Perfect Pet: Triple Twisters of Terror

Tears stream down from Meracle's face when she holds the note left for her as Sonico and Alleyne stand by her side. Despite the comforting touch she gives, Sonico's gentle back rub can only soothe the cat girl for so much. Seeing her still a little distraught, Alleyne reaches into her pouch pulling out the stuffed rabbit, Vert, and passes it along to Meracle who looks at it and accepts it. The gesture is enough to bring a small smile of appreciation from Sonico who takes the note looking it over.

“Why would Sharon just up and leave like this? It doesn't make any sense.”

Sonico sighs watching Meracle hug the plush rabbit closer against herself as Alleyne turns toward her Mistress offering out the thick chain of her heavy collar.

“Re naa wanwa, san' lye will auta utua he.”

“Alleyne,” Sonico sighs not understanding. “We can't just leave her like this.”

Noting the rabbits refusal to grip her leash, she points down at the letter as if to signal something. Sonico still appears to not quite understand as Meracle watches a bit and looks up at Sonico.

“I...think she wants to go look for Mistress Sharon. Is that it, Lady Alleyne?” Meracle inquires turning to look up at the elf who, still not seeing any action from the two, points again at the letter.

“Alright!” Sonico exclaims excitedly as she grips hold of Alleyne's lead. “Let's go find Sharon.”

The trio are back in the desert with Meracle sniffing along the air having directed her Mistress' sent in this direction as she keeps the note held closely to herself looking down at it periodically as Sonico keeps close while also holding a firm grip of Alleyne's heavy chain leash.

“Could probably map the desert from memory by this point...” Sonico jokes hoping to alleviate some of the tension. Meracle, having calmed a bit, does manage a smile.

“We have been making constant trips.” She adds glancing over to Sonico looking the heated rabbit over. “Do you miss your home?”

“Hm?” Sonico asks surprised a question like this would come up. But, seeing the sincerity in the cat's eyes, Sonico shrugs. “I...really don't know. It's hard to say. I miss working in my garden. I miss watching the leaves change. I miss my friends.”

“What do you think you'd be doing right now?” Meracle questions further as Sonico has to think, has to remember what season the forest would be going through at the moment.

“Now? Probably be preparing my garden for another years harvest.”

“With your pets help?” Meracle asks as she and Sonico look over to the elf. Sonico's gaze lingers on longer than that of Meracle's even saddening some in the end as she turns back to the cat girl shaking her head.

“Gardening doesn't seem like something Alleyne would ever take to. I doubt she'd find peace in the changing of leaves or even gatherings with my friends.”

“How was she when you first got her?”

Sonico grips the ring at the end of the chain in both hands now. “Quiet. Distant. She was quick to obedience, but suffered in finding loyalty. It was as if she was of two minds. Part of her was willing to give up while the other held firm.”

“To what?”

“That being a pet wasn't for her. That she had reason to be elsewhere and that no matter what I did I'd never achieve her true loyalty back home. I'd never make her forget, not that I would ever want to.”

“So...you came this far looking for her loyalty?”

Sonico shakes her head. “I came this far looking for Alleyne.”

“You won't need to look far!” A voice comes from the dunes behind them as the three turn to find Menace joined up by Branwen and Sharon prompting a gasp from Meracle. “Because her place is right here, kneeling in front of her Mistress.”

“You...” Sonico begins until Meracle cuts her off with a cry.

“Mistress Sharon!”

“You know, we've been following you for some time now.” Menace says. “And the entire time I kept wondering would now be a good time to show ourselves? Or should I wait and see if there was a way I could interrupt your touching stor-”

“Let our friend go!” Sonico shouts as Menace furrows her brow at the rabbit.

“You have no friends among us. You do seem to have an admirer though.”

Menace looks at Branwen who eyes Sonico hungrily while sliding her tongue along the cracked blade she wields.

“Mistress Sharon, what are you doing?” Meracle asks taking a step forward. “Whatever I did, I'm sorry about it! Please...just come back!”

“So Sharon was this vessel's name.” Aldara says resting a hand to Sharon's chest as Meracle steps back shivering from the thought.

“You're...” She begins finding her nerve leaving her as Sonico picks up.

“You're the one who tried to inhabit Alleyne's body.”

“Which still makes her my property.” Menace states before looking to Meracle's collar, specifically the crystal that dangles from the front of it. “And that, little kitten, also declares you as mine.”

