Isopia could feel her mind metaphorically tensing as Shida opened her lips to respond. If the mare's past retorts were any indication of what was to come, Isopia couldn't help but feel slightly nauseous in anticipation. She needed Shida to have a good reason to want to die. This needed to be more than just some poorly thought out grab for attention. It was her life after all, and even if Shida was done with it, the stain of that snuffed-out-flame would forever be a scar on Isopia's soul.

It had to mean something.

Didn't it?

Isopia had been ready for a stream of expletives and obnoxious comments. What she hadn't been ready for were the words that in fact left the dun's mouth. They sounded weighty with meaning, pregnant with an idea that Isopia couldn't comprehend. The way Shida said that life was done with her, sounded more like there was an actual objective thing called life, that had made the choice to do away with her, rather than the standard metaphorical meaning. And just words on a page? Why did that sound as if it meant something? Another mind suddenly crowded into Isopia's own; Babel was now interested in the conversation. She could feel his black eyes growing round and fixating on Shida, a voracious interest suddenly bubbling inside of him. She knows something you don't, he thinks, Hubris interpreted for his smaller sibling. Isopia flickered an ear in their direction, wondering what they could possibly mean, when the earth suddenly exploded beneath her once again.

Debris and other bits of organic matter ruptured from beneath Isopia. Rocks and dirt struck the underside of her leathery, draconic body, causing the wind to spill out of her slightly agape jaws. Immediately her teeth snapped together, trying to hold in the howl of pain that had ignited in the back of her throat. It pressed outwards, pushing her tongue down and making her salivate, but still Isopia kept her jaws shut. She would contain her emotions, even if she couldn't contain or understand what was happening around her.

Dull and circular imprints of pain bloomed on her belly where the earth had erupted to meet her. Staggering backwards off of the ruined ground, Isopia's sharp golden eyes sought out Shida, wanting to pause this murderous fight and learn whatever it was the mare was talking about.

"It seems like you're done with it. It can't be done with you. You're the one doing this." She began, her voice awkward and not s academically confident as it normally was.

Reaching at the ground beneath Shida, Isopia tried to mimic the mare's attack. Although the couldn't make the ground explode, she could cause rocky formations to jut out from inside of it, and that was almost the same thing. Isopia's intent was to have a spire of rock hit Shida's belly, just as Shida's attack had done to her. Enough to wind her and possibly immobilize her, but not kill her. Not yet. Isopia wanted to know more.

Needed to know it.