"Oh my Lalzari, Lazari, Lazari!!!" The king bellowed as he held his arms wide open circling around himself in almost a twirl. His slender figure stood like a windpipe suffocating it's prey.
"Yes master, I heard you wanted to see me?" The outsmarted vixen had started to use rhetoric appealing to the king. Mareeb stood behind her not saying a word, merely observing the two colliding tsunamis as they toss their passive waves of chaos at each other.
"Ah yes my strategist... I guess it's time for you to be enlightened" the sinister master snickered as he laid out a map on the table, tapping the wood to signal Lalzari to come over to him.
Brown stains expanded over the map, covering it and making it hard to see anything on it. "This... Was what I once used..." The king hissed before tearing up the map in great rage.
"But those BASTARDS have changed their locations and become hidden! You see Lalzari, there's seven outcasts outside the kingdom! For me to rule and take over Saddaqu Kingdom I need to kill off all the tribes that keep interfering with my plan! We need to track them down! Kidnap them! Torture them! And cut their string of life! All of them! They are nothing but absent dwellers! Useless souls! Only my kind shall rule!" The deviant king bespoke.
For the first time, Lalzari saw the King's twisted mind up close. His eyes twitching like the last remaining electricity in a light bulb ready to electrocute anything that touches it. My kind? Lalzari thought to herself before choosing to bravely but docilely challenge the king.
"Master... I'm not even from your kind. Your kind is fair-skinned, only birthed by the Ridals, only submitting to the Boblas. Not even your servants are from your kind!" The brave vixen said, pointing at Mareeb who was clearly from an earlier desert tribe with his deep-set brown monolid eyes.
"Oh Lalzari don't worry you're an exception I like your exotic feminine features. And for my servants... I created them so they aren't stained with their mud-like lowlife views and culture. I can accept that", Lalzari stood in utter disturbance for the sickening words that were coming out of the King's mouth. There's so much I want to say! An ethnic cleansing! He's a sick dictator! So much I want to tell him! But I can't do anything stupid... Something stupid is exactly what I did. I didn't say a word. Lalzari clenched her fist as she was horrified with the person she has become.
"How do we get rid of them master?" The self-preserved femme fatale asked.
"That's what I need my strategist for" the king replied as he touched Lalzari's hair putting it up to his face, caressing his cheek against it at times, treating the vixens features as a pleasuring contribution to his darkest desires. Lalzari's mind was racing with do's and dont's. She could tell him where The Sirs are but how would she explain that she knew exactly where they were? And would she be putting them in danger? How does she tell enough information to seem valuable but keep her morals?
"Tell me an outcast to start with and I'll make sure they seize to exist" A clever yet vague Lalzari bought herself some more time.
"AHAHAHAHAHA! That's what I like to hear my precious jewel. We start with The Naida's! They run forever, but do not move at all, they have no lungs or throat but a roaring call... That is where they reside. Find them for me, you have until the next sunset" the sinister king announced having fun with the game he was playing. Lalzari only answered with a nod whilst feeling completely hopeless inside.
"But first... We shall be bonded forever" the king continued as he placed two needles on the table and a bowl in the middle.
"Let's combine our blood" he said taking one of the needles in his hand ready to poke himself. Lalzari turned around standing in front of him until she saw the rituals on the table... Boblas! She thought to herself. Completing this ritual would bind her to a Boblas and their works captivating her for eternity. It would be worse than selling her soul to them.
The king closed his eyes and pricked his finger. The blood dripped into the bowl like a terrifying death holding your soul in chains. "Keep your eyes closed until the ritual is done!" The king demanded.
"Yes master" Lalzari replied with eyes as wide open like a wound not healing. Lalzari took the needle and pricked herself watching the blood ooze out of her finger and run down her nail. Suddenly, the vixen's blue and green veins turned into a shimmering gold, rushing through her bloodstream and out the exposed wound she had created, all the way to the drop of blood until it completely evaporated it. With no time to question Lalzari quickly said,
"Done master" and the king opened his eyes. The king looked at her wound and blood on her finger assuming his ritual had been fulfilled. He swirled the bowl around before dipping his unusual enlarged tongue into the bowl, licking a bit of what was actually his own blood.
