His encounter with the girl went better than expected, he would even go so far and consider it amusing. There was a certain level of entertainment to see how the girl had blundered into the entire situation, and how she had made her own cause more difficult by turning the Shepards against her with her clumsy attempts to kill his vessel. He had originally planned to use that assassination attempt to further ingrate himself with the Exalt by saving him in the last moment, but this development worked just as well.
She was indeed that fool of an Exalt's daughter, all muscle, and no cunning.
Her insistence with following her father like a little duckling was also pointless. As if he would be so foolish to make any attempts while the Exalt was in camp. The nation was at war, and he would have plenty of opportunities to stage several unfortunate events if he so desired later. If anything by staying close to her father, she would only make his attempt easier. He would only need to stage one accident to wipe his closest threat of the world.
Still, he knew that he needed to be careful.
Since coming to the past, his powers had diminished to a pitiful state. He could barely dispatch a handful of men and even then, it would be at a great risk to his body. Grima mentally cursed the girl for forcing him to travel through that portal. It had cost him most of his power to force himself through that gateway, as it was a creation of that accursed Naga, but it was necessary. It was the only viable way for the princess to save her world, and it was a genuine treat to his rule.
He would give her that, she was an annoyingly persistent foe. Willing to disturb the flow of time itself to stop him. How could it be so difficult to get rid of one measly little worm like her? Always must she hinder his great work, too dumb to simply lay down and give him the decency to just die.
Yet as much he wished to twist the neck of the entire Exalted family, he needed to restrain himself for now. He needed them and their armies to deal with the Valmanese. They were at the moment the biggest threat, as their overgrown ox of a ruler intended to wipe out all form of worship of Gods. Luckily, this also included the Ylissean's worship of Naga, which made them willing cat pawns for his purposes.
This coming war would also serve as his feeding ground. Death strengthens him, and being in the middle of a battlefield would do wonders for his depleted state.
His time to exterminate the Exalted would come - just not now while they still had their uses.
If nothing else, he could entertain himself with playing a little with the princess, her existence was not necessary, and if he could get rid of her before moving on to her father all the better.
Speaking of unnecessary existences. The princess presence would also mean that her companions could be around somewhere. A complication he would need to deal with eventually.
As the fell dragon deliberated this, he heard someone calling. It took him some time to realize that they were calling for him or the name he had chosen to bear for now. It was some of those so called Shepards that had called for him. How he despised them all, and the fact that he was reduced to walk amongst them, and their filth made it worse. Yet he forced himself to endure it, lest he jeopardized his own plans like that girl.
He took solace that he appeared before her. It had given him ample time to integrate into the Shepards, appearing as the helpful fool, while he planned for his ascension to his true form. However, it was exhausting work to keep appearances.
Irritably this group had just called him simply to engage in pointless talks. Grima forced himself to smile and greet them in turn, exchanging pointless pleasantries before trying to excuse himself. He had hoped that it would be it, but one of them - a blond haired girl - asked him to help her find some frogs. Apparently, the child wanted to play some ''pranks'' with the people around her.
Pointless. Idiotic…
Yet Grima reminded himself that he needed to appear helpful, so he forced himself to give an encouraging laugh and agreeing to assist her with her foolish search the next day.
The girl gave him her worthless gratitude before letting him go.
Being forced to play this mummer's farce…
The great fell dragon Grima reduced to fetching frogs for an immature child of a woman, never had he felt so humiliated in his entire existence.
They will burn…Oh yes…they'll all burn.
Grima made a mental note the place that blonde haired girl at the top of the list.
And that's the second chapter. A bit shorter, but I rather not delve too much with Grima, as it could get repetitive with his constant thoughts on how to send everyone and everything to hell :P
People don't even have names in his head.
Poor Lissa, she has no idea who she is agitating.
Thank you all for reading and reviewing so far.
I thank for the suggested reading ''From Ruins''. I can vaguely recall having already read it, but that was some time ago, but I'll be sure to try to read it up again.