[open] rest your eyes and stay in the shade; any

[Avelina]

Avelina watches with delight when Skandar mirrors the swan shape - admiring the strength and grace in his body that she can feel in her own. Her soft green eyes dance and she thinks nothing of the rather startling noises and odd way he seems to shift. Like she can hear every hair and every piece of skin being peeled back and changed into something else. It is odd, and she’s not a big fan of it, but she would never say such things. It is easy to find the beauty in it. She shuffles her feathers and waits as he chooses his first shape - a large cat she’s never seen before but kin to the snow leopard and panther she’s practiced before. She’s opening her beak to compliment it when he lunges for her. Skandar’s teeth close around Avelina’s thin neck and there is one wild and terrifying moment where the pain makes her soft green eyes widen. And then she shifts, instinct acting where her frightened thoughts would not, into a thin snake that slides out from his jaws before they can close again. She’s shifts again, a panther now and she’s no longer thinking about the game as she scrambles away with white-rimmed eyes. She just wanted to be something bigger, something sturdier. There’s a few scrapes on her neck and though they are not deep, they bleed into her tawny fur. Tears well into her eyes and she desperately begins wishing to wake up from this dream-turned-nightmare. There is an instinct to flee that rises up within her but she cannot seem to make her legs move. Her mother wouldn’t run, she knows, not even when she was scared. And maybe some of that bravery has managed to root itself into Avelina’s thundering heart without her realizing it. “But… why?” Is the only word she can wheeze out while her fireflies dart in a frenzied cloud, feeding off of her fear. avelina

@[Skandar]