“What a charming kid,” Kitten mocked shaking her head at the ant girl. “Is this one yours? How adorable, raising her to be a sad, little thief in the world. I suppose I misjudged you earlier, didn’t I?”
“Let go!” the kid screamed as she tried clawing at Kitten’s arm. “You’re going to be in big trouble for treating me this way! Just wait until my mom hears about this! You’ll wish you were dead, you overgrown fatass bat!”
“Knock it off, brat!” Kitten shouted, shaking the child with a stammering cry. “You were the one trying to steal from me. You’re in no position to make threats at all, you little bitch.”
The thief screamed and kicked her feet relentlessly before Diago swooped over and snatched the child from Kitten’s hold.
“Haha!” the girl triumphantly laughed, pointing to Kitten while Diago was now holding her up by her other hand. “I said you’d be in big trouble, didn’t I? Time to learn some manners, ugly bat! Diago here is going to tear you apart limb from-”
A small whack to the top of her head changed the kid’s cocky badgering into a strained whine. Turning to Diago the thief saw her savior showing a dull stare at her while slowly shaking her head.
“What was that for?” the kid complained as she rubbed her head. She was dropped onto her feet, the girl backing up a step while muttering to herself before she then started shouting at Diago. “What the hell? Why are you hitting me, you mute brute? She’s the one who grabbed me and treated me with disrespect! Hit her, stupid! Hit her!”
Diago grabbed the girl’s head, spun the child around in a stumble to face Kitten, pointed at the demon’s sword, and then shook the child’s head for her to show that was a no-no.
“Don’t you try and lecture me!” the child argued, shaking free from the ant girl’s grip and turning to face her again. “So what if I was going to take it, who cares? You were going to beat her to a bloody pulp anyway, it’s not like she would have needed it anymore after you killed her!”
“Um, excuse me?” Kitten said holing a hand up.
“Shut up!” the kid yelled, holding a finger out towards Kitten while still glaring at Diago. “Who do you think you are trying to lecture me? You know damned well who I am, you know who my mom is, and you certainly know better than to hit me on the head like that! That freakin’ hurt! Now apologize to me at once or else I’m telling on you!”
Diago slowly breathed out with what must have been greatly exercised restraint on her part. She glanced to Kitten who was merely watching them in confusion, back down to the child who was tapping her foot impatiently with crossed arms and a smug look behind her mask, then rolled her eyes before grabbing the catgirl and lifting her up to carry over her shoulder. She sharply waved Kitten to follow before marching off down the street with a bit more speed than earlier, all while the child shouted and thrashed futilely in the ant girl’s arm.
“What are you doing? Put me down, Diago! Put me down! Goddammit, you can’t treat me like this! My mom’s going to hear about what you’re doing and you’re going to be sorry! I mean it! You’re going to be so sorry, you stupid bug!”
“What the hell is going on here?” Kitten slowly asked herself.
“It’s okay to auction off men and children here,’ Triska recounted. ‘And act violent and terrible with anyone you see, and generally behave like a wretched monster in all regards, but stealing is crossing a line with them?”
‘It does seem rather odd, doesn’t it?’
She watched Diago heading off down the street before the ant girl looked back and waved her to follow. With an annoyed grunt Kitten looked down to Star in her arms, the unconscious jinx being the only reason she decided to bite her tongue and reluctantly follow her appointed guide. As she did she failed to notice another store window they passed, this one having a few men fastened to poles on display behind the shop’s glass with only black briefs and ball-gags completing their wardrobe. The men watched Diago and the screaming catgirl making their way down the street before glancing to each other with smirks and muffled chuckles that sounded oddly distorted.
