Kai’Vra looked into the alleyway. It was a wonderful place for her purposes since the surrounding streets were rarely populated. Someone was bound to pass it eventually, of course, but she’d have this over quickly enough. Unless someone ran straight down the street as fast as possible the instant she began her ‘business,’ she would leave no mess.

She stared down the alley, calm and contemplative. Sitting atop a dumpster was a human, probably an adult; Kai’Vra wasn’t sure. He had one of those pollution-built ‘cigarettes’ in his mouth, and upon seeing her staring into the alley, he waved invitingly and cooly put his hands into his jacket pockets.

Kai’Vra wore ordinary ‘street clothes.’ She temporarily appeared to gain youth each time she ate, so the many feasts she had the last few days had made her appear to be quite young, around fifteen or so, but she wasn’t sure when it came to judging human years. Although the Druid had managed to grievously wound her in their fight, once she began to make her feasts a little more...subtle, he simply couldn’t track her down. She resisted the urge to lick her lips, thinking back to her previous meals. Apparently, the human mortals found it unsettling when she did so. Luring them into a false sense of security was a reliable way to ensure she could kill them without a hassle.

After confirming that no pests were going to intrude on her business, she walked into the alleyway. The man gave her a wry smile. She returned one of her own, showing as little of her teeth as possible. She reserved the fuller smiles for the ‘end’ of her business. She spoke to the mortal with an unassuming womanly voice she had mimicked from some random teen. “Hello! My name is Kaira! Do you have it?”

He nonchalantly slipped off the dumpster’s plastic lid, and callously spit the cigarette onto the ground, his hands not leaving his pockets. “You can call me Lame Dame. Pleasr’ t’ meetcha.” He gave his head a cock of acknowledgment and talked in an almost snarky tone like he was mocking someone just by speaking. He suspiciously looked behind Kai’Vra for a moment, then put his eyes back onto her. “And I figure you’re asking about the puffins?”

Kai’Vra almost hesitated in continuing her talk, finding the name for whatever substance he was talking about to be unsettlingly innocent, for how deadly it could be. “You could say that.” she pulled a wallet from her pant’s pockets, pulled a small, neat stack of cash from it, and handed it out for the man to take. She had always scoffed at the other nymphs for their lack of organization and took pride in ensuring she was neat and thorough. About four days ago, when she reluctantly decided to become less sloppy with her meals, she began to obsess over ensuring every drop of blood was licked up.

She was, one might call her, a perfectionist.

He flicked through the bills then clicked his tongue and nodded. “looks goood. All I got today is some new stuff, it’s hard as it gets. This should last you a week at least.” He stashed the money, then held one of his hands forward, balled into a fist, holding something discreetly. Kai’Vra locked grips with him, and took was in the fist. It was a small ziplock of blue powder. Kai’Vra’s eyes narrowed as she felt traces of magic in the bag.

Very deadly indeed.

She could have simply killed him without much hassle, but some perversion in her psyche wanted to learn more about the sickening creature before she made it feel the taste of bitter death. Perhaps she had begun to understand why that one strange human had insisted he know her name before she killed him. Besides, that ‘puffin pollen’ drug was incredibly poisonous to her, so she needed to remove it from his person before she went about her business, not to mention how useful it was as bait. She decided to cut their pointless interaction off and began her scheme in full.

“Speaking of which...” He said suspiciously, “I haven’t seen ya round’ before...You new in this part of town?”

“Oh, I’ve only been here a week or two.” She said absently, after placing the bait for her next meal into her pocket. She observed the nearby plants, which were diligently breaking through the concrete, and urged them to do as their rightful master commanded, applying her magic into the grass and vines.

“You used to that kind of stuff? That Puffin Pollen is really hard, as I said, not even I would recommend taking a lot without some buildup an’ all.”

