Neverquest - Part 110
Characters: Queen Isabella, Lord Dartemus, Gena, Roxanne, ???
Location: The royal bathtub
Time: Day 5 - 1:13 AM
“Do you think your brother would look better under this foot…or this one?”
Lord Dartemus sighed. For over an hour now, he had been down on his hands and knees in Queen Isabella’s hair, lathering her endless curls with strawberry-flavored shampoo. How did he know it tasted like strawberries? Every time he would run out of shampoo, Isabella would dip her hand into the coconut bowl and slap another huge glob of shampoo down on Dartemus.
“I want every drop used,” she would say, and then she laughed while Dartemus choked and his eyes burned.
But he never fell from her head. She had tried to shake him off a few times, of course, claiming that she had an itch. But between her locks and tresses, her long mane of hair like a snaking river of chocolate, he found himself snared most of the time. In fact, Isabella seemed to take amusement when he got his leg tangled in a knot of hair. She left him there to dangle, upside-down, for nearly five minutes. Then she got tired of his screaming, so she combed her fingers through her hair and freed him.
He was most grateful.
“Your mother will hear about this!” he bellowed. “I will not be treated like—”
And then he ate enough mouthful of shampoo. And it tasted like strawberries.
“Every drop,” she said again. “As royalty, we know nothing of leftovers. You should know that.”
“In my kingdom, we must salvage what we can. We don’t waste our supplies on needless material possessions, like a gallon of shampoo for one head of hair.”
“Hence why you look like walking pieces of poo. You really are disgusting, you know.”
Dartemus looked at his hands. They were throbbing. Red, bubbly suds dripped down his pruning fingers and he tried to massage them against Isabella’s hair again. “Isabella… I am tired. You have been bathing for hours now. I need time to rest.”
“This is your time to rest,” she sighed. “You spend too much time locked in your little cage. You need to go out and enjoy the world sometime.”
He glared down at her. “I would love to. Why don’t we start now?”
“Oh, Darty, you slay me. ‘Why don’t we start now?’ You know, it’s a wonder the goddesses gave lesser beings like you the ability to speak, but I’m glad they did. It keeps me amused.” She put a finger to her chin and drummed it. “Mm…but I think you’ll have to clean a lot more than my hair if you ever want to see daylight again.”
“My people will come looking for me.”
“And I’ll tell them they can look right up my rear end.”
“And I hope they fire a rocket up it,” Dartemus muttered, but not loud enough that she could hear.
Isabella hummed to herself and watched the little island in the center of the tub. The dozen or so Men were somewhere in the artificial city, waiting for her to leave. She knew they were. And she gently rocked herself back and forth, causing bigger and bigger waves to wash against the shoreline, but she wasn’t trying to flood them out. She just loved to watch their faces.
“Darty,” she said, “what do you suppose it’s like to be washed onto some foreign land and be at the mercy of all that’s around you?”
“I—”
“It must be so frightening to be so helpless. What could you do? You don’t know how to swim, you can’t contact the rest of the world, you’re trapped on a tiny piece of land of which you have no control over. Why, you’d be almost as pathetic as Men.”
“Queen Isabella…”
“Of course, I don’t expect you to understand the vast complexities of my mind. I know you Men have a hard time comprehending a single sentence from the mouths of Women, let alone focusing your attention towards something other than meager scraps of food and your own pitiable survival. What’s it like to be so dumb?”
“…It’s kind of like being stranded on that island, where nobody chooses to listen to you.”
“I suppose it’s like being a helpless, little, oh-nooo-don’t-crush-me ant. What do you think?”
Dartemus’ eyes narrowed. “I think ants will someday rule the world, so you better watch where you step.”
“I can’t believe I just asked a Man what he thinks,” Isabella laughed. “I bet it was a whole lot of…” She stared blankly at the wall, tilting her head to one side, and stuck out her tongue to look as dazed and stupid as possible. “Duuuuuh… What’s for dinner…? Oh, squeak, squeak, look out! A foot from above! I—AHHHHHHH!” She thrashed her arms and splashed water and foam everywhere. Then she stopped and grinned and said very softly, “Squish.”
“…Somebody really needs to spank you.”
“I already told you what the only thing you’ll be doing to my behind is.” She puckered her lips. “Smoochie, smoochie. Now you try.”
“Smoochie, smoochie this!”
“Huh?”
Both Isabella and Dartemus looked at where the new voice had come from just in time to see the front glass of the tub shatter. Isabella screamed and threw her head to the side, shielding herself from the glass. With nothing to hang onto, Dartemus was flung from her hair and landed in the bucket in the alcove.
