"I don't see what the big deal is."
It was raining. It was raining almost an insufferable amount. Myrnh stood with her legs stiff and straight, her chin jutting out in stubborn defiance. The wind blew her thick tuft of vibrant hair over her face. The adolescent had wandered far from home, this afternoon. She had departed from the den where her mother and siblings had taken up temporary residence just as light had started to spill over the horizon. She walked in the direction that seemed like it would take her the farthest, and she hadn't looked back.
She hadn't looked back, except for to send scowling looks back at her trailing companion.
Veda didn't seem much older than the lioness she had somehow become attached to, though she nevertheless seemed to have a straighter head screwed onto her body. Myrnh's mother had given the serpent a pretty fair deal—companionship for and a close watch over her daughter in exchange for protected travel from the dingy cave Veda had made home—and had delivered her when the lioness just reached adolescence. The python didn't seem to mind the lioness' snappy demeanor. It wasn't infrequent that Myrnh exploded at the snake, discontent. On all such occasions, the words seemed to slide off Veda's back. She was thick-skinned and unbothered.
"You're going to have to go back eventually," the serpent spoke with a roll of the eyes and a flick of the tongue. She wasn't a small snake, but certainly not the largest of pythons. Her movements were slow and unhurried as she moved up the rocky outcropping towards the pale lioness whose pelt mirrored her own delicate, golden markings.
Myrnh wasn't looking at the snake, though. The lioness instead turned away, looking over a body of water. It was a reservoir, its surface rippled and pounded by constant droplets of rain. The river from where the water was fed could be seen in the distance. The water was white where disrupted by the wind and rain. Beneath its surface, the depths were brown with upturned silt.
"And obviously we can't keep going this way. It's cold. It's wet. Let's just go back home." The snake's voice didn't sound particularly exacerbated. Her words were blunt. Matter-of-fact.
"Home," Myrnh repeated, scoffing. Incredulous. "Why does everyone keep calling it that? It's not," a pause for dramatic effect. The lioness' blue eyes narrowed into a peering glare directed at nothing in particular. "Home," she finished. The word was almost spat from her lips.
Another roll of the eyes. "You're being dramatic and you know it." Veda was occupying herself by weaving circles around the lioness' legs. "Ugh look at me, my life is so hard," she continued, her voice becoming mocking. "Your mother still hunts for you. Finds places for you all to sleep. You have your brother watching your back. Keeping you safe. You know that if he knew you were out here right now he'd"
"Oh don't you start on him." The lioness' words came out in a snarl. "Fashaq is an a**. I know it. You know it. He knows it. He thinks he can keep me attached to his hip. He thinks he knows what's best. He thinks that he's better than me. Is that what you think too, Veda? Do you think that my dear brother is better than me? Just because he's bigger and stronger and because he can see like mother does?"
She was getting winded, but Veda didn't do anything to cut Myrnh off. The snake only let loose a sigh as the lioness kicked a stone into the water below. It was raining harder, now.
"Fashaq is stupid. He's stupid and he's arrogant."
"He cares."
"Yeah. He cares, and I'm a saint." Myrnh scoffed again. "Cares my a**." Her eyes pressed into the water below, where the ripples from the stone were still visible. She couldn't properly put her feelings into words. She felt so frustrated that part of her wanted to just throw herself into the water and be done with it. Or at least toss the snake in, the pissy brat. "He just likes having someone to gloat over. He just knows that I can't do what he does."
"Yeah. Sure. Let's pretend that were true. What would you do without him?"
Myrnh's brow knit. Fashaq was a big, dumb assface. She would admit, though, that he was a useful big dumb assface. Myrnh knew that Veda would argue for days on the intention of her brother's incessant attention, but she would never contest that the lion did give her attention. He would follow her wherever she went. When she told him to do things, he would do them without a word.
And when you looked at it that way, it wasn’t that bad a deal.
For the first time in what seemed like a long while, Myrnh fell silent. Veda stopped her slithering. Around them, the sound of the rainfall was deafening. A different sort of group might say the scenery—the sound and sight of it all—was almost beautiful.
"Fine." Myrnh said finally. She looked down at her companion. Their blue eyes met. "But he's still an a**."
Veda's head twitched to the side, Then the other. The movement was a sentiment of a shrug of the shoulders. A 'fine, I don't care.' The snake watched as the lioness descended the rocky outcropping. She almost breathed a breath of relief as Myrnh moved from the precarious positioning. To be honest, the stubborn lioness had grown on her a bit. She wasn't in a hurry to get rid of her.
The serpent watched the pale, gold-marked Myrnh as the moved away. There almost seemed to be a bit of a spring in her step. If anything, it was a bit concerning. It was common for plans to be hatched in Myrnh's head—often convoluted ones—but it wasn't often that they made her this…. peppy. Surely it wouldn't fare well for anyone.
"So what now? Are we going back?"
"Of course we're going back. Veda, dear, we have some worlds to conquer."
'Well, s**t.'
(WC: 1024)
