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The sphinx loves Arketa.
When she found her, a tiny human maiden traveling all alone, she didn’t even bother with the riddle. Riddles are for nasty adventurers with their sharp weapons, and their armor that has to be picked off them before they can be eaten. She crouched down and wiggled, and when Arketa screamed and ran, she pounced. It was easy to pin her down with one paw, claws mostly sheathed — only scratching her a little bit — and then watch her limbs flailing around adorably. As though she could do anything with them.
The sphinx collects things from the humans she kills. She has a whole cave full of swords and spears, armor, magical sacks, and the like. It’s important to keep Arketa from getting into them and hurting herself, which would be easy for her to do since she’s so soft and weak, so the sphinx takes a leather strap with a buckle on it and carefully punches a few holes in it so she can buckle it around her pet’s neck. There are chains galore in the cave as well, and she finds one with a link at the end of the perfect size to slip the strap through before she puts it on. A leash that lets Arketa go four or five feet away at most, but usually less, since the sphinx keeps it wrapped once or twice around her own forepaw. She wants Arketa close.
She thought of the name Arketa almost as soon as she decided to keep the little human. It means “pretty”, and Arketa is pretty in a delicate, un-sphinx-like way. It’s what the sphinx thinks when she looks at her. Arketa used to try to say that her name is Myrrhine, but that was wrong, so each time the sphinx cuddled her up so tight she couldn’t speak anymore to stop that. But in a nice way! You have to be a bit stern to teach the rules, but you don’t want to hurt the sweet little thing. Arketa whimpers when she’s squished, but it’s just a soft squeaking, not a real cry.
Arketa does cry a bit when the sphinx bites her, but that’s not a punishment. It’s something the sphinx just can’t help, because her skin is so soft. Sometimes she does a little nibble of joy because Arketa’s so cute; other times, the sphinx loves her so much that she has to hold her in place and put a whole thigh in her mouth and slowly close her jaws, just enough to leave a beautiful set of blue and purple bruises, or even let the tips of her sharp teeth sink into the skin so that a little blood can flow and the sphinx can lap the warm liquid up with a few smooth strokes of her rough tongue.
At first, the sphinx left Arketa’s peplos where it was. It was interesting, and the wool was so smooth and white. But it kept picking up dirt when Arketa knelt on the ground in front of the sphinx until it was an uneven grey in places, which just wouldn’t do. There was probably a simple way of getting it off, but the sphinx couldn’t figure it out immediately, so she held Arketa still in one paw and shredded the garment with the claws of the other. Poor little Arketa cried and wriggled and tried to peel away the sphinx’s toes, but after a shake and a growl she realized that was a silly way to behave and stopped. She did tremble, but she was such a good girl that the sphinx gave her a kiss on the top of her head after it was done.
Arketa learned good behavior fairly quickly. She doesn’t pull against the leash when the sphinx decides it’s time to move somewhere. She doesn’t struggle when the sphinx feels inclined to chew on her. She doesn’t make a lot of annoying noise speaking. She can do a few tricks, like begging, and she will comb the sphinx’s hair and polish her claws when told. When adventurers come along, she knows to kneel quietly between the sphinx’s breasts and watch them fail at the riddle while the sphinx plays with her chain.
Sometimes they bluster about defeating the sphinx so they can rescue this maiden in addition to whatever silly quest they’re on, and that just makes the sphinx laugh. Arketa isn’t a maiden anymore, of course. She’s a pet. Those ones taste a little more delicious than the others, because it’s a proper personal victory.
And Arketa doesn’t mind at all that they don’t win. She loves living with the sphinx, just as much as the sphinx loves her.