>>6027253>>6027258>>6027283>>6027311>>6027453>>6027534>>6027557>>6027572>>6027711https://files.catbox.moe/k76gk2.mp3She was seriously expecting that you would defeat the Demon King in some kind of battle and take his place, her eyes shimmering with eagerness at the very thought. You fretted about how she'd respond. You petted Whiskers to calm your nerves.
“You know,” you said,” you are asking me to commit to quite a lot here. It’s only been half an hour since we met, and you’d thrown this prophecy nonsense on me. Can I have some time to think this over?”
Miranna smirked, “I’m not asking you to swear on your soul, hero. I'm just very curious to learn more about you!”
You winced, fleeting flashes of your mundane life flashing through your mind amidst the lightning echoing within the clouds.
If you gave her your answer then, days—or likely months—later, would she even remember it? You decided to entertain her.
Without committing to it, you said, “Well, if there’s no one else worthy to replace him after all that time, then maybe, probably, perhaps, we could rule the lands. That wouldn’t be such a good idea, thought, I know nothing—“
Her gaze fell down, eyes ablaze with crimson shine. “We, hero?” she said. “We? You want me by your side even after you defeat the Demon King?”
Heat suffused your cheeks, turning them a shade of red. “Where one compliments each other weaknesses, like partners.”
Some of your words were lost in the sudden beat of her raven wings as she manoeuvred and span around another grey cloud.
Thunderclap boomed in your wake, its distant echo closing in from the almost vanished sky.
“I’m not sure I’ll be a good consort,” she said once the thunder subsided, her gaze fixed on the distant mountain shapes.
“That wasn’t what I meant,” you said, looking down at the passing rivers and lakes, the patches of ice spilling like white paint onto the blue canvass. Swallowing and clearing your throat, you added, “Let’s talk about it when we have to!”
“Sure!” she agreed, almost immediately, returning you a smile.
Soon, however, that smile turned into a frown. Breaking through cloudy shroud was a titanic mountaintop, its sharp peaks slicing through the clouds like the jaws of a dragon-beast, casting long vast shadows across the cloudscape. The sunlight disappeared into the pitch-black, snowless granite; mist wrapped around the jagged cliffs like shed skin of a serpent colossus.
