Edited by Solyom
Once upon the time, in a village quite far away, but not that far, a little girl woke up as the sun was already reaching the highest place on the sky. The girl slowly opened her eyes, stretched her body, look over the window… and cursed nastily.
- “DAMN! I am late!” she jumped from her bed, dressed up, pulling her pants as she was jumping on her leg, failing miserably and falling on her face. The whole house rumbled as she did.
- “Sweetie, are you ok?” a weak voice could be heard from another part of the building.
The little red-haired girl froze for the moment as she bolted from her room.
- “Mom?! What are you doing in the kitchen!”
- “Oh. I just wanted to surprise you with some breakfast, lately you are doing so much for me that I thought…” she started coughing, fighting for the air.
- “Mom! The witchdoctor told you to rest! Come on, I will help you to get to your bed.”
- “No! As your mother, I have the responsibility and pleasure of spoiling my little angel.”
- “Mom. Please… go to bed. Soon, I will earn enough to buy your medicines. You will see, soon you will feel better, then I will let you spoil me as much as you want. Now please, come with me, I will prepare breakfast and…”
- “No. You are exhausted. You were working till late night yesterday. I am going to…”
- “Mom. Please. Let me… help you. Let me pay back at least the tiniest part of your love…”
- “Gisele… My beautiful, daughter. Come here.” The woman stretched her hands in her direction.
She hugged the little girl tightly.
- “My strong, beautiful girl. Your father would be proud of you…”
The young half-dragoness froze in place. Her father. The monster that lived in the mountains west from here. The beast that terrorized the villages. The creature that eventually kidnapped her mother, used her as he pleased, and then abandoned her as she got pregnant. A being that she hated. A being that she despised…
… yet she couldn’t say that aloud. Because he did something to her mother, he twisted her sanity, maybe with his magic. Maybe with all the terror he caused.
- “You look so much like him…”
Stop it! – Gisele yelled in her mind.
- “You are growing stronger and stronger every day. You will see, soon he will acknowledge you.”
Don’t say a word more… please – she continued her silent plea.
- “I wish for nothing more than the reunion of you two. Ah, on his side you could be so happy. Your father is so powerful, wealthy and wise… I am sorry that I can’t give you the same perspective as…”
- “STOP IT!” she yelled as she embraced her mother even more and hid her face in her chest. “… I love you! I love you! So please! Please… don’t blame yourself… You gave me everything you had, and that monster? He gave me nothing but pain and humiliation!”
- “Giselle! Don’t speak this way about your father!”
- “HE IS NOT MY FATHER! You are the only one I need… so please!”
- “… my sweet little child. We will talk about this when you get back.”
- “Yes mom, I am sorry mom.”
- “Don’t be. It’s true that your father was absent as you were child… But…”
There is no but. Without telling her mother, every week at night she would go to his father lair. She would fight with him, hoping that she could land a lucky strike. Why? She couldn’t care less about that vile beast. But she had an agreement with that monster. At the moment she succeeded, he would visit her mother and pretend he cared. Maybe he would even give a few coins from his insanely large treasure so Giselle could pay for medicines to cure the damage that he has done.
How was she doing? He was pulverizing her into the dirt, using nothing more than his tail, he barely looked in her direction. In the end, he was the Crimson Emperor, a Red Royal Dragon. A beast in a league of his own.
Giselle quickly finished preparing the breakfast, helped her mother to eat, checked twice if everything was left in the right place, gave her mother a goodbye kiss and left the house, heading towards the fields.
- “Mr. Maso? Mr. Maso! I am here!” she yelled, looking in the direction of an older man – the owner of the farm.
- “You are late, young lady.”
- “I… I am sorry…”
- “You were taking care of your mother, didn’t you?” she didn’t answer, instead she just lowered her head, avoiding looking him directly in his eyes. “… poor child, robbed of her youth.”
The man patted her head with a sad expression.
- “I feel bad for making you work for me…”
- “Don’t be! You are helping me out and…”
- “We, as a village, should all help you two, not to force you into dirty work… It may not be much, but what would you say if I also gave you some food for you and your mother after your work.”
- “Thank you very much!”
- “No need, my child, no need. Now, could you please help the other workers on the field. You will find tools in the shed.”
- “Right away Mr. Maso!” the little dragoness went running to the building next to the barn.
