Untamed Spirits

Three

"So," Shang said when Noreh arrived at their meeting place in the Forbidden Cities. "It's been a while."

She rolled her eyes as they sat down at a table in a nearby cafe. They always met at the same cafe, the same table, the same food (though sometimes they tried new things).

Shang had to use a disguise so the Neverseen wouldn't recognize him. The elixir he'd taken made him have pale skin, sharp, piercing eyes, and short black hair that pointed like an arrow. If he hadn't shown her the transformation she never would have believed it was him. He'd also shown her a picture of his mom, and in disguise, he looked just like her.

"What have you been up to?" Noreh asked as the waiter came by and asked what they would have. Their answer was always the same: the usual. The people knew them so well sometimes they didn't even bother to ask their order.

"The usual." Shang messed with his new hairstyle, clearly not liking how short the elixir had made his hair.

"And that consists of. . . ?" She questioned.

"Training, studying, being bored, you know," he told her, reaching at his neck but then moving his hand back to his leg at the last second, remembering he didn't have long hair.

"If you're so bored," Noreh told him. "Then why don't we explore a little? And don't you dare say you have something else to do, Buster. You're not getting out of this one."

Shang laughed, a slight mix of a smile and a smirk twitching at his lips. "Just because I'm bored doesn't mean I'm not doing something."

"Well, how about you spend that something with me and not be bored? There's lots of human places that I've always wanted to see that I think you'll like. Come on, be fun for once! You can't always be this boring and broody!"

Shang leaned back against his chair right as the waiter brought them their cheeseburgers. For a so-called elf, Shang wasn't very vegetarian. At least with cheeseburgers. He seriously had an addiction to cheeseburgers.

She loved to watch his face relax and breathe with content when he consumed his cheeseburger. He would look at her like she was weird, but she didn't care. It made her day.

Once they'd finished their food and paid, Noreh dragged Shang to a bunch of human places, like the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty, Niagara Falls, and a few places that were abandoned that Noreh kept note of in her head for her backup plan.

But they had to cut it short when Shang said he needed to get back to the Neverseen. Shang leaped away with a blue crystal, suggesting he was staying somewhere in the Forbidden Cities. Noreh used the home crystal Lord Cassius had given her and leaped back to CandleShade.

She subtly returned the crystal she'd "borrowed" from Cassius and retreated to her boring, dull room. A thought occurred to her and she picked up her Imparter, deciding to hail her twin.

"Hey Soph," she said when her sister picked up. "What are you up to?"

"I was sleeping," Sophie mumbled groggily.

Noreh looked out the window and realized how late it was. She must've gotten lost in her thoughts longer than she'd thought.

"Oh, sorry. I'll let you sleep. Night."

Sophie mumbled some sort of slurred response, and the Imparter went dark. Noreh tossed her Imparter onto her bed and sighed, staring up at the ceiling. She was restless and couldn't seem to sleep, no matter how much she tried.

So, she decided to set up traps around her room for Keefe's parents.  

A/N:  Just so y'all know, I commented a playlist for this fanfic on chapter one (not the prologue) at the beginning.