07-11-2021, 07:06 PM
Although she certainly would have grieved similarly had it been one of her own siblings, Tirza feels no sympathy for her rider as he mourns his brother. The sky where the eagle had disappeared turns thunderous, and her bright ears flatten against her skull at the noise. A conversation that she is not privy to and cannot understand. Her eyes drift back to the earth when Pollux moves closer and her nostrils flare in annoyance. But he is not coming to ride her again. Surprise and then elation courses through Tirza when the bridle is removed and she immediately moves to snap at the stupid man, even though he was the one who just freed her. It is not enough to forgive him for trapping her here, in this strange world, but when her teeth close in his direction they only find stardust. She snorts in frustration and does not watch the twin star trails rise and dance across the sky, does not notice that the brothers have joined one another again.
Her red eyes are observing the surrounding area instead, trying to figure out what to do next. The dead and living soldiers are white noise to her - uninteresting, unimportant. Not worthy of her attention for she doubts very much that any of them will help her. They will catch her as Pollux did, bind her, and ride her as if she could not possibly wish for anything else in this life but to be a simple-minded steed.
How glad she is that whatever had stolen her here did not also take her siblings.
There is little time to form a plan, however, because something new occurs. Tirza’s attention is drawn along with everyone else’s to the sea when the waters there begin to move. She does not dance away nervously, holding her ground to watch as a massive crab emerges from the waters. A snort escapes her and then she sees the large-yet-beady eyes turn to her and it pauses its investigation of the corpses on the beach.
Fear runs through her and it is quickly followed by rage. How dare this scuttling beast inspire anything like that inside of her? Fear has no place in her heart, not any more. Not since she was a filly and decided it would do her no good.
She feels that anger course through her, bright as the colours on her coat, and can feel something inside of her stirring in response. A beast of her own - something she's only felt in fleeting glimpses here and there. Without really even thinking about it, her head morphs into that of a thylacine and her flexible jaw hangs at the full 80-degree angle it's capable of as she screams with all the ferocity burning inside of her. This is the first time she's shifted and she's not very good at it or the trait does not feel like cooperating at the moment - only her head changes completely and there are some deeper and more obvious stripes appear down her back.
Tirza moves towards the crab as it comes towards her. It is large and it is armoured but she casts out with a skill she's used dozens of times before. She grasps onto the crab's lifespan as she ducks the snapping claws and latches her thylacine jaw to a leg and pulls it apart. The crab-years sit odd with her, like eating a foul fruit, so she reverses the direction. She pushes her years, all that she had laying in front of her, and restores the youth of the monstrous beast as she tears one of its legs off.
It is a dance, avoiding the claws and staying close enough that she can work her favourite trick. She's given days here and there to Gravy, testing what it felt like, but those minor gifts are nothing like this. It drains and wears on her faster here, where perhaps horses do not live to such old ages as they do where she is from, but as she feels herself begin to wither she sees the crab shrink as its youth is restored.
Grey hairs mottle her not-as-bright coat by the time that crab becomes small enough that she can stomp on it with her hooves - crushing it into the wet, battle-packed sand. Her thylacine mouth pants as she looks around, drained and weary, latching onto two of the strange men and pulling their youth from them to restore hers. This pair that had been only trying to limp away to safety crumple as they age but she doesn't notice or care. Like the crab years, these lives of men do not sit easy with her and she is still older than when she began. But she does not feel so frail and that is enough while she gives the nasty near-infant crab a few more strikes for good measure.
Her red eyes are observing the surrounding area instead, trying to figure out what to do next. The dead and living soldiers are white noise to her - uninteresting, unimportant. Not worthy of her attention for she doubts very much that any of them will help her. They will catch her as Pollux did, bind her, and ride her as if she could not possibly wish for anything else in this life but to be a simple-minded steed.
How glad she is that whatever had stolen her here did not also take her siblings.
There is little time to form a plan, however, because something new occurs. Tirza’s attention is drawn along with everyone else’s to the sea when the waters there begin to move. She does not dance away nervously, holding her ground to watch as a massive crab emerges from the waters. A snort escapes her and then she sees the large-yet-beady eyes turn to her and it pauses its investigation of the corpses on the beach.
Fear runs through her and it is quickly followed by rage. How dare this scuttling beast inspire anything like that inside of her? Fear has no place in her heart, not any more. Not since she was a filly and decided it would do her no good.
She feels that anger course through her, bright as the colours on her coat, and can feel something inside of her stirring in response. A beast of her own - something she's only felt in fleeting glimpses here and there. Without really even thinking about it, her head morphs into that of a thylacine and her flexible jaw hangs at the full 80-degree angle it's capable of as she screams with all the ferocity burning inside of her. This is the first time she's shifted and she's not very good at it or the trait does not feel like cooperating at the moment - only her head changes completely and there are some deeper and more obvious stripes appear down her back.
Tirza moves towards the crab as it comes towards her. It is large and it is armoured but she casts out with a skill she's used dozens of times before. She grasps onto the crab's lifespan as she ducks the snapping claws and latches her thylacine jaw to a leg and pulls it apart. The crab-years sit odd with her, like eating a foul fruit, so she reverses the direction. She pushes her years, all that she had laying in front of her, and restores the youth of the monstrous beast as she tears one of its legs off.
It is a dance, avoiding the claws and staying close enough that she can work her favourite trick. She's given days here and there to Gravy, testing what it felt like, but those minor gifts are nothing like this. It drains and wears on her faster here, where perhaps horses do not live to such old ages as they do where she is from, but as she feels herself begin to wither she sees the crab shrink as its youth is restored.
Grey hairs mottle her not-as-bright coat by the time that crab becomes small enough that she can stomp on it with her hooves - crushing it into the wet, battle-packed sand. Her thylacine mouth pants as she looks around, drained and weary, latching onto two of the strange men and pulling their youth from them to restore hers. This pair that had been only trying to limp away to safety crumple as they age but she doesn't notice or care. Like the crab years, these lives of men do not sit easy with her and she is still older than when she began. But she does not feel so frail and that is enough while she gives the nasty near-infant crab a few more strikes for good measure.
