An explosion, a big huge explosion, a ginormous gigantic orgasmic explosion! That’s the only way I could think to describe the sensation of flavors that delicious treat gave to my mouth. Lilith called it a parfait, a dish made with fruit, yogurt, and ice-cream. I only knew what the first thing was, cause like, obviously I know what fruit is, but the other two things were also really fricken good. We sat on a patio in front of some restaurant underneath a cute little canopy as we ate a couple of those parfait things together. The yogurt was smooth and tart which paired really well with the cold sweet ice cream. I didn't know so many flavors and sensations were possible in a single dish, honestly, I couldn't even wrap my head around how they made the ice cream so cold. Demon food is amazing!

"Damn, no use…" Lilith grunted and groaned as she tapped away on a small little rectangle thing.

"Wuz no ushe?" I asked, my mouth full of my creamy sweet treat.

"I was trying to see if I could recover the code so we could return to the castle for the night," she grumbled slamming down her little rectangle, "but it would appear that is not happening," she deflated into her seat, "I guess we will be staying at a hotel tonight."

"Ish that like the bathhoush thing?"

"No, not like that one, definitely not like that one…" 

I swallowed my food, "okie, so we stay at an inn, why’s that a problem?”

“I am spending far more money than I would like at the start of our little adventure,” her brows furrowed and her jaw clenched.

“Yeah, but like, you’re royalty, right?”

“I may be royalty, but I am not made of money,” her face contorted into a very unpleasant scowl, “I would like to be more cautious about spending so as to not let our resources run dry before we reach our destination.”

“If we run outta money we can just kill some beasts and sell their parts,” I suggested, “bear penises go for a lot of money, for some reason.”

She stared at me, her mouth agape, words trying to form but ultimately failing to convey how weird she thought I was, “excuse me?”

“You know, we can sell loot off of monsters for some extra cash, it’s what champions do in the divine kingdoms,” I shrugged, “ooh ohh! Or we could beat up some bandits and loot their corpses!” Her expression went from exasperated to confuddled to possibly scared. I kinda got the feeling she hadn’t really known much about adventuring, either that or things were just not the same here.

“Do humans really do that?”

“Yeah, don’t demons?”

“We are vegetarian, what need would we have of bear… of bear penises?”

“It’s an aphrodisiac or somethin,” I laughed, “you don’t eat it silly.”

“I think you are the silly one here, Eve,” she sighed, “I suppose if things come to the worst outcome, we can always find Turk work.”

“Turk work?”

“Menial tasks that business’ offer for those in need of money,” she gathered up our empty parfait dishes and stood, “you don’t need experience, just a can do spirit, the pay can be pitiful, but it’s better than nothing.”

“Oh, like a quest board!”

“So, you are familiar with the concept then?”

“Yeah,” I pumped my fist, “I used to do stuff like that all the time, ‘go kill twenty giant rats’, or ‘retrieve my lost pendant’, and even things like ‘that Kyle guy irks me, go kill him’,”

Once again she stared at me with the cold dead eyes of a grazing cow, “Eve, I am beginning to think we come from completely different worlds.”

“I mean, there’s a mountain between us, but like that’s all right?”

“That’s not what I mean… you know what, never mind,” she began to walk away, “I am going to return the dishes and wash my hands, be a good girl and stay here.”

“Okie!” Just as she told me, I stayed put, kicking my feet and swaying my head humming as I waited. It’s not that I wanted to be an obedient little girl for the demon queen or anything, I just didn’t want to get lost in the city. Besides, she couldn’t take that long right? 

Well after a few minutes it started happening again… I was crying. It was the first day of my life where I got to drop my little act and just be me, no more pretending to be some noble hero, and just be the cute silly girl I always wanted to be. But I am not a girl… still, if anyone was going to accept the real me, I felt it was Lilith, when I’m not causing her sever mental distress from my unrefined temper… no, no more big words, I don’t gotta pretend after all. Okay, big words sometimes, when I feel like it.

“Don’t let your guard down, Eve,” a cold familiar voice spoke inside me.

“I’m not,” I whispered back.

“Really? Cause it looks to me like you been bathing and dining with our enemy,” the voice snapped.

