The Runaway

Chapter 25

We both collectively decided to get food. My stomach was making so much noise for a long time, as was my mouth while I was complaining. Now, I wouldn't mind finding something by myself, but he has to eat too.

He still isn't very happy about me grabbing his feet. I'm not happy about him kicking me off the bed, the side of my leg hurts now. Feels weird walking with an unusual spot of soreness.

We're standing on the side of the order area. I have to tell him what everything on the board on top of the wall says. All the things sound weird. What is a filet? We're going to get food poisoning and die. He seems confused too.

"Want to go somewhere else?"

He nods. We walk out of the building and look around for something else.

"Want to go to a store?" I point at one that's a building over.

"A what?"

"I think it's a market or something. It looks like a bigger version of the buildings where they sell things."

Wow, I'm very good at explaining things too. He shrugs and follows me to the building. The weird, plain glass doors open by themselves. How? Do humans have some magic sorcery that's secret?

There are weird gray thingies at the door. Everything is so big, bright and white. I turn to Sylvian. He is looking around, mainly staring at the humans that keep looking at us.

"You could blend in with the ceiling."

He gives me yet another dirty face as he follows me. There's so many things and weird looking stands and humans. There are so many random numbers, words. Everything smells weird and all the food looks weird. Why is everything in a bag or box? Everything is so plain too. The whole city is plain.

"What's this?"

I turn around and see a bunch of fish laying on ice. It smells horrible. Oh, dear gods. He looks mortified too.

"I told you they eat everything."

He mutters something and walks away, I follow him. There are jars of things and there's so many other things.

"How old are you? I'm 19."

He just nods.

"Are you 19 too?"

"No."

"Did you know that humans age faster, so their birthdays are different? One year for us is ten for them. If we were to adopt a human, they would die of old age in ten years."

"Cool."

"Your responses are very bland."

"I know."

"I know why you are the way you are."

"What?"

"You're a baby that had a wizard make you physically age faster so that's why your communication skills aren't the best and you have a baby face."

He looks at me very annoyed. He is so pretty.

"You're a chattering baboon."

"Thank you."

He rolls his eyes and examines all the things on the shelves. Where is the honey? There should be strawberry sandwiches too. I read that they have everything. We walk up and down all the rows as all the humans keep looking at us.

We only stick out a little bit. Hopefully they aren't scared of us.

"Do you think the humans are scared of us?"

He shrugs. This place is a maze. The music that's magically playing in the air sounds weird. After walking around, I found the honey. I should be a spy; I'd find out everything. All the bottles look weird. Why is it in a bottle shaped like a bear if bees make it?

"Are you a spy?"

I pick one of them after struggling to know which is the best since it all looks so different. I turn around after not getting a response for so long. He's staring at every human that walks by or looks remotely close to our direction before picking one random old guy. The old guy quickly turns around and walks away. Alrighty.

"Are you okay?" He hums. "Why are you staring at people?"

He shakes his head before walking away. I follow him.

"I'm a spy." He nods to himself.

"So, you'd rather tell me that you're a spy over your age? You're not a good spy."

"Reverse psychology."

He grabs a container of fruit and faces me, loss of what to do. This should be enough food for now. I take us to the area with the weird things that'll take our papers. There are lines everywhere. Lots of humans.

"This all reminds me of your kingdom." He raises an eyebrow at me. "Your kingdom is huge and full of people and so it this place."

"This place is ugly."

"Don't tell the humans that, I'm sure they tried their hardest."

All the pictures in the books I've read have beautiful pictures of scenery, but the popular cities have such ugly buildings. Mainly the popular ones that the humans are obsessed with. New York is ugly, California, Charleroi, Swansea, Ludwigshafen and others. Humans are so bad at building.

A lady is staring at us as if we're about to steal these two things. She waves her hand for us to come over.

"Should we go over?"

He shrugs. He's very helpful. We walk over to the lady who is behind the machine. No one is in this line. We must have looked so lost that she pitied us. She's almost our height and isn't super tall or round. She has a big smile on her face.

"Hello," she says.

I wave and hand her the honey and Sylvian gives her the fruit. We're going to die from food poisoning but eating food is a good way to die. None of it smells normal.

"What are you guys doing here?" She asks in our universal language.

I'm shocked. Sylvian is shocked. The whole world is shocked. I'm not overly dramatic. She scans the things, and a number shows up on a little black box. This is crazy.

"You're an elf?"

She nods. Sylvian hands her the purple paper. She gives back a green one with a twenty on it and a blue one with a ten on it and an orange one with a five. So colorful.

"We're getting food," I tell her as Sylvian takes the bag from me. It's thin and makes a lot of noise.

"Do you guys have any plans? I could-"

"Yes," he mumbles before grabbing my wrist and pulling me away.

I wave at the lady. "Byeeeeeeee."

She waves back, awfully confused. "Bye...?"

Once out the store, I turned to him. He still hasn't let go of me.

"Why'd you take me away? She could help us."

"Don't trust anyone."

"But she is one of us."

"She isn't."

"How?"

He looks at me as if I'm incompetent. Ma tells me how smart I am every day.

"She didn't have pointed ears. The way she was acting wasn't normal."

"What?"

We walk back in the hotel, and I wave at the desk lady as she looks up. She seems concerned but waves anyway. He pulls me up all the stairs and back in the room. He puts the dresser that was under the black rectangle on the wall against the door.

A/N: How is everyone???