Bonding With... Thea?

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. Beryl and Krvavy made a few small spears together and practiced throwing them, all the while engaged in a little bit of small talk that ultimately went nowhere.

After that they had the same old stew as dinner again, with the only real difference being that Beryl insisted on spoon-feeding it to Krvavy, acting all romantic and lovey-dovey the whole time. It was kind of awkward, but the fact that Thea got really annoyed at the whole thing really made it worth it for Krvavy. That bratty noble girl is just so fun to tease.

And Beryl seems to think so too, as half of what she says to Thea gets a rise out of the girl. From wanting to add some of Krvavy’s cream to her own stew after feeding the barbarian, to having another romantic romp while making Thea hang around, and of course making the noble girl practice her oral techniques again the next morning.

Krvavy doesn’t want to just bully the girl though, as she isn’t cruel despite everything that she has done. Which leads to her current situation, sitting near the campfire and staring at Thea, who is glaring back. She is going to spend the whole day with Thea. Krvavy will try to avoid bullying the girl too. No promises though.

If Khalia wasn’t becoming more and more forgettable as a borderline comatose slab of meat, then Krvavy would spend the day with her instead. Sadly, that isn’t an option. At least until she gets better. If she ever does.

“Are you just going to sit there all day?! Lazy lizard!” Thea snaps out, causing Krvavy to smile as that was exactly what she was waiting for.

“Nope.” Krvavy curtly replies, further annoying her brat. “You know how I spent all of yesterday with Beryl? Well, now it is your turn!”

Thea immediately scowls angrily. “I! Do! Not! Want! To! Spend! Any! Time! With! You!” The bratty noble girl shouts out, emphasizing every single word.

“Aww, what a shame. You don’t have a choice.” Krvavy smugly states. “My lovely little elf is off doing elf things, so it is just us today. Well, us and Khalia. But she won’t mind being left out. So, have anything you want to do?”

The noble girl narrows her eyes, glaring at Krvavy with a poisonous glare. After a few short minutes she opens her mouth to respond. “Return me to my home!”

Krvavy laughs out at that response. “Oh, what a cute thing you are! I’m not doing that.”

“Vile fiend! Filthborne beast! Cruel creature!”

“Cruel creature? That’s a new one, girl. You trying to spice up your insults or something?” Krvavy playfully asks.

“Ugh! I hate you! Harlot!” Thea shouts out, crossing her arms unhappily and turning her head aside.

Krvavy just smiles as she shakes her head. She really isn’t doing a good job not teasing the girl. So she’ll try harder. Though a little bit of teasing every now and then doesn’t hurt. “Okay. If your home is so great, then why don’t you tell me about it? You know, enlighten this ‘savage’ on the splendors of human civilization.”

Thea glares out of the corner of her eyes, before slowly turning back to Krvavy. “Let me guess, a beast like you has never even seen a city before?” She condescendingly asks, quickly becoming rather smug.

“Let’s pretend that I haven’t.” Krvavy responds. After all, she doesn’t know what cities are like in this world. They could be stereotypically medieval or they could have a more fantasy spin to them. Either way, they wouldn’t be comparable to the modern cities filled with sky scrapers that she is used to as Leanna.

“Oh yes, just pretend!” The bratty noble mockingly sneers out. “A simple beast like you would not be able to comprehend the amount of people who live in Svaneti, let alone the numerous other cities that fill the civilized lands!”

“And how many would that be? People who live in Svaneti, I mean.” The barbarian earnestly asks.

Thea scoffs out, acting like that was a stupid question to ask. “A few thousand! Can your little animal mind comprehend how ma–”

“Is that all?” Krvavy cuts the bragging girl off. “I thought that it’d be bigger. But I guess it is just a barony after all.”

“WHAT?!” The noble brat indignantly shouts out. “You are mocking me, are you not?! Stop it! Svaneti is a fine city, and a few thousand people living within the walls is nothing to scoff at! Especially out here at the edge of the world! And countless more live outside the walls, in villages scattered around the countryside!”

Krvavy stares blankly at the brat for a few seconds. “You don’t actually know how many people live there, do you?”

“O-of course I do!” Thea sputters back. “A few thousand, as I had said!”

“So just over a thousand? Or maybe just under ten thousands? Or somewhere in between? Well, what is it?”

Thea’s mouth opens and closes wordlessly as she tries to come up with a response. After a few moments her teeth clack shut and she growls out. “Ugh! So what if I do not know the exact number of filthy peasants wandering the streets! They hardly matter at all!”

Krvavy sighs out tiredly. This spoiled girl is a real piece of work.

“What?! Do not make that noise again! I do not need you off all people to judge me!” Thea sputters out.

“Just... Just tell me about your home...” Krvavy says with a sigh, starting to regret taking the time to just talk with her.

“Why do you care?! Filthborne beast!”

“I am trying to be nice to you. Trying to get to know you.” The barbarian almost growls out. “Do you remember the three choices I gave you? If you can’t even hold a polite conversation, then maybe all you are good for is being rapebait.”

