Blood of Azura

Part IV

She stared up at him from her position on the sand.  Tunic, dirty and torn, her breathing fast with panic. The longer she sat there the less he liked it. She didn't belong there in the dirt; cowed, shamed and afraid. To Theodan's mind, she would always belong in the throne room of a golden palace, glorious, beautiful and defiant - just as she had been the first moment he laid eyes on her.

Another image seeped into his brain then, of her naked and sated on a bed of furs in the forest floor of Leoth.  That could come later.  After.  After this pointless, one-sided war was won.

He could smell her fear again but no longer was it the sweet, gratifying scent he tasted two moons ago. This was an acidic, bitter aroma that made his empty stomach tense and his throat burn.

These dogs were about to ravage her - he had scented their fetid arousal from ways away - but not as a Leoth would take a spoil or a slave, merely as Zybar scum were of a mind to use their women. The Leothine were long ago given the title 'Beasts of Ethis', but this was unfair. The Leothine let loose their beast in the arena of battle only - the Zybar did not. The Leothine did not use or abuse women or slaves, whereas the Zybar could make no such claim. They lived in the dirt and possessed very little loyalty, empathy or intelligence. Dirty and unthinking, they demonstrated a lack of humanity unlike all other races of Ethis. In Theodan's opinion, Zybarian's carried the greatest claim to the term 'beast', however, he was content to waken his own in order to tear each of these animals apart. One by one, limb by limb, coating his body in their blood while he drank.

His hate of the Zybar was known, and he took no care to mask it either.  He was here for one reason only. Yet still, he had argued against it, against this entire alliance. It did not sit well with him. He'd wanted nothing to do with the attack on a peaceful nation far from Leoth by an ageing king concerned only with his own pride.  He was outvoted by the ruling council each time. Until the High Visier has convinced him otherwise. Leoth was supposed to be here. He was supposed to be here.

And so, he reasoned, if he could wipe a few of these bastards out while he was here then it won't have been a complete waste of his time. The Dark One would no doubt thank him for it when they met on his final night of nights.

He could feel the life draining from this one in his grip, the Zybar's breaths becoming more difficult with each passing moment as the blood battled to get to the soft part of his head. Theodan wasn't of any sort of mind to let him go. He could still hear the girl's scream. Still smell her terror. He'd been blasted with both from the other side of the beach; her scream a desperate horrible sound he was certain he would hear again and again whenever his mind was open or at rest.

Theodan could move faster than most beings in the four realms, but he had surprised even himself with how fast he had gotten across the camp to the unclaimed pen. His teeth and claws elongating as he found her being forced down into the sand.