[mature] wild as all the love you lost

[Mazikeen]

When Gale had suggested the meadow, shifting into a predator, Mazikeen felt excitement flutter in her stomach. She could guess at what he found more delicious than venison easily enough. The apprehension and the repulsion she should have felt were missing - or perhaps just dulled by hunger. By way of an answer, she had shifted to match him, rubbing up against him before pulling away with a smoky laugh. And then a blink later she had grown wings and taken off. Mazikeen did not look for him once, because she knew he would be there with her. As she rose high enough to let her lungs burn before levelling off and letting the currents take them over the mountains and into Beqanna. Now when they land it is evening, the chill in the air less than it had been in Hyaline but enough to be refreshing after the flight. Her deep orange eyes scan the meadow and she feels it now - that apprehension she had thought was gone. She remembers not enjoying violence, remembers being disgusted at the idea of eating something else (somebody else), but when she looks at the grasses around her she feels no hunger for them. It’s the moving bodies, the beating hearts around them that catch her attention and she feels agitated by her uncertainty. By this disconnect between her memories and the feelings that are pulsing through her. She doesn’t like this feeling or the way it encourages more burning markings to bloom across her back and she hopes it will settle soon. It’s Gale that grounds her, as she sticks closer to him than strictly necessary. Just because she likes the way his shoulder brushes against hers, the way this simple contact ignites her and makes her feel like she is ready for her first real hunt. She is no longer bound to obedience, but no uncertainty can outweigh her desire to please him in this - for him to see what she can be and marvel in it. She’s made a habit of speaking questions into his skin and she only refrains now because of the gnawing hunger in her stomach that will go nowhere if she allows herself to be too distracted. So her orange eyes observe the meadow as she asks with a cold, cruel humour that is new. “So, what are you in the mood for?” m a z i k e e n .

 

@Gale

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you Gale has no name for the prehistoric animal that they have become, and he spends a moment admiring the thick white feathers, stretching from her clawed feet to her orange eyes, which are now set in a fiercely sharp face two meters from the ground. Their tails are long, providing a counterbalance to the clawed forelegs that do not reach the ground, and he finds that when he grows wings they are not unlike those he’d had when she’d approached him. As a winged utahraptor, he follows her into the sky. They arrive in the Meadow together, and the Curse feels the thrum of excitement building. He presses his mouth along her crest as they stalk through the starlit grass, but it is not (purely) lust that drives him. He reminds himself that she is real, that she is not an illusion of his eyes. Just like Gale used to do. The Curse is thinking of blood, of hunting, of watching Mazikeen rip the belly out from under a fleeing horse, of feeling bones break between his jaws. Her bones are nearest, and thinks of breaking just one, but before he can decide which will impede her hunting the least, she interrupts to ask what he is in the mood for. If he devours her, she will no longer be hungry. Is that a kindness? Best avoid it, the Curse decides. These are dangerous waters, even if Mazikeen no longer impedes him at every move. Despite his recent victories she is still a worthy opponent, and she might change her mind at any moment, might turn on him. The thought of her doing so brings a pleasant thrill to his belly, and he must hold himself back from tracing the markings on her back lest he lose himself in other pleasant things. “That one,” he says, gesturing to an equine that is confident (or perhaps foolish?) enough to not yet have looked up at the approaching raptors. The horse looks well fed, even for autumn, and Gale’s stomach begins to growl a moment before he does. Without waiting for Mazikeen’s confirmation, he attacks, moving quickly despite this new method of two-legged running. Realizing the danger it is in, the horse bolts, and Gale races after it. @Mazikeen

current appearance: glowing perlino utahraptor with blue lightning

[Mazikeen]