“She’s not really our enemy though, she’s just like us,” 

“Nobody is like us, we’re alone in this world,” did I believe her words? Maybe, but I wanted to have hope, I wanted to believe that she was wrong and Lilith and I really were the same. “Your safety is my first priority, if and when it comes to it, I will kill that demon if it means saving you.”

“Well it won’t come to that,” the voice did not respond, and I continued to sit there in silence, wiping my tears as I swayed side to side.

 A few minutes passed, and I was getting a little antsy, but still, I stayed put, or I would have stayed put, if it wasn’t for the unnerving feeling of a shadowy figure leering at me from the sidewalk nearby. Something in me wouldn’t let me turn my head to look, so I simply shifted my eyes, spying it standing there… menacingly! It was not a person, or a demon, it was an oddity. I’m like not at all exaggerating when I call it a shadowy figure, the thing was like, literally made of darkness.  It was almost like it wasn’t fully there. Like it was trapped between two planes of reality, or something. Well, whatever the hell it was, I didn’t like it. 

   So I got up, slowly, and I walked, slowly, going through the door into the little caffe, slowly, as it watched me, slow… wait no, as it watched me, menacingly. Whatever it was, I wanted to get as far away from it as possible. I stepped into the cafe, turning to close the door behind me, and there it was!

"Gah!" I fell on to my bum, startled by the oddities' sudden appearance right behind me. Of course my little outburst brought alotta attention to me, no one else noticing the shadowy thing at the door.

"Eve, what are you doing?" Lilith came and helped me up, "didn't I say to wait?"

"There's a, a ghostie, or a shadow, or it's, it's something out there!" I sputtered my words out fast and incoherent, pointing vigorously out the door.

"I don't see anything," Lilith stated plainly as she investigated.

"Wha? Bu, but it was right there!"

“Are you feeling okay, Eve?” Lilith pressed the back of her hand to my forehead, “you don’t feel feverish.” Great, the stupid shadow thing was making me look crazy. Malevolent or not, I already had a personal grudge against it.

“I’m fine, I guess.. I guess I’m just seeing things,” I was most definitely not seeing things, but I really didn’t want to cause more of a commotion…

“Come on, I feel if we linger here you’ll pull more attention,” Lilith grabbed me by the hand and led me back out to the sidewalk. My stomach twisted, I know I hadn’t really known Lilith that long, but having her believe me was important to me, especially if we were gonna be traveling together. Though I guess she had no real reason to believe me, hell I didn’t even know if I believed me. 

Blending into the many waves of demons, we found our way to a super tall building, the ‘hotel’ that Lilith had mentioned. Just like the bathhouse, it too had the cool magic doors, and also just like the bathhouse there was a big ol’ tank full of all sorts of fishies. I guess Demons really liked fish. I made silly faces at the fishies, while Lilith procured us a room for the night. I continued to pucker my lips and suck in my cheeks, imitating the lil fishies, until I saw a reflection on the glass. 

“The shadow thing!” I jumped back, spun around on my heel, and… was completely alone… Well, not completely, there were a buncha demons staring at me as if I were some kinda nudist running around the town. 

“Eve, please would you behave yourself?” Lilith’s tone was a lot less gentle this time.

I shrunk, my heart sinking down into my tummy, “I’m sorry Lilith…”

She glowered at me a moment, then sighed, patting my head, “it’s okay, just try not to draw too much attention,” she laughed, “most demons don’t really speak kamen, so the more they hear you the more suspicious you're going to be.” Yeah, that made sense. It’d be pretty suspicious if someone went around any of the divine kingdoms yelling in Aeonic or whatever the demon language was called again. “Come on, our rooms on the seventh floor,”

“Wow, seven floors? That’s like a lotta floors!”

“Silly girl, the castle was thirty-three floors, seven is actually rather small.”

“Huh? But it didn’t seem that tall to me!”

“Deep, it was thirty floors deep. A good portion of the castle is built into the mountain,” wow, why would you need that many floors? Also, good goddess that’s too much to explore, it’s no wonder it took me forever till I found the throne room. Though I guess aimlessly running around while shouting certainly didn’t help…

Anyways, we took another ‘lift’, though this time it was packed full of other demons. I squished myself against Lilith, trying to avoid contact with any strangers as I kept my head low.

“It’s following us,” the voice growled inside me. I looked from the corner of my eye and saw it once again, that damn shadow person. This time though, I didn’t make a scene, the elevator was waaaaay too stuffed for that. I simply bit my tongue and kept my cool.

