The Bitter Joe

Writing Prompt:
I didn't understand what she was talking about and I didn't care.

She wore high heels, bright pink and covered with splatters of ink. Her legs bore the standard mark of an elf: low muscle, sleek, and long. She looked like a child, her red silken dress obviously designed for a human frame. She smiled, though, and it glowed. She held a cigarette in an extender, its plastic gleaming under the flickering neon lights.

"Telama nu?" She purred. I shrugged.

"I don't speak elf," I replied quietly.

She blinked, and looked the slightest bit hurt; her oversized eyes glistened. "Nola Ellanna?"

I sighed, and pulled the faded photo from my pocket. A warlock friend had given it a few passes in color, but the rain and moonlight was sapping it back to it's natural amber hue. The girl in the image was human, in her Sunday best, and smiling like nothing in the world would ever be wrong. I hoped that was still true for her, though the job seemed to imply that it wasn't. While some people did simply disappear, fleeing to a neighboring kingdom or even into the mist, all the signs pointed to trouble.

And in Harbro, trouble was most likely to be found in the underground.

"Have you seen this girl?" I asked the elf. She took the picture, glanced at it and rubbed the back of her neck in thought. A car passed on the cobblestone road, its tires cutting a streak through the puddle; its engine purring seductively. The elf flinched at the sound, then smiled apologetically and again stared at the picture.

"Decono, elma... Nola ryo mana," She finally said, passing it back.

"You haven't seen her?" I asked as I tucked the image back into my raincoat.

I don't think she understood my words, but she caught my drift and shook her head. "Ryo mana, nola."

I nodded and passed over a KingFran. Her eyes lit up at the bill, small through it was. She held it up to the streetlight, grinning visibly. I nodded politely at her and stepped past her into the neon-lit doorway, following the long dark stairway into the underworld.