Ch44: Bonding With… Thea?

The rest of the day was relatively uneventful. Beryl and Krvavy made a few small spears together and practiced throwing them, all the while engaged in a little bit of small talk that ultimately went nowhere.

After that they had the same old stew as dinner again, with the only real difference being that Beryl insisted on spoon-feeding it to Krvavy, acting all sweet and lovey-dovey the whole time. It was kind of awkward, but the fact that Thea got really annoyed at the whole thing made it worth it for Krvavy. That bratty noble girl is just so fun to tease~.

And Beryl seems to think so too, as half of what she says to Thea gets a rise out of the girl. From wanting to add some of Krvavy’screamto her own stew after feeding the barbarian, to having anotherromantic rompwhile Thea hangs around, and of course making the noble girl practice her oral techniques again the next morning.

It was fun and generally just a good time. For her. And Beryl too.

But Krvavy doesn’t want tojustbully the girl. That would be cruel. Sadistic. And despite everything that she has done, Krvavy isn’t a monster. Or at least she doesn’t want to be one. So she has decided to put in some effort and actually be nice to Thea.

Which is why she is here, sitting by the campfire and staring at the silver-blonde brat, who is glaring back at her.

“Are you just going tosit thereall day?! Lazy lizard!” Thea finally snaps, causing Krvavy to smile as that was exactly what she was waiting for.

“Nope.” The barbarian flippantly replies, further annoyingher brat. “You know how I spent all of yesterday with Beryl? Well, now it is your turn!”

An adorably angry scowl swiftly fills Thea’s face. “I! Do!Not!Want! To! Spend! Any! Time! With! You!” The bratty noble girl shouts each and every single word.

“Aww, what a shame. You don’t have a choice.” Krvavy smugly states, leaning forwards and resting her chin in her hand. “My lovely little Elf is off doing Elf things, so it is justustoday. Well, us and Khalia. But she won’t mind being left out...”

If only the Orc in question wasn’t becoming more and more forgettable as a borderline comatose slab of meat... Krvavy wouldn’t mind spending a day with her instead, if that was the case. But, sadly, that just isn’t an option. Not until she gets better at least.Ifshe ever does...

Krvavy shakes her head and pulls her gaze away from the unresponsive Orc. “So... have anything you want to do?”

The noble girl narrows her eyes, staring daggers at Krvavy. After a few short minutes shefinallyopens her mouth to respond. “Return me to my home!”

Krvavy laughs at that response. “Oh, what acutething you are! I’m not doing that. Besides, that’d take more than just a day.”

“Vile fiend! Filthborne beast! Cruel creature!”

“Cruel creature? That’s a new one,girl. Trying to spice up your insults or something?” Krvavy playfully asks, not bothering to hide her amusement.

“Ugh! I hate you! Harlot!” Thea shouts and pouts, crossing her arms unhappily and turning her head aside.

Krvavy just smiles as she shakes her head. She really isn’t doing a good job of not teasing the girl. So she’ll try harder. Though a little bit of teasing every now and then doesn’t hurt... Still, she shouldn’t so easily succumb to theoh so temptingdesire to bully this brat. “Okay. If your home is so great, then why don’t you tell me about it? You know, to enlighten this‘savage’on the splendors of human civilization?”

Thea glares out of the corner of her eyes, before slowly turning back to Krvavy. “Let me guess, a beast like you has never evenseena city before?” She condescendingly asks, quickly becoming rather smug.

Hook, line, and sinker.

“Let’s pretend that I haven’t.” Krvavy responds. After all, she doesn’t know what cities are like in this world. They could be stereotypically medieval or they could have a more fantasy spin to them. Either way, they wouldn’t be comparable to the modern cities filled with sky scrapers that she is used to asLeanna.

“Oh yes, justpretend!” The bratty noble mockingly sneers out. “A simple beast like you would not be able tocomprehendthe amount of people who live in Svaneti, let alone the numerous other cities that fill thecivilizedlands!”

“And how many would that be? People who live in Svaneti, I mean.” The barbarian earnestly asks.

Thea scoffs and rolls her eyes, acting like that was a stupid question to ask. “A fewthousand! Can your little animal mind comprehend how ma–”

“Is that all?” Krvavy cuts the bragging girl off. “I thought that it’d be bigger. But I guess itisjust a barony after all...”

“WHAT?!” The noble brat indignantly shouts out. “You aremockingme, are you not?!Stop it!Svaneti is a fine city, and a few thousand people living within the walls is nothing to scoff at! Especially out here at the edge of the world! And countless more live outside the walls, in villages scattered around the countryside!”

Krvavy stares blankly at the brat for a few long seconds. “You don’t actually know how many people live there, do you?”

“O-of course I do!” Thea sputters back. “A few thousand, as I had said!”

“So just over a thousand? Or maybe just under ten thousand? Or somewhere in between? Well, what is it?”

Thea’s mouth wordlessly opens and closes as she tries to come up with a response. After a few moments her teeth clack shut and she growls out. “Ugh!So what if I do not know theexact numberof filthy peasants wandering the streets! They hardly matter at all!”

Krvavy tiredly sighs to herself. This spoiled girl is a real piece of work.

“What?! Donotmake that noise again! I do not needyouoff all people tojudge me!” Thea sputters back, genuinely looking insulted.

“Just... Just tell me about your home...” Krvavy resists the urge to bury her face in her hands. She is starting to regret taking the time to justtalkwith the girl.

“Why do you care?! Filthborne beast!”

“I amtryingto be nice to you.Tryingto get to know you.” The barbarian almost growls out those words, eye twitching slightly. “Do you remember the three choices I gave you? If you can’t even hold a polite conversation, then maybe all you are good for is beingrapebait.”

