02-27-2022, 02:34 PM
This time, Mazikeen is sleeping when the intruder alarm rings through her mind. She rises immediately, though she knows many others in the kingdom could - and would - investigate. At the very least, if she saw someone else already talking to the visitor, she would return to the warm, golden side she leaves now with the press of a kiss.
It has been a slow, happy start to the morning so far, and she carries that warmth in her heart even as she takes to the chilly skies as a white Haast’s eagle. Mist obscures some of the landscape below, but Mazikeen does not have to search long to realize who has come. She recognizes the companion circling in the air. So she releases a loud, piercing call - a greeting and an acknowledgement both to the other, smaller eagle and the bone-armoured stallion she knows must be nearby.
Mazikeen did expect Reave to come back, but she hoped it might be a more social visit than their last encounter. She had once found so much enjoyment in battle - in the challenges it presented and how it forced her to problem solve. Once, she would have considered a fight with a friend to be a social visit. But the love for battle that had inspired her to sign up for the Alliance died the first time she had to fight Gale for her life and woke up without her heart or eyes. It then got hammered into the earth by everything that followed, and not even almost three years of relative peace could save it.
She would fight for Hyaline and her family - her heart was just no longer in it.
Her attention focuses on the ground, and through the branches of the trees and the mist, she can make out the movement of the chestnut stallion. She angles her wings and drops in elevation. Reave is not far in the woods from where they last fought - the trees here are not as dense as they are closer to the cliffs, but there are enough to make the 10-foot wingspan of this form hard to maneuver amongst them. So she becomes a much smaller peregrine falcon, tucking her wings in close as she twists beneath the crowns of the trees and then weaves through the trunks. Reave is a few dozen feet off to her left, and though she wouldn’t mind circling to formulate a plan, she is wary of his vision manipulation abilities and doesn’t want to risk losing track of where he is by delaying too long.
So she banks to the left - flying at the same height as Reave’s head and aiming for as straight of a route as she can manage to build up speed. There aren’t as many branches to contend with at this height, but she still has to compensate for a few ill-placed trees.
It is a similar rush to what she had greeted him with last time. Her movement eats up the distance quickly and disturbs leaves and morning mist alike in her wake. She is thinking of her past battles, the ones she had enjoyed, as she keeps her bright orange eyes locked on her target - Reave’s head. Mazikeen does not miss the changes in him, and though she knows she could turn this into a conversation by forfeiting, that is not the route she takes.
Once there are only a few feet between them, she shapeshifts again. She does not become a bear this time, and instead she is suddenly a giant, pale, saltwater crocodile. This isn’t a graceful form outside of the water, but since she is essentially flinging herself at Reave, she does not need it to be. It had worked well enough in the Alliance when she had fought the grey pegasus, and she is hoping that revisiting those brighter times might make this situation less horrible.
Even though her momentum had been tempered by needing to weave through the trees, she hopes the falling weight of her new body is still enough to knock him off balance or even off his feet. Though the males of this species are more magnificent in size, the approximately 400 pounds that Mazikeen weighs as a crocodile is not insignificant. She does not need anything more than gravity to assist her slightly flailing form as she falls towards the ground, whether there is another body in the way or not. Since she is much larger than she had been as a falcon, she hopes that the distance between them will quickly shrink and give Reave less time to react. And if she hits his body, with some luck, the scales along her underside are enough to protect her from that hard bone armour.
Even if he is not entertained by her choice of opening attack, she sure is. When she’s on the ground again - dry leaves fluttering around into the chilly morning air as they are disturbed - she twists to keep Reave in her sights, and those gigantic crocodile jaws open in something of a smile.
----
@Reave
Mazikeen's Stats:
Hybrid (quarab with a splash of stockiness from mustang blood)
15hh
Limitless self-manipulation, Phoenix-type immortality, Glowing horns, Glowing markings, Fire aura, Weak self healing
It has been a slow, happy start to the morning so far, and she carries that warmth in her heart even as she takes to the chilly skies as a white Haast’s eagle. Mist obscures some of the landscape below, but Mazikeen does not have to search long to realize who has come. She recognizes the companion circling in the air. So she releases a loud, piercing call - a greeting and an acknowledgement both to the other, smaller eagle and the bone-armoured stallion she knows must be nearby.
Mazikeen did expect Reave to come back, but she hoped it might be a more social visit than their last encounter. She had once found so much enjoyment in battle - in the challenges it presented and how it forced her to problem solve. Once, she would have considered a fight with a friend to be a social visit. But the love for battle that had inspired her to sign up for the Alliance died the first time she had to fight Gale for her life and woke up without her heart or eyes. It then got hammered into the earth by everything that followed, and not even almost three years of relative peace could save it.
She would fight for Hyaline and her family - her heart was just no longer in it.
Her attention focuses on the ground, and through the branches of the trees and the mist, she can make out the movement of the chestnut stallion. She angles her wings and drops in elevation. Reave is not far in the woods from where they last fought - the trees here are not as dense as they are closer to the cliffs, but there are enough to make the 10-foot wingspan of this form hard to maneuver amongst them. So she becomes a much smaller peregrine falcon, tucking her wings in close as she twists beneath the crowns of the trees and then weaves through the trunks. Reave is a few dozen feet off to her left, and though she wouldn’t mind circling to formulate a plan, she is wary of his vision manipulation abilities and doesn’t want to risk losing track of where he is by delaying too long.
So she banks to the left - flying at the same height as Reave’s head and aiming for as straight of a route as she can manage to build up speed. There aren’t as many branches to contend with at this height, but she still has to compensate for a few ill-placed trees.
It is a similar rush to what she had greeted him with last time. Her movement eats up the distance quickly and disturbs leaves and morning mist alike in her wake. She is thinking of her past battles, the ones she had enjoyed, as she keeps her bright orange eyes locked on her target - Reave’s head. Mazikeen does not miss the changes in him, and though she knows she could turn this into a conversation by forfeiting, that is not the route she takes.
Once there are only a few feet between them, she shapeshifts again. She does not become a bear this time, and instead she is suddenly a giant, pale, saltwater crocodile. This isn’t a graceful form outside of the water, but since she is essentially flinging herself at Reave, she does not need it to be. It had worked well enough in the Alliance when she had fought the grey pegasus, and she is hoping that revisiting those brighter times might make this situation less horrible.
Even though her momentum had been tempered by needing to weave through the trees, she hopes the falling weight of her new body is still enough to knock him off balance or even off his feet. Though the males of this species are more magnificent in size, the approximately 400 pounds that Mazikeen weighs as a crocodile is not insignificant. She does not need anything more than gravity to assist her slightly flailing form as she falls towards the ground, whether there is another body in the way or not. Since she is much larger than she had been as a falcon, she hopes that the distance between them will quickly shrink and give Reave less time to react. And if she hits his body, with some luck, the scales along her underside are enough to protect her from that hard bone armour.
Even if he is not entertained by her choice of opening attack, she sure is. When she’s on the ground again - dry leaves fluttering around into the chilly morning air as they are disturbed - she twists to keep Reave in her sights, and those gigantic crocodile jaws open in something of a smile.
----
@Reave
Mazikeen's Stats:
Hybrid (quarab with a splash of stockiness from mustang blood)
15hh
Limitless self-manipulation, Phoenix-type immortality, Glowing horns, Glowing markings, Fire aura, Weak self healing