“Lady Gena!” Isabella hissed, staring at Gena and Roxanne through the hole of broken glass. “What is the meaning of this?”
“Your time is up, Princess,” Gena said. “It’s our turn to live the easy life.”
Isabella’s eyes were wild with flames and color. “You’re insane. I’ll have you killed for this! You two will be fertilizer by morning.”
“Oh, hm, I don’t think so. By morning, we’ll be rubbing our asses against your throne. Isn’t that right, Roxy?”
Roxanne said nothing. She stood with her axe in hand, speechless and alone.
“Put on your clothes, Princess. We’re going for a walk. But pack lightly because it’s a one-way trip for you.”
Scrunching her nose in fury, Isabella reached into the alcove and seized her robe. She quickly wrapped it around herself and stood up, waist-deep in the tub. “You two will be so sorry for this. I’m going to enjoy watching you suffer.”
“Shut up. We have no problem spilling your blood here, but we’d rather take you somewhere that the guards won’t find your body until morning.”
“I trusted you, Gena. Both of you. I took you in and gave you the chance to be somebody. Without me, you’d be nothing—nothing but a pair of Forsaken scum on the bottom of my shoe like everybody else.”
“Don’t talk so high and mighty about yourself, Bella. You might live longer.” Gena smirked and aimed her staff at Isabella. “Maybe if you weren’t hated by everybody, somebody might actually come to your rescue.”
A stream of black vapor shot from the snake’s mouth on the staff. With a hiss, the cloud of gas wrapped around Isabella’s face and tightened across her lips like a gag. She tried to scream, but her lungs were filled with the toxic fumes. Even her muscles began to contract. She looked up, tried to move, and then realized she was falling. She couldn’t brace herself. She couldn’t stop the momentum.
Just before she struck the water, Roxanne broke through the glass with her fist and seized Isabella by the robe. She yanked the queen from the tub and threw her over her shoulder like a sack of skin and cloth. Isabella’s eyelids quivered. She stared at the carpet, at the black iron of Roxanne’s armor against her cheek, the cold darkness, and slowly closed her eyes to the world.
Gena put away her staff. “That’ll keep her quiet until we get her away from here.”
“Where are we going to take her?” Roxanne asked.
“To the bell tower. They don’t ring it until morning, which is the time that both she and Siarra will die.”
“Shouldn’t we just kill her now? Or not kill her at all?”
“No. If somebody finds her dead, they might cancel Siarra’s execution. And we’re not screwing this up.”
“I believe you already did,” said a voice from the doorway. They turned around to see Lucilla standing there, her sword in hand and a scowl drawn over her face like a helmet that knows no fear. “I knew you minions of Sorena were up to something. Kidnapping, murder… You bastards. You bring only chaos to the world you touch. By the Light, I will see you fade to nothing.”
But Gena smirked, undaunted by the Paladin’s sudden presence. “I guess our day has come. Who knew it would come so soon?”
“No, Necromancer. Your days are over. For your crimes, for these sins you carry with you, I will stop at nothing short of death. Give yourself up or prepare for the afterlife.”
“You heroes are all the same. ‘Give yourself up,’ ‘turn yourself in.’ Please. You think I came all this way to turn myself over to an ass-kissing servant of Isabella?”
“That’s the problem about you Forsaken scum,” Lucilla hissed, raising her sword. “You have nothing to believe in.”
“Let me take her,” Roxanne said. “I’ve wanted to break her face since we first laid eyes on her.”
Gena waved her hand. “No, Roxy. You hold Bella. I’ll take care of our friend.” Once again, she took out her snake staff and twirled it around her hand. “Come on, Luci. Let’s see you dance.”
Lucilla charged forward. Her sword whizzed through the air and struck Gena’s staff. Splinters of wood whisked across their faces. Lucilla swung from the other side and Gena parried that attack as well, but she stumbled back in the process. Her staff twirled. Lucilla’s blade came down a third time and struck the center of the snake’s head, causing its eyes to blaze. With a hiss, the python lashed out at Lucilla. She cried it as it wrapped itself around her wrist and threatened her with its forked tongue.
“You’re snake chow now,” Gena mocked. The python unwrapped itself from the staff and began to use Lucilla’s arm as a new shaft for gripping. Slowly, it coiled around her forearm like a corkscrew, and then her elbow, and then her upper arm, tightening as it went. By the time it reached her shoulder, her arm had gone numb.