Mazikeen’s gaze shifts towards where Gale gestures, to a stallion grazing on his own. He hasn’t noticed them, a blessing of both obliviousness and where they stand downwind. She hasn’t bathed yet, hasn’t had a chance - what with being dead while Gale had taken the time to clean himself. After this, perhaps, she’ll lure him into the river and they’ll lose themselves in a new game amongst the water where they can see if she can still burn beneath the surface. She thinks of these things and not the life she’s about to take because her empathy for this stranger does not exist. She doesn’t know his name, his family, his home. He is not protected under the promises Gale has made her, for whatever they are worth. And Mazikeen is so hungry. For now, she does not care where this new hunger comes from (though of course - there is only one answer to that question). She only cares about the way it demands to be filled as she is just a single step behind Gale as they make their chase. She moves easily to the horse’s opposite flank, racing in tandem with Gale and her heart thrills. She had meant to savour the hunt, to keep this horse running until his heart gave out, to tear small pieces from him. Not enough to stop him but enough to heighten the fear. This is not the mare who had killed Sickle with a clean stroke, who had needed the filly to be unconscious before she would even consider doing it. Who had only sliced her daughter’s throat to stop the girl’s father from doing worse things. Mazikeen does not trouble herself thinking about what she would do now in that situation because it does not matter. If it arises again, she will find out. She is not going to worry about things that are not in front of her. Not while this horse is in front of her now. She stretches her elongated jaws out, her teeth catching on his flank and slowing him, but not stopping him as he wrenches free and when blood fills her mouth she loses all sense of self. Her eyes turn more red than orange and for a moment she cannot see anything at all, so great is the bloodlust that rises in her. The hunger in her roars and fire breaks out across her skin. A wild, ferocious sound comes out of her and Mazikeen is lost to conscious thought. m a z i k e e n .

 

@Gale

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you This hunter has wonderful capabilities, and Gale delights in the long stride of his legs and the way he can so easily rip at the stallion’s elbow without needed to slow down and brace himself. They drive the horse across from opposite sides, and Gale is able - for the first time in days - to focus on something other than the alpha who runs beside him. He is in Danger. It is heavy in his gut despite the speed of his feet, and the darkness that smokes within him writhes and squirms within his belly. He snarls slashes at the stallion’s ribs, feeling the splatter of blood across his golden face. He had changed Mazikeen, and in doing so had changed himself as well. The blackness within him is the source of his power, but it is her darkness that strengthens it, that expands his abilities beyond what he is capable of alone. The Curse has tied itself to her without even realizing it, and it expels a furious roar and leaps forward. He grasps the stallion by the neck, digging deep with his serrated teeth to support the weight of his body, and rips at the horse’s chest with the claws of his hind legs. The stallion screams, and Gale laughs through the blood that drips between his teeth. Despite his size, the utahraptor he has become is lightboned, and only his constant Regeneration keeps him from being pulverized by the stallion’s thrashing forehooves. Gale shifts to an enormous crocodile, pulling ever downward with his grasping jaws, and eventually the equine is on the ground. The blood drips down his throat, and Gale nearly closes his eyes in pleasure until he sees the white movement beside him. His blue eyes settle on Mazikeen and he pulls slowly away from the gasping horse. He sounds like Sickle had. Gale frowns. @Mazikeen

current appearance: utahraptor -> crocodile

[Mazikeen]

Mazikeen hangs back, her reptilian head tilting curiously to the side, and she feels no strong urge to deny herself the joy of watching Gale have to suffer the wrath of the dying stallion and his dangerous hooves. This image breaks through her wild rage and she returns to stalking movements with her eyes fixed on the pair and not even daring to blink. She is hungry and furious but also delighting in both the idea of Gale’s bones breaking and how he shifts into an enormous crocodile to bring the stallion to the ground. This continuous contradiction of feelings surrounding her new king should drive her crazy, should be a matter she should obsess and fret over, but Mazikeen finds she does not mind anymore. There is pleasure to be found both in his (temporary) injuries and his power and that's enough for her. And she does not begrudge him for being the to bring down the horse - there will be plenty of more opportunities for them to wrestle prey down together if this carnivorous need in her does not fade. So for now, she watches before moving closer. Her eyes do not drift to Gale, they remain fixated on the dying creature. She hears it too, the same noise Sickle had made. But Mazikeen doesn’t pause to frown. She burns again, small flashes of her fire aura appearing when there is no piece of her skin left for the markings to take up. There is no thought except for the need to make that sound stop. She surges forward, wearing the gigantic cave hyena form that Gale had worn when she had confronted him after he had killed her the first time. When she had to tear open her eyes in order to see again, when she had just grown back her heart. She takes on his colouring from then too - mostly perlino with a bit of navy, back before he had been all gold and before she had left her mark on him with the return of the blue. But those eyes remain the same, hovering between red and orange as she snarls. She would laugh about it, about mimicking him in this way because it is almost certainly a joke, but she is too lost in the moment and she does not hesitate before she tears through the throat of the fallen horse until there is nothing left to gasp. Until memories of last night when it had been their daughter and not a stranger fade and seep into the ground with the stallion’s blood. Her eyes remain open and they begin to roll backwards with a wash of delight as she begins to feed, forgetting entirely - for now - that she is not alone. m a z i k e e n .

