Ridley

I ducked behind a tree right before another batch of guards made a round outside of the palace. I watched them as they approached cautiously from the shadows. There were definitely more guards around then the first time I had been here but I had a plan. As the patrol neared my gaze caught on a demon straggling a bit near the back. He was close to my height and wearing a helmet...he was perfect. I waited with bated breath as the patrol passed by. When the straggler of a demon passed me I picked up a rock, rolling it out from behind the tree. The demon stopped, staring at it confused. His group grew even further ahead as he knelt to examine it. When he did so I hit him over the back of the head with the butt of my sword. The demon fell to the ground and I dragged him into the woods quickly before anyone could notice. I didn't have much time if I wanted to rejoin the group. I quickly stripped him of his clothes and scrambled into them. The moment I lowered the helmet over my head I dashed out from the trees. I could still see the patrol in the distance and I jogged over to them, joining onto the back.

One of the demons turned to me and frowned. "What the hell Joey? What were you doing, taking a piss break? If the commander sees how shitty you are at this job, and pardon the pun here, he's going to put you on horse shit duty again. Remember how awful it was last time that happened?" I nodded, even though I had no idea what horrible ordeal Joey the demon had gone through while he was on horse shit duty, and honestly I didn't think I ever wanted to.

I followed the patrol as they did a few more rounds around the palace and finally they moved to make their way back inside. I tried to act as normal as I could as we made our way across the drawbridge and passed the guards stationed around it. I had no idea what was in the demon castle's moat but it looked like some kind of black inky goo and it made my skin crawl. To my relief, the demon guards didn't seem to notice anything out of the ordinary as I passed through. With a sigh of relief I entered once more into the demon palace.

I followed behind the patrol squad a bit more before I slipped off into one of the side hallways. Now the real question was how I was supposed to find where the ring was being held in this maze of a building. Silently I stalked the halls, peeking into any open room I could find. I noticed a large wooden door that appeared to be unlocked. That seemed promising. I made my way towards the door and as I reached forward to turn it's brass knob I suddenly froze. I could hear footsteps

"Hey," a gruff voice behind me called. I turned slowly to see a large looming demon standing there.

I attempted to try and make my voice as low as possible when I responded. "Hi there."

The demon narrowed his eyes. "What are you doing all the way out here?"

My mind reeled rapidly searching for an excuse. "I was stationed here."

The mountain of a demon arched a thick brow. "You were stationed to guard a bathroom?"

Shit. I needed to think fast? I needed to come up with something clever...something intelligent and well thought out. He was staring at me! What should I do? What should I say???

"Yep."

There was a beat of silence.

Then finally the demon just shrugged. "Figures. The guard assignments have been a mess since Rick got fired as head of security. Still can't believe they put Brandon in charge. I fricken' can't stand that guy, he's such a little bitch." He lowered his voice. "Don't tell him I said that though, okay bud?" I nodded. "Seriously, Rick wasn't doing that bad a job. It's like, come on, you let the crown prince get kidnapped once and it's the end of your career, it's just not fair!" I nodded again. The demon laughed. "Alright, I'll leave you to it then..." suddenly his gaze caught on something. "Wait a minute." My heart practically skipped a beat. Oh no...had I done something wrong? The demon pointed to my feet. "You have your boots them on the wrong foot buddy. Were you getting dressed in the dark or something this morning?"

I forced a laugh. "Something like that."

The Demon chuckled, giving me a pat on the back. "Well just don't let it happen again. You're lucky you didn't run into prince Vandel, he gets super pissed when his men look shitty. Did you not see the part in the pamphlet he sent out about shoes? It was at least three pages."

"Err...I must have missed it."

"Understandable. I'm sure he'll go over it again at his next staff seminar. See you around buddy."

"Yeah you too." I didn't allow myself to relax until the demon was safely out of sight. That was a close one, a little too close.

