"Am i supposed to recognize you? I've seen many kidnappers in my day, but none of them like you. Now are you going to answer my question properly, or are you going to refuse and just suffocate that poor soul inside of your being?" A snappy comeback, a little too snappy for her current situation. But well, she was getting kind of annoyed with vague answers. That's all kidnappers did these days instead of getting straight to the point. It was getting a little old. All she wanted to know is why she was here so she could kick her ass and get out of here as soon as possible.
... Why did all of what she said sound so familiar? This room too did as well. The small, circular room with nothing but a bed and a few tables and draws scattered off to the sides, most obviously supposed to make her feel comfortable and welcomed only for it to have the complete opposite effect with the strange yellow feline watching her off to the side with fiery red eyes. The elf could have sworn she had seen all of this before, like it wasn't her first time here. A wave of deja vu consumed her mind, and she wasn't able to shake it off. It was a strange feeling, prehaps the yellow furred cat in front of her was causing this feeling? She did not know, this creature was outside the realm of her knowledge. All that she knew, was it could speak, and it was consuming a weaker, smaller soul inside of it. But her thoughts of how weirdly familiar this scene was did not and should not matter to the slayer right now. What was more important, was escaping this place and returning back home to Golden Phoenix.
A growl came from the two tailed feline, its eyes glowing a bright ruby red against the dimness of the candlelit doom. For a moment, upon the bed of silk sheets from which she had awoken, Astrid found herself faltering in her forced confident persona, wincing back slightly under the assertive gaze. It looked as though she had struck a nerve with that comment, but she was not about to let the feline simply kill off an innocent soul like that. She had to do something- anything. Perhaps making the cat angry was not the best thing to do, but the cry from that soul deep inside of her was not falling onto deaf ears. It pained her to see the beast keep hurting something so fragile like that, if it couldn't stand up for itself, then someone had to.
The cat unsheathed its claws, gripping onto the edge of the draw, flexing them as if it was supposed to intimidate her. Those puny claws? Didn't really do the trick. She had dealt with cats scratching her as a kid, mostly because she wasn't able to read when the picky animals had enough of her hugging and petting. And while this cat's specific species was unknown, Astrid couldn't really see it more than anything as a weirdly colored kitten. In actuality, it was actually kind of cute, even if it had kidnapped her. The feline shook its head, a sharp breath of air forced inwards between its sharpened teeth. Astrid, while wanting to scoot further back upon the bed, found she wasn't able to move. "What? What is this? Why can't i move??" She thought quietly to herself. Casting wide, crimson eyes downward she saw her hand gripping onto the white sheets tightly, shivering. She was scared. She hadn't even recognized it at first, but she was scared. Not because of the cat though, the feline agitated her more with its vague questions than anything else. But for some reason she was so scared that she was unable to even move an inch. Why was this happening to her? What was she so afraid of?
A more jagged and rumbling growl escaped from the cat, closely resembling that to an angered beast. The slayer was quick to turn her gaze back over to it, but not in time. A flash of pale yellow consumed her vision, and she found herself being slammed right up against the back of the bed. It hurt, the impact from both sides. While her back had taken the impact of the force, her chest was currently under the feline's now giant black paw. The wind was knocked out from Astrid's lungs, catching her gasp of surprise within her throat. While her eyes had closed shut when she felt the large body knock her over, they now reopened to see the cat's muzzle right in her face, its large canines mere inches away from her flesh. By now her persona had completely fallen, in its place her true emotion shone. Fear. Complete and utter fear as she gazed into the beast's deep crimson eyes. How had the smaller cat managed to shift into a completely new form? The elf did not know, but she really should have expected something like this. This like kitten shouldn't have been able to kidnap her in such a small form after all, there had to have been a tick to it. And now, the elf was pretty sure she was seeing this trick.
She continued to shiver under the might of this beast, letting in sharp gasps of air when its paw pressed more harshly into her chest. The cat brought down its larger face towards her, to the point where she could feel warm, rancid-smelling breath against her cheek. Another deep rumble came from its mouth, and all Astrid could do in response was let out a weak whimper. She couldn't do anything, nothing at all. Even though her mind screamed at her to move. To punch it, to kick, to scream, to do anything to get out of this situation. And yet, all she could find herself doing was giving into her fear. For a few seconds though? Nothing happened. The guild master just stared at her with those big ruby orbs, as though she was staring right through her. A certain points, the paw keeping her down on the bed would weaken, but once again dig into her rib cage before she could do anything. Astrid stared back. It was all she could do. After enough time had passed, the slayer's breathing had actually managed to calm down slightly, unsure if the cat was even going to do anything now. It was as if it was contemplating something. It wanted to act, but something was keeping it from doing so. At least, until its claws sunk into her chest. Astrid let out a hiss through her teeth, feeling the sharpened nail dig into her flesh. It wasn't anything too bad, and it just barely broke the skin, but it still stung nonetheless. The cat grumbled to itself, flexing its claws against her skin, only digging them deeper until it finally looked as though it finished contemplating. It sighed, releasing its grip on her. Though pained from the claws, Astrid let out a breath of relief. For a moment, Astrid was thankful that the feline had not acted upon its anger. But her thanks would be wasted as at the last moment a flash shone in the cat's eyes, and it reached over to swipe at the elf's face. The reach was successful, as she had not moved from her pinned position in fear of agitating it more. The black claws found its way into her right eye socket, plunging into the edge of it. The elf screamed in pain as the eye was dug into, quickly severing her optic nerve and scooping it out. When the eye loosened enough the claw came out with it, scooping it and flinging it across the room. Astrid continued to scream as wave after wave of throbbing pain clouded her mind and body, her first instinct to cover it with both hands so nothing further could damage it. It was bleeding. She didn't even need to look to know, she could feel the warm blood oozing out of the now empty crevice of her face. The skin around it was effected even, as the claws had lightly scraped the area around it before and after it had dug into her eye. She hunched over, the blood seeping past her fingers and dripping onto the bed, staining the sheets. She tried to look up with her remaining eye, only to see the cat had leapt off the bed by now and was staggering towards the door, managing to knock over a stool before exiting the room and shutting the door behind it with some sort of strange force. It left her alone, writhing and squirming in pain in a cold empty room with one less eye.
