a room and board in exchange for his work, and just enough pay that he had been able to buy some clothes. (They didn't have underpants!) The rest he spent on spices for his food or polish for the Kurikara sword.

But, on the bright side, he had made some new advancements with his ... more demonic problems.

For instance, when he really concentrated, he could draw his sword without any flame. And even with flame, without his demonic form.

It was pretty cool.

He'd also found out a whole lot more about this world, which was a relief.

This was Arda, or Middle Earth. (Hehe, the guy that he asked that was so confused.)

An elf was an immortal person that lived in the woods. (Somehow, Rin thought that definition might be a little underdeveloped.)

Hobbits were little dudes that lived in holes. "But don't let that fool you" Butterbur had told him. "You could travel all the land and never find a nicer home than a hobbit's hole." There were also dwarves, little muscle dudes that were really good with rock. And Orcs, things that sounded like a mix between a Naberius and a human, which Rin both really wanted to avoid and test his flames on.

He had even heard whispers of a wizard around the pub, but he wasn't too sure about the reliability of that information.

And the big one?

Satan didn't exist.

Score.

He brought out a bowl of soup and three plates of bread balanced on various parts of his body. It was a pity he couldn't show his tail, because the extra limb would have been really handy for balance.

Hobbits?

Oh. Rin spotted the table with several people that were rather short (shorter than him!) sitting around it. There they were.

A shiver ran down his spine as he approached the table, but the half-demon ignored it despite the fact that there wasn't a drift of cold air to be found anywhere in the inn.

"Here ya are!" He gave the group a bright grin, before spinning on his heel and marching off.

Or at least he would have, if he hadn't noticed the guy in the corner. Staring unabashedly at the hobbits and, by correlation (hopefully) him.

Creepy.

He quickly went to find Butterbur, who was scrubbing down a table.

"Hey, d'ya know who the fella in the corner is?"

Butterbur looked up at him before glancing to the corner and paling.

"That's a ranger, Rin. Best to stay away from his type. I'd say no one knows his real name, but Strider is what we call him in these parts."