[private] i'm baptised in your name, mazikeen

[Mazikeen]

Mazikeen snaps at the shadowy forms, moving closer to the colt and wedging herself between them and him - trying to push away the heavy darkness. There’s absolutely no thought, no debate, as to what she’d do to protect this child she’s never met. And when he speaks into the darkness, she almost laughs. “Nothing good, kid.” And Mazikeen isn’t sure whether she means herself or the shadows she spots reaching for them again. In a flare of firelight, her aura surrounds her and she solidifies her stance in front of the winged colt, orange eyes on the thick darkness that recedes now from the fire. It regroups just on the edge of where the light falls, into a beast made of concentrated shadow. The light from her aura does not reflect off of it the way it does the surrounding area. It is something else entirely. Regular shadows skitter away but this thing crawls closer. Inky darkness among the orange-lit grass, a clawed arm first and then a head that she cannot discern any features on yet - but there’s a hiss and an impression of dangerous fangs as it slinks into the light. Mazikeen lowers her head and bares her own teeth, ears flattening against her skull. She doesn’t tell the colt to run, worried that it’ll be harder to protect him if he does, and she’s trying to remember where she last saw someone else in the kingdom as she had been walking. Not close enough, she thinks, for help. Her heart races with fear and anticipation and she shuts out the insecurities that threaten to crawl their way up her throat and strangle her. She hasn’t faced one of them without her shifting yet - and she supposes she’s about to find out whether she really is useless without it.

@[Selaphiel]