For several blocks Diago had a rather annoyed look on her face, and not just because she was assigned escort duty with a traveler from out of town. The child in her arm kicked and screamed for a good ten minutes while frantically clawing at Diago’s back, rattling her pickaxe’s chain, and even bashing her fists onto the ant girl’s shoulder, all of which had no effect other than getting an irritated sigh from the silent woman. After she finally ran out of steam the kid just watched Kitten with a dull glare while being held securely over Diago’s shoulder, seeing the demon smiling amusedly at her as she had watched the entire tirade unfold to no avail for the stubborn urchin.
“What are you looking at?” the kid snapped.
“A street rat who is laughably terrible at stealing,” Kitten snickered.
“At least I’m not some smelly winged bat like you.”
“I have to say, you’ve got some spunk, kid,” Kitten quipped with a bitter smile. “Trying to steal from me like that, not many would lack the necessary brainpower to somehow think they could get away with it, but I have to give you credit for actually trying. A decade more of you slinking through the trash and honing your craft amongst the garbage here and you just might be able to surprise a few simpleminded travelers with your little tricks.”
“I’m not a street rat, you pompous whore,” the kid retorted. “And I’ll have you know I’ve swiped a good amount of treasure from under the noses of smarter and prettier targets than you. You just got lucky Diago here stopped me or else your stupid sword would have been long gone before you ever realized it.”
“Is that so?” Kitten questioned. She slid her sword out of its sheath with her thumb, the darkened steel giving off an ominous heated glow along its edge while smoke came out from the scabbard. The young girl looked at the enchanted weapon with a worried eye before seeing Kitten smirking at her.
“You know, this sword isn’t just an ordinary piece of steel. It’s a special enchanted weapon, something very few can handle in this world. A cunning or bumbling thief, it makes no difference; this weapon would have fried you with its power should you have tried taking it from me. You would have been dead moments after stealing it, leaving me to simply take it back from the pile of ashes that was once your foolish self afterwards.”
Sliding the blade back in with a click Kitten hopped Star up in her arms to better hold her, all while watching the child having been rendered speechless by her words.
“You’re not very bright for a thief, I might add,” Kitten continued. “Attempting to take something from a demon is one thing, but not knowing what it is you’re stealing is just idiotic and pointless. There are very few faster ways of getting yourself killed in this world.”
The child muttered something as she lowered her head before Diago nudged her. With a low growl the young girl grumbled and looked away as she mumbled to herself.
“It wouldn’t have gone down like that.”
As they continued down the streets towards the back of the city near the mountainside Kitten couldn’t help but notice a growing awareness to her presence. There were plenty of looks now being aimed towards her by the monsters they passed, however it seemed that the child being held by Diago was getting much more directed at her, with most of them being snickering and chastising by the locals for how she was being taken down the street.
“So what has the elusive Lucy gotten herself into this time?” a troll laughed.
“Nothing! I’m innocent, I swear!”
“Heard that before,” a gremlin laughed.
“That child never learns,” a woman sighed with disapproving golden colored eyes, shaking her head which had black cat ears seen above her red hair that matched her similarly dark shaded feline tail.
“Who’s that with Diago?” another catlike woman asked. “Travelers? At this hour?”
“Hey, what happened to her?” a third catgirl asked, pointing to Star. “Is she dead or som
ething?”
“A Violet Princess raped her,” Kitten replied, earning troubled frowns from the townsfolk. Even Lucy looked at Star with surprise while Diago kept moving forward with a stoic gaze.
“A Violet Princess?” Lucy repeated. “You mean… oh dang. She got filled up with its seeds, didn’t she?”
“Yes, that is what happened,” Kitten answered while looking around carefully. “That’s why we’re here right now, to get her some proper medical attention.”
“So… does this mean you’re here to see Doc?” Lucy whispered. Kitten turned her sights back to the child, seeing her closely observing the demon now. “Is that where Diago is taking you now?”
“That’s correct,” Kitten cautiously replied. “Do you know her, child? Is she as talented as everyone keeps saying she is? Because I staked this cat’s life on the chance this Doc person could help her by coming here.”
“Everyone here knows her. But how do you? How did you know to bring a victim of a Violet Princess here?”
