The demon's curse had taken its toll on Kiyomi even beyond the caster's death. It stripped from her every vestige of draconic heritage, replacing one foul magic with another. At the behest of Baal's lust, she became a mockery of a kitsune: a toy woman with exotic fur designed specifically for his amusement and pleasure.
Of course, those physical changes, while still drastic and sadistic in their own right, were not the full extent of what the younger brother had originally planned for Katerina's eldest daughter. The collar on her neck was not simply meant to modify her body in accordance with her captors' desires. It was also meant to strip her of her free will at the curse's completion, but its power – and consequently the power driving the curse it inflicted – had always been leveraged on the brothers' lifeforce. The curse, therefore, was only ever half complete thanks to Ana's violence. It stopped as soon as both brothers had met their fate, sparing Kiyomi her mind at the expense of her body.
The new fox – while still damaged from the efforts to enslave her – would cease writhing in pain soon after those deaths had come to pass, just as the cursed collar disappeared from her neck in a puff of foul, black smoke. Her twisted heirloom was no more, leaving only the demon's brand in its wake. Kiyomi herself was left cradling her stomach which had revolted against her during Baal's horrifying death, and it wouldn't long after that before she found herself panicking on the riverbank of a nearby stream.
Now, of course, you might be wondering, reader, where Anabelle was during this entire, grieving process that wracked the former dragon's heart. Truth be told, she had gone to that same stream earlier; but, unfortunately for her, she had underestimated the frigidness of the waters there. After attempting to bathe herself in them, she quickly succumbed to her cold blooded nature. Her temperature rapidly diminished on submergence, causing her to nearly pass out on the shallower parts of the riverbank. The movement beneath the water that Kiyomi missed in her grief? That was actually Anabelle waking up with the last of her strength.
My daughter had gotten into situations like this before, usually from lack of experience. She liked to act as if she was a seasoned hunter, but, in reality, she was still a 16 year old girl. Ana was gifted for her age, no doubt, but even gifted people are not immune to mistakes. For this reason, she had already developed survival instincts for whenever something unanticipated and dangerous happened to her. In particular, she had a subconscious memory on what to do in cases where she suffered drastic drops in temperature like she did during the aftermath of Baal's death.
The chilled waters of the highlands in winter were cold enough to present a significant danger to Anabelle. She could die if she got too cold for too long, so, when she heard Kiyomi above her, her survival instincts kicked in. With the last her strength – and without so much as a warning – she breached the water right underneath the sobbing girl and immediately latched onto her for warmth.
The young fox probably never saw my daughter coming. One moment she was trying to deny her new reality. The next she was wrapped in the coils of a lamia tail and dragged across a bridge to the cabin on the other side. Anabelle weaseled her way into that luxurious vacation home with Kiyomi in tow through the basement door, and then made her way to the top floor. There, she found the master bedroom, which prompted the tired and cold serpent girl to force snuggle under the sheets with the former dragon.
There was nothing malicious or sexual about this encounter. Nay, Ana just needed to recover her warmth so that her life was no longer in danger; and, thus, she was using Kiyomi as her personal heater. Lucky for her, the cabin they invaded also belonged to a rich family that had magical, fur blankets on their beds. These were enchanted to modulate temperature based on the surrounding area and always maintained a toasty but comfortable experience. My daughter, recognizing that, put all of them on her body, and then secured her tail around the lower half of her chosen heater.
Her human portions were free to hug the fox in that position, and so the young serpent brought Kiyomi's face and breasts right next to hers before pulling the blankets up around the both of them. The dragon would practically feel the snake's putrid breath when she woke up in that position, what with how close they were, but, beyond that obvious invasion of personal space, Anabelle did nothing else beyond that point. In fact, to anyone watching, she would look like she went right to sleep in Kiyomi's arms: perhaps even to the point of being mistaken for a lover despite the fact that that couldn't be further from the truth.
Either way, my daughter had no intention of letting the young Silverstein go anywhere anytime soon.
