10-03-2021, 12:51 PM
Flat on the ground with the weight of Wherewolf's broad hoof leaning a touch too heavily on her neck, Neverwhere is snarling and silent, staring daggers in every direction with her ice-pale eyes. The sound of Lilli's name on his lips draws her attention - and her worry. Her heart skips at the implication of his words and a scarred hind leg kicks out at the air as the glowing golden girl smiles a dragon's smile and meets her livid gaze with something wicked and cold.
When did Tephra become unsafe for Taigans? For anyone? What had become of the little magician that lived there and protected its people?
She struggles under his foot and Wherewolf shifts his weight so more of it presses down on the delicate bones. He can feel the way they give to him beneath the sensitive triangle of his frog and the start of a smile plucks at the edges of his dark lips. He knows by the timing that it will seem he is preening under Aela's approval but he has never needed or sought it and that has not changed. His motives - like hers - are his own.
"It was only my intention to get her out of the forest so I could find her," he says plainly, calmly, turning his attention from the kicking foal to glowing Aela and tipping his head to one side as if considering his luck, "but Gale has impeccable timing."
The Curse. He should be more afraid of it than he is, but caution was not something his mother had taught him beneath the magic dome of Brennan's safety net. It was not a virtue that Neverwhere had ever deeply held herself, though she had many traits that combined to look like it. More caution might have saved her from him.
As fast as he lifts his weight away, Neverwhere is struggling to gain her feet, her freedom, but she's still only kneeling when he strikes out at her, the hollow sound of his hoof connecting with bone rapping dully, absorbed by the dense vegetation around them. Neverwhere drops like a stone with a startled exhalation, but most of the stars still flicker around her fallen form.
"That's twice," the buckskin growls softly, "Wanna try for three times?"
There's no time for Aela to respond (and was she really going to say no, anyway?) before the edge of his hoof finds Neverwhere's small skull and the dull cracking sound turns wet. This time, when the stars blink out, it's with a ghastly spray of blood that spatters across his chest and face.
When did Tephra become unsafe for Taigans? For anyone? What had become of the little magician that lived there and protected its people?
She struggles under his foot and Wherewolf shifts his weight so more of it presses down on the delicate bones. He can feel the way they give to him beneath the sensitive triangle of his frog and the start of a smile plucks at the edges of his dark lips. He knows by the timing that it will seem he is preening under Aela's approval but he has never needed or sought it and that has not changed. His motives - like hers - are his own.
"It was only my intention to get her out of the forest so I could find her," he says plainly, calmly, turning his attention from the kicking foal to glowing Aela and tipping his head to one side as if considering his luck, "but Gale has impeccable timing."
The Curse. He should be more afraid of it than he is, but caution was not something his mother had taught him beneath the magic dome of Brennan's safety net. It was not a virtue that Neverwhere had ever deeply held herself, though she had many traits that combined to look like it. More caution might have saved her from him.
As fast as he lifts his weight away, Neverwhere is struggling to gain her feet, her freedom, but she's still only kneeling when he strikes out at her, the hollow sound of his hoof connecting with bone rapping dully, absorbed by the dense vegetation around them. Neverwhere drops like a stone with a startled exhalation, but most of the stars still flicker around her fallen form.
"That's twice," the buckskin growls softly, "Wanna try for three times?"
There's no time for Aela to respond (and was she really going to say no, anyway?) before the edge of his hoof finds Neverwhere's small skull and the dull cracking sound turns wet. This time, when the stars blink out, it's with a ghastly spray of blood that spatters across his chest and face.
@Aela I suppose we can probably leave this one here and pick up somewhere else
