As annoyed and angry as Mazikeen is, Wishbone’s words dull those feelings and replace them with more confusion. “Kelpie?” It’s a relatively new word to her but she has heard it before and she repeats it carefully, picturing Sabal when she does. What does that smug little eel have to do with any of this? Barrow wasn’t anything like that self-important water slug (and how odd would it be to learn that Barrow was Sabal’s sibling - and they were both the children of the spectre haunting Wishbone).
The other mare takes a few steps back, which enables Mazikeen to relax by a small fraction. She’s still tense, still unable to turn her orange burning gaze from Wishbone as her mind whirls and tries to make sense with what she knows - that it’s Barrow standing behind her bear-form - and the words she is hearing.
She does not doubt that Barrow is incapable of drowning anyone (unless it is accidentally in dog slobber) but neither is she immune to the pleading in Wishbone’s voice when she speaks again. There's something so earnest about it.
Mazikeen eyes the bone warily, even though it is not pointed in a threatening manner, and her fire aura flickers again a little as her hold on it loosens in her uncertainty. She resolves to figure this out before she moves an inch. “What do you -” And then her neck blossoms in pain as the thing-that-looks-like-Barrow bites her from behind, through the thick fur there as if it’s nothing and deep into the flesh.
The young bear cries out in surprise and pain. There is one consuming moment where she feels betrayal like a boulder in her stomach weighing her down. Her eyes shine with pure horror as they're locked on Wishbone before she twists out of the grip, tearing the wound more. She doesn’t strike - because her mind cannot reconcile her memories of Barrow with what has just happened. Even as she bleeds, Mazikeen cannot imagine hurting him. She just moves so all three of them are facing each other now, her voice thick and quiet. “Barrow?”
He smiles at her - a sunny expression except for the mouth drenched in her blood - and then her eyes widen when his body seems to shimmer, falling apart into shadow only to reform exactly the same a heartbeat later.
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