Small Metal Thing With Teeth

Ria's hands gripped the fence so hard her knuckles went pale. "How do we get to the Ring?"

The short man's laugh came out rough and wheezy. "Oh, trust me, kid. You don't want to go there."

"It's not like I want to go there. Please, if you know anything, just tell me."

He stared at Ria for a moment a bit, then drew in a quick breath for a sigh. "Listen, the Ring ain't some nice little market square. It's where the rich folk go to watch things bleed for entertainment. Demons, lesser demons, whatever they can drag down there and throw in a cage. You go in with coin? You leave without it. You go in without coin? You become the entertainment."

Nao stepped closer. "What else do you know about it?"

"Why would I know anything more about some underground demon fighting pit?"

"Because you just told us the cook works there, and you knew exactly how much he paid."

The man's mouth opened, then closed. He scratched the back of his neck.

"Fine. Maybe I've heard things. Maybe I know a guy who knows a guy. Word is they've got wards all over the place. Keeps the demons from breaking lose, keeps random folks that've just come into town from poking around. Merchant houses fund the whole operation 'cus they like to use them as a way to settle disputes while keeping things a little fun."

"I don't care about wards or any of that. Please, I just need to find Tyrant before he gets cooked by some rando!"

"Tyrant? You named your chicken Tyrant?"

"He's not a chicken!"

"Kid, I've been selling poultry for fifteen years. That was a chicken. He was just a little... green."

Nao pulled Ria back before she could launch herself over the fence. "Where is the Ring located?"

"Well, information like that don't come cheap. Not like I know exactly where it is but I might've heard some things. Ten silver ought to jog my memory real good, you know?"

Nao hesitated for a moment before sighing and reaching into her money pouch. She fished out ten silver and dropped them into the merchant's palm.

The short man's face split into a grin wide enough to show his back teeth or rather, lack thereof. He turned and waved at someone across the market. 

"Oi! Got special customers here!"

A young man emerged from a nearby stall, dressed in what might have been robes with embroidered edges, hair tied back neatly.

"These two need 'those' directions," the merchant said, pocketing the money. "Take 'em where they need to go."

The young man nodded, gesturing for them to follow.

"Thank you," Ria bowed slightly to the short man, already turning to follow.

They fell into step behind him as he led them away from the market square. Ria kept her attention split between the young man's shape ahead and the crowd that's shifting around them, outlines blurring together as the city's bodies pressed together.

"I'm sorry you had to use your silver," Ria said quietly.

"Hm? Oh, that."

She pulled up another money pouch that looked exactly like the one tied to her waist. She tossed it up and caught it. "That was counterfeit. Zui'un's a lawless town, remember? You just have to out-con the cons."

"Wait, you gave him fake money?"

"He tried charging five silver for a chicken. Chickens don't cost five silver. He got what was coming to him."

The young man continued to lead them down narrower streets, where the crowd thinned and the shorter blocks leaned closer together. Ria kept pace, but something about Nao's footsteps changed. They'd gone hesitant.

"Hey," Nao asked the young man. "Where exactly are we going?"

"Not far," he said without turning around.

"That's not what I asked."

Suddenly, the young man stopped dead in his track. Two larger shapes emerged from an alley ahead, blocking Nao and Ria's path.

"Take them," the young man said, stepping aside before crossing his arms.

"RIA, RUN!"

Ria spun toward the sound, but something hard cracked against the back of her skull, causing her senses to dissolve into nothing.

***

Ria's head throbbed.

She pushed herself upright, palms flat against cold stone. The air tasted stale, thick with dust and something metallic she couldn't quite place. Her hands moved to her face - no Tyrant, and to her side - still no Tyrant, and no bamboo perch, too.

She reached outward with her senses, searching for moisture in the air, but it was dry enough that shapes dissolved into vague blobs of walls and corners. She could make out the faint outline of metal bars directly in front of her, vertical lines cutting through the murk and really nothing beyond.

Is this... a cage?

Jin had once built one to keep an aggressive boar out one of the herb gardens, only for Tyrant to get trapped inside instead. Ria had spent an hour trying to cut through the bars with jets of water, but all she managed to do was get them wet. Jin had nearly laughed himself stupid watching her.

Ria slumped back against the wall and let her head thunk against the stone, realizing the useless of her situation.

Well, at least Nao had run. That was good. Nao was smart and fast and was probably halfway back to the market by now, buying fake money to buy more fake money.

Tyrant, though, was probably still waiting to be plucked and roasted and served on a plate with vegetables. Ria had promised him a rock toasted by the sun, and instead he was going to end up as dinner for some underground demon-fighting person.

Otou-san was going to kill her.

Well, no. Otou-san was going to find out she'd left the forest, gotten scammed, lost Tyrant, and ended up in a metal cage in some underground prison, and then he was going to kill her, assuming he ever came back from buying fermented mare's milk.

Ria rubbed the palms of her hands against her eyes and tried very hard not to think about how spectacularly everything had gone wrong in the span of a single day.

