08 | Victim By Nature

Blankets of stars above stretch on seemingly forever, holding up the silver moon and its beautiful little ornaments dangling all around. Just a background of black harboring dots of light.

Ranoa is as quiet as the sky. At a time like this, street markets are packed up and lie dormant until the following day, the cityfolk are cooped up in their homes taking in the warm hospitality of firewood and flame. Streets are faintly illuminated by the soft spill of light coming from these homes, and at the top of it all sits the magic academy, the brightest beacon of all.

It's calming. Walking around the city brings about an air of serenity and silence. Before you realize it, a soothed smile is crawling up onto your face.

Pursena mumbles something as she walks ahead of you, arms crossed. She's not talking directly to you, exactly, though it's hard to say if she's talking to anything at all. You feel yourself gravitating closer toward her, gradually closing the gap that has slowly been amounting between you.

"Linia thinks she's slick," is all Pursena says, stopping you from asking her what the deal is. Her eyes are trained on the path at her feet. "I'm not stupid. I'm not stupid."

She sees you at her side and pauses, making a face like she'd forgotten she told you to come walk with her. You meet her ruby eyes, wondering what's going on in that toxic, careless head of hers.

"What about Linia?" you say. Pursena stops in her tracks and finds a risen brick wall along the path, low enough to sit on. She lifts herself onto it and looks at you, then gestures for you to join her.

You get up and sit on the wall with her. She looks content now, if that's really even possible for her, so she begins to explain. "Listen. I'm just gonna come out with it."

She takes a moment to collect her thoughts and form a sentence.

"I'm going to marry you, Y/N."

...

Huh. That's odd. You don't feel even the slightest spark of surprise. Your eyes fixate on hers, clueless, your brain struggling to piece everything together. It's stuck in a fragmented loop of error.

Marry me? Marry me? Marry... me?

"Why?" is just about the only word that comes to mind, and the only word that leaves your lips. Pursena's gaze wanders to the endless sky, the stars twinkling luminously in her vision.

"If I wed you, we'll be bound to one another by law of my tribe. That's all I'm good for in my family anyway — finding someone to marry, settling down, and letting the other person do most of the heavy lifting. At least, if I choose not to become a warrior."

She speaks with such confidence and certainty that it becomes clear as day to you: she's not playing. She's not saying this for kicks and giggles. Pursena is staring at the sky with a wondrous expression upon her face, her tail shifting ever closer to you, threatening to wrap around your waist, and her intentions are absolute.

"If I marry you," she continues after the pause between you, "Linia will be out of the picture. That's how it works. She'll be forced to find her own person of interest, her own... spouse."

"You really think I'd marry you?" You just come out with it, no hesitation. The firmness of your voice brings Pursena's full stern attention back to you. She's glaring.

"After everything you and your sister put me through, you think I'd just bow down to you and become your slave for life?" you continue, clenching tight the edge of the wall beneath you. "You're crazy."

"Slave?" Pursena lifts an eyebrow. "I guess you could put it that way, but I'd prefer to call it... I dunno... servant."

"What's the difference if all you want me for is to treat you and feed you and be your babysitter?"

Pursena looks away, her glare melting into a straight and loosened expression. "I'm not asking for a babysitter..."

"All you want to do is one-up your sister and take me hostage! Why do that when you can marry a person you actually care about? The hell is wrong with you?"

This is it. You're finally letting every single pent-up emotion slip free. Strangely enough, Pursena is very clearly affected. Her tail, which was inching closer to you a moment ago, now comes back to her side and goes limp. Her face is red and she can't make eye contact with you.

The truth hurts, doesn't it?

"Are all of you Doldia people like that?" You keep going. "Manipulative, crazy bastards born with a superiority complex?"

Pursena shakes her head, eyes still on the ground. "No..."

"Then what's wrong with you and your crazy sister? Do you realize what you've been doing to me? I haven't been able to sleep without having dreams of two girls with animal ears creeping in and killing me. I haven't had an appetite in the longest time. I couldn't even have a day to myself because one of you decided it would be a grand idea to break into my room and force me to move!"

Your outburst burns Pursena's ears. She winces with every slight raise in volume your voice takes, and she is eventually forced to get off the wall and create some distance away from you.

"Stop it," she mutters.

You hop off the wall and approach her. She still refuses to look at you. "Stop what? Stop telling you the truth? Are you finally getting it?"

"Get away from me."

"How come you're the one who sounds afraid? Are you seriously gonna try playing the victim now? You've watched your damn sister beat me and use me, and then you tried doing the same, and now you lay this marriage bull on me because you want a slave?"

"I said, get away!"

Pursena whips around with speed that surpasses her sister. She clenches her fist, lunges, and strikes you hard across the face. You hear the impact crack on your cheek, knocking you back for a moment.

For those few seconds, you stand, wipe your fingers on your throbbing cheek, check for blood. There's nothing. She's not as strong as Linia, that's for sure, but even still.

You're furious. And this time, there is no powerhouse of a catgirl around to stop you from fighting back.

You make a swift motion with your fingers like you're drawing something out in midair. Pursena watches this with her hands still balled up tight... and then there's a gasp.

A gasp, then a scream, as your magic erupts from the ground in the form of snake-like branches. They rise and tower over the girl, about four or five of them, then they wrap around the girl's body under your ruthless command.

"H-hey!" she squeals as her limbs are restricted by your magic. Two branches around her arms, two around her legs, one loose around her neck. She tries to fight them off but to no avail. You command her binds to tighten around her limbs, eliciting pained moans from her.

"You're lucky this is all I'm doing to you," you say and look away from the girl who has no room to even struggle. "Now, hush."

Before she can scream again, you summon another thick branch and guide it toward her mouth where it locks itself in place between her lips, preventing her from uttering even the smallest of whines.

With the girl now completely detained, you lift her body from the ground with your magic and place her behind the brick wall where no one will find her. After checking and ensuring no one else is witnessing this, you glance into the girl's teary eyes...

And you grin.

This is exactly what you've been waiting for — a moment, long or short, where you are the one in control. Now you have it. You've just proved to her that you are the force to reckoned with, not her and her sister.

No, they're just bullies who got a little too high off their power trip. They tried to make you theirs...

So you'll make them yours.

To you, the Doldia girls are a pair of wild animals ready to be domesticated. Turning them into your little pets won't take but a flick of your wrist and a whisper of magic.

It really does feel like something has... awakened inside you.

"Stay quiet until I'm back," you say, pushing a finger to your grinning lips in a shushing gesture. "Got it, doggy?"

Pursena can't move or speak or react. She simply lies on the dirt beneath the wall, arms and legs tied still, mouth covered by her wooden binds.

All she does is let salty tears roll down her cheeks as you turn and walk away with your hands in your pockets.