Auriel

It didn't work.

Nothing I did worked. His skin, so close, so warm against my own, did it distract me? Was that it? I had done my best to free myself from the darkness he had encompassed around me, but my efforts did next to nothing in getting him away. He evaded it all. I was floundering amidst my own failure, but he was still there, still overshadowing me.

There was no end to the force he exerted onto me. It was overwhelming, it was pure turmoil for me. I was weak. The invasion was two years ago, but this proved I was still no stronger. I was still small, still weak, still less than my attacker. A part of me simply wanted to flee, like that day. I glanced backward, looking for an escape from him, hoping that I had a chance to run, just in case.

I could just run away, far away...

And then what? Would Shida care enough to try and help me? What would my mother think of me? I would be a puddle compared to the icebound.

These thoughts rushed through my mind quickly, but he was quicker. Before I knew it, his chest was against my left shoulder. This time hurt more than the last. It stung, it burned, it made my chest ache and ache, but it was not nearly as painful as the ache I felt knowing I was a puddle. My breath was knocked from my lungs in a haze of onyx, swirling smoke, engulfing my vision before dissipating and leaving me to deal with the aftermath of his attack. I was forced backwards again (again, again, time after time, my life was running in circles, I was a broken, repeating record, again, again, AGAIN). I felt his teeth on my neck again, multiple bites, some stinging and some bruising. But after having felt his teeth before, they did not hurt as much as the second time. I figured this attack would be a rehash of the one that preceded it, but Volterra did not let me have that assumption. The earth beneath my left hind hoof moved up and sent the rest of my body falling to the right, the force of his chest aiding my descent.

The moment was dizzying, tempting to pass me by and leave me to fall. Alone, the resignation I felt was enough to make me feel as if I could let it happen after all. But I harbored more emotions. In that instance, my anger surged over my hopelessness. The time I spent alone, growing up without my sister, losing my mother, being stepped on by my father - I couldn't let it happen it again. I had to be stronger, I had to prove myself as better, at least better than I was that day. I couldn't let him take that from me.

I picked my left hoof up and used my right to launch myself to the left of my opponent. If he wanted me to go right, then so be it, I would go right. I thrashed away from him, bringing my wing up and aiming it at his jaw. I didn't want his teeth on my neck anymore, either. But the motions pained me, the ache he had left in my chest was still present and my breathing wasn't quite normal. Stepping away from him was painful, too. He was still hurting me, still a phantom gripping my nerves despite not being there anymore.

I let him get too close. I let him do this. But there would be no more of that. I would pick up the pieces of the battle the same way I picked up the pieces of my family. I didn't want him to be close to me anymore, I didn't want his body overpowering my own. He had no right to hold his height over me, to throw himself around so carelessly. He had knocked me over one time too many and I had no problem letting him know.

I screamed.

I poured my anger, my frustration, my helplessness into it, and invoked a magic I didn't remember having. But, oh, it felt good to dangle that over him. I turned my scream directly at his left ear, hoping that this would edge him a bit farther away this time. After all, I didn't know what this magic would do to him. I supposed it was possible I could make him deaf, and being deaf did not sound pleasurable to me.

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@Volterra
WC: 756
Attack: 2/3

she belongs to the fire