"See? I can hurt you."
I raise my brow spikes, licking the blood from the shallow wound.
"Impressive," I say dryly. "But not nearly enough."
The scent hits me again, that tantalizing blend of enemy and something else. It's intoxicating, clouding my thoughts. I shake my head, trying to focus, but the scent lingers, pulling at my senses.
The creature takes advantage of my distraction, swinging the dagger with renewed fury. I dodge, but it's closer this time. Too close.
Angry with myself for being so easily swayed, I roar and knock the creature down. It sprawls on the ground, eyes wide with shock and fear. I loom over it, my claws poised for the kill.
"You should have picked better allies," I tell it.
I almost end it there, but I'm curious how it'll reply.
The creature is on its feet in a flash. "Oh, fornicate in your own hole, you... you scale-covered piece of excrement."
It wants me to do what? And can't it see I don't have scales?
It's insane.
I blink and take an involuntary step back at the unhinged look in its eyes.
It yells out in rage, then continues speaking. "I did not fornicating go through literal fornicating hours of DNA-modifying surgery, or whatever the fornicate they actually did, to be hunted down bylizard-shaped tree fruit sack stupid enough to hunt me down and fornicating accuse me of what I'm not!"
It's hard to make sense of what it's saying between all the talk of mating, but I think I might have gotten a general sense.
Possibly.
There may be a chance I acted hastily, but I'm still quite certain the small creature is insane.
"Is your whole species as obsessed with mating as you are?"
It's face screws up in some sort of mysterious expression. "What the fornication are you talking about? Damn the thing, should have known I'd get alizardinstead of a venomcat."
I don't understand all her words, but she piques my interest when she mentions venom, though I quickly dismiss the hopeful surge that there might be a manticorid here.
Still, it seems like she might know more than I do about what's going on.
11
Kira
I'm just hopeful I can survive, though I'd also like to get some information if I can, since this place is clearly stupid deadly.
That plan goes tits up the moment the creature lunges at me again, sending me backtracking with an unspoken curse on my lips.
Apparently, my penchant for sayingfuckisn't translating as well as I'd hope.
I'll admit the lizard comparison isn't really on point. If anything, it looks more like a dinosaur dragon, except for no wings. Deadly, and beautiful, but it feels better to denigrate it to the role of skittering lizard.
Its blue coloring transitions to an off-white color on its belly, under its neck and on the underside of its tail, which is the only true resemblance to a reptile.
Judging by the way it moves, its spines are less rigid than they look. I stay away from them, just in case. Images of Bowser from Super Mario rolling over me with his spikes flit through my mind.
Not a great way to go.
It chuckles, a low, rumbling sound as it continues to enumerate the ways I'm inferior.
