《Flyleaf》Trollhunters/Merlin

《 Chapter Nine 》

"You will never fly with broken wings. The dogs will catch you first."

An animalistic snarl awakes Nomura from her restless slumber. A snarl and the sound of struggling guards, judging from the clatter of armour. Someone has a new pet.

She growls at all the fuss and glances through the gap in the cell walls at the young Trollhunter as he sleeps so peacefully. Well, as peacefully as one can in the Darklands. She had long since grown weary of taunting him, and had left him in silence to rest at last. She of all creatures knows how important even a moment's rest is, especially when Gunmar the Black favours you for beatings. 

Curious, yet still wary, Nomura creeps over to the crystal bars of her prison, long, slender fingers curling around the shards as she inspects the new pet as it thrashes violently against the guards' firm hold. All she can make out is the cold blue hues of their eyes and the overwhelming scent of spilt blood. It is not a sight she had been unprepared for, but the lack of Changeling-like qualities in the creature is unexpected.

The young Trollhunter had mentioned another, had he not? Nomura mulls over his earlier words, the ones she had barely listened to as she taunted him for his ploy to flee. He had, as she recalls, a boy he referred to as 'Tyler' before correcting himself with the name 'Esmerion'. She shakes her head. Tyler was the name of the boy who had approached her at the museum about King Arthur and the Knights of the Round table. The fool had involved his brother in his own affairs, and she was going to look upon the consequences of that action.

She scoffs. It's not as though she actually cares about the boy's fate. But the Trollhunter's correction had caught her attention. Who is 'Esmerion'? The name feels familiar, Nomura muses, though her thoughts are cut off by a furious bellow from the new addition.

A crack echoes through the cavern and Nomura steps away with a grimace, watching with bright eyes as the prisoner rips his own already bloodied arm out of the guard's hand, splitting the living stone with ease. The guard roars in agony, and violently throws the prisoner into the cell beside Nomura's, caring not for the resounding crack that echoes within the cell. With that, the guards storm off with their wounded comrade, the crystal bars snapping into place.

Intrigued, Nomura approaches the small sliver of a gap in the wall between her and the new prisoner. The scent of blood is so thick now that she nearly gags, finding the unwavering smell overpowering and tainted, as though it is not the blood of a human, yet neither the blood of a creature. 

As she searches the cell for some sign of the prisoner, a pit in the bottom-most part of her stomach tightens with unease. It is an instinct that tells who is predator and who is prey. It does not deliver her pleasant news of where she resides on that chart.

A cruel snarl and a scrambling of bloodied fingers within the gap startles the Changeling, scaring her back until she can be sure that the prisoner is unable to somehow enter her own cell. Shimmering scarlet paints the peek hole with disgusting fluid as the desperate hands retreat back into their own place. A rumble makes her heart tremble, her bones rattling from the intense resound that the creature within the neighbouring walls creates.

"What..." she forces the sentence from her twisted tongue. "What are you?"

Her only answer is a growl not unlike the ones she has heard from Gunmar himself. The fear in her heart triples at this beast-like response, and she steps back again, pressing against the stone wall. 

Blue eyes, far brighter than the brightest sun and colder than the peak of the Himalayas, appear in the gap, wild and vicious. Nomura cannot resist the shiver that travels down her spine, nor the breath she withholds in fear of the creature. Those are human eyes, but it is not a human impression that twists her gut.