FALLEN ANGEL: MARRIED TO THE DEMON KING

The rest of her trek through the forest was uneventful, although Arella could not seem to shake the feeling that the demon was not the only thing watching her. The shadows seemed darker here, the air heavier, as if the forest itself was holding its breath.

Still, to keep her mind out of the gutters, she continued to talk to the creature. "How about Bart?" I knew a human named Bart once. He was ugly, but his name can be of use, I think."

The creature let out a huff, an angry-sounding huff.

It was the same sound it had made when Arella had given any name ideas.

"What do you want me to call you then?" She was tempted to smack the creature into accepting one of her horrible names.

"You didn't like Fluffy, didn't like Snarlface, didn't like Marcel, didn't like Droolzilla; now you don't like Bart. Coming up with a name isn't easy, you know. Cut me some slack."

The creature let out a sound that Arella could only describe as a yip. "Alright, alright. I'll continue to brainstorm a name."

This back and forth that they had going on was the only thing that was keeping Arella from concentrating on the awful stench that was accosting her nose and the rustling of leaves that she tried to ignore.

By the time they could see some light in the distance, Arella's feet were killing her. It had been a long time since she had had to walk for such a long distance. Angels preferred to travel using their wings after all.

However, it was discouraged to fly around while in the human realm. There were demons that could fly, and those were the more dangerous types.

Alone, there was no way that she could fight if a horde came after her.

It took her a few more minutes before she emerged from the trees. The moon was high up in the sky, casting a white, illuminating glow over a quaint village that was before Arella's eyes. There were little lanterns lit, and from her high vantage position, she could see some people in the village square. Smoke curled lazily from some chimnyes, and the faint sound of laughter and music drifted over to her thanks to the wind.

A village that was big enough to have a village square meant that it was not impoverished. This was a good sign, since they would perhaps have an inn where she would stay for the night.

Her wings felt heavy behind her. She wished she could have them resting underneath a robe to make her a little bit inconspicuous; however, that would just look weird. She placed her travel case to the ground to twitch her wings ever so slightly at the roots, trying to take care of a cramp that had settled at her shoulder blade.

"Ugh, I wish I could just stretch them out." She grumbled. The creature settled itself beside her travel case. This action caused Arella to remember its existence, so she turned and looked at it once more. "How about Captain Slobber?" she tried another name.

The creature looked at her, and Arella could swear that it looked disgusted.

"You're the one drooling all over the place." She shrugged and looked away from what she would be calling judgmental eyes.

The scent of freshly baked bread wafted in the air, attracting the attention of both Arella and her little, not so little, creature. This caused her stomach to growl. She had not realized how hungry she was until now. "I guess it's time to see what humans serve for dinner these days." She said as she crouched down to pick up her travel case.

The hem of her robe was filthy, but she refused to look at or acknowledge it. She started walking towards the village, with the creature padding silently behind her. It's green eyes scanned the horizon and sniffed the air.

As she approached the outskirts of the village, she found a group of children playing near the road. Their path was illuminated by a fire that burned just a few meters behind them. Huddled around that fire were a couple of men, who Arella could not clearly see.

Arella let go of the sword strapped to her waist and reached up to fix the golden halo that hung over her golden locks. There was a small hum as she touched the halo. A clear indicator that her holy powers were still very much intact. As she got closer to the village, the group of children spotted her.

They froze, their eyes fixed on the creature that walked behind Arella.

"Uh, good evening, children." She raised her hand in what she knew was a wave in the human realm.

It was important to remember that there were little to no children in the angel realm. Those that were there were kept close to their homes by their parents. Therefore, the children Arella had seen were few and far in between. Therefore, she had no idea how best to interact with them.

The children seemed frozen for a few seconds, to the extent that she thought that they had turned to stone.

Well, that or they were ignoring her very normal greetings.

The creature let out a small huff behind her, one that Arella had come to know was its irritation huff. This caused the children to turn back to life. One of the children screamed, causing all of them to scream, before they scattered like startled birds and yelled something about a monster.

"How rude." Arella huffed. Then she turned to look back at the creature, which was sitting calmly behind her. It tilted its head in curiosity, as if it also failed to understand why the children had run away.

"Wonderful," she ran her hand down her face. "This is off to a great start."

The men who had been huddled in front of the fire watched silently as Arella walked up to them. She counted three silently in her head. One of the children who had fled was holding on tightly to one of the men. The man was probably her father.

"Good evening, sirs." Arella tried again, having come to a stop in front of the men. "Could you please point me to the nearest inn?"

There was silence as the men studied her. She could feel their eyes looking at her wings, studying them intently. Had this village never been allocated an angel? She knew that they were already few in number, however, their departments always tried their best to ensure that every human settlement got allocated an angel at least once every few decades.

The oldest-looking one out of all of them pointed to the path that led to the inside of the village. "Go in straight; at the end of the path in the village square, you will see a building with a sign that has a bed carved on it."

"Thank you." Arella bowed her neck very slightly in thanks.

She lugged her travel case up ever so slightly before turning her back and walking away from the group of men.

The tinkling laughter that Arella had heard while she was at the edge of the forest had all disappeared. She could hear a bell toll sharply from her right somewhere. She recognized that bell. Any village that had been assigned an angel even once had a church where the assigned angel would stay during their assigned time.

The bell was used to signal the beginning of church, the end of church, the time, and the appearance of demons. It all depended on the number of tolls and the way they were rang.

Six tolls rang in intervals of two.

The signal for a demon sighting.

Doors slammed shut, and the streets quickly emptied as people took refuge in their homes. A child was left wandering the streets, and a woman, who Arella assumed to be the mother, appeared out of nowhere, grabbed him by the collar of his shirt, and all but dragged him to their home.

She could still see the eyes of the humans as they peered out from behind cracked doors and slightly open wooden windows.

Arella glanced at the beast beside her and said, "I'm putting this all on you, you Gremlin." She placed the base of her travel case on the head of the creature. "Your presence is not helping my case, you know."

The creature tilted its head, as if offended by her statement. It let out a low huff and shook the case off of its head.

She continued to walk in the direction of the village square. When she met a human's eye through a slightly open window or a cracked door, she gave them a toothy grin. It was her attempt to look peaceful. However, one look at the creature behind her caused the humans to retreat back into their houses.

She looked back at the beast, looked into its scary looking eyes, and silently admitted that if she were human, she would also hide away to save herself.

"Could you at least pretend to look harmless." She smacked it slightly with the edge of her travel case.

The beast let out a soft growl, flattened its ears, and wagged its tail. Just like how a dog would.

This action caused a very strong gust of wind to knock one of the erected lantern poles to fall down to the ground with a thud.

Arella looked at the creature, then at the pole, then back at the creature.

"Why am I not surprised."

She walked to the pole and crouched down. "Sad, if I could use holy growth I could have put it back up." She looked back at the creature. It had followed her and had stopped right behind her. Its ears were flattened again, and this time, it looked apologetic.

"Fine. Let's say you did not mean it, and you do not know the power of your own tail." Before she could pat her back since she had used sarcasm for the first time, a man stepped out from the shadows of one of the alleyways that Arella had been ignoring.

The man was tall, with broad shoulders and carried a sword which was strapped to his side and glinted in the light of the lanterns. His hair was long, brown and was tied at the nape of his neck. Arella could not clearly see his features, but she could tell he wasn't friendly. His gaze alternated between Arella and the creature, before finally settling onto her.