The Poison Princess (6 page)

“You lie!” Sythys shouted back at her. “It
hasss only been a ssshort while, yesss. I wasss about to leave.
Return to the sssurfasss. I jussst need one more bite… Yesss, one
more.”

The serpent turned around, scouring the
underground chamber. Soon, it found what it was looking for in a
curved, white fruit hanging part way out of the rocks overhead.
Snapping forward, Sythys grabbed the bottom of the blissroot in his
jaws and slurped the rest into his mouth. Starting at his head and
quickly traveling all the way along his lengthy body, a chill ran
down Sythys’ form. Beginning to recover from the hit she’d suffered
when she was knocked back by the creature, Ruby stood. Her legs
were still shaky, and her ribs bellowed in pain at her. The serpent
then jerked back to face the princess.

“Now… where were we?” Sythys asked.

“You said you were about to leave,” Ruby
replied.

“Yesss, yesss. Sssoon enough. Firssst, I
think we ssshould get to know one another a bit better.”

“What do you want to know?”

“What isss your name?”

“Ruby. I’m Ruby.”

“Ruby, yesss? Good. Good. I ssshould know my
ssslavesss namesss, yesss.”

“Slave? What are you talking about? I’m not
your slave.” The princess felt her trembling cease, as something
hardened in her spine. A cold sensation flooded her body, and she
was still.

“Yesss, yesss. You come from Sssyrusss,
yesss?”

“Cyrus? Yes.”

“Then, yesss. Ruby isss my ssslave. All of
Sssyrusss’ people belong to me. Part of treaty, yesss. You are
mine. My ssslave.”

A dark anger began to rise through the
princess. “I belong to no one.”

“Ssslave, yesss,” the serpent hissed, its
tongue flapping mere inches from her face.

Ruby casually moved both her hands under the
flow of poison from her mouth. As she did, the color of the toxin
turned to a dark blue, though she had made no conscious effort to
create such an effect. Her anger had taken over. Once her hands
were thoroughly soaked in the substance, the princess replied to
the serpent’s assertion. “No.” With both hands, Ruby grabbed the
slithering tongue that was nearly licking her face. The poison
soaked into the pink tongue, staining it a dark blue color in
almost no time at all.

Sythys lurched back, escaping Ruby’s grip,
and he banged his head against the ceiling of the cavern. The cave
echoed the trembling roar of the noise throughout its tunnels. He
howled a hissing scream like a kettle left on the stove for too
long, as the plague infected his tongue. Wildly throwing his head
from side to side, the serpent attempted to cleanse itself of the
plague in its mouth. Its whole body writhed from the pain and
flopped about uselessly. Though the poison had certainly injured
the serpent, Ruby realized it wasn’t enough to put it down. A surge
of adrenaline shot through her system, and she did the only thing
she could think of. She ran. Ignoring the pain in her chest, the
throbbing in her head, and the weakness in her legs, Ruby ran.

The earth deafeningly shook with each bang of
the serpent’s body against the cavern system. In the distance, the
princess could hear chambers collapsing from the ruckus Sythys was
causing. The ground beneath her feet proved hard to navigate, and
the wooziness brought on by her injuries was not helping in the
matter. Ruby moved at the quickest pace she could manage toward
where she had found herself when she regained consciousness.
Escaping back toward the surface was all she knew to do. She
retraced her steps and soon found the dark path leading up, but it
would be for naught.

Pounding against the twisting curves of the
cave behind her slithered the enormous serpent. Each hit against
the walls vibrated the entire structure of the tunnels, and Ruby
was knocked off her feet, landing painfully on her side. Ahead of
her, the princess watched as heavy rubble collapsed and covered her
only exit. There was no way out, but that didn’t matter. She stood
up. She kept moving. Ruby found another path leading away from the
serpent. The princess made it as far as she could, but she was
ultimately met with another dead end. Ruby raised her hands to the
wall, searching desperately for anything to help, but it was not to
be. There was nowhere left for her to run. Behind her, the beast
banged into the walls, taking the same turns she had taken. With
one final slam, Sythys was at her back.

“Ruby isss food now!”

