Author: Veda, Posted: Thu Mar 28, 2019 1:23 PM, Post Subject: Ex-Queen [P]

The desert was boring. Veda had been traveling by herself all the way through the desert and had almost died of boredom. She had heard about thieves, monsters, and dangers of the desert but had the misfortune of not running into any of them. That, plus the surroundings being nothing but sand, made the demon regret ever coming in the first place. She kept walking until she came across a rainforest. Her golden eyes widened with delight at the sight of something new. This rainforest appeared to be alive! Not at all like the dreary rainy Laeto rainforest. The sun shone over the trees, making the leaves a shade of bright green. Animals cawed and growled in the far distance. It was as though the dull desert was merely a distant memory compared to this life-filled rainforest. The hot humidity of the forest didn’t seem to bother the demon. A smile appeared on the demon’s lips as she dashed from plant to plant and tree to tree to take in as much as possible.

The smell of something earthy drew her attention. Veda followed the scent to a cocoa tree. Her claws on her hands and feet grew as she began to climb the tree. Once she made it to the top, she plucked several of the large red-brown cocoapods.. Then she dropped them onto a soft spot on the ground. Veda plucked all the pods off of the tree and dropped them onto the ground. After crawling back down, she gathered all of them and picked up one. Instead of peeling the pod for the actual beans, Veda chomped down on the pod. An extremely bitter taste filled her mouth and sent shivers down her spine. But she enjoyed it. The demon gathered as many pods as she could carry and began walking to find some place to take a rest. She wondered around until she spotted a gate in the distance. The gate was guarded but the guards seemed to be talking amongst themselves. Not wanting to bother them, the demon attempted to walk through the gate without stopping. Suddenly a hand reached out and grabbed Veda by her arm.

“Hey! Demon!” The guard shouted, “What do you think you’re doing?”

“Walking.” Veda replied bluntly.

“Why are you here?” Another guard asked. “I want to find an inn or something.”

The two guards looked at each other with concern in their eyes. They freed Veda from their grasp and allowed her to enter the city. They didn’t have a good reason to keep her there. Veda was a demon but she certainly wasn’t the first to enter the city. And she probably wouldn’t be the last. As she walked she continued to snack on the cocoa pods she had found earlier. Something was odd, there weren’t any Rosenites around. The demon shrugged it off and continue wandering around the city. She eventually ended up coming across a massive crowd of people. Veda was towards the back and couldn’t see anything. Some lady far away was talking loudly about something. The stranger could be heard by anybody for miles. Veda started chewing at another pod.

“That’s why I’ve chosen to no longer be the queen of the Red Court.” The lady said.

The demon’s first thoughts were, good for her. Whoever this lady was, she wouldn’t have to be responsible for the stupidity of people. The ex-queen must be relieved beyond belief. The crowd listening erupted into chaos. Loud chaos. Their behaviour caused Veda to drop the rest of her cocoa pods. The pods rolled into the crowd. Veda could hear crunching sounds and sounds of people tripping over them. Her ears folded down with displeasure and to try to block out the shouting of the crowd. The ex-queen shouted once more, causing the demon to place her hands over her ears. Gods! Did everybody have to be so loud?

Seeing as her cocoa pods were gone and that the ex-queen had gone onto a boring speech, the demon decided to bolt. Veda headed to an empty locked inn. Now who would lock a lovely inn like this? She sighed and plopped down next to the inn to wait. Eventually she fell asleep due to waiting for so long. When the demon awoke, she was no longer outside of the inn but on a comfy bed in a small room. The bed’s covers were blue and exceptionally soft. If she wasn’t trying to be on good behaviour, the demon would have stolen it. Pushing herself off the bed, she wondered downstairs to find a flood of people at the inn’s bar, drinking like sailors. Did Rosenites always behave like this? An elven man was sitting at the bar with his head in his arms, sobbing dramatically. Veda went over to him and awkwardly patted him on the shoulder.

“Uhh…there there.” The demon said with confusion.

There were mostly women, Rosenites, in the inn. Most of them were drinking their drinks quietly but one woman was talking very loudly.

“How could she?!” The stranger shouted, “We had a friggen goddess as our leader! We are weak now and she knows it. Claiming she’ll protect us still! Hah! If she was soo fine with leaving us behind by abandoning her position then how can we trust her to protect us?!”

Another woman was trying to quiet her but failed.

“No! I’ve had enough of being quiet.” The drunken lady shouted, “Angela was a Rosenite before she was a goddess! She has a duty to us. Its only cause of immortality that she even gave up her position. What an excusse! Now we’ve got a leader nobody will respect. Some boy who’s dad never even stayed around enough to know whats goin on!”

Veda looked at the woman, trying to hide her laughter. The drunken lady stared at the demon.

“You sound like a child having a tantrum.” Veda said with a chuckle.

The drunken lady moved fast. Something sped past Veda’s head and hit the wall behind her. When the demon turned around, she saw a dagger. Trying her best to hide her surprise, she turned around to look at the lady.

“Ok, that was rude.” The demon declared, “Look, your beloved queen stopped being a queen. You should be proud! She gets to do her own stuff without worrying about what it might cause. Besides the….uh… boy guy you’re speaking about doesn’t seem that bad.”

“Oh go f*ck yourself.” The drunken lady said, “You aren’t even a Rosenite. This isn’t important to you but it is to the rest of us.”

“I mean….I would f*ck myself if I knew how.” Veda responded.

Suddenly a glass was being thrown at the demon. She managed to dodge just in time but the bartender behind her wasn’t as lucky. The bartender was hit on the head with the glass which shattered upon impact. Small pieces of glass stabbed parts of her back and arm. The bartender was knocked out….this wasn’t good, especially when the inn was filled with many angry or upset women who were wanting more drinks.

“Welp, goodnight everybody.” Veda said as she burst out of the inn.

The demon did not bother looking behind since she could already hear a fight break out inside the Inn. This is what happened when a person added a bar area in an inn. The demon wandered around and discovered that she was in the red district. Her stomach began to growl. It was clear she was hungry.