Meracle grips the crystal in her paw finding it difficult to look back fiercely at the trio before them. Noting this, Menace begins to smirk before landing her gaze ultimately on the one in the middle.

“As for you...originally you were promised to my associate here as a roasted dinner option,” Sonico gasps stepping back a little frightened herself now, “But the rarity of a rabbit this far out is just too great an opportunity to pass up. I think I'll be keeping you for myself.”

“You...would openly declare stabbing your own partner in the back? Right in front of her?”

“She doesn't mind. In fact, I think she's so far gone that she doesn't appear to have much of a mind on anything but her feas-”

“RABBIT!!!”

Menace sighs out as Branwen lunges forward swinging her blade only to find it hitting into Alleyne's staff as she stands in the way of the attack.

“Elf.” Branwen says when she gets the scent and tries snapping out over the pressured weapons. Alleyne dodges her head back and flings Branwen forward with all her might following after her.

“Alleyne!” Sonico calls feeling the chain slip from her grasp. She then notices the rising walls of sand and turns finding one coming up in between herself and Meracle. She jumps back from it and then looks to the dune seeing only Menace, her hands rising and eyes glowing bright.

“Do you like my new powers?” Menace asks smiling as she steps forward. “I thought it was a complete travesty once my poor Setra was destroyed. But it turns out he's been lying to me this entire time. I don't need him for my powers, I just need his powers within me.”

“You're insane.” Sonico says hoping to at least get on the grounds of reason. “He was loyal!”

“He was a burden. He kept me from achieving my dream.” Menace waves out her hands bringing herself up from the ground as a result of a nearly transparent column of sand. “I'm a Goddess. And you will learn to bow before me.”

Studying the fast moving wall of sand close by to her, Alleyne touches it with the tip of her staff finding it impossible to penetrate. The amount of sand and the velocity it was going created something like a solid structure meaning getting out wasn't going to be easy. The elf's mind immediately looks down at the ground wondering how deep she'd have to dig to potentially get under the wall when she hears a familiar voice from close by.

“Elllllf...”

Alleyne looks and finds Branwen staggering toward her cut already where the sand wall had risen against her. Alleyne had thought the wall would separate them but seems it only pushed the fighter within its confines. Not without causing some form of physical damage as evidenced by the fresh blood dripping from Branwen's brow.

“ELF!”

Branwen screams out as she brings her sword high prompting Alleyne to take a defensive stance as the hungry cannibalistic warrior rushes her.

Frightened, Meracle scurries around looking for a way out of her sand prison finding it impossible to not only get her claws through the wall of sand but to even climb up in any way. She drops to her knees and furiously begins digging but the raging sand only seems to dip down into any hole she creates.

“Why do you struggle, daughter?”

Meracle turns dropping to her rear when she hears Sharon's voice. But she knew it wasn't her Mistress talking to her, just a spirit controlling her form as she slowly walks toward her.

“St-stay away! You're no ancestor of mine!”

“You're right.” Aldara agrees. “There's no need for family relations. We can serve our Mistress as equals.”

Meracle comes to her feet though still looks frightened in being alone like this. She steps back but feels the wall scratch harshly against her tail causing her to come forward some.

“I-I'm not serving her. Neither is Mistress Sharon.” Meracle swallows down her fears finding her nerves once more. “Let her go!”

Aldara laughs in Sharon's voice crossing her arms high above her head as she circles out her hips once.

“Why would I surrender this lovely form?”

“Because it doesn't belong to you!” Meracle shouts jumping out at Sharon swiping her paw. Though, realizing at the last moment, she retracts her claws giving the impact a light thud as Aldara just laughs out.

“Right. You won't hurt this body, will you?” Meracle clenches her jaw as she looks up watching Sharon pull out her spear. “But I don't share the same sentimentality. Mistress is a necromancer, she'll simply reanimate your corpse and make it a willing and obedient slave.”

“The...the altar...”

“Your crystal will capture your spirit and Mistress will work it into a new vessel. Perhaps the footstool, perhaps she'll wear you like a ring on her finger, or maybe she'll put you into the body of one of your friends.”

Meracle tightens up her paw and growls lunging herself at Sharon.

Sonico dodges to the side narrowly avoiding a sand spike that stabs into the ground.

