There is nothing of softness in Bella's face. There is no hint of joy. The thought that she might purr comfort or sing as sweetly as the muses is to be banished from the mind forever. Bella is rigid. Her jaw is clenched so tightly that it might shatter soon, and her lips are pressed thin against one another as she chances a glance down at her squirming, struggling, suddenly very noisy ward. Her eyes are sharp and hard, and no less determined than Redana's. She has not come here to fail. 

But there's an instant before everything breaks, where her fingers find the softest bed of gold in the entire universe and move themselves faster than the speed of thought to smooth those mussy locks. Her thumb tastes wetness; a tiny flicker of motion that reaches across time and finds them both safely home and whole. Redana's tear beads against Bella's thumb. The heat of it is unbearable; she flicks it away and with this new motion rips them back from Tellus to exist again in the crumbling landscape of the World Eater. 

She opens her mouth with a loud and deliberate breath to speak to Alexa, and in this moment she's interrupted. Her ear flicks with irritation. Bella lifts her head and pulls her princess tighter against her. Her claws press more insistently as she squeezes tight. Possessive. She wrinkles her nose and flicks her tail from left, to right, and left again in a gesture of supreme irritation. 

The scoff burns a path up her throat as it forces its way into the world. Her face melts slowly into a vicious sneer, muscle by muscle bubbling and rippling and reshaping itself to convey the sheer depths of her scorn. Her fangs flash brilliant white against the redness of her lips. Bella straightens her spine a little sharper and pushes out her chest, inexorably drawing the princess deeper into its prison. Her eyes flicker briefly and shrink themselves to slits before she suddenly stirs and noiselessly stretches her neck.

"...What the fuck is that supposed to mean? This what you deal with all the time, Alexa? Gods, no wonder you're eager to hitch a ride out. Right then, somebody please tell the circus reject to fuck off. I know it's hard to understand, but I actually don't want to be here any longer than I have to."