“Oh...” Kai’Vra said in a high-pitched sigh. “I’m not used to it at all...” She felt rather tired, guiding the creeping plants to the right locations. Or perhaps the monotony of killing humans over and over was getting to her. Genocide was generally her end goal when it came to the humans, as the filthy creatures had populated like oversized rabbits, and turned the world into their playground; it was obviously time for them to be put into their place by the forces of nature.

Of course, the main purpose of her senseless slaughter was simply to gain power. Consuming souls was the primary ability of plant magicis, also known as the nymphs, and doing so granted her power.

Yet, knowing that, she still felt bored out of her mind. Back in her day, she was a feared force of nature, the greatest of nymphs, but after that damned druid sealed her away a few centuries back, she awoke with no above-average features beyond her unusual level of intelligence. Regaining her old power would be quite a monumental task, but not an unfamiliar one.

She lowered her eyes in thought, wondering why she even bothered to continue her grinding. She’d eaten tens of thousands of humans in the past when she was less intelligent, but it never became monotonous, right? She shrugged off the implications, then looked back up to the drug dealer. “Anyway, my real name is Kai’Vra, and you might want to look at your feet.”

He raised an eyebrow, then looked at his feet, where grass had wrapped around his ankles. “What? What’s going on?” When he looked back to Kai’Vra, she had a cruel, menacing smile on her face that showed a whole set of razor-sharp canines. He realized what was happening, and tried to cry out in panic, “HOLY SH-”

A vine had already placed itself against his neck without his knowledge and instantly snapped onto his mouth like a gag, muffling his screams. His hands clawed to rip the vines off in vain, falling for her next trap. The vine split into three and quickly tied his arms to his body. He struggled in vain to escape the vine’s grasp, but Kai’Vra’s magic had reinforced it to become as strong as a bar of steel. The plants quickly wrapped around his body like a cocoon, turning him into nothing more than a tangle of green, planty ropes, with a gagged head that stuck out the top. Kai’Vra sighed. “No need for you to struggle,” she said in a bored tone, “I’ll make sure you die quick.”

She drew the cocoon close to her, then opened her maw, revealing that inside her disillusioned mouth was nothing more than the fibers of bark and plant matter. Her mouth opened, then stretched to unsightly, terrifying proportions, and she started to envelop her horrified victim’s head with her jaw, preparing to bite down and decapitate him in a single chomp-

BANG!

She stopped what she was doing and recoiled into her ordinary humanoid shape in pain, screaming in an infuriated, childlike manner, “OW! WHO DID THAT!?” Some projectile had lodged itself into her head and it hurt horribly. She looked to her left to see that strange human from the other day, pointing a smoking ‘gun’ at her.

Coming from the man’s mouth was a voice quite unlike the one she remembered from those few days ago. “Let that man go, monster!” Suddenly, the voice changed back, “What are you doing Luuko! Why didn’t you just turn tail and call up someone who could actually fight?!” Kai’Vra might have simply killed them there, but decided to be careful, and entertain herself with them. She used the time the human(whom she easily diagnosed with possession) used to argue with themselves to regenerate her body and expel the disgusting chunk of lead out of what would be her brain. “We can’t just let that guy die!” “of course we can!”

Another mortal jogged up to them and with a pacified but worried expression, looking between the smoking gun and the scene down the alley. Kai’Vra noted from her relaxed body language that she had no sense of self-preservation, similar to the possessed man next to her. “Why is there a cocoon man and a girl with creepy canines, and why did you two shoot her? And why do you have a gun? Are you legally able to use that? Are you even eighteen?!” her mouth twisted in well-humored disgust.

Kai’Vra regained her posture and entertained her questions while she healed. “I am Kai’Vra, a nymph. A pleasure to meet you.” She gave an exaggerated bow, imitating the sarcastic tone of her would-be victim. “As for your possessed friend over there, I suppose they shot me because they want to die in agony. So who might you be?” She shot a genuine smile to Onei, entertained to see the Gates of Chaos open before her once more.

“You can call me Onei...? What’s up with this edgy girl, Drade?”

Drauko had paused, clearly in inner conflict.

