Demon Queen Wants to Paint

"I am bored!" Azrael whined for like the hundredth time, laying on Morrigan's hotel bed and switching channels on the TV in an attempt to find something interesting to watch. Initially, he was ecstatic about it – watching it hours on end. But as he quickly discovered, television was filled with nothing more than ads with occasional snippets of movies and shows in between.

"Maybe there would be no need for you to be bored if you just opened the portal back to Doppelta," Morrigan complained and snatched the remote from his hands to turn off the TV.

"It's too early. I haven't recovered enough magic energy yet," he objected and buried his face in the soft bed covers.

"You seem energetic enough to me," Morrigan grumbled and poked his shoulder.

"You clearly have not trained your magical abilities enough if one spell can leave you completely useless for almost a week," Alphegor said as he took a sip of the wine that was inside the fridge.

"Hey, opening dimensional portals require a lot of magic and the magic on this planet is nearly non-existent. Princess, don't you find it stifling?" Azrael objected, sitting up in the bed and shooing her hand away.

"Not really? I've spent more than twenty years here after all."

"There is less magic here, but the little bit that I feel is very pure and strong. It should have rejuvenated you a few days ago," Alphegor reprimanded, but Azrael turned his gaze away.

"Not everyone has had thousands of years to perfect their magic," he grumbled. Morrigan chuckled.

"How about we go for a walk around the city?" she suggested. In reality, the confines of the small hotel room was bothering her, but she had hoped that Azrael would have recovered his energy by now. However, if it would take a few more days until they can get home, she'd rather do something other than just stare at the TV.

"Yes! Let's go!" Azrael jumped up instantly, running for the door like a dog who was about to go for a walk.

"Calm down, Azrael. Morrigan said we'll go for a walk, not a sprint," the King drank the last bits of his wine and then got up. "If you do the same thing you did with humans the first night we got to this hotel, then I shall tie you to a lamp post until you have recovered."

"I'll be good, I promise!" Azrael snapped his fingers, and his demonic features disappeared. Morrigan also took on her human form while Alphegor's horns and tail seamlessly disappeared into thin air as if they were never there to begin with.

"Why don't we first go to a shop? I feel like having a treat," Morrigan suggested and skipped out of the hotel room with Alphegor and Azrael following close behind.

***

This was a huge mistake!

Morrigan watched in horror as Azrael pushed the cart filled to the brim with snacks, fruits and whatever else the cheeky demon managed to get his hands on. Even Alphegor's threats had done nothing to dissuade him from acting like a madman, so they had largely given up and instead took a shopping basket for their own use.

"I am not paying for all that," Morrigan muttered as Azrael added ten cans of corn and eight cans of beans to his cart. 

"Obviously not. He'll be putting everything he took back in its place once we are done," Alphegor scoffed.

"What would you like to try?" Morrigan asked with a smile, trying to distract herself from the lunatic in front of her.

"I am not sure. All these things are completely unfamiliar to me. What do you recommend?" Alphegor smiled at her. She stopped and pondered what would be one thing that a demon wouldn't have tried.

While things in the Underworld are quite different, when it comes to foodstuff there has always been something that was rather close. There's savory pies, salads, meats, fruits and even desserts, so I can't say that I ever missed something.

Morrigan looked over the shelves of the stores, inspecting their contents and wondering what would be something truly interesting. Finally, her eyes landed upon the freezers on the far side on the store.

"I know! Follow me," she exclaimed and headed straight to the freezers. Unsurprisingly, Azrael was already rummaging through them and piling tubs of ice-cream into his cart.

"What is this cold stuff? Is it edible?" he skeptically poked one of the tubs.

"Yes, it is. I think we better take some smaller ones so we can try various flavors," Morrigan said and then put a few ice-cream cones, popsicles and ice-cream sandwiches into the shopping basket that Alphegor was holding.

"Are these desserts of some sort?" the King asked and took a chocolate ice-cream cone to inspect it closer.

"Yes! I am sure you will like it, Father," Morrigan said, remembering how the King enjoyed his desserts during mealtimes.

"If you say so, then I am sure it is true," Alphegor said resolutely and placed the treat back into the basket.

"Really? This cold thing? I bet it tastes no different than ice," Azrael scoffed but did nothing to remove the tubs from his cart.

"We'll see about that!"

Morrigan and Alphegor went to the cash register to pay for the ice-cream while Azrael was ordered to go back into the store and stack everything he took back into shelves. She didn't trust him to do the task properly, but hoped that he would at least put frozen stuff back into the freezer and the other things in the general vicinity of where they were before. Store staff would surely handle the rest.

"These human inventions are most unusual. They don't use any magic and yet they do things that defy all logic," Alphegor said as he intently stared how the cashier scanned each product one by one. The young woman, a student by the looks of it, was blushing under his intent gaze, not knowing where to look. 

"Human devices run on electricity," Morrigan explained and paid for the treats before the poor cashier could melt into a puddle like one of Alphegor's concubines.

