Of Stone, Of Flesh

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POV: ???

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I was born into solitude. From the moment the shell that had protected me fell away, I was surrounded by the stench of death. In the beginning I had slunk and groveled to survive, having yet to grow into my strength or acquire the skills to kill.

However as the years passed, I acquired all that I sought. My days of scavenging carrion from the dead became years steeped in boiling blood. My venom grew in its potency, my blades in their edge. My shell became of iron and my heart of steel.

Yet no matter how powerful I grew, or how many years of slaughter I had fought through, it was nothing in the face of true power.

When the dark one came for me, there was nothing I could do.

I could only bow.

She was the matriarch of the forest after all.

Everything she ruled over obeyed her. The might she wielded had brought her to the apex of this world's existence.

And so I came to know servitude. Though the dark one was powerful, she was never cruel. Only ever fair. Though one could argue that to be fair and to be cruel was one in the same, there was no one to dispute that her power was absolute.

Knowing the strength she wielded, I did all that she asked. I catalogued, sorted and graded her possessions. I cleansed her scales of impurities, I even removed her excretions. In my time under her, my growth ceased.

I would never reach the size of the fallen.

Perhaps it was because of the constricting nature of my environment. Perhaps it was the fact I had become so subdued.

I don't have the answer to this day.

Then, with a flap of her wings, and a new smell in the air, something new came into our presence.

From the moment the winds of change blew, I felt the hierarchy change. Before, it was the master, the red demon, myself, and then the glooms, the master's extensions. A new being arrived, shattering our knowledge of what we should and shouldn't do. The glooms were made to stay out of sight while I was told to await further commands. It was my one and only order. And so, hour by hour, anticipation crawled upon my armored skin.

Until it came, an order in the form of a gloom. With a rare eagerness I set out on my new task. Perhaps this being was like me. Perhaps they were a guest like the red demon. All I knew is that I should treat them with all due respect.

However from the moment my blurred hazy vision caught sight of him, my perception changed. This was not a being like the master or the red demon. He was… weak?

The scent of fear was deeply soaked into the smell of the pool of rejuvenation. His body was fleshy while his skin was smooth and taut, giving him an air of fragility. However when he looked at me, the only thing I could see in deep blue eyes was curiosity. It was strange to me.

All my life I had only once ever seen myself deviate from the aura of predator or prey to another being. And that was when the master had come to claim me as her retainer. It was something far different from all that I had experienced before.

It was… strange. The air of vulnerability that surrounded him gave him what I could only describe as untouchable by my blades or Manipulum. (A/N: Manipulum is the name for Scola's smaller pincers that she uses for more dexterous tasks.)

However, besides that, I could feel something strange, almost unnatural about him. His body held the lingering scent of death and stone.

I was snapped out of my thoughts and unneeded percievances by the whispers of glooms. They spoke the master's will, ordering me to bring this creature with me.

Nothing about our journey felt natural to me. Though he was slightly tentative, his wariness was not directed at myself, but the environment. Every time he looked at me, there was no fear, hunger, or even disdain in his eyes. Simply curiosity. It confounded me to no end. It was unnatural to me and all that I knew.

He leisurely followed me, even speaking in strange garbled whispers when he saw something that interested him.

Yet for some reason, I hung onto each and every incomprehensible sound, understanding the basis of what he would attempt to poorly communicate.

And when I finally handed the lantern over to him, and his soft skin touched my carapace, I felt it.

This being, he was just like me. Nowhere to call home, neither progenitors nor siblings. He was taken from the forest and told to serve. Just like me.

The lingering scent of death and stone that shrouded his body, it stuck to my own.

With my thoughts clouded, I scrambled into the darkness and away from this confounding creature as quickly as possible.

…

When I was told to attend to him, for the first time in a long time, I felt conflicted.

Masters power was absolute and by extension, so were her orders. Because of this deceit or rejection in the face of her commands was something I had never been something I had never contemplated before.

However, no matter how reluctant I may have felt at the time, the same curiosity he held for me, I held for him.

And thus, despite any apprehensions I may have had, I pushed through them as I always have.

In spite of my confidence, I had failed to consider something. How do you interact with something so physically vulnerable without any means of communication?

And so, all I could do was hold my distance and stay my feelings of curiosity for another time. Or so I thought.

When we came upon the study of the red-demon, the place I was to deposit the boy, I discovered an issue.

Without the demon to simply push it open, we would have to rely on the mechanisms of the study doors.

And without a gloom to guide my blade, my poor vision wouldn't allow me to activate them.

Then I heard it, a strange noise as I futilely searched for the lock.

The boy laughed.

It had lasted less than a breath, and yet to me who had never heard it in this tone, it had lasted an eternity.

I had only ever heard such a thing when the master had delved into the sadistic pleasures of devastation. And never before like this.

But even this wouldn't be something I could focus my attention upon.

Especially since the boy had taken my blade in his hand. When he had taken the lantern, it had been a brief contact.

Now his soft hands enveloped my cold blade, his warmth piercing my prided armour like a cloud.

At that moment, when he touched me, I felt something I had never felt in a long time. Something I had twice before had a glimpse of.

For the first time in a long time.

I felt the warmth and innocence of another.

Something I hadn't felt since I came out of that shell all those years ago.

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A/N: I shall be using Scola pov's for the next chapter or two if you guys like it.