“Hold still, will you?” Menace says conjuring up another spike as Sonico readies looking quickly at her escape direction options. “I need to pin you down so I can properly dissect your soul.”

Sonico hops to the right once more narrowly avoiding the spike. With no formal combat training, this was definitely taking a lot out of the rabbit as she huffs getting back into a squat wondering how much longer she can hold out like this. It wasn't bad enough she was stuck in with a sorceress with a huge inferiority complex, but that this sorceress was risen high above her and surrounded herself with a thin cyclone of sand around her. Sonico had attempted to jump her earlier but found herself being propelled upward by the cyclones force. She managed to get out of that but now finds herself dodging from side to side trying to come up with some means of defeating Menace.

“Why are you focusing on just us?” Sonico shouts jumping to the side crashing down into the sand in order to avoid a spike as Menace takes her time readying the next one.

“Revenge.” Menace answers with a sinister smile. “It's going to be an absolute delight watching those that destroyed my kingdom obediently obey my commands in rebuilding it.”

Sonico grunts as she hits the ground struggling to get back onto her feet shortly after dodging another spike.

“We didn't mean to cause you any harm! We were only passing through the desert! Honest! But Alleyne was taken and you were doing horrible things to her. Besides,” Sonico stands herself up straight. “If we hadn't intervened, Meracle would be doing things she didn't want to do in the first place. She came for freedom and because of us she has that.”

Menace snarls forming another spike. “You stole her from me. She was mine to begin with!”

She throws the spike but Sonico stands her ground watching as the spike passes by her and hits the sand by the wall.

“You're distracted when you're angry.” Sonico points out. “No, not angry, faced with the truth!”

As Sonico steps toward Menace, Alleyne struggles keeping Branwen away from her as the two have their weapons once more pressed against one another. Branwen is close enough that she can lean over them and nearly lick the elf's neck. Though when a splatter of drool hits the top of her breast, she pushes back sending the cannibalistic warrior away who lands on her feet.

“The truth that you can only command loyalty!”

Meracle swings out her paws in a flurry of strikes causing Sharon to stumble back finding it difficult to parry the attacks with her spear. Her eyes try and follow her descendants strikes but she's so unfamiliar with the techniques as well as combating with this new form she can't keep up and is eventually knocked back with a jumping spin kick hitting her square in the chest.

“The truth that deep down you have no power! The truth that you fear the day your slaves will revolt against you, just as they did in the past!”

Branwen rushes herself forward as Alleyne readies once more shaking her head. This was all she's been dealing with and if Branwen was showing little to no tactics, then maybe she was just an animal in her head. Therefore, Alleyne sidesteps the warrior sending her face first into the high velocity wall knocking her back in a tumble. Branwen begins to pick herself up when she sees Alleyne jumping down at her cracking her in the face with her staff.

“You can't be a Goddess, Menace, because you were never a Queen.”

Sharon begins to pick herself up when Meracle comes over grabbing and throwing the spear away. She then drops herself down pinning her ancestor to the ground. At first, Aldara struggles but stops when she notices the tears in Meracle's eyes.

“Never...a queen?” Menace asks looking as though she were beginning to calm down. Sonico watches a little relieved but looks down when she feels the ground begin to rumble. “You're right. But then, why rule...what I can simply dominate?”

Two pillars of sand burst from the ground snatching up Sonico's wrists bringing her up into the air high enough that she and Menace can be level with one another. Menace calms the cyclone around her and moves in closely gripping hold of Sonico's chin.

“Shall I start showing you my dominance?”

Alleyne pushes her staff into Branwen's ribs to see if she was still even conscious. Getting no reaction, the elf sighs and turns to the walls looking up at their height and then down. There was definitely no way of getting over them, so she places her staff down and proceeds to dig.

“Please...” Meracle pleads, her tears now splashing down steadily over Sharon's stunned face. “Stop. I-I can't hurt Mistress any further.”

“Mis...tress.” Sharon repeats eyeing up at the cat above her. “You...indeed serve this vessel?”

“With everything I have.” Meracle proclaims, the tears coming out a little more now. “Please...please let her go.”

“You're...her slave?”

“Pet.” Meracle answers back quickly rubbing her eyes with her forearm. “I'm Mistress Sharon's pet. I can't serve your Mistress...because I have one of my own. Please. Please...just please bring her back.”

