"Trust extended is a tentative, tender thing."
The vixen's name was Naliyen and she was beautiful in her vicious nature and crippling attacks. Eve certainly didn't count the kid out, now that she wasn't hiding from her, Tynamar was quickly showing that she inherited her mother's taste for blood but watching the adult was a work of art. The sheep had gotten sidetracked more than a few times watching the red-furred fox tear through the less organized cultist like paper, spitting on their corpses while Eve extracted the bones. There was a story there, a tale of pain that would result in this sort of hatred for followers of The Worm but Eve didn't know her well enough for her to divulge and the ewe wasn't the sort to go prying.
She ended up being quite the useful extra set of paws when they stumbled upon another of the Worm's most loyal that had allowed itself to be converted.
" Barbatos," she sneered with menace, Tynamar quickly ducking off into a corner this time as her more rushed forward with a cry of fury.
It was almost embarrassingly easy to take care of whom Eve assumed was one of the Worm's more deadly servants with the fox drawing the burrowing beast's attention each time it emerged. Sure, it occasionally shot out streaks of earth and the burrowing make the half-standing ruins they were battling in begin to shake and tremble from the grooves being unearthed but with a quick slash of her own palm, she had blood to launch curse after curse at the beast from a distance.
It still took a while - it was far more resilient than either of its comrades and periodically spat painful balls of green acid that splashed, burning painfully through the wool growing over her limbs - but with it so distracted, it was to no surprise that she was able to chuck her blade directly into it's side, into an already open wound and the beast screamed.
Rushing forth while she had the chance, the power of the red crown burning in her veins, Eve grasped the sword and cleaved upwards, slicing the creature open. Then, before it could properly wail in agony, she launched another curse directly into the gaping wound.
Barbatos exploded into a gory shower of blood, coating the walls, the floor and the lamb herself with its entrails leaving the shuddering, gasping and feeble form of a much more normal creature in its wake.
She extended a hoof reflexively, used to this routine by now when a glint of metal flickered in the corner of their eye.
Without thinking, Eve's hoof shot out, catching Naliyen's wrist before she could drive her dagger into the former devout who was too weak to crawl away. The vixen tried to yank her wrist free, snarling and glowering only to groan.
"Release me," she demanded. "He doesn't deserve to live!"
Maybe not, but I am choosing to allow him to anyway.
"He killed my son!" the vixen roared. "Devoured him in the name of the Worm! Didn't even have the decently to fucking sacrifice him, just ate him and crawled off like he did nothing!"
I still cannot allow you to kill him.
"Fuck you!" the vixen snarled. "I thought you were different from the others!"
I am. And that is why I will not allow you to kill him.
The vixen glared, seemingly stricken silent by the point made. Brown eyes flashed, eyes darting between Eve and the crumpled, pathetic form of Barbatos on the ground. Perhaps it was the weak way his chest trembled, like it wasn't even a certainty that he would live on after this, maybe it was the way that unlike the others before him, he still bore the scars of their fight. Maybe it was the way he watched the vixen, eyes wide with obvious fear but Naliyen backed off.
"...if it so much as coughs near my daughter, I'm going to gut it. Then I will cut your horns from your head and stab you with them."
What a beautiful creature, Eve mused to herself, even as she signed her understanding to the frustrated vixen.
The burrower flopped weakly against the ground, relieved that his life wasn't forfeit and Eve hopes it wouldn't be obvious when they return to the cult that she had a new favorite.
