Wake early, take more!

VALKYRIE She stood in the storm As the morning wore on and their search amounted to nothing, Valkyrie grew bored and impatient. Had it not been for the vambraces tethered to her forelegs, her reckless wandering and increasingly lazy attempt to conceal herself, might have delivered any predator upon them; they erased each print meticulously, though did little to muffle the recklessness of her gait. Once or twice the goddess who pursued her delivered a timely reminder, a nudge or a nip, drawing the wandering thoughts of the Shieldmaiden back to the task at hand. The second, thankfully, came at a most critical moment— A clearing, brighter than the timber forest surrounding Utwaritace and airier, stood visible, ahead of their pathless passage and Valkyrie paused quickly with one knee lifted and her white ears pressed forward. A figure was poised in the open, motionless—perhaps sleeping—with a tail, tipped with delicate gold, slumped down heavily at the front, well, back; behind her. A smug grin passed across the watching winged horse’s pastel lips as she turned her head back to address K’yarie. “I think that’s her…” she whispered, voice twisted by the wickedness of her intention. To be certain, the Shieldmaiden needed to skirt around, masked by the cover of the trees, and find the black on the stranger’s other half—the real front. Quietly she moved, with more care than the journey thus far, for she now had the desires of both she and her celestial queen riding squarely upon her shoulders. Valkyrie arrived, and as she stared, blue eyes ravenously devouring the other’s features, she was more than delighted to discover the spear perched upon the earth to the side. “It is!” she mouthed with her head again swivelled back, and pearly teeth flashed her excitement through a grin. After a sensible moment longer spent assessing the scene, holding her breath, the enthusiastic Shieldmaiden slithered forward with all of the cunning discretion of a snake through the grass; the sly smile spread candidly across her face grew a little bigger. She drank the strange flavour of the other deeply as she moved, searching for any shift in pheromone or suggestion that she might be stirring from sleep—of course she never did, Valkyrie was as smooth and secretive as the thief she’d become and retrieving the folded spear in her gently grasping teeth, she recoiled with remarkable swiftness, vanishing back into the wood. and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.

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@K'yarie - I'm going to drop Zahra in here next