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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2017 5:11:41 GMT
What in the gods’ right mind made them make someplace as awful as the Boil?
As a daemon, Xev was stuck skulking around at night. Nights were so damn cold though, and she was not a fan. So, she had thought it would be interesting to try and cover up during the day and lurk more then, just to learn how awfully hot and uncomfortable it was. Even just slight exposure to the sun gave her awful burns that took a week to fully heal. The Boil was hell, but she was stuck there and with nowhere to go. At least she had managed to avoid slavers for the past few months she had been stuck there.
The sun had just set. There was still some light in the sky, but not enough to actually bother Xev at all. Since her wings made it almost impossible to wear clothes, she had torn up cloth and wrapped it around her flat chest to help keep the impersonation that she was a young boy. Not only did her wings make it hard to wear shirts, but her digitigrade, furry legs made it difficult to wear most pants. Thankfully, the fur kept her warm and the boil had no shortage of baggy harem pants. For now, she had managed to steal a dirty brown pair and ripped them so that they hung off her knees. Her hair was cut very short just recently and was covered with grim and sad. Ugh, sand. She could never seem to get rid of any of it and it always found itself to the most uncomfortable of places.
The past few weeks had been incredibly difficult. She had barely managed to scavenge for any food and was severely emaciated and weak. Her cheeks were sunken in, and there was little muscle mass in her body. Most of it had been used up as fuel to make up for the lack of food. If she did not get food within a few days, she would surely have been too weak to walk, and then would starve.
Merchants were cleaning up their stalls and gathering their things for the night. Xev had been eyeing a meat pie that was sitting at one old lady’s stand for quite some time, but had yet to find the perfect moment to grab it. It was very risky to try, but she was desperate.
The woman turned her back to rummage through a bag of other delectables. This was Xev’s chance. All the other market merchants were busy or leaving. Sticking to the shadows, she hunched down onto all fours and folded her wings up. Similarly to a fully feral bat, she began to crawl along the ground, sticking close to it and making sure her wings didn’t stick out too much. A man looked over in her direction as she momentarily made herself visible from going shadow to shadow, and she stayed frozen. The man shrugged and looked away, so she continued.
Within a minute or two, Xev made it as close to the woman’s stall as she could. She was about ten feet away. The only way she could get it was if she made a mad dash. Would she have enough energy? Could she do it? She would have to. Gods only knew when she’d have the chance again.
Much like a sprinter, she pushed off with all her might and ran on two legs straight for the pie. As she ran past it, she scooped it up into her wing and it seemed like, just for a second, she was home free. It was too good to be true.
A man appeared seemingly out of nowhere in front of her and grabbed her by a wing. Xev was too weak to pull away and stopped, letting the meat pie fall to the sandy floor. The man pulled her in and all she could do was struggle hiss. “Let me go, you fuckin’ prick!”
As she was pulled closed, she could see that the man was some form of shifter in his half-form. She could have sworn she had saw him at least thirty feet away from the pie just prior to her grabbing it. How had he moved so fast?! He must have had some form of agility.
“Now, now you little wench. I can’t let you go till you pay the price for your transgression.”
He talked differently than the natives in the Boil. In fact, he sounded a lot like the people from Spirit. For all she knew, he was a slaver and she was doomed to be in shackles and work labor for the rest of her life. Xev could not have that. She tried to struggle more, but the man twisted her wing and a great deal of pain shot up to her shoulder. Xev managed to stifle a scream. Her wing was not broken, but she would not be able to use it for days.
“I don’t gotta do shit for you. It wasn’t even your food.” She hissed at him and barred her fangs.
“Oh, a little daemon then I see. Ugly thing you are. You know what the price of steal is, yes? I get to cut off one of your little wings here. I could use an arm for supper later.”
Just her luck, the man was some form of freaky man-eating cretin. Instead of trying to pull away, she instead lunged at the man’s arm and bit into it with her fangs. She could feel her wing twist more, but it was either hurt herself or lose the whole arm.
The man let go from pure reaction and she took the change to bolt down the street with her right wing dragging behind her. Xev knew the man would catch up with her, but she had to try.
“Get back here, you little shit!”
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Post by blue on May 15, 2017 7:08:34 GMT
She was fucking exhausted. Her kind was not inclined to watch over its own young. There was a good reason for that, Siri was rapidly coming to understand. A reason above and beyond 'the young shall cannibalize so only the strongest survive'.
