Toofy

Sai raised an eyebrow as the bottom of the moving carriage suddenly opened and a woman flipped up and into it.

She instantly dispatched the two guards riding with him, slamming their heads together before landing on the seat between the now slack figures.

Her orange eyes flicked around, and to his chains, before she spoke with a pout, "Ya a'got'in be kiddin' me. Ya a prisoner? Fuck'in sake. Where be da gold?"

He considered the kitsune in front of him, and smiled slowly, "You remind me of someone else I know. She has a poor grasp of rules, as well. Might I ask how you managed to survive the purge?"

"Purge'in bein' for da lords and da ladies." The woman rolled her eyes, which was when Sai noticed that she didn't have just one fluffy tail. She had... Several.

He wasn't entirely well versed on the exotic species, but from what he knew, each additional tail appeared after something close to a hundred years.

Whatever was in front of him might appear to be a young woman, barely in her twenties, but she was older than he was. Older, fiercer, and likely with substantial magical abilities.

"You're interested in gold?" He asked her cautiously.

She smirked, showing her teeth, "Ya be a prisoner. What ya be doin' aboot gold?"

"A lord, and a prisoner. Hence the carriage." He replied simply, "I am, in point of fact, about to be released. Sent to fight a war, to repay me for killing someone. You strike me as a... Survivor. Useful, in the right contexts."

She snorted, "I ain't be workin' for ya. I be takin' ya gold or life. Dat's how dis works."

"No." His eyes glowed a bright green, "It really isn't."

Her eyes became frightened, and she tried to scoot further back in her seat, "Da fuckin' fuck! How be a human wid da magic? Fuck! Ya one of dem murderin' bastards! Army monsters."

"Yes. I am quite the abomination." He agreed.

His head hit the wall of the carriage as she leapt towards him, placing a knife to his throat and snarling, "Speak, and ya be dead."

He rolled his eyes.

He had no need to speak to cast magic. That was something that was needed for other species, but not for a human. The rare ones that gained magic were all capable of shadow casting.

The kitsune sniffed him uncertainly, and then broke into a wide smile. "I be recognizin' ya scent. Ya were on the maid, sorta faded. Master of the cat?"

"Toofy." His face split into a huge grin, "You know my mistress?"

"Nah. But she be knowin' of me." The kitsune replied with a smirk, and then licked his cheek. Her tongue was long, smooth but rougher than human, and dripping wet. "Try be explainin' dat to her."

With that, the woman vanished back through the floor.

He was tempted to go after her. A kitsune, especially one as flexible and stealthy as that one, would be a definite boon to him with the task he was expected to undertake.

However... It concerned him that she seemed to intentionally trying to piss Toofy off.

What was between them?

How was it that Toofy was aware of the kitsune, but the two didn't actually know each other?

Sai was almost certain that the magical surge he had felt during the trial had been created by his little neko. He was quite worried about her, and what she may have had to do to keep Lord Castelle alive.

She didn't have the instinct to stop and pull back when approaching something dangerous or forbidden. She did whatever she needed to, if it would accomplish her goals.

Without Sai there to caution her, he wasn't certain that she was even capable of stopping herself.

He needed to follow the letter of his instructions, or life would get more difficult for Toofy. Things were already going to be hard enough for his mistress, without him further inconveniencing her.

He wiped the slobber from his cheek onto his sleeve, and tried to put the oddity out of his mind.

He was soon to be heading to a losing battle, and must succeed.

The kitsune may have been helpful, but that was merely a passing coincidence. He had others he could make use of to turn this around.

He would make the orcs remember the name of Thunderstep.

---

"Lady Twenty Four?" Xivian asked cautiously, entering the room with a small bowl of liquid.

Toofy snarled angrily from where she had curled up in Arina's lap. The prone handmaiden lying in the bed, propped up on pillows but as silent and still as ever.

The half-elf swallowed nervously, "Lady Castelle sent me with medicine. It is supposed to help ease one from nightmares. She thought that it might -"

"Get the fuck out before Toofy eats you!" She yelled, claws extending and scratching the wood as she grabbed the edge of the bed.

The handmaiden dropped the bowl, and ran crying from the room. It shattered as it hit the floor, porcelain flying in every direction. The clear liquid soaking into the carpet.