“I’m not familiar with that term, edgy, would you care to define it?”

“It means you act overly cool, confident, or intimidating to the point that you seem like you’re trying too hard.”

“Is it bad to try too hard?” Kai’Vra said, entirely serious and contemplative.

Onei shrugged. “If you aren’t acting genuine, people will pick up on it, and you’ll be made a laughingstock.”

Kai’Vra lost her mimicked voice and put on the one that most fit her natural vocals, making her sound high-pitched and young, “Really, I never would have guessed-” Her voice suddenly fluctuated to a far more low-pitched tone, sounding almost like it was produced by an entirely different person. “Almost lost myself there, as if I, a being far greater than your kind, would care what you thought about me.”

“Then why did you bother to mention that you were ‘a being far greater than our kind’ if you don’t care that I know you are?”

Her voice turned high again as she spoke in a matter-of-fact tone, “Well you know, I do need to see you bow before me and tell me how wonderful I am! It is only natural that I demand respect from you.” She rubbed her head, fully healed.

Onei held her hands out as if stating the obvious. “I feel like demanding respect from others is about as insecure as you can get-not that humans are any different of course. Maybe if you got rid of that obvious superiority complex of yours you’d be able to see how reliant on us you are.”

“Superiority complex? I’m not sure what that means, but yes, I am superior. Insecure, though? I’m incredibly strong, am I not? How can I be both strong and insecure at the same time? And in what ways am I reliant on humans?” Instead of being goaded by Onei’s words, she showed curiosity. Curiosity about the world made Kai’Vra a powerful nymph in the olden days, and she understood that quite well. If there was one thing Kai’Vra disliked, it was complacency.

“Do I need to explain it all to you?”

“I don’t know, would you rather have a short or pain-filled death?”

Onei rolled her eyes, relaxing despite the obvious threat. She began moving her hands about to demonstrate what she meant. “Inferiority complex means you feel ‘insecure’ when you don’t feel superior to others around you. Without humans to show how cool you are or whatever to, you wouldn’t be able to satisfy your pathetic need to feel like the greater creature.”

Kai’Vra blinked a few times, relaxing in turn. “But it’s only natural for humans to cower before me. It’s not like I’d feel bad if they didn’t scream and plea for help upon seeing me.”

Drauko had already long stopped their thinking but were looking with vague interest as the two talked. Onei continued, bending her head down and squinting her eyes as if she had heard something stupid. “How is that natural again?”

“Well, I’m superior to humans, and inferior creatures bow down or die for greater ones, correct? Does your kind not kill less intelligent animals en masse for their taste, believing that the creatures are of lesser value?”

Onei grumbled something beneath her breath, a little unsure how to react.

“There’s nothing wrong with that, of course,” Kai’Vra leaned against the stone wall, and put a hand to her forehead as if she were holding a hand to her heart, “It’s only natural for lesser creatures to be killed. The mouse eats the cheese, the cat eats the mouse, the human eats the cat, the nymph eats the human.”

“Humans don’t eat cats...”

“Same difference.”

Drauko had finished thinking, so Luuko’s distorted voice came out of the man’s throat, almost yawning out her question. “Are you seriously having a philosophical chat about ethics, here and now, in front of a man-eating plant monster?”

Kai’Vra smiled crookedly at them. “I went to a few salons back in my day to witness your ‘philosophy.’ I was turned down at each door because I wasn’t a man, so I ate them. Though the spirit has a point, I would love to cut to the chase and kill all of you, if I have fulfilled my quota of pleasantries.”

Drade fiddled with his leg, dragging it across the ground in a circle. “I’d like to make a phone call before you kill me, actually,” Drade said, showing his phone to the nymph before beginning to type on it

“Of course! But don’t think that will save you, if you try to run I will give no more mercy, unlike the last time we met.”

Drauko inconspicuously dragged the tip of his shoe across the ground in another circle.

After a few seconds of exploiting the nymph’s thoughtful mercy, Drade put his phone to his ear. “Hi Lumia, where are you right now?”

