Terrified and vibrant purple eyes looked at the nervous human, or whatever he was, when he wasn't pretending. Tauli took a deep breath, before interlacing her fingers into Skip's, hoping that he could be a little understanding as they arrived at the entrance to Xeitau.
The capital city of Lytia, technically, wasn't the city. Rather it was this expansive city-within-a-city. This sealed place, where only royalty and theirs were permitted to walk, or even breathe. Servants seen as a necessary evil, as they sat on thrones above the world.
Her own fears were mostly about introducing her new friend to her grandfather. The man was not precisely known for his calm and rational outlook on the world. That she was being called to speak to him, for overriding his authority, was probably going to involve few words, and many claws.
Not exactly the visage of her family that she wanted to give Skip. Not that she wanted him to meet them at all.
The guards with the two of them, greeted those guarding the only entrance into the city. The royal guards responded by drawing weapons, and sneering, "Halt! Come no further. None may enter -"
"I real sick of dis shit." Tauli said tiredly, "Dis is ma city, and ya ma guards 'n shit, so shut da fuck up, and gets outta ma way, 'fore I eat someone. Even if it be pissin' on granddaddy if I dids. I don't take kindly ta people takin' what mine. Ma name, ya fookin' cunts, is Tauli!"
The royal guards looking at each other curiously, before suddenly all of them raised shields and aimed their spears at the axomander.
She groaned tiredly, and squeezed Skip's hand, "Sorry, 'bout dis. Aints much like no one be meetin' o' ma. Not on the regular."
She rolled her shoulders and gave a small yawn, before the small ivory horns ascended through her hair. The crown encircling her skull, before her pupils widened to fill her eyes with blackness.
Tauli glared at the guards in her partial transformation, "Last chance, fuckers. Lower dem weapons, 'n stop threatenin' ma Skip, or I fucks ya up. Not like I needin' ta enter my own fookin' city tru da gate. Could just be walkin' tru any damn wall. But dey ma walls."
"I think they're threatening you. Not me." Skip whispered nervously.
She giggled, "Threatenin' ma? Nah. Spear or no shit, dat not 'nuf ta hurts on ma. Ya shoulda picked up on dat one, by noaw. Ya the only one in danger. Oh, 'n I s'pose da assholes who escortin' ma. But I don't give no shit or nothin' 'bout dem."
"You dare to claim to be our princess?" The leader of the guards sneered, and stepped forward, driving the spear through Tauli's shoulder and out the other side. Her skin rippled with a rainbow sheen as it pierced her, and she hissed in pain.
She turned her eyes to the attacker, and a black smoke began to escape from the corners of her mouth. "I... Done... Fookin' had it! Skip! Shut ya fookin' eyes!"
The world was weak and fragile.
Nothing but papyrus.
Metal and bone fell aside as her teeth moved through them. Broken into shards even before her jaws closed down. Crushed flat against the roof of her mouth. The voices of the damned soothing to the rage that filled her heavy hearts, as she granted their stupidity the reprieve of death.
Her pink feelers defied the pull of gravity, ignored the commands of the wind, as she danced through the idiots faster than the pupils in their eyes could widen. They couldn't even register their surprise before they found themselves halfway into her gurgling stomach.
She wasn't going to be taking a solid shit for a week. The bones and metal weren't so bad. However, she'd already indulged by eating the fried chicken with Skip. Adding a whole heap of raw flesh to that, and her intestines were going to issue their complaint, loud and clear.
She might have been born as a child of a salamander, she might carry the moniker of the Pink Dragon, but she was not a carnivore. People might call the poorly-trained fools of the world, diamonds in the rough, but her digestive system knew the difference, and it only wanted the real thing.
The guards who had accompanied them stood frozen, most too terrified to consider fleeing. She ignored those. She had no issues with them, she had a problem with the idiots who had threatened the things that were hers. She had a problem with the disrespect.
She had a problem being told she was lying when she gave her own damned name.
Tauli ripped a shirt from one of the nearby guards who wasn't covered in the grime of her outrage. She groaned and dragged it through her hair, making a face as she did. "I just fookin' had a bath, 'n all. Fuck's sake. I needs a real swim 'n shit, ta cleans up dis mess."
"I don't want to open my eyes, do I?" Skip breathed.
She glanced over at him and winced at the skattering of brains across his own clothing. She hadn't been able to spare him from the chaos of it all. Her tantrums never were... Tidy.
She pointed at another guard, "Swap clothes 'n shit wit' 'im."
"Y-y-your grace?"
She rolled her eyes, "He done meetin' ma granddaddy. Give 'im ya bitchin' clothes! Or does ya want 'im frontin' da bitchin' king in fookin' gore 'n shit?"
---
It had been so long since Aetauin had thought about the Pink Dragon, and everything that she owed to that one.
She had devoted herself to Regius, in the years since the creation of the Pale, when Tauli had attempted to obliterate her and everyone else. When the woman had been forced to actually take a stand against those seeking to bring harm against her.
The saltwater toxic stretched herself up the side of the tower. Her fluids running through the cracks in the mortar, carrying her up smoothly like a viral infection attempting to penetrate the living mess of an oblivious mortal.
She blobbed for a moment at the top and almost fell over backwards. She giggled to herself, and then stepped forward, leaving little wet footprints behind her. Guiltily shuffling, trying to keep quiet as she walked into the nest of the axomander, uninvited.
Aetauin put one hand up against the water tank, before flattening her face into the glass. She stared into the place where her progenitor swam on a daily basis, and shivered in excitement.
Her nose popped out as she pulled herself back, and she walked over to what turned out to be a wardrobe of clothing. Dust had settled on the fancier dresses, though there were recent handprints on those. There were also several military uniforms, probably stolen by their differing sizes.
Aetauin considered slipping into some of the more regularly worn clothes, but figured that would be pushing her luck. Tauli was a possessive individual.
As much as the toxic loved her lord, she knew that she felt more for the one who had tried to kill her. It was natural, of course. Aetauin had been created to try and wipe out Tauli, and she had failed. She was released from that duty, now.
There was an opportunity here, to let the two of them connect.
