Mirror Soul

Chapter Thirty Nine: The Storm After the Calm

Ravel crawled away from the creature before her. Her soul was low on power and her legs were as unresponsive as always. Baron was unrecognizable. He had the head of a bull, with the curled horns of a rams, and a lion’s mane. He sported a thick elephant trunk, with a rhino's horn at the tip that dangled unnaturally from his top of his scaly aligator snout. His height and posture had changed as well. The court member now towered over the horizon at the size of a bear on its hind legs, and had a body to match. 

From the neck to his torso was the appearance of a grizzly with the fur patterns of multiple big cats. From his waist down was the abdomen and hairy legs of a tarantula. It didn’t stop there however. Baron donned the powerful arms of a gorilla and the claws of a tiger. Finally, to top it off, the wings of a peregrine falcon sprouted from his back.  

“Tell me, Horizon.” He said in a voice deeper than before, his alligator snout hanging open as his incompatible vocal cords forced out the words. “Where did that smile of yours go?”

Ravel’s blood ran cold at the sight of him. She began crawling as fast as she could, the hard floor drew blood from her frantic, bruised fingers. “Not so fast.” Baron walked towards her, his spider’s legs piercing through the hard wood floor with each step. He caught her quickly, hauling her up by her unbound auburn hair. Ravel let out a scream.

“Oh wait, I guess you can’t do anything fast now, huh?” The court member mocked.

Ravel tried to pry the man’s fingers off her hair, but with his gorilla grip he was too strong. “S-sir, ple-”

The man aimed his elephant trunk at Ravel’s neck; the sharp rhino horn at the tip drew a drop of blood. “My name is Baron!” He shouted in her face, his alligator breath repugnant. “Call me anything else and we’ll see what other body parts we can cripple. Do you understand?”

Ravel hesitated to speak, fearing if she moved the horn would pierce her. Baron chuckled. “What now, oh wise one? You won’t attack me and now you can’t even preach to me anymore! Do you now see that I spoke the truth?”
Despite belittling her, Ravel knew what he was doing. The fact that he was still trying to get her to accept his philosophy proved that he wanted someone else to validate it. It showed her that he wanted to sell himself on his own views. 

“Answer me!” He snapped, yanking her hair harder. “Admit it! You can’t stop violence with words! Admit that this world answers to power alone! Admit tha-” Baron trailed off as he saw Ravel give him a look he hadn’t expected. The last thing he expected to see in this privileged girl’s eyes was calm.

“Is that… really what you want?” She asked, the small movement caused the horn to draw more blood. She ignored the pain and continued. “Here you are attacking a person who wishes you no harm, abusing your power in the same manner your employer did.”

Baron tensed up, his face contorting from the realization. “All you’ve done is continue this cycle!” Ravel proclaimed, frustration filling her words. “All you’ve done is kept this… wheel of hatred and violence spinning, but it stops with me! I don’t care who you are sir, I will never sink dow-”

The court member repositioned his trunk and stabbed his horn through the girl’s shoulder. “I thought I told you… my name is Baron.”

Ravel screamed out in pain as blood gushed from her arm. She had never felt pain like this. Tears spilled from her eyes as she wailed. 

W-why?

Even with an alligator’s snout and through her blurry vision she could see that Baron was smiling.

I didn’t attack him! I just tried to reason with him!

Baron licked her blood off his trunk while he chuckled. “Now you only have one limb, I suggest you shut that naive mouth of yours.”