With a clang, her sword fell to the ground. And so did she.
Gena looked down and grinned. “If we were good villains, we would leave you here to die on the off-chance you might actually find a way to survive. Unfortunately for you, that’s not how we roll. I can think of nothing better to do than sit here and watch you suffocate to death. Kind of like that game May showed us, huh, Roxy? Maybe we should take bets on how long she survives.”
“Let’s just go,” Roxanne said. She stared not to stare down at the squirming Paladin on the floor. “She’s dead.”
Kneeling down, Gena reached out a finger and poked Lucilla’s cheek, rolling her head to the side. “Are you dead, Luci? Wakey, wakey.”
Lucilla’s eyes were still open, but they were fading. The python had wound its way around her throat and was constricting her to the point of asphyxia. “For…saken… I will… Ugh…” She clawed at the carpet with her free hand. “See you… dead…”
“Aw, we’ll see you, too, Luci. It was nice meeting you again. I’m so sorry that my python had to kill you.”
Lucilla’s fingers brushed the hilt of her sword.
“Gena,” Roxanne said.
“Shut up!” Gena snapped. Then she smiled down at Lucilla again. “Bye-bye, little Paladin. I hope the goddesses have more mercy on you than we did.”
“Gena!”
“What the hell is it, Roxanne!?”
Lucilla grabbed the sword. With a single swipe, she hacked off the python’s head and cut through the coiled body on her arm. Pieces of the snake rained to the floor. Twisting her body to the side, Lucilla kicked up her leg and her steel boot clouted with Gena’s head. They tumbled across the floor.
“Villainous fiend!” Lucilla bellowed. “Your black magic is at an end.” She thrust her sword forward.
Gena rolled away from the attack. “I still got a few more tricks up my sleeve.” Forming her hands into a cup, she released a spiraling ball of dark matter that rocketed Lucilla backwards. But when the explosion cleared, all Gena could see was the bright blue glow of Lucilla’s sword as it descended on her. With a clean slice, the sword cut straight through Gena’s wrists. Her hands plopped to the floor.
“As I said,” Lucilla scoffed, “your days of darkness are over, Necromancer.”
Her eyes shuddering, Gena stared down at the stumps of her arm. There was no blood, no welcoming liquid of life; there was only a sort of cold blackness that folded over her skin. She was forsaken.
“N-no…” she breathed, trembling down on her knees. “You… No… Roxy, do something…”
But Roxanne stood alone once again. Her words were silent.
Nodding, Lucilla sheathed her sword and wiped the one loose hair from her brow. “You must understand you have no chance, Black Knight. Put down Isabella and we will talk.”
“I’ve heard enough,” Roxanne said, and she gently laid Isabella on the carpet.
“Roxy!” Gena snarled. “What are you doing? Kill her! Cut her down—now!”
“Shut up! Just shut up, Gena. I’m tired of taking orders from you. That’s all I ever do.”
“Roxy…”
Roxanne stamped her foot and the whole floor shook. “I said shut up! It’s my turn to speak.”
“Good,” Lucilla said. “Good, Black Knight. Let’s hear you speak.”
“You…” Roxanne pointed an iron finger at Lucilla. “You stand for everything I despise. Rule, authority, justification, cause… No, you’re the one who has nothing to believe. You call us sinners, but you know nothing of what it means to desire more than you were given in life. You fight for age-old causes you were born to follow. You know no path but the one you walk blindly, never asking yourself if it’s true. My friend, you have no right to flaunt your beliefs on anybody else. You don’t even know what it means to be forsaken.”
“Yes, Roxy…” Gena whispered.
“To be forsaken means to walk this earth with the hatred that kills,” Lucilla said. “Your kind has plagued us for too long.”
“Your kind,” Roxanne roared, “has put us down for too long. We want our freedom. We want our turn, our chance to speak at last!”
“Yes, Roxy!”
Towering over Lucilla, Roxanne took out her axe and bashed the Paladin into the floor. “I have been silent for too long. I am tired of being walked on. I am tired of being hated.” Her eyes were full of bloodshot tears, which she unleashed in a rage of fury against Lucilla’s head. Over and over, her axe came down, crushing every part of Lucilla’s armored body. Not enough to kill her, but enough for her to feel the pain. “I am tired, Luci. I want my voice back. I want my freedom again!”
“Yes, Roxy!” Gena screamed, raising her arms. “Yes, Roxy, yesss!”
“Yes!” Roxanne shouted to the sky. “This is our time! This is our world!”
And her axe came down again.
Giantess World