“Eve, you’re squeezing my arm,” Lilith whispered to me.

“Eeep, sorry,” I released my friend, not even aware I was holding onto her in the first place, and lucky for me we arrived at the seventh floor.

Squeezing our way out of the congested lift, the thing followed us. This time though, I was going to make sure Lilith saw it. I tapped her hand, and she pulled it away, so I tapped it again. “I’m not going to hold your hand, Eve.” 

If I wasn’t so distracted by our stalker, I’d probably have made a big fuss about her comment, “don’t turn your head, just use your eyes, we’re being followed.”

“Yes, I felt it too,” she sighed, “I guess you’re not crazy after all,” she paused before adding, “about this at least.”

Verbal wounds aside, I was happy that she finally believed me. Still, being aware you’re being followed, and knowing what to do when being followed were two completely different things, “so, plans?”

“Just continue on like everything is normal,” she spoke in a calm smooth voice, “never acknowledge a spirit, ignore it and it will go away.”

Easy for her to say, I wasn’t actually all that accustomed to having supernatural entities nipping at my heels. Regardless, if this was some kinda demon kingdom problem, then I had best listen to her advice. I kept my head forward, glued my eyes on the path ahead of me, and pressed on. It didn’t take too long before we reached our room, but still the thing was directly behind us. I so badly wanted to yell ‘leave us alone, go away, no boys allowed!’ or something like that, but Lilith was pretty clear about not paying it any mind. 

Sliding a little card in front of the nob, Lilith unlocked our room, and I practically trampled her rushing in. My brain for some reason thought the thing wouldn’t be able to open the door, don’t know why I thought that, I just did. Of course, that is not the case. 

"Lilith…"

"I know, Eve," we stood there, face to… face like shadowy goop, with the spirit guy thingy, unsure what to do. Or at least I was unsure, I suppose I can't really speak for Lilith, given that her brain was an enigma to me at times. Regardless, we stood there, perfectly still, aside from my shaking knees, and the thing just kept looking at us. A scarlet surge of electricity surrounded Lilith's hand as she charged her magic.

"Umm, is that okay to do in here?"

She didn't respond, instead she stared down the thing as her magic surged from her hand. Whatever she was doing, it seemed to work because the thing turned away and left our room. Like wow, is a fancy little light show really all it takes to shoo away ghosties? The tension died along with her little zappy hand, and she took a big deep sigh of relief.

"What was that thing?"

"I genuinely do not know," guh, what? She just faced down some spiritual entity like it was nothing, all without actually knowing about it? "Pick your chin up, Eve, it's rude to gawk," she walked over to one of the beds and sat down, before finally losing her cool and collapsing, "oh goddess I am so happy that worked!"

"Ha, so you're just as dumbfounded as me!" It was a little win, but still a win. Even the demon queen is scared of ghosts. 

"I may actually have some semblance of an idea as to what that was, but I was not certain," first she doesn't know, then she does? Girl can't make up her mind. She sat back up and curled her legs up against her chest, "my father called them Malicious, monsters born of malice."

"Malice? Wuz that?"

"A force no one really understands…" I'm pretty sure that was their way of saying they didn't actually know. "It swirls and coalesces in the sky then rains down like a maelstrom. It petrifies forests, poisons rivers, and wilts crops," the more she talked about it, the more familiar it sounded, "then foul creatures rise up from the tainted land, killing any life without rhyme or reason."

"Wait, so like the Shades in the Divine Kingdoms?" I was almost certain they had to be the same thing.

"Shades?" 

"Yeah, they're supposed to be monsters that came from the petrified forest of Aacrost, the Abhorus valley, and the dead lake in the Dawn-elf kingdom," all places that fit her descriptions perfectly, "I always thought they were a myth, but like it sounds like demons know about them too, so who knows, right?"

She nodded with her finger pressed to her lip, "yes, it is likely they are one in the same," she laid back down and pulled the pillow over her head, "things have become complicated and our journey has only just begun."

"Then just don’t worry about it for now,” I kicked back on my own bed, sinking into its soft cushiony embrace. 

"If only life were so easy."