Toofy winced, trying to force it back down, before hacking and coughing up a mangled furball onto the ground. A sign of the anxiety that had taken control of the catgirl.

She ripped a tuft of fur out of one her ears, before sobbing and curling to a tighter ball in Arina's lap. Keening and warbling wordlessly, her high pitched yowls echoing around the room.

Her Arina. Her Elia. Her Sai.

Those three were the only people in the entire world that Toofy gave two shits about.

Lady Liz and Xivi had been fun, but they were only a means to an ends. She had tried to make them enjoy the journey, but she had no interest in being comforted by them.

She would kill them without a second thought.

She needed her Arina back. She wanted the quiet woman, the breathless joyful sighs, the self-conflict on enjoying the company of another woman. She wanted Arina's little stumbling denials before she gave in and let Toofy lick her places.

Toofy sobbed, and turned her golden eyes to those that lay shut. She unwrapped her body just enough to lean up and kiss the cold cheek. Sniffling as she whispered, "Please. Just wake up."

The rest of her body shuffled, until it was curled up atop the woman's soft chest, letting Toofy wrap her arms around her head as she kicked her boots off and onto the floor. Rubbing her face into Arina's hair, breathing in her scent.

It smelled like her.

There was no scent of horror or pain. A brief and irritating smell of fox, but no reason that Arina should not be awake.

Arina couldn't hear her.

Couldn't hear Toofy desperately telling her to give up, and let the gods send her back. Whatever the consequence was, Toofy would take it. All she wanted was her Arina.

She threw back her head and let out an ear-piercing howl.

---

Elia cracked open one painful eyelid, glaring around the shadows that she found herself in.

She didn't really remember how she got here, and she felt like she'd been run over by a carriage. Her hands felt frail, and she was quite confident she couldn't even walk.

The dark room was some kind of storeroom, boxes all around her. Some showed wine bottles, others were sealed, and a few more showed copper and rubber contraptions that were obviously marital aids.

She tried to smile, but found her cheeks hurt too much for it.

The succubus could smell it in the air. She was in a place that worshipped sex. The fluids of male and female spilling, over and over. A place where lustful appetites were sated.

For her, a place where she could gorge herself.

She felt her tail try and flick excitedly, and pain shoot all the way up her spine. The damned thing was broken, bones shattered. It fucking hurt.

She let out a pained grunt, and moved her eye around some more, trying to work out exactly where she was.

The wine was cheap. From Lord Sai's estate. Which meant that this wasn't a high class establishment. Probably just another whorehouse, not a place for escorts or concubines.

The taste of the lust as she ate it from the air was thick, filled with angry desires. It came from people looking to fuck, and never speak again. Not from ones that loved each other.

It was also quite popular.

She could taste mostly humans, but a few scraps of other races. Maybe some elf, and maybe some dragon, but not much of it. Certainly nothing to suggest a pure born, and there was no other succubi competing to eat at their desire.

It was all hers.

Still, with how broken up she was, she doubted that this was going to be a fast recovery time. She'd even probably have to sleep at least once a day, for the next few days.

Someone must have brought her here, for her to recover. Yet, the only sign she could find of them was the sheet she was lying on. It smelled of human hands, but her nose wasn't sensitive enough to get more than that.

Seemed safe to assume the sheet came from the Castelle estate.

Nothing seemed to smell or remind her of Toofy, however. Which was extremely concerning to her.

Had the catgirl finally given up and tried to kill her?

Was this Lord Yu, saving her life and making her indebted to him, so that he could force her back into his service?

Or had she been caught up in some other political machination? The emperor or palace could be taking their revenge for her trying to glamour her way into his presence.

Elia had asked Lord Yu once if he had a contingency plan to kill the emperor. The drunk had laughed and said that it'd be easier to plan the death of a god than the bastard who ruled them.

Apparently his codename during the war had been Immortal. Sai was the Thunderstep, Tyre was Shifter, and the emperor had been the Immortal.

Yu hadn't explained further, and had been punishing any time that he found Elia trying to pry.

Whatever the case, she felt like shit.

