for togidemi
this was fun ^_^
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Mindfang. That was her name, right? Ugh. Rufioh buried his face in his hands. It suits her, he thought, A fang in your mind. Did it feel like that when he communed with beasts? He winced. He hoped not.
“Hey, Weakwing!” A thump and a bang, and the hatch above him opened, letting in a breath of fresh air. Rufioh squinted into the sliver of light, then flung himself back as far as he could in the cramped hold. Not far enough. Still twitching and gasping, the slimy finbeast flopped down right into Rufioh’s lap. The hatch slammed shut again, Mindfang’s cackling muffled as she stomped away. Rufioh grit his teeth. Very gently, he picked up the finbeast. It gulped at him, calming as he put it to sleep. Finally, it stilled. Rufioh scrubbed a hand across his eyes, and bit off its head.
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So, “The Summoner”, huh? Big fancy title, for a not so fancy troll. Decent rack though, Aranea conceded, curling her lip, Big troll all around. Big and stupid.
He’d been so easy to overpower, too! All that love, and righteous rage; such lowblooded straightforwardness. Ugh. What a shame.
Still, he’d probably fetch a decent bounty. She kicked idly at the base of of the pathetic little mast of the rundown tiny boat that was all she had now. It had a tiller. She’d had to put her prisoner in the saillocker, for fuck’s sake.
“Bring us around.” she barked, grinning at her only crew member, who was currently trolling said tiller. He nodded sullenly, and they both set to tacking.
The noise came just as they’d settled into their course. The wind was more or less with them, and Aranea was about to check on her prisoner for a nice round of gloating. The sound was a boom, followed by a rush. Then, as Aranea half turned, an almighty crash. She threw herself out of the way just in time to avoid the depthbeast’s tail crashing right though the centre of her ship. Her shipmate, whatever his name was, went down instantly. Aranea came up, gasping for air, amid the ruins of her last refuge.
And there he was. That, that- prisoner! He was swimming for the depthbeast, flailing through the water with those ridiculous wings. And the depthbeast was coming back for him. Aranea gasped, and choked, then powered arm over arm towards him as fast as she could. She reached for his mind.
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When Mindfang finally released her control over him, Rufioh punched her in the mouth. She wasn’t expecting it, for some reason. He hadn’t expected it to land. Both of them fell from the back of ailing depthbeast, and into the too-shallow water.