11-09-2015, 10:49 PM
all that we have amassed sits before us, shattered into ash
“Fuck you,” she begins and there is fire on her tongue, heating the air around them. Kindling tells her to hush and Cress bares her teeth, taking another step back from her dam. How dare she. How dare she, of all horses, tell her to hush. She can feel the disappointment, the pity, rushing off of her mother in waves and she is having none of it. She is not the daughter that Kindling expected her to be but she is not a failure. She has done more with her life than Kindling has accomplished in her pathetic one and she is not a failure.
“Do you think I give a fuck if I am breaking?” she snarls, each exhale bringing forth a rush of flame. She cannot—will not—swallow them back any longer. “You left me to die, Mother.” And the word is sarcastic, because Kindling does not deserve the title of Mother. She never has—she failed her other children before her just as she failed Cress. Cress has never even met her older siblings (she hardly even knows their names, only that one of them was queen after their dam).
She is angry but she is calm, cold. The dragon in her chest stirs angrily and she breathes flames; they coat her tongue and she knows exactly what she is doing. Only minutes ago she was excited to see Kindling and emotional at the mere thought that Kindling was still alive—now she is calculating and filled with fire and she wants nothing more than to knock her down a peg or two. Kindling may believe that she is pushing all of the right buttons—and oh, how she is, how she is tearing Cress apart with every word that leaves her mouth—but Cress knows a few things herself.
“You think of me as a failure?” she asks quietly, taking a small step forward. The flames trailing her tongue wind their way up her face but she doesn’t let them burn her; she will not let her own flames harm her in any way. “You were the failure, Kindling. You failed the Valley and you failed your family. You failed my father. You failed your kingdom. They hated you, Kindling. They rejoiced when you renounced your throne! I have lived there for many years now and I have heard all of the tales and all the murmurings of the queen who wanted to set the Valley ablaze but barely left it smoldering. You and your would-be lover.”
Maybe this is what she wants. Maybe Kindling wants her to fight fire with fire, but Kindling has no flames of her own; she never did and she never will. “Father’s probably found some other would-be queen to fuck by now, after you abandoned him. He’s probably gotten someone who’s loyal to him now.” The words hurt—she doesn’t even know that he’s really, truly alive—but she is aiming to hurt as much as Kindling is. She chooses the words that will drive the deepest and pierce her the most. “You were a sniveling, whiny queen. It’s no wonder if he no longer wants you.”
She takes another step closer, no longer afraid of the biting words. “You never should have become a mother because you failed all of your children, Kindling. My siblings most likely hate you and I am finding that I cannot blame them. The only failure here is you. I have helped start a fire that will keep the Valley ablaze for generations to come. I am not a failure.”
She means to engulf her mother in flames then, and opens her maw to deliver the blow. “I could kill you right here, Mother. I am not a failure.”
She doesn’t need to prove anything to Kindling; she just wants to set the woman ablaze. See how she feels with a melted head.
cress
oxytocin x kindling
[note - she hasn't actually attacked kindling, so no powerplay here! she's just angry and is all "rawr i'ma attack you"]
infected.