A Demon and a Dragon

by Virlyce

  “You didn’t know?” Tafel asked. She gave Vur a glance, but he was using his four hands to pick up the four elementals at once. Zilphy, Deedee, and Mistle seemed to be fighting since none of them were looking at each other or speaking.

  Mary flinched and turned her head to the side, tears forming in her eyes. “I didn’t….” She sniffled and blinked, a tear rolling down her cheek. “I really didn’t….”

  Tafel sighed and placed her hand on Mary’s head. The empress’ lips quivered, and her hands tightened around her shins even further, turning the surrounding skin red. Tafel moved her hand back and forth as if she were petting a dog. “I’m not mad, alright? If anyone’s to blame, it’s your uncle.” Tafel’s eyes narrowed. “I’m going to have a thorough talk with him. Where is he?”

  “You’re not mad?” Mary blinked and lifted her hands to wipe away her tears. Her pale shins had bruises with the imprints of fingers. “Are we still friends?”

  “Yes, we’re still friends,” Tafel said and pulled her hand back.

  Mary sniffled and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. She turned towards Vur, and her eyes lit up. “Why do you have four arms?”

  Vur snorted. “Why don’t you have four arms?”

  Mary pursed her lips and reached up to tug on Tafel’s sleeve. “I want four arms too.”

  A groan escaped from Tafel’s lips as a wide smile appeared on Vur’s. “Vur used a genie king’s wish to wish for extra, retractable arms,” Tafel said. “If you want four arms, you have to find a genie.”

  Mary jumped to her feet and nodded, letting go of Tafel’s sleeve. “I’m going to”—Mary lowered her head and stared at her bare hands and feet before sitting down again—“wait a bit.”

  Tafel turned towards Vur. “See? This is what happens when you have overpowered equipment from the start,” she said. “You get too reliant on them.”

  Vur shrugged. “Mary’s dumb; she doesn’t count.”

  “I’m not dumb!” Mary glared at Vur. “I might not be smart enough for magic or engineering or finance or economics or geography or math or literature or art, but I’m not dumb! I can count to a million.”

  Vur raised an eyebrow. “Just a mil—”

  Tafel placed a cookie that she retrieved from a portal into Vur’s mouth. “Why don’t we go ask Grimmy for your armor back? I have to see him anyway to check on your uncle. You don’t mind if, uh, bad things happen to your uncle, right?”

  Mary shuddered and hugged her shoulders. “I don’t mind.” Her fingers dug into her flesh, drawing blood. “I don’t.”

  Stella’s head popped out of Vur’s chest before Tafel could say anything else. She turned until she was facing Vur and waved at his face with one arm. “Vur! You can’t stick a sleeping woman like me inside of you without waking me up first! Don’t do that again. Also, there’s a few prisoners of war that I chained inside of my dungeon. I thought you’d like to know.” Then she disappeared back inside the flower tattoo.

  Mary looked up at Tafel, her fingers still embedded in her shoulders. “Can I wish for a fairy too?”

  Tafel sighed. “Even the genie king couldn’t win over a fairy, so I doubt you’ll be able to wish for one,” she said. “And you should stop aspiring to be like Vur, okay? Just because he has something, that doesn’t mean you have to have it to.” She reached forward and placed her hands on Mary’s. “And you shouldn’t, err, injure yourself like this.”

  “But it makes me feel better,” Mary said, biting her lower lip.

  Tafel frowned and pulled her hands back. “Oh. Well, um, you should heal yourself when you get the chance.”

  Mary nodded. “I know. An empress can’t look injured.”

  Tafel sighed again. “Hey, Vur,” she said, grabbing Vur’s arm and inching closer to him. “Why don’t we go look for some genies with Mary? We’ll bring Alice too since she’s still bitter at me for forgetting her the first time even though she tells me she’s not. And with Mervin to help us out, I’m sure we’ll find trustworthy genies.”

  “Mervin turned back into a beansprout,” Vur said. “Don’t you remember?”

  Tafel stared at Vur’s extra arms. “Ah, right. How could I forget?” she asked, her voice flat. “But still, we can go find some genies, right? We can go explore the dungeon after.”

