anyone

[Tessla]

Dark eyes track the movement of the jaguar above her, watching it as it stalks its prey.

In any other circumstances, she should be afraid; jaguars are vicious animals, capable of stripping the flesh from her bones in moments. But she has no reason to be afraid--she is an Amazonian woman. She may not be sworn in (yet), dedicated to protecting her sisters, but she will be. Her loyalty to the Jungle should protect her from the dangers of the kingdom. This was Big Sister's--Quark's--home for a long time. She had even been Khaleesi, once! She is sad to admit that she hadn't been around much for most of Quark's reign, but she knows that her sister must have been a magnificent, loyal Khaleesi.

A low rumble comes from the jaguar as it positions itself on a low-hanging tree branch. The small capybara it has been stalking pauses in its foraging, glancing around nervously. Tessla knows what will happen next--the prey animal will scent the predator and panic, rushing right under the jaguar's hunting spot. The cat will drop onto the victim with a guttural snarl, its weight crushing the smaller animal beneath it. It will waste no time in grasping the creature's neck, slicing through bone, tendon, and vein to kill it swiftly. After that, the hunt is over and dinner is served.

She knows this because she has spent years of her life researching her home and exploring every nook and cranny of the Jungle. Her travels keep her away from others, including her family, but she doesn't mind too much. She misses them, of course--especially Quark and Daeryssa, dear, precious Daeryssa--but she has had so many years to just explore and learn. She knows that she's nowhere close enough to knowing all of what the Jungle has to teach her, but perhaps it is time for her to actually be useful to the Jungle. She isn't a fighter like her mother was, or her siblings, but she has knowledge. That counts for something, right?

She has a lot that she needs to apologize to her sister about as well. Quark has been through so much and all Tessla has done is traipse around the Jungle. She should've been there for her. Especially after Nocturnal's... death. She refuses to think of it as a suicide out of cowardice. Noct wasn't a coward. She was a kind, loving mother and a fierce, loyal guardian. She was a brave soul and Quark's very best friend and soulmate. She was family to Tessla and she should've been with Quark more after her death. She failed her family for the sake of knowledge. Hopefully they can forgive their knowledge-thirsty sister and aunt.

This is one of the reasons she is emerging from her self-imposed exile. To beg forgiveness from her sister and to try to pledge her loyalty to the Jungle. She is nervous and shy but she is going to try.

She had been traveling back towards the Amazonian-populated part of the Jungle when she stumbled upon the jaguar, too intent on its prey to notice her. She has been standing still for several hours now, watching the unsuspecting prey draw closer and closer to the jaguar's hiding spot. She knows that if she accidentally startles the capybara, the jaguar is likely to come after her instead. She has studied the cats for too long to not know how they operate. She has no intention of dying, so here she will wait until the jaguar makes its kill. It'll happen soon anyways.

Almost as if she willed it into happening, the capybara spooks. Crashing through the sparse undergrowth, it heads right for the tree that the jaguar is roosting in. The cat screeches as it drops upon the capybara's shoulders, halting the mad dash of the prey animal. The jaguar doesn't prolong its suffering; sharp, yellowed fangs sink into the capybara's neck. Bright red blood spatters the Jungle floor and Tessla stiffens as the metallic stench washes over her, forcing herself to not look away. This is a learning experience. The jaguar's prey falls limp under the cat's teeth and it drops the capybara. The big cat glances towards her hiding place and she understands; it has allowed her to watch the hunt, but now it is time to leave.

She does not stick around to watch the feast.

[Rhy]

and when i breathed

my breath was lightning

Rhy never really got the chance to know Quark, though she wishes she had. The electric mare was a foal still when Quark ruled, and Rhy had stood on the border of the kingdom without anyone coming to find her. She heard the kingdom call and simply decided to go smashing her way through the Jungle. She says smashing because at the time, she could barely walk around here. Now, she moves with only the grace of someone who has spent the majority of their life inside the dark jungle could. But still, she recalls that day of her life all too well.

Quark had called and kingdom meeting, and then handed over the throne to Brunhild within less than a year after Rhy’s first introduction. But she remembers the look on Quark’s face when Rhy mentioned Kagerou. Rhy herself may have been born in the Dale, but her heritage was in the Jungle. She always was Kagerou’s granddaughter, even if she had never had the privilege of meeting her grandmother.

There were so many horses in Rhy’s family that she barely knew, or never met. Her parents left when she was only a year to take her sister away. Kora, so afraid of the electric in Rhy’s veins. Kora, who strangely had become the only real family in Rhy’s life now. She never knew Kagerou. She barely knew Quark. She didn’t really know her family on her Dad’s side, and they were all gone now as well. Scorch was the only real tie she had to Kagerou at all.

Rhy just simply kept going though. She threw herself into service of the Jungle, and the Sisters became her sisters. The Jungle became her family. She looks back, certainly. Wonders what her life might have been, if things had turned out differently. But in the end, this is her life. This is how it’s been, how it will be. And so she moved on.

