Melinda was grateful that Yin released her from the human that latched onto her. Though, she felt a chill down her spine, when the fae spoke about her as something to chase or worse. She blinked only but a moment and saw something even more horrifying a xenomorph-esque creature. She was shaken up a bit with what she had just seen, but what happened next chilled her to the bone, in terms it was utterly horrifying. ”This is alike a horrible nightmare and I cannot awake from it,” Melinda thought to herself, with her face paler than usual.

She had been grateful she wasn’t covered with blood, since the man in their group got in front of her somewhat but the gore was right in front of her, if she wanted to move to see. She tightly hugged her fox plushie and was shaking a bit unnerving because of what just had happened to the man, who latched onto her. ”I’m grateful for him, I should thank him later...," Melinda thought to herself, with breathing in and out a bit heavily.

Melinda heard the Hellion speak, the woman who was a bit too angry for her own good. She didn’t really want to say anything about what she had said because she was a bit shaken up right now. She looked towards the man who went in front of her and spoke up. ”Thank you… sir,” Melinda said politely. She was hugging her fox plushie tightly because she couldn’t help but shiver at what is happening in under the mountain.

She saw another shocking thing it was Sir Fox or Yin that he is called do something almost completely shocking to the Fae, who insulted him. She knew not to piss him off already since he went off on her. ”Oh no… scary..,” Melinda thought to herself, with a slight awe in her eyes but a bit more terrified than awed at what Yin was doing. She looked at to Yin and nodded to him immediately because she didn’t want to be here anymore. ”Sir Fox, I would love to leave here sooner than later,” Melinda said with a slight quiver in her voice because all of this was a great shock to her system.

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Rasping scales on stone, or the slight splash as the lamia's great tail traveled through the mysterious puddles, they were not the only sound of movement. Desdemona smirked with a savage hiss of laughter, not bothering to make it sound light or pretty. A harsh sound, let the mortal fear if they would. This little girl had literaly walked into a den of snakes. The fae wondered if she would get out of this den- and still be intact. The tunnel- for it was a grand hall no longer- was something far rougher. Walls raw stone and floor merely paved for the ease of moving wheels. As was evident as a cart hauling the bodies of Lesser Fae and Mortal alike rolled past. One leg hanging off the back and a too still foot dragging along the ground. As it moved by the duo, she spoke in Spanish to the human fool. "I am a lamia. Naga are far more sssnake like than my beautiful ssself." If small talk kept this girl with her- then she would sacrifice her words.

A small price to pay for poaching.

Memories stirred as a image of a man sitting at her small table. Eating her food, and a sack of coins on the surface. He was handsome,
with a mop of black curls and clothing of a fine make. Oh, she wanted more than that little sack yet he would never give it. "I'll give you food, board, and a lovely night. But no more- take my secrets and spread them. You'll have nothing and I'll move on." Those were his words so long ago. Mortal words. She had spread secrets amongst the high and mighty and paid the price. Some of those secrets had been true even. Now none came to her door except to collect bills and fill their glass of scorn. He was her last connection- her last chance to maintain her beauty and use it. But he was too clever by far thought the woman. He was far too clever to make this damnable deal.

Desdemona hesitated, before continuing deeper into the Lower Quarters. She could turn upwards and say they had taken a short cut. It would even be true. She would be spared if this missing human could be traced to her. Yet, greed drove the snake fae. The greed of a lovely room filled with luxuries she had been denied for centuries. Men to praise her beauty, food and drink a plenty. No longer being looked down by the Greater Families. She hissed in anger and threw off those thoughts. That little bit was a long way away yet. But they were getting close. So very close. Erin might feel her tension- the angry hiss and the greedy look in her eyes.

Gremlins and goblins passed them in and out of the tunnels. Other humans who shied away from the snake. None down here would speak or 'remember' her passing. Not without a damn good incentive, and few would give that incentive over a mortal girl. Turning down several side tunnels- something very akin to a side street. Erin might notice doors made of old wood and stone. Carved with rough symbols. Trading scales, a smith's anvil, even a smiling face of a dog. The lamia paused and looked up and down the street before grabbing the mortal girl she thrust her ahead and into a small room. The door- a wooden thing with two triangles pointing downwards next to each other.