Thea audibly gulps as Krvavy reminds her of, well, the entire situation that she is in. “M-my apologies oh... m... mighty dragon,” the brat forces out between clenched teeth, seemingly incapable of sounding sincere, “you are oh so strong and noble. Definitely not a disgusting animal playing at being a person.”

Krvavy sighs out once more. “Just talk about yourself already, you annoying little brat. Surely you love that topic.”

The bratty noble girl’s false sincerity quickly falls away as she glares angrily at Krvavy. “I am Theadosia Constance Severina,” she reluctantly begins, speaking in a bored tone that sounds like she is just reading off a list, “youngest child and only daugh–”

“Yeah, you’ve said that before.” Krvavy cuts her off again.

“Ugh! Why are you so annoying?!” Thea whines out. “Why do you even care?! Just be a normal kidnapper and ignore me! Let me just sit around and await my inevitable rescue!”

“Girl,” Krvavy begins with disappointment in her voice, “I own you. You are mine. That is the reality of the situation, whether you accept it or not. How many times do I need to tell you that? Now, I simply want to know more about my property. So go on.”

“Ugh!” Thea groans out dramatically. “Fine! I have three older brothers! Are you happy now?!”

Krvavy simply raises an eyebrow as she gestures for the noble girl to continue.

Which is exactly what Thea does, after rolling her eyes in annoyance. “My oldest brother, Dimitrios, is the perfect heir for my father. If he were here, you would be dead. He is skilled with the blade, he is skilled in magic, he is a respected leader, he excels at filling out boring forms and reading boring laws,” her tone begins to heat up into more of a shout, “he is kind but knows when to put his food down, he is loved by all, he is perfect in almost every way! Do I need to go on?!”

The bratty noble pants out as she quivers in rage. “I! Hate! Him!” she growls out. “He is good at everything he does without any effort! His talents are wasted on just being a Baron! But he doesn’t care! He is humble and downplays everything that he does! Ugh!”

This girl clearly has some sort of inferiority complex, so maybe it’d be best to get her to move on. “What about your other brothers?” Krvavy asks, snapping the angry brats attention back to her.

“Nikolas and Kostas, the twins!” She vehemently huffs out, glaring furiously at Krvavy. “Nikolas is an amazing soldier and is great with a blade, even better than Dimitrios if magic isn’t involved! Kostas is a great mage and scholar, one who knows just about everything there is to know!”

Krvavy opens her mouth to say something, but is cut off as Thea continues on into a rant.

“And then there is me! The daughter! The little girl! The one who cannot do anything right! The worthless one! I cannot do even the most basic of magic! I cannot remember boring laws! I cannot even read without getting a headache! No one likes me! They are all probably happy that I am gone! The only person who was willing to marry me was a violent creep! I would be better off dead...”

As Thea’s rant peters out her head sinks into her hands, and she begins to quietly cry.

This girl is... very volatile. Seeing her like this makes Krvavy want to hug her, to comfort her. But she isn’t sure if that will work. It didn’t do much to help last time that Thea broke down, when she was screaming out and sobbing.

Biting her lip, Krvavy decides to give into her gut feeling. Sliding off of her stone seat, the barbarian falls to her knees in front of Thea and wraps her arms around the small crying girl, bracing herself for the storm of insults and obscenities.

But they never come. Thea doesn’t insult Krvavy, doesn’t call her a beast or a monster. She just keeps crying out into her hands, and now into Krvavy’s chest.

Krvavy wants to comfort the girl, but she doesn’t know what to do or what to say. The girl in her arms seems so ****, her whole body shaking with each quiet sob. Thea is clean, with nothing much to do beyond bathing, but she still looks like a mess. Her silver-blonde hair has been slowly escaping from its braid, and is starting to get tangled up in itself, giving the noble girl a rather haggard appearance.

That’s it. Krvavy’s hand moves down to the ground, and with Shape Stone she pulls a rather thick and squat comb with just a handful of teeth out of the rock. Using her magic to polish it up, the barbarian brings it up to Thea’s hair, gently untying the noble girl’s braids before carefully getting to work.

“W... what are you... doing...?” Thea mutters out into her hands, her voice sounding tired and with no fight left in it.

“Combing your hair.” Krvavy responds. “It is a mess.”

Thea’s shoulders sag as she relaxes into Krvavy’s arms. For the first time since Krvavy saw Thea in that cage, the noble girl isn’t tense and on edge.

“W-why...?” The girl hesitantly asks after a few minutes of gentle combing.

“When I was just a kid my older sister would comb my hair when I was sad.” Krvavy quietly answers. “I had almost forgotten about her. She... died before I was even ten.”

Thea is quiet for a few more minutes, as her tears slowly dry up. She doesn’t move though, still keeping her hands to her face as her body almost shivers.

“Wh... what did I do... to deserve this...?” Thea whispers out, sounding like she is talking to herself. “The only... person... who has been nice... to me in... years... is my kidnapper...”

Krvavy just continues to comb Thea’s hair in silence, as the noble girl quietly resumes her crying. Even if this girl can be a bit of a bitch at times, seeing her like this kind of hurts Krvavy and makes her regret bullying the brat so much. This girl reminds her too much of herself, when she acts like this.