Astrid grabbed onto the sheets with one hand as the other still covered the eye socket, squeezing them with all her might as to try and make the pain go away. But no matter how hard she tore into those sheets, nothing was helping. The pain was too great. Gaining a sudden lightheadedness the saint fell onto her side, only to miss the bed completely and instead land onto the wooden floor on her side. She landed with a thud, but the impact from doing so barely effected her. Tears fell from her one remaining eye, as blood continued to leak freely onto the floor from her missing one. The elf curled up into a tight ball, covering her eye once again with both of her hands, her sobs echoing within the small room. In her entire life? She had never felt more helpless than she did right now.
...
She awoke with a gasp, her heart beating rapidly within her chest, almost jumping into her throat. Her one eye shot open, gazing around the room with a wild look before she was able to recognize where she was. Slowly, her breathing calmed. She was home. That's right. She had met Erika again and the thread mage had carried her home. Apparently, she must have fallen asleep or something. Just how tired was she? Pretty tired, given how she hadn't had too much sleep over the last couple months anyway.
Nightmares. Both them and dreams where common for the slayer to have, but yet, nightmares seemed more dominant these days. Visions of the past coming back to haunt her, forcing her to relive the darkest moments of her life. These nightmares plagued her every night, making it hard for her to really sleep peacefully. This one though? The one of her reliving the guild war was new. Surprisingly, she had managed to avoid them for quite a while... But this time was different. It seemed as though now she had to worry about reliving the moment of losing her eye among other things. That was dandy.
Astrid stared at the ceiling, raising a hand to hover over the pink follow stuck so firmly inside her eye. The socket throbbed somewhat, but it was a numbed throb. More like it was irritated. The nightmare must have given her a sort of ghost pain. A deep sigh came from her chest, flopping her hand back down to her side. She was safe now. She was with Erika. She needed to remember that. Nothing like that was going to happen again... But yet, despite telling herself this... It didn't seem to calm her nerves. After a few moments of gathering herself Astrid sat up in her bed, swinging her legs over the side and grasping onto the edge of the bed. She sat there for a moment, pausing as she felt her arm start to shake, then the rest of her body followed. "Hah... I'm still shaking. Come on, Astrid, it was just a nightmare. Don't be a baby." She told herself in a wavering voice, and yet, the shaking would not stop. Images of the beastly cat pinning her down and tearing the eye right out of the socket were still so deeply ingrained into her mind. She used her other hand to grasp onto the wrist, pressing her thumb down into it very hard. "I said don't be a baby!" She commanded herself more aggressively, narrowing silver brows. But the pressure only made her hand shake more. Digging harder into the skin Astrid gritted her teeth together, trying with all her might to stop the shaking. After a few moments, it calmed down. Her arm stopped shaking, and with it, slowly her whole body did too. Though there were still a few moments whens he could feel a shiver run through her being, she was at least not shaking constantly now. She flexed her hands in and out, making sure they were able to move correctly before she pushed herself off the bed. Out of habit, the silvernette took a moment to make her bed before exiting the room and closing the door behind her. As soon as she closed the door, the smell of food hit her nose. A hungered growl came from her stomach. That's right, she hasn't had any solid food in months. The entire time she was on Terasu Sirius made her eat nothing but light. And while it made her magical energy better, it wasn't the most filling thing in the world. She was hungry for something a bit more... Physical. Something that would actually fill her rather than just barely get her through the day.
Taking steps away from her room Astrid traveled down the hallway towards where the smell was wafting in from. She walked into the living room, only to see a bunch of Erika clones all wearing maid outfits. The slayer stopped in her tracks upon seeing this unfold, watching as they went about cleaning and tidying the place.
... It sure was lovely to be home.
Switching her gaze over towards the kitchen she would look to see the original Erika busily cooking food. Ah, so that's where it was coming from. The elf walked herself over to the kitchen, minding the other Erikas who frantically scooted past her to wipe up the missing dust and spills they had missed.
She walked up and stopped behind the dragon curiously, stepping onto her tips of her toes to look over at the food she was currently making, her hands grasped behind her back.
"What's that you're cooking?" She would question lightly, blinking down over to the pan. She couldn't help but begin to drool slightly, just from the smell alone.