  Vur nodded. “I think finding more genies will be more interesting than going to the dungeon again. Let’s do that instead.” He crossed his lower arms over his chest and rubbed his chin with his free right hand. “I should wish for another pair of arms. If having four is this nice, then having six must be even better.”

  “No,” Tafel said. “Please. Have you thought of how difficult it’d be to find you shirts?”

  “They’re retractable,” Vur said.

  “Okay, but what if the genie you make a wish from isn’t trustworthy this time and decides to make them only partially retractable?”

  Vur furrowed his brow. Then he relaxed and nodded. “Well, I don’t wear shirts, so it doesn’t matter.”

  “It matters to me!” Tafel said. “Please, don’t wish for more bodily modifications without asking me first.”

  Vur let out a non-committal grumble.

  “Promise me,” Tafel said, stepping even closer to Vur.

  Vur sighed. “Fine. I promise.”

  Mary shifted her gaze between the two. “I don’t have to ask first, right?”

  Tafel glared at her. “You do too!”

  26

  “Are you sure this is how you hunt for genies?” Alice walked alongside Mr. Skelly. They were wandering in a forest with their eyes glued to the treetops. A root caught Alice’s foot, and she tripped, falling onto her face. “This … is more annoying than I thought. We’ve been here for hours.”

  “I mean, this is how we did it the first time,” Tafel said, helping Alice up along with Mr. Skelly. “We wandered around an area where genies were supposed to be, and we found one eventually.” She looked behind herself. “Isn’t that right, Vur?”

  Vur yawned and nodded. He was sitting on a rock with his legs crossed, his palms resting on his knees. His other arms were retracted into his body. Stella had made him promise not to find any genies because they’d fall in love with her and she didn’t want to deal with that again. So, instead, he was trying to figure out a way to enter his own soul without someone forcing him inside.

  Tafel nodded at Alice. “See?”

  “Well, if this is how you found genies the first time, then where are they now?” Alice asked, furrowing her brow. “I’m sure you two didn’t take hours to find them.”

  “That’s…,” Tafel said and scratched her head. “That’s a good question. Actually, they were pretty rare when we were looking too. Should we move onto another area?”

  “I found one!” Mary’s voice echoed from the wooded area behind Vur. There were a few stomping sounds, and Mary came into view. Instead of her usual gauntlets and greaves, she was wearing simple leather gloves and boots. Tafel had seen that Grimmy was sleeping when he was supposed to be taking care of the annoying trio, and she didn’t want to wake him, so the group had set off to find genies first. In Mary’s gloved hand, there was a genie, who was held by the waist down, his arms folded and resting against Mary’s finger as if he were at a bar.

  “Is it rude?” Tafel asked.

  “Your face is the definition of rude!” the genie shouted and shook a fist at Tafel. “Don’t you feel any shame for making people look at something so distasteful in public?”

  “I guess that answers that,” Tafel said in a low voice. “You should wish for it to be politer. If you wish for anything else, it’ll twist your wish.”

  Mary pursed her lips. “But I spent so long finding it.”

  “That’s because your eyes are useless, moron,” the genie said and stuck his tongue out at Mary. “Ack! Don’t squeeze me, you giant oaf! Don’t you know harming a genie will bring you great misfortune? You’re dumb now, but if you kill me, you’ll definitely get even dumb
er!”

  “Mary,” Tafel said. “Just wish for it to be politer.”

  “No, don’t do that,” Alice said before Mary could open her mouth. “Hand that genie over here. I’m going to use it to make a wish. If it’s a battle of words, I don’t believe a genie can outwit me. I’ll have you know, being a guild master is all about twisting words around.”

  Mary looked at Tafel, but the demon shrugged. The empress walked up to Alice and passed her the genie. Alice tapped on Tafel’s shoulder and held her hand out. “Jar, please.”

  Tafel raised an eyebrow but reached into a portal and handed a jar filled with jam to Alice. The guild master opened it with one hand and stuffed the genie inside. Then she closed the jar and poked a few holes in the lid using Mr. Skelly’s sword. The genie pounded on the lid while shouting profanities, but Alice gave the jar one good shake, and the genie was covered in jam.

  Tafel frowned. “I was going to use that for breakfast eventually.”

  “Don’t worry,” Alice said. “It’s put to better use this way.”

