"I. Said. Nooo!"
Gabrielle desperately clung to the entryway of the tavern as Karliah and Thrudd tried to pull her inside by force.
"Don't be such a baby about this!" Thrudd yelled. "We promise, it's not that bad!"
"You dare lie to as if my vision were not fully functional!?"
"Co on, kid, live a little!" Karliah goaded. "This place is great, you can see a guy's tooth fly out and fly into a chick's a-"
"Nooooo!"
The wood making up the doorway was turning to powder underneath her grip.
Fiona leaned in front of Gabbrielle's face while rubbing her chin.
"Hey, you know that making new bodies thing that your dad can do..? Is that sothing unique to him orr…?"
Gabbrielle's eyes flickered with life.
Suddenly, her body poofed out of existence and reappeared cowering behind Fiona.
"Both of you... stay far away from ." She hissed.
Karliah grew frustrated with her granddaughter's unwillingness to try new experiences.
"Co on now, bookworm, you're too old for this. It won't kill you to have a bit of fun with your grandma for once and stop being such a-"
"Princess."
It had to have taken virtually no ti. But as soon as Gabbrielle and the group glanced out into the lot.
Soldiers in black appeared outside all without making a sound or causing a panic among the populace.
Those of the highest rank were stationed in front. Their helts were removed to allow her to see their faces.
As if she wouldn't know them even with their faces covered...
The one to speak first was a large, grizzled woman who seed like a less intense version of Karliah.
"Forgive the intrusion, princess. We sensed your presence and have simply co here to pay our respects."
Fiona whistled in an impressed tone. "Real red carpet treatnt, huh?"
Gabbrielle looked back at Fiona and smirked. "Do I look like I deserve anything less?"
"..." Fiona usually hated people who were unashadly confident and knew they looked good.
Gabbrielle was the kind of good-looking person who was extrely hard to dislike. Maybe it was because she really did look as good as she thought she did.
Gracefully she floated over the muddy ground and placed her hand on the shoulder of the woman to speak to her first.
Everyone could sense her cheek scales darken.
"Thank you for greeting us. We didn't an to draw you from your posts."
"I-It is of no issue, princess. For you, we will happily co running."
At that mont, Thrudd erged into full view and the bows of the assembled dragons beca even deeper.
"Princess Thrudd. It is wonderful to see you are in good health as well." The soldier smiled.
"Princess!?" A voice cried out.
Thrudd felt her blood run cold.
Jorgen was finally picking himself up out of the mud and seemingly no worse for wear despite the obvious concussion that should have plagued him.
The old man seed to hold a bit of magical knowledge in his mind as well. Even his gunshot wound had already closed up.
"What's all this hustlin' and bustling I'm hearing about you being a princess? Since when did that happen?"
"I'd like to know how long it's been a secret." Another voice said.
A crow let out a haunting screech.
The group followed it's caw towards the roof of the inn, where an older man stood alone holding a staff.
Despite all of his bluster about not respecting authority of any kind, Jorgen still stumbled around a bit as he fell to his knees.
"A-All Father... It's a true honor, sir. I am thrilled to see one as mighty as yourself grace my humble-"
*Snicker.* "Bootlicker."
*Chuckle* "Pussy."
"You show so respect for the All-Father!" Jorgen snapped.
Odin floated down from the roof of the building. His single-eyed gaze never left Gabbrielle and Thrudd.
"I was wondering which of you had co… I almost don't know anything else that can get these statues of yours to leave their posts."
The very faintest of smiles appeared on the edges of Gabbrielle's lips.
Her hand slipped underneath the jaw of a kneeling soldier; cupping his face gently.
"They are my father's pride and joy. You're very lucky he lent them to you. All of you." She said to Odin.
The god noticed that Gabbrielle did not ask him whether or not the soldiers were performing adequately, or if their training was educational enough.
She behaved like she already knew the answer to both. Even going so far as to call him and the other gods 'lucky'.
For a mont, Gabbrielle seed like the spitting image of her mothers.
Her effortless grace and thoughtful words combined with a naturally cold deanor made one feel as if they were being coiled around by an infinitely long snake.
Whether it wanted to eat you or observe you were matters left entirely up to chance.
"You sisters should have stopped by Valhalla. I would have greeted you personally." Odin said respectfully.
Thrudd shook her head. "This isn't any kind of official visit. We just ca here to have a little fun is all."