Meracle begins crying into Sharon's chest as Aldara watches with a slowly rising and soothing smile.

“AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!” Sonico screams out in pain as Menace takes pot shots with shortened sand needles catching her just barely across the skin, just enough to slice through like paper cuts. “STOP! STOP IT!!!”

“Yes,” Menace taunts back sending out more needles. “Let me swoon to the sounds of your anguish, dance to the music of your screams! Do you remorse?”

“YES!” Sonico cries out. “YES! I REMORSE!!! PLEASE!!!”

Menace only laughs more as she comes closer to Sonico raising the rabbits chin so that her captive can see her gleeful smile.

“I'm going to kill you. I'm going to reanimate your corpse. I'm going to kill you again. I'm going to reanimate and kill you over and over and over again!” She laughs out as Sonico begins to whimper watching as her tormentor goes back readying a series of more needles.

Sonico clenches her eyes turning her head away when another rumbling comes from the ground and Alleyne shoots herself up from her hole in the ground catching the sorceress beneath the chin with the edge of her staff. Menace drops from her sand pedestal and crashes onto the ground as Alleyne lands and quickly notices her Mistress. She races over to check as Menace begins to work herself back up.

“You...dare interfere with my games, elf?” Alleyne only glances at the maddened sorceress as her attention is to getting Sonico free chipping away at the hardened sand holding her Mistress in place. “I'll make you watch...as I repeatedly slit that rabbits throat. Again...and again...and a—AUGH!”

Menace drops when Meracle comes crashing through with a hard kick to her ribs. Menace clutches at her side and looks over.

“How did you--” Menace then notices the fading walls around. Alleyne's shot did more to knock her senses loose, it also knocked her control of the spell away as well.

Sharon was getting up herself and Branwen was still unconscious. The tables had definitely turned against Menace who collects her own standing and shouts at Aldara.

“Slave! To your Mistress' side now!”

“I...I can't, Mistress.” Aldara replies looking down at Sharon's hands. “I don't understand the workings of this body and...I cannot attack my own kin.”

“Tch. Fine.” Menace makes a swirling motion with her hand as a light comes from Sharon's body to her ring. As soon as the light floats out from Sharon's body, the dragon knight collapses as though dead causing Meracle to panic and hurry to her own Mistress' side. “Seems some re education is required. As for you...”

Menace uses the sand to swallow up Branwen and then begins to sink her own self into the sand before she looks to Sonico.

“I haven't forgotten your words, rabbit, I will make you suffer for them.” Sonico says nothing to Menace's threat, instead she just looks to Alleyne still chipping at the sand. “Don't you dare look away from me!”

“Alleyne,” Sonico says trying to just ignore Menace for now. “We need--”

Her head then slumps down as Menace smirks disappearing under the sand allowing the sand pillars to crumble down letting Sonico drop down into Alleyne's waiting arms.

“Mistress, lle naa varna sii'.” Sonico says nothing, so Alleyne gives her body a few jostles. “Mistress?”

Sonico's head rolls back letting Alleyne see the emptiness in her Mistress' eyes causing the elf to panic some when she hears Meracle's own startled voice.

“Mistress Sharon! Wake up!”

“Their souls are gone.” Comes a voice set in between them. Both Alleyne and Sonico turn sharply to find the soul carrier Airi standing in between them. “Menace harvested their souls and has taken them to the Soul Cairn, a section within the nether realm.”

Alleyne looks back at Sonico seeing the emptiness in her eyes as a sign of Airi's truth.

“Menace is a necromancer who should not exist. As a soul carrier, it's my duty to deal with her. I offer you the chance to come with me. To reclaim your friends souls that were wrongfully taken.”

“We...now? We can't just leave them out there.” Meracle says looking through the desert.

“Then we'll take them to a safer location. But you'll need to hurry. As I said, Menace is a necromancer and therefore has means of controlling the dead. Spirits are no different.”

“Let's go, Mistress Sharon.” Meracle says picking up Sharon's body as Alleyne lifts up Sonico's in her arms.

Not long after, Meracle is tucking Sharon into the manor's bed alongside Sonico as Alleyne stands by Airi who opens up a swirling portal along the wall.

“Let's go.”

Airi says entering in through the created doorway as Alleyne turns and follows gripping her staff tightly. Meracle gives one final glance to her Mistress and friend before turning to follow as the portal closes shut.