For the next couple of hours, she was working under the scorching sun, digging patches in the ground to put seeds in them, running with buckets full of water from the well to the plants, feeding animals and carrying packages.
Her body was still tiny. In the end, she wasn’t even 6 years old. Still, her body looked like one that belonged to a 13-15 years old human. She was growing up rapidly because of the damned blood in her vein. Accelerated growing. She was supposed to develop rapidly till her body became fully functional, then her age progression would stop. The local witchdoctor said that she would most likely live at least twice, thrice longer than most humans. The witchdoctor was a wise woman, there was not a single reason not to believe her in this matter.
Giselle loved working in the field. Despite her muscles screaming in pain, despite the fact that her body was begging to rest. The people here were nice. Mr. Maso was good for her, always giving her some more money that they agreed, letting her rest whenever she pleased as long as the job was done. The other workers were also quite polite. Even if a few didn’t like her, they were not hostile, what couldn’t be said about most of the villagers.
There was also one more reason why little Gis was abusing her body on the field. It was the perfect training. The witchdoctor said that she needed to think carefully what she was about to do in her developing process, for her body is thrice more sensitive for every labor she performed. Every day of hard work was like three of hellish training. This helped her to grow more muscle tissue.
Even now she was bulkier than ever girl in the village, and even most of the boys. How often do you see a 14 years old girl with abs on her belly? She learned to find a deep satisfaction in the pain of her body changing. She was whispering to herself at night, that every day of this abuse was bringing her closer to beating her father to a pulp. Every day she got stronger and faster… just a few more months… maybe years… but she will hang his head on her wall!
Once again she raised a tool over her head and hit the ground. She found a rock that normally wouldn’t allow putting seeds in this place. That would force workers to cover the path that they made so far and start from the scratch about a meter away. Hours of hard labors.
But not Gisele. She kept hitting the rock with the metal rod over and over again. Every strike resonated across the rod, making the tool vibrate in her hands. She scratched the skin from her palms, bah, rough metal even cut her hands in a few places, making a few drops of blood to fall on the ground.
- “Gis, it’s ok. There is no need to…” the old man tried to calm her down.
But she raised the rod one last time and brought it down with a scream. A dim aura embraced her hands and the rod as she performed the last attack on the rock, which was shattered into hundreds of tiny pieces. It was the first time she performed a skill, without even knowing it.
- “It’ ok… ok, Mr. Maso… mom always says… that I will keep hitting the wall with my head… until one break…” she smiled weakly.
The man was actually frightened
- “Listen to me, dear, never tell anyone you managed to do this.”
- “Why? It’s just a r…”
- “Sweetie, this rock was made of obsidian. The so-called hell-rock. There is no way that an average human could shatter it with nothing but a metal pipe… Sweetie, if the people in the village were to hear about it…”
He didn’t have to say more. The village suffered greatly because of the Crimson Emperor. They couldn’t fight back against him… so they would relocate their frustration on a far less powerful target. Giselle could protect herself from one attacker, two or maybe three. But not against the whole village, not when she also had to think about a place where her mother could live. If they were banished, her mother would die for sure.
So she took all the beating. She didn’t react when they were forcing her to work for just a portion of the normal wage. When they humiliated and offended her.
Another reason to kill that bastard – her father. If she would release the village from suffering… then maybe they would start treating her like a hero?
Her working day came to an end, she collected her money and quite a big crate of food and carried it to her house. She once again checked on her mother and prepared a dinner that they ate together.
It was so hard to keep it up. Two, or even three shifts per day. All so she could gather enough money to buy an actual medicine. The witchdoctor was already helping them out quite a lot, by giving some more potent herbs and brewing some weaker potions. But, to make a potion that could improve her mother’s condition permanently, she needed to buy a few rare ingredients that couldn’t be found in this part of the world. This was why she needed money.
But no matter how hard it was, all that was needed were just a few sentences spoken with her mother, seeing that sparkle of pride as she was looking at Gisele, to make little redhead forget about her exhaustion… speaking about which...
- “Mom something happened?” Gis asked as she noticed that her mother stopped eating. Instead, for a good minute or two, she was looking at her eating daughter with a smile.
- “I was just wondering what did I do to have such a wonderful daughter.”
- “Mom!”
- “Don’t
Kids didn’t want to play with her. Even if a few would be curious about her, their parents would take them to the side.