Her body was happy to bathe in the lust, slowly healing itself, but her mind was absolutely not. The idea of being stuck in a single place was anathema to the succubus.

She was an assassin, bred, raised, and trained.

The list of enemies that she had made in her short time on this world was longer than she'd be willing to admit. Her association with the temple was likely the only thing that had protected her.

Now... Now she was the plaything of a titled lady, but one that probably wouldn't be keeping her title much longer.

Anyone with a decent view into the politics of the capital might see her as easy pickings and send someone to end her.

Elia strained, trying to crawl her way off the sheet. Her tail wasn't the only broken thing. Her legs were still shattered, and her spine barely felt intact.

She seethed, little plumes of dark smoke popping from between her fangs as she scrabbled on the ground.

---

Meerakeilian's jet black eyes flickered between the man standing confidently in front of her in his naked majesty, and the wood that she was carving ever so carefully.

The collar on her neck was uncomfortable, scraping at her scales, as her sweat ran beneath it from the effort she was putting in. She tugged at it continually, but it never seemed to sit quite right.

She growled out a series of angry cursewords at both the collar, and the inferior wood she was being forced to work with. If the tree had been something decent like ironwood she wouldn't have to be this damned delicate.

The man modelling for her spoke in the cursed human tongue towards her, "Anything amiss, my little exotic artist?"

Meerakeilian struggled to find the words for it, "Grows weak, grows like snapping bones. Take and make, not bought with the gold."

He chuckled softly, "It is delicate, unlike the forests of your homeland, isn't it? But birch is seen as holy, and so I have little choice but to use it. There are things even the emperor must do, lest the people think of replacing him."

She looked at him, trying to put the words into terms that she understood, but utterly failed to do so. "You take. Respect is bought. Respect is taken. Fear the king."

"Oh, if only." He chuckled, "Humans are more complicated than that, I'm afraid. Even if they can't kill me, they don't always fear me. They don't respect those with gold, they crave to steal it, instead."

She blinked several times, and then went back to the wood carving. Gently blowing flames to scorch away the places she had scratched at. She understood wood, not humans.

The emperor laughed at her obvious lack of comprehension.

"For example, though I rule this place, they tell me things I shouldn't say to you. Like your name."

She shrugged, trying to ignore his inane chatter. She didn't give a single damn for his words. She wanted the silver and gold to add to her trove.

She was a dragon, among lesser creatures.

That was all there was to her.

"I heard the rascal hurt you."

She paused, mid-breath, and raised her eyes back to him. Saw the mirth in the infuriating creature as he tried to prompt a response out of her. Trying to get under her scales.

She growled quietly, "She took Mia's honour. She will be repaid in full."

"No she won't. You're just a slave." He said plainly, "She's not. Not anymore. In point of fact, she is now my ambassador, carrying my authority. You, are a slave."

Meerakeilian let out a rabid growl of anger, engulfing her jaws in angry green flames before she got it under control. She twitched, her tail flicking angrily and cracking the fragile tiles beneath her.

The emperor looked at her in amusement, "Does this make you want to attack me? You could try it, if you liked. My guards won't come until they're needed."

"Stink of death." She replied, snorting smoke, "Not take what cannot be taken. Path of the Madgod."

He frowned, "The neko smelled something similar on me. I haven't personally killed anyone for near enough to a decade. How is it that you exotics can smell death on me?"

Being compared to the cat was nearly enough to snap Meerakeilian's patience. Being compared to the thing that had stolen part of her tail, and then cooked and eaten it whilst she lay bleeding on the ground.

She had taken months to relearn how to walk, her balance destroyed.

The salamander would give her right heart to be allowed to take the life of that particular cat. The fight would be hard won, but it was enough she would give away her entire trove to see it happen.

"Human." She addressed him carefully, trying to show some semblance of respect, "Human in appearance. In spirit, like the winged ancestors. Felbeasts of the stormlands."

He laughed at her comparison, "I remind you of an elder dragon? Well, well. I think I'm flattered. I might be something... Different... But I wouldn't have gone that far. Except... You can't lie, can you? You view me that way."

She nodded firmly, and tried to turn her attention back to the art.

He dropped his pose, to her utter rage, and touched one of the scars on his leg that she had already carved into place. "See this one? I received it from a black salamander. If my pronunciation is correct, Irrleichdan."