Odin, and his two crows, blinked simultaneously.
"… 'Fun'…. Here?"
"I know, right..?" Fiona murmured under her breath.
Even the soldiers were wondering if maybe 'fun' was so secret code phrase used amongst nobility that they just wouldn't get.
It was literally the only thing that made sense.
At that mont, a man ca flying through the window covered with bruises and his pants around his ankles. Cheers could be heard from inside.
"Uh-huh! Fun!" Thrudd nodded with a smile.
Odin prided himself on knowing everything. He had given up his eye for knowledge after all.
But right now, all of his sight and knowledge seed worthless. He had absolutely no idea what was going on.
He still wasn't quite as far behind as Jorgen though. "Wait a minute, wait a minute… How do you two know each other..?"
Thrudd smiled sheepishly. "Oh, uh… he and my dad kinda go way back."
Odin found that to be a gross oversimplification, but chose not to say anything nonetheless.
"Well, who the hell's your father?!"
Thrudd smiled sheepishly. "Hehehe…"
-
Jorgen was face down in the mud again. This ti no one had to hit him to send him into unconsciousness.
Thrudd poked him in the back with a small stick, but no matter what he didn't show any other signs of recovering from his shock.
"Do you an to tell that you two have been hanging out here this entire ti, but no one knew who you were?" Odin asked in shock.
"This isn't exactly the kind of place where people ask questions." Karliah defended.
Odin knew exactly what kind of cesspool this place was. That's why he couldn't believe daughters of Ayaana would co here of their own free will.
"Princess, why don't you let escort you to sowhere a bit more fitting of your station…" A younger brigade leader offered. "Asgard is certainly not ho, but there are nicer places to spend your ti if you look hard enough."
Odin would have felt insulted if he hadn't also seen Tehom before. He fully understood the difference between the two.
Gabbrielle's eyes lit up. "I believe that would be-"
"No thank you!"
Thrudd launched a sneak attack and hoisted her sister over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes. Fiona fit snuggly underneath her arm.
"This is exactly where we are supposed to be!"
"The hell it is!"
"Put down, Thrudd!"
Like a bandit, Thrudd ran into the tavern while giggling mischievously. Leaving all of the onlookers stunned into silence.
Karliah followed her granddaughters inside, but brushed up against the statuesque Odin as well.
"Coming inside, little man?" She winked.
Odin's brow wrinkled.
Karliah was a fairly off-putting woman.
She was large, muscular, and imposing. With deep black skin and permanently sharp teeth.
She shared similarities with Bekka, but while the latter possessed a cute and cuddly deanor underneath her voracious appetite, Karliah only had more hunger underneath hers.
A hunger for sex, domination, freedom, and wine, that is.
Karliah liked n. She liked won. She liked monsters.
Sex was not necessarily her favorite vice, but rather the way through which she asserted dominance over others. She likes knowing that, no matter what, the partners she takes will never stumble into a better lover than her.
And with sexual repression in Tehom being essentially nonexistent outside of infidelity, she is quite popular, and a woman well used to getting what she wants when she wants it from whoever she wants it from.
So would say she's forceful… others would choose the phrase 'confident'.
Outside of Tehom, that kind of woman can be a lot to swallow for most.
Odin would definitely fall into the category of those who couldn't.
"I think not." Odin snorted as he stepped over an unconscious body. "The last thing I want to spend my ti on is a woman who doesn't resemble one."
Karliah stopped suddenly in her tracks.
She slowly turned around with an unsettling smile on her face that made Odin feel a very particular kind of disturbed.
"' A woman who doesn't resemble one', huh?" She grinned. "Why, that almost broke my fragile little heart."
Odin sneered as he backed away. Though he seed not to even realize he had done it.
anwhile, Karliah insistently kept coming closer and closer.
"I think we should get to know each other a little better. Don't yo-"
The tip of a spear was suddenly pointed at Karliah's neck. Odin's gaze was hard and his poise was flawless. He wouldn't even hesitate to stab Karliah if she continued to press him.
"How unsavory… you should know that even if you are one of his people, there's a limit to just how much you can get away with."
Karliah's grin was so big that her lips nearly split.
Among the many mbers of the Tathat royal family, Karliah is the only one who has never been given any kind of royal escort or security detail.
Because no matter what, wherever she goes, she has an inexplicable tendency to create her own problems…
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