hide my face again, harbor in the shadows | topsail, padma

[Elysium]

watch your tongue or have it cut from your head,
save your life by keeping whispers unsaid.

  Her teeth.

  He finds himself oddly uncomfortable; a sensation - an emotion he rarely experiences. He is usually the cause for discomfort, with his mangled six limbs, beady compound eyes and feathery antennae, and yet something more unearthly than even himself now stood menacingly before him. Though the eyes - so intelligent in nature - remained curious, neutral, he could not look away from her sharp, threatening incisors. He can feel himself unraveling and growing unnerved beneath the surface, though he only allows his compound gaze to lazily blink once, feigning indifference to her intensified appearance. He had heard many tales, but none as outlandish as the reality standing before him.

  Suddenly, she is within his mind, and he seizes - and the discomfort fades. Her tone is gentle, soothing even, completely unmatched to her frightening reptilian form. She speaks of his name, and he does not question it - he has not been gone so long from the Valley as to have forgotten the arrangement, nor the nature of her coming to power, and he has not been gone so long that the shadowed Valley had forgotten him. She must be able to see within, he assumes, and he guards himself, attempting to steel away from her prying ability but he knows deep down it is of no use. What the Queen wishes to see and know of him, she simply will, and that is the price he will be forced to pay to serve beneath her.

  She changes now. A beautiful, slender and still somewhat terrifying equine, her eyes flashing as dangerously as the velociraptor's had - it lingers beneath the surface, always waiting to strike, this he knows. He lowers his crown, feathery antennae bobbing gently with his motion, as he gently bows his head to her. He observes her pelt, which is tainted the color of dust and stormy skies, and her eyes, which speak more to him than her mind games ever could. He pauses to glance momentarily to the reptilian-painted female at his side, knowing not what they have wandered into and yet undeniably, insatiably hungry for more.

  "Thank you, Queen Topsail - after leaving to fulfill a request on behalf of the previous King Demian, we have returned to service the lands that call to us most. I pledge my allegiance to the Valley, which has called to me every dusk and dawn since I left it behind, and I pledge my allegiance to you."

  And there is little else he can do but to wait.

elysium

no mercy from the edge of the blade,
dare escape and learn the price to be paid.