Ridley

I had somehow managed to get lost in the woods with my worst enemy, the demon prince of darkness himself. This...was not good. After several minutes the fog finally cleared and I was met with the realization that I had absolutely no idea where I was nor how to find princess Annette.

Vandel turned to me, giving me a little shrug. "So what happens now?" He asked. "I Hope we don't have to walk too much, I really like these boots and it would be a shame to wear them out."

"Quiet demon," I said curtly. I looked around in some last ditch attempt to find any trace of a path or clue to where Annette could be. Then an idea came to me. "Vandel." he didn't respond. I said his name again. "Vandel!"

Finally he turned slowly to look to me. "I'm only going to respond to your majesty, I am a prince Sir Ridley and I deserve to be treated as such."

"You sound like a whining child."

"Yeah well you sound like a dickwad."

I was taken back by his choice of words.

"W-what...did you just call me?" I was pretty sure I had never been called a dickwad before...well at least not to my face. Damn, just when I thought I couldn't hate demons any more than I did already I had to get stuck in the woods alone with this walking piece of garbage. I took a deep breath, I had to remain calm. He couldn't see any points of weakness from me or he would exploit them. That's what all this was about, the teasing and the mocking. He was trying to throw me off and there was no way in the God's names I was going to let him do that. I just needed to find the princess, find the path, and deliver Vandel to Alteria. That shouldn't be so hard. I looked to the sky, I really only had till sunrise. By then the demon queen would have realized that her son was missing and these woods would be crawling with demons. I clenched my fists now, building up as much resolve as I could to stoop low enough to ask the demon prince for help.

Vandel smirked at me again. "I know I'm probably the most attractive person you've ever seen but I'll have you know I'm slightly uncomfortable having you stare at me like that," he sneered. If I didn't need to keep him alive for Alteria's sake I would gladly have just run him through then and there.

"Please be silent demon and only speak when asked a direct question."

Vandel chuckled under his breath. "I'll give you this, you're at least polite."

"Vandel, I know you are a powerful magician. I need you to scry and try to find where princess Annette is."

Vandel laughed now, a long, cruel laugh that sent a shiver up my spine. "Why the fuck would I do that?"

"I'll give you something in return if you do it."

Vandel thought for a moment now. "Hmm...alright, you've made things a little more interesting. What would I get?"

"What do you want?"

If Vandel still had pupils he probably would have rolled his eyes. "To be released, obviously."

"Anything but that."

Suddenly a cold smile spread across his features. "Suck me." I froze, staring at him in disbelief. He was taunting me. I wouldn't be thrown off by him. I had to find Annette. If it was for my country I supposed I was willing to do anything.

"Alright," I said slowly. I took a deep breath and then slowly sunk to my knees before him.

Vandel's blood chilling laugh echoed through the woods once more. "Holy fuck, I was joking," he jeered. My face burned, he had wanted to humiliate me and he knew he had succeeded. He was playing with me. He was my captive so why the hell did I feel like the powerless one? His mouth twisted into a grin now. "Hmm well then, I suppose a simple kiss will suffice as my payment."

"You want me to kiss you?" I asked, hating the way my voice trembled when I spoke. I had never been this thrown off by someone before and I hated it.

Vandel stared back at me through lidded black eyes. "That's what I said. Honestly I'm bored out of my fucking mind right now and I would seriously kill for anything to spice it up."

I stared at him, my mouth hanging open. "You're bored? You've literally been kidnapped by the enemy and you're bored?"

Vandel's lip curled. "Unless you're both a knight and a bard and can sing me some nice ballads while we walk then I might reconsider." He stepped closer, his voice dripping with malice. "Wait, don't tell me this is would be your first kiss sir knight." Why did he seem to like to emphasis words so much?

"It wouldn't be," I said sharply. I tried not to lie for the most part but my pride wouldn't allow me to admit to him that I had never kissed anyone before. I didn't think I had ever loathed anyone more in my life then I did this demon.

"Alright then it's settled," the demon prince snickered. "Time for you to pay up sir Ridley."

I stepped forward, pressed a quick kiss to his cheek and then immediately drew back.

Vandel stared back at me blankly. "That's not going to cut it. It's gotta be a little more than that." I sighed heavily. This time when I moved forward I roughly grabbed him by the back of his head and pulled his face to mine. I leaned forward, pressing my mouth to his. His pointed teeth tugged at my lower lip, drawing blood. I could taste the iron in my mouth as he deepened the kiss. His mouth felt hot against mine and he pushed himself against me. My fingers knotted in his dark hair and his tongue found it's way into my mouth causing a shiver to shoot through me. The kiss felt like he was about to devour me whole. It was as if just his touch would consume me and somehow I felt myself surrendering to it. To my horror I realized my body was actually aching for more. I tensed, disgusted by the thoughts and feelings that had just come over me. This was wrong...enjoying kissing a demon was horribly terribly wrong. Everyone knew seduction was one of a demon's most primitive and effective defenses, how had I been stupid enough to fall into this trap? I would need to punish myself for this later. I drew back, hating the way my body still trembled, as if desperate to taste him again.

Vandel was smirking, somehow completely unfazed. "Now, that wasn't too bad was it?" He teased.

I swallowed hard, trying to calm myself down. "Be quite demon. I've performed my end of the bargain. Now you must complete yours."