And that reason was: babies were fucking irritating.
It wasn't so much that hers were irritating on their own. Her boys were mostly independent, only wailing when they managed to get hurt but Blue's daughter, Elyna-Viona, was so damn loud. Blue said it was a mammal thing. That she cried when she was hungry and would for a few years still but when she started Desya and Motya started and with a chorus of three was deafening and she hadn't slept properly in a year.
Eventually she had taken off to an oasis five away from her cave and his house with the wailing hatchlings. She didn't really have much of an idea what people did for fun. Siri liked to collect her flowers but she hadn't found anything new in the surrounding area in a long while so might as well poke around a city in her half form.
She was very nearly ten feet tall, covered in blue-white scales with a lashing tail and great horns twisting out above her soft white hair. She wore no clothing, her scales and ice-cold blood kept her safe and she had her wings folded across her chest, thumb joints locked together as the membranes draped around her like a cloak. Only her face looked human. High, imperialistic features and glowingly blue eyes, and when she smiled she showed off wicked black teeth.
And thank the gods almighty, not a single damn child wailing into the night. If there were any wailing babies they were behind closed doors and most all children were sound asleep by this late hour. She wandered around, weaponless yet fearless as she poked around displays and casually blew icy smoke in the faces of people who got all up in hers.
Siri strode down th packed-sand road as it became clear that the market was getting close to closing wondering if she could find something else to do before going home. Maybe she could get into a fight? It had been a long time since she had eaten someone – Blue hadn't let her since they found out she was a shifter and not an actual dragon. It wasn't hard to find people to piss her off, she just needed to find a nice and sleazy looking bar . . .
Something small and light rammed into her, not even making her flinch before she turned, tail lashing and wings spreading menacingly. Small blue flames made the back of her throat glow as she looked down at the small, furry brat. “Fucking watch it,” Siri growled.
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2017 7:27:13 GMT
Xev had looked behind her to see where her pursuer was, but she saw no sight of him. Had he given up? Or was he waiting in an alley somewhere, waiting to snatch her again? Since she was loking behind her, Xev was not paying attention to what was in front of her. She completely missed the giant lizard lady and ran straight into her, stopping the small daemon in her tracks and onto her bum.
“Fucking watch it.”
She tried to shoot herself up, but found she did not have the energy to do so. Zev tried to get up, but could not. Instead of panicking she looked at the weird lizard lady and replied, “Fuck off, old lady.” She rolled out of the lady’s way and tried to get up again, completely forgetting that she had an over extended wing injury and yelped from the pain, falling back down to the ground. Suddenly out of no where (again), the man had returned and was standing above her with a menacing grin on his face.
He looked from Xev, to the woman and stated, “Sorry about my sister’s little girl. She can be over dramatic and a bit of a brat.” He looked back down at Xev and yanked her up to her feet.
It seemed like the man had not learned his lesson before. Xev dug her fangs deep into the back of his hand and pulled herself away, falling to the ground yet again. “Get the fuck away from me, you fucking freak.” She spat at the man. He screamed with rage and grabbed her by the large bat ears sticking out the sides of her head and she screamed from the pain. She could feel cartilage and skin tear from forcing them to hold her weight. If she had been any heavier, they would have completely torn and flopped over.
“PUT ME DOWN.”
“No. We’re going home.”
The man released her ears and let her fall once more to the ground, and began to drag her away by her injured wing. Xev flailed her feet around and screamed from both pain and rage. She looked at the woman dead in the eye, her own filled with tears, and pleaded. “Please help me. PLEASE.” Under most circumstances she would never ask for help, but she had yet to be caught in such a serious situation.
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Post by blue on May 15, 2017 8:52:39 GMT
Siri curled her lips back and her tail whapped at the ground like an irritated cat, spraying up thick plume of sand. Was she above hitting a child? No. She didn't think she was above hitting a child. She was going to hit the child.
But before she had the chance a man appeared and grabbed at it and handled it roughly. Mammals. How vexing.
“Yes, it is a brat,” she agreed.
