Here in the thunder and roar of battle, the fury and the blood, it did not matter where they were.
They might have been in Ravos, land of half-tamed gods that made crooked deals with the mortals they ruled; they might have been in the riftlands, where the only god was magic and time was diseased. Monsters crawled from every crack in the earth, there – monsters like this.
All she knew (other than each swing of her weapon, each scream of her throat, each lash of her hooves) was that Calliope fought beside her, and Raymond before her, and that this was the home she’d chosen.
Lightning cracked across the sky, making everything stark and without shadow, and the rumble that followed then was not only thunder. With another bird down and dying at her feet, Shrike turned to see what caused the rumble of the earth beneath her, and was met with a walking hillock of a beast - for a moment her pounding heart stuttered in her chest until it went to Raymond’s side, aiding him.
She had time then for a glance at Calliope, lit with more than battle-passion and righteous fury, and the paint had time only to grin and lick her bloodied teeth, her weapon half-forgotten, lowering at her side –
Shrike paid for her momentary pause. The sound of it hidden in the cacophony, a thunderbird swept down behind her, and she only turned at the sudden gust created by its wings. It was too late; before she could heft her weapon again its talons seized her by hair and hide. Her hooves scraped first ground and then air as she screamed her black and crimson rage; no amount of struggling let her strike its transparent belly, where veins ran blue and organs pulsed just out of reach. The flail lay out of reach on the ground, which receded slowly as the bird struggled with her thrashing weight.
Oh, how she longed for her magic then! Another bolt of lightning (unicorn or sky? She could not tell) split the world as Shrike rose with the laboring bird, first only a few feet above the ground but further with each second.
don't do much these days
keep the wolves at bay
keep the wolves at bay
@Raymond @Calliope @Pavetta someone save Shrike D:
