Dammit, just his goddamn luck to have not a single person in this place speak English. The poor lady looked weak, she didn’t even get up off the ground as she pointed the spear at his throat. She must have gotten the weapon from one of the little green bastards because the thing looked ready to snap apart, already covered in blood. He took a step forward and she flinched, grabbing the side of her thigh. She must have really hurt her leg since even through her gown he could see the blood running down her leg…

That was a lot of blood.

“Jesus, are you ok?” He bent down, ignoring the spear and getting down on one knee to check the wound. “Recedite, monstrum!” She jabbed the weapon forward and he dodged it, grabbing it by the side and pulling it out of her hand. She yelped in pain, which made him flinch. “Sorry! Wait, don’t move or you’ll get hurt…” The lady had tried getting farther into the bush but met a quick end when she realized it was hard to move through actual, solid branches.

“Monstrum! Monstrum!” …That sounded a bit too much like ‘monster’ for his liking. “I’m not… that, whatever ‘that’ is. Look, I just want to help…” Dammit. His voice wasn’t coming out as pathetic as he wanted it to. It sounded way too cold in this new voice of his. …He had to think of something, though. Sighing in self-pity, he realized what he had to do.

“Look, spear. You want this back, right? Spear?” He shook the weapon in front of her, and for a moment she became confused. Gently, he handed it back to her, and in her shock, she didn’t even pull back when he grabbed her hands and wrapped them around it. “Spear… You have the spear back, yeah? Is everything alrigh-” She didn’t even give him time to finish his sentence before attacking him with the spear.

Unfortunately, that had been his plan. He braced as the spear tore through him. “Gah… fuck. Goddamnit…” Luckily, she hadn’t hit anything too bad, just gouging through his arm. It felt terrible, sure, but he remembered how fast he’d healed something much worse. He’d play it up for the girl, though. “Ah… no… please…” The words came out cold, but he made sure his expression was as distraught as possible. The lady seemed mortified at what she’d done, letting go of the spear with terror in her eyes. Perfect.

He fell forward, cursing silently when the shift in weight caused the spear to move inside him. The girl caught him instinctively, he knew damn well just how stupid someone could be when someone else was hurting in front of them. “Help… ayuda me… Merci?” The girl looked at him with terror, before opening her mouth. “Adiuva me? Vos postulo auxilium?” Uh. Shit. One of those actually got to her, huh?

Well, at least she wasn’t scared anymore. He picked himself up, making a show to look hurt as he slowly tried pulling the spear out. He didn’t need to act much, actually. Pulling a spear out slowly was a hundred times worse than pulling it out in one go. He feigned not being able to do it, looking at the girl with pleading eyes. “A… Adiuve me?” He hoped those were the right words. Luckily enough, she nodded reaching forward with trembling hands as she grabbed onto the shaft, pulling it as much as her weak arms could.

He helped, inching his fingers closer to the wound so he could pinch the spear and pull it out. He hissed as it finally ripped out, the whole process way more complicated than it needed to be. But at least he earned the girl’s… she was pointing the damn spear at him again. “Faciam... iterum faciam. sic discedite!” This stupid… He inched slowly closer, ignoring her war shout as she inched the spear closer to him. She had done it once, so the next time she’d be less hesitant.

He pointed at the wound on her leg, pointing back at the one she’d left in his arm. “Adiuve me? Adiuva… you?” He waited patiently as the lady’s eyes widened in realization, before quickly getting tears in her eyes. That… was a good sign, probably? “Habui homines ad adiuvandum me... Abierunt nunc.” Yeah, he had no idea what she just said, but considering the waterworks, she must have gone through a lot.

He put a hand on her shoulder, trying to gently pul her out of the bushes as he subtly tried taking away the spear. She didn’t bother resisting, fortunately for him. “Amici mei… Frater meus...” Yeah, still nothing. He put her arm around his shoulder, helping her by supporting the weight on her bad foot. He took her to a nearby tree and set her down, getting to work on her leg. He didn’t have much in the way of bandages, so he tore the cloak he’d stolen from one of the green things.

He almost decided to fix his own wound first before the lady’s, but then he remembered how quickly he healed… the girl took priority. The wound felt different though… warmer. It felt almost pleasurable, weirdly enough, as if something was numbing the pain as much as the wound had been giving it. He didn’t really notice anything until the girl started talking again, though. “separati sumus. Scio adhuc ibi esse… I need to find them.”

