"Use who!?" Kamyla repeated with a confused grimace.
Ajefe smiled, stepping closer to return to his seat. "Use Prince Leviathan to make Danji jealous".
"Are you mad?...Or just stupid?"
He chuckled, "Hear me out first then you'll understand why".
Her brows knitted with a disapproving grimace.
"First of all, you need to realize that this is the very first time Danji is being challenged".
"Challenged?"
"Since we became warriors, Danji has always been like the alpha amongst us men. Being the strongest and unhinged makes it hard and impossible for any of the other men to approach you and threaten his dominance over—"
"Hold up! Dan doesn't dominate me..." She paused to fathom her own words, "Does he??..."
"A question for another day. Anyways, like I was saying, this is the first time Danji is having his turf intruded by another male. Most especially one that is stronger than him".
"Fair point".
"Exactly!" Ajefe clapped, "That is why he is easily triggered to want to fight Leviathan every chance he gets. Even though it is obvious the strength difference between—"
"Okay! Okay! Wait... I understand all you're saying, but", Kamyla crossed her arms, "I am not desperate, nor do I lack self-worth enough to lower my pride and entertain a relationship with that arrogant thing from hell just to make Danji's attention."
"Please don't ruin my fun," Ajefe's brows dropped in disappointment.
"Of course, I will! If Danji is going to notice me, then he should as a man without the need for external manipulation. Especially when it involves... Him!"
"This is why I hate giving advice," Ajefe rolled his eyes, "Opportunities only come once!"
"And I said I am not interested!" She hissed, "Can't you understand that I can not even tolerate his sight, talkless using him as bait for Danji's affection!"
"Oh come on... He can't be that bad."
"He's worst, Ajefe. Extremely worst. You don't know how eager I am for Baba to come and get him out of our lives. I will be so elated!! Because that man is a public nuisance..."
Ajefe only chuckled, watching his dear friend badmouth their new hated member of the community who hadn't spent more than an entire day yet.
"Like, he has this annoying entitlement and self-centered ego every time he opens his mouth to blabber. A belittling gaze the moment you spare to acknowledge him! He feels he is one know-it-all and—"
"You sound like you've known him for months".
Kamyla's lips pursed at Ajefe's interruption. "What?" A crease formed above her brows.
"I mean... The way you talk about him so keenly. One would think of you both as those pair that has always been on each other's neck since they were children."
"May the ancestors forbid!" She snapped her fingers round her hands with scorn. "If I knew that abomination when I was a child, I would have been decapitated for murder!"
Ajefe busted into laughter, unable to find himself to take her words with seriousness.
"Honestly!! You don't need more than an hour to hate him enough. With his face like undone yam! I'm just sick of his overbearing ass!"
Ajefe's laughter only heightened with each word she spat, throwing his head back.
Despite his triviality to the situation, it didn't stop Kamyla from ranting even further, while adding fuel to the fire of her hate.
The two continued to convey in the diminishing humor, complete oblivion to the pair of eyes locked on them from the edge of the window — with obscure fluid vision within the hue of blue and black — the concealed creature of black mist latched onto the wall slowly pulled away to slitter unto the soil to immediately faded into thin air.
• • •
Meanwhile on the other side of the village...
Leviathan stood on the straw roof of one of the huts nearest to the borders of the Evil Forest.
Looking far ahead and above the green leaves of what appeared as an ordinary forest, Leviathan's gaze remained locked at a particular spot amongst the tall timbers.
"Master..."
His lucid blue-green eyes shifted from focus to the side of his foot. His brows knitted.
What resembled the figure of a legged serpent — with its body made of black mist hinted with blue pecks — slowly crawled up his leg to creep up to his shoulders and stretch to his ear.
Leviathan remained silent to the inaudible whispers of the supernatural perched on him.
His expression slowly darkened.
"... A public nuisance? With an annoying entitlement and self-centered ego?..."
He slowly raised his arm to let the serpent crawl onto, dimming on his skin to blemish back into his arm, tattooing as one of the heads of the three-headed dragon.
"Her audacity, I must commend," his gaze slowly dragged back to the distant spot between the forest trees.
"I was planning on telling her about this, but..." His eyes glimmered as his vision switched from the physical plane — amid an ordinary-looking forest — a dense cloud of red smoke brewed along with black fog that gradually shrouded the sky above the village.
A fog that felt far from natural; weighed of ominous dread and stenched of looming death.
"Hmph!" His lips twisted into a grin, "But I'd like to see how the humans handle such a thing..."
Leviathan's body immediately dispersed into specs of dust carried by the wind.