Author's Note: Bubbles is not human. Penny royal is an unsafe remedy from the Middle Ages. Use the Pill.
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The sword that the ratgirl was dragging wasn't just as long as the woman was tall, it was about as wide as her forearm, and Bubbles could feel the weight of it rumbling through the ground as the village protector moved towards them slowly.
"Run." Erientyara commanded, stepping in front of her.
The moment that the salamander moved, Bubbles was thrown backwards by a concussive force of wind. She hit the ground, flying ass over head as she tumbled from the blast. As she came up, scratching dirt out of her ears, she saw the enormous sword resting against the salamander's shoulder.
Maly-Kiel had crossed the distance in a single instance, bringing the ridiculous sized weapon to bear. The salamander's scales were flared, and she was growling, struggling to hold back the force of the pink-eyed monster.
Bubbles didn't hesitate. She spun on one foot and took off sprinting. Naked or not, she knew death when she saw it. So, she immediately pounced back into the building she'd just lit on fire, diving and rolling to snag her wedding dress, before diving towards a wall and lifting a hand.
"Fireball!" She yelled excitedly, dismissing the wood panelling before landing in a coughing mess of dust and ash. The neko sprinted off into the wheatfields excitedly, laughing despite the insane danger of it all.
She had magic!
She'd had magic, her whole life, of course. She could make things go pop. Mostly that was about as useful as someone inflating a paper bag and then clapping it. Sometimes she could go a little dark with it and make someone's brain bleed, if she was feeling... Sadistic.
However, she wasn't a neko with magic. She didn't compare to hooktooth like Phoenix. She was a useless little kitten who could sing for her supper, not much more than that.
Except... Now, she'd apparently caught the attention of a goddess. Her last little pop of air had sent an entire brigade stumbling, with Luna helping. And now, that silver neko had given her a present like none other.
Probably had been really fucking stupid to use it in a farming village that was barely surviving on the edge of the wastes. Fires are scary in the best of places, let alone somewhere it would be the last mistake a village could handle.
But she could throw fireballs! It wasn't even an effort, unlike her usual spell!
Bubbles struggled not to laugh giddily as she ran through the field, as well as struggling even more not to throw her hand up and just release another one. It was almost addictive, being able to create a massive ball of flame and wind, whenever and wherever she wanted.
Her humour vanished as pain lanced through her left shoulder.
The neko hit the ground, ploughing into it with a hiss. She gingerly touched the cut, looking in fear as her fingertips came back red. She looked up in terror at the ratgirl approaching her and tossing a knife in one hand.
Bubbles sat up slowly, trying to reach the knife embedded into her shoulder blade, as her bottom lip wavered, "She didn't even mean it!"
"Yeah, I got that. But Maly-Kiel is Maly-Kiel. She says your a danger. So we get rid of the danger." The ratata yawned.
The neko finally got her fingertips to the edge of the knife, but failed to grab it. She winced at the movement, and then glared at the pink-eyed woman approaching her, "Fine! Kill her if it'll make you happy!"
"Happy? I don't know what happy is. I'm the spare. My purpose for being is waiting for Maly-Kiel not to be Maly-Kiel." The ratgirl shrugged, "Is happy a good thing? I've heard it's a good thing."
Bubbles finally managed to get a finger and the knife hilt, and flicked it. She hissed as the blade slipped free and hit the ground. The neko staggered upright, "Happy? Happy!? Today is her fucking wedding day! Anyone who fucks up her day... Is going to -"
"I've got this one, kitten." Ninaein kissed her cheek, and walking by her, "Kaia? Mind taking the bride out of range?"
"Fireball!" Bubbles ignored both her women, too enraged to deal with it.
Inny-Kiel vanished even before the flames rolled out over the space. She didn't flicker or anything like that, she just wasn't there anymore. Instead, another knife reappeared in the same goddamned cut in Bubbles' shoulder, and the ratgirl was standing behind all three of them.
The bride squealed in pain, falling to the ground with tears welling up in her eyes. Ninaein screamed in rage, wheeling around, before wavering weakly as she tried to threaten with her bridal dagger, before letting out a spray of vomit and collapsing to the ground with no further ceremony.
Ninaein didn't even twitch, even as Bubbles scratched desperately at the ground, scooting to her sick wife's side. Her bottom lip trembled, her own injury meaning nothing in the face of this. So many warnings that Nina was sick, and shouldn't be doing anything.
Kaia jumped in front of them with a violent crack of her tail as her red eyes blazed into life. The succubus issued a snarl, "You come near mine, then I swear by any god that is listening, that I will end you."
"Really?" Inny-Kiel reappeared close enough to arrogantly flick the underside of the succubi's chin, before vanishing and reappearing out of reach. Teasing the poor woman.
