10-09-2021, 10:31 AM
She recognizes the feeling of having her vision tampered with, having experienced it plenty of times before. With Gale and even with Reave himself, back when they had first met. However, her vision doesn't darken like expected, nor are there nightmares crowding around to distract her. Instead, everything becomes blurred in that short flight as an eagle and then the charge as a giant short-faced bear. The quick switch between these shapes and the differences in their brains and eyes stops the full effect of Reave's influence from settling into place.
Mazikeen couldn't even say what it was that the young stallion had been trying to do. Most things remain the same, but there is a blur around Reave like two moments are constantly fusing. It gives her a headache to focus on him, worse when he is in movement like when he scrambles back to his feet, and frustration blooms in that now-pounding head.
She is not frustrated enough to make her angry, though. There are far too many other emotions crowding into her mind for that to happen so quickly anymore.
Like the guilt that twists her stomach and she doesn't try to shake it away. It has no place in a battle though it often finds her there anyway. She did not want to hurt Reave; she just wanted to keep the entity he sought. And all her emotions, even the negative ones, are still better than the emptiness Mazikeen had known for so long. So even if it made her strikes a little less fearsome than they should be, at least she was not just some feral animal intent on tearing apart someone else.
If they weren't in the middle of a fight, she would surely laugh or cry when he calls her Maze. It's such a simple thing, that nickname, but it means so much to her now. It is a tiny sliver of her old self as if redemption could be as easy as cutting off a few syllables. There's a shine to those orange eyes that are trying so hard to focus on Reave, her pupils flickering between one moment and the next, just before she moves forwards to swipe at where she hopes the bone armoured stallion actually is with a giant bear paw. Mazikeen-the-bear cannot retract those claws or they might have been - because he's right. She still wants to be friends.
Instead, she aims to strike his head or neck, guessing at which end of the blur is the right Reave. This is another move that is made to throw him off balance because that desire she had in Nerine to try to pull bone from flesh no longer exists. "You're one to talk." She bites out, though there isn't much venom in these words. There is even less in the next ones - which come out as a small plea. "Hit me, Reave." Was it even a fight if she were the only one making punches?
Mazikeen couldn't even say what it was that the young stallion had been trying to do. Most things remain the same, but there is a blur around Reave like two moments are constantly fusing. It gives her a headache to focus on him, worse when he is in movement like when he scrambles back to his feet, and frustration blooms in that now-pounding head.
She is not frustrated enough to make her angry, though. There are far too many other emotions crowding into her mind for that to happen so quickly anymore.
Like the guilt that twists her stomach and she doesn't try to shake it away. It has no place in a battle though it often finds her there anyway. She did not want to hurt Reave; she just wanted to keep the entity he sought. And all her emotions, even the negative ones, are still better than the emptiness Mazikeen had known for so long. So even if it made her strikes a little less fearsome than they should be, at least she was not just some feral animal intent on tearing apart someone else.
If they weren't in the middle of a fight, she would surely laugh or cry when he calls her Maze. It's such a simple thing, that nickname, but it means so much to her now. It is a tiny sliver of her old self as if redemption could be as easy as cutting off a few syllables. There's a shine to those orange eyes that are trying so hard to focus on Reave, her pupils flickering between one moment and the next, just before she moves forwards to swipe at where she hopes the bone armoured stallion actually is with a giant bear paw. Mazikeen-the-bear cannot retract those claws or they might have been - because he's right. She still wants to be friends.
Instead, she aims to strike his head or neck, guessing at which end of the blur is the right Reave. This is another move that is made to throw him off balance because that desire she had in Nerine to try to pull bone from flesh no longer exists. "You're one to talk." She bites out, though there isn't much venom in these words. There is even less in the next ones - which come out as a small plea. "Hit me, Reave." Was it even a fight if she were the only one making punches?