do you think God stays in his heaven because he, too, lives in fear of what he has created?
In their time apart, he has learned that a great many things disgust him in this world. They are each another dousing of gasoline to his fire and he is overeager to unleash his might upon the world. But he bides his time, obeying Anaxarete’s commands and learning from her guidance like a good little pawn. He knows his era is coming, and so he must only bide his time for now.
In the months since his birth, he has grown immensely, and he now towers over those who used to loom over him. His chest is broad and his shoulders look strong enough to cradle the world between them. The sinews of his legs make his talons look less like a baby bird and more like a proper dragon’s claws, prepared to rip open ribcages and crush skulls between them. Ghaul has even earned a nice smattering of scars across his mouth and nose to balance the brilliance of his star-kissed face with some proper gore.
Gospel, though, has grown to be as beautiful as she is terrifying.
But her aesthetics are lost on a blind monster. He can only smell her scales and the old blood on her breath when she draws near, though the outline of her warmth tells him she has also grown. Ghaul grins, rows of crooked fangs stretching too far across an otherwise handsome face. The tyrant draws close to her even if it angers her, even if she lashes out and chances her fangs against his armored scales. He traces his nose up her neck and across her cheek as he breathes in her scent. In her mind, she is free of his commands and his claim, but he knows he would force feed her anyone who tried to challenge his ownership of her.
“I bled for the first time,” he boasts with that endless smile. “I even got to taste it, Gospel. I wish you could have, too.”
His wings shift uneasily against his back at the memory of Sochi clawing his face open. He wants to feel that rush once more, but his soft baby scales have hardened now.
“You were my first friend. No one will take that from you,” he mutters as he softly bumps her cheek with his nose, a pleased clicking emanating from the back of his throat. “Don’t let anyone take you from me, either.”
Ghaul watches her closely, his shimmering horns nearly touching her face in his strange stare.
@[gospel]