Zecora and the Parasite

"So what? What's the big deal?" Reek's teeth rattled with pent up rage. He would've shouted, but all that came out was a thin hiss. After what happened at the bowl, he found himself much more aware of the volume of his voice.

Zecora, just as quiet, squinted at him suspiciously. "Who is this Melo Milo?
I think that I deserve to know.
You mentioned he was once your king,
I doubt that that's the only thing."

Reek's body crumpled slightly from the force of his breathing. "Before I tell you ANYTHING, tell me what that root you grabbed is."

Zecora frowned at Reek, her gaze as cold as snow. But, after a moment, she relented.
"Reeker's Root, if you must know
A tuber only found in snow.
It's just a root when on it's own,
But mix it right and it's in a league of it's own."

Reek's eyestalks straightened with intrigue. "League? What kind of league? What do you mean?"

Zecora smiled, emboldened now that Reek had taken the bait. "I won't tell, not quite yet.
But you have more to say, I bet."

Reek slithered in a small circle, his teeth clicked and chattered, moving like waves from within his mouth. The boards of Zecora's floor creaked slightly as he thought of a way to get out of the corner he now found himself in. "Why are you suddenly interested in the details of my kingdom?"

"Less your kingdom, more your king,
It's seems like you are hiding something."

Zecora's eyes widened at Reek as he began to puff up. He chattered as he spoke, his voice rich with anger. "What's it matter to you anyway? Who my father used to be is of no concern to--"

"AH HA," Zecora blurted and pointed an accusatory hoof towards Reek. However, it quickly clacked against her face, as if she were trying to quiet what had already been said. The two were still for a moment, startled by the noise. When Zecora spoke up again, her voice had returned to a mere whisper.

"A father figure, so you say?
I've learned something new this day."

Reek held back a growl, but the cat was already out of the bag. "Yes, alright, you got me. Melo Milo is my father, I'm technically the prince of Natslyk."

Zecora sighed as a slight frown crept across her face. "This is quite the revelation,
I'm sat with the prince of a long lost nation."

Reek let out a muted but very spiteful groan. "I never wanted to be a prince! Always wondering if another kingdom's going to tear your city down to the foundation, or if one of your 'trusted assistants' is going to stab you in your sleep."

"Is that a concern you often faced?"

Reek's back puffed up in the best imitation of a shrug he could manage. "Eh, not really. Most of us didn't have, y'know, hands. A couple folks did get eaten, though."

"So where in Sammakött's plan was your kingdom placed?"

"Nowhere," Reek scoffed, "and that was the problem. Natslyk was kind of just this little swamp on the edge of Narok, so we were never really at odds... Until Ma Vie, that is." Reek's teeth chattered in sudden rage, the sound akin to a rattlesnake, ready to strike.

But a moment later, the chattering subsided, and Reek sighed. "But that's all history now. And it won't matter anyway, once we get that potion brewing, right?"

Zecora nodded, "Yes indeed, my slimy friend,
but our quest has not yet reached its end."

"Yeah, what a surprise. And I guess that also means we have to go back out there, with no cover, and find some buried leaf or clump of extra special dirt while a troupe of peuchens parade around in the sky, ready to kill us at a moment's notice?"

"That's right I'd say.
Shall we be away?"

Before Reek could even respond, Zecora began stuffing several empty glass bottles and an assortment of unknown herbs and ingredients into two small pouches. When they were full, she slung them over her back and made her way towards the door, all while Reek stared on with a look of utter bewilderment.

"... Did the cold do something to your brain? We had a talk about how bad peuchens are, like, yesterday!"

"The snakes flew off with a hydra meal
They won't be back for a while, I feel."

Zecora reached for the door, but Reek refused to move even an inch. He slithered into the emptiest corner of Zecora's hut and balled himself up. "Well, I'm not going out there. The whole point of making this potion was to not get me killed."

The zebra huffed. "If you are not willing to lend me some aid
I won't be the only one feeling betrayed."

Reek puffed, uncurling himself only slightly. "Is that a threat? Are you threatening me?"

Zecora stared at the slug, her face as cold and still as stone. "Do you want this potion? Then get into motion."

A low chuckle slipped from Reek's zipper of a mouth. He uncurled himself, and in a second, slithered up to Zecora. He towered over her, his serrated incisors shaking and rattling in his mouth. "I think you underestimate just how much joy it would bring me to rip you to pieces and eat what's left."

"I have no doubts of your voracity
just as you have none about my toxicity."

"I'm beginning to have a few... After all, who says I have to eat you after I kill you?"

"and when I die, who's to say,
my poison needs ingestion to take you away?
A single drop, I'll proudly boast
could kill you in a minute at most."

Reek leaned in closer, his eyestalks inches away from Zecora's face. "And why should I take your word for it instead of finding out for myself?"

"It must not have occurred to you yet,
that my people turned your kind into pets."

The zebra's statement, accompanied by the unflinching stare, caused Reek to recoil. She did know what Mulilo Slugs were, despite him never telling her, and she had obviously been set up here for a while, so she couldn't have been stuck in the ice. Though he had no definitive way of proving it, Zecora had done an expert job of convincing him that her blood was the single most toxic substance that he'd ever come across. The longer Reek stayed in this new world, the more it made him yearn for the old one.

Zecora, meanwhile, turned to the door and creaked it open, careful not to allow a deluge of snow into her home.

"Now that we're on the same page,
We'll need to find some Sepulcher Sage."

Reek watched her for another moment as she began to ascend through the tunnel that led to the surface. As the end of her tail disappeared out of view, leaving only her shadow visible, Reek turned to a nearby shelf, where several empty bottles stood alongside strange wooden masks and various herbs.

With utmost precision, Reek grabbed a small glass from the shelf. With his front row of teeth, the tucked the bottle into his mouth and curled himself into a ball. Then, barely audible from within the ball of flesh, a quiet Crack!

"Reek, are going to come up here?
The surface is barren, there's nothing to fear."

The sound of Zecora's voice floated down and reached Reek as he unfurled himself. His mouth full of shattered glass, all he could muster was a muffled "cumm'n." He slithered towards the door, and as he began to enter the tunnel of snow, he opened his mouth inch by inch, spewing small chunks of glass all around the floor of the hut's entrance.

Reek let out a small chuckle, satisfied with his work, then closed the door and followed his companion up and into the surface.