a violent beginning

[Vastra]

I never knew daylight could be so violent Although they’re both looking upon her with kindness, she is beginning to feel the weight of their gaze. She’s embarrassed enough for all three of them, not to mention hurt and angry that she has nothing else to give them - that she’s relying on these strangers and has no more sense left in her to be able to tell whether or not they’re even telling the truth. She doesn’t even know these two stallions and she’s a burden on them. She appreciates, at the very least, that one of them - the one with wings - doesn’t have a laser focus but instead looks around. In her gut she knows that’s what she should be doing, that she should be more aware of her surroundings than she is currently being. She’s been a horse again for all of five seconds and she’s already starting to lose the hunter instincts that kept her alive for so long in her other shape… There’s something there, a slight tingle of a memory that started when the winged stallion had mentioned something going wrong with her shifting. But though her brow might furrow and though her gaze may go hazy with thought, she cannot follow that thought. So she focuses back on them. Golden Aten assures her that she is safe, though the winged stallion’s focus on the trees around her tell the mare (even with her instincts not working as they should) that this assurance isn’t entirely true. Still, the offer of a safer place calls to her - sings sweetly to something deep in her heart she hasn’t discovered yet. But the other interrupts those thoughts and sends them scattering when he, quite simply, points out the obvious. The mare isn’t going anywhere in the state she’s in. Not if she can’t stand since she cannot fly. She opens her mouth to say the three little words she’s beginning to hate with a fiery passion - “I don’t know” - but closes it again and decides actions might work better in this case. There’s only one way to find out if there’s anything else broken. There’s a combination of pain and numbness all through her body that she’s been adamantly ignoring in favour of the numbness in her mind but she shifts her body a little now, testing. She winces when she moves the broken wing but there’s nothing she can do about that now. Taking a deep breath, she slowly uncurls herself from where she lies. Her dark gaze is fixed on the earth so that she doesn’t have to watch them watching her stand, doesn’t have to see their pity as she’s reduced to nothing more than a fumbling foal. If either would attempt to approach to help she would have urged them back. This is something she needs to test, needs to do, on her own. It takes a few moments and her legs are trembling with the effort but finally she stands and wills herself to hold her head high once she does, even though she’s exhausted. There’s a flash of triumph in her eyes, as small of a victory as it is, when she looks to the winged stallion to answer his question. “Can stand.” She breathes deeply and heavily once more, the effort of standing - and remaining standing - is taking its toll but she’s getting more stubborn by the moment and she refuses to lie back down. At least that’s something she knows about herself - she’s stubborn. Her wing hangs more obviously now, the long dusty-gold features trailing on the ground. She can feel a pain in her ribs as well and something is strained in her neck but she doesn’t want to admit all of these little things just yet. She looks between them, still trembling with the effort of standing, but feeling just a little better because of this victory and the promise of another on the horizon if she can find someone to fix her wing. “Where ... a healer?” VASTRA kastiel x nazaire, wanderer

@[Aten] 
@[Pteron]