10-01-2021, 08:31 PM
To answer the alarm set off by the entity, Mazikeen pads through the woods as a white wolf searching for the intruder. Apprehension keeps her tense as she easily pictures worst-case scenarios. Will there be a flash of iridescent blue between the trunks of the trees as her only warning before she dies again? Will she even get the chance to fight back this time? She hadn't known fear for a long time, but she feels it easily enough now. She fears losing what she's gained on the whim of a monster.
So it is a surprise when the scent she catches is familiar but not who she had expected.
Mazikeen is someone else every time she meets Reave, and she cannot help but wonder if this trend will continue. If she will keep on changing (keep being changed by others) until she no longer recognizes who she was the last time she spoke to the bone-adorned boy.
No, not a boy anymore. He had grown up. He was all sharp smiles and edges when she had visited Nerine, and she hadn't even cared enough to wonder what had changed him.
Worry has her keep her distance at first, it gnaws relentlessly at her insides these days, and she moves parallel through the woods with him a few dozen yards away. Despite that worry, she is happy to see him here until her canine ears pick up his words. Had Gale stolen it? She wasn't sure - she had not thought about how he had retrieved the entities (which now feels incredibly naive, but there had been a lot going on). She does know that it hadn't come from Nerine, or the north, at least. The entities had all come from lands under this kingdom. So perhaps someone in Pangea or Silver Cove had taken it first.
Although she would be glad to be rid of the reminder of Gale and there is no genuine desire in her to fight Reave, she has no intention of just handing over what has been sitting here in Hyaline for years. The entities have been helpful and there's a flash of annoyance that it is only now, with the Curse elsewhere, that someone has come to take one.
She did not want that to be her fight anymore but what choice would she have when everyone else ran?
Shrugging off these dark thoughts, Mazikeen angles her trajectory to head Reave off close to where the forest turns to meadow thick with summer wildflowers and the shimmering lake beyond that. She pauses once she's in view - shifting back into herself when her steps stop and she is a few dozen strides away from him. Her bright orange eyes are lighter and clearer than they were the last time they spoke, and they stand out against the pristine white of her coat, without a single scar to mark it.
She doesn't know what to say to him so she doesn't speak, letting her unmarked skin and the slightest tug of a sad smile at the corner of her lips tell him what she wants him to know - that she is closer to the mare he had met in the forest than the one who had come to Nerine.
But he had come here with a purpose, so she does not expect him to change his mind over this reveal. Best to get this over with. The thrill of the fight is muted in her now, stirring only just a little as she gives him a slight nod and then shifts. Mazikeen becomes a harpy eagle, flapping her wings a few times to settle into this shape before taking off as fast as she can to close the gap between them. When there are a few lengths between them, she changes again - becoming a giant short-faced bear. This prehistoric shape gives her another foot of height at the shoulder than she has as an equine, making her taller now than her opponent. She attempts to use the momentum built by the short flight to essentially hurdle this stocky body into Reave's lean frame, to bruise or throw him off his balance.
It takes a few heavy steps for her to keep her balance and she's quick to twist to keep him in her sights - knowing she's likely only aware of some of his tricks.
----
Mazikeen's Stats:
height: 15hh
breed/build: Quarab with some stockiness from mustang blood
traits: Phoenix-type immortality, limitless self manipulation, glowing horns, glowing markings, fire aura, telepathic bond with Gale
So it is a surprise when the scent she catches is familiar but not who she had expected.
Mazikeen is someone else every time she meets Reave, and she cannot help but wonder if this trend will continue. If she will keep on changing (keep being changed by others) until she no longer recognizes who she was the last time she spoke to the bone-adorned boy.
No, not a boy anymore. He had grown up. He was all sharp smiles and edges when she had visited Nerine, and she hadn't even cared enough to wonder what had changed him.
Worry has her keep her distance at first, it gnaws relentlessly at her insides these days, and she moves parallel through the woods with him a few dozen yards away. Despite that worry, she is happy to see him here until her canine ears pick up his words. Had Gale stolen it? She wasn't sure - she had not thought about how he had retrieved the entities (which now feels incredibly naive, but there had been a lot going on). She does know that it hadn't come from Nerine, or the north, at least. The entities had all come from lands under this kingdom. So perhaps someone in Pangea or Silver Cove had taken it first.
Although she would be glad to be rid of the reminder of Gale and there is no genuine desire in her to fight Reave, she has no intention of just handing over what has been sitting here in Hyaline for years. The entities have been helpful and there's a flash of annoyance that it is only now, with the Curse elsewhere, that someone has come to take one.
She did not want that to be her fight anymore but what choice would she have when everyone else ran?
Shrugging off these dark thoughts, Mazikeen angles her trajectory to head Reave off close to where the forest turns to meadow thick with summer wildflowers and the shimmering lake beyond that. She pauses once she's in view - shifting back into herself when her steps stop and she is a few dozen strides away from him. Her bright orange eyes are lighter and clearer than they were the last time they spoke, and they stand out against the pristine white of her coat, without a single scar to mark it.
She doesn't know what to say to him so she doesn't speak, letting her unmarked skin and the slightest tug of a sad smile at the corner of her lips tell him what she wants him to know - that she is closer to the mare he had met in the forest than the one who had come to Nerine.
But he had come here with a purpose, so she does not expect him to change his mind over this reveal. Best to get this over with. The thrill of the fight is muted in her now, stirring only just a little as she gives him a slight nod and then shifts. Mazikeen becomes a harpy eagle, flapping her wings a few times to settle into this shape before taking off as fast as she can to close the gap between them. When there are a few lengths between them, she changes again - becoming a giant short-faced bear. This prehistoric shape gives her another foot of height at the shoulder than she has as an equine, making her taller now than her opponent. She attempts to use the momentum built by the short flight to essentially hurdle this stocky body into Reave's lean frame, to bruise or throw him off his balance.
It takes a few heavy steps for her to keep her balance and she's quick to twist to keep him in her sights - knowing she's likely only aware of some of his tricks.
----
Mazikeen's Stats:
height: 15hh
breed/build: Quarab with some stockiness from mustang blood
traits: Phoenix-type immortality, limitless self manipulation, glowing horns, glowing markings, fire aura, telepathic bond with Gale