12.6

Adelyne would mutter all of her hate for that smug little fuck of a wizard if she didin’t feel the very tension in her every fiber how that would reveal her.

Go take a walk in the garden before bed.

She could feel where the palace guards and other staff’s eyes landed. She knew when she was about to make a sound before she did. Like reaching the end of a slack of rope. Or pressing on a near frayed garment and sensing the point right before fibers broke.

Go feel what has been given to you.

At first she had been terrified, on the verge of panic that she would be caught and imprisoned. But then a bit of sense crawled up her spine and whispered.

What would they even do if she was caught?

The same way she could feel the muscles, skin and bone of her legs and feet straining against some invisible boundary with every step. The way that her skin, hair and especially her eyes could practically taste the gaze of the guards and servants in the palace like the heat of a fire before it burnt?

She could feel an assurance of what she could say, what others might do.

Even if she was caught she was the bonded servant of the Countess of Viznove, the most honored guest of the High King of the Palace itself.

Adelyne would be escorted back to her chambers if found outside her place.

It was a heady feeling indeed.

The Wizard Fizzbunches’ boon, spell, enchantment, whatever was something that soaked deep into her flesh and bone. Into her very thoughts.

Even considering something she could feel its pressure when she approached its many borders.

The straining envelope that warned her she would be known.

That told her what she risked.

After that the fear had slowly dripped away as the minutes and then hours flowed by. As she found she could simply step forward, stand, lean, shift.

It was like how she had come to learn to move in the crowd.

But so much more.

Adelyne was not invisible. She was not even unseen.

But it turned out if you moved the right way through someone’s gaze?

If you were already still when an eye went past you?

With a light pressure in every thought, on every inch of flesh to tell you how?

You could be far more than invisible.

You could be Unnotable.

As the night went on Adelyne’s confidence grew. She practiced, she played, she slid past the guards and guests of the High King’s welcoming feast as they departed.

Never close to the Lady Jewel of course.

The presence of the Shining Wyrm of Viznove to Adelyne’s new found sense of discovery and perception? With Jewel it blazed like the summer sun or a blacksmith’s furnace at even the thought of approaching her.

There was almost no where, no when, no way within hundreds of feet of Jewel that Adelyne could safely sneak by.

There were plenty of ways she could become safely ignored or accepted as present.

Perfectly unthought of, like one’s own tongue sitting in their mouth.

But there was no path to sneak into one of those places without first entering the inferno that was Jewel’s awareness of Adelyne.

She would be noted and if she was somewhere outside of the expected time or place the route past the wyrm was impassable. For some reason even dwelling on trying to find a way to approach the Shining Wyrm felt like it was dangerously getting closer to the heat of her attention.

But just that sense of where she would be seen or otherwise discovered by Jewel was a powerful tool.

It made it astoundingly easy to track where her lady was.

So Adelyne somewhat sideways took the advice of the smug fuck of a wizard who both resembled and did not resemble a cat.

Confident in her newfound ability to always slip past notice by anything but Jewel herself.

Which was probably the point when Adelyne had stopped thinking.

Because once she was slipping into the cool Debt season air of the gardens it had all felt like there was not a hint of notice or awareness touching her anywhere.

And then when she was halfway into the garden suddenly she was burning under attention closing in on all sides. Burying her in the undeniable constriction of being heard, being seen, being smelt and even tasted (and wasn't that unpleasant).

The immediacy of it froze her to the spot midway through the garden.

Paralyzed her from bolting for the complacency that the wizard’s boon had eased her into only going where she felt an opening to remain hidden. Which is what Adelyne would blame for why she did not even move as the terrifying monster sauntered up to her from across the garden. Eyes shining bright green in the dark of the stars.

The black of the night slowly reveals the face of a woman with tightly wound braided hair.

Something that despite the rictus of mad delight peeling back admittedly comely if foreign lips was utterly terrifying.

That mouth had far too many teeth!

Plus the face and head which bore it was almost as tall as Adelyne standing!