- “Don’t play with her. She is the daughter of a monster. She is a beast in disguise. She is a filthy creature…”
She would hear them whispering. She would see with the corners of her eyes as other people pointed at her with their fingers.
She beared with that. For the sake of her mother.
The time to start her other shift came, once again she checked if her mother didn’t need anything, once again kissed her and left. This time, to the village. She was working at the inn. Sometimes as the waitress, sometimes as the warehouse worker. For most of the time, she would carry barrels with alcohol bigger than her from one side of the building to the other. Then, she would repeat the process. Why? Because the inn owner liked to abuse her. Because the idea that “the daughter of the beast” is suffering because of him always brought a smile to his face.
When more people would gather, especially at night, he would order her to carry drinks to the guest. Oh, to be served by a dragon! His income was skyrocketing.
The guests were a bunch of scum too. At first, they would order a beer, then they would tell her that she brought the wrong order. They would put their legs on the path she was walking to make her trip.
They all had such a good laugh.
And Giselle? She would just clench her teeth and carry on. She needed money.
- “You did well, vermin.” The owner would say at the end of her shift, that would last two hours longer than it was supposed to. Of course, he didn’t pay for it. “…Your share for today!”
And he dropped 4 coppers coins on the floor before her. She should earn at least thrice as much.
- “Sir, could I ask you for… a little more.”
- “HA!? Am I not good enough for hiring you? To let you redeem for your father’s crimes?”
- “… sir, please, my mother is sick, I have to...”
- “You are hiding behind your mother now?! Do you even have shame?!”
This was when Giselle’s nerves gave up.
- “And do you?”
- “W-what? How dare you?” he raised his hand to hit her.
Yet his hit never met its target. Giselle raised her own hand and grabbed man’s arm. Then, she tightened her grip. The man yelled.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
- “You have used my mother as sacrificial lamb… you thought that I didn’t know? When the beast came to the village for a tribute and you were lacking gold, you bought your lives by giving to him the most beautiful woman of the village…”
She was crying. Not with sadness, but with pure anger.
- “It hurts!” the man yelled. Giselle tightened her grip even more, forcing the man to fall on his knees.
- “You have no idea what pain is. You don’t have to watch the only human you love suffer day and night. You don’t have to work sixteen or even eighteen hours a day to collect money for food and medicines… Now, mind explaining to me, why Katherine got ten coins despite the fact that she was working less than me and wasn’t working as hard as I did?”
- “YOU BITCH!”
- “Depending on your answer I will let you keep your hand.” Her grip became even more powerful. A dangerous sound could be heard from man’s arm.
- “IN THE DRAWER! Just take what you need and get lost!”
- “Thank you, sir. Also, don’t expect me to come again.”
She released the man and went to the furniture, after opening it, she saw a small fortune. Today’s income. She picked eight copper coins more, what she thought was just right for her today’s performance and left the building, slamming the door behind her.
Why was she this desperate? Because finally, after few months of this agony, she collected enough to place an order at the witchdoctor. She quickly ran to her house, collected the rest of her money and went running toward the hut at the end of the village, just by the entrance to the forest.
But, she never reached it. On her way, a group of ten men with wooden bats gathered.
- “My my. Where are you heading to, little miss. Don’t you know that ladies like yourself shouldn’t leave the house this late at night?”
- “… leave me alone.”
- “Unfortunately, remember Kleis? Your employer? The inn owner? He could have mentioned something to us about a little demon that attacked him and robbed him. So, I believe you have something to hand us back? How much did you steal? 20 silvers?”
- “What bullshit it is? I merely collected the rest of my salary!”
- “Is that so? My-my, one of you must have lied to us, but you see, we would rather believe our friend than some devil’s daughter. Now, hand over your purse.”
- “Over my dead body!” she hid the little bag with coins in her pocket.
- “Now, that is quite tempting, isn’t it?”
- “I need to buy medicine for my mother, I swear to gods, if you try anything, I will kill all of you!”
- “Tis but a one, fierce lady. Very well, we will have it your way.”
And they jumped at her.
Gis ducked under one strike, avoided another one, and punched one of the attackers with everything she got. And she had quite a lot. A strike in the belly made the thug gasp for air. Then she rotated her body and hit another man with her elbow on the side of his forehead. She even managed to take one more man down.
But she was still just a farm girl. The hit of the bat at her side made her collapse, the other ones forced her down on the ground as she was trying to get up. She was being beaten for quite some time. As she was lying she managed to put her hand in her pocket and grab the bag with coins.