Within was a wizened old goblin. His green skin looking like it had moss growing on it, and his nose actually having no real form other a bag of crooked sagging skin. Looking up form a desk stacked high with paper- matching the over stuffed shelves and the trash bin over flowing with the crumpled remains of numerous bugs and papers. The room was small and cramped. The naga didn't even let herself fully in. "Here. I brought you a human- untouched by any and directly under the Withered King'sss command." Her voice was soft and quiet. The bulk of her coils blocking the door and acting much like a shield to keep this conversation private.



Many of the Lesser Fae fled Yin's little show of power. Truly it was tame compared to some monstrosities they had witnessed. Something that terrified those who had gathered all the more. The facts of what could be- that this show was tame. They hurried back to their lives. Flowing back into a moving crowd. They knew better than to anger the Kitsune. Even if he wasn't part of the noble families that ruled them.

Those of stronger stomach and powers however remained. They would not be so easily frightened off by some pet of the UnSeelie King. However, they didn't intervene as Yin shepherded his little mortal flock down the High Road and towards the tallest and largest of the spires. The Grand Hall. The Palace of Nightmares. Great statues of twisted creatures lined the bridge to it. Below that bridge the screams and roars would grow louder. For below there was the the large 'moat' about the Palace. The bottom holding the fighting pits and mazes of the Jormungandr. Fae in elegant clothes sat along the bridge in alcoves both small and large. Tables with food and drink as they watched the entertainment far below. Grand seats for grand people. Snatches of conversation could be heard as they were passed.

"Oh? Mortals? Is it that time already?" One woman fanned herself, her hair looking like shimmering moonlight. The man across from her shook his head and shrugged. "Must be a difficult bunch if the King sent them here. With that fox no less." Was her reply.

A boy looking no more than ten peered at the humans and circled closely though he was careful to stay out of Yin's potential reach. Dressed in a fine white shirt and black trousers, he assessed the humans with calculating soulless black eyes. "Humans.... Never seen such a odd bunch and so lively!" He grinned and snickers wickedly. Before his gaze being attracted by something below.

Melinda heard what the man, she thanked had said to her. ”Yeah, better than the alternative,” Melinda said. She walked with a more of a hurry since she had been terrified of what had happened with everything as she followed Yin. She had many things on her mind of what was going on what she saw underneath the mountain. She saw the environment and was in awe at what she saw but what she heard was different. ”What the…? That’s creepy sounding. I definitely don’t want to investigate that,” Melinda thought to herself.

She saw what the Fae was wearing, it was beautiful and elegant. She could only tell by the way they dressed were extremely rich or nobles from the ancient times. She heard what some of them had said felt a bit uneasy by what was said but she was held her fox plushie tightly. She was highly unnerved when she saw the boy with black eyes but he was dressed nicely. ”Oh my… That is creepy in a different way,” Melinda thought to herself. She hoped the place they were going to was slightly better in terms of the appearance inside of the palace.

Melinda had many things on her mind, mostly for the fact all this happened because of one person in the mortal world. She couldn’t help but feel a bit saddened at this fact that there’s not many places in the world, she came from wasn’t safe. She feels a bit better from all that was happening even though the world she’s in now that has different concepts from where she came from. ”I am hopeful I can see more things in this world,” Melinda thought to herself. She held her plushie tightly because of the odd nervousness to all the things that has happened, especially what she saw under the mountain. She couldn’t really understand what was really going on because the way she was raised mostly.

While Senorita Estupida and The Japanese Walking Ettique Lesson tangoed in which direction to go in, Bodil sneered at the fox. And when the Senorita slipped away to coil about with a man-eating snake, the dark-haired spitfire didn't even notice. It was every human for themselves at this point. What did it matter if someone was dumb enough to legitimately walk into the dinner pot of a monster? Nothing else made sense here anyway. The humans were needed and yet discarded like trash. They were 'indentured servants' yet Bodil wouldn't be surprised if a good two-thirds of this group didn't make it another month here. And the nobles seemed more 'of the people' than those they lorded over! Everything was so upside down about this place, it was giving her a headache.

Not to mention her fellow captives were incompetent and death-seeking. Death here would probably be as common as swatting a fruit fly. And Bodil at least managed to hold her strong stance against one as fearsome as the Fox. Her feet shoulder width apart and her arms crossed over her chest with her head held high, she hardly even flinched when the beast man reared on her. Even if she had to clench her fists to keep from trembling. His voice got deep and dark and his face split like the overactive grin of a snake. Teeth like razors elongated and jutted from once handsome lips. A beautiful male face twisted into that of the monster that plagued sleeping children, gripping dreams and knotting them into nightmares.