He gave her no respite. The serpent’s fangs
pierced Ruby’s abdomen, injecting incredible amounts of venom
inside her along with the massive wounds. Her body cracked and
snapped from the force of the bite. Her ribs were no longer alone
in their breaks. The beast then unhinged his jaw and began to slide
the immobilized princess down his throat. The insides of Sythys
were warm. The spicy blissroot fruit had made a lasting difference
to the creature, and it felt hot enough that it should burn her
skin at its touch. Instead, Ruby actually felt soothed by the
warmth, as the serpent pushed her further into its long body.

The princess continued to spit up her own
poison, while she realized the contents of the serpent’s body began
to mix with her own secretions. The creature’s toxic laced stomach
acid and her own poison wrapped around her like a cocoon or a warm
womb. Ruby could see nothing, but she knew that the acid as well as
the poison that the snake had injected into her was of no danger to
her. The venomous cocktail embraced her and rejuvenated the injured
princess. She could feel the bruises soften, the cuts and scrapes
mend, the massive holes in her midsection stitch back together, and
though it was beyond excruciating, Ruby felt her broken ribs snap
back into place and harden there. Before long, the princess felt
whole again, but it would do her no good. She was still trapped
inside the beast’s stomach, and Sythys seemed immune to the effects
of poison, having eaten the toxic fruit for centuries. She had
nowhere left to turn, as her mind faded into the darkness.

Ruby awoke in her bed in that drafty old
castle that she’d lived in for her whole life. The familiar silk
violet sheets laid on top her, the arched cream ceiling with a
crack stretching across the width of the room was far overhead, and
the rich purple drapes her mother had picked out to match her
sheets covered the windows. The room was exactly as she remembered
it, and the sun was just coming up, piercing where the drapes
separated. She lay on her side and was curled into a ball, enjoying
the warmth afforded to her by the covers and sheets.

The princess remembered the dream she had
been having. A foul demon had corrupted her sister. A spell had
driven all the toxins in her body out of her mouth and all the dark
thoughts to the forefront of her mind. She had been magically
banished to the noxious land called the Abyss, where she had found
a serpent too old to possibly be real. The ancient beast had
swallowed her whole, at which point she’d woken there in the warm,
comforting bed. The dream had been madness. How she could have ever
come up with something so absurd was beyond her.

At that point, Ruby realized that she was
completely naked. She never slept like that. She always wore some
layer, and the princess knew that this couldn’t possibly be real.
The dream had been the truth, and this was the dream. As much as
she wanted to say that this was real, she knew that she couldn’t
whitewash everything that had happened to her away as if it were a
fiction. Turning over to lay on her back, Ruby discovered that she
was not alone in this dream.

The horned woman, Scarlett, was lying next to
her, and when the princess moved to her back, she pressed firmly up
against her. She was just as beautiful as the last time they’d met.
Her orange hair fluttered down to her shoulders, ending in copper
ringlets, and her eyes glinted with that same red glow, accentuated
by the distinct orange eye shadow. The princess could feel the
temptress’ body was quite naked as well. Ruby blushed, as Scarlett
placed both hands, one on top of the other, on the princess’ chest
and then rested her chin on her hands, looking straight into her
eyes.

“Hello, my princess,” the horned woman said
with a smile.

“You again?” Ruby asked, her toes fidgeting
uncomfortably at the other end of the bed.

Scarlett’s eyes examined what she could see
of the princess. “It looks like I don't have to work as hard this
time. Your impressively active imagination has already done the
heavy lifting for me. You dressed for the occasion.”

“I'm naked,” Ruby pointed out, flustered and
blushing.

“I know.” Scarlett smiled, lifting the sheets
and playfully peeking underneath.

Embarrassed, Ruby pressed them down, covering
herself back up. “It's not like I did it on purpose. This is a
dream. I can't control it.”

“Of course you can. You picked this place,
you decided on your very apparent lack of clothes, and then you
invited me to join you in big, bold letters. I’m obliging.” She
winked one of her red eyes.

“I did no such thing.”

Scarlett ignored Ruby’s denial. “I must have
made quite the impression on you, my princess. Want me to do it
again?”

