Mazikeen feels no pull back to Hyaline - she is too glad that they are outside of the mountains. Though Gale was skilled at distracting her from it in their home, her restlessness eases out here. Even if the chaos they might cause is small compared to what he had once taunted her with and what she thought about to excite him. She catches his thoughts about using her pain to give himself more power and wishes he would - they’d promised no more deaths, but he had given her immortality so death wouldn’t even be permanent (not that it had ever been for her).

Her thoughts churn in so many directions. She wonders if they have somehow tamed each other and then before that thought can even settle in her mind her eyes catch on the west and she feels the desire to fly to Tephra right now. To go get her daughter, to do something, instead of waiting around for others to do it just to curry favour with Gale.

The birds that Gale startles out of the trees and the ease that enters his mind distracts her from where her thoughts were drifting and brings her back into the present. Her eyes, borrowed from a wolf, spot the movement below.

Her gaze connects with Gale just for a short moment before she descends - her restlessness not letting her hesitate any longer. She doesn’t even feel that same pleasure at him deferring to her. If she must wait to go get Sickle, she is not waiting for this. She shifts into a pale wolf when she lands downriver from the dappled grey stallion - a snarl escaping her. Much to her delight - he does not run but instead shifts as well - into a large grizzly bear that roars back a challenge.

Even with her host of shapes that she could become, many of them bigger and stronger than this bear, Mazikeen wants the challenge. She wants this to feed her unease and Gale’s magic, wants the anger and the fear to stretch out as long as possible so it can drown out everything else, all of her confusing and frustrated thoughts. She doesn’t look for her king, holding a vision of them attacking this bear together in her mind even though she trusts his instincts. They both know what to do, how to hunt, and she launches herself at the grizzly without another thought.

Mazikeen always seems to be in a foul mood when they hunt for their own kind, though it is not the hunt itself that ever bothers her. After that first time, the rest have always occurred when she is pissed about something. This time is no different than when they went to Islandres except that she is not sulking in the trees. She is moving with Gale, the pair of them and their fury dancing around the bear and tearing pieces wherever they can and Mazikeen lets all of her troubled thoughts fade away.

She had just been tossed aside and is preparing to launch back when she sees a wall of ice slam against Gale. Mazikeen is distracted, breathing heavily, waiting for those seconds to pass until Gale is on his feet again.

There is nothing in her heart, distracted as she is. Whatever worry there would have been having been taken from her, and even the confusing mix of relief and satisfaction is muted as she remains plunged in bloodlust. She looks back at their prey in time to see the glacial sheet coming her way and she leaps out of the way but only fast enough to clear most of her body. It collides with her hip and sends her splashing into the nearby river.

She lets all of her frustration fuel her anger as she quickly stands, but this time she does not lose control. This time fire erupts around her - a thin line but it burns bright. She shifts into a large phoenix - one of her legs hanging limply beneath her as she rises up out of the way of the next ice sheet pushed her way. Mazikeen moves so that the horse is between her and Gale.

The fire of her feathers do not harm her but she feels like she is burning anyway and she welcomes the pain in her hip as it further helps to drown out her troubled thoughts. The wide, fear-and-angry eyes of this stranger connect with hers and that is when she replies to Gale in a cool voice, wanting to be heard by both. “Snap his legs.” She wasn’t done with this bear-stallion, not yet. “I want him alive when we start to feast on him.”

Each snap of bone sings through Mazikeen’s body and the scream that Gale tears from him intoxicates her. She moves forward to join, and can almost taste his blood on her tongue when Gale changes. He snarls, becoming nothing but shadow, and she watches in both admiration and irritation as he completely obliterates their prey. She lands, shifting into the familiar shape of a lioness. The rear leg that had been caught by the wall rests uselessly while she watches - whatever colour her pelt is disappears beneath the network of fire-bright markings that crackle along her skin.

Her eyes slide from the remains of the meal she had been looking forward to and back to Gale as he approaches, his casual shrug grating on her already frayed patience.

She catches him wondering about her rage and a cold laugh escapes her. Still this bond between them was going one way. The markings on her skin do not fade but the fire in her eyes is cold as she moves to meet him, dragging her teeth lightly against his skin as soon as she is able to reach it. Each step is agony on her leg and her vision becomes spotty but it is a welcome distraction from her thoughts. “That’s twice you’ve left me unsatisfied tonight.” It is not true, at least not about the first time, but the truth matters so little. Mazikeen is tired of the truth, tired of the way confessions and honesty make her so aware of everything she lacks.

It does not matter to her which she gets - his rage, his lust, a combination of the two. She just wants something to shift this ice to fire, wants to forget everything just for a few moments. No Sickle, no sons of angels, no silhouettes of emotions long since torn out of her, no future children - all of it needs to fade away. She presses closer and her voice is a rough purr in his ear “Is that all you’ve got?”