Siri folded her wings back over her chest and turned her head, losing interest in the apparent family squabble as the child shrieked and fought back. It was the Boil, the abuse of children was commonplace and Siri was not versed in the culture of humanoids so did not bat an eye at the rough handling of the man's sibling's offspring. Only . . . Siri turned her head and regarded the man who claimed to be her uncle. Something felt wrong about the situation. It was hard to pin down what but something wasn't right.
“You – male,” Siri said. As a dragon her voice was impossibly deep and masculine but in this form her voice was far less intimidating. Still deep but without a true rumble but still difficult to ignore. “Why do you hold no resemblance to your sibling's offspring?” Her boys looked much like Blue's girl but the girl looked nothing like her. Siri had come to a few conclusions as to how much children resembled their parents and how much siblings ought to resemble one-another and this man did not fit.
“This brat's got wings, strange looking ears, and stranger looking legs,” Siri pointed out, ambivalent about any insult her words might hold. “So why don't you?”
She stepped closer and grabbed the child by it's other wing, not bothering to be delicate. Her hand was firm and unmoving, the strength of her larger form keeping the child from being torn from her grasp.
“And,” Siri said as her blue eyes flashed, “if it is your sibling's offspring then I don't you think you'd mind paying for its clumsiness? I don't like being run into.”
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Post by Deleted on May 15, 2017 9:13:06 GMT
The man seemed pleased with himself at first since the woman seemed content to let him take Xev away. He ignored her questions up until the point where he felt resistance pulling the child and looked to see that the massive woman had grabbed the other wing. Xev winced from her grip and the tension, but the pain in her injured wing hurt much more. It did not sound as if the lady was going to help her, but at least she stopped the man for at least a moment. Now what were her options?
Her kidnapper did not let go of her wing and took a few steps towards the woman, appearing agitated and a bit nervous at the situation. No doubt he was debating about just leaving the girl where she was and maybe finding her later. “That’s easy. She’s in her half-form, lady. We’re shifters. Do I have to explain everything to you? Let me take my sister. And I’m so sorry she ran into you. But I’m not paying you money for a simple accident. Now I’ll just be on my way.”
Now that Xev had less tension on her wing, she was not wracked with so much pain that she could think and speak for herself much better. She looked at the lady, then the man, and laughed. “That’s what you’re going to tell her? How fucking stupid are you, you twat?” Her head turned back towards the tall lizard lady and she retracted her fangs, then grew them longer again. “I’m not a shifter. I’m a daemon. If it were sunny out now I could literally just prove it by exposing myself in the sun if my fans weren't convincing enough. What a fucking moron.” She began to laugh more no matter the situation.
“Sister, you need to learn to shut your mouth. Mother wou-“
“Please, just fucking stop. You’re trying way too hard. He wants to cut off my wing and eat it for gods know why.” In retaliation, he pulled on her wing again and caused a scream to erupt from Xev. “Just…let me go for fucks sake and go eat some other urchin in the street.Not like there’s a lot of meat on me anyways. Been starving for weeks.” It was the sad truth, but she was not using it as a form of pity.
“And lady, I’m sorry for running into ya but I kind of don’t give a shit about manners when I’m running for my li- AH FUCK.” More shouts of pain came from her as the man grunted and began to tug on her wing, hoping the tall lizard lady would just drop the other one and let him be on his way.
“As you can see she’s just delusional. We look different because we do and she’s a distant relative anyways. So do me a favor and mind your own business, lady.”
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Post by blue on May 16, 2017 4:55:43 GMT
Her lips stretched apart in an imitation of a grin, showing off rows of long black teeth before she flicked her neon blue tongue out across her lips. “Sister? I thought you said it was your sister's whelp?” Her tongue flickered out between her lips again, tasting the air like the reptile she was. The man seemed to think he had a say in what was going to happen.
“Hmm? I don't remember asking nicely, meatsack. You can pay up or lose something more important.” Wouldn't Blue be pleased if she came home with money rather than flowers? He could add it to the hoard he kept hidden away!
Siri's eyes flicked down to regard the child but it didn't tell her anything she did not already know. “Is that right?” she said blandly. Siri squeezed the child's arm, getting a feeling for the meat on her bones. Many creatures sought after the sickly, young, weak, and old. It was efficient, but it was pathetic. A mark of a weak predator.