It moved with a predatory grace, that reminded her a lot of the dancers and more high end whores. Bare shoulders slinking along in the dark. Just barely highlighted by the stars above and the sparse candles kept at the entrances to the garden courtyard.

As it walked the grace of a human dancer slowly was lost, for it was not moving like any woman. Instead the shoulders and back arched and swayed in an obviously feline manner.

The giant moved as Adelyne was far too familiar with after even the one encounter with Fizzbunches. And as the figure drew close enough for more than hints to shine in Adelyne’s slowly adapting eyes the details grew more detailed. The clink of hollow clay brushing and striking one another giving dull music to the figure.

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Those arms ended in paws, wider than Adelyne’s body. A tail was swaying behind a sinuous back wider than a cart.

Over the eyes of what she mistook for a woman’s face were thin brows.

The teeth were each the size of three of Adelyne’s fingers across. But in such a massive mouth they seemed far too tiny and numerous.

In the dark she could not judge the color of those eyes, beyond the way they shined.

And finally with a face bigger then she was, close enough the proportional but utterly vast nose and its nostrils could billow her clothing back and carry the familiar sour sweet pungency of a predator’s last meal.

Then only once those eyes were close enough they had to cross to meet Adelyne’s

Then the monster speaks.

“The dawning grandmother’s pet comes to my den! A fine hunter too is the little pet, swift, silent, unseen, young but bloodied too!”

Another deep huff and then the smile that had been revealing of far more teeth and from so close what Adelyne thought was some kind of terrifying hook covered tongue spread beyond any sensible or sane measure.

Not even a waif could peel back the flesh of a face to reveal the entirety of their jaws like that.

And as she was becoming very tired of Adelyne made note how despite the face they sat within not a single one of those massive fangs were a human tooth.

She was becoming far too acquainted with horrific magical beasts and their teeth.

“Is the little pet perhaps hunting the little boy?”

There was a rumble there, a hungry growl, a deeply amused purr. The sound of it made every hair on Adelyne’s body try to stand on end.

The horrifying grin closed to a far more human smirk. Eyes closing half way. The silver green night shines almost entirely closed off. Eyes as big as Adelyne’s head still crossing to keep fixed on her.

That gigantic nose was still close enough she could reach out to touch it.

If she had wished for death.

She struggled for words.

“N-not hunting anyone, especially not any little boys.”

The great head drew back, stopped filling the entirety of Adelyne’s vision. Letting her appreciate the rest of the dark face in the dark. The fact that the thing which she was going to call a woman for her own peace of mind did indeed have a fine and full head of hair.

Braided in locks as big around as her shins. Run through some kind of bands that just by the sound of it were probably made of some kind of fired clay.

The clattering when two bands touched was like dishes.

The more notable rattle of the now revealed neck showed what looked like several potter’s entire seasons’ stock had been made into necklaces. The dark kept Adelyne from discerning the color.

But by star and distant candle light she could see that while the monstrous woman was definitely inhuman in posture and size. There were some assets just behind that necklace which Adelyne shared with it. Not on that scale, but if you had somehow made the girl herself bigger than four oxen and kept everything proportional she might have even been a bit heavier then the monster.

With her eyes adjusting to the dark (and widened in such panicked terror) she was also starting to suspect that besides the braided hair the monster had not a single other speck of the stuff.

“Not hunting anyone. And especially not any little boys. How clever, how fascinating, what could it mean.”

Adelyne started to speak in answer but there was a hiss like the most terrible of vipers and a fluttering that sounded like a flock of ravens taking flight.

“Not given up yet!”

Which when the giant monster appeared to want silence what was Adelyne to do?

Her teeth snapped shut almost hard enough to catch her tongue.

“The dawn mother's toy moves as a hunter but is not hunting. She hunts especially not for little boys. She is caught in her hunt that is not a hunt when spotted in our den. And rightly freezes. The toy is not foolish prey, steps are too clever for that. But afraid now despite not being prey, so greatly afraid.”

