Dust rose and stones shattered. But the creature hidden within that ominous cloud cracked its neck nonchalantly, stepping out and into plain sight.
My breath was leaving me, my throat itching and mouth parched. What... just what abomination was that?!
"The princess. At long last." It spoke, addressing me with a voice I recalled having heard somewhere not long ago. But certainly not speaking in such blatant disregard for royalty.
"Who... no, what are you?" Inclining my head sideways, I espied the Grandinspector readying himself for defensive combat. "Why don't I have this idea...?"
Or... was it running away? "Useless... is that why?" I couldn't be certain, since his feet were shaking and his muscles were ready to engage in a mad gallop.
Much like I've seen the soldiers do in the drilling grounds. I too was... distracted. "And who might you—Ah! The Grandinspector."
The creature came nearer, ignoring the man's presence as lightning was crackling all around it, clashing against other charges from time to time in that horrid hole the size of a kettle.
The creature had no chest. "Stay put, man. Don't like any further misunderstandings. If you know what I mean... The man-bombs out there did their part plenty."
I didn't quite understand the intention behind the monstrosity's words, but the sarcasm in its voice was evident. Yet the Grandinspector might have understood more, since his face withened.
"I'm... Thoth. This is our second meeting, my oh-so arrogant princess." As he approached and his build crept closer and closer, I suddenly recalled certain events.
"You," my voice was shaky as a leaf, my shoulders trembling under the sheer pressure it exuded, "are the winner? The gladiator besting the coliseum, besung as a hero?"
"So what if I am?" If anything, the sarcasm only deepened. "Will that get me another squad of cutthroats lusting after my demise?"
The monstrosity was now so close I could perfectly distinguish each tiny scale it was decked out with. In hindsight, how I'd taken it for a lizardman was inexplainable.
Might need to check my eyes... The same went for the hole in its chest too, a cashm leading to the other side straight, devoid of anything.
Yet if I had to name one characteristic that was pressuring me the most, it would undoubtedly be its eyes.
Like a reptilian's, they were inverted and vertical, leaving but a crack of fatal attraction. And danger. I was very sure whoever was lost in them wouldn't find a pretty end.
"Noooo..." It then grumbled, looking up and down at me as if I were a cattle it didn't find pleasing. "Came here in all this hurry, feelings ablaze and anger roaring... for what?
To get told off that this little princess of mortal descent doesn't even know why I'm knocking on her door." Was the thing mad? I... feared as much.
"If you know... what have you come here for, mighty creature?" Grandinspector Miwa finally found the courage to address it. Not that I could blame him for being late.
He simply had that tendency. To never show up at the right moment. Ever. "Thoth. Not mighty creature or whatnot. Thoth is my name. As Thoth you shall refer to me, rash mortal."
The creature didn't let his eyes from me, answering without showing Grandinspector Miwa any respect. For sure, there was no need to either way...
"To quell this stupid bloodletting, crush the misbehaving mice." I could swear there was a ridiculing smile on the corner of its lips.
"As for you, my friend?" Turning its head to the hole in the wall while asking this question, it soon became evident for whom these words were meant.
"Fuck. You." Another source of equal pressure descended upon us. If not for the mismatch between the attire he wore, I'd not have been able to repress my urge to kneel and pray to the newcomer.
To grovel at his dirty feet... "Take that little thing." A bundle of rags was thrown out. "C-careful!" The mighty creature lunged at it faster than I could blink, staring down angrily at the man.
The latter didn't seem to care, for he turned around, studying the dawning skies instead. "Found you." He then murmured, extending an arm.
Suddenly, I heard a noise so uncomfortable my ears threatened to deafen. Looking up in fright, I was just about to assist the last seconds of... my sanity.
A sphere the hazy shape of a child no bigger than a table leg was struggling in the man's hand he'd cast around its neck. "The newborn cub isn't afraid of the world, I get that. Regardless, we have rules."
The grip around its neck tightened, sending cracks all over the sphere. "Begone!" A sudden holler, a ball of absolute darkness extending from where the sphere was, eating it up until there was nothing left.
Nothing except the furious thumping of my heart, the countless visions of my own gruesome death flashing past my inner eye, myriad variants terrorising my very soul.
"How long will you still stand here, Thoth?" The man asked, the boundless anger in his voice sending shivers down my spine as he woke me up from my stupor.
"And here I thought you'd jabber about neutrality—" "Wanna get stranded in the middle of nowhere?" The creature stopped in the middle of its talk, an awkward smile on its face.
"Then again, if you don't stop with that sacrificial spell soon, there'd be nothing left to get safely through the realm barriers."
"It's easy for you to talk when you're as strong as usual..." The man extended his hand, closing it as if he desired to extinguish the frizzling ball of lightning in the creature's chest.
A groan escaped the latter's lips, then... flesh began to regrow until scales covered the hole as if it'd never existed in the first place. I felt myself falling into a world of fascination.
But I couldn't... the two were so much beyond my comprehension I simply couldn't! They were different from my late brother. It was not a pretty feeling.
"Saloon got wasted, my efforts desecrated and livelihood thrashed. Got the damn family of earworms buzzing again in full numbers. This requires time to address.
So the sooner you're out of my sight, the better." "I...," Suddenly, an impossible amount of raw energy came flooding in, submerging me in a literal bath of primordial prowess.
It became so hard to breathe, it hurt soooooo much, it... was over soooo soon. Reality shattered in front of me, the shards scared away by the eternal horrors usually hidden out of sight.
The taboos I'd seen in that split moment almost tore my mind asunder. I screamed, screeched unsightly and cried like a baby in the crib as I pressed my eyes shut.
"...thank you. See you around, Spice." "This sure ain't over." Then I heard nothing anymore until a hasty shaking of my shoulders woke me up.
I dreamily looked around, expecting the indescribable to surround me like before. Yet all I saw was a spell-shocked Grandinspector Mowa and a scared maid worried for my lot.
There was nothing else besides the hole in the wall, the many dead bodies of the late soldiers littering the ground and my very own memories reminding me of what I'd seen.
A world I wasn't supposed to glimpse upon. Yet this my heart didn't accept. *I* couldn't. All I did accept was the fact that after today, nothing would remain the same.