Thea audibly gulps as Krvavy reminds her of, well, the entire situation that she is in. “M-myapologiesoh... m...mighty Dragon,” the brat forces her nervous response through clenched teeth, seemingly incapable of sounding sincere, “you are oh so strong and noble. Definitelynota disgusting animal playing at being a person...”

Krvavy sighs once more. “Just talk about yourself already, you annoying little bitch. Surely youlovethat topic.”

The bratty noble girl’s false sincerity quickly falls away as she glares angrily at Krvavy. “I am Theadosia Constance Severina,” she reluctantly begins, speaking in a bored tone that sounds like she is just reading off a list, “youngest child and only daugh–”

“Yeah, you’ve said that before.” Krvavy cuts her off again.

“Ugh! Why are you soannoying?!” Thea whines like... well, the spoiled brat that she is. “Why do you evencare?! Just be anormal kidnapperand ignore me! Let me just sit around and await my inevitable rescue!”

“Girl,” Krvavy begins with disappointment in her voice, “Iownyou. You aremine. That is the reality of the situation, whether you accept it or not. How many times do I need to tell you that? Now, I simply want to know more aboutmy property. Sogo on.”

“Ugh!” Thea dramatically groans. “Fine! I have three older brothers! Are you happy now?!”

Krvavy simply raises an eyebrow as she gestures for the noble girl to continue.

Which is exactly what Thea does, after rolling her eyes in annoyance. “My oldest brother, Dimitrios, is the perfect heir for my father. If he were here, you would be dead. He is skilled with the blade, he is skilled in magic, he is a respected leader, he excels at filling out boring forms and reading boring laws,” her tone begins to heat up into more of a shout, “he is kind but knows when to put his foot down, he islovedby all, he isperfectin almost every way! Do I need to go on?!”

Before the barbarian can get a chance to answer that, the bratty noble girl continues furiously spitting out her words between heavy panted breaths. “I!Hate!Him!” Thea openly growls, trembling as her hands clench into fists. “He is good ateverythinghe does withoutanyeffort! His talents arewastedon just being a Baron! But he doesn’tcare! He ishumbleand downplayseverythingthat he does!Ugh!”

This girl clearly has some sort of inferiority complex, so maybe it’d be best to get her to move on. “What about your other brothers?” Krvavy asks, snapping the angry brats attention back to her.

“Nikolas and Kostas, thetwins!” The angry blonde vehemently huffs out, glaring furiously at Krvavy. The barbarian’s plan has clearly not worked. “Nikolas is anamazingsoldier and is great with a blade, even better than Dimitrios if magic isn’t involved! Kostas is a great mage and scholar, one who knows just abouteverythingthere is to know!”

Krvavy opens her mouth to say something, but is cut off as Thea continues on into an even more unstable rant.

“And then there is me! Thedaughter! Thelittle girl! The one who cannot doanythingright! Theworthlessone! I cannot do even the mostbasicof magic! I cannot remember boring laws! I cannot evenreadwithout getting a headache! No one likes me! They are all probablyhappythat I am gone! The only person who was willing to marry me was aviolent creep! I would be better offdead...!”

Rather suddenly, Thea’s head sinks into her hands and begins to quietly cry.

This girl is... very volatile. Seeing her like this makes Krvavy want to hug her, to comfort her. But she isn’t sure if that will work. It didn’t do much to help last time that Thea broke down, when she was screaming out and sobbing...

Biting her lip, Krvavy decides to give into her gut feeling. Sliding off of her stone seat, the barbarian falls to her knees in front of Thea and wraps her arms around the much smaller crying girl, bracing herself for the storm of insults and obscenities.

But they never come. Thea doesn’t insult Krvavy, doesn’t call her a beast or a monster. She just keeps crying out into her hands, and now into Krvavy’s chest.

Krvavy wants to comfort the girl, but she doesn’t know what to do or what to say.

The girl in her arms seems so vulnerable, her whole body shaking with each quiet sob. Thea is clean, with nothing much to do beyond bathing, but she still looks like a mess. Her silver-blonde hair has been slowly escaping from its braid, and is starting to get tangled up in itself, giving the noble girl a rather haggard appearance.

That’s it.

Krvavy’s hand moves down to the ground, and withShape Stoneshe pulls free a rather thick and squat comb with just a handful of teeth. Using her magic to polish it nicely, the barbarian brings it up to Thea’s hair, gently untying the noble girl’s braids before carefully getting to work.

“W... what are you... doing...?” Thea mutters out into her hands, her voice sounding tired and with no fight left in it.

“Combing your hair.” Krvavy softly responds. “It’s a mess.”

Thea’s shoulders sag as she relaxes into Krvavy’s arms. For the first time since Krvavy saw Thea in that cage, the noble girl isn’t tense and on edge.

“W-why...?” The girl hesitantly asks after a few minutes of gentle combing.

“When I was just a kid my older sister would comb my hair when I was... sad.” Krvavy quietly answers, eyes losing focus as those memories flit through her mind. “I’ve almost forgotten about her. She... died before I was even ten.”

Thea is quiet for a few more minutes, letting her tears slowly dry up. She doesn’t move though, still keeping her hands to her face as she shivers and shudders.

“Wh... what did I do... to deserve this...?” Thea weakly whispers that question, sounding like she is talking to herself. “The only...person... who has been nice... to me in...years... is mykidnapper...”

Krvavy just continues to comb Thea’s hair in silence, as the noble girl quietly resumes her crying. Even if Thea can be a bit of a bitch at times, seeing her like this kind of hurts Krvavy and makes her regret bullying the brat so much. This girl reminds her too much of herself, when she acts like this...

There isn’t much Krvavy can do right now but keep comforting Thea as best she can.