The words roll free with a deep rumbling undercurrent of a growl and the face looks Adelyne up and down, brows furrowing in thought, lower lip even sliding under the upper teeth to pinch a bit in thought.

“A hunt that is not a hunt, prey that is not prey. And especially not for little boys. The dawn mother’s toy is full. But does not sleep.”

The smile is wide, grinning in delight. A sudden surprised and delighted expression on the face.

“Ah! Curiosity, a hunt that is not a hunt. To see, to know, to find, to play!”

Adelyne was still trying to figure out what the giant beast woman thing was going on about and just stared blankly, before offering a bit of a slow nod.

The smile is smug and the lids close half way. The giant face suddenly immensely pleased with itself, before the entire thing rolls onto its side with such grace that Adelyne only barely feels the tremor of it in the ground.

“A win for me, and now it is my turn. But the toy is the dawn mother’s and the little boy and his fathers and mothers earned with their own cleverness and tribute besides. Hmmm, a proper tribute is earned and owed! But the toy is sparse of flesh and owned besides.”

Despite the thing rolling onto its side of the lounge in the dark, Adelyne did not in the least feel any safer from it.

Finally whatever deep and incomprehensible mystery occupied it cleared.

“Ah, it is a very clever toy and a good huntress! I have been trapped! For my turn then an easy one, shall the toy knead my shoulders, groom my locks or feed me its least useful hand for my win?”

Adelyne’s back went shocking with a freezing tone and before she could even catch up fully to the implication she was shouting.

“Your shoulders, rubbing your shoulders!”

The smile widened again and the great beast rolled onto her belly and ‘stretched’ out, her entire body flattening considerably. Tilting a little so one shoulder which was under the light of the stars bare and easily large enough for Adelyne to walk up and down.

“A win for the toy then. But now a prize is owed. The toy is owned until done. And then a service may be taken in turn.”

Trembling a bit Adelyne walked up to the thing and then climbed up the bare shoulder. Feeling the muscles and vast bone beneath her shoes, before kneeling down into a crouch before trying to get a perch which she wouldn't tumble off of.

It took a while to get secure but apparently the pressure she could manage by leaning all her weight into both fists was enough for a happy rumble to shake up through her knees and feet.

“Uh, who are you? Do you have a name?”

A deep burring laugh shook the chest and shoulder beneath Adelyne. The ceramic bands holding the braids and the necklace rattling together with sharp and dull chimes together.

“Easy one, and no more gifts for my next little toy, I am Sphinx, I am keeper, I am holder and grasper and imprisoner, I warden the ways as my mother, aunts and sisters did. As was commanded by grandmother Ammit. For this answer are you owned for another task, you shall rake my back until the itches are banished.”

Adelyne spoke, but as soon as the words left her fool lips she regretted it.

“Why another task?”

The loose skin beneath her rippled and a warning growl filled the cavernous chest beneath her.

“Not the little toy’s turn!”

Which froze Adelyne until the giant beast beneath her yowled at her lack of improvised massage. She dutifully obeyed the thing that had threatened to eat her hand for a reason she did not even fully understand.

“After the little toy will get the long rake and work over the back until the itching is done. Then the little toy will set her task.”

After a silence of Adelyne working up and down a shoulder that was larger then she was and a demand for her to move to the other side to do the same the beast sighed heavily and then said in a contrite tone.

“Apologies due, the little toy of the dawn mother is due two tasks owed first. There has not been a partner to trade words in many years. Eagerness to slake such a thirst makes foolish kittens of us all. The toy shall receive the task owed before the rake scratching.”

Adelyne reached for the words, feeling out the hint of that strange boundary, the things she definitely should not say. The way she should not let her voice settle.

Beyond even the slight lilt of another question Adelyne could practically feel claws and terrible teeth.

“Plea- I mean, Explain what we’ve been doing here so far with me.”

She was very careful to not even seem to ask a question.

If the giant monster (which apparently had proportionally tiny crow wings further back its spine) was anything like the cat it seemed to imitate the rumbling joy was a good sign.