Willy

[tempting_the_fates]

Nyx watched Hex go, waiting a beat before turning and headed back towards the remains of what had once been a village.

He wandered quietly at first, poking around in the remains of buildings, and inspecting things he found discarded. There was a sadness here. Something broken. Lost. He could taste it in the air, like chalk and dust.

"Are you still here?" he called out. "You must be, I feel eyes on me. Come out. Come speak."

Comments

[tempting_the_fates]

Nyx hissed in surprise, tensing a little, ears back as if ready to fight- Though he slowly seemed to relax.

"No. I came because you are odd, and I had... I had curiosities."

Those words weren't quite right, but he felt sure Willy would understand.

[willysilver]

"Curiosities?" Willy asked, more of a prompt than confusion.

[tempting_the_fates]

"I wanted to know why you were being so odd. Why you were luring us somewhere," Nyx explained. "Curiosities. ...Questions?"

Yes, that was the right word. Questions.

Willy was still holding him, and after a beat Nyx slipped away, reminding himself this was not kin, and there could be danger.

[willysilver]

"Ah, yes. To eat you," he said simply.

He simply watched Nyx, curious he'd be believed.

[tempting_the_fates]

"That's not funny," Nyx replied, frowning and taking a tiny step back.

[willysilver]

"To eat your mate, then," he offered.

Willy chuckled.

He thought it funny.

[tempting_the_fates]

"That is even less funny," Nyx hissed, the fur on his ears standing on end.

[willysilver]

Willy's eyes darkened and a dirty smirk curved his lips.

"Is he only yours to devour?" he purred, just a bit lower than before.

[tempting_the_fates]

"My Hex, yes," Nyx hissed. "He may lay with who he likes, but he is mine to keep. Mine."

[willysilver]

"Then I will make you a deal," he offered. "You will keep your Hex, and I will keep my bell."

As simple as that.

No matter the smile, Willy's still assuned Nyx was a thief.

"Yes?"

[tempting_the_fates]

Nyx literally had no interest in said bell, and certainly no way of taking it. This deal seemed to be in his favour.

"Agreed," he replied simply. "Now tell me what you were really doing."

[willysilver]

"I was going to take you to my bed," he replied with a shrug.

[tempting_the_fates]

"You can't just take people to bed, you're supposed to ask. I don't go to bed against my will anymore anyway. I am free, and they paid for their sin in blood," Nyx replied matter of factly.

"I don't know you, I wouldn't share your bed until I did, and only then if I saw fit."

He puffed up a bit, trying to make himself look bigger. "If you want my company, you ask nice. ...And you tell me I'm pretty first."

[willysilver]

Willy stopped, truly studied Nyx from top to toe, then wet his lips.

"You are pretty," he decided. "And I have more than a bed. I have portraits. I have safe food."

[tempting_the_fates]

Curiosity was what had got him in trouble in the first place. A nice man, a shiny ship, promises of seeing the universe... It had led to imprisonment, enslavement.

...But it had, also, saved him. After all, had he not run off, he'd be as dead as his kin. So in a way, being curious had saved his life, just with a few complications.

"What kind of food?" he asked. "Meat?"

[willysilver]

"Meat. And fruit," he replied. "Your friends hunt for the wrong things. I know what is delicious."

[tempting_the_fates]

Nyx was tempted, and he wasn't hiding it very well.

"We are mostly eating the food that is dried until they wet it and let it sit. I do not like it," he admitted. "You have better?"

He knew he shouldn't follow the stranger, he had made this mistake before, but... Maybe this time would be different?

[willysilver]

"I have fresh," he grinned,

"Come. See," he tempted further, seeing the way Nyx was eager to come.

[tempting_the_fates]

Nyx seemed unsure for just a moment, then nodded.

"I can't stay long, I will be missed," he warned.

[willysilver]

"Of course you will be," he agreed with a nod.

Then he led Nyx to the door to the stairs underground.

"After you," he said.

[tempting_the_fates]

Nyx wanted to go, but found himself a bit frozen. What if something bad happened again? He wasn't sure he could fight himself free again, didn't want to suffer again. His hands trembled a little, and after a moment he took a step away.

"You can't bring it here?"

[willysilver]

"You were brave enough to come find me...what for, but this?" Willy asked rather than answering.

[tempting_the_fates]

Nyx didn't have any weapons, bar a rock he had sharpened and now kept in his pocket. He curled his fingers around it, then nodded.

"You go first, I will follow."

[willysilver]

Willy went first, the walls illuminating as he passed. At the bottom, in the chamber with 4 passages, he waited for Nyx.

"This is the safe one," he said, gesturing to the right tunnel. "The rest end in death. Come, I will feed you," he said.

He walked into the darkness, and it swallowed him.

[tempting_the_fates]

Nyx followed as close behind as he could, though Willy's strides were long, far longer than his own. His heart was racing in his chest, his body on high alert.

"Why down here?" he asked. "Why not above?"

Something brushed against his ankle, and he caught the back of Will's shirt with one hand as he moved a little faster.