a higher purpose never worked for me // visitor

[ninazu]

BURN
BRIGHT

Ninazu rolled her tongue over her teeth. Her golden eyes narrowed into a glare—she took Vale’s snapping as a rude challenge—and the lioness stepped forward. Her shoulders and back flexed, ready to lunge forward. How dare this little punk parade around in her body!

Right before she committed to the attack, black wings burst out of the serval’s back. Her head tilted. Confusion replaced the rage in her eyes, and the lioness’s posture relaxed. Ah, so the stranger had been sincere, after all. But the shapeshifter had a damned strange way of showing it. A plume of smoke curled out of her nostrils and mouth, but, after rolling her eyes, the lioness relaxed.

“Very well. You can use my body until your business with Sryker is finished.” The lioness grinned. She’d always wanted a pair of wings; Ninazu didn’t give a shit about whatever this weirdo wanted with her partner, but the shapeshifter won her approval by supplying her birth body with a mutation she otherwise couldn’t have manifested.

Spotting Argus before the dragon spoke, Ninazu walked over to stand by the espionage, her fire-tipped tail flicking. Her golden gaze slid to Caesar as she said, “I’m sure you could make your shapeshifting painful. A novice likely couldn’t do what this one does without… discomfort.” After spending so much time studying magic and medicine in the Pitt, Ninazu knew a thing or two about such powers, even if she lacked them herself.

Ninazu caught Argus’s pair of eyes shift—looking at something above Vale?—and followed with her own, but she saw nothing. “Has this one caught your attention as well, Argus?” she teased. Ninazu had a sneaking suspicion that the dragon was most attracted to vibrant displays of magic, such as her own fire mane. While the stench of decay, personally, repulsed her, she couldn’t deny ve was magically gifted.

© MADI