"Don't trust me?"
Tish didn't look angry. She didn't even look offended. Which was somewhat worse.
"I don't give a damn, Rudra!" Something in her tone suggested she was rather pleased that Rudra didn't trust her. "You don't need to trust me. Just know that the Benevian Soldiers are currently marching from the walls all the way here. To fight you," she informed him, a maniacal grin on her face, "To kill you."
"They'll die," Rudra said. He was cold. He was tired and hungry. But he was still a dragon. "That is a deathparade."
Tish hummed, as if she had expected that answer. "Yes, they will. And then war will start again. And I won't be coming with you," she said, "We will be back to square one."
Rudra's eyebrows twitched in annoyance. But he didn't answer.
"Why do you even bother?" she asked again. "You don't like me. You don't even trust me. So why do you want to marry me?"
"Because that's the only way to keep you by my side," he spat, like those words themselves were vile and cursed, "That's the only way to make sure you don't run!"
Tish rubbed her forehead. "There are other ways—"
"Yeah, I tried that," Rudra cut in flatly. "I tried to kidnap you, you found a way out. I tried to appoint you as a tester and lock you in my quarters, you jumped off the Dragon's Door!"
Tish looked shocked. "That... that doesn't count! And you cannot just go from chasing me down the castle to offering marriage! Who taught you this was a good idea?"
"You did!"
Tish stopped. Blinked fast. "What?"
"You. Did," Rudra repeated, "You said that!"
"Let me guess," Tish said. Her blue eyes bore into his, "The dream?"
Rudra nodded. "The Dream."
"I don't even want to hear it—"
"Shapeshifters!" Nayan barked. Both Rudra and Tish froze. Then Tish asked, voice now quieter, "What did you just say?"
"Shapeshifters!" Nayan repeated, and Rudra felt like throwing Nayan back into the crater and shoving his fist down her mou—
"Shapeshifters? ...That thing," Tish pointed at the east sky, "it was a shapeshifter?"
"No, NO!" Rudra said. "That wasn't the Shapeshifter. The goat was. That thing was something... different."
"What goat?" Tish asked, frustrated now.
And then they heard it. A terrifying, blood-curdling sound that made both Nayan and Rudra jump.
It was the sound of a goat bleating.
And it was the single most terrifying thing he had heard in the entire night.
Rudra almost burst into his dragon form, his wings twitched under the skin of his back. "Stay back!" He roared.
The animal took it as a warm invitation and trotted a few feet closer almost driving Rudra insane.
It was Konstantin. It was indeed him. The same patchy brown and white coat, the crooked horns- which Rudra would probably see in his nightmares from now on.
Or it was whatever was pretending to be him. Again. Nayan grabbed a tree branch like it was a sword. "You cannot fool me twice, you wretched beast!"
"Wait—" Rudra started.
She lunged.
He caught the back of her collar and yanked her back like a misbehaving kitten. "Nayan. It's fast. If it's what I think it is, you will not win that fight."
"WHAT IS EVEN HAPPENING?" Tish demanded.
Rudra stepped in front of her, arms spread. "Not now, Saintess. You're dealing with forces you don't understand yet."
A shove.
Rudra staggered sideways. Tish marched past him, muttering something that was probably not a blessing.
"He may be dumb, but he is right," Nayan tried next, a hand raised in warning. "The goat is no goat—"
Another shove. Tish kept walking.
Nayan looked at Rudra, alarmed, her eyes screaming—Stop her. Rudra rolled his eyes—you want to try?
Nayan didn't press him further. Instead, she crouched down a little and followed Tish. So did Rudra. They flanked the Saintess from both sides, ready to yank her back the second the goat so much as twitched.
Tish stopped five feet away. Picked up a stray branch. Held it out like a peace offering.
"Here, here, terrifying monster," she said, dripping with mockery. "I come bearing gifts."
The goat blinked at her. Took a slow, unbothered bite.
Silence.
Nayan lowered her branch an inch. "...It's chewing."
"That is what goats do, yes," Tish said slowly like she was talking with a child.
"Shapeshifters don't chew," Rudra muttered, "Atleast not like that."
He crept closer anyway, low to the ground, watching its mouth. The teeth weren't jagged the way a Shapeshifter's should have been.
"Rudra," Nayan whispered, "what do you think? How is Konstantin alive if his shapeshifter is roaming around?" She hissed, "Something is very, very wrong."
Rudra nodded. "I need to confirm first. If it's truly just the goat." He inched closer. Bent down and sniffed the air around the animal. Sniffed again.
No rot. Just hay, grass, and — faintly — goat.
"____Clean," Rudra murmured, straightening. "This isn't the Shapeshifter we have encountered." Somewhere behind him, Nayan made a sound that was half relief, half betrayal, like she'd been personally lied to by livestock.
"How do you know?" Tish asked.
"Teeth. Eyes. They're almost always different." He tilted his head at the goat, who chewed on, magnificently indifferent to the fact that it had nearly been murdered by a literal dragon and one very feisty Pundāku. "Almost. Some of them get good enough to copy everything."
"How do you tell the difference then?"
"By their smell," Rudra said. "They just change the skin, Tish. Inside, they are still rotten. They smell like it too."
"Only Rudra can smell them," added Nayan, still sulking faintly. "I've never met anyone who could spot shapeshifters as fast as he did."
Rudra didn't know what to do with the compliment. He snorted and looked back at the goat. "But it's alive," he said. "It shouldn't be alive. It should be dead."
Tish arched her eyebrows.
Rudra exhaled — it was becoming annoying to explain every little thing to Tish. "The Shapeshifters steal the vocal cords of the animal or person into whom they shift."
She scowled, like she was trying to imagine it, and placed a hand on her throat. "How do they even... put it there?"
"They don't put it on," Rudra said. "They eat it. Consume some of the essence of their victim to take its form. They prefer stealing vocal cords because it's a... a..."
"A symbol," Nayan finished. "I stole your voice. It's only a theory, but it's believed their ancestors used to steal the vocal cords of their victims to mimic their voices and lure others close. They couldn't do full-body shifting like these ones do, but they still follow the tradition."
Tish looked at the goat. "But this one isn't dead."
"That's the problem," Rudra said. "It can mean only two things. One — the shapeshifters don't need to consume the whole animal whose form they take anymore. Maybe just a small part, like hair or fur, has become enough."
Tish's eyes snapped to his face. "There's a third." She turned and grabbed his shoulder. "Are you sure the goat you saw looked like this one? Are. You. Sure?"
Rudra almost flinched under her touch.
"What—"
"What if the Shapeshifter ingested a different goat — one that just happens to look like this one?" she demanded. "That would mean it's already entered the city while you were busy fighting that bird-like creature!"
"You have soldiers," Rudra said, snorting. "You have a wall."
"Everyone was at the wall, you idiot, and now the soldiers are marching here. Your spectacular little show had everyone distracted!" she snapped, "It would've been the perfect moment to slip into the city unnoticed."
Then, quieter — like she almost didn't want to say it, "Wherever you go, Rudra, death and destruction follow."
She let go
"So you're better off dead."
Rudra didn't answer. He didn't trust his voice to.