"Princess..."

Bella's voice is barely more than a hiss. For a fleeting second, her body is wrapped in the shroud of total weightlessness, but she barely notices. She's coming down with it again, she can tell. The strange sickness she first caught from the baths when she was fourteen, just after she'd turned to tend to Redana right as she was rising out of the water. It's a terrible illness, that not even her superior breeding can protect her from. And the most insidious part about it is that... she...

She is dimly aware of the sensation of her feet hitting the ground. But she is far too focused on other feelings to really pay attention to something so pointless. She feels the ache of her muscles as they tense harder than diamonds, and the burning sensation that crawls up her rigid spine all the way to the base of her neck, and all the way down to the tip of her tail, which she wraps tightly around her leg. Yes, there it is, the affliction. Her breath comes shorter now, and she can only draw it in through her nose. Her eyes water even though she isn't sad, and can't feel the irritation from any of the hundred pollens or bits of debris she might otherwise be inclined to blame. Her heart beats arrhythmically and, with every horrible flutter, sends an unwelcome warmth spreading in her chest.

And then, and then, yes, there it is. The heat seeps into her stomach, down to her hips, her thighs, right where the Nemean touched her, where she was reaching... yes. This feeling is a sickness. A disease that wracks her body. These feelings, this tension, they have no earthly cause. So it can only be an illness, or else a curse, that makes her squeeze her legs together to distract herself from the building well of pressure. Damn the giant muscle bitch. Whatever she tried to do, it won't work. She won't fail here. She can't. Not now.

She blinks and startles slightly when she catches a spray of mist on her lips. A spot of blood dribbles off her lower lip and splashes against Redana's neck. Bella takes her thumb and wipes it gingerly away. The princess. Her princess. She looks so peaceful when she's resting like this. So pure. And so... vulnerable. Bella winces when she sees the shape Redana's leg is in.

This is a sign from the gods. She cradles her princess and watches the pain inflicted on her body, and they take the sickness out of Bella in their turn. Her heartbeat finds its beat again. Her insides chill to ice. Her ears catch the sounds of battle drawing closer, and she pulls Redana nearer without a second thought. Above, the spray slicks her hair and clothes. She does not care.

But the wetness on her face has nothing to do with water. Unseemly. The princess will be upset to see it. Bella snorts at the thought, and lifts her hand to lick the palm. A towel would be more appropriate, but she needs her other arm to support the princess. She won't let those legs touch the ground, maybe ever again. Until they'd reached Tellus again. Her rough tongue darts across her palm with dainty, precise strokes. She lifts the palm to her face, and wipes Queen Hatchan's blood from her cheek. 

Lap, lap. Smear. She can taste it this time. The familiar sensation of rising bile crawls up her throat in response. She turns her head and chances spitting, instead. Lap, lap. Smear. The retching. She turns and spits, violently. Uncouth. In the kennels, she'd be beaten severely for this behavior. But she must get herself washed for the princess, and she's running out of time.

"Finally," she whispers, "I finally found you. I've got you at last."

Bella squeezes her arm around Redana's shoulder. She takes the other one and carelessly brushes several of those disheveled golden locks out of the Princess' face. There'd be time to do it properly on the way home. There'd be time for everything now. She plants her legs deep into the earth, readying for this final charge, the last great duty of her adventure. But the rest of her uncoils, capable of ignoring the universe for the sake of the girl in her arms. 

It was her duty to be gentle. And her duty to return home. Her mind slips past the crazy lioness and the strange sheep, beyond Jas'o (that dumbass), and across the stars to the Empress on her throne. She can hear the words of praise wash over her, feel the marble under her feet as she walks confidently forward to take her reward, take up her old station, and put things back in order where things will be safe again. She drifts past even that, to Redana's garden, with the butterflies and the smell of flowers and--

The princess groans weakly. Bella is drawn inexorably back to the present. She turns to look, and finds she'd shut her eyes. They drift open now. She's not dreaming. She's not. She draws a deep breath, which still shudders when she lets it out, and shakes her head.

"You're such an idiot, Milady. Didn't I tell you? Didn't I warn you space was dangerous? But you can't just listen to your Bella, noooo. You have to learn everything the hard way. Well, it's fine. I've got you, now. I've got you. And I won't let anything bad happen to you ever again."