"Mmmm you taste sweet my jewel" he said with blood stuck and captured in his moustache. He passed the bowl to Lalzari and she does as requested whilst he stared at her intensely with an expression of extreme pleasure as she licks it.
"OoAhhh" he exclaimed almost rolling his eyes back a little. Lalzari tries to hold her composure and not gag from the bitter iron taste lingering in her mouth. Reeks just like him! She thought to herself.
Lalzari slammed the doors wide open drying her tongue in her sleeve as she scampered down the hall.
"OMID! OI OMID!" Mareeb repeated as he tried catching up with the angered vixen. His voice in the background making her blood boil even more to the point she wished he would be quiet so she could focus and think.
As she approached her room she slammed the door behind her but before she could hear the satisfying thud, Mareeb caught it, walked in and closed it behind him. "Oh, Omid!" The boy pleaded. The servant boy had become too comfortable within his position.
"WHAT?!" Lalzari shouted as she turned around exasperated. The boy looked up at her shocked by her sudden raise of voice, before he uttered the words.
"Omid... You're acting differently, not yourself?" Lalzari grabbed her head trying not to explode from anger.
"Differently?! Maybe because I've seen nothing but death since I got here! Maybe because I just licked the sick kings blood?! You DON'T understand Mareeb!" She bellowed with a sneer to hold back the tears forming.
"Help me understand Omid!" The pleading boy begged.
"I MISS MAMA! I MISS HUSAYRAH! I MISS JAMSHAR! I miss safety Mareeb!!!!" Lalzari said sobbing once again. Mareeb's facial expression changed to what almost looked like aggression.
"Omid it's always Jamshar this! Jamshar that! But he's dead, you need to move on! You're hurting yourself!" He boy stated as he watched his Omid step away from him as if she had seen a stranger intrude her home.
"MAREEB BE CAREFUL OF WHAT COMES OUT OF YOUR MOUTH, YOU HAVE NO IDEA WHAT YOU JUST SAID" she roared as the tears streamed down her tired face. Mareeb came closer and in his annoyingly calm voice said.
"Omid is never cold but you've been so cold lately. You compare everything to mama, Melaniee and Jamshar you need to let go" his calm voice was not helping Lalzari's emotions but instead made her more and more railed up. Spending time with Zunaid had really effected the vixens new love for shouting.
"THEY WERE THE ONLY ONES WHO LOVED ME MAREEB!! THEY HELD ME WHEN I CRIED! CARED FOR ME WHEN I ACHED!" The worn-out femme fatale stopped to catch her breath, breathing heavily before she calmly continued
"I've been used. Abused. My identity stripped away. All I ever wanted Mareeb... Was companionship and now... I have to be something I'm too tired to be!"
Lalzari fell to the floor sobbing over and over again. The strong cold woman she was trying to be had disappeared and now the only one left was the unknown body. Before Mareeb could say more she stood up remembering her plea to be fierce and strong. She wiped away her tears and put out her palm signaling for Mareeb to not come close.
"I'm tired Mareeb. I can't afford to be distracted. I've been alone always and I need to be okay with that. Sleep on the bed tonight I'm going to be out anyways" she said coldly as she passed Mareeb to leave the room. I think tonight I need to be physically alone, to be alright again.
The howling of the trees as the sun set sounded like a wailing cry of the lost and forgotten. Lalzari sat on a small hill right outside the kingdom looking at the forest ahead of her. Finally alone and at peace. She closed her eyes wanting to drift away to some far away land where no eye could see. RUN! RUN! I WANT TO RUN!
Lalzari dove behind a wide cedar trunk just off the trail. Heart slamming against her ribs, she gulped at the air, trying to slow her breathing enough to hear. Back in the shadows, branches thrashed and snapped from the wildlife adventuring. Sunset had finally drained out of the sky overhead, sheathing the woods in shadow. Lalzari pressed her face against the bark, the ridges biting into her skin, and tried to become one with the tree.
"Heavy night ye?" A strong female voice asked. Lalzari turned around to see a tall woman covered from head to toe with a voice she could never forget.
"Malaa?"