- “Now, hand it to us…” the thug said, but her fingers remained locked on the bag.
He lied his feet on her hand and pushed it down, trampling her fingers.
She screamed in pain but did not release it.
Another man started kicking her head. Her vision slowly became blurry, the last time she noticed was her fingers snapping.
She woke up after gods only know how long in the bed in a room of the witchdoctor’s house.
- “Easy there, champ, you are regenerating nicely, but you are still far from being good…”
- “What happened?” the girl touched her head that was pulsating with a dull pain.
- “You tell me, I found you lying in front of my hut three days ago…”
Three days.
- “D…did you started making the potion?”
- “Ha? No sweetie, I told you, I will need a lot of money to place an order and…”
- “I was coming to you with money… I had it all… 25 silver coins… I was… I was almost by your house…”
Her eyes started watering, her lip started vibrating.
- “For the gods… Do you know who the attackers were? Why did they attack you? Of course, they wanted money, but something must have provoked them…”
So she said everything, how she demanded money, how she was a bit too brave, but the excitement of finally bringing her mother back in shape took over her… and she gave all the names of the attackers. In the end, this village was small.
- “Rest for now child. Lie and rest… I will try handling it for now…”
- “I can’t! My mom…”
- “Here, drink this…” she gave her a vessel with amber liquid.
- “What is it?”
- “It will help you get your strength back…” woman did not lie. It did help her get back in shape… by putting her in a relaxing sleep.
As the body of dragoness was slowly falling back to the bed, the old witch once again whispered.
- “I will handle it from here… rest, child.”
Then she picked her robe, her staff, and the witch-hat as she left in her hut and went toward the village. She entered the inn and sat near to the innkeeper and a group of a few dozen men.
- “What do you need, Miss Margaret? You, as always, drink on the house!” yes, if you have a healer in the village, you do everything to make her satisfied.
- “I don’t need anything, I just came to say that I am leaving the village.”
Everyone in the hall became silent.
- “Miss Margaret, may we know the reason?”
Some other villager asked.
- “You have to ask Kleis. And Thomas, and Mark, and Patrick and…” she started counting the names. “… I am leaving only because of them. You see, young Giselle was working her ass to get money for ingredients so I could make a potion to heal her mother. But, as she was coming to my hut WITH ALL THE MONEY needed for me to place an order, she was attacked. By the people I just named.”
- “THAT’S A LIE!”
- “But I made a promise that I will help her, now, as I can’t place an order because I simply don’t have the money to order it, I need to leave the village and collect them myself. I will most likely be away for about half a year, maybe more.”
- “This wench is lying!”
- “You say? Because she just woke up in my house. Her bones were broken, fingers dislocated… and as she woke up she cried what happened. Tell me, did she do that to yourself? Also, one thing before I leave, even as I would return, I will never help you, nor your families. Also, Thomas, if I remember correctly, your wife is pregnant, right? The delivery will take place in a few days, right? I wonder who will help the poor Sophie to give birth. As I remember, her pregnancy is difficult. I wonder which one will survive, the mother or the child?”
- “You… You can’t do this to us!”
- “But you could abuse and underpay a child for months? Could you beat her to a pulp and steal the money she was working for? You are the greatest degenerates I’ve seen in my whole life. I am only sad I won’t see you dying, crawling in the dirt as plague would be eating on your body begging for help. You see, I believe in Karma. I believe that good and bad deeds come back to you, Gis is a sweet kid that did not deserve this treatment. Right now, I will make you pay for her whole life of suffering. Farewell.”
- “WAIT!” the inn owner yelled. “… what if I would pay for ingredients you need?”
- “That would stop me from leaving. But would not change my mind in the matter of not helping you.”
- “… wait a moment. I will go for the money.”
Oh, Kleis was only covering his own ass. If the witch would leave because of him, he could expect a lynch from rest of the village. In the end, everyone was getting sick here every few days. Without a treatment, even a mere cold could turn into pneumonia, and pneumonia had a high mortality rate.
- “In that case, I will place the order immediately… to everybody else… if I would ever hear that Gisele was hurt because of you, that she felt offended! Bah! Look at her in the way she would not like… I wouldn’t come to you, I would just pack my things and leave. With no farewells.”