  “Harming a genie will bring about great misfortune! Great, great misfortune! You dumb, undersized giant! Let me out of here this instant!” The genie’s tiny fists punched the lid to no avail. He was covered in a layer of blue sauce, and only his eyes were untouched.

  “But I’m not harming you?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. She brought the jar up to her face and smiled at the genie through the glass. “All I did was put you into a place with a lot of food. Where’s the harm?”

  The genie froze. He pointed a shaking finger at Alice. “What do you want from me?”

  “I always wanted my own rude, little genie trapped in a jar to keep on my desk,” Alice said and beamed. “Thanks for granting my lifelong dream.”

  “W-wait,” the genie said. “Wish for a genie trapped in a jar to keep on your desk. I promise I won’t corrupt it.”

  Alice blinked. “Why would I do that when I already have one?”

  “Isn’t there something else you want?” the genie asked and licked his lips. He swallowed. “I can give you all the riches in the world. I can give you all the women, err, men you want. I can make anyone fall in love with you. I can even make the world explode if you want me to. Do you want to become stronger than a dragon? I can make that happen.”

  In response, Alice opened the bag by her waist and placed the jar inside. Then she closed it, cutting off all source of light. Tafel, Mary, and Mr. Skelly stared at her. Alice snorted and placed her hands on her hips. “What?”

  “That was mean,” Mary said and nodded twice.

  “The genie was rude, but you’re acting like a jerk too,” Tafel said.

  Mr. Skelly sighed. He thumped the armor on his chest with his bony hand and smiled at Alice. “Even if you wish to imprison the whole world, I’ll support you wholeheartedly despite my lack of a heart.”

  Tafel and Mary stared at the skeleton with withering gazes.

  “What?” Mr. Skelly wiggled his brow. “That’s what it means to unconditionally love someone. When they’re sick, you take care of them. When they’re sad, you cheer them up. When they murder someone, you help hide the body. See?”

  Mary and Tafel exchanged glances. Mary pursed her lips. “He has a point,” she said.

  “He does not!”

  “Oh, hush,” Alice said, interrupting Tafel and Mary. “I’m doing this for your sake, you know?”

  Tafel pointed at herself. “My sake?”

  “Yep,” Alice said. “When the genie calms down enough, I’m going to wish for books on how to turn you into a proper demon lord.”

  “Um, can’t you just catch a normal genie that won’t corrupt something as important as that?” Tafel asked.

  Alice tapped the side of her bag, causing a string of curses to spew out. “This one’s just a backup plan. We might not have to use it.”

  “Oh,” Tafel said. “If that’s the case, then I guess it’s okay. I really thought you were going to keep it on your desk forever.”

  “Who said I wasn’t?” Alice asked, raising an eyebrow. “I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted a rude genie to keep on my desk. If we find a polite genie, I’m going to keep this one. Sometimes, there are people who you just want to tell off, and I’m sure this little guy will give me plenty of inspiration.”

  ***

  Two dragons, one gold, one sky-blue, flew through the air, passing over some clouds. On the sky-blue dragon’s head, an elf was sitting with her legs and arms crossed, her hair remaining perfectly still even though nothing was shielding her from the wind. The sky was tinted with a pink hue, and as the dragons flew further north, the pink became darker, redder. The golden dragon wrinkled his snout. “I don’t like the smell of this, honey. How about we turn back and go home?”

  “If you don’t like it, then that just shows how right Grimmy was,” Sera said. “And we can’t allow such dangerous things to encroach upon our nest.”

  Vernon cleared his throat. “Uh, it’s your mother’s nest. Not ours. I’d just like to point that out. If anyone should be taking care of this, it’s her.”

  “That’s right,” Lindyss said. “I don’t see any reason why I should be here at all.”

  Sera rolled her eyes up and glared at the cursed elf. “Just the other day, I was wondering who taught my son how to cast fire spells. If my memory isn’t failing me, then it was some woman who had taken him away from the elves when I sent him there….”

  Lindyss swallowed. “Were you going to thank her for teaching him by any chance?”