This was a face she knew. Bloodthirsty, sadistic, and without mercy. He split his own skin to peel back the humanity he used to mask the more feral beast within. The beast creature's muzzle, his glimmering teeth, his depthless black eyes. Bodil could felt frozen and pale in the spot where she stood. He laughed that horrid laugh and she knew without having to see the rest of it. In fact, all she could see then was him. The Beast. Tormentor of dreams. Whisperer of terrors. Bringer of pains.

"You..."

It was all that slipped past her once blooming lips. He reached out for her, grip tight even in her short dark hair. Her neck arched as he forced her to bend her head, a cold claw tracing with revolting care down her vulnerable neck. Gathering her close, he opened his mouth, as if either to sink his many teeth into her delicate skin with a gruesome kiss of cruelty or to swallow her whole. Her fingers dug into his arms and her eyes never left the beady black depths of his. She couldn't look away. If she did, she would die.

Then, all at once, he shoved her away. A beastly Wolf restraining himself from gobbling down Little Red. He really did like being likened to a cat. The Fox called bones of feline-like things that had once lived. The slinking creaking things danced ghoulishly about, casting shadows that were almost cartoonish as they surrounded the huddled hoard of humans. Bodil didn't look away from the Fox, her pale face expressionless as a reflecting glass. He laughed, the violent sound sliding down her back and coiling around her feet like a waiting viper.

The horrendous nightmare continued in moments that seemed to last longer than small slivers of eternity. This ghastly Yin took hold of another Fae as if his claws needed more than just small teasing tests he had given on Bodil's skin. Her torment's claws carved whisker-like marks into the face of a trembling male. Perhaps it was the first moment Bodil had ever felt truly sorry for one she saw a monster-kin. Nightmarish Yin cut of his toy's ears and stuck them into the head of the bleeding face he gleefully showed Bodil. Using her own clumsy and weak insult as a means of torture on his own kind. Her expressionless pale face part lips that no words seemed able to pass through. And, in just a few more moments still, the Fox swallowed the other fae' life whole, like a kid slurping up a cherry-favored G-ello cube. He licked his lips as the husk fell to the ground, ghoulish corpse like something from a bad horror film.

Bodil's round dollish eyes stared back at the Fox who had once looked more human than beast. She had known his horrible quality. She had known, yet she hadn't been able to fully comprehend it. Their chase in the woods had been a child's game for this creature. A light and playful enjoyment even. For he was far more cruel and horrid than anything he had shown before. But all she could do was lock eyes with him, even as he entreated her to run. Only when the Fox turned his attention onto his own kin did she let her eyes fall to the husk of a corpse at her feet. The boney creatures he had called up had turned to ash.

When she looked up next, his nightmare from had been replaced with the sickeningly sweet visage of his 'human' face. So many faces...which was the truth? For all his wishes to break her confidence, he only increased her desperation more. Because it wasn't confidence that pushed Bodil to run, but desperation. Simply running was a game to him, killing a tasty treat. But...how would he feel if it were his own blood on his full and fine lips? His own death gasp caressing his tongue? Her doe-like eyes blinked once, twice, three times and she trudged with the mass of humans.

They continued to walk and the Soft In The Head Girl, with her stupid fox toy, waltzed right up to the Beast and thanked him like some dewy-eyed schoolgirl. Disgust rolled through her, making her stomach clench and threaten to send her into a fit of dry heaves. Ah, she had been talking to some human guy. Well, that was a bit better. After that performance, she didn't see how even this lack-brained girl could thank that Fox. Of course, after thinking something halfway nice about the annoying girl, she did something entirely stupid to negate it. The stupid girl mentioned that she wanted to leave to the Fox, as if she were some guest at an overly pushy host hotel. Blanching at the idiot girl who was giving the Fox just what he wanted, Bodil's emotions went to their default state when it concerned the beastman: anger.

