The Demon and the Elf (Book 1)

Chapter Twenty One pt 5

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Led by Vrona and K'ra, Drokn and Eial followed to the source of the unexpected sound. In the daytime, the cloth around Eial's eyes received more looks, but everyone in this town was unique, and the blindfold earned nothing more than a quick glance before people minded their own business and their own hangovers.

Drokn dragged his feet with steps of lead bars, the drinking from the night before making him more tired than he would be despite the medicine he ingested. What even was the point of the taste bud stabbing torture?

Half an hour into the dreadful, sun blinding walk, the four came upon a crater in the ground in empty plains, the width of two dozen demons. Concerned, they walked carefully around the edges of the crater before slowly making their way to the center. Throwing small explosives on the way in front of them, Vrona ensured their walk was safe.

Entrusting K'ra, the town's scout, to analyze the situation and safety before returning the news, none of the other townsfolk had come to the area. But no one else seemed to be in the area, either, causing the source of the apparent explosion to be very strange.

Coming upon the center, nothing seemed to be there, as if a meteor had crashed and disappeared, leaving no trace. When K'ra had taken to search around a couple meters away, Vrona looked over to Eial with crinkled brows, whispering, "Could you check for elemental traces?"

Drokn, who was close enough to hear the whisper, looked to Vrona immediately, frowning with thought of unease, given elemental energies came from elves and this was a demon town with no elves but their own Eial—

Alas, when Eial had placed his bare palms on the ground and closed his eyes, analyzing, his palms could feel the earth, no magic...

And then there was a trickling of water magic, air magic, fire magic, earth magic, and— there was something else, something he couldn't feel or manipulate with his own magic.

Eial looked up at Vrona, pinching his lips, relaxing, and pinching them again, before he stood up to relay what he learned in a concerned, mellow whisper. A darkness flashed over the demoness's narrowed eyes. Kneeling, Vrona touched the dirt, herself, feeling as though it felt no different than regular soil. Dusting her hands off, she patted Drokn on the shoulder, requesting him to check for dark magic.

Drokn, of course, brought his brows together, opening his mouth to refuse any request by Vrona. But when he glanced at Eial, who, with upturned brows, voiced a small, "Please?" he found himself crouched near the ground, palm on the dusty soil.

What he felt was no dark magic, however, his own waves of magic sent through the soil was reacting to something. A very familiar sensation to the fight with the guards he had many days ago on the day he first met Eial. His magic and another, nullifying on contact— light magic.

There was an obvious sign of elves, many elves here. Like the elven prison walls, many elements mingling. But for what purpose? An explosion like this, how had it happened and what was the intent? What were the elves secretly plotting? Or...

Perhaps it was just one elf?

Drokn passed his observation on the magic to Eial, with Vrona listening. Many, many thoughts ran around Vrona's thoughts like busy flies, none voiced, as her eyes glided right and left, front back, as if searching for something, someone.

When K'ra came back, they shared their discoveries with an unfamiliar magic in the ground they stood on, which they'd discovered from their own small amounts of dark magic. Vrona snapped back to the present and explained Drokn's observance that it was light magic.

"I'm guessing," Vrona stated as she rubbed against the soil with her boot, "based on how this crater looks, and considering there's magic involved, that there was somehow condensed magic that let loose, exploded, and made this. K'ra, were there any elves that visited town recently."

K'ra tilted their head towards Eial.

"Besides Eial, K'ra."

To answer, K'ra shrugged and shook their head side to side.

Sighing, Vrona rubbed her forehead, frustration mixed with concern. However, she was given not much more time to process as the rush of wings started to sound in the distance.

All four of them flipped their focus at the source with widened eyes. Guards did not come to the outer lands, the poorer lands. These lands weren't worthy of protection in the eyes of the king. Such anarchy, no structure, community aiding one another, that's how this town had lived.

Nonetheless, those were surely uniformed guards in the distance. With the disappearance of the queen and the bounty on the special elf, it had seemed that guards had started their search throughout all of the demon kingdom, including those well neglected. The sound of the blast from the morning had not only woken the townspeople, but had also alerted the guards nearby. Not sure if they'd find anything of substance, but to observe the source of the noise just in case.

Although the rumble had not been created by the demoness and the elf, the noise had led the guards to them despite.

K'ra immediately gestured to the others to follow as they ran quickly to a building before the guard's flight had met them. The building was a familiar one with a familiar scent that threw Drokn's stomach in tangles from the memory.

It was the tavern they had spent time at the night before.

[He's part of the rebels], K'ra wrote on their pad, showing it to Drokn before pointing to the bartender with a bright smile. Then, they rushed over to the bartender and knocked on the counter in a specific pattern. Two knocks, a pause, a knock, a pause, and two more knocks.

The bartender nodded and left the space behind the counter to lead them to a door. Past the door, the bartender took off— a section of the wall. The whole section that looked like bricks was only the edges of bricks plastered onto a wooden plank. Behind this setup was another door.

Just as knocks were heard at the first door, the four rushed into the secret entryway, silently jogging down the stairs. Meanwhile, the bartender had already fixed up the false brick wall and was holding a crate of mugs when the guards had decided to barge in. "Sorry, my hands were full. Is anything the matter?" he asked, unconcerned.