After a while of sewing, I had turned Arine's shirt into a cute short dress with straps. It was harder to sew because all of Arine's clothes were made out of large leaves, but I managed to do it in a very short time. Arine was sitting on the bed next to me and watching the whole time. "Wow, you're good at that." I smiled. "Thank you." I then set the dress down on my lap. "Um, could you, turn around? I want to see if it fits."
He blushed and then smiled. "Sure!" He covered his eyes and turned around, but it was still unnerving to have him here. "Don't peek!" He laughed. "I'll try not to." But about halfway through changing, I saw him peeking through his fingers at me. I quickly covered myself. "Hey! I said no peeking, you pervert!" He quickly turned around again. "Sorry! I can't help it!" I glared at him but he didn't notice. I decided to change on the floor so at least he couldn't see much if he peeked again.
After I was done, I stood up and crossed my arms. "Okay. You can look now." He uncovered his eyes and turned to look at me. "Wow, you're so pretty." I was mad at him, but I couldn't help but blush. 'Can he see my soul or something? That's ridiculous. Only demons and angels can see souls because they don't have any. But he sure is being a convincing demon right now.'
I sighed. "Thanks, but there's no time for talking." He stood up. "Right. Are you feeling well enough to walk?" I blinked. "Yes, but, aren't we flying there?" He smiled again. "Some of the way, yes, but fairies can't fly all the time, it wears us out too much. You wouldn't run everywhere would you?" I tilted my head. "No, I guess not. So, how are we going to find The Book of Souls? And... What is The Book of Souls?"
He walked to the door. "I'm guessing it's a spell book, that must be why the sorcerer wants it so badly. And if we start our search asking around shady areas, we're sure to hear where it is." I started to feel nervous. 'Shady areas? That doesn't sound like somewhere I should be. I'm so small and if a demon or angel were to see me...' I looked down as I followed him. "Uh, I don't know about that..." He smiled immediately knowing what I was thinking. "Aw, don't worry cutie, I'll protect you." He patted my head and I moved his hand away. "I don't need protection. I'm fine on my own."
I turned to walk out the door but I had forgotten that we were in a treehouse with no stairs leading outside and slipped. "Ah-!" As I was about to fall, Arine grabbed my waist and pulled me back up. "Oh really?" I felt embarrassed. "That was just bad timing!" He laughed and pulled me closer to him as he closed the door and flew over the trees.
After a few hours of flying, the sun was starting to rise. As the day became clearer, I noticed that Arine was looking a little stressed. I became worried and felt his forehead. He looked at me with surprise. "What are you doing?" I took my hand away. "You're burning up! You need to take a break!" He held his expression of surprise, then sighed. "I guess I could go for a drink or two... I'll stop at the next tavern." I shook my head. "No, we're stopping now. We can walk to the next tavern." Surprise came back to his face. "Are you, worried about me?" I crossed my arms. "So what if I was? Land this instant." He smiled and started to fly down.
After we landed, Arine stumbled a little and I caught him. "Are you okay?!" He stood up properly and rubbed his head. "Just a little dizzy. I'm fine." I sighed in relief and we started to walk down the road. A moment of silence had passed until Arine decided to speak. "So, now are you going to tell me why you were crying in that forest?"
I paused for a moment. 'I guess there's no harm in telling him. He is my friend now and we're on a quest together. Plus, it would be nice to have someone to talk to about it.' I sighed. "Okay." I proceeded to tell him how a powerful king took me away from my horrible life and how I fell for him, only to be taken away again, almost raped and sold, and how my friend died trying to save me. After I was done Arine looked down. "Wow, you have been through a lot. I'm sorry." I smiled a little. "Don't be. it's nothing but past now, I'm here with you instead of dead, and I'm grateful for that." I said that even though I was still breaking inside at the thought of Liem.
He smiled as well. "So, who is this mysterious king you fell in love with? He's got some nerve letting you go through all of that. I'd sure like to give him a piece of my mind." My smile brightened. "Thanks but, I already told you, it's not important." He crossed his arms. "Come on, you've told me this much! What's the harm in telling me who he is?" I sighed and whispered under my breath. "Alright, fine. He's... The demon king... Sython."
Arine immediately stopped walking and I stopped in response to his odd reaction. "What's wrong?" His face was frozen in surprise. "The demon king?" He then covered his face with his hand. "I am so sorry." I raised an eyebrow. "What is it?"
He moved his hand away and looked back at me. "I wish you didn't have to find out this way, but, the demon king is the biggest lowlife there is." I stepped back in surprise as he continued. "He takes ordinary people like you, makes them believe they're special, and gets them to fall in love with him only so he can sleep with them and throw them away afterward."
I gasped and started to shake. "T-That's not funny." He kept his face serious. "I'm not joking." He walked back up to me but I turned away from him. "No! There's no way! I-I refuse to believe it!" He put his hand on my shoulder. "If I'm lying, then how else do you explain ending up in that black market?" I've felt pain before, but his words cut like a knife, and I couldn't hold back my tears. "No..." Arine hugged me from behind and sighed. "Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?" I waited a moment letting my tears fall down my face before I answered. "...Could you, never hurt me?" He hugged me tighter. "I would never even think of it."
It was reassuring to have him care about me, and it helped ease my pain immensely. 'How could Sython be so horrible? I really loved him! He was lying to me all along and I can't believe I fell for it... At least now I know that my soul isn't valuable anymore. That makes it a lot easier now that I don't have to avoid demons and angels. Still, those demons in the black market seemed to think my soul was priceless. But it's not what I think. They were acting so I wouldn't find out.' I thought as I wiped the tears from my face. "We should keep going."