"Electricity, you say? Most fascinating. So humans in this world are able to use electric magic," the King pondered.

"No, not at all. We harvest electric energy in various ways and store it in special facilities, power lines and batteries," she explained, rather proud of human ingenuity.

"Harvest electricity? Can you do that too, Morrigan?" The King looked rather excited at the prospect.

"Me? Not really. It's something done by large groups of people rather than just one person."

"I wonder if I could do that in the Underworld too," the King scratched his chin. Morrigan chuckled nervously, wondering how to explain that it would require either a large body of flowing water, large plains with strong winds or sunlight. All things that the Underworld did not have.

"Hey, don't leave me behind!" Azrael ran towards them while a disgruntled looking shop worker chased after him.

"What did you do?" Morrigan asked as she sped up her pace.

"I just dumped everything inside one of the icy boxes. I'm not sure what the guy is saying, but he doesn't sound very happy about it," Azrael chuckled and began running full speed as if it were a game.

I'm sorry, Mister-shop-worker! I promise not to bring this lunatic here again.

***

With the store far behind them and with ice-creams in their tow, Morrigan, Alphegor and Azrael strolled through a local park. Since it was the middle of workday, it was fairly empty with the exception of a few elderly people and mothers with baby strollers. Morrigan looked up at the deep blue sky admiring how vibrant it was – almost blinding.

"I never thought the sky could be so… vast. It feels like it is never ending," Azrael said, also admiring it.

"It is never ending. There are millions upon billions of stars and galaxies out there and we could see them as nothing more than dots," Morrigan said, wishing that it would be nighttime and she could see the infinite galaxy.

"I've heard about stars but I have never actually seen them. How come I can't see them now?" Azrael asked, and squinted his eyes, trying to discern something in the vast blue.

"Because it's daytime. The sun is so bright and so close that all the faraway stars just disappear," she explained. Azrael turned towards the sun, about to stare straight at it, but Morrigan managed to grab his hand and pull him away.

"Hey, why are you pulling me?" he grumbled and pulled himself free of her grasp.

"Morrigan is kind enough to prevent you from going blind. Never stare directly at the sun," the King scoffed, then eyed the treats he was holding in a bag. "Where could we enjoy these?"

"Why don't we just sit at the table over there?" Morrigan pointed at one of the many picnic tables littered through the park and he nodded.

"I want the yellow one," Azrael pointed towards the lemon ice-cream cone, his eyes sparkling with excitement.

He truly is just a kid. It's almost kind of cute.

Morrigan chuckled and nodded, fishing the lemon ice-cream out of the bag and handing it to the demon. Then she took the chocolate ice-cream cone and gave it to Alphegor.

"I think you'll enjoy this one, Father. It's chocolate flavored," she explained.

"Humans in this world have chocolate too? That is reassuring," the King said and took the cone. Morrigan grabbed a strawberry flavored ice-cream sandwich and quickly tore off the wrapping. Azrael and Alphegor stared at the plastic packaging, unsure of what to do.

"This isn't edible, is it?" Azrael asked and pulled at the wrapping.

"No, it's just a package," she replied and quickly tore open Alphegor's and Azrael's ice-cream. They took out the treat and looked over them.

"It is as cold as ice," Alphegor noted and then took a small bite out of the treat. Azrael didn't hold back and instead took a solid chunk out of the ice-cream.

"Ahh! Too cold!" he whined and swallowed the giant chunk. Morrigan watched in horror how the demon grabbed his head, and began howling from pain. "W-What? Is this poison? My head!"

"No! You swallowed it before it had a chance to melt. It gave you a brain freeze."

"Brain freeze?" Alphegor asked as he continued to eat his ice-cream slowly, savoring every bite.

"Yes. I don't really understand the science behind it, but if you eat too much ice-cream, or anything cold really, too fast, then it'll make your head hurt."

"Oh, it stopped," Azrael cheered, and then continued scarfing down the rest of his ice-cream, occasionally whining and grunting from the pain.

He must be a masochist. Nobody would intentionally hurt themselves like this.

As they continued eating the treats, the sun began to set and dusk settled over the park. Keen to see the stars again, Morrigan suggested that they stay outside until nighttime, and both demons agreed. Azrael ran around like a little kid while Morrigan told her father about various things in the human world that Doppelta did not have.

"I have to admit that the human world has its charms. Especially during the night," Alphegor said, and looked up at the vast night sky. Millions of tiny stars shone there, signifying the vastness of the cosmos around them.

"Father, is there a night sky like this in the Doppelta too?" she asked as she stared at the full moon. 

"No," the King said, and Morrigan dropped her gaze. "It is far more magnificent than this."

"Really?" she asked and looked at him. Alphegor nodded and smiled at her.

"Really. I'll show it to you one day."

"Speaking of Doppelta," Azrael suddenly appeared before them, hair filled with stray leaves and tiny twigs. "I am ready to create a portal back."