Even as the twisted agonized forms of creatures lined the bridge they walked across, Bodil was shaking with the fury of yet another outburst. The tallest piercing spire of the dreadland loomed ahead like a dagger jutting from the breast of a decaying corpse. A river of screams echoed just beneath the stone of their marching mass. Alcove niches on the bridgeway were occupied by a various array of well-dressed Fae, their garish and flashy fashions contasting the ugly gleam in their eyes. The bridge seemed to be almost like a wealthy man's dining balcony for watching over the fighting pits and forced maze runners below. Like Parisians sample cafe delicacies, their attention was only drawn to the mortal-en-mass for a passing moment of intrigue.

Bodil was interested and a slight bit surprised to overhear how the Fox, their guard, their herder, seemed to be a symbol of the trouble the mortals gathered could cause. Obviously, then, she fit in well to the expectations of the Fowl King of Fall. Of course, thinking on the monarch, the dark-haired hellion was starting to far prefer his cold attention than that of the ghoulishly cheerful Fox, who seemed far too content at the moment. And that was saying something, because while the Fox adoringly dragging his claws over her skin was reviling, yes. But just the drowning gaze of the King was enough to set her on edge. On second thought, she was sort of glad he would most likely neglect them. If was a small mercy that he wouldn't so much as lay a finger on her. Bodil shuddered in spite of herself.

Her murky-water eyes were drawn once more to the Ice Queen WhatserNameStartsWithA"E" being jostled about by the same horrid woman as before. And of course, she did nothing. That horrid woman would probably get the Fox's claws too if she didn't cut it out. Of course...he might just settle for throwing her over the bridge wall. Looking at his back and tentacle-like tails, she had to doubt that he could probably get some sick satisfaction from doing a thing like that. Looking over their group again, noticing the ill effect the child-like Fea with demon eyes had even on the Stoic Hero Guy and his Native American girlfriend, Bodil's anger was put on ice again. Where was the Senorita? Manners Boy, Ice Queen, Stoic Hero, No-Brain Plushie Girl, Tatted Chick... No Senorita.

"Hey you gross perverted fox!" she shouted in the spur of surprise, "You're missing a sheep in your flock!" Apparently, her shock had let her drift to march in the middle of the mass of mortals, so without hesitation, she sprinted to the front. Her fingertips tapped the Fox's shoulder, before she realized what she had done. Disgust swept over her and she quickly scrubbed her fingers on the leg of her pants, like it was dirty to touch him. "That girl who only speaks Spanish is el gone!" Okay, she couldn't help but sort of smirk at him. "Wonder what kings here do to flock herders who lose their sheep..." Her smile was replaced with a serious frown. "Of course, this herder also killing a few of the sheep for his own enjoyment too, so..." Shaking her head, she glowered at him. "Call up some boney minion or something," she demanded, "That girl was one of the good pieces of meat, unspoiled and innocent, right? Someone just stole from the King, from right under your nose! You get ticked when I call you something cute and fluffy, shouldn't you be more pissed that someone stole right from under you?"

Bodil apparently was some one-dimensional annoyance, not only to the fox but to her fellow humans. Like she couldn't see the looks. She wasn't blind. She had eyes. She saw their faces, the looks of incredulity and annoyance. Like they all wanted to be here or something. Fine. She didn't need to make friends and she could care less about these wimps. But when someone got kidnapped it should be shouted from the top of someone's lungs that it friggin' happened. Every life mattered.

Not that the sentiment was shared apparently. Seemed like everyone was just all too happy to sit there idel and faking their innocence. No one care till it was them. But Bodil refused to keep quiet about something horrible. Apologieees, rude cowards, but someone should say something, not just look the other way like a gang of kids watching a bully terrorize someone else.

The fox didn't seem to appreciate her pointing out his shortcomings though. In fact, one moment she was standing the next she was out of breath and in dizzying pain slumped against a wall. But she didn't fall. No, she kept her bent legs up, pressing her back against the wall with a stubborn will. Maybe her head was bowed, but she wasn't on the ground.

Bastard.

"As if I touched a disgusting thing like you on purpose," She glared with gritted teeth at the arrogant and stupid fox. "...The fewer slaves your people have, the more they have to work," Bodil scoffed, a growl in her voice, "You think you'd take care of your stock. I was merely pointing out something of use to you like a good little pet." Hah. Of course, they didn't take care or spend any attention on anything. They didn't even have enough common sense to take care of themselves or their own people. "One loose brick brings down the house," she grumbled, but then seemed to realize that thought, "Though this place looks half collapsed already." Yeah, these creatures were destroying themselves. Everything they had seen was a slum, crumbling and decaying. These sloppy creatures... Why should she help them? Why should she even help the humans she had come with? They were just like the Fae here, only caring about themselves. Bodil smacked his hands away from her as he tried to manhandle her.