Suddenly, the heavy thud of boots echoed somewhere beyond the bars, followed by a muffled shout and the scrape of metal against stone. Ria pushed herself up, trying to strain to make out what the sounds were through the dry air. Instead, she sensed two large shapes materializing near the bars- humans, judging by their build - dragging a smaller figure between them.

"-don't care if he's a runt," one of the men growled. "Boss said throw him in with the rest of the non-stone users."

Keys rattled before the cage door next to Ria's swung open with a rusty screech, and the small shape tumbled inside before hitting the floor. The door slammed shut before the two shapes retreated, their footsteps fading into the distance.

The small shape in the next cage shifted, and Ria recognized the outline immediately: short with those two small horns jutting from the crown of his head.

It's the demon boy from the streets.

"Are you alright?"

The boy jerked away from the wall separating the two of them, scrambling backward until it hit the opposite wall.

Ria pulled her hand back. "Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

Silence.

"By the way, I'm the one who bumped into you earlier. I didn't mean to knock you down."

"Don't talk to me."

"I really am sorry, though."

"I don't want your apology. Not from a human anyway. I know it's all fake. Humans don't actually care about demons. You're just like the rest of them, pretending until you get what you want."

Ria had no idea what to say to that. Jin had told her that apologizing was enough in the end, so she always assumed it was. Then again, the only creature she'd ever stood up to was the annoying tanuki that kept stealing their fish from the traps she would lay out, and it hadn't apologized until Jin threatened to drown it.

"It doesn't matter anyway," the boy continued. "Reign's going to save us. He's going to save all of demonkind, and then you humans won't be so high and mighty anymore."

Ria perked up. "Is this Reign coming soon? Because if he could get us out of here, that would be great. I really need to find Tyrant before they cook him."

"I don't know when! But he will!"

Ria slumped back against the bars. So this Reign person wasn't actually coming. The demon boy was just hoping someone would save him, even though that someone probably had no idea he even existed.

"I'm not Reign," Ria said, pushing herself to her feet. "But I can get us out."

"Sure you can."

"So you do believe in me!"

"No! It's just those men have the key, and they're not just going to hand it over because you asked nicely."

"What's a key?"

Silence.

"...What?"

"A key. What is it?"

"You're joking."

"I'm not."

The demon boy's outline shifted as he turned fully toward her. "It's... it's a small metal thing. You stick it in the lock and turn it and the door opens."

"A stick?"

"No! Well, kind of? It's long but it also has teeth."

"Teeth? Like a boar?"

"Not actual teeth! Little grooves on the end that fit into-" The boy made a frustrated noise. "Do you live under a rock?"

"I live in a forest."

"Great, that helps a lot."

Well, she knew enough anyway. Ria needed a small metal thing with teeth, and she needed to put it in the door.

So Ria crouched in the center of the cage and pressed her palms against the cold stone floor. The air was dry but there had to be something left to work with, like the condensation on the walls, dampness in the stone, anything.

She found it clinging to the corner where the walls met the floor. It was enough moisture to sketch out a crude summoning circle. The water droplets responded sluggishly, like they'd rather be doing literally anything else than be dragged into a shape of a circle.

After a few seconds, the circle sputtered twice before a familiar globby thing plopped into existence, wobbling slightly as it oriented itself.

"Hi again! I need you to find a small metal thing with teeth and bring it back here."

The water slime leaned forward in what might have been a bow, then gave her a salute with one of its stubby appendages.

"Thanks!"

The slime scooted toward the bars, squeezing itself through the gap with a wet squelch before disappearing into somewhere beyond the corridor.

"What was that?"

"That was a water slime. I asked it to get the key."

"You- how did you do that? Are you a water stone user?"

"A what?"

"A Hui-t'ien Stone! The things that let people use magic! But they don't put stone users down here. They put them in special cells where they can't use their powers. So how…?"

"That's because I don't have a stone. I'm just good with water."

"…Who even are you?"

Who was she? Nao had called Ria a T'ien-ts'ai - one of the Gifted, destined to slay demons. Her gaze drifted toward the small horned outline in the adjacent cage.

That would mean she is meant to slay this boy.

The idea sat wrong in her chest. She pictured herself raising a hand, summoning water, and-

No.

Ria shook her head hard enough that her ponytail slapped against her shoulders.

She didn't want to be a T'ien-ts'ai. She didn't want some grand destiny that involved cutting down children who'd done nothing except exist with irregularly shaped head. The whole concept sounded exhausting and miserable and like something Otou-san would probably put it, "a load of horse shit."

What she really wanted was to go back to her forest, water her scattered herb gardens, and spend her afternoons arguing with Tyrant about whether dandelions counted as vegetables. She wanted Otou-san to come home with his ridiculous stories and terrible life advice. She just simply wanted things to be, well, simple again.

But none of that was happening right now, so she'd settle for getting out of this cage, finding Nao before she buys too many fake money, and retrieving the round green menace who got them into this mess in the first place.

Ria turned to face the demon boy's outline despite the wall separating them.

"I'm just Ria, and I just want to help you get out, find my friend, and get the bird that bullies me back."