“Calam sent us.”
“You know Calam?” Lucy asked in wonder. After a moment she quickly resumed thrashing in a fit while shaking her fists. “That dirty ant girl who keeps snitching on me is your friend? Goddammit, I hate her! I hate that tattletale so much! She always tells my mom on me about everything little thing I do! She’s so stupid and she stinks so much! I hate that bitch! And I hate you even more than before if you’re friends with her, you stupid, smelly bat!”
“Is she always like this?” Kitten dryly asked, earning a single nod out of Diago.
For the rest of the trek through town Lucy continued to yell and shout all manner of childish profanities about both Calam and Kitten, with the demon merely watching her with a dull expression while Diago shared a similar look as she led the way. After reaching the back of the city they came to a stop, with Kitten noticing they had ended up in what appeared to be a vacant plaza with an old, dried up fountain on one side next to a wall and on the other was just a bunch of garbage piled up against another. Before them was a stone gate that had been built into the side of the steep mountain, the enormous entrance having statues of winged demons with large hands, feet, and breasts posing seductively against pillars on either side. Kitten glanced around to find nobody from the city having followed them into this secluded area before noticing Diago simply standing in front of the gate without moving an inch. Even Lucy appeared to be just waiting for something to happen as she breathed out impatiently and leisurely drummed her fingers along Diago’s back.
“Well?” Kitten asked expectantly. “Are you going to knock or should I? Or is this the part where I discover all of this to be a trap and have to start hacking and slashing my way out of town?”
Diago glanced back to her, this being the first time she had done so which struck Kitten as odd, then motioned with her head towards something. Kitten blinked then slowly turned her sights up to the side before jumping a bit in surprise.
The statues of the demons had moved their heads to gaze at the cambion with eyes that were now open and giving off sharp green radiances. The two monsters hopped off their platforms and flapped their wings to gently touch down on the ground on either side of Kitten, their gray bodies moving like they were made of flesh yet seeming rather coarse and grainy like they were indeed made of stone. They stood about a foot taller than the demon while having bust sizes that would easily rival Kroanette’s, their long tails swaying behind them as they flexed their hands with their sharpened claws, their locks of hair matching the same composition as the rest of their bodies and even making small scratching sounds as they swayed against their backs.
What took Kitten by surprise however was their monster energy, as normally the demon is able to see the lifeforce of all creatures light up before her eyes, which would have once helped her hunt her prey even in the darkest of nights. With these monsters though, their lifeforce had been masked completely until they chose to move just now, showing not only their ability to appear as just ordinary statues at will and first glance but also hide all traces of their monster energy even to the keen eye of the demon.
“You look surprised,” Lucy sneered. “What’s wrong? Never seen gargoyles before? Don’t worry, they don’t eat demons like lamias do. They’re just going to beat the freaking shit out of you for messing with me earlier because that’s what you get for treating me with such insolence! Get her, girls!”
The two gargoyles glanced to the child with raised eyebrows for a moment before showing blank looks at Kitten as an uncomfortable silence filled the air.
“What did you do to her?” a gargoyle carefully asked.
“The little gutter rat tried to steal my sword,” Kitten dryly told her. “I didn’t let her take it.”
“Of course,” one of the gargoyles sighed in annoyance. “She tries to steal anything she can.”
“Despite the constant lectures from her mother about quitting such an unbecoming habit,” the other loudly remarked towards Lucy. The child lowered her head and mumbled to herself again as the gargoyles shook their heads at her. The two monsters then turned their sights back onto Kitten, both of them slowly circling her while the demon remained on guard.
“Why has Diago brought you here?” the first questioned Kitten. “What business do you have in Stonegate?”
“Got a sick cat here,” Kitten replied with a quick glance to Star. “A Violet Princess victim. Calam sent us here to find someone named Doc who could help her.”
“Is that so?” the gargoyle wondered. “And, where is Calam? Why isn’t she here with you?”