"Ah, what place is that?" she chuckled, slowly peeling herself from the wall, "Even the life of a Fae in this place has no value. Everyone's life means nothing here. You don't even know the difference between a demand and a warning." Because she hadn't made a demand, though her voice was strong when upset. She had just made a warning that applied to him specifically. A very detailed warning with possible distasteful outcomes for the Fox. And he was choosing to ignore it. Ah, but it still made no sense. Why should the Fae care if the badmouthed woman hissed with venom or if one of the girls got slapped around by a man? These twisted creatures killed and maimed for so much less. They couldn't decide on anything, could they? Why protect things you were so ready to kill and maim? No wonder they couldn't keep their own kingdom together.

"And I hope you can create dreams, Fox, since that seems to be your leisure," Bodil tilted her head back, chin up and a slight smile on her face. Foolish creatures without order and were falling apart. This place was nothing more than a giant lair of gangsters and thugs, she could see that as plain as day. Everything was ugly and revolting. If she and the others were going to die, she was glad for it. It would mean these stupid Fae were doomed too.

"Why is slave work needed, I wonder, if nothing is progressing here at all," she murmured to herself with a ghost of a grin and bright eyes, "Everything crumbling, decaying, falling apart..." Rubbing her arm, she spoke more to herself now, but knew he'd probably be listening anyway. His ears seemed to tick about like satellites. He could listen if he liked, but she would be ignoring from now on. And even if he did enter any supposed dreams she might or might not have, she'd ignore him still. Bodil was quite stubborn, if that wasn't a known fact already.

Still, other humans gave her long looks and that Japanese guy even shook his head at her. Like he was doing anything productive. He was just another person who watched others suffering and did nothing about it. While Bodil didn't know he had spoken to the Spanish girl, she would have given him a scalding look for his lack of concern. After all, he knew more than more about the situation than she did, knew that the girl had gone with seedy characters, and said nothing. Perhaps he should save that high and mighty pity for himself.

Ice Queen too. Was a bad attitude really worth heavy pain and suffering on the threat of death? Her pride had a high and mighty price. Bodil touched her shoulder a bit, glad to be wearing layers, but knew that she'd be black and blue for a while. Not that she minded. She had had worse. Why should she be seen as the lesser person? At least she was trying to do something. Ice Queen, the Japanese guy, all the rest of them, they were just trotting on like good little pets. Good. Maybe that would keep them alive a bit longer. If you could call the sound coming from the pits below living. Ice Queen could be civil towards her masters and owners all she liked. It would probably get her beaten less and molested more. She could keep her demon 'friends' till she died like the dog they'd treat her.

Now way in this revolting hell was Bodil going to stay meek and docile in slavery.

Not when she had just gotten free.

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Erin would hear the sound a voice behind the lamia. A voice which sent the old goblin scrambling to sieze her by the arm and drag the human with strength born of terror towards a bookshelf. A small and narrow door tucked behind it. The lamia as well looked terrified as she turned with smooth movements within her coils. A artful motion that let her remain blocking Thymund's view and reveal her hooded eyes and pretty smile to the fellow fair folk. "My Lord Thymond..." Her greeting was slick with feigned pleasure, not that she tried to hide her disgust at this interruption. "A pleasssure to sssee you asss well. Though you'll forgive me if I remark that I sssee no human mortal here." She purred, artful answering with the truth. As she did see no mortal with Thymund. The goblin behind her shoving at the ancient twisted door as it opened.



The Fae on the bridge turned their heads towards the commotion. Often humans arrived here too scared or broken to be so amusing. Slowly however a crowd was gathering, watching the kitsune deal with such a problem was a interesting little viewing for them. More so than the entertainment down stairs. The little boy giggled and perched on the railing of the bridge. One group poured tea between them as the watched. Not far ahead was the large double doors to the Court of Nightmares stood closed. Pictured on them was a dragon's skull, it's talons prying itself out of the seemingly garden of roses that surrounded the figure. To either side of the bridge between the last lamp and that great door were rows of black statues of armor. But their eyes gleamed and glowed with eerie dark lights.