Vandel gave me a little shrug. "Alright. Do you have any water with you?" I nodded slowly, pulling out a little flask. "I need you to untie my hands," Vandel added. I did what he asked, undoing the knot slowly. Almost immediately following it however I unsheathed my sword, raising it so that if needed I could run him through in one swift movement. Vandel turned to me, arching a brow. "Really?"

"I need to guarantee you won't run or try to kill me."

"Fair enough," Vandel replied nonchalantly rubbing his wrists. I could make out the red marks around them left over from the tightness of the rope. FInally he poured some of the water into his hands and shut his eyes for a beat. When his lids finally fluttered open he looked to the water. I couldn't see anything but I assumed Vandel must have because he was staring into the water intently.

Finally he turned to me. "I know where she is. Keep going left, there should be a cliff there. When we reach it we need to turn left again and we should find her."

I nodded quickly. "Thank you for your corporation." I returned my sword to its sheath before quickly retying his wrists. "Alright, let's go."

We began to walk once more. This time Vandel was surprisingly silent and for some reason that made me uneasy. As I went to turn I suddenly froze.

Vandel glanced at me, a bored expression on his face. "Why are we stopping?"

I bit my lip. "The woods are too silent. Something's wrong."

"The hell is that supposed to mean?" That's when a white creature charged forward out of the underbrush. My stomach felt like it was twisting to knots. The creature was huge, resembling some horrific combination of a rhinoceros and a bull which had somehow melted together. It was pure white and looked almost as if carved from ivory. Both Vandel and I exchanged a glance, we knew what it was at once. It was one of the Bone King's monsters. I drew my sword, I had to fight it, you couldn't run from these creatures. I had heard many a horrible tale of those who had tried. Bone monsters were rare but if you came across them the chances you would live to tell the tale were extremely small. It stood there, watching me. It could lunge for us at any moment.

"Untie me," Vandel hissed. "I can help."

"I'm not going to untie you, you'll run away," I whispered back.

"You know as well as I do that if I run away it'll probably kill me."

"I don't know..."

"I won't be any use to you if we're both dead." He turned to glare at me and finally I sighed heavily. He was right. I quickly slashed the ropes at his wrists and at that the bone monster lunged at us. We dodged it's first attack.

I glanced to Vandel. "So, you have a plan?"

Vandel bit his lip. "If you could lure it into a corner then I could make a semicircle of fire around it trapping it."

"Why can't you just make a full circle of fire around it now?"

"That would be too much, magic doesn't work that way sir Ridley. I can't just alakazam magic fire out of my ass 24/7. " The monster was circling us, preparing for its next attack.

"Won't the fire vanish once you're not there to keep it going?"

"If I really exert myself I can probably make it remain a full ten minutes once I've left."

"How the hell am I supposed to trap him?"

"The cliff should be a little ways ahead, let him chase you and back him against it. Then I'll trap him with the fire."

"How do I know you won't just let him chase me and try to escape."

Vandel simply shrugged. "You don't. You'll just have to trust me." The monster lunged for us again and I simply threw my reason to the wind and began to run. If this cliff was too far away I was screwed, there was no way I would be able to out chase this thing for long. The monster dashed after me, almost nipping at my heels. My heart was pounding, I could feel the blood pumping in my ears. I had no idea if Vandel was behind me, if he really had abandoned me I was as good as dead. The monster was nearing, I could hear it huffing behind me from only a breath away. My lungs felt like they were burning, I didn't think I had ever run this fast in my life, even when I was in training. Finally my gaze caught on the large jagged base of the cliff. I just needed to make it a little further. I sent a quick prayer to the Gods that Vandel would actually uphold his part of the plan and that I would actually survive this. With that I I turned sharply and used the last bit of strength I had left to push ahead of the monster so that I was a good four feet ahead of him. I skidded past the base of the cliff now and as the beast went to follow me a semi circle ring of fire suddenly sprang up from the ground around it, trapping the beast between the fire and the base of the cliff. Vandel appeared behind me, I had no idea how he had made it here so fast. I kept running, this time with Vandel a few steps behind me. Finally, when we were a safe distance away I practically sunk to the ground, struggling to catch my breath. Vandel looked to me, he was breathing heavily and looked extremely pale. I guessed it was from using so much power to keep the fire burning.

"Thanks," I mumbled, struggling to catch my breath.

Vandel pushed his dark hair out of his eyes, giving me a little shrug. "You're...welcome I suppose." I stood up, my legs felt like they could give out at any moment I was so exhausted. Vandel gave me a little bow suddenly. "Now, sir Ridley, this little interaction between us has been quite lovely but I'm afraid I've had my fun, it's time for me to go."

My hand jumped immediately to my hilt. "You're not leaving, you're coming with me to Alteria."

Vandel clicked his tongue waving a finger. "Now, that's where you're wrong sir Ridley." He shook his head now. "It's a shame really, I liked this outfit so very much." Suddenly Vandel disappeared, his dark garments crumpling to the ground. I stared at the pile in disbelief. That's when the dark head of a bird suddenly poked up from it. My eyes widened, it was the raven from the night before. The raven shook itself from the clothes and looked to me. I could have sworn it winked. And with that it took off, its little black form making its way into the sky.

The anger hit me fast and hard. "You could turn into a bird this entire time? Are you KIDDING ME? Did you specifically LEAD me to that monster?" I yelled after the raven. "I CAN NOT BELIEVE I FED YOU BREAD YOU ASSWIPE!"