Navy eyes watched the slight shrug of her slender shoulders as she answered him, speaking of familial love and her sister. His silvered buckskin hide instinctively rippled as her assessing blue eyes travelled over it and his own muzzle quirked up in response to her lovely smirk. Navy eyes dropped to the sharp, opalescent horn point aimed at his broad chest. The lilt of her voice as she questioned him stirred something deep in his barrel, but before he could react to any masculine urges, shock replaced them when the pale palomino and her bright companion disappeared before him.

Cloaked in magic, the noise of his opponents’ moves bounced between the trees. Black-rimmed ears swiveled and twitched, trying to locate his sleuth; great skull drew up, navy eyes widening in vain as they tried to see the unseeable. Nostrils flared, but scent told him only that the deer and mare were close. It did not reveal their positions.

And so the King was helpless to prevent the sudden, light scraping of skin on his sides. The many tines of Tin’s antlers barely rose high enough to scrape along the bottom of his barrel, leaving annoying welts more similar bug bites than battle wounds. Raeden’s sharp horn, however, left a thin, shallow slice through his thick hide that traced along the back marking of his barrel. The wound was bright white, at first, against the onyx marking, but quickly switched to red as blood slowly welled from broken vessels in his skin.

A harsh snort pushed out his nostrils, but it was overwhelmed by Mbwene’s infuriated trumpet. Indeed, the small pachyderm that had been hovering behind the King immediately charged the cerndyr the moment his camouflage lifted, despite the mental commands of Tembovu for her to stay out of the fight. She was still a calf! Her young skin could easily be ripped by the Tin’s sharp tines. But, with ears waving and small tusks brandished, the tiny matriarch ignored her bonded and tried to catch the deer off-guard with her charge.

The King, likewise, tried to catch his opponent off-balance as his haunches immediately bunched and lashed out towards the source of Raeden’s horned attack— to his left. Though she was still cloaked by Tin’s magic and his double-barrel kick was blind, his broad hooves and giant hind end covered enough area for him to hope that he’d land a blow on the invisible woman.

“Good, Raeden,” his words came out on a grunt, exhilarated despite the sluggishly bleeding wound on his side, “I didn’t know you could hide in plain sight.” A roguish grin plastered on his muzzle.


WC: 443
A: 1/3
Setting: WE's forested borders, moderate mist @Raeden
Summary: Tembo aims a double barrel kick in the vicinity of invisible Raeden when she runs past him and Mbwene charges Tin when he becomes visible
Damage tracker: Welt on right barrel, skin on left barrel