Turning Tail [Reader x Doldia Girls]

08 | Victim By Nature

Blankets of stars above stretch on seemingly forever, holding up the silver moon and its beautiful little ornaments dangling all around. Just a background of black harboring dots of light.

Ranoa is as quiet as the sky. At a time like this, street markets are packed up and lie dormant until the following day, the cityfolk are cooped up in their homes taking in the warm hospitality of firewood and flame. Streets are faintly illuminated by the soft spill of light coming from these homes, and at the top of it all sits the magic academy, the brightest beacon of all.

It's calming. Walking around the city brings about an air of serenity and silence. Before you realize it, a soothed smile is crawling up onto your face.

Pursena mumbles something as she walks ahead of you, arms crossed. She's not talking directly to you, exactly, though it's hard to say if she's talking to anything at all. You feel yourself gravitating closer toward her, gradually closing the gap that has slowly been amounting between you.

"Linia thinks she's slick," is all Pursena says, stopping you from asking her what the deal is. Her eyes are trained on the path at her feet. "I'm not stupid. I'm not stupid."

She sees you at her side and pauses, making a face like she'd forgotten she told you to come walk with her. You meet her ruby eyes, wondering what's going on in that toxic, careless head of hers.

"What about Linia?" you say. Pursena stops in her tracks and finds a risen brick wall along the path, low enough to sit on. She lifts herself onto it and looks at you, then gestures for you to join her.

You get up and sit on the wall with her. She looks content now, if that's really even possible for her, so she begins to explain. "Listen. I'm just gonna come out with it."

She takes a moment to collect her thoughts and form a sentence.

"I'm going to marry you, Y/N."

...

Huh. That's odd. You don't feel even the slightest spark of surprise. Your eyes fixate on hers, clueless, your brain struggling to piece everything together. It's stuck in a fragmented loop of error.

Marry me? Marry me? Marry... me?

"Why?" is just about the only word that comes to mind, and the only word that leaves your lips. Pursena's gaze wanders to the endless sky, the stars twinkling luminously in her vision.

"If I wed you, we'll be bound to one another by law of my tribe. That's all I'm good for in my family anyway — finding someone to marry, settling down, and letting the other person do most of the heavy lifting. At least, if I choose not to become a warrior."

She speaks with such confidence and certainty that it becomes clear as day to you: she's not playing. She's not saying this for kicks and giggles. Pursena is staring at the sky with a wondrous expression upon her face, her tail shifting ever closer to you, threatening to wrap around your waist, and her intentions are absolute.

"If I marry you," she continues after the pause between you, "Linia will be out of the picture. That's how it works. She'll be forced to find her own person of interest, her own... spouse."

"You really think I'd marry you?" You just come out with it, no hesitation. The firmness of your voice brings Pursena's full stern attention back to you. She's glaring.

"After everything you and your sister put me through, you think I'd just bow down to you and become your slave for life?" you continue, clenching tight the edge of the wall beneath you. "You're crazy."

"Slave?" Pursena lifts an eyebrow. "I guess you could put it that way, but I'd prefer to call it... I dunno... servant."

"What's the difference if all you want me for is to treat you and feed you and be your babysitter?"