The Offering (Lesbian, Gay, Girlxgirl)

Chapter 56

Chapter 56

The sun had fully set when Brielle made it to Xander's side. The view from the forest edge was magnificent. She could see everything from the treetop.

"What happened to you?!" Xander grasped her arm. She allowed him to inspect her. "There's blood!" She could feel his eyes scanning her, searching for a wound, trying to stitch the pieces. She didn't react when he let go and covered his mouth. "What did you do?!" He gasped.

Brielle licked the blood on her thumb and craned her neck. A green axe had chopped off a human's head down on the field. By the time this war was over, the hundreds of bones in the stretch of wasteland leading to the volcano would number to thousands. What more could she do to make it interesting?

"Do you hear me?!" Xander twisted her to him, his initial shock gone. He just looked enraged. "This isn't you! What have you done to Brielle?! Are you her doppelganger?!" His chain made little noise as it was uncoiled from his chest. Brielle snatched it from his hands before he could do anything, though she didn't break it.

"How many do you think there are?" she said, voice gruff. She didn't bother clearing her throat. What was the point? She'd accepted who and what she was. How she sounded was the least of her worries. "A thousand? Two thousand?" She motioned to the bloodbath happening on the field. Days ago, when she and Talin stumbled on it after coming from a traumatic experience of losing Mei and their friends, it was almost deserted. Now it was filled with humans and Ali's alike, killing each other.

Xander tried to grab his chain, but Brielle was quicker. She jumped to a lower branch while Xander remained where he was, glaring. "I don't know how many there are, and I don't care!" He bent and stretched his hand down. "Bring back my friend. She's not like this."

Brielle's eyes concentrated on him for the first time since they'd met at the tree. The purple on her iris was ruined by streaks of red. It flashed when she tossed his weapon back to him. She tilted her chin to the war. "Your friend, Brielle, is gone. They killed her." A smirk. "And if you want to avenge her, you'd kill them too. See you." Her blood-stained dress fluttered when she jumped down.

"Come back here, damn it!" Xander's cries were devoured by shrieks.

Brielle ignored him and hoisted herself on the Smilodon's back. It galloped to her at a perfect time. "Stay on the edge," she commanded Scar. "We can't join the war yet."

The Smilodon circled the border of the chaos, near enough to let Brielle observe, but far enough to partake in. She studied the human and Ali's movements; the swing of weapons, the scattered soldiers, the screams, and the wails of pain. There was no order to their rankings anymore. It was all thanks to her that it started earlier than it should have.

"The humans aren't using their guns," Brielle murmured. "The Ali's must have found a way to disable them."

A particularly young human caught her eye just then. The boy must be around fourteen or fifteen, just younger than her by a few years. He was swinging a sword too broad for him, its weight too heavy. Yet no matter how awkward he seemed at it, he was doing well against the Ali he'd been fighting with. He must have been trained young.

Brielle departed from the Smilodon and walked steadily to the boy and his enemy. None of them registered her presence until it was too late. Her nails have grown into claws, impaled the human boy, and shortened again as she withdrew her hand. The Ali stared at her in horror and admiration.

"P-Princess?!"

Brielle shifted her attention to him. He was wounded on the stomach. So that's why the boy had been faring well against him.