[private] could not hold me back

[Nashua]

When he had been young, Nashua wondered what happened to the mind during a shift. He had seen his father do it a few times, and before he had learned all the darkness associated with it, Nash had been fascinated by each new shape the former Commandant took. Now, as he flickers in and out of sight, the way that Mazikeen begins to stalk towards him only confirms (in his mind) that multi-shape shifters eventually shed themselves of their humanity.

Even if he hadn't been goading her, Nashua thinks that eventually, the dragoness would have razed him to ash for simply being so defiant to her wishes.

"Oh, I want revenge." Nashua tells her with a wicked grin, fighting to heal his burnt flesh and trying to maintain staying out of her sight. He fails, and flickers into Mazikeen's vision with a shuddering grimace. "But not against you, Mazikeen." It isn't her that he blames for the loss of Bolder. (She is a shapeshifter, but she's also been twisted, he assumes.) It's partly his own fault; he should have told the boy his family history. But the rest lies firmly with the thing that possesses Gale, just one more crime committed in the long history of the Curse.

Nashua glows brighter and brighter, as he attempts to lure her away from the heart of Taiga.

He focuses on vanishing again, and there is only the sound of beating wings echoing beneath the tree canopy. "Taiga doesn't give up her secrets," snarls the invisible pegasus. He tilts one wing down, coasting towards the damp soil before using both to propel him directly up again, attempting to take their argument into the air. Attempting to move quick enough to further aggravate Mazikeen.

@Mazikeen