Work Text:
“Heyyy buddyy~ whatcha doin’?”
Rath leans over Rune’s head with a teasing smile, his demon tail swaying behind him. Rune looks up at him, sighing.
“I’m working on our map route for the fairy forest.”
He looks back down at the map, continuing to jot down the directions on the map, his long elvish ears twitching in concentration as he writes.
Meanwhile, in the kitchen, Thatz is packing their lunches, nibbling on every item he puts in the boxes, putting most of the food in his lunch box. After almost two hours, Rune and Thatz get outside. Rune soon begins to get irritated as Rath seems to take forever getting outside, looking for his sword, the oaf. Finally, after ten minutes, Rath comes outside, his hair and clothing dusty, making Thatz sneeze as the wind blows it.
“So? Where was it?”
Rune huffs, crossing his arms, his lean making his hair go over his shoulder as he glares at Rath.
“Um..under my bed…”
Rath looks away, embarrassed at himself as Rune facepalms at his words.
“hah..” Rune sighs, “.. let's just get going.”
With that, they begin to walk, then take a carriage, and they stop at inns, camp out in the dark night.
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After about three days, they get to the fairy forest, the light holy aura washing over their tired bodies as they begin to walk inside the treacherous yet beautiful glowing forest, cutting away the long, lanky vines with their swords. After an hour, they managed to get to the middle of the forest, coming face to face with the large, strangely intimidating glowing world tree. The fairies' elder, a frail, older, small man with ears similar to Rune, walks over to them, a group of small fairy children following behind him.
“Ah, Rune..welcome back."
The elder coughs, “For what reason have you come, lad?”
Rune clears his throat, signalling Rath to hand over a set of instructions for their mission.
“Go to the fairy forest and get the world tree nectar for tonight's celebration”
”Ahh, so you’re making mead, are you?”
Rune nods now, smiling gently at the older fairy. “Yes, elder, that is correct."
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Thatz himself has wandered off looking for berries and treasure, eating both his lunch and his friends’. As he wanders around, he spots a shiny green crystal. Curious, he reaches down to grab it, eager to snag the pretty treasure and add it to his collection. Suddenly, he feels a sharp shock course through his hand into his arm, making him stumble back, clutching the burned hand.
“Ow..dammit!” He looks down at his arm, noticing the pattern of the burn and realises it was demonic energy.
“RUNE! RATH!” Thatz yells out loudly, rushing back to them, holding onto his throbbing arm, being careful not to irritate his burns.
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“Oh my god, Thatz!”
Rune hears Thatz yelling and spots him rushing out from the trees, clutching his arm. Rune drags Rath along with him to speak to Thatz about what happened as he healed and bandaged him.
“Take us to what did this.” Rath growls slightly as Thatz nods, getting up after Rune finishes bandaging his arm up.
“Over here.”, He leads the two to where the crystal had been, though in its place was now a thick smog.
“What the-”
Suddenly, the three hear a loud, dark cackling voice, flinching as the very sound seems to pierce through them. They soon realise why as the fog fades off, revealing the famed wicked demon lord, Nadal.
Rath shudders at the sight moving behind Rune’s much taller figure, alerting the elf to the threat, making him pull out his sword, making sure to hide the smaller demon from view, not knowing what the demon lord may try to do with him. Thatz also backs up being extra guarded due to his still weakened arm.
“HOW HAVE YOU COME HERE?!”
Rune yells, fury raging through him, his elvish ears pinning back slightly as he goes further on guard in front of Rath, as Thatz stands by making sure that the demon lord doesn't try anything to his companions, his food long forgotten at his feet as he stands ready to attack any moment. Suddenly, Nadal laughs, pulling out a small vial of liquid and opening it.
“GET DOWN!”
Rath shouts, quickly bolting in front of his friends as the demon lord throws the liquid at them, managing to stop the two from being hit, knowing how deadly it'd be for them since they're not demons, especially Rune, since elves are very vulnerable to demonic items and such. As Rath begins to get up again, drawing his sword, he feels a sudden pulse in his back. Looking back, he sees his back bulging in two spots, finally noticing a wet spot on his shirt, realising he got hit with the demonic water as large black feathered wings burst through his skin, blood and feathers falling down his back and onto the ground.
Rath screams in pain as the air seems to hit his bleeding wounds in the most excruciating way possible. He falls to his knees, clutching his back near where the large wings had burst from, his hands trembling slightly as curses soon swirl in his head along with the pain. Rune and Thatz watch Rath, their bodies tense as they watch their friend bleed horribly, giant trembling wings spread out behind him. Nadal soon begins to loudly laugh again, making Thatz and Rune look his way. The fog comes back, fading into it as Rath’s laughing soon replaces his from behind Rune and Thatz.
“Rath?...”
Rune and Thatz face their friend, not sure whether to approach or not. Rune’s ears perked as he noticed Rath pointing his sword at them and his sealing crystal necklace on the ground by his feet, making the plants around it begin to die the sound of panicking fairies blaring around them.
Both Rune and Thatz soon begin to realise that whoever this was was not Rath anymore.
Rath was gone.
And only a demon remained.
To Be Continued... (maybe)