Chapter 6

• Tezy
• _____
• My mouth hung open. “What? Serve you?” I echoed, chuckling. “That is ri-dick-culous!” I looked him up and down. I pointed at myself, saying, “Me, the Goddess of Shirouhebbi Tribe, will serve a mere mortal like you?”
• It was his turn for his jaw to drop. “You’re a goddess?” He blinked fast, maybe the fastest record I could have ever seen.
• “Yes, you heard it right! I’m the Goddess of the White Snake Tribe. The white tribesnakes worship me, praise me, and offer me things. But you? Instead of thanking me for healing you, you’re telling me to be your slave? How dare you!” My eyes burned as I glared at him, who was called Delta Garro. “You could’ve just dropped dead, and I wouldn’t have cared! If I was a monster, just as you said. But I didn’t! I healed you! Even with my status as a goddess, I apologized to you. And you, a mere mortal shifter, even less than any of my worshippers, dared to demand I’ll serve you? Huh!” I stomped my foot and turned on my heels to leave. However, he was quick to hold my arm.
• “If you’re a goddess in your realm, wherever it is, then here, you are not! Here, you’re my prisoner, you’ll not leave my sight, and you have to pay for what you’ve done! Do you understand?” His tone was hard and left something magical that seemed to bind me.
• I could not move, while heart beating erratically. How? How could he do this to me? How could someone have a hold of me like this?
• I tried not to panic or show him the effect he had on me. Otherwise, he would probably exploit it, knowing that I was somehow bound to him.
• Oh, Mighty Deity. What have you done to me? Or was it because of what I have done, to him, to his family? Was I really indebted to him even after I healed and apologized to him? Or was this sort of a side effect after fanging and healing him?
• This was a first. I had no answers to these questions I had in my mind. Fear rose deep within my heart. What if I could not go back to Hebbiza because I was his prisoner? What would happen to my brothers and worshippers? Would my worshippers be killed by Kigga? If not, how could my worshippers live normally after what had happened? And how could I just leave my brothers in the dark pit of Hebbiza?
• I mentally shook my head. No, I could not do that to them. I must find a way to return to my realm. I could not stay here whether I like it or not. It was not right. I had to go back, as soon as possible.
• “No! You can’t hold me against my will!” I fizzed. Our eyes clashed.
• “Yes, I can, sugar tits. You owe me lives. Until I say that you can go back to your realm, then that’s the time you’ll be free. But I see that’s nowhere in the near future, so you better stay where I want you. Otherwise…” He deliberately trailed off, letting his blue-black eyes move up and down my body. So slowly that I thought he had caressed me with his rough hands.
• The hair on the back of my neck stood out for some reason. Excitement rose from within my chest and down south of my body, which confused me at the moment. This was weird. I had never felt something like this in my life before. Indeed, this special creature was something. I wondered how powerful he was if he could even wield my powers like this at his will. Or was he even aware of it? I hoped not.
• I stared at his eyes, wanting to read his mind. However, I could not hear anything. Oh, Mighty Deity! Did he just block me? I must do the same!
• I took a lungful of air, filling my human lungs. I had to think of something, so that I could go back to Hebbiza.
• Shifting was my only answer at the moment. I tauntingly smiled at him a little and shifted. Naturally, his magical hold of me vanished. However, when I shifted, instead of glaring down at Delta Garro, I realized that my size was smaller than his thick arm. I was looking up at him. With this, a chortle broke out from him.
• I cursed, hissing at him in the process. Mighty Deity! How could this happen to me? My powers were indeed depleted. How to take them back, I must figure out in this mortal realm.
• There was no other choice but to shift back in my human form. I could still hear and see him laughing.
• “You seem to have a power malfunction, Goddess,” he mocked. “You’re not as great as you were earlier. I bet it will take time until you get your powers back full on. With that tiny other self of yours, I can just easily stomp on you and crush your beautiful head.” He touched the headdress I had on, tapping it lightly.
• I parried his hand and ground my teeth, holding my temper. Giving him dagger looks, I said, “Fine! I’ll stay for now. Just you watch out when I can wrap myself around you…” I deliberately showed him my hand slowly fisting, adding at the same time, “And I’ll crush your body until your bones break and the last drop of your blood dripped from your ruptured veins! That, I swear, Delta Garro.”
• He smirked and softly chuckled at my words. He grabbed me by the arm and said, “Let’s see if you can do that, Goddess,” he derided. “Now, let’s go!”
• He almost dragged me, as he led me towards somewhere. Only the red moon guided our way.
• Hmm. Is their moon always red?
• Unlike ours, it was always white and full. But alternately, one moon would disappear the next night. The next, there would be two again. After that, the other would disappear and appear the next night. It was how we could tell the cycle of our nights.
• The thick forest thinned in this part, after some minutes of walking. I could see some little orange lights far ahead of us.
• “We’re close to my ancestral home,” Delta Garro murmured.
• I suddenly paused when I heard some weird sounds. He looked at me, trying to read my mind.
• “What was that?” I asked him.
• “Werewolves howling. Never heard of it?” His brows slightly rose.
• “Werewolves?”
• “My kind,” he stated, tugging my arm to resume walking.
• Ah, so that was how they were called. “There are no werewolves in my realm, only snake shifters and some plants, trees, animals…” I trailed off, sighing. I already missed Benzai and my worshippers. I could not believe I was in this strange realm, where the same kind fought and killed each other. Well, humor me. I just did it, too, with my own sister. How could I judge Delta Garro and his kind for being such battle freaks? Maybe we were not so different, after all.
• A part of my dress caught a branch, tearing it and making the slit go further up my waist. Delta Garro broke the branch easily and freed my clothing. His eyes roved up and down my exposed body, while I instinctively fixed my torn dress with my powers. I heard him let the air pass through his slightly flaring nose. His thick brows met, forming a line between them.
• I followed him close. Different scents can be smelled as we navigated through the trees. There were awful ones, and I could sense that some eyes were watching us. However, Delta Garro seemed unconcerned by it. I believed he was familiar with every one of them.
• As we got closer to the ancestral home he talked about, I could see that the structure was way smaller than any of the palaces I was used to. This one had two stories, with a gable roof.
• “Garridan Codrin! What’s happened to you?”
• A slightly plump woman went out of the house to meet us. Her dark eyes jumped from him to me.
• “Mama, îmi pare rău,” he apologized in his native tongue.
• She opened the door wider for us to go in, mainly staring at me with curiosity. “Okay. Pățăști (Take it easy). Go to the kitchen. I’ll give you both a cup of tea,” she said, closing the door. “I need to know why you eloped at this hour.”