The Blade was cool against his neck, A'rgoth was raising his hands slowly, ever so mindful of the daggers hidden in his arm guards, if bad got too worse he would have to be quick, wounding his attacker as bad as possible. He was not going to be taken prisoner again he vowed to himself.

“Turn around slowly demon, but stay on your knees”, a voice behind him told him.

The voice was high even for an elf, almost like a child.

When A'rgoth turned around he was faced by just that, a child. Maybe 10 years old if he had to guess by human standards, probably female but he wasn't sure. The child had short curly hair and dark eyes, that were looking at him like someone might look at a hair in one’s dinner, not very nice.

That child was holding a short sword against his neck, that was a bit of a problem.

“Why is your face this ugly?”, asked the child, with honesty that was so typical for children.

“My face is not ugly”, A'rgoth croaked, his voice raspy from vomiting into a bush not even a minute ago.

“Yes, it is!”

“No, it is not!”

“Sure, it is, you got the scars, some ugly tattoo and you are a demon, that means you are ugly”

A'rgoth was stunned, he liked his tattoo! His scars were not pretty he had to admit that, but he was not going to put up with being body shamed by a child, no matter how confident he felt at times, he still felt hurt when it came to his scars.

“Why were you vomiting into the bushes?”, the child asked.

“I got sick from eating to many elven children.”, A'rgoth replied, the child’s eyes widening the tiniest bit, “Gotcha”, A'rgoth thought.

“Now are you gonna kill me or are we just gonna chat for a bit?”, he asked the child.

“I will bring you to my village, they will take care of you there. “

“How nice of you, I would suggest you tie me up then, can't have me attack you now can you?”, A'rgoth suggested, while a plan was forming in his head, he would attack the child, man that sounds wrong, attacking children. Never mind he was a demon; he should be able to attack a child. Where was I, he thought, he would attack the child and take the sword from them when they tried to tie him up. And then he would tie them up himself and maybe use them as a hostage to get to the moonstone girl.

“Yes, tying you up is a good idea, now shut up, you are a demon if you continue telling you are just going to try to deceive me”

“Exactly”, A'rgoth thought, “and it is working great”.

“Just wait until I bring you to my village, it is the biggest village in the whole forest, they have a whole building just for interrogating demons, you will see.”

A’rgoth’s plan started to change in his mind, he still had a headache and trouble finding the capital, it would be easy if the child just brought him there.

“Don't move “, said the child, as they started to rummage in their bag, looking for a rope. A'rgoth obeyed, even if it would have been easy to take command of the situation in that moment.

He was tied up, sloppy but still, it really wasn't easy to tie up anyone, let alone a demon.

“What is your name demon?”

“A'rgoth Ixodius Arcadi, but you can call me Lord of Demons, your highness, Mighty one or just A'rgoth.”

The child started to giggle.

“A name for a name child, what is yours?”

“Eleonorai, but everyone just calls me Ele.”

“Sounds fine I guess, a good name for an elven girl.”

“I'm not a girl!”

“Sorry, an elven boy then.”

“I am also not a boy”, Ele said their confidence reduced ever so slightly.

“That's fine by me, you know demons don't really care about gender anyway.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, really. Demons can change theirs on a whim anyway, most keep to one because they feel like it but some of us change it on a regular basis or just for the fun of it.”

“Elves don't do that...”

“No, they don't.”

“We should get going, it is quite a long way to the village”

They traveled for a couple hours, until the sun started to come up behind the trees.

“We should rest for the day; I can't see much in the light and it is too far to make it before sundown anyway. There is a cave half an hour from here, we should find shelter there.”

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.

It was a fool’s luck, or more precisely A’rgoth’s luck, that they didn't run into a squad of moon-shadow elves. They had traveled the whole night, A'rgoth was not bothered by sun or the dark of night, demons are versatile or to define it more precisely euryoecious towards daytime. Demons are built to withstand most natural habitats and surroundings, they had to be, they preyed on the single most versatile Species in the whole universe: humans. Humans could make a home of even the most hostile of environments. They could survive about anything the world threw at them, that is why they have to resort to killing each other, at least that is A’rgoth’s humble opinion.

Demons were and will be always close to humans, to infiltrate their habitats like the parasites they are.

Elves on the other hand were able to flourish only in very select parts of the mortal realm, they are very protective of the places they do inhabit, because the consequences would be severe if they lost it.

A'rgoth had not been send into the world to feed on the emotions and life energy of the humans, instead he had been conscripted into the forces of hell to fight the elves and the fey.

He had always been proud of his standing in the hierarchy of hell, but it was missions like this, that made him wish he was send into the human cities to seduce and corrupt the humans a little.

What he had told Ele earlier was true, Demons don't give a flying fuck about gender, one could even say they were materialized into hell without one to begin with.

To fit in better with their prey, Demons would develop into nearly human like creatures, that includes gender and the more unsavory aspects of sexuality and preferred identity.

Humans are ridiculously repressed in that aspect, using gender as a way to oppress half their population under the rule of the other half, same with sexuality.