 

@Gale

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you Gale has never Seen himself hunt from this perspective. Mazikeen rips the stallion open while they share her dead lover’s shape. It is a strange sensation, one that is a different sort of Bad, and Gale growls low in his throat as she rips open the downed horse’s throat. She begins to feed and Gale hesitates, though he has already shifted without conscious thought to a shape that matches her own. He watches her feed, watches the blood drip down her throat. A narcissistic creature, the Curse eventually begins to visibly enjoy Mazikeen’s choice of both coloring and shape, and a line of drool and blood drips slowly from between his sharp teeth as he drinks her in. He wants to devour her in every possible way. Instead, he joins her, cracking open the chest of the horse with Wishbone’s magic and devouring the heart in a single gulp. Afterward he is still for a while, even while Maze feasts beside him. The heart had tasted like ashes and spring earth, and as Gale looks down at the once-empty cavity in the horse’s chest, he understands the power he’s acquired. Not something useful, at least for Gale, the phoenix immortality that is already beginning to heat the flesh of the dead horse as it prepares to reanimate. But perhaps Mazikeen might like it. A wiser Thing would have known better to take such a risk, but Gale is struck with the strange and sudden desire to gift her with something that will please her, and so he leans near to press his bloody lips against her crimson jaw. It is more fire to her inferno, and Gale sinks into the flames for a moment, his flashing eyes closed as he presses himself against each blue-gold inch of Mazikeen he can reach. She will catch all of Beqanna alight, Gale thinks. Will he be able to control the wildfire? Best to not think about it, best to push the Warnings and Danger away. What he can control are the flames that begin to rise beneath his feet. They are the last embers of the phoenix immortality that Gale has taken from the stallion, and Gale smashes them out with his magic and the thick pads of his quickly healing golden paws. This time the stallion will stay dead for real, and that knowledge is as satisfying as the meal in his belly. He takes the magic and presses it into Mazikeen’s skin. She will like it, he decides, and even if she doesn’t, he will. He will keep her forever with this, he decides, and when she burns out next he will take one of the embers for his own. The thought of it brings a smile to his face, and he sighs contently against her side. @Mazikeen

current appearance: utahraptor -> cave hyena

[Mazikeen]

Mazikeen expects to feel possessive over the corpse when Gale joins her to feed, but she doesn’t. He cracks open the chest and devours the heart, and her own bloodlust fades enough for her to smile while she eats. It is a strange sense of happiness, what she feels while her hunger fades and they are both there, coated in the blood of the same victim. That feeling of being together.  The list of things that both exist and don’t continues to grow, becoming a twisting mass. But Mazikeen does not mind now, she is satisfied with the conflict of this being both Gale and not-Gale, of loving and hating him. None of it worries her and the only thing she finds herself hoping is that this will be the first of many meals they share of this sort. Her lips curl back momentarily when he presses his lips against her jaw, but then she feels warmth. Something eases into her skin as he presses against her side. Her hunger satisfied now, Mazikeen’s mind returns to other things and she allows this touch, enjoys it and savours it as she had just savoured the meat she had eaten. She should ask about what that heat was, what the flames he had just stamped out mean, but his contented sigh delights her and she forgets to. So Mazikeen turns her head, licking his cheek - picking up some of the blood that had splattered there - and softly tells him “You tasted better.” A thought comes to her, and Mazikeen’s colours revert back to her own beneath all the crimson. Her muzzle moves down to his throat and she buries her nose into his drenched fur - finding she likes the combination of his scent and fresh blood. It stirs two different hungers and almost distracts her from speaking the thought that had come to her just a second ago, but she holds onto it anyway. “And me?” Her voice is a cold burn again now, but she still presses back into him as she asks “What did I taste like?” m a z i k e e n .