“Time is of the essence here,” Kitten retorted. “I didn’t want to wait for Calam to ride all the way back on horse seeing as this cat has only until morning before she’s fluugher food. Can we skip the pleasantries here so I can go see this Doc person already? We’re kind of in a hurry in case you couldn’t tell.”
“Aren’t you the pushy one,” a gargoyle quipped.
“No, you haven’t seen my pushy side yet,” Kitten growled. “But you’re about to. Now listen closely. This cat is on the verge of death and I really need to prevent that or else my master is not only going to be pissed at me but all of you as well! So either point the way to this Doc person or drag her ass out here so she can cure this girl, because one way or another I’m going to find her and get this damn issue resolved!”
“We don’t take kindly to those that threaten Doc,” a gargoyle hissed. “Many of us owe our lives to her, and the last thing we want is for her to be harmed by a loudmouthed, brash little demon such as yourself.”
“The last thing you want to do right now is threaten me,” Kitten warned. “I’m already struggling to remain on my best behavior in your godforsaken town, and you girls are testing my last nerve.”
“If any harm has befallen Calam then we shall do much more than threaten you,” the second gargoyle scorned. “We will not open the gate until Calam herself stands before us and vouches for you in good faith and health. You will remain here under our watch until either Calam returns or you are deemed guilty of hurting her.”
“I don’t have time for this bullshit,” Kitten spat out. “Show me where this Doc is or else I’m tearing down that gate and finding her myself in the most violent and pissed off of ways! The guards outside the city walls said I was to go see Doc, and that’s what I’m going to do, so get out of my way and let me through or else!”
“Succubus or not, your threats mean nothing to us,” a gargoyle remarked as the two guards got ready to attack. “Nobody shall pass without our permission. And you have certainly not acquired that.”
“You will stay where you are until Calam arrives,” the other ordered. “If you fight or flee we will not hesitate to kill you under the perception you’re a liar and murderer.”
Diago set Lucy down on her feet and turned to watch the standoff. The young catgirl stuck close behind Diago while watching the scene with a sharp eye, her tail quickly waving behind her as she anxiously anticipated qui
te the show. Kitten growled as she saw the two gargoyles slowly reaching out for her, her eyes then moving down to Star as the jinx remained unconscious in her arms with a pained look on her face. Slowly the cambion breathed out and closed her eyes, taking a moment to keep her composure before she calmly walked around one of the gargoyles towards the empty fountain. Everyone watched as the demon gently rested Star inside the dried-up bowl, the woman then turning around to show the gargoyles a cold glare while her wings arched up behind her. Walking towards the monsters Kitten drew out her sword with a sharp ring, its searing flames streaking behind in its wake while casting a fiery bloom across the plaza and those who stood in it.
“I apologize if I wasn’t clear,” Kitten scorned. “Let me try to say this in a way you fucking cunts will understand. I am not going to let that cat die, under any circumstances. I am not going to be pushed around by the likes of you or anyone else while I’m trying my hardest to be a good fucking girl for my master. Now let me spell this out for you. I’m going to see this Doc person, and she had better be as good as everyone claims she is if she wants to live to see the sunrise. I will butcher each and every single idiot that tries to get in my way, including you filthy degenerates if that’s what it takes. So let’s get this over with so I can find Doc, with or without your blood coating my blade, so I can save a goddamned life tonight!”
The gargoyles tensed up with low snarls as they could easily see and feel a malicious aura emanating from the demon. Lucy gulped and held onto Diago closely while the ant girl slowly pulled her pickaxe off her back in preparation to fight. Kitten glanced around at everyone who was between her and finding the mystery doctor fabled to be there somewhere, her eyes then focusing on the gargoyles as she gripped her sword in both hands and got ready to charge. With a whip of her tail she took off towards the guards with a furious sprint, making it only three steps before she suddenly stopped and spun around as she heard someone laughing behind her.
Chronicles of Eden - Season II - Act II Page 18