there's fire in your blood
 | The pleading voice comes to Mazikeen and feeds her hunger, stirs the flames and the darkness until she is consumed by them. She digs her small claws into the branches of the tree instead of digging them into flesh and it is not nearly as satisfying. Why didn’t she just join him, or why didn’t she leave and find other prey? Why wasn’t she venting her frustration on something other than the tree? She watches Gale feast like she’ll find the answer to these unsettled feelings there but she only feels two competing hungers.
The one in her stomach is a low thrum, grumbling softly at the sight of the blood and flesh, but she’s ignored it for longer out of stubbornness and it is only when Gale calls to her that she moves.
Everything she’d been hoping to feel on this hunt is muted, and though some part of her acknowledges that this is her own fault - that part is so easy to avoid. The thrill of seeing his power is still there, fuelling that second hunger. She shifts, wary of being an animal he can swallow in one gulp (even though she’s no longer sure he would try), but not into a utahraptor. She becomes a black serpentine dragon of a similar size to him. Close but not matching.
And Mazikeen draws up to his side instead of stopping further away, not fighting this instinct. It feels like her skin is on fire, an uncomfortable prickly sensation pulling at her, but she attempts to pretend it away - brushing a light greeting against his scaled and feathered skin. She feels her stomach growl as she settles and instead of immediately joining she asks in a tone meant to be light and curious “How does she taste?”
But it sounds indifferent again. It sounds like what it had felt like after he hollowed her out, before she had been pieced back together. She scowls while looking at the body without really seeing it, annoyed with herself for forgetting how to feign emotions and a little annoyed that she cares enough about him to want to try.
She is used to following his lead, seeing what he is comfortable with or what she should do, and she is so fucking sick of it now - but it’s also what she knows. Mazikeen does not have to be obedient any more and the fact that it is almost a comforting place to be sours her mood a little more even as she defaults to it, waiting to see if he will tell her what to do because this is all still new to her and she doesn’t trust the instincts that have set her mind on fire.
m a z i k e e n . |
@  Gale
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