***

"Whoa it's huge!" The trolley we had taken before was big, but the train was sooo much bigger. Honestly I couldn't believe it, how could something that big move? And on top of that Lilith said it was going to be faster than the trolley, like how? The demon kingdom was amazing! And also, kinda scary… so many people waited on the landing platform, surrounding us like an overcrowded pen full of cattle. I was beginning to believe that demons reproduce like bnuuy's, how else could they have so many people? I felt so tiny, shrinking under my hood as I cling to Lilith's side. 

"You're shaking, everything okay Eve?" 

I didn't even notice till she pointed it out, but I was rattling like a withered tree in a strong winter gale. "Eh, I'll be okay," I cling tighter to her, squeezing her skinny little arm in my hands.

"That hurts," she complained, strain in her voice.

"Oop, sorry," I let go of her, glad my hood hid my blushing cheeks.

"Does holding my arm make you feel better?" I answered her with a feeble nod, "then you can hold on, just try not to squeeze so hard."

“Ooo,” my heart fluttered for a second, and I wrapped my arms around hers smiling, “thanks,” I whispered, my shaking easing a little.

Trains came and went, and slowly the number of demons around us dwindled, till finally our own train arrived. It felt a bit smaller inside the train than outside it, but it was still more spacious than the trolley. Lilith led me down the tube like contraption through a couple doors, until we reached a special train. The other parts of the train had seats that were just out in the open, but this one had little rooms to give the riders privacy. I was so relieved that Lilith had thought to get us our own little space, cause I did not want to be surrounded by strangers for a big long trip. 

We situated ourselves in the little room as a loud whistle blew, catching me off guard. “It’s just the departer whistle, don’t worry,” don’t worry was easy for her to say, but where I came from loud noises like that were usually the sign a monster was attacking, or some other kinda threat. The demon kingdom was noisy… Honestly, I don’t know how they could all stand the hustle and bustle and clamor of noises every day, especially with those long ears of theirs. Like they had to have better hearing than me, and I had considerably better hearing than most humans given my dawn-elf heritage. Well, presumable dawn-elf heritage, I didn’t know for sure, but that was the most likely explanation to my slightly pointed ears. 

As the train started moving, I sat down across from my companion and fished my hand into my magic satchel to retrieve a book. I hadn't really had an opportunity to read for a while, so I was looking forward to cracking open a good book. I hummed a happy little tune as I read my gay little story, trying to not focus on the fact I was in a speeding metal tube, but that distraction didn't last long before I started to notice the scenery out our window. "Whoa, so… green!" This couldn't be the demon kingdom; it was too vibrant and lush. The emerald hills and flowered fields looked nothing like the desolate rot and decay of the petrified forest, or the barren brazen cliffs of the demon castle. 

"It's beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah!" I pressed my face to the glass as I watched the myriad of colors fly by, "is this really the demon kingdom?"

"Mhm," she nodded with a proud smile, "the most beautiful nation in the world, a land of plenty like no other, New-Eden." 

"Eden? I thought the demon kingdom was called Abadon?"

"The land around the castle is Abadon, but the castle isn't the true demon kingdom, it's simply a diversion to keep invaders away from our real land," so I was right! The castle was just a mimic, well not a mimic really, but still I felt vindicated in my previous theory. 

"But why keep your castle in such a gross place? Like wouldn't the king want to enjoy his beautiful land?" While the diversion thing made sense, it also didn't. Kings were proud greedy little gremlins, all of them. So obviously a king would want the most elaborate palace in the most beautiful of lands.

"King Cain Adamson, the first that is, wanted to keep his people safe. He knew the divine kingdoms would eventually come after him, so he isolated himself as to allow his people to prosper in peace," she explained, "but he created a special door that would allow him to visit various locations in an instant."

"So that door we went through to get to the city?"

"Yep, that's the door," she sighed, "if only I had known the code to get back in…"

"Hey it's not so bad, but I do gotta ask, why didn't we just instantly go to the city your uncle is in?"

"The door to my uncle's city also requires a special code, and the only code I knew was the one to Castelton."

"Oh, I see, I see…" I tapped my fingers on my book as I thought of something, "hey so, does that mean people who know the code will be able to travel back to the castle? Like your uncle for instance?" 

"It is possible, but highly unlikely at this point. With the castle abandoned I am certain that my uncle would rather establish his rule from his own mansion," she clenched her jaw, "either way, it would be in my own best interest to prevent him from becoming king in the first place."

