Mazikeen hears Wishbone telling her that this isn’t her friend, and she hears and understands the words but it’s as if they are obscured by a fog. Her shock hasn’t retreated yet, the visual of Barrow drenched in her blood is something that she thinks will haunt her for a long time. She begins to come back to herself and find focus again as Wishbone threatens the creature on her behalf. She’d smile, if she currently possessed the capability to do so. As it is, though there is some relief that this is not Barrow, she feels very far away from being able to smile.
While Wishbone steps towards not-Barrow, Mazikeen takes a few haggard breaths to steady herself, orange eyes not even daring to blink. And then all pretense of wearing her friend’s face is dropped and she finally sees the creature for what it is. Her eyes widen and track it as it rises into the air above them before sinking down to wrap an impossibly wide mouth right over Wishbone's back. Like it could swallow her whole.
Only it’s not impossible because she’s watching it happen.
She’s bleeding, confused, horrified, and now absolutely pissed off. Her fire aura seems to glow brighter with the growing rage and Mazikeen does not hesitate to let herself burn.
She explodes into action, first shifting into an osprey and launching herself right at the face of the creature. A shrill screech escapes her that turns into a feral scream when she connects with its slick shadowy body, talons scraping at its eyes. She changes again, now a bristling white gorilla whose hind legs wrap around the beast's neck, and long forelimbs reach out to pry the upper jaw off of Wishbone’s body.
She screams again from the effort, squeezing her legs to choke the beast and at the same time using as much of her strength as she can to free the other mare. Something bulbous and slick slides down the creature's face and she can feel it touch her legs - the remains of a shredded eye. Damn that’s disgusting and it almost distracts her but she feels the jaw shift and loosen and refocuses her effort, pulling until she hears something snap and her eyes open (shit, when had she closed them?) and look desperately down to see if Wishbone is okay.
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