Rhy senses the mare moving through the Jungle and the jaguar as well. The mare is new to Rhy, though there’s no fear. Still, Rhy goes invisible and finds the mare and the jaguar. The cat seems content to let the mare watch, and so Rhy doesn’t worry too much. The hunt is long, but the death is swift, and Rhy doesn’t think much of it. She’s seen this a thousand times now. One rare occasions, she has participated in the hunt itself (though she does not eat, and the Jungle cats do not seem to mind the aid of the strange lion in their midst).

The mare moves away quickly when the hunt is over, and Rhy follows, though she switches back to her normal, visible self. She nickers slightly, not trying to startle the girl. She simply chose to be invisible because she wouldn’t scare away the jaguar’s meal that way. “I’m Rhy,” she offers, when she catches up to the other. “You seem well versed in the ways of the Jungle.”

rhy

the electric lioness of riagan and rayelle

[Tessla]

She is well-versed in the Jungle’s ways—it has been her motivation for many years—but that does not mean that she understands everything that she sees. There is much about the Jungle’s intricate workings that she simply cannot comprehend. She knows that the jaguar hunts for food, not for sport. She knows that the humidity has a direct correlation to the constant drizzling in most—but not all—of the rainforest; that’s how it got its name. She knows that there is little undergrowth because not much light penetrates the leafy canopy overhead. All of these things she has a pretty basic understanding of.

But there is so much that she still doesn’t understand. What is it about the Jungle that makes it so humid and wet? Why isn’t there more undergrowth that doesn’t rely so much on sunlight? Why does it only rain in parts of the jungle? There is so much she has left to discover! She knows that some of the other Amazonians share that thirst for knowledge; surely not all of them are warrior women, though she knows that that is a very important part of their culture. But she knows that some of them, like her, have no taste for war.

She lost half of her family in war, in a war that was fought to save her nephew. Her family has grown and flourished since then, but no one will ever replace her mother and her dear brother. There are what drove Tessie into hiding in the first place, only emerging to visit with Quark and Quark’s children. It has been extremely lonely, but Tessla is so tired of loss. Losing your family hurts more than most could ever realize.

She does not get the chance to wander thoughtfully away from the jaguar’s kill, though there is so much on her mind that she feels as if her head might just burst. A soft whicker comes from behind her once she has put a safe distance between herself and the feasting jaguar and her pace falters as she glances over her shoulder. It is another mare, moving with the grace of someone who has lived here many years. Briefly, she is thankful that she doesn’t resemble her well-known yellow and white sister. They are similar and build but they had separate fathers, so they are not identical. This woman—Rhy—should not recognize her as Quark’s sister, though she should not be afraid of being recognized. “Hello,” she responds with a smile, turning to face Rhy. “I’m Tessla.”

Rhy’s comment makes her smile grow wider. “I have lived deep within the Jungle for many years,” she tells her. “I figured that there is no time like the present to finally swear my loyalty to her.”

Tessla

I don’t know where I’m going, but I’m figuring it out

[Rhy]

and when i breathed

my breath was lightning

Rhy is not a warrior. She doesn’t fight for sport, has never wanted to be part of the army. Words and smiles and diplomatic visits have always been her forte. But still, she has fought. She has killed the monsters as the world began to die. She has fought for her life and her freedom. And she is deadly. She is a lioness, she is electric, and she is dead already. There’s very little damage she cannot inflict on a horse without more than a blink of her eye. And there’s also something rather satisfying about digging sharp claws in the flesh of the monsters that tried to kill her, something strangely gratifying about the warm, sticky blood that sprays out from a fatal wound.

But though Rhy is powerful in those ways, she has always sought knowledge. Because that too, is a power. A different form, certainly, but you cannot win a battle if you do not know your enemy. It is also far easier to avoid them in general if you simply know where to step lightly. She keeps up mostly on the politics of other kingdoms, slipping into them as a ghost, unseen and unheard, and then disappearing again. It’s a handy little trait. Far easier than trying to pry information out of other well-trained diplomats.

Rhy did not lose her family in war though. She has no reason to dislike it, other than the fact war is a bloody, horrible waste. But she did lose her family. She was only a year when they left her behind, taking her scared sister far away from the electric in Rhy’s veins. She stumbled into the Jungle that day and tried not to look back. But she dreamed of the day that her parents would return, would find her in the Jungle, grown and successful. Amazing, as Brunhild had called her. No one had ever called her amazing before that.

But instead, she found her parents in the afterlife. Only her sister returned, and still, their relationship was tentative at best. It was growing stronger, Kora’s butterfly heart buried beneath the ice that flowed in her sister’s veins now. But her parents were dead. And she’d never met the brother she supposedly had. Rhy’s family, in so many ways, had always been the Sisters of the Jungle.

Even if Tessla had looked more like Quark, Rhy might not have placed the mare. That had been so long ago, and Rhy had been so young. She remembers the mare, certainly, but she does not trust the picture in her head. It has morphed over the years, becoming fuzzier, without details. Rhy tips her head just slightly at the comment that the mare has been here many years. So has Rhy, and she has made her way through every part of this Jungle. How had no one ever seen this other mare?

“It’s a pleasure, Tessla. But may I ask how you have avoided notice for so long?” It’s not a rude question, but rather a genuine curiosity.

rhy

the electric lioness of riagan and rayelle