12-12-2017, 06:25 PM
Merida
from the ashes, a fire shall be awoken
The look that the ebony and yellow striped woman gives Merida is enough to cause her to shift backwards slightly on her haunches, her brows rising curiously. The look was that so much of tiger, yet a perfectly normal (save the coloring) equine stands before her. It is almost surprising, and Merida wonders to herself if there are some expressions that she makes that scream fox when it comes across her face. The ebony of her lips press together in thought, her fiery red tail twitching idly at her hocks. Fireflies still bump lazily against her skin, pressing into her shoulders and haunches with tiny, delicate bulbs of light - illuminating them both despite the quickly fading sun.“Resting?” Merida repeats, unsure if it is the truth or not. She had never met a tiger before (was the hunt more grueling for them? Larger predator means larger prey, so a longer hunt?) and it made sense, but something about how the woman leans up against the tree, now adorned with her beautiful tiger stripes, left a quizzical expression on Merida’s face, her head slightly tilted and very much so looking fox-like. Merida has spoken the way Arete has spoken before, when she was pretending to be something she in fact, was not. But Merida remembers hoping that no one would notice or pry, and so she brushes it off and continues the conversation with Arete, their voices now shifting to her.
Arete’s voice sounds accusing (to Merida) and the woman’s lips curl unpleasantly - the idea that she is more horse than fox perturbed her, and that anyone else would think it about her is even worse. She had taken pride in herself to listen to her fox and the instincts that came with it, but she had not been born with the animal she shares part of her soul with, and she is still learning. Her mentor, the wolf, had brought her this far, but she still was experiencing new things everyday with her fox. But the mare could never explain that to someone, especially a stranger, (how embarrassing!) who is an experienced shifter - and a tiger, at that!
She wonders, for a moment, if her being out late is from her time spent with the wolf, and learning his way of life instead of her own. She snorts sharply, ears tipping backwards slightly.
“I’m still getting used to it,” she admits icily, though she had wanted to lie. She didn’t though, for whatever reason. “It’s hard to separate the horse instincts from the fox, and listening to them.”
‘I also don’t have a place to burrow - a home.’ She doesn’t say.
@[Arete]