It's such an odd, jolting sensation to have Kota press herself against Aela. For the first time in her young life, Aela feels the swell of a pregnant mare and becomes aware of the life within. The palomino has known what a broodmare is. It's just when Kota comes against Aela, her mother's stomach curves against her leaner one and there is a moment where the child stirs enough that Aela is aware of them.
This is her sibling, she realizes. A brother or sister and the shock of that realization almost distracts her from what is coming.
Kota sends her sweeping gaze one way and so Aela looks the other. She isn't afraid of these monsters. Apart from a few scars, she has managed to come away from them mostly unsathed. In her certainty, she assumes this time will be no different. She thinks it will be some shapeless thing with too many teeth and hunger for flesh (and oh, a part of Aela loves giving them the lesson that she is something so much more than mere flesh). The scent of whatever is coming approaches first, wafting towards her flaring nostrils, and Aela lits her slender head up to discern the thing that is creeping.
That is crawling, she realizes.
There are too many eyes and it is too quick. Perhaps if its fangs were closer, the monster would have delivered a quick death. But it produces a sticky, fibrous webbing that winds around everything. It covers the rocky ground, part of an Acacia, and Aela's shoulder to her right foreleg. Aela struggles for a few moments, further entangling herself, before she realizes that the jerking movements do nothing. They only make their current situation worse and so the striped girl stops, searching for an answer in the shadows of the nearby Acacia grove or to where she knows the nearest canyon is.
But it is @[kota] who tells her what to do.
We need to kill it, she says and Aela nods. She certainly doesn't feel anything akin to mercy for a creature that would devour her or those she cared for. It comes down to survival and from Aela, there is no apology for living. The palomino glows around her stripes and when the beast shifts one of its eight legs, Aela allows herself to become an inferno (much like she had with Skandar, when he had set her ablaze in anger) and small flames flicker against her golden skin. It doesn't take long for her to burn away the string-like restraints and there is only a moment before the monster comes close enough to strike.
(Aela tries to give it pause by filling the air with caution; Aela tries to warn it away with fear but who knows if these monsters can feel?)
The flames dancing on her skin dim as Aela urgently looks to her mother. She doesn't know what the fire will do to her dam's spotted skin, to her unborn sibling. But this is the only idea that she has. She can try to burn away the webbing. "Ma?" she asks her. What do you want me to do?