Not All Imps Are Demons... Part 4

Ian turned to see where the voice was coming from. He could see no one at all. He was walking towards the Kitchen when his foot slipped out from under him. Catching himself on the door jam, he looked down to see what he had slipped in. He reached down and picked up what looked to be leaves. Looking closer at it, he smelled the small cluster of greenish-blue leaves.
"Seaweed" he said aloud. "What the hell is sea-weed doing in Alisa's living room!?!" He walked the rest of the way into the kitchen. That's when he saw them. Little men, dressed in miniature armor, armed with spear-guns. They lined the kitchen cupboard like tint toy soldiers lined up to do battle. Ian knew they were Not toys.
"You just killed an innocent man back there," he said, pointing towards the living room behind him.
One stepped forward. From the difference in his armor, Ian figured he was their leader. "You place far too much importance on an others life, Doctor. You should be only concerned with yours and Alisa's."
"And you should stop hurting innocent people! Why haven't you just killed me and been done with it?"
"Alisa trusts you, Doctor. We need you to make her understand the importance of returning the things taken from us by her, well, dead mate."
"She does understand it. She simply does not know where it is!"
"You are wrong Doctor. We searched her mates mind before killing him. He transferred his thoughts to Alisa's before he died. We can not retrieve them from her with out your help."
"Why would you need my help?"
"You are the one that convinced her we were not real for a time. That we were just demons that were in her mind. She still half believes that and fully trusts in you. If you can convince her now that we do exist, we can go into her mind, take what we need and leave."
Ian stared at the little man, standing bravely and confidently on the edge of the cupboard. "Why don't I believe you when you say it will be done when you acquire your missing artifacts?"
"They are NOT artifacts!!!!!!!" The little man's voice echoed through out the house. "Hew took the means to sustain our lives in Atlantis! He took the only way we have of continuing to live at the bottom of the ocean!"
"the articles did not say anything about special items being taken. It mentioned a boat and some tiny boxes and pottery. That is all it mentioned. And why are you so small!?!?"
"We had to minimize our selves In order to save as many of our people as we could. The air bubble that formed as our island sunk into the Atlantic was not large enough to sustain an entire nation of our people. Our scientists worked non stop to find a way to reduce our size to a place that more of us could live. Alisa's mate took from us a reducer that we have to walk through each week to maintain our size. Without it, we will begin to grow again. Some have already begun to grow and if they grow to large, we will have to kill them. It is the only way to save our race of people from being entirely wiped out."
"What does this thing Mark took look like?"
"It looks like a tiny boat with boxes in it. The boat passes through a chamber and causes us to remain small. We need that boat back. It is made of a special material that we do not have any more of to make a new one."
"You are said to have possessed incredible powers like healing. Is that true?"
"We can do many things concerning healing. Why do you ask?"
"Because the only way I am going to help you is if you save that officers life in the living room."
~~~Somewhere in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean~~~~
"Please, let me talk to Ian! He is the only one that can save you and I!"
The creatures sitting in front of Alisa was not like those Ian had been talking to. These creatures looked like something out of a Weird Science comic book. They were terribly mis-shaped and their faces were anything from a lions face to that of a sea-serpent. The one that appeared to be in charge shook his head at Alisa.
"We will tell you when it is time to talk to the good doctor. Until then, you might think about telling us where the stuff your man took from us is."
"Where do you come from? Why don't you look like us? I don't understand any of this."
"You are going to die anyways, Alisa. I guess I can tell you a little bit. We are from Atlantis... but not the Atlantis your husband discovered. We are from a side of the island that was shunned and banned by our own people. They wanted cures for illnesses and a way to live forever. We, the "scientist" of the island gave them that. What we didn't know was that every time we did give them something new, we had to pay a price for it."
"Pay a price??? To who??? Who did you pay!?"
"Our knowledge was not given to us free. We had to make sacrifices in order to gain more knowledge. In the very depths of the ocean, where the crust and core core meet, evil dwells. There, in a "hell hole" of sorts is one that rules the darkness and controls the bottom of the sea. It is him that we pay with lives to. He is your devil and our master."
"Then you are demons, just as Ian said you were!!!!! Oh God, what did Mark get himself into?"
"We are not Demons!!!! We are men that were lied to and deceived. We are people that were used by our own in order to save their own souls. We serve no one!"
As the words finished echoing through Alisa's head, a burst of fire exploded in front of her. The tiny creature was suddenly engulfed in flames. His screams were 10 times louder than his size should have aloud for. Alisa jumped back and screamed. Suddenly, out of the fire came a creature far more frightening than anything the little ones were. It appeared to be a serpent and a lion and eagle all shoved in to one body. It approached Alisa and sniffed her. The growl was more of a grunt. Alisa found herself backed into a corner. Her heart raced as she tried to turn from the horrible breath that was coming from this creature. It's talons took her face inside and turned her towards it.
"Look at me, little lady! Eleona was very wrong!!! HE did serve someone and that someone was Me! Let us hope your good doctor does Not make the same mistake as he just did. If he does, well then... I am afraid you will see your husband much sooner than you thought!"
Alisa crouched in the corner, away from the putrid smell of this creature.She cried to herself. "Please Ian, hurry and find me , please..."