Misra the Once Beautiful howled and spat.
"Cursed adventurers," she muttered. "I just wanted a tiny piece of their essence..."
Misra reached up and gave the cat that sat on her shoulders a scratch. She had charmed the wily thing as she passed the nearby village--Chalcot, the humans may have called it--during her escape. Thus, she named the cat Chalcot. Company for the long road ahead, she had said to herself.
"If only that damn fool of a girl hadn't seen through my veil..."
Misra pulled hard on the rope connected to a coyote she had beguiled in the forest. It yelped and drooled pathetically.
"Keep up! Keep up!"
The coyote's essence was enough to get her through the three days and nights it took to pass through some other Fey's territory. It took lots of wit and grit to get through that hairy journey, but Misra made it! Nothing like another Fey down on its luck to get other less sophisticated Fey to become downright nasty and petty.
Misra should have cut the coyote loose days ago, strangled it and let the bird peck at it, but she was feeling generous and anyways, maybe she could squeeze just a little bit more out of it--it seemed to have a little zest left.
Misra paused, felt a tingle in the sores of her left foot. She sensed a mortal nearby.
"Go, fly, birdy, and tell me what you see!"
The bird came back a few minutes later and whispered in her ear. A hunter, a young man, a smooth face. Yes, yes! Misra's luck was turning. She reached out and touched the human's mind, the part where desire lurked. Yes, yes, I am her. She turned to the coyote, finally pleased with her decision to keep it around, and forced open its mouth, and drank. Its eyes went blank and flopped over. She then turned to the horse, its sad-looking eyes annoying her.
"You should be happy for me, foul horse!"
Misra forced opened its mouth and drank her fill. She made sure to catch it and then gently laid it on the ground. She nodded at the bird, and it started to peck at the horse's left eye.
Misra closed her eyes and when she opened them, she became Misra the Beautiful once again, a perfect caricature of the young man's desire.
No comments:
Post a Comment