He swiveled his head back towards her, catching her by surprise. She raised her spear, which he really had to take from her at some point. “Evil damnation, I knew I couldn’t trust you.” It was nice to hear her actually say something he could understand… even if the words were absolutely terrible. “Who in the hell uses damnation. And you could have told me if you knew english… Wait a second.” At first, he’d thought he’d been speaking English, but his tongue felt weird as he spoke… as if the words weren’t coming correctly out of his mouth.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

What the hell was happening? The lady seemed just about as shocked as he was. “You speak laeten?” He raised an eyebrow, wondering how he should answer. Eventually, he settled on just telling the truth. “No… I don’t. I was just helping you when all of a sudden your words started making sense…” It was soon after the wound in his arm had started feeling warm. It was great to finally be able to talk to someone, though. He bent down and pulled up her gown, revealing the calf. There was a hole through the middle.

“Your leg. How did it get hurt?” He looked up at her with worry, unsure if she could make it with such a terrible injury. She didn’t look too worried about it, though. It seemed she was more scared of him than the injury, in fact. “No… demons can’t speak Laeten. Not unless they… Get away from me! She slammed her foot into his face, knocking him back a bit. “Ow… what the hell was that for? You need to stay still so I can-” “Back away! Man-eating beast.” She kicked him again, and for a moment he almost wished she’d just use the spear again.

This was getting shameful. He grabbed the foot before it touched him again, placing it back on the ground. Where they belonged. “I’m not a man-eater… What makes you think that?” Damn it, he wished his voice had just a bit more emotion in it. The way he said it made him sound like a goddamn serial killer. She seemed even more scared now because of it. “You… Demons can only speak the languages of those they’ve eaten! My mother told me about it! Now, stay back!”

She tried to kick him again, only to realize he’d kept a firm hand on her feet. She tried to get away but he was too strong, eventually turning to threats with the spear again. He was too deep in thought to care at the moment, though. …Demons who ate others learned their language, huh… What if it didn’t happen to need the whole human? “...Your leg. How did you say it got hurt again?” She looked at him weirdly, cursing him out and trying to escape for a few more minutes before sighing in defeat. …That was his thing.

“…The goblins. They threw one at me. They usually aren’t that smart. They… they used some kind of strategy to split us apart.” He nodded, trying his best to look understanding. Goblins… Like the ones in dragon quest? God, they looked absolutely rancid in real life, though. She had given him more questions to ask, but for now, she had answered the one he’d needed. “This spear… right? This was the one they threw at you?” She nodded, and for the first time in a while, things were starting to fall into place.

“I guess I really can learn by eating human… That’s a bit unnerving.” She raised the spear in fear, taking the response as a threat, it was getting a bit tiring. “Look, I think I may have gotten some of your blood inside me when you stabbed me with the spear. …I think I learned your language because of that. Crazy, right?” He smiled, feeling a bit better now that he got to speak to someone not trying to torture or kill him.

Even if the person he was talking to had a look of disgust on her face. “Foul… Absolutely foul. You demonic beings are bred to do such foul things…” He laughed, running a hand through his hair. What kind of crazy lady would say that to something that was supposed to eat humans. “I can understand you, you know. And I saved your life.” She looked away from him, her spiteful eyes reminding him of the million times in his life he’d been in the same situation.

She felt guilty. “...the wound on your arm. I apologize. You may be a demon, but you saved my life… It would be a shame to my family name if I were not to express how grateful I am…” She bowed, her eyes straining as her bad leg shifted. “Thank you for saving me… I owe you my life.” He looked at her with wide, surprised eyes. So there were some good people out there in the world after all!

“You’re welcome? I… ah… I’m glad to have found someone as well… Wait, you were talking about being split up? Your friends, are they safe!?” Damnit! Here he was acting all flustered when other people could be getting killed! “Where do you think they went!?” Dammit, if things went wrong then he’d have to live with that on his hands… why was she laughing? She was covering her mouth, trying to stop herself from laughing. He couldn’t understand what was so funny.

“Pfft, I’ve never heard of a demon who cared for human life… I’ve only ever heard tales filled with horrors.” He grimaced. The whole situation must have finally caused her to crack. “Your… Your friends. I’ll go find them. You stay here and rest…” She gave another sweet laugh, immediately turning into a glare when he reached to grab her shoulder. “I don’t need help. At least… not anymore. Neither do they. I was the only one led away from the group, the others could more than handle such petty goblins… I was their healer.”

A medic? What good did that do her if she couldn’t even care for her own leg? It made more sense how easily she could play off the wound, though. “So your leg isn’t in any danger? Is that why you-” “Of course, it’s in danger! If I don’t use healing magic it could become too late to heal.” They both became silent for a moment, and despite his best judgment, Elliot spoke his mind. “...So, why don’t you do it, then?”

She turned to him with dumbfounded eyes, before sighing in disappointment as she rubbed the temples on her head. Again, that was his thing.

“You really have never met a human, huh? How can such a powerful demon be this naive?”

He opened his mouth to reject that, but then he realized humans on this earth may have actually been drastically different from his. “...I’m willing to learn? Oh! And…” He can’t believe it had taken him this long to ask. “What’s your name, by the way? Mine is Elliot.”