17 Bad Mouthing Pierre

Arius sat across from a grim looking man. Dante was on his lap, and Zuna sat next to her dad. After finding out that Dante and Arius were immortal, Eirik had some questions.

"Zuna took the same time to grow as an average mortal, until she turned twelve." Eirik began speaking. "So how could Dante be 673 years old?"

"I'm a different type of immortal." Dante had been slightly agitated after being accused of lying.

"What type?" Eirik inquired.

"Sky, maybe." Dante didn't know exactly, since everything Asrael ever said was rather vague.

"How many types are there?" Eirik left no room for anyone else to talk.

"My brother never mentioned that." Dante answered.

Eirik paused, perhaps he was thinking, so Arius took that chance to say something. "We actually plan on finding his brother soon. If you help, you can ask him all the questions you want."

"Sounds like a waste of time." Eirik said.

"How can I convince you?" Arius was dead set on forming a team of immortals, he didn't really care much about the Phyrraium crystal, he was just curious about it.

"Do you have a pen and paper?" Eirik betrayed no emotion in his question.

"I think there is a pencil and notepad on the kitchen counter..." Arius said as Dante got to the floor and ran to go find the pencil and notepad.

The child came running back with it in his hands, he went straight to Arius who then propped the child up on his lap. He then slid the notepad towards Eirik.

"I'm going to test your intelligence. Okay?" Eirik spoke to Dante. The small boy nodded. Eirik began writing on the notepad, while Arius smiled.

"Here, read this out loud." Eirik slid the notepad back to Dante. The child's face changed upon his first glance at the peice of paper. Dante looked up at Eirik, his face full of disbelief and disappointment.

He looked back down with a sigh as he began reading. "Cat, dog, cow, red, bed..." he stopped reading as he looked up at Eirik once more, his face read 'do you think I'm an idiot?' Dante couldn't help grabbing the pencil and writing down his own words.

Eirik looked on emotionlessly as Dante slid the notepad back. Then the child looked at him dead in the eyes and said, "Read it out loud."

While Arius's smile became more pronounced, Eirik started relaying what Dante had written. "The enormously rude man questioned me, and so now I shall prove my knowledge." His use of vocabulary and phrases impressed Eirik, although he didn't show it.

"Good job Dante. Not even Pierre can spell 'enormous', and he's a full grown mortal." Arius patted Dante's head with a prideful grin.

"Jeez, you just can't stop bad mouthing Pierre." Zuna rolled her eyes.

"Who's Pierre?" Eirik looked up from the notepad.

"A rich CEO that works for me." Arius shrugged. "Now, will you help find Dante's brother?"

"I still think it'll end up being a waste, but you've proven yourself once already." Eirik nodded. He had an odd way of communication.

"Great, I'll call Zuna when something comes up!" Arius smiled brightly, if Dante wasn't on his lap, he would stand up and spin around in excitement.

"Hazuna, we're leaving." Eirik often sounded as if he was upset with someone, but he was actually a nice person, or at least he was nice to Zuna.

Zuna started sulking. "Already? I finally found someone who doesn't die every time I get close to them!"

"You can visit. Now let's go." Eirik believed that was a good compromise.

"Ah, wait! Where do you two live?" Arius thought that he should visit the two of them sometime.

"In an RV! Can you believe that?! We're well off, but no house!" Zuna complained as she pointed at her dad. "This man believes that an apartment would endanger others, but a house would complicate things!"

"Depends, he might have cause for concern if he doesn't change his identity every thirty or forty years." Arius looked at Eirik for an answer.

"Mortals currently know me as Philip Adam Johnson."

"I don't change Identities. We simply move every 30 years." Eirik answered. "Mortals know me as Eirik Nitya."