Her hands dropped from the sculpture, and she looked at him with horror as tears began welling up in her eyes. She uttered a series of growls and grunts, demanding an explanation.

The emperor looked at her in quiet amusement, and shrugged, "I am the ruler of this world, little exotic. There are few races that have not lost great and respected heroes to my exploits. You should know who you serve."

The salamander grabbed a hot coal and shoved it into her mouth, chewing on the hot stone as she fought back her tears and tried to return to her work.

He walked over to examine her progress, forcing her to continue from memory, and admired it. "Your artistry is fascinating to me. Wood cut by clawed hands, and then detailed by wood burning. I have admired the Eternity Tree in the Temple, your design, for some time."

She let out a low and mild growl, trying to insist that she was being deferent to him.

He fearlessly picked up a hot coal from her fireplace, his skin failing to burn or melt like she expected it should.

The human held it out to her, gesturing.

Meerakeilian took it gently from his fingers, crushing it brutally between her fangs as she shared this oddly sympathetic gesture with him.

The emperor smiled at her, and picked up another. "It is not for your art that I arranged us to meet. That was merely an excuse to ensure our privacy. No one can walk in on us, whilst I am disrobed, unless they fear for my life."

The salamander licked the coal out of his hand with a flash of her forked tongue. "Listen."

"I have come to hold two beliefs, quite recently. Firstly, that lacking exotics among my most prized concubines is an unforgivable oversight. I should make some into my ladies of the court." He offered her a tempting touch of power and influence.

She nodded slowly, as he passed her yet another coal.

"Secondly... That though she is utterly fascinating, the neko that is called Twenty Four is a threat to my empire. Not a personal threat, but a threat to order."

Meerakeillian struggled for a moment, "Freed slave."

He nodded, "That was intentional, and part of the plan. As my ambassador, she goes to dangerous places, with my authority. If she returns from them, alive, I will be... Angry."

The salamander nodded slowly, not fully understanding, but close enough.

"Kill her for me." The emperor ordered her. "I will make you my concubine, and give you a title."

She hated, despised, the idea of becoming his property. She was a salamander, a dragon, and he was nothing but a human. No matter what he smelled like.

However, he was offering her payment for the unmaking of the cat that had stolen from her.

She let out a gentle white smoke from within her throat, rumbling her agreement deep in her gut. "It will be. I take. I take."

"Oh good." He said and returned to where he had been standing, "When you have completed your piece, I will appoint you as an ambassador, freeing you, and you will be sent to deliver the sculpture to the same place I have sent the neko. Don't take too long to finish."

"Two suns." She flicked her tail excitedly, grinding her teeth as she salivated over the thought of crushing the bones of the cat between them.

---

Screaming filled the halls of the Castelle state home, as Elizabeth found herself dragged into a sideroom by several of the footmen. They barricaded the door, and one of them set up his pike towards the windows.

She looked around in surprise and anxiety.

A few moments ago she had heard the heart-wrenching scream of her precious little catgirl, and then all hell seemed to have broken free.

Sai's peers had stayed behind after the trial, mostly to discuss the near-death of her husband. She had been serving them tea, when she heard the cry and decided to check on Lady Twenty Four.

Then the screaming had started.

Screams that were drilled into her head, unlike any she had ever heard before. She knew instinctively what they were. These were the voices of the condemned, the dying.

There was nothing like it, in all of her experience.

Panicked footmen ran in every direction, trying to either evacuate the guests, or barricade them down like they had for her.

Beneath all the screaming, and inching closer with each passing moment, Elizabeth could hear a deep growling. The sound of some kind of beast, but though it was familiar to her, she could not place it.

She could hear the clatter of weaponry in the hall outside the door, of armoured men moving into position.

She fell to her knees, planting her hands over her ears as she heard them fall to the ground.

The growl was all she could hear now, propelling her heart to frantic heights. A heartbeat that she knew the beast out there could hear.

The padding of its feet was silent, if it were not snarling then she would not know where it was, at all.

A frightened tear crept down her cheek, and she heard a snarl coincide with it. Her bladder tried to free itself from her control, and then the growls were gone.