Dak And Stell/The Travelers Trilogies

2.3 Divine Tea And Taking A Bite Out Of It

The two remaining gods sat at a table covered in Tea-Time desserts. A cup of tea sat before each god while they sat in elegant chairs. The chairs had the appearance of card faces, jack of hearts and the queen of spades and others. Belzenrog was complaining, while Kiratorpelis stared off at the hedge maze.

"That damn Diagon, he was the one preaching to us," Belzenrog snarled. "You can mess around with things," He continued in a mocking tone. Kiratorpelis yawned and lazily turned to the petulant god.

"You have to give him some credit, giving up the power to become a mortal," she mused. "It would have been easier to interfere from here and accept the punishment from Blank. Instead, he gave it all up to help them. I can see why he would," Kira finished with her eyes sparkling.

"Oh, come on!" Belzenrog whined. "Not you too."

"I'm not stupid. I like being here, unlike someone else," Kira informed the other god with an icy stare. "No, I find them both interesting. Both are extraordinarily gifted, but I love to watch men squirm so much," she made voice as though she was talking to a child and made the motions of pinching a pair of cheeks.

"We will see how gifted they are. Even though the two have been doing a good job so far, I still think this will help," Belzenrog chuckled.

"what do you mean by a good job?" Kira tried to demand from him but froze when she noticed something behind the laughing god.

Belzenrog continued to laugh, now to the point of hysteria. This private joke caused him to double over in his fit, and behind him, a nautilus shell with pink and purple stripes unwound from Nowhere. As this thing grew bigger, two large glowing eyes appeared as it uncoiled itself from the space-time compartment it had come.

The enormous pink and purple striped cat looked down at the hysterical god when it had finally fully revealed itself. Belzenrog had still taken no notice of the situation, and the cat smiled. This smile sent shards of ice coursing through Kiratorpelis's body, as it stretched unnaturally across its face. Then it began to purr.

This sound finally jarred Belzenrog out of his reverie. The sound vibrated the air, and the god turned to look for the source. As he did, the cat leapt forward and knocked him to the ground. The cat's grin made Belzenrog lose his confidence and began to scream as the teeth of the monster parted.

Kira tried no to watch and pay more attention to her tea, but the sounds of screaming and chunk of flesh torn off the god were making it hard. She tried to take a drink but ended up spilling more on herself, cursing the tea that never truly cooled down as the hot liquid splashed on her.

She didn't know why, but Kira knew that he deserved it. Though, this was more than unsettling. Even though Kira knew that Belzenrog would be revived, he would not forget. The screams had died down to moans and plead to make it all stop. In all the pleading, though, he never once said he was sorry or that he regretted his actions, whatever they were.

Soon there was no sound, as the cat had torn out his windpipe finally. It took another twenty minutes because the cat stopped partway to clean its bloody paws. When the striped beast was done, it turned to look at Kiratorpelis and grinned.

"See you later,"

Then it was gone.

Soon Kira heard a groan coming from below the table. Curses followed this groan to Blank and other obscenities. Belzenrog stood up and had to grad the table as he sat back down. The typical sneering confidence was gone, along with the color that had drained from his complexion. A downcast and trodden appearance replaced this look.

"Are you getting tired of that?" Kira asked.

He didn't look at her at first, muttering something under his breath. Soon though, he took a deep breath and smiled again. Some of the colors were coming back, and a sneer crept back to his lips.

"If I win, it will all be worth it," Bel sneered as he began to pace.

"If you win? You think by ending the world, Blank will just make you god of another planet?" Kira asked while staring at the pacing god.

"Ending the world? You think this is because I caused the world to end? Is your head so far up your ass that you don't even actually know what is going on here?" Belzenrog condescendingly asked as he stopped pacing and turned to her.

"No, I wasn't there when you fucked it all up," Kira retorted.

"Of course you weren't, you would have been messing with some other mortals life," he mocked in that same condescending tone. "This isn't because the world will end. No, this is because I helped change the way the world was and the balance of power. Blank doesn't like it when his little 'decent and loving' things all get killed or enslaved. The one with the bigger stick wins is what I say."

"I disagree with that, but I'm not some self-righteous like Diagon. I can't give my place up here. In all honesty, I don't think anything you do will stop them. Where ever Blank got them from, they aren't like the other travelers I've heard of," Kira acknowledged, as she fingered her jawline.

"They are just another set of rats, even with Diagon, it makes no difference," Belzenrog conspired. "None will escape this time."

"What did you do? You can't kill them!" Kira protested.

"Why? I didn't just get eaten by that feline for fun. If they are gone, I win. Simple as that." Belzenrog laughed.

"I won't let you kill them," she said warningly.

"Oh? You are willing to die so they can survive? You're not that noble, so don't even try that act," Belzenrog warned.

"Not everyone is as stupid as you. I have no evil intentions, really," Kiratorpelis protested.

The two continued to argue somewhere in the middle of Nowhere.