Khalida took a seat on a nearby ledge. Her clawed feet dipped into lava. The fluid rolled around her toes. Her scaled and clawed toes. It had been about 6 months since was put back on active duty in the Hunter's Guild. Here in the Elder's recess, she was taking on a particularly troubled Savage Deviljho. Possibly a tempered one. She hadn't found it yet though. Not even a chipped tooth or burn marks of dragon energy. As such, she decided to take a break and wait. Maybe it was just not here? She shook her head, her fire red hair swishing around her. Taking her flask from her side, she took a swig from it. “come on, big guy. I don't have all day.” she muttered.

A chittering sound came from behind her, causing her to turn sharply. Her legs ankle deep in lava. Her arms went to her greatsword reflexivly. No monster... but there was some kind of... small lizard thing? Its glowing red eyes stared at her, head decorated with four horns, kind of like her own. She narrowed her own eyes at it as it mirrored her. It was reared up, like it was getting ready to strike, but it didn't seem to want to unless provoked... so she lowered her arms and the creature dropped to all fours. It wasn't like anything she had seen before. Dark purple and covered in smooth armour. Its back had a stylized dragon footprint on it. On its forelimbs, it had two... vents? Bio thrusters? It was hard to say, but the air was being distorted from the heat.

“Khalida.” she said, pointing to herself, then pointed to the creature. It tilted its head, so she pointed back to herself again. “Khalida.” She enuncieated it more this time. Then tried another idea. She paused as she thought of how to phrase this. “Me-owmeowmew” Trying her name in felyne. She had tried picking it up lately. The little creature's eyes widened, understanding. It said... something back to her, before deciding that was all it needed and bounded forward. Its little legs helped by what were indeed bio-thrusters, energy shooting out and using that to pounce.

Khalida didn't have time to react. A suprise given her hunter's reflexes. The creature rapidly scooted around her. Landing on her knee, it darted to her back and climbed up and around. “Hey! Get off!” she yelled, clawing at it. Or trying to. Her wings were in the way and she wasn't used to attacks back there. Let alone something crawling on her! It wrapped itself around her neck, coming face to face once again. The creature let out some kind of chirp and tilted its head before its jaw unhinged horriffically wide. A maw of razor sharp teeth showing as it launched itself forward. The maw somehow streching as it enveloped her head. Khalida screamed and tried to breath fire, but it seemed like the creature was waiting for this and something shot down her throat. Impossibly long, it began to slither down and through her body. Her vision was blocked due to the creature's flesh, but she could feel it. Spreading over her. “MMMMPH! NNNGH!” she tried clawing at it as she struggled to breath. The inside of this was... wet. And warm. Unnaturally so. It would be fascinating, if it wasn't trying to smother her! Something began to tickle at the edges of her mind, and she began thrashing violently. She had felt this before and she would not the the slave of some other creature ever again! The mass continued spreading, going down to her arms which ceased their struggles. Her wings were similarly covered, causing them to stiffen up. She would thrash, but even those were dying down as she was getting progressivly covered.

Khalida let out a high pitched, though muffled scream as she felt it sliding inside her nether regions and even up and deep inside her. The creature jolted her forward, causing Khalida to fall down, face first into the lava. A solid mass, she whimpered. She was scared... being consumed again... She thought of Talendar, and how sorry she was that she had gone missing again. To be consumed by this creature. That's what this was. It had to be. She was inside this creature's stomach... Her body could probbaly withstand the acid... if that's what this wetness was, but she was losing air... any second now, she'd fall unconcious. It was so hard to stay awake...

***
Khalida's dreams were fractured. Fragmented. Flashes of scenes filling her mind. A cataclysm. A cold, dark void. Hibernation. Heat. A loud crash. Living things. Jumping from living thing to living thing as she needed to. A furry creature, then...

Khalida jolted awake, panting. Her head drenched in sweat. She reached for her carving knife, keeping it close. Ready to strike anything near her. Her ragged breaths came in slowly... the covers on her bed shifting as she moved. Her bed... was that all a dream? Damn... Fatalis had messed her up even more then she had thought. She set the carving knife back down on the bedside table, only to hear an indignant chirp. Turnign sharply towards it, she saw it. That same creature.

More flashes of memories flashed through her. Painfully. She gritted her teeth and burried her head in her pillow. She was acting, but it wasn't her. Not really. There was an alien mind with her that had helped her. She knew to stay around to deal with the savage devljho... and checking her pack, she saw that there were indeed the monster parts from its defeated body. She rolled back to look at it again, the creature tilting its head. “H-hey. No. Not again.”

The creature made a sad noise, but settled back down to all fours. “Now... I don't know what you--” she stopped herself from continuing. Her mind had the information, but it was painful to get to. It was a Graft. A creature from another world. Her head was pounding. “What did--” no, she knew that too. It had merged with her. They had become one. Temporarily. She gained an enhanced form and abilities while it gained a safe, if temporary, refuge. In its breif time here, it.. no. Not it. It had a name. Mollari. Mollari had learned quickly. This world was exceptionaly dangerous. Merging with Khalida had enforced that as they shared knowledge. In their merged state, the two of them had come to an understanding. Staying with her, but hidden as a silent partner would be best. Coming out from time to time to streach its legs. Staying away from hunters that would want to capture it, put it in a box and study it of course.

Khalida opened the bedside table's drawer and took a pair of painweed root extract pills and swollowed them. “So... I guess we talked about this already on the flight back. Or... something. Ow...” she rubbed her head. “You understand me now though?” Mollari nodded and chirped in affirmation. “that's good.” throwing her legs over the side of the bed, she turned to the Graft. “So... I suppose we'll need a name. For when we are merged. Because using my name or yours doesn't sound right. Unfortunitly for us both, i suck at naming things.” she chuckled. “I can face down the devestation of Fatalis, but naming the two of us is impossible.”

Mollari perked up and tapped on the table. A quick succession of taps that hunters sometimes used to communicate without actually speaking. Not nearly as advanced as speech but the particular taps was the sound for 'go back.' “Huh?” She looked at Mollari who was staring at her. “go back? Back where?” Mollari stated, swishing its little arms. “Oh, you mean go back to what I said?” A nod. “Oh, you want me to repeat what i said. Okay. Well, I can face down the devastation of--” A sharp tap. Singular. Stop. Khalida blinked. “Devastation?” A nod. “Well... it's a good a name as any, but I'm not sure how I feel about that...” Mollari gave her a wide, toothy grin and tapped its nose. 'trust me.'

“Well all right. You're the expert. We are Devastation.”

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Artwork by: https://www.threads.net/@generalsci