Demon Queen Wants to Paint

Rosa found it difficult to keep track of the days and months that followed as they were some of the most boring days in her existence. Aside from when she was a human baby probably, but she didn't have the mental capacity to remember that. However, stuffing an adult mind into a baby's body was proving to be a great torture device.

There were so many things Rosa wanted to do. Learn more about the surrounding area, find out more about this strange, new world and perhaps figure out if art was a prominent thing here. Walking also would be a nice thing to do.

Unfortunately, she couldn't even roll over – that's just how weak her baby body was. The nursery didn't even have any windows, so she couldn't even deduct whether it was daytime or nighttime. The only difference was that during the night the lights were turned off. Or at least Rosa assumed so.

So whenever Rosa wasn't eating or sleeping, the only thing she could do was stare at the gray ceiling, following the swirling patterns from one side of the wall to the next. Slowly she began to resent the room. It was so dark and gloomy, with barely any color in it that wasn't black or some variation of gray. Sometimes she wondered whether she had just died and was sent to her personal hell. 

But there was one thing that convinced her that it wasn't so. Or rather it was a person. Her dwarf nanny. Whenever the bearded woman came, she would chat with Rosa in a cheerful tone and play some silly baby games. It sounded stupid for an adult to enjoy such things, but after spending day after day staring at the ceiling, even something as mundane as peekaboo became a great source of entertainment. 

Of course, what Rosa truly appreciated was her nanny's talking, because through her she was slowly beginning to understand the language. For example, Rosa understood that her name in this world was Morrigan – a dreadful name in her opinion – from how both the nanny and Demon Man addressed her. 

The nanny's name was Gunna while the Demon Man was called Alphegor. Quite honestly she expected him to have some cliched name like 'Lucifer' or 'Azazel', but this was another world, so earthly cliches didn't apply. Nonetheless, Rosa decided to still refer to him as 'Demon Man' because calling him by his name would be like acknowledging that he was a person and not a monster.

And I'll never acknowledge him as a person, much less as my father. 

Rosa also learned to understand some simple phrases, like 'Are you hungry?', 'It is time to sleep' and 'Let's change the nappy'. The nappy changing times were by far the most horrible and embarrassing times for Rosa. Oddly enough Gunna never showed any disgust, instead chuckling from behind her bushy beard. 

But this day turned out to be different for others. Sometime after lunch, Demon Man stepped into the nursery followed by a scrawny, bespectacled man with long, greasy hair. 

This is new. He's never brought anybody but Gunna to this room.

Rosa felt excited, seeing someone who looked human. But after carefully assessing the man, her excitement quickly faded.

He had horrible red marks around his wrists as if he had been painfully bound. And his scrawniness wasn't something natural, but rather it looked like the result of malnutrition. There was also a dark bruise underneath his eye. But the most unusual thing about him was the extremely long ears. 

An elf? But why is he in such a horrible state?

Demon Man pushed the elf towards Rosa, glaring at him in the process. The man glanced fearfully at Demon Man, then came towards her crib with shaky steps. She saw that he was holding what appeared to be a slab of some sort of stone. He glanced at Demon Man again, who glared at him so hard, Rosa thought that the poor elf would just drop dead on the floor.

With shaky hands he brought the stone slab towards Rosa. 

Is he giving this as a gift or something? Surely not. 

He was holding it and staring at Rosa with pleading eyes as if trying to send some silent message across to her. 

What do you want me to do? I'm just a baby. 

The only thing she could do was touch the stone slab with her tiny hand. And so she did it, mostly out of curiosity. It felt just like any other rock – cold and smooth.

Relief washed over the elf's face and he muttered something. The slab began glowing with a bright red light. Demon Man exclaimed in a loud cheer, making Rosa flinch away from the stone while the elf and Gunna looked thoroughly shaken. They regarded her with fear in their eyes. Rosa was not surprised that the elf feared her – after all she was the biological offspring of Demon Man. But the fact that Gunna had the same type of fear in her eyes, actually hurt. 

Demon Man was boasting loudly and laughing like a maniac in the meanwhile. She didn't understand what he was saying, but she heard her name mentioned a few times. Then he turned towards the elf, and Rosa saw a red glint in his dark eyes. Her whole body shivered as she felt murderous intent emanating from him. 

He's going to kill the elf. No, no, no!

Rosa began to squirm frantically trying to think of a way to prevent a murder from happening right in front of her eyes. The elf was still looking at her and didn't notice how Demon Man lifted his hand. 

What can I do? What can I do? I must stop him! 

She reached her hand towards the elf hoping to grab him, but he was too far. 

Oh, why is this body so weak?!

She saw how Demon Man was about to lunge forward towards the elf, and so Rosa automatically tried to scream 'Don't'. But due to lack of teeth and her uncontrollable baby tongue, all that came out was a sad little 'do'. Everybody froze and looked at her with wide and shocked eyes. She's not sure why they were so surprised, but it seemed to have gotten their attention so Rosa repeated the process, mumbling 'do, do, do' and reaching with her hand towards the elf. 

The elf looked flabbergasted, terrified and astounded at the same time. Rosa worried that the mixture of emotions was going to make the man faint. Demon Man disregarded the elf completely and ran up to Rosa's crib, lifting her high up in the air with a wide grin on his face. 

How can you be so damn happy after almost murdering somebody? Damned demon!

Rosa regarded him with the same look she would give to a fly sitting on a pile of poo. But Demon Man clearly had no understanding as to the meaning of her expression, and proceeded to lift her up and down while happily muttering something.

He then looked at her with expectant gaze and said something. She didn't understand his words, but had a feeling he probably wanted her to 'talk' again. But she wouldn't do that just because he wants it. So Rosa scrunched her nose instead and glared at him. 

