She had only met with them after first being crowned as a divine dancing priestess, a great achievement on her part for having started pretty badly on the journey that was beast worship, but having turned out to be a prodigy and becoming priestess at the youngest age ever, her voice was an especially important one amongst the highest echelon of the emerald realm.
Iliz just stood there, in front of tall doors fashioned from the horns of countless worshippers who had cut them to form these powerful objects, this was only the first of a series of three, each found lower beneath the ground as one would be descending wide and lengthy stairs in between each of them.
At the bottom, she would find the all-beast, founder of beast worship and living illustration of the fate that awaited those who forgot faith in the pursuit of power, the failures of this ancestor had been so great and numerous that after them, beast worship had quickly found out the balance to follow, so although not successful like the emerald sun had been in their endeavour, the contributions had been equally as great, and thus, worthy of respect.
Last time Iliz had gone down there, the founder had told her that she did not need to come back at all and to instead focus on herself, saying that there was no time to be wasted deep into the earth.
Today, she intended on visiting the all-beast for some guidance, to know what they would have done in her shoes.
Just as she prepared to push open the first set of doors, a familiar voice greeted her, full of lively joy.
"Hello Priestess Iliz! As beautiful as ever today!" hopping around with a lithe body, orange hair and eyes somehow the exact same colouration, the freckles upon the girl’s face bringing attention to it even though her garb of furs highlighted many other areas.
"Ah… Hello to you too, Mamiel…" this felt like being caught committing a foolery, she was resolute to go ask about what to do with the guests after all, and now, one was right here.
The priestess suddenly felt guilty but hid it masterfully.
Mamiel was one of the more unnoticed of the talent holders, having never gone on the front lines, instead making use of her talent in taming beasts and staying hidden behind, obviously that talent of hers had quickly made Mamiel very popular and comfortable with the beast worshippers, it was like she had a divine connection in their eyes.
Perhaps a bit too comfortable one might say, as the redhead was incapable of stopping herself from touching Iliz ears.
The priestess looked just like all other natural inhabitants of the realm, her skin a smooth grey, which was surrounded by smoke that seemed to phase in and out, her long and somewhat messy hair were very bright, Iliz’s being a bright blonde to be exact.
And of course, the appearance of her pupils and irises was ever-changing as well, but as a beast worshippers, she sported animalist traits, including her ears, which had shifted for the humanoid kind into what looked like those a fennec fox, rendering them exceptionally attractive to anyone in their right mind.
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Everyone wanted to touch these ears, but few had the courage to do so, Mamiel did not give a damn however, when the tamer saw something pettable, she went and petted it without hesitation.
Even though it was hard for her to actually distinguish facial features of the people here due to them appearing completely different than what she knew, Mamiel found Iliz to be an exceptionally adorable creature.
Garbed in ample robes, it was actually hard to distinguish all of the added and changed features beast worship had granted upon her, the most obvious being the humongous ears, which were currently slapping away Mamiel’s hands.
Then there was the thin black tail that poked out from beneath the priestess’s cloth, this thing was incredibly hard to notice at a glance, but it was exceptionally lengthy, longer than many people stack atop one another, and being entirely prehensile it could seemingly defy all logic.
Apart from that, Mamiel believed that her feet were also changed as they made a very curious sound when the priestess walked around but beyond that, it was harder to tell.
The only other thing that the freckled girl knew that made Iliz stand out was that she was the smallest divine dancing priestess around it seemed, not that she was actually short overall, actually just as tall as Mamiel was, but compared to the hulking figures of her fellow priestesses, she seemed rather tiny.
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"Would you please stop touching my ears?"
"Is it uncomfortable?"
"Well, no…"
"Does it feel nice?"
"Yes, I suppose…" it was hard to argue with the talent holder, especially due to being an expert in ear-petting.
"...But I am sort of busy right now, so…"
"Aaw, really? Are you free later this afternoon?"
Thinking for a second, Iliz nodded.
"Yes, why?"
"I was wondering if we could go somewhere, and if you could show me what other animal features you have" casually mentioned the tamer, finally letting go of the fennec ears.
"What- I mean, sure why not… It’s normal to be curious about that"
"Alright then, it’s a date"
Invisible on her grey skin hazed by smoke, many little beads of sweat began travelling down the divine dancing priestess’s face, Iliz was no slouch in terms of hearing, so she was certain to have heard this correctly, but just to be sure-
"A date, as in… A date?"
"Yeah"
"Date as in the word that signifies a typically romantic outing?"
"Yup"
"..."
Bringing one hand in front of her mouth, looking around to check if anyone else had heard this, then turned back toward the great door.
’By the blood of all creatures, what should I do, founder?’ she wondered in her head.
’Mmh… Mmmh…’
"Priestess Iliz?" a beast follower approached her.
"What is the matter?" maintaining a perfect composure, she quickly responded.
"Herald Ioleznta would like to speak with you" staring dead at the beast follower, Iliz rubbed her chin with an unmoving expression.
"Tell her that I am busy, let’s go Mamiel!"
"Weren’t you going to do something?"
"I am a divine dancing priestess, I can free myself up"
Without bothering to ask why Ioleznta wanted to speak with her, the priestess put one arm around Mamiel’s waist and led her away from the doors.
The beast follower, garbed in armour and a helm decorated with countless horns just looked at the two going away, a bit confused.
’Was that…? No, surely not… It’s not even the right season for it…’ shaking his head to take it out of the gutter, dusting both shoulders before retracing his steps in the opposite direction, wondering if he would be asked to elaborate on the why Priestess Iliz had declined, because if that happened, he would have to tell the truth.
And also explain his own thoughts as not fully answering an emerald herald’s question was out of the question.
’Urgh, why did it have to be me?’ cursing the fact that he had been in the wrong place at the wrong time, he went to deliver the news to Herald Ioleznta.