In My Blood

Chapter 1: The Facade

Sand? A beach? Where the hell am I? Delphnye thinks as she regains her footing, trying to kick the sand out of her golden sandals that coiled around her calves. She brushes more sand off the front of her olive-green Queen Anne top and the matching split skirt that falls just above her feet. The gorgeous outfit is accented with golden vines. She adjusts the golden circlet that lies snug over her shoulder-length soft brown curls. Her focus quickly shifts to her arms as her heart pounds.

Two green garter snakes are coiled around her forearms like bangles. They are still as stone, but that doesn't prevent their tiny tongues from giving her a quick kiss on her wrists. Delphnye sighs in relief. Vesper. Pax. The dwarf snakes she helped hatch a year prior. As a ranger, she's a lone wolf. Her only friends are the reptilian creatures she bonded with. She has a talent for taming the most vicious snakes to aid her in fights. Vesper and Pax were the only two who never left her side...or arms for that matter. Then, there's Echo. Delphnye clenches the golden scale chained around her neck and turns her head toward the sky for a brief moment before focusing her attention back on the more pressing matters.

After a quick examination of herself and her snake companions, she glances ahead and sees a half-elf with jet-black hair prone in the sand. The woman she reluctantly saved on the nautiloid and helped fight during their escape. Shadowheart? Was that her name? Delphnye picks up her quiver and bow that had landed next to her in the sand and approaches the unconscious figure.

Delphnye wasn't one to trust very easily, but despite having only met a few moments prior to the fight, Shadowheart still aided her in battle. The wood elf chews on her bottom lip for a moment, contemplating her next moves carefully. She needed to find a cure for this worm in her brain, but only a fool would try to make that journey alone. Sure, she was confident that she could handle her own, but she also knew she wasn't invincible and her reptilian companions could only aid her so much.

The pale skin on the wood elf glows from the sun as she finally makes her decision-she woke up Shadowheart and agrees to set off on this journey together.

***

For the next hour, the two girls loot the bodies of the deceased thralls, goblins, and mindflayers scattered around the shipwreck, finding whatever supplies and weapons they can. When they decided they were set for at least a few days of travel, they began their trek. It isn't long before they bump into another potential victim of this whole tadpole conundrum. However, Delphnye isn't convinced he is truly a victim. Her high sense of perception can see through his facade a mile away. Like a cichlid playing dead to lure in its prey, he acts almost defenseless, scoping the perimeter for his next target. His face shows genuine concern, but his ruby eyes say otherwise.

Delphnye gestures for Shadowheart to stay hidden where she is. The wood elf manages to completely camouflage herself in the small amount of foliage around them. "Vesper. Pax. Houpe." She whispers, eyeing the high elf in front of her. The snakes slither off her forearms and approach the man silently through the long grass.

Shadowheart watches the wood elf from behind the remains of the nautiloid. She squints from the bright beams of the sun shining in her eyes, furrowing her brows in confusion. What in the Nine Hells is she doing? Then, she's out of her sight. Did she make herself invisible?

Soft brown curls unfurl as Delphnye seizes her opportunity. When the high elf turns his back to her, she jumps out of the foliage, landing on top of him. She quickly notches an arrow and pulls it back, aiming toward his beautiful face as she straddles him. "Krathin." She spits through her teeth. Vesper and Pax suddenly spring out and snap their fangs at the grappled high elf.