WELL that was a wild ride! Literally, horses and carriages? Gross. They stank and things moved around and all that other stuff. Stupid dumb animals. I was finally back in Corone and away from Salvar. Away from the cold and wet snow, ugh I hated that…. And away from that crazy plant woman with her crazy red angry blob of a soul I had tricked her out of.

I placed my hand hard against my chest.

I….I finally had a piece of a soul...it wasn’t what I expected.

Then again, when I carefully took it out of the plant lady, I didn’t expect it to literally screech, and have strange giant tentacle like things pierce me, and have it force its way into my chest. That was….I’ve worked with souls my entire life and that was the first time I had ever seen anything like that. It was unnatural for a soul to do that. Was that why Madison didn’t care that I had taken it? She almost seemed relieved.

I couldn’t blame her.

I tightened my hand around the deep blue silken robe I wore. This soul. It hurt. It felt like it throbbed against my being, cold, dark, and empty. Sometimes it was hard to breathe...and now...every time I slept, I swore I heard whispers.

My blue tail swung casually from side to side, a frown upon my usual cheery lips. Ears down, I felt troubled and I did not like feeling that. It was the opposite of happy. I came back to Corone because it was warm, and this was where I met that man, that Venex man. The crazy one in a blue tailcoat.

The thought of him bought the faintest of smiles to my lips. He’d see me like this, and laugh. Oh what a sight I was. I stopped in the middle of the street, much to the annoyance of passerbys, took a deep breath and forced a rather rambunctious laugh.

“HAHAHAHAHA!”

Sometimes, all one had to do to make themselves feel better was laugh, and it worked. I felt lighter already. “Eteri do good!” I said with a triumphant nod.

“What are you? Mad!?” A middle aged man said as he shoved his finger in his ear, cleaning it out. I wrinkled my nose. He looked all hoity toity. He wore a boring off brown shirt with dark blue pants, his shoes were all shiny and buffed. I stuck my tongue out at him.

“Nyer! Pick Eteri winner!” He had his finger deep in his ear, what else was I supposed to say?

“What did you just say to me!?” He spat. His face was clean shaven, and so was his head, I could almost see tiny little veins pop out in frustration against his skin. I grinned as I stepped closer, pointing it out.

“Ooo! Look, your oily skin, is all pulsating!”

He batted my hand away. “Do you have any idea who I am!?”

“Bald angry man!”

He stomped his foot. Ok, scratch that, really angry bald man. I opened my mouth to correct myself. It was the least I could do! I mean, I didn’t want to lie to him. Geez….when was the last time I did such a thing? I shrugged, tail waving wildly. This was fun! He was fun. Maybe he would like to be friends too.

“Oh, oh! I know! You be Eteri friend!?” I said as I clapped my hands together, rubbing them furiously before extending one in earnest greeting toward him. “Friend make happy!”

“I’ll be happy to see your ears on my wall!” He spat as he reached behind him to pull something from his back pocket.

I frowned. “Well that not very nice thing to saying!”

I saw the glint of metal. A knife!? He pulled a knife of ME!? ETERI!? Who did he think he was! No really...who, because I didn’t have a gosh darn clue.

“Hey! That not nice!”

He lunged, I dodged. I mean - it was pretty easy...he was sloppy and it was clear he was not a fighter. “No hurt please!”