A'rgoth had neither the patience nor the intention to understand humans in their strange restrictions and laws, not his problem he thought, it wouldn't be the first-time humans did something that made no sense at all, humans will take any excuse for violence and oppression.

A'rgoth had identified himself as male, because it felt most natural to him. It didn't really matter in demon society, you received no privileges linked to gender or sexuality, everyone was equal before Lucifer, the only thing that matters are power and strength.

Elves were a little bit better but still not as free spirited as demons, most relationships or identities outside of the reproductive norm were tolerated but not to be spoken of.

They arrived at the cave, it was nice, dry and relatively spacious. Ele led him to the back of the cave, gesturing for him to sit down before seating themselves.

“Why do you have the tattoo anyway, mother says they are tacky and speak of bad taste, especially when they are in your face like that.”

“Of all the questions you ask me, you ask about the tattoo?”

A'rgoth had gotten the tattoo to remind himself of a dear friend, he had passed away shortly after the torture of the moon-shadow elves, he was one of the leading demons together with A'rgoth, they had both been captured but only one had survived. The floral pattern A' goth had tattooed on his left cheek had been the same pattern that wound around Dipteras sword hilt, A'rgoth had gifted him the sword shortly after their first battle together, it was elven made, of the highest quality.

He had buried the sword together with Diptera, after he had died in his arms, blinded and barely conscious, he had been in terrible pain, every breath a torment.

If he hadn't died that day, A'rgoth probably would have ended it himself.

They had had a highly unusual bond for demons, they had been close and actually cared for each other, highly irregular.

“I got it because it looks pretty”, he told them.

“But it doesn't look pretty! You look kind of stupid to be honest.”

“Shut it you imp, I look awesome”

“No, you don't, it looks like a girls tattoo. Boys are not supposed to have girl tattoos, Boys are not supposed to care about their looks in general, at least that is what mother says.”

“That's bullshit, you telling me about gender of all things, let me guess they tell you all kinds of things you are not supposed to do. O how I hate people like that.”

“People like me?”

“Not like you, your mother I guess, she has no business telling you what to do. They think their rules have the right to dictate other people’s lives, I really don't get why they don't let people be happy and their true self without fear.”

“But you are a demon, doesn't that mean you want people to be miserable?”

“Well technically yes, hell runs on negative energies like anger, hate and repressed feelings and desires. Also, on the pain caused by abuse and cruelty. But there will always be enough of that in the world, no need to make it worse. Seriously we have more Energy than we could ever use, if the humans ever managed to harvest that kind of energy, they would either solve all their problems or destroy everything in their way and then themselves. Seducing and corrupting mortals is more tradition and getting new recruits then gathering Energy anymore. Humans and elves always manage to be miserable. It has nothing to do with you personally but I just can't stand people being punished for who they are, especially because being who you are doesn't hurt anyone. Not fitting into the social mold is a cruel state of being.”

“That sounds kind of nice for a demon.”

“I am not nice, I am a demon of hell, I just can't stand certain people, I guess that is because I got to spent a lot of time with people like that in hell, damned there for eternity for the hurt they have caused. They get annoying really quick, spitting lies and being ridiculously baffled how they ended up in hell, especially the humans that dedicated their life to gods’ teachings and never missed an opportunity to harass people that don't fit into their narrative of a god-fearing world.”

“My mother will go to hell?”, Ele looked like she was about to cry.

“Aww shit, that is not what I meant, look I am sure your mother is a really nice lady in general and won't go to hell. Now stop crying it is irritating. What were you doing alone in the woods anyway, I can hardly imagine they send you out all by yourself?”

He sat up straight, the cave floor not exactly being the pinnacle of comfort. His backside hurt and the rope that tied him up like a neat little package was getting annoying.

“I ran away from home, my mother and me had a fight, she said I wasn't fit to fight against the demons to avenge my father. He was killed by demons a couple moons ago. That wasn't you, was it?”, she asked, fear widening her gaze as she brought some distance between the two of them.

“Probably not, I only got here a few days ago.”

“But it was demons that killed him.”

“Well, that is hardly unusual, demons kill elves all the time.”

“I guess you are right, I just need to prove to my mother that I can go out and fight with the others, not sit around useless at home doing chores. I can fight, I captured you, that means I can take on demons.”

“You catching me was pure luck child, don't get to exited. If I hadn't been tired from fighting and running around this forest you wouldn't have stood a chance.

“You are just embarrassed, you were defeated by a child”, grinned Ele.

“Not true!”

“Yes true”

“Wait till I get my hands on you Well, little dipshit, then we will see who gets embarrassed.”

“I defeated you once, I will do it again.”

“Sure, comfort yourself with that thought. I will go to sleep, you should too. I promise not to try anything while we both sleeps.”

“You are trying to deceive me, if you say you won't try anything while we both sleeps, you could try something as soon as you wake up.”

“Smart little elf, I guess I could, but I won't. I am tired I need a sleep.”

“I won't fall asleep; I will guard you!”

“Fine, do as you like.”

Not even half an hour later Ele would fall asleep, only to be woken by someone screaming.