It was sudden that the wind came however. A screaming and howling torment of icy fingers that gripped Bodil and yanked her into the shadowing rush it flew over. The group would see a shadow envelope the woman and whip her away. Yin would know this for what it was- and know that this particular human was no longer his concern. For now anyways. For Bodil, she would see slices of the dark stone of the cavern as she was spirited away. The faces of fae both fair and foul. The icy mountains gripping the sky as the wind rushed down towards emerald forests. Flashes and glimpses of men and women toiling upon the earth. Some bearing wings, others with a horses body, others far more human like. Still the shadowy wing whirled and kept the woman tightly in it's grasp.



But then it was gone. Warm and pleasantly hot water hit the woman, or rather she hit it as she was dropped into some form of pool. The chamber was not large, but suited for it's purpose. Water bubbling from some underground spring to fill the high tub, which in turn drained to fill the lower. Small globes of light barely lit the room. The soft ringing of water hitting crystal, bronze and silver bells filled the air every so often. It was a rather peaceful place- normally. A voice filtered through the steam. "Wash. You reek after a month." The man leaning the door way was very much a figure she had seen once before and very much in merely a tight set of pants. Watching the woman with disapproving stormy eyes. His hair already wet and falling down his back and chest in waves. Tall, he was fit. There was not a ounce on the Fae King that wasn't muscle or perfect. For his chest was marred with scars. Old scars. Not waiting for a reply he turned on his heels and footsteps sounded down the hall as the King of UnSeelie left the girl in the bathing chamber.

Bodil hadn't noticed the clotting gaggle Fae on the bridge until her tirade with the Fox had ended. They were giggling and gathering like some great game was being played. The dark-haired woman with burning pale eyes didn't get it at all. Why should they be so interested? Most people didn't exactly like problems. Scorn and disgust, those were things she had expected. Not this gathering of amused ghouls. She didn't have much more time to think on it though.

A ghastly keening howl of wind picked up, like claws tearing open the belly of the air, it shrieked angry and agonized. Bodil put up both her arms, the wind hitting her head on and coiling around her like an angry giant viper. She felt her feet pick up off the ground and the force of the wind peel her up like she were a flimsy brittle leaf in its path. Only a gasp, a single syllable, left her lips from the great and sudden force.

When she dared to open her eyes, they widen the sight. Her belly flipped much like it had when she had ridden a rollercoaster for the first time. Faced whipped by before she could even register whom or what they were. Icy grey stone. Stark blue sky. Throaty green forest. Laborers in fields. People who weren't people anymore, yet somehow still were. Bodil was breathless and disoriented, but when the rushing stopped, her blood still pumped from the weightless adrenaline.

And she was dropped right into something warm and choking. Water! Sputtering in the surprise of it, Bodil clambered upright, water seeping into her layered clothes. Looking around she realized she had been plucked from that awful trek and plopped right into a bathing pool of some kind. She was even in some sort of bathroom-looking place, the tub being filled by a spring spouting up from the ground. She only knew so because the bubbles tickled up her legs and under her shirt. The lighting in the room made the small chamber seem just a bit too dark for comfort.

Perhaps if she had been at home, in her own bathroom and very much alone and safe, maybe with some bubbles in the bath, it would have been nice. But this was not home. This was some dangerous place she had been spirited away to. Probably for some ritual execution on the lines of drowning or something. A weird music perferated the air and it was mockingly soothing. Next, some soft-spoken woman in a white dress was going to 'comfort' her about going to the Summerlands or something. Then BAM they'd start the drowning.

Bodil looked around, hands wading on top of the water, looking ready to bolt once she found the door. A voice made her jump. A male voice with that whispering quality that sent hot shivers down the backs of males and females alike. Shit f*ck. She knew that voice. It did not mean good things. She was positive. And while she could browbeat the Fox with a string of insults a mile long, this male voice's owner was probably the one person who'd scare her enough into listening to orders. Something about the soft and gentle villain voice... They were always the most terrifying, even in the movies.