 

@Gale

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you The fire he gives her sinks into her flames like rain into the ocean, a small bit of light that is subsumed by an inferno. Could he find it again, he wonders? Could he pull it out from the rest of her? An experiment for later, he thinks; one he has no interest in now. There are better things, like the way she buries her bloody face into the thick fur of his neck, and the way she’d licked the blood from his jaw. The frenzy of the hunt and desire to feed are slow to dissipate, and Gale is often content to longue about for hours afterward, dozing dreaming. He’s never shared a meal - a kill - with Mazikeen like this before though, and he finds that despite the pleasant weight of a meal in his belly Gale is not feeling sluggish at all. If anything he grows more alert, but perhaps that is the way she speaks of his taste, or the chill in her voice when she asks what she’d tasted like from where her mouth settles so near to his throat. “Intoxicating,” he replies, because he knows she must be Poison, and yet the Danger feels an acceptable trade. Everything is acceptable in trade for these moments with her. “We’ll have to hold off on the practicing,” Gale continues, licking the stallion’s blood from his lips so it will not sully the taste of her own. “I intend to do things to you tonight that would make our disguises unbelievable.” He murmurs a few of these things into her ear, grinning wickedly, and then pulls his head back to watch her crimson orange eyes, curious if he might light them again, wondering what might do it. “Perhaps you could still be Wishbone though,” he suggests.

current appearance: cave hyena

[Mazikeen]

A pleasant chill runs through Mazikeen at Gale’s response and they are close enough she’s sure he can feel it travel from the top of her spine to the very base. Each word after has her further sink into this moment, well aware that though they’ve already had each other plenty today it is not enough. She still wants and is thrilled that he is there with her. His whispered words sent heat through her body and Mazikeen’s eyes shine with desire and interest, but those feelings disappear at his suggestion of her being Wishbone. She snaps her teeth in his direction, a warning she does not intend to reach skin just yet. Her lips are once more curled into a cruel snarl as her body ignites once again. “So much for me being everything you want.” Feeling the words burn out of her to the point where she is surprised they do not carry licks of flame with them. Mazikeen then moves away from him, the iciness returning to her voice when she says “If you want to do those things to Wishbone so badly, you know where she lives.” She’s aware that this is a dangerous game. She is currently more concerned about Gale wanting someone else over her than she is about what harm might befall the Tephran queen if he were to actually go seek her out and call this bluff of indifference. It is not a concern born out of insecurities as it might have once been. Instead, it is a new possessiveness. He is hers and hers alone, she has no intention of sharing. Just as she doubts he ever intends to let her find another. And this thought inspires her to keep speaking as she slowly moves around the remains of their meal. “And while you do that I’ll find someone else too.” Her eyes do not find him, though she is aware of where he is she thinks it'll enrage him not to have her attention and she wants that. She feigns her icy indifference even while the markings on her skin illuminate the red-stained white fur of her coat. She scans the meadow, as though she’s already on the hunt. As though any random stranger might fit her next words. “Someone better.” m a z i k e e n .

 

@Gale

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you He’s succeeded, her snarl tells him, and Gale laughs. The Curse is not familiar with jealousy, and Mazikeen’s words - that she will find someone better - are met with an oddly blank stare. But there is no one better than he is, his blue eyes seem to say. Why would she waste her time in such a way? Why would she let someone touch her who would not do it properly, someone who does not know her, someone who is not him? Perhaps he should let her try, he thinks. It would be enjoyable to watch her fail Enjoyable to watch whoever she chose destroy themself in the attempt. He is reluctant to let her get too far from him, even on the other side of the carcass, because despite her fury he is only amused, still softened by their kill, by her nearness. So he follows her as if she’s not said anything at all about finding another lover. “I only want to hurt her,” he says, his voice a gentle croon in her ear. The words do not sound reassuring, but he’s not trying to calm her, only to make her understand. He likes that he has upset her. “Please?” he says with a smile and a kiss to her neck, one that grows more fervent. “I didn’t get to before. Not like I did with Sabal.” @Mazikeen

current appearance: cave hyena