Uwaritace
The pastel mare too froze in place, stark bright stare set upon the group which had been ambling beneath her silent watch, between the dim, dead-looking wood of their home. It was an entirely different world now, gripped in glistening frost, stalagmites clinging any horizontal surface yet strong enough to support the weight of smooth ice and for the most part, Valkyrie felt quite at home. Her skin trembled wildly, though not for the chill of the ageing day, for her coat by now had thickened into a cosy woollen rug, mirroring the anticipating drum of her rising heart rate; adrenaline seeped slowly through her veins, calling heat and readiness to every joint, each limber ligament, and tendon against bone. The rash-minded Shieldmaiden was eager, filled with brazen courage and stubborn determination. It wasn’t immediately clear whether she’d been seen, only that she’d been noticed; his thick skull swivelled above apparently neckless shoulders but seemed not to focus the face towards any true direction. Valkyrie shifted her weight slowly, carefully, without severing her eyes from the target—the hairless beast at the head of his harem, the glorious shield crowing his ugly face. For as long as he remained there, she too waited, battling the barrage of scenarios rising to the forefront of her mind: launching forward with the element of surprise to back her, skirting them and picking off the rear… Nothing seemed clear, however. No single idea stood out above the rest. The adolescent was growing impatient, eventually recognising the sting of danger and rebuking it bitterly. In a bid to feed her own self-confidence, she pulled free a selection of gratifying memories, victories on the slopes of Sunnmōre, monsters evaded in the Rift (and men, their cockiness beat down), so too the time she had sacrificed herself for magical reward—this encounter too, would be honoured with power, the ability to persuade. A smile slithered slyly into the soft, rosy point of her cursed facade. No gain without pain, she reminded herself silently, encouragingly. The winged-ones teeth fastened around the leather binding her spear. It occurred to her suddenly, that the Galeae’s focus had centred, on her. One white satellite swivelled backwards apprehensively and the opposite fore-hoof did the same. Valkyrie strained to think of something that would split their united strength—a diversion. Fixing her ears towards the group, she pulled her eyes clear and searched the far side for a loose object, rock or stick perhaps, and found rather more interestingly a tree further afield still with trademark black back and (if she tilted her head slightly), the wink of something smoother nestled between grooves. A Deviltree!… she almost blurted aloud, biting down hard on the tongue that sought to betray her loose guise of stillness. Summoning forth the magical energy in her blood, she willed a charred-looking stick—probably its own—to lift and smack the surface. |
Notes: Valkyrie is trying to wake Gem Fairies.