I continued to creep about, still my efforts seemed to be fruitless. Finally I came to a small chamber off a larger hallway. There were voices coming from inside. I knew I shouldn't risk it but...none the less I stuck my head in. Around the room were a series of artifacts in glass cases. There was a silver sword, a staff that appeared to be carved from amethyst and then there...to the left was a little box with the ring. There it was, the object I had been searching for almost my entire life. There was only one issue, three demons were currently lounging about the room. They were eating something that looked like fat green worms, the likes of which seemed to still be wriggling about. I shuddered slightly as a large demon popped it into its mouth. It's throat bobbed as it swallowed and I felt mildly sick. I bit my lip from under my helmet, I needed to concentrate, I needed to get to the ring! As I entered the room the demons looked up.

The large one grinned and I noted how uneven his sharp teeth were. "You lost?"

I shook my head, a plan starting to come to me. This would be a long shot but it still might work. "No sir, the head of security asked me to be stationed here to guarantee nothing happens to you. He said you can never be too cautious now that the demon prince himself was kidnapped." The three demons nodded amongst each other.

"That is true," a smaller female said. She grinned. "Why don't you join us for a snack?" She held up one of the green wiggling things.

I shook my head. "No...I don't think I should."

The other two were staring at me now too, grinning.

"Come on, just one lil' bite," the larger one said.

I began to back away slowly.

"Hehehe don't be modest. We know every demon wants to try a moon worm."

"Well I assure you ma'am I most certainly do not." She threw her head back and laughed.

"What kind of demon are you? Come on!" The two other demons suddenly grabbed hold of my arms and before I could move the female demon was looming over me with the moon worm. "Open wide," she cooed dangling it over me. "Let me take your helmet off so you can eat it properly." My stomach felt like it was twisting to knots.

"I really don't think that's a good idea-" But it was too late. She yanked it off and suddenly all three demons gasped. The female appeared to be in so much shock that she dropped the moon worm which fell to the floor with a thud and began crawling away. That's when she began to scream.

"Human!" She screeched. "A HUMAN JUST TRIED TO ATTACK US!" Within seconds a swarm of guards entered the room surrounding me.

"What should we do?" One exclaimed. "Should we kill him?"

"No," the other said shaking his head. "We should do worse." He grinned slyly. "We should take him to prince Vandel."

---

My hands were bound and I was dragged down the hall by two demon guards. Soon we arrived in the area I guessed must have contained Prince Vandel's private chambers. This question was quickly answered when a voice bellowed from inside,

"Where the FUCK is my rubber ducky!!!! Tuttle bring me my duck at once!!!!! YOU KNOW I CAN'T HAVE A BATH WITHOUT SIR BUBBLES!"

There was a mumble of a voice from inside saying, "yes my lord." The door creaked open and a little bald man appeared. A look of shock came over his face when he saw me and the guards. "Oh," he said quickly. "Oh...oh my."

"Is this a bad time?" One of my captors asked.

"W-We can come back later," another one stammered.

"Who is that?" Vandel muffled voice called from inside.

"The royal guard," the bald man replied. "They have that human you got the picture painted o-"

"Wait WHAT? Tuttle! Tell them to bring him in at once!"

The little bald man, Tuttle, inched forward. "He...err...says to bring him in." The two guards nodded, pushing me forward. We entered into a tiled humid chamber filled with steam. Lounging in a large porcelain tub at the center of the room was Vandel. He appeared to be taking a bubble bath, one arm lazily slung over the edge of the tub. Only his bare slender shoulders were exposed still both guards quickly averted their gaze. His hair was damp and his body was flushed from the heat of the water and for some reason it made my cheeks feel warm. With a start I realized how strongly the room smelled of lilac. Vandel glanced to me. His eyes were red today instead of the usual pitch black. I wondered if only demon royalty could change their eye color since every other demon around me had solid black eyes.

Vandel smiled, exposing his sharp set of teeth. "Why, sir Ridley? My isn't this a pleasant surprise? I suppose you just couldn't get enough of me." I glared at him.

One of the guards bowed his head. "My lord, what would you like done with him? Would you like to torture him or would like like to just kill him right here?"

Vandel thought for a moment, then something came across his gaze and he smirked. "I have a better idea. There's actually something I could really use him for..."