[private] this is going to bring me to my knees; Mazikeen

[Mazikeen]

Mazikeen gets her fight and she’s thrilled, some of her old fire heating up the coldness of her eyes as they trade blows and she dodges his poison only to get caught in the snake’s grip. Disgust curls through her - an emotion she didn’t realize she still had - when Gale’s snake-tongue touches her body. As he drags her across the snow and earth she does not stop shifting, bending and twisting her limbs to rake her claws against his scaled skin and sink her teeth into his flesh. If she had known it took a wish to his ancestor for him to actually get the strength to do this, Mazikeen wouldn’t stop laughing. But her mind isn’t focused on his right now. Her cold anger has caught on fire The pain doesn’t bother her, it hasn’t for some time - but all she can think about is how he is winning against her will again and even when she is shattered the glowing markings do not fade on her skin for a moment. No matter how many times she kills him, the score between them will never truly be settled. And then the pain stops. And her broken legs are whole once more, her blood smeared on snow and rock but not flowing anymore. She doesn’t understand how or why there is sand - but it doesn’t matter. And the golden specks give her an idea. Mazikeen grins up at Gale with a face where not a single hair isn’t glowing with fire. “No. You won’t.” Mazikeen speaks with a calm certainty as she grabs for that golden light in the back of her mind and it unfurls inside of her - reacting readily to her acceptance of it. She had not cried out in pain but she does so now in shock because the flood of memories and emotions it brings is worse than her broken body. As she weathers it, she force-feeds it through her bond with Gale. Shoving every happy memory she can think of into his mind as she twists, becoming a phoenix as large as she can manage. Her hooked talons grip Gale’s flesh, deep enough that even if he shifts she’s got a fierce hold on his very spine and she rises through the storm. In this form, he feels weightless and she knows she could carry far heavier things. The snow doesn’t deter her - this is her home. She knows it well, enjoys the fierce bite of the wind as it tosses her feathers that are burning with more than just fire. Tears prick the corner of her eyes for the first time in a year and she’s so angry at this intrusion but she doesn’t let herself focus on that. She keeps up the flood of happy memories, no matter how detached she feels from them now because they shine with life again under this light. And somewhere high in the mountains with sharp ice and rocks beneath them, when all her hollow places are touched with gold and she is remembering seeing Malik and Sickle for the first time and how the intensity of her love for them had shaken her - she lets Gale drop to smash his skull on the mountainside without so much as a goodbye. m a z i k e e n .

 

@Gale