Villain's Second Heart: Trapped in A Fantasy Novel (BL)-Chapter 7: The Ferin Girl

Knock Knock.

"Please, we have nowhere else to go!"

Oberyn stirred, still cradled in Ezra's arms, his fingers curled around the human's broad shoulders.

The door swung open again, and the little fox girl looked even more agitated than before.

"You got money? We ain't no charity."

Ezra was taken by surprise. Money - of course. That thing he never had in his first life. He debated checking Oberyn's pockets, but he couldn't steal from someone who was sleeping like that.

"No, but I can help out with any farmwork you may need done. I'm good with animals."

"He's good with animals, Cliff! A HUMAN! We got a comedian here!"

"Just let him in if he's going to keep banging that damn door!" The elderly voice erupted into a coughing fit.

The girl rolled her eyes and opened the door wider, doing an exaggerated formal bow as she ushered them in.

"Throw him out the couch and stay outta the kitchen. Don't bother Cliff."

"Is Cliff the, uh..." Ezra motioned to the other room - he supposed it was the kitchen.

"What's all that damn noise!?" Cliff hollered from the other room.

'What noise?' he thought, raising an eyebrow - but it wasn't worth arguing. After all, these two offered him some hospitality.

Ezra laid Oberyn down on the couch, and the sleepy Nephilim immediately rolled over onto his face and buried it into the cushions.

Ezra stayed crouched next to the sleeping young man, trying to keep the glowing mark on his chest obscured from the girl.

"So what, do you always walk around half naked like some pervert?" the girl snipped.

"Don't suppose you have a shirt I can wear?" Ezra smiled weakly, turning his head to see her. She was a feisty little thing, with wide brown eyes and sandy hair. She wore a plain-looking dress that was a striking canary-yellow, and on her feet two shiny black shoes with a slight heel.

"You really do think this is charity hour, eh? I might have something old of Rav's layin' around. Gimme a minute."

She skipped away, an upbeat energy to her every step like she's guided by music only she can hear, and twirled a lock of her sandy brown hair in her finger as she disappeared into the messy room behind them.

A few moments later, she came out and tossed Ezra a flowy blue shirt. He caught it and put it on quickly to hide away his mark. Once he felt secure, he rose from the ground and bowed his head to the girl.

"Thank you for your kindness, ma'am. It means more to me than you know."

His eyes wandered up, catching the girl's gaze anxiously.

"Yuck, ma'am? Nah. Call me Deek."

"...Deek?"

"Yeah. Short for Decoy. Got a problem with that, you stupid human!?"

"No, no! It's a unique name! Beautiful, really!"

Ezra wasn't sure if he did enough damage control, but Deek didn't seem to care too much. He wondered if she should address the elephant in the room.

"Well, obviously I'm a human," Ezra said, scratching his head. "And you're a..."

She stared at him like his head was going to explode - or at least, she was as shocked as she'd be if it'd happened.

"Hey, Cliff! You owe me five silver! We got a real one - an actual human dumb enough to not know what a Ferin is!"

"Ferin?"

"Pfft."

Deek hopped onto a large, cushiony chair in the corner of the room, still playing with her hair as she crossed her legs like a pretzel.

"Naked, stupid, helpless - I bet you don't even know where you are, kid."

"I'm not a kid - I'm eighteen! And I was hardly naked."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, shifting her position and laying down, kicking her feet up in the air. "Alright. Level with me, big guy. You got sent here by the Storyteller, didncha?"

His heart - the actual human one, not the villain's heart - sank when he heard her mention the Storyteller.

'So the people in this world know about her, too?' he questioned. "Just what is this place..."

Deek didn't bother to look in his direction. She found a small ball on the cluttered floor and played catch with herself while lying on her back.

"I don't even know where to begin, honestly," she whined, showing off her amazing dexterity as she caught the ball over and over again with increasingly wild throws.

"I did meet the Storyteller. You're right."

The words feel alien coming out of his mouth. It was just an hour or two ago that he was in that rancid basement, and the memory was still so vivid in his mind. Part of him still believed this might all be a dream.

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"You should probably talk to Mr. Rav about that Storyteller stuff, I only ever heard it from him - but he doesn't like smelly humans, so good luck with that. ANYWAY, I'm a Ferin. See these ears? Genetic superiority, bub."

He understood - at least, he thought he did. In one of his favorite stories, there were a subset of people called 'demihumans' - though they were mostly catgirls and catboys.

'Wait. if there are Ferins, does that mean I could've been a catboy?! Damn it, Storyteller, why didn't I get that option?!'

"I think I get it," he said. "Oh. And my name's Ezra, by the way. My friends call me Ez. It's E-Z to remember!"

"That's a stupid nickname," she quipped, dismissive. "What about him? The blacked out fae boy?"

"You can tell he's a fae just by looking at him?" Ezra said with surprise.

"Uh, duh. They got humans like that where you're from, stupid?"

He winced. "I prefer Ezra. Oh, and he's Oberyn."

He turned to his 'companion', the sleeping Nephilim. 'What about him seems so inhuman?' he thought to himself. 'He looks like a normal guy to me.'

His eyes scanned over Oberyn. The young man indeed had an ethereal beauty to him that was hard to describe.

His skin was flawless, and every lock of his golden hair fell perfectly around his face. He had the kind of effortless beauty that made people jealous. If he'd lived in Ezra's world, he wouldn't just be a model. He'd be the reason people questioned their sexuality.

"Maybe dumb humans can't see auras," Deek speculated, tossing her ball into a heap of clothes behind her. "But his is WAY strong. Speaking of, you got a crazy aura, too. It's all black and stuff. You one of them Necromancers or somethin'?"

"I don't think so."

"Hmm. So you don't even know who YOU are, huh? Let's try somethin' else, then."

Deek leaped back to her feet and pattered over to Ezra, intent burning in her feisty, playful eyes.

"Activate!"