can you hear that wonderful sound?
The Ferris wheel has started, now we’re stuck going round and round…
He came upon her so quickly and yet so silently, she would have startled if not for the ebony pelt and massive structure that she had become familiar with. Ah the Devil, how often he tempted her with his wily words of praise, but now she stood at his command where before Carn had laughed, shaking out her pelt with a delicious shiver down her spine. No matter the name of this handsome beast, he played the part well. At the word puppet her tail had brushed ever so slightly against the ground, her golden eyes growing darker. He pulled her up by the strings, grasping at her with the strength of his confident voice, but she did not stumble with the weak-legged gait of the marionette. Letting the shiver round out the base of her spine, she looked to him, not at his face but his shoulder.
I will look death in the face only should the need arise. But I do not fear the proximity to your lean muzzle, nor the silky words that seep from it. Unless, of course, you make me fear them.
His smirk distorted his voice, gave it the cool arrogant tint that evidenced his status over her. She wondered in his delight as she had lain before him, downy belly fur to him, so easy to rip and tear into, and a smile split her own lip. Did he like that? Did he like the power she gave him?
“Oh hush,” she warned him, her tail tip flicking at the dirt at her feet, “Keep throwing around compliments like that and the dirt will think itself more beautiful than me.” She did not know how to make a pouty face, indeed wasn’t even sure the emotion that was used to conjure such a thing, but her dry tone was steeped in the high-pitched volume of barely withheld giggles. “But ask and you shall receive.” The remark came casually. “I’m Carnival.”
It was hard to place, but his eyes in her peripherals looked excited and unsatisfied, as if he saw in her, or through her, to the work that was left to be done. Was it her strings that he intended to pull into shape, raise her simple, elegant crown from beneath his muzzle, pull back her lip and bare her teeth? Quite a busy wolf, the Devil that day; when she looked down on his paws, and the paw steps behind him, she saw nothing but shadows.
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