The princess shook her head in protest. She
was going to resist Scarlett this time, or at least that's what she
told herself. “This isn't real. You're not real.”

“This may be just a dream, but that doesn't
stop any of this from being real.” Scarlett slid her hand under the
covers and let it drift down to the princess’ stomach, where her
finger circled Ruby’s bellybutton. “Do you not feel pleasure at my
touch? Do you not quiver with ecstasy? Do you not yearn for more? I
am as real as you let me be. Allow me to show you just how real I
can be to you, my sweet princess.”

Ruby scooted away, to the very farthest edge
of the bed. The bedframe creaked and moaned as she inched away.
“No. This isn’t right.”

“That doesn’t matter.” Scarlett wore her
seductive smile and moved closer to the princess. The bed’s
creaking sound echoed, as the horned demon crawled closer. She
wrapped one leg over Ruby’s midsection, one arm over the princess’
far shoulder, and placed her chest up against Ruby’s.

Ruby struggled to breathe calmly with the
woman’s strawberry aroma filling her nose. She switched to
breathing in and out through her mouth, hoping that might help
relieve her desires. “What do you want from me?”

Scarlett nuzzled her nose against the
princess’ cheek. “That doesn't matter. What matters is what I can
give you.” Her hand slowly drifted down Ruby’s body, rubbing
tenderly against the princess’ skin along the way. Raw pleasure
radiated in tiny explosions from the horned woman’s fingertips.

Ruby tried to move, but her body rebelled.
“Why can't I resist you?”

Scarlett’s hand didn’t stop. “You don't want
to.”

“But… I… do…” Ruby grabbed the horned woman’s
hand by the wrist and prevented it from traveling any further. She
regained some composure. “You're a demon as well, aren't you? Just
like the one corrupting my sister.”

Scarlett’s eyes wandered down, and she had a
pouting expression on her face. The woman looked ashamed. “Not
completely the same, no, but is it so bad that I’m from the nether
realm? Is what I desire so awful? I don't seek to corrupt you as he
has done to your sister.”

“But you do want the same thing that the
craggy hand demon wants?”

“I simply want form in your world. Our
relationship would not change. I would remain yours, my sweet
princess, to do with however you desired.”

Ruby puffed out a breath through her mouth,
clearing the intoxicating and distracting smell that came with the
horned woman’s words. “Why me? Why did you come to me?”

“You are special, my poison princess.”

“Poison princess?” Ruby repeated.

“It’s who you are, and I chose you to help me
escape.”

The princess released Scarlett’s wrist.
“Escape?”

“The nether realm.”

“Why would you want to escape it? Isn’t it
your home?”

Scarlett backed away from Ruby, moving to lay
on her back. “Because it is torture, my princess. There is no form
there. No taste. No touch. No sound. No smell. Nothing whatsoever
to see. Everything exists only in your mind, and nothing feels
real. I want what you have. I want to be free. I want to be allowed
to experience my senses.”

Ruby had never given much thought to the
nether realm before. She had no idea what it was really like.
Everyone was quick to point out that the creatures originating from
there were evil, wanting nothing but to invade Nabiria. For the
first time, the princess considered that this might not be the
entire truth. “If, and I stress if, I were to help you escape, what
would I need to do?”

The horned woman turned back to face Ruby.
Her eyes were wide and hopeful. “You would do that?”

Sternly shaking her head, Ruby replied, “I’m
only saying that I would consider it. What would you need me to
do?”

“I need you to want me.”

Ruby didn’t think that would be any great
challenge. The princess was having incredible difficulty in
resisting the demon’s advances. “I think you’ve proven you can get
me to do that all on your own. I can hardly help myself around
you.”

Scarlett grinned. “No, I need you to want me
in the real world. Did you notice your desire for me faded, when we
last separated?”

“I did. Why was that?”

“I have more power, the closer I am to you.
We are bonded together now. Inseparable if you so choose,
Ruby.”

Yet again, hearing her name roll off of
Scarlett’s tongue melted a part of her brain. After clearing her
mind, Ruby asked, “What would you do if I were to release you?”

The horned woman moved closer once again,
snuggling up beside the princess. “I would be your loyal servant. I
would do whatever you desired.”