[private] this is going to bring me to my knees | Mazikeen

[Mazikeen]

Mazikeen is sleeping near the lake when she thinks she hears a strange version of Gale’s laugh. She stirs, shaking her head - assuming she must have been dreaming, and then thinking it’s pretty stupid to be dreaming nice things about someone who had eaten your eyes and heart recently. And then his scent drifts to her and Mazikeen is on her feet a moment later. That new heart of hers is hammering loudly in her chest and she almost misses the quiet that had existed without it. She shifts into a panther, sniffing at the air and trying to figure out a direction. Mazikeen doesn’t consider not going, doesn’t even consider trying to find back up this time. The only reason why she hesitates is because she’s frustrated with her inability to see. With a growl she swipes at her face, one of her hooked claws catching on some scar tissue and tearing.  There’s pain, and then she can see a little bit of light. She is in too much of a hurry to be careful or to test further what she thinks this means, that maybe - somehow - her eyes have grown back like her heart. With efficient savagery, Mazikeen tears at her eyes with her sharp feline claws and rips the scar tissue over them open. She growls and hisses through the pain - it is not a precise job and she damages her eyes again in the process but they heal. She doesn’t understand how but they heal. And then she can see. Mazikeen moves before she can give these new eyes a chance to adjust - her first few steps accompanied by a blurry world  The weariness that has plagued her is not completely gone but she has no choice but to push through it. Then she is up in the air as an osprey, searching, breathing heavily already and hoping that whiff of his scent had been old, just a haunting memory. But no, there he is - moving as a gigantic hyena in a line that is coming towards the lake. The entities? Mazikeen doesn’t care. It is enough to have a trajectory so she can interrupt it. Her thoughts are already a storm that she can't puzzle out so she works on instinct. Instinct tells her this is the Curse, not Gale. Gale would have either found her or stayed away. But regardless of which one is in control, the instinct to be near him still exists for one reason or another. She dives towards the ground and shifts when she lands in his path, becoming a large Arctotherium bear - over a foot taller at her shoulder than she is in horse form. Her white fur is already alive with her burning markings - orange eyes blazing in a mask of blood from the wounds that have now healed. Even Mazikeen isn’t above theatrics as she hisses out an angry, false-sweet greeting. “Welcome home, my love.” She wonders if the Curse thought she was dead. It would be nice to surprise it yet again. m a z i k e e n .

 

@[Gale]