» Together

VALKYRIE She stood in the storm Valkyrie really had more important things to do. Playing ‘heroes’ with society’s rejects and chasing marionette-trees just wasn’t going to win her the trophy the High-Maiden required, nor a ticket out of this hell. Ambling behind the crowd as they streamed along the path back to the beach, she found that a deep, niggling irritation was rapidly souring her mood: this troupe of blaring aesthetic blunders, was almost more than her compulsion for tidiness and order could cope with. The ugly, hulking monster with the weird blood and body-parts dangling about it like a necklace made no sense whatsoever; she wondered as it vanished through the timber ahead (or so it seemed, for the thing’s lumbering stride was enormous), whether it practiced being so repulsively hideous… At least there was one thing good about its body - it wasn’t nearly as ugly as its face. When she could no longer see it, the Shieldmaiden’s critical gaze fell upon ’prickle-face’: living proof that life could exist without a brain. Pretty pink lips parted around a cavernous yawn and her eyes rolled well back between tightly fastened lashes. Her head hurt… The rainforest was hot and humid, horribly so, and their progressive pace through it only made the experience more uncomfortable. Sweat broke behind Valkyrie’s ears, glossing the length of her mane covered neck and darkening the quiet rose hue nestled beneath the sauntering swing of her flanks. Behind the delicate curve of her golden helm, pallid feathers were fanned and the fine arms which wielded them drooped clear the heat radiating from her skin. Sinewy sloping shoulders were slumped in a rather indiscreet show of botheration and the next rising out from between them sagged like a dehydrated sapling… water, how she would have loved to guzzle the contents of a lake at that moment. There was no sign or scent of relief, however, and she was forced to endure. ...to tread the heels of nerdy misfits, so she could at least find her way back to the ocean.     Then she would soak (she had earned it). Cleanse herself, at last, of this entire ordeal. Hours later, they filed one by one out onto the beach before the queer folk of the Rift. The trunked woman still stood amongst their mingling mass, waiting; smile broadening, for apparently their return was intended and well appreciated. Valkyrie lagged behind the rest, an air of confused curiosity corroding her confidence, but the wilt in her stride as she paused near the back evaporated when she caught sight of little Vynter. There was a glint upon his rump that hadn’t been there before, and her narrowing eyes honed in on it, guiding forth her splendid frame until she was near enough to inspect it (but not feel his measly wrath should her presence there surprise him) - men were incapable of multitasking, after all. and when the wind did not blow her way, she adjusted her sails.

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@Vynter