Drauko dragged the tip of their shoe across the ground in another circle.

It was too quiet for an ordinary person to hear from afar, but a high-pitched childish voice came through the phone. “Drade, Drade! You called!”

Drauko motioned another circle...

“Yep, I did,” Drade said, sounding pained.

Drauko moved their shoe across the ground in a Z motion...

The child on the other side of the phone realized Drade wouldn’t have called recreationally, and sounded disappointed about that harsh truth. “...I guess you didn’t want to talk to me...you just c-called for help?” Kai’Vra narrowed her eyes as the sentence ended as if she heard what was said.

Drauko drew another Z...

“Yeah, where are you?”

“I’m still in Brazil, you know.”

“Too bad I sent you there. Could I ask for an orbital strike, then?”

Kai’Vra’s plants grew closer to the two humans, the grass and ivy holding themselves in the air with restless writhing as if anticipating the chance to kill. She remained quiet, unsure as to what an ‘orbital strike’ was. She carefully observed their actions. She knew the humans were most likely attempting to deceive her, but she wanted to give them the chance to enact their plan so she could understand the human’s thought processes better. If she knew her prey, she had control over them. Humans were so...alien and difficult to predict in the past, but she found it a fun challenge to give prediction a go. She carefully observed the humans’ actions.

Drauko was slightly unsettled, their legs shaking in...fear, perhaps? As they drew another Z on the ground, In....light?! Somehow, the human was causing the ground beneath their shoe to glow a dim white and was drawing circles with ‘Z’s in them. When Kai’Vra strained her eyes and tried to view the magic that flowed through their body, she saw their magic was unraveling Drade’s soul like a bundle of yarn.

Kai’Vra had been too focused to pay attention to the conversation that had occurred over the phone. It wasn’t as if talking to someone was a very productive activity for anything but learning, right? It hadn’t worked in the past, surely not now either. Drade finished speaking. “Well, that’s disappointing, hope to see you later.”

Kai’Vra took a step forward, and her voice grew deep and ominous. “Why and how are you using magic, human? Have you taken an apprenticeship as a...a druid!?” She said with scorn.

Of course, she suspected other magics existed but had no confirmation of it, besides her own, unique magic.

Drauko looked at her with confusion. “What are you talking about? This is a ritual humans can do before we die. Would you let me sing the chant of wind?”

Onei looked confused for a moment, then looked to the ground to see three circles with ‘Z’s in them, after a moment of confusion, she relaxed her face in a poorly hidden attempt to hide her confusion.

Kai’Vra shrugged, still with a laser focus on Drauko. “Do this chant, sure.” She listened with keen ears, making certain to remember whatever chant the human would recite. Again, she reiterated, she was not falling for the human’s obvious lie, simply acting out of progressive curiosity. Onei nodded along like she fully understood what was happening. She was a lot dumber than she talked, apparently.

Drauko shrugged, “Well, here goes nothing, let’s hope I haven’t forgotten the words...” He kneeled, then clasped their hands together, luuko speaking...

“Elemental of Wind, bringer of storms,

Singer of Life, Soft Caress of Weathered Cliffs...

Wind of Rest, carry my burden of regret,

above the mountains,

through the valleys,

and over the hill,

carry my regrets to my grave, so I may live with the wind at my back.”

Drauko snatched the other human’s hand, causing her to jump in surprise, then, Drauko blew on the glowing circles.

Kai’Vra had enough and was seconds to ripping them apart. Well, that was boring. “Had your last words?”

Drauko held their arms out and tilted their head. “Of course not!”

Just before Kai’Vra skewered the two humans with a vine, Drauko

snatched Onei’s other hand, then took a step down the road, and away from the alleyway...and disappeared. Kai’Vra’s vines were ravaged as a sonic boom tore through the air, resounding through the alleyway in a cacophony of echoes.

Kai’Vra simply grumbled in annoyance, then shook her head with a cruel smile. “They love to live, don’t they?”

Well, they could try.