Gunna suppressed a laugh, hiding it behind her beard. She then said something in a calm voice, and pointed towards the elf. The elf lifted his arms up in defense, and Demon Man glowered at him. 

After a moment of consideration, he handed Rosa to the elf. The man took her with shaky hands, but his hold was gentle and he made sure to support Rosa's head. She didn't really need the support anymore, as she could at least hold her head, but she appreciated his efforts nonetheless. 

Then, just to spite Demon Man, she smiled at the elf and repeated the 'do, do, do' while sending a mental message to the villain. 

Don't you dare to kill this elf! Or any other person for that matter.

A small smile appeared on the elf's lips while Demon Man left the nursery with a huff, pouting like a little child. 

Serves him right for trying to kill somebody!

The elf looked unsure of what to do with her, but Gunna took Rosa from him and said something in an encouraging albeit a slightly sad tone. The elf nodded absentmindedly in response, but the whole time his eyes were locked on Rosa, as if trying to understand the inner workings of her mind.

***

After a few days of trying to count every single raven's feather displayed on the wallpaper, something interesting happened. Along with Gunna, the elf from before came to Rosa's nursery. His look was completely changed – instead of dirty rags he wore nice scholarly tunic and pants which matched his brown eyes with their earthy tones. His hair was washed clean – Rosa could tell that he had dark brown hair. Previously it seemed black from all the grime and dirt. And most importantly, the bruises on his wrists and face were gone; as if healed by magic.

The elf approached Rosa's crib cautiously, and she saw a nervous bead of sweat rolling down his temples. He asked Gunna something, but it was too quiet for Rosa to hear. The nanny smiled at him and gave him a reassuring pat on the back.

"It's alright!" she motioned for him to approach Rosa. Rosa just looked curiously at the nervous man, and wondered what he would do. He began rummaging through a bag that he carried with him and then pulled a book out of it. He displayed it before Rosa, so she could see it. The book was thick with a leather spine and dark blue letters on the cover. She could not read what it said. Whatever those letters were, they were nothing she's seen on Earth before. There was some resemblance to celtic runes, but it was very distant.

The elf pointed at the letters and Rosa assumed that he read the title of the book.

I know you have the best intention, but you can't really expect a three month old baby to understand you.

Rosa scrunched her nose in displeasure, and the man flinched. Gunna walked up to him, pulling the book aside. She pointed towards Rosa and said something about telling her his name, and then something else. It was still really difficult to understand anything that didn't involve the most basic words. But the elf understood the nanny and nodded. He pointed to himself.

"My name is Faenor," he said slowly while enunciating. This Rosa understood without an issue. She smiled at him in response, and the elf visibly relaxed. Then he turned towards Gunna and retrieved the book from her. It looked like he would begin reading, but the nanny interjected again.

Rosa didn't quite understand what they talked about, it was so fast, but after a bit of back and forth, Gunna lifted her out of the crib and offered for Faenor to hold. He shook his head vigorously, while muttering something rapidly. Rosa puffed out her cheeks. 

How rude! He didn't want to hold me. 

He noticed the change in her expression, and visibly paled. Perhaps he thought that she was about to cry. Faenor extended trembling arms towards Rosa, and finally took her. His hold felt boney, he was much leaner than Gunna and didn't have the large muscles that Demon Man did. But Rosa wouldn't complain about something so petty so she just looked at the book he held in his other arm and waited.

Seeing that Rosa wasn't going to cry, Faenor released a sigh of relief and settled into one of the gloomy chairs. Gunna nodded with satisfaction and began cleaning around the nursery. The ef pointed at the cover again and slowly enunciated the title of the book. Rosa still didn't understand what it said, but she clearly heard every sound. When somebody spoke fast, she couldn't even catch those – everything sounded like a jumbled mess.

Faenor looked down at Rosa, and seeing as she was still staring at the book, he opened it. First page showed a picture of a red dragon, but the art style was rather cartoony. Rosa almost squealed with delight. 

A picture book? Finally something that wasn't just black and white.

The elf flipped to the next page, and there was an egg laying in a pile of gold. Faenor slowly read the text above the picture, and Rosa tried to listen to his pronunciation and commit it to memory. She heard most of it, but got a little bit distracted by the artwork. 

Finally, I can see more colors than just black and gray. How I missed all these beautiful shades of red and gold.

Faenor flipped to the next page and there a little, red dragon emerged from the shell while spewing dramatic, blue flames. Rosa watched and listened carefully, trying to understand the story told in the pages. 

When the first book was finished, Faenor put it aside and pulled another book from his case. Rosa was excited to see the art within it. But, unfortunately, as the elf was about to begin reading the title, Demon Man burst into the room without as much as a knock.

Rosa glared at him in annoyance, mentally willing him to go away. But instead he just stomped over and took the book from Faenor's hand. The elf began shivering out of fear, and he clutched onto her baby form tighter as if she was the only thing that protected him from the demon. Demon Man looked through the pages of the book and scoffed. 

He then said something with a disdainful look on his face, and tossed the book on the ground. 

How dare you?! I wanted to see that book. I won't let you get away with this. 

She waited for Demon Man to take her from the elf, and then screamed at him. He tried to rock her, shush her, reason with her in a soft voice and she's pretty sure he threatened her a little bit as well. But she did not relent her screams until Gunna finally took her away. 

If you insist on ruining the best time I've had since coming to this damned world, then I'll be sure to make your ears bleed.

Demon Man left looking like a puppy that has been kicked by its owner. But Rosa did not feel sorry for him. In fact, she felt proud for teaching a bit of a lesson in humility. Unfortunately, as Rosa later found out, it would take way more than screaming to keep Demon Man away.