She cared nothing for the arguing and squabbling between the two. Instead she regarded the man, studying his build and guessing how he might sit in her stomach. Her hand did not change on the child's arm, certain that the man would not retreat without her. He was too stupid to realize he was mere feet away from something so much more dangerous than him.
“The only delusional one is you, if you think you're going to get out of this alive,” Siri said flatly She wasn't trying to be threatening, in her mind she was stating a simple fact.
While making eye contact with him, Siri slowly opened her jaws as wide as they could go before she suddenly yanked the girl backwards.
In an instant a massive dragon stood where a giant woman once had, now barely able to fit in the narrow street. She had pulled Xev as she changed so the girl was suddenly between two enormous forelegs, shielded by jet black claws, each one larger than her entire body, and a deep chest blotting out the sky overhead. Siri opened her huge jaws and a thick plume of blue flame escaped her jaws before she snapped her head forward to close her jaws around the man and rip him into gory, frozen pieces. He could escape, perhaps, but only if he was very fast or very, very strong.
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Post by Deleted on May 16, 2017 5:27:36 GMT
Holy shit the Boil was absolute hell.
One minute the lizard lady was spouting threats at the man, then next he was being gobbled up by her. Except she was a huge lizard! Xev stayed in place, not daring to move an inch out of fear that the giant lizard would step on her or maybe even eat her too. Her mouth was held agape as she stared at the giant and all her beauty. She was magnificent! Xev had never seen such a creature before. What kind of place was the Boil to house these types of people? Were people like her hiding in Spirit as well? Sure, she’d seen some weird shifters that turned into odd things, but never anything quite like a giant lizard!
She was so unsure of what to do as the lizard lady was busy tearing the man up. Should she move? Try to run away again? There were some splats of the man's blood that splattered their way onto Xev's cheek. Everything hurt and she had such little energy, so maybe she could crawl ferally. It felt more natural than walking on two legs and took less energy. Xev needed to make a choice soon though. For all she knew, she was next on the lizard’s eating list. She had run into the lady and told her to fuck off, after all. Xev was no kiss ass though. She wouldn’t apologize.
Making up her mind, she rolled out from under the lizard and began to crawl away into a nearby alley that was way too small for the lady to fit in. Of course Xev had no idea that the buildings could just be destroyed and she could be crushed underneath them.
Instead of fully retreating, she turned around and poked her head out from the alley. “Holy shit! You ate him! Or did something to him. There’s chunks everywhere!” The sheer amount of violence and gore was almost mesmerizing to her. It was just so amazing, such a show of strength. Oh how she longed to be that strong! Xev was not very literate or book smart, but she knew that daemons were naturally very strong when they are healthy. If only she could get healthy and put some meat on her bones, she could be strong enough to, to incite fear into others and have people are her mercy. How amazing that would be!
“Uh. You’re not going to eat me next, right? I don’t have meat on me….” Ugh, she had to stop using that excuse. Not like it would actually stop anyone. “That’s so fucking cool. I figured you were a shifter or somethin’ but I didn’t realize you were a giant fucking lizard! So badass.”
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Post by blue on May 16, 2017 5:59:06 GMT
Siri licked her lips and raised her chin as blood ran down between teeth as large as steak-knives . She ran cold, sub zero even. Most dragons had a furnace inside them but she had an unending blizzard and blood steamed off her skin even as it iced over. She breathed open mouthed and plumes of smoke escaped her nostrils on every exhale. She had missed the taste of live meat greatly.
The dragon shifted at the sound of the girl talking, raising one leg and wing so she could look around one lean shoulder. The shape of her head meant Siri could only put one eye on the child, and the crescent-shaped pupil circled around her iris as she focused on the now MUCH smaller child. Siri opened her mouth and closed it like a marionette as she spoke, the jerky movements not fitting the shape of her words as her voice sank into a pitch that could make glass rattle.
“He fancied himself a cannibal, it seemed the most fitting response.”
The blood on her face had frozen entirely and she shook her head, scattering shards of frozen ice across the street and leaving the scales of her face shimmering and white.
“No, I will not eat you. But others still might, mammals have a nice flavor and you're not very good at keeping yourselves alive.”
Siri spread her wings proper and flapped them a few times. “Dragon. Ice dragon, specifically,” she explained. Her bladed tail flicked and she wiggled her haunches a little before she took off, not sparing the child another glance as she rose through the air.
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