one warm day is all I really need; Mazikeen

[Mazikeen]

This happiness is so blissful it takes over Mazikeen with utter ease as she stands in the lake. She laughs when he shakes, sending droplets her way, and her own tail wags with delight through the water. His explanation about where the shifting had come from seems plausible enough - she had never been on a quest herself but her mother had found herself caught up in a few. Whatever he had been through, whether it was a dream or a quest, the shape he was given suits her friend so well. And just moments after she had been sure the smile blazing in her orange eyes could not be shaken - it disappears at the mention of the Alliance, her heart dropping like a weight to the bottom of the lake. She’d forgotten that anger in an instant upon seeing Barrow - let the joy of seeing her oldest friend as a shifter take hold of her and numb her to everything else she had been feeling the last few days. Mazikeen hates that she lost, hates that she feels weak and dumb because of it. In her more lucid moments as a pissed-off lion she had replayed the battle in her mind over and over, wondering what she could have done differently. She should have torn Gale apart. “I lost in the third round.” She finally says after an extended period of silence, her voice hollow and bitter. There’s an attempt at a smile, though it’s pale in comparison to the boisterous laughter she had shared moments ago. It’s hard to lose herself to despair when faced with the sweet face in front of her but she does manage. “I plan on finding the jerk I lost to and beating him up though, just to prove I can.”

@[Barrow]