Aela keeps her emotions as sharp as Mazikeen's teeth. Each one she unleashes on the shapeshifter is pointed; the fear and the caution are meant to pierce her; but she doesn't want Maze to lose control. Not yet. This game they are playing is unfurling so perfectly, and the Seneschal doesn't want to reveal her hoof just yet.
Not when their fun was just starting.
She smiles coyly back to the pale griffin, tilting her head so that her blue eyes hold the molten gaze of the other female. Aela attempts to push other emotions onto the Alpha - perhaps anguish or desperation - but ultimately decides against it. Mazikeen is coming closer and closer to an edge with a stare full of intent and she still seems to assume that Aela is something easily torn apart - as if she was simply skin and bones.
As if she were merely mortal instead of something divine.
Something was kindling within the other mare, she could sense it. Something other than the (self-imposed?) shadows that Aela could sense darkening so much of her. So much internal conflict. Still smiling at Mazikeen, and using her aura to become a conflagration of flame, she says, "My, you really are a mess, Mazikeen." The blazing creature says with a flickering, wicked grin. Aela begins to move through the crackling fires, relishing the heat as it brushed against her coat.
But before she can get closer, another griffin arrives and suddenly, Aela loses track of where Mazikeen stands because her awareness (momentarily) shifts to Skandar. His red eyes glow in a warning and their silent message passes onto Aela, who enjoys the thought of what kind of lessons Maze might learn from reckoning with them.
(Perhaps her stubborn nature would keep shining through, and Mazikeen could useful in Aela's plan for 'redecorating' the Pampas.)
The moment that the intruder bellows her demand - when she and Skandar are a tangle of talons and claws and knife-sharp teeth - Aela concedes. This portion of the Pampas burns all around them, and the inferno surrounding them should have attracted notice. The memories that Sickle held dear revolved around a purple mare and black-striped colt; will she be expecting Wishbone?
What will she think of the raging woman who had caused so much destruction?
Smothering her flames and concealing her aura, Aela calls out in a voice of familial concern, "Sickle, darling," hoping to draw the filly out. And if that didn't bring the girl out of hiding, she adds, "Your mother has come!"
@Mazikeen
They doused your soul in water,
but the flames raged higher.
And they called you devil's daughter,
such a pretty liar.