Finally, her eyes adjusted enough to the dark to find the very lean and imposing figure of the Falcon- er, Falk King. Though Falcon still worked, considering he could apparently make people fly! And he could pick prey like her out of an entire crowd of little morsels. Wait. Was he going to eat her? Like washing veggies before the stew? Hell, he might! With everything that had happened in however long she had been in this rotting hell, who knew! Humans were stock, right?! Bodil coiled back from his dimly lit figure, eyes narrowed. Well, if he was going to eat her, he'd find her ill for his gullet. Strong fighting food that would hopefully give him indigestion, so as long as he didn't choke on her first. She was sort of hoping for the latter.

It was a fact though: fowl king that he was, he'd make even Ice Queen melt. Bodil's face went red at the sudden realization that he was very half nude. Perhaps she had always been the forward and modern thinker in her extremely culty and conservative family, she was not used to... all that. Pictures of bathing suits and advertisements were one thing. Seeing a shirtless man, even if he was more demon than man, was quite another. Averting her eyes to the water, she glowered more in anger at her own meek reaction than anything. Like she could look at the king of monsters as anything but the biggest, badest monster of them all! Taking her by surprise like that, he must be trying to make her uncomfortable. Well, he was vastly successful. Though his wife-husband-person might not like him showing off like this just to unsettle a slave.

He left and Bodil took in a rush of air. Since when had she been holding her breath? Man, that horrible Fox would have been in a fit of giggles to see her speechless and shocked. But that monarch wanted her to wash. A part of her wanted to stick it to him just out of spite. A far larger part relished the feeling of warm clean water washing away an entire week's worth of grim. Well, if he was going to eat her or skin her or whatever, she might as well enjoy this pre-death pleasure. Taking off her mini-backpack-esque purse, she went to the edge of the bathing pool and let it drop onto the floor. Her soaked and sopping wet boots and multilayers were shed too.

Her back ached from being thrown by the Fox. Her body had been tense and alert for more than a month, not only from Fae-terrors but from looking over her shoulder for cult cronies and her vicious family members. Not to mention she had more than a few bruises and scrapes and cuts from her 'race' with the Fox. Warm clean water was saintly. With a sigh, she slipped under the water and took her time in the water. Why not? This was like her last meal, right, so why not savor it? She'd figure out how to get out of this issue when she was about to be sliced and diced. Because she really really liked baths. Nothing made her skin crawl more than going a day or two without cleansing herself... An entire month? You really think it would make her more pleasant to be around when two days was her max?

Of course, now that she was clean and warm and a little less out of her mind, what was she going to do about clothes? Unless of course, she was just going to be escorted directly to the chopping board... Wet clothes it was then. They'd weigh her down and slow her down, but she was not walking around naked. Not even under scary, intimidating, half-naked, ice-melting Falcon King's command. He could get that other monarch to do that if he wanted someone to boss around for pleasure. Bodil stood and edged her way carefully out of the bath, naked as the day she was born and once more extremely cautious. Who knew when creepy little monsters who mimicked children might pop out and drag you to a boiling cauldron.

Melinda followed Yin as they were walking down the high road and saw something a bit shocking when the Hellion was taken away from the group in a shadowy grip. She was quite shocked in what happened as if it never really reached her mind scape at what was planned for the woman who was quite literally a wild creature. She looked a bit confused and held onto her fox plushie a bit tighter as they were walking towards the Palace. ”That was scary, why was she taken away?” Melinda thought to herself with a confused look on her face.

She was a bit terrified in what was happening and she could hear the other humans in her party slightly bit annoyed at each other. She was pretty naive and couldn’t really tell what is happening other than something highly scary. She had a shake in her movement but she tried to stay strong while she could feel the eyes of the Fae looking at her. She was a bit more nervous. ”I hope that doesn’t happen to me. That looked strange but the landscape is being different lately,” Melinda thought to herself. She looked at what was happening around her and it was kinda creepy to her eyes.

Melinda never felt more nervous in her life but she had always had been not the one to usually call upon herself inner strength. She mostly had her parents to do that for her. She misses them but her naivety in this land was pretty glaring in most things. She was a bit dazed from what happened to the hellion who was highly annoyed at everything and everyone. She did also wonder where that Spanish girl went to. ”Where she go? I hope she’s alright,” Melinda thought to herself. She held her plushie tighter in thinking something bad happened to her. She felt like she was walking forever from when they first started walking towards the Fall Court's location. She had hoped all this walking would end sooner than later.