'ᴡᴇ ꜱʜᴀʀᴇ ᴀ ꜱᴇɴᴛɪᴍᴇɴᴛ. ɪ ᴄᴀɴ ʙᴇ ʙᴏᴜɢʜᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ ᴀɴᴅ ʀᴇᴠᴇʀᴇɴᴄᴇ.'
Only one month has passed in Daliah Viper's life trying to reintegrate at court and follow the uneasy trails her eyes have caught.
One month filled with blood, tribulations, and l...
-marked by, held in, or conducted with secrecy: surreptitious
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I only take as many spiders as my skin and pockets can carry, have them pressing against the back of the uniform. They crawl over my spine and sit in my hair before resting. A half-see through canister buzzes, taken from the Viper Pit, but I keep the lid up.
I can't take all the dogs with me for different reasons, or so I tell myself. I tell myself that the dogs are good tools, but that I can't waste any time discussing with my father if he needs them here. Then, there is still the damage. As much as I want some familiar company, I almost lost one to the red rat in the tunnels, and he still recovers. I can't take any of my Viper cousins, and I leave Loren and the others behind for this day.
Transportation is another reason. I need to travel now, and I don't have time to choose an elaborate row of creatures or anything even. I decide to travel light and if necessary, knives and bullets will do. Use the resources I get.
The house is quiet, except for the noises the animals always make through the hours that half of them fall asleep and the other half awakens. Their paws are loud on the wood as they follow me around. I say goodbye to my shield of bodies before I leave.
One Ear tries to snuggle up to me, but as soon as he walks forward, Runt snaps at him, and he retreats.
She uses the opportunity to squeeze on top of my body, and her heavy head uncomfortably presses on my arms and stomach, nudging me for attention. She huffs and puffs at my arm, pressing tightly against me.
"You be a good girl," I mutter and my fingers tangle in her shining, grey fur. Dark eyes and yellow ones meet when I deliberately make eye contact with her heavy form. "Keep an eye on your brothers and my father. And if anyone comes to close, you rip them to shreds."
She gives me a soft bark as an answer.
"Good girl," I repeat.
One Ear wags his tail once when I scratch his head as well.
"Yes, of course, you're a good dog too," I tell him and for whatever a dog's face can declare, it is almost a happy yellow-eyed look with the remaining ear gently pulled back.
I get transported along the heightened, deserted road even further away from Archeon, both with wheels and another means of transport soaring over the sky.
Through the humming and the quiet shaking, I fall asleep in my seat, and I treasure the moment of quiet.
The sun doesn't rise in an inferno of summer red this time. It comes up shyly, peeks up behind thick clouds, and it only gets slightly less perturbed as my transport lowers through the clouds in some blinking light and rotor blades. My ears pop unpleasantly, I swallow hard against it.
The air smells differently here. I can take one whiff, even without any supernatural nose, and I find myself catching the scent of the sea again.
The last few bits down the road toward the shuffling, big city surrounded by smaller plots of green and live, and I don't get turned through the front gate or even towards some bustling construction site or the big control center as I expected.
