The compliment from Tembovu did nothing to make her feel better as she heard the crunch from her attack, her knees feeling as though they turned to jelly. This spar wasn’t waking the fire within her, the anger, like she had expected it to. As of late that anger had been flickering under her surface, waiting for any excuse at all to be beckoned and often showing up in the most inconvenient times. She did not know how to control such a new emotion but now when she needed it, when she wanted the power it gave her, it had abandoned her and she was left cold with sorrow and regret. Perhaps the chill was just from the air and the cool water she had splashed into, though she certainly felt as though it went deeper.

Alysanne tried to focus on the purpose of this spar - she wanted to be trained, to learn, but was beginning to feel the cost was too great. How could she ask another one of her herd mates to do this with her? How could she cause them pain? Even if it was temporary, even if she planned on healing Tembovu as soon as she could catch her breath, it was too much. This was one of the prices she couldn’t pay to the Moon Goddess for her quest and now she was doing it anyway.

This didn’t feel light a light-hearted spar to her. It was torture.

In her daze and hesitation she had started to turn toward him, her wings held a little out from her side for balance and each hoof fall causing splashes in the chilly pond. She had been starting to say something, starting to call this spar off, but had forgotten they were trading attacks. As he had pivoted away from her she had moved toward him, noticing the shift in his weight at the last moment. Her wings flashed upward in surprise, fortunately getting them out of the way of the strike that landed on her side - causing her to stumble further into the chilly pond and a shriek of pain to escape from her. Her side ached, Tembovu’s massive hooves would leave a good bruise, but her breathing was not severely impaired and she hoped that meant none of the ribs had been broken with the strike. Lucky twice over, then, that her wing had been out of the way and that their angle had been such that the blow had been slightly glancing instead of square on or the damage might have been more severe.

It felt good to hurt, after what she had done to him, and only the knowledge that he could inflict more damage on her kept her going. Without any heart and with even less imagination, her right wing swung out low toward where she thought Tembovu was still - hoping both to spare his head any more trauma but and to speed this spar along to the point where she could heal him.

A: 3/3
WC: 504
Injuries: bruised ribs on right side
Summary: Alysanne turns to check on Tembovu and catches his kick on her right side, bruising a few of her ribs. Swings her wing low in a half-hearted attempt to catch his