It stung and burned as the blades moved themselves back into place. The only hint of them remaining was simply the rose gold line that dotted her spine like a dorsal stripe. A bare dorsal stripe, with no flame to accompany it, despite the faintest hints of a lick from a fire escaping now and then. Yet, the blood began to clot and she tried to pay it no mind as it began to harden in a darkened scarlet hue against her golden pelt. The only thing that seemed to glimmer and glow beside her hidden flame was the X along her chest, seeping a glowing teal goo that Kiada wasn’t sure if it would ever heal.
And yet she tried to change the conversation, to shift it, to make fun and light of what happened. But there was no light here. There was so much darkness, so much sadness, so much of everything she hated. And Erebos’ first set of words after leaving her side so she could place the armor back where it came from would have sent shivers down her spine if she hadn’t been in the same place. She couldn’t have stayed, her mother made sure of that. But oh, how she wished she could have remained, to fight the fact that Kaos had killed so many she had loved.
She nodded quietly to him, then, unable to agree or speak for the moment; simply watchful to see what else the prince might have to say. To her surprise, however, a barking laugh escaped his dark lips, and she wanted so badly to feel relief, but it was hollow. Instead, it ached a dull pounding pain in her chest despite the ghost of a smile on the corners of her lips. “Sometimes I’m filled with so much rage I think I might burst.” Oh how she agreed. He continued, and it was as if he was reading her mind.
The ghost of the smile left her lips as he asked how she was after it all, and all she could do for the moment was lower her head to remove the bladed faceplate, to let it lie in the grass as she looked back at Erebos, taking a few steps closer to him and reaching her muzzle out in the hope that he might allow her soft touch along his shoulder. “Honestly, I feel the same.” She admitted, pulling away for a few moments. “My brother and father are missing. Khairi can hardly move, though he gets somewhat better with the days. I can’t hear him anymore.” She let her gaze sweep away from the slate hued orbs of Erebos to the outer forest. “Kaos killed Ru’in and Romina, and I watched helplessly.” Her voice cracked when she mentioned Ru’in’s name, a sorrowful gleam lingering in her eye as she looked down.
“I didn’t think this would be how it ended, so soon, so abrupt. Kaos told me if I helped him I would be rewarded.” Her head lifted up quickly, eyes defiant as she aimed to capture Erebos’ gaze. “I was naïve, a stupid child.” Kiada’s voice grew laced with frustration and anger. And then she got an idea, her ears once pinned back against her head now perking forward with interest. “He must be stopped. We must break him.” She murmured, quietly, timidly, in the same manner that she had asked him of his fire magic when she first met the prince – when he made her think of what kind of leader she wanted to be. And she had answered him, then, that she would be a leader not to be messed with.
Rainforest Cliffs
Erebos <3
