We’ve Stolen the Village From the Shotians

Two days had passed before Sho dared to actually leave the inn. By then he was able to relax and walk around. All the self proclaimed Shotians had left.

"Finally" Sho sighed as he picked up the breakfast croissant he was eating. The day was cloudy but still nice. Arlo was wondering if it would rain or not.

A pair of travelers sat at a table near them, "I heard they are coming to Firehorse next, I'd rather avoid them even if I'm not a demon they are to rash."

Arlo's ears perked up. This sounded like an interesting conversation, who was coming to Firehorse?

Sho near him was less patient "Who's coming to Firehorse" he directly asked.

They turned toward us. Thankfully humans loved to gossip and so did demons. It made information collection ten times easier.

"Demon hunters." Said the traveler, "those barbarians, they drag and capture random people then check their eye color. Honestly it should be illegal to just randomly trap people like that. What if some old lady had a heart condition?"

"Hmm do you know when they are coming?" asked Sho.

"Next few days probably in three days if the gossip we heard was accurate." The second traveler replied.

"Thanks for the information" Sho turned to the waiter and paid for their drinks.

"Oh why thank you Mr. Handsome" one of the travelers replied. She was a female and Arlo instantly wanted her to leave now. Sho was his handsome.

Sho turned back to Arlo "Let's go east to Fishton for a little bit. I want to check out the guild system there."

"Sure" Arlo replied. It wasn't like they had much of a current plan at the moment. They were currently just being tourists in the human realm. Eventually they planned to go to the monster lands and become stronger and take over the demon realm but hey, vacations are also important. Plus he also low key wanted some seafood and what better place than a place with fish in the name?

Shrimp, calamari, maybe some fish tacos, cod, salmon, sea fish, wait what types of fish did they even have here? Hmm octopus? Please tell me they do some frying here. Fish and chips...

"Oh Arlo?"

"Hmm?" Arlo looked back toward Sho.

"You going to take forever to eat that?" he motioned to Arlo's croissant and he hurried to gobble it down more.

"Don't rush, just don't take five hours either" Sho smirked. "How about we head to Fishton the start of tomorrow morning?"

"Sounds good." Arlo replied as he took another chomp of his ham, egg, cheese, and bacon, breakfast.

....

The day passed in its usual fashion. Meaning Sho dragging Arlo back to the inn for some playtime until lunch.

For lunch they returned to the same little café as breakfast and ordered some soups local to the area. It was near the city's gate and had a great view.

A loud laughing sound echoed from the gate and a group of five people entered. Arlo immediately felt his blood temperature drop. They looked like zombie hunters from movies in his past life. Blades, armor, a sickening aura.

"Demon hunters" growled Sho. "They are early. Let's go." He dragged Arlo back to their inn in practically a second and locked the door. Then he moved to the window to watch them. Arlo slipped up next to him a peeked out.

"Is that even legal!" he yelped watching them toss a man to the ground and pull back his eye lids before shoving him down again and leaving to find their next victim.

"Sadly yes" replied Sho. "It's part of the human protection act of all things. Change of plans we are leaving tonight instead."

"Isn't it safer to just stay here thought?" Arlo asked confused.

"Nope, they are allowed to randomly check inns as well." Sho replied.

"Harsh." Muttered Arlo. "I'd say they are more dangerous than the demons."

Sho didn't reply but instead continued to watch their movements as Arlo started to pack their things.

When night started to fall they headed out following the shadows at the edges of the buildings. The demon hunters were going through inns the last time they checked so they headed for the gate. The guard was sleep so they just slipped right past. Honestly it seemed like the guard profession was a great choice for those who needed extra sleep.

"Stop!" yelled a voice and Arlo glanced behind him to see two of the demon hunters headed toward them.

"Run" growled Sho grabbing his wrist and Arlo headed after him. The fled through the hills and into a forest patch. It was dark but Arlo's demon eyes could still make out most of his surroundings with ease. Did the humans here have that capability? A crash behind him made him think the answer was a no.

Arlo yelped as the ground beneath his feet suddenly moved and rope sprang up around him. Sho glanced back and hissed as he saw Arlo hanging from a tree in a net. He pulled out a blade and began sawing at the rope.

A few of the areas started breaking but it was still too small to fir through. Torch light began to shine through the trees toward them.

"Hide" Arlo hissed to Sho "I'll handle this."

"I'm not leaving you." Sho growled back.

"I never said to leave but if they see your eye color you are as good as dead." Arlo added.

"They try to touch one hair on you and I'll be back." Sho growled as he slid backwards into a shadow by a rock.

Arlo paused to take a deep breath then put on his best acting mode. As soon as a light fell on him he cried out "Oh thank heavens I was worried I would be stuck in here forever! Would you lovely folk help me down. Silly me I got caught in my own animal trap this morning."

They paused to stare at him. The one said gruffly "did you see two figures go past here?"

"Two figures?" Asked Arlo looking confused, "I don't think so, but it is also quite dark. Do be careful this place has several traps set up." Arlo had no idea if that was true or not.

To his enjoyment it seems he was right as one of the demon hunter people got hung up in a net in a few steps. His buddy quickly cut him down.

"How much you willing to pay for us to get you down." Asked one of the hunters.

Arlo paused as if thinking, "I can give you several animal carcasses from the day's hunt!" he acted excited as if this was the best gift ever. He loved the look of disgust one of the hunters gave him.

"Let's just leave him here and keep looking for those escapees."

"Nah we should at least check his eyes, but we need to let him down to do that." The other replied.

"Eyes?" Asked Arlo "what about my eyes? It's not like I need a doctor, sure my eyesight isn't the best but it's still decent."

One of them began sawing at the rope attaching the net to the tree. A few minutes later the net fell with Arlo still in it. Darn it seems they did it that way on purpose to keep Arlo trapped. He glanced at the humans, Sho probably couldn't take them both on his own so he had to get out of this. But if he called his shadow dagger now they would be able to see him easily.

One reached down to look at his eyes. "Blue" he stated. In the dim light he didn't seem to notice his contacts but the other leaned down as well.

"Contacts? Remove them." He growled toward Arlo.

"I have a rare eye condition" he stated back. "I need contacts to prevent my eyes from being damaged."

"Remove them" he growled again.

Shoot. Thought Arlo as he reached up sliding one of the contacts out. His green eye met with the hunter's gold one.

"Green?" he said looking confused. He turned to his buddy "Is that human or demon?"

His buddy shrugged, "He did say he had an eye condition it's probably blue with the condition." He paused for a moment then added "unless it's a rare color in which case I don't know which side it belongs to."

His eyes turned back to Arlo examining him. Then his buddy chimed in again. "Should we take him back to the boss then?"

"Probably, yeah let's do that."

It was a good thing it was dark so they wouldn't notice more of the color draining from Arlo's face.

"I cannot go yet" Arlo stated firmly and they both turned to look at him. Arlo simply shrugged "I haven't gotten my animal haul for the day yet." He motioned toward the forest of traps.