"So you gonna try and usurp him or something?"

"It's not usurping, it is just keeping the heart out of his reach," she smiled at me, "if you had the heart instead we could go and get our wish granted, and I wouldn't have to worry about that bastard stealing the throne."

"Right, we'll get you that heart and then we'll convince the goddess to make us both girls!" She giggled and nodded, and then things went quiet again. 

For the next few hours I read, while she tapped away on her little rectangle thing. Every now and then she would let out a small laugh, then return to her quiet activity. Whatever that thing was, it certainly kept her amused. I began paying attention to her eye movements, going back and forth, up and down, her pretty pink and blue eyes looked as though she may have been reading. Though really I'm not sure how a little thing like that could contain enough reading material to keep her entertained this long. Demon magic is cool, but also so weird.

Her eyes were very pretty though, I actually didn't make it a habit to look at people's eyes, I avoided eye contact as much as possible, but hers were really, really pretty. I wondered if all demons have two different colored eyes, but also really didn't want to check… eye contact is hard. Maybe the only reason I was able to look at her eyes is because her focus was on something else. Well, it was on something else, till she noticed me staring. "Is something wrong, Eve?"

"Eep," I squeaked and turned my head, "nope, nothing, just uhh…. Just wondering what you're doing is all."

"I was writing, if you must know." 

"How? That thing was like really tiny and you don't got a pen," honestly if you could write on something like that, that'd be a real game changer.

"I am typing in a word processor," her words sounded like Kamen, but they might as well have been a different language, "it's, technology. You probably wouldn't understand." Ouch, call me dumb without calling me dumb, am I right?

"Soooo, whatcha writing?"

"A story," her answer was brief and direct, and I knew better than to pry.

"What kinda story?" Okay, I didn't know better… curiosity killed the Kibby, ya know?

"What kind of story are you reading?”

“Eep,” she switched the question right back at me, “it’s a story about things, you know?” I wasn’t about to tell her it was a story about two boys who liked to dress up as girls falling in love with each other…I didn’t want her thinking I was getting any funny ideas about our own friendship.

“Who’s the author?”

“Just some girl,” I hid the book off to the side and tried to think of how to turn the conversation back around, “oh hey, am I the first human you met?”

“No, actually you are not,” I was actually kinda surprised by her answer, “though you are certainly the first friendly human I’ve met,” that surprised me much less. 

“Friendly? I literally tried to cut your heart out,” we laugh now, but I was serious.

“Well you didn’t,” she placed her little rectangle thing down and looked me in the eyes with a warm smile, “and now we are traveling together to help each other's wish come true. So yes, I would say that you are the friendliest human I have ever met.”

“I’m glad then,” I smiled right back at her, “it’s a really good thing I beat those other champions to the castle first.”

“Other Champions?” she cocked an eyebrow, “I suppose that is good, the outcome may have been very different if an adventuring party were to have invaded my castle.”

“Oh pffft, no you don’t gotta worry about that, Champions never travel together!” I was nearly hysterical thinking about it. 

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to attack as a group though?”

“Yeah, but then we’d have to fight over who gets the wish,” I wiped a tear from my eyes, “so like working together just wouldn’t work. There is no comradery among Champions. We're loners, never running with a pack.”

“But you and I plan to share a wish, couldn’t they do the same? Theoretically, of course.”

I shook my head, “our wish works cause all we gotta do is say, “I wish that you’d make us both girls,” I explained, “so unless they have a unifying wish, it just couldn’t work. Can’t just say “I want this AND that,” I spoke as if I was some expert on wish granting, but technically the goddess never granted a wish before. Still, that was the common understanding among Champions. 

“I see, that is actually quite sad,” Lilith spoke with a glum somber voice, “then I suppose I am even more grateful that you and I met. I would have never thought to word a wish in such a specific way.”

“Hey what can I say, Imma genius,” I gave a shrug and laid back on the bench.

“And so modest too,” she teased me.

“Better believe it,” I stuck my tongue out and we both laughed.

Our ride continued for another hour until we finally arrived. Getting up to exit the train, I stuffed my book back into my magic satchel, something catching my eye as I did. “Lillith Adams, oh yeah that was the author's name.” 

….

…

…

“Wait, it can’t be!”