She left and placed the order. The ingredients came after four more days. Giselle ran to the witchdoctor house waiting for her to finish the potion. Then she ran across the whole village with crystal vial to her house yelling on top of her lungs.
- “Mother! Mom I did it! I have it!”
She kicked the door open and started heading toward her mom’s room.
- “Mom get up! I have a cure for you! Just drink it! Tomorrow you will be fine, you will see! Come on!”
But woman lying on the bed did not respond.
- “Mom! Come on sleepy head!” she put a vial on the table and once again came to her mother, she touched her hand in other to shake her off her dreams.
But her hand was cold.
- “Mom? Mom! Get up!” Her heart froze. “No! No-no-no-no-no! Don’t you dare! Mom! It’s not funny! MOM! MOOOOM! Wake up!”
She pulled the body to sitting position and began shaking it. Her mother gave no resistance, shaking in her hands like a doll.
- “MOOOOOM!”
Her agonized cry echoed across the village.
- “P-please! I b-beg you!... I will be a good girl! I… I will get along with dad! I will make him proud of me! You will see! He will come back to us! To you! Don’t you would to see dad again! Mom! M-mom!”
She looked like a teenager, but she was still a six years old that lost the only person that loved her.
This was when she started hearing the voices.
She would live if she got the potion earlier.
It’s all their fault, if they wouldn’t stop me I could give the medicine to mother earlier.
Mom could have still be living!
They killed her!
THEY MURDERED HER!
This was the first time she completely lost to the dragon inside her. The alien thoughts that sounded like hers completely filled her mind. She was in a dark room and from every shadow, from every corner the voices kept whispering, talking, yelling, screaming.
- “Shut up… be quiet!” the poor girl in the middle sobbed, covering her ears.
- “They killed her!”
- “It’s your fault!”
- “You should have been stronger!”
- “You are not worthy to be called my daughter!”
- “I just want you and your father to get along together.”
- “You should have been stronger!”
- “Please… quiet… make it stop.” The girl was weeping.
- “You are a proud dragon! You should have defeated mere ten humans!”
- “They are guilty!”
- “You are guilty!”
- “You should be grateful I let you redeem for what your father did to us!”
The shadows never stopped talking.
- “ENOUGH! SHUT UP!” the girl would rise and scream.
…
Giselle entered the inn, her gaze was blank.
- “You? Why did you come here?” the inn owner asked, looking at the dragoness. “… we are still closed.”
- “U… lled… er…”
- “What?”
- “You killed her. Because of you… mommy… mommy…”
Her face was covered in tears marks, yet her face was so tired, so deprived of any emotions… until she looked at him. Then her pupils narrowed, her cheeks flushed… and her grip on metal rod she was carrying became so strong, that metal yelled from being twisted a little.
- “What do you mean… no… stop right there! Don’t come any closer! H-Help! HEEELP!”
But Gisele already pounced on him. Metal rod danced in her hands. The man turned around to run away, but that only made Giselle hit him in the back, forcing him to the ground. The rod raised itself again and again. And again.
Her hands got covered by dim aura again as she kept performing powerful strikes, the same that turned the obsidian rock into dust.
It didn’t take long to turn human into barely recognizable meat pulp.
Eventually, she left the inn, the voices lead her from house to house, she was lucky, the people she considered responsible were mostly friends and relatives, thanks to this, she found the remaining thugs in just two houses. Fueled by anger, the dragoness had no problem with killing groups of four-five men.
The village was alerted, but nobody did anything to stop her. Oh, they did turn into a crowd, they picked forks and shovels to attack the girl, but one of her look was enough to freeze the blood in their veins. She wasn’t just a frail girl they used to bully, the expression, the moves, her aura. She was a Crimson Empress.
She ignored most of the village, instead, she headed towards the mountains, towards her father’s lair.
- “You again?” the beast chuckled. “… how many times do I have to t…”
- “Shut up.”
- “What did you say?”
- “Shut up! Shut up, SHUT UP SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTP! QUIET! ALL OF YOU! SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
This is when he noticed the change in her behavior. In her gaze and stance. She was no longer just determined to fight him. She was no longer a trembling a little as she faced him. She wanted to kill, the bloodlust was literally in the air.
- “My, my. Could this vermin actually start resembling something like my daughter? What could have possibly had such a good impact on you?”
- “SHUT THE FUCK UP! YOU KILLED HER! YOU ARE GUILTY YOU NEED TO BE PUNISHED!”