"Save her." Bubbles whispered, crying and staring down, "Please, goddess. She knows it's selfish. But... S-save Nina!"
There was no strangely physical touch that wasn't there. No laughter from someone she couldn't see. There wasn't even a comforting presence. Bubbles felt nothing at all, in the moment when she thought she actually needed the goddess.
She started howling in pain, weeping and rubbing at her cheeks as Ninaein didn't so much as breathe. The ratgirl in question continued to tease at the increasingly furious Kaia, but Bubbles could feel her wife's emotions, now. Could feel the crushing powerlessness threatening to drag Kaia's depression up over her head and drown her.
Somewhere else there was the roar of a pissed off dragon, and the sound of steel on scale. It sounded like that particular fight was going about as well as this one was.
Rali might have been able to negotiate a peace, having the letter to the ratking or whatever, but Bubbles didn't know where the elf was, and she doubted that Inny-Kiel would actually give a flying fuck. The woman smelled like she was getting off on her cruelty.
Besides, if there really was a ratking, this wasn't his village.
Bubbles forced herself to her trembling feet. She dragged her wedding dress back over her head with deliberate slowness. The neko stepped up beside her succubus, putting a reassuring hand briefly on her shoulder before she stepped forward towards whatever fate awaited her with shining eyes.
Ninaein had started to feel what Bubbles could feel, so she had to assume that Kaia could, as well. She needed to do this quickly, before the ones that loved her tried to get in her way.
The neko glared at the arrogant thing, "It was her fireball. Let the others go. She'll let you kill her."
"Threats get put down. Doesn't matter where they come from." The pink-eyed woman was unimpressed, pointing a knife directly into the bottom of the catgirl's neck.
Bubbles smiled sadly, the light in her eyes flickering as she struggled to keep the magic bottled in. Struggled to keep the tiny yellow marble of energy, that she'd summoned into her core when she'd pulled the dress on, contained inside herself.
"Boom." The neko shrugged, and let go.
There was no time for Bubbles to close her eyes and relax into it. A fireball expands too rapidly for most creatures to escape, especially if they're arrogant little ratgirls who think they're halfway to invincible and toying with an assumed lesser creature.
Yet, instead of a little blip, or a wash of burning pain, she felt a strangely horrible impact and lurch. Falling over backwards as something tiny burst through her chest and lit up every nerve fibre in pain.
Bubbles fell down to one knee, holding her chest and feeling like she wanted to vomit. In front of her a tiny figure tossed the yellow ball directly up into the air, right as it expanded and threatened to blow out her ear drums as the heat struck them.
The small figure's pink tail swished back and forth, "Odpieprz sie."
Inny-Kiel stared in surprise and then very slowly sheathed her dagger. She scratched the side of her head, "You're defending this piece of gowno?"
"Odpierdol sie, dziwko!" The small rat screamed.
The ratgirl rolled her eyes, "I might not be willing to screw you, but Maly's on her way. And you have to do what she says."
Bubbles groaned, and spat a mouthful onto the ground, "What... Did you do to her!?"
"Hullo! I speak Common." The tiny ratboy smiled nervously at her.
Before the catgirl could choke out a frustrated retort, Kaia's voice kicked out, "Ninaein's still not breathing, Bubbles! So unless you also got some kind of healing with this new fireball spell, can we get the fuck out of here, and somewhere safe!?"
The neko hissed, before turning and sprinting over. She hauled the thief onto her shoulder and staggered upright, looking at her other wife with more than a hint of anger.
Kaia waved, "Go!"
"Hullo! I speak Common." The rattan shoved Kaia, and then turned to bare their claws at the much, much bigger rat.
The succubus sighed, rolled her eyes, and then took off sprinting. As she did, she swept Bubbles into her arms, including the thief she was struggling to carry. The three of them fled across the now-burning fields, leaving behind their surprising saviour.
Bubbles felt more than a little guilt at taking advantage of Inny-Inny's obsession with her, but she was much more concerned that her just-married wife might be dying on her.
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Ninaein was leaning up against a tree, completely passed out. Kaia had managed to get the woman breathing again, but that was about the limit to the medical expertise between the two of them.
Which meant that Bubbles was sitting nearby, holding her knees and rocking anxiously.
What she really needed was a certain woman that she'd said she hated, and then fed a fireball directly into her reptilian jaws. Right before causing a disaster that meant that same woman was probably fighting for her life against a rattan born to fight who had no concept of slowing down and an insane amount of pain tolerance.
Kaia was looking relaxed, pretending to sit and idly play with Ninaein's clothes, as if she were considering pickpocketing the thief. Unfortunately, Bubbles could feel the sheer bloody panic of her wife. The woman was convinced that Nina was dying, and didn't know what to do about it.