  Sera hummed. “That’s right,” she said, her voice more like a growl. “I was going to thank her for throwing fireballs at my son to help him learn. Sometimes, two-footed creatures can get very cold. I’m sure they’d be nice and warm inside my stomach.” Her eyes glinted, curving upwards as she smiled. “That’d be an appropriate way to thank her, don’t you think?”

  Lindyss coughed, her face pale. “I think … she’d much rather you didn’t.”

  “Oh?” Sera raised an eyebrow. “So, she’d much rather be outside, not complaining about a task she’s been assigned is what you’re saying?”

  “That’s exactly what I’m saying,” Lindyss said, bobbing her head up and down. “You can put your aura away now. It might attract that thing’s attention, whatever it is.”

  “And there’s supposed to be three of these things?” Vernon asked in a tired voice. “Why couldn’t there just be one? After this, I’m going to have to take a nap. I’ve already done way too much work this century with raising Vur and all.”

  Lindyss turned her head towards Vernon. “Do you treat centuries like a normal person treats a week?”

  Vernon exhaled flames out of his nostrils. “Are you saying I’m not normal? I treat centuries like how I treat centuries.”

  A tiny voice whispered into Lindyss’ ear, “I think you should just keep your mouth shut.”

  Lindyss shifted the tiny fairy up towards the center of her head. “I think that’s the best idea you’ve ever had.”

  ***

  Vur, Tafel, Mary, Alice, and Mr. Skelly sat around a campfire. They were surrounded by woods, the only light coming from their fire. The moon and stars were covered by a thick layer of clouds. Smoke drifted into the air, carrying the aroma of a roasted boar. Mary’s stomach growled, and she swallowed her saliva, her eyes locked onto the spit-roasted boar rotating over the fire. Her eyes flitted towards Tafel and Vur. “Is it ready?”

  “I’m the cook!” Alice said. “It’s ready when I say it’s ready.”

  Mary pouted and turned towards Tafel. She whispered in a voice that everybody could hear, “Why is she the cook? Her cooking is horrible.”

  Tafel let out a small groan and turned her head away. The spit-roasting boar flew into the air, punted by Alice towards Mary. Vur stretched out an arm and grabbed it. Then he tore off a leg and bit into it. Reddish juices leaked out of the pink meat, and he nodded after swallowing. “It’s done,” he said, handing the b
oar to Tafel while giving a thumbs-up to Alice with an arm that sprouted out of his armpit. “Perfect.”

  “It’s raw,” Mary muttered, staring at the boar in Tafel’s arms.

  “It’s not raw,” Tafel said. “It’s seared. It’s supposed to be like that.”

  Mary pursed her lips and met Tafel’s eyes. “I’m not dumb. That genie might’ve called me dumb, but I’m really not. I know what’s raw and what isn’t raw, and this is very much a raw piece of meat.” She turned towards Alice. “You don’t know how to cook.”

  Alice narrowed her eyes at Mary. “Do you want to know what I think about your opinion?” She reached into her bag and pulled out the genie that was still covered in a layer of jam inside the jar. Then she shook the jar up and down. The genie hurled insults and let out a string of curses while gesturing strongly with a certain digit on his hand. Alice nodded and put the jar away. “That’s what I think about your opinion.”

  Mary bit her lower lip. “I’m going to find my own food to eat,” she said, climbing to her feet. “And I’m going to cook it by myself, and when you see how good it is, I’m not going to share. Hmph.”

  “Bye,” Alice said.

  Mr. Skelly nodded. “So long.”

  Vur grunted and waved at Mary with a spare hand.

  Mary tilted her chin up, her lips quivering. Then she sniffled and stomped away, disappearing in an instant before Tafel could stop her. Tafel lowered the hand that she had raised, sighing at the trail of broken trees Mary had left behind in her wake. “You guys…,” Tafel said, sweeping her gaze over the trio, who were busy eating. She threw a rock at Mr. Skelly. “Why are you eating my portion? You’re dead!” She paused. “Wait. No. Guys, that wasn’t very nice.”

  “She was rude first,” Alice said. “After I worked so hard to prep and cook that boar too.”

  “You didn’t even remove its guts,” Tafel said, rolling her eyes. “Your prepping consisted of sprinkling salt on it and stabbing a wooden stake through it to hoist it over the fire. And I was the one who made the fire.”