- “Killed her? I killed a lot of pathetic beings, you need to be more precise or… Wait. Are you talking about your mother? So, this wench finally gave up? What else could I expect from a mere human? Good for nothing but a meal and toying with. This one at least exceeded my expectations by giving birth to you, you are still a disgrace, but maybe I could put you in some use… Ha, if I knew that her death would have such a pleasant outcome, I would actually kill her earlier…”
- “SHUT THE FUCK UP!”
She charged on. The creature raised its tail to smack the girl. She didn’t avoid the blow, instead she attacked with the metal bar, for a moment it looked as if a girl was about to get trampled under a massive limb, but she managed to push it to the side, allowing herself to continue the charge.
- “Impressive, still…”
He swiped his paw. The girl flew across the room and hit the wall. Normally, that would have been the end of the battle, but she jumped back on her legs as if she didn’t even notice the damages. She started running again.
- “You are almost making me proud. Still, it’s time to teach you the difference in our powers.”
A magic circle appeared in the air and the mighty beast started casting a spell. The dragon roared and breathed fire that flew across the circle of symbols in the air. At the moment the fire touched the spell, it became much hotter and the cone of attack became wider. The fire covered the dragon’s vision for a moment. When the raging inferno was ceased down, he noticed that his daughter hid behind a huge rock. It wasn’t there before. She must have ripped it off the ground with the power of her muscles.
- "Quite… splendid. At least for a lesser life form."
Giselle once again lifted the huge rock and threw it at the monster.
- “Using a mere rock to attack me?! Know your place, vermin!”
He once again swiped his paw, pushing the rock off its trajectory.
Just to notice that the young girl used it as a cover once again, as the gaze of the dragon was focused on the projectile, he did not notice that Gisele jumped after it.
Right now she was flying in his direction, with the metal rod raised above her head. Aura covered her hands and the bar as she attacked with a scream on her lips.
And a single scale from the monster’s head was sent flying, revealing the skin. Another strike and girl dug her dull weapon in the monster’s flesh. Blood poured from the wound like a stream.
- “… Very well, very well indeed. Splendid! SPLENDID! To be damaged by a mere Halfling! You made me proud… but, you hurt me. This, unfortunately, means that your life ends here. Perish, but perish with pride, for I acknowledge you as the blood of my blood.”
The air in the cave changed, as for the first time in ages dragon actually took a fighting stance, his whole body started steaming as the pressure of mana in the environment started rising drastically.
- “Fret not, I will end it quickly, you will evaporate in a split of a second, no more pain, tis' my last gift to you.”
And the beast opened it’s maw and roared.
Light filled the room when the fire, hot enough to melt rocks, was released.
But the girl was still alive, mostly because another person covered her with his own body.
- “Ouch-ouch-ouch-ouch! Hot! If I wouldn’t listen to Alesia’s advice I would be roasted to the bone. This fire-resistance equipment surely is working well.” The older man said as he was putting the fire out on the tip of his beard.
- “Mortal! How dare you disgrace my act of mercy! Who do you think you are?”
- “Indeed, it’s important to be polite to beings that are about to die, forgive my poor manners. My name is Jeremy Jericho, Spear of your end, SSS+ rank adventurer and liquor enthusiast. I am afraid that I was paid by the guild to get rid of you, so could you do me a favor, and die already?”
His smile was the last thing that Gisele remembered before she woke up near her father’s corpse, on the laps of the elder human.
----------------------------------------
… Gisele woke up covered in sweat.
This dream again?
It has been long since the last day she had this nightmare. The nightmare that reminded her that one needs to be strong to deal with difficulties of life. That after you would lie your hands on something, you must never let it go because there are always people wanting to take it away. If she was stronger if her grip on that money bag was stronger…
… no one will ever take anything from here again.
She turned to her other side on the bed, facing her still sleeping mate.
- “Zari…” she whispered. The man was still sleeping. “… my little treasure.” She kissed him lightly on the cheek.
- “No one will ever take you away from me… You are my most wonderful gem… my gold and hoard… so please, forgive me everything I did.. I just… I just… can’t imagine my life without you.”
She got closer and embraced her love tighter with everything she had – arms, legs, and tail. She burrowed her nose in the nape of his neck and breathed in his scent. The smell of road dust, cake, and wet grass. So nice and relaxing. She could be sniffing this smell forever and ever.
The smell of her love.