Kianzo

I loathe your prayer. I wallow in sin. Let the nightmare begin.

It is the youthful arrogance that has imbued the dark prince’s blood since his birth that does not make him question that his command will be obeyed—but that does not stop his shock at the manner in which the fleeing filly returns. His gaze darts from its wary ducks of the bear’s deadly paw as the gargoyle queen dashes back, navy blue drawn to the sweat that slicked her thick mane to her equally thick, muscular neck. There was no femininity there, not like the colt was used to in females—nothing to draw, entice, flirt with the gaze. But. Still. His gaze lingered for a moment. Perhaps from the symbiotic effect adrenaline had with testosterone. Or, perhaps it was the blood dripping down the deep, jugular grooves of her throat…

Regardless, his gaze could not linger there long as it was instantly jerked to the hyenas made of sparks that leapt from her sweat-slicked skin. His dark brows rose slightly, and Keusi’s interest was piqued—but for mere nano seconds, as a sudden dangerous and pained bellow and sizzling skin brought their attention back to a close swipe of the bear’s sharp claws.

Both prince and hyena darted backwards—seeking to go abreast with their strangely found ally.

But she was gone, leaping for the beast’s bloody flank— “Wait—” but any more of his deep bellow was cut off as he watched in gruesome shock as the filly sucked the bear’s wound. Dark blue eyes grew wide as his thick lips puckered in awed disgust, his own magical ash hyenas falling away as his focus shifted entirely to whatever this filly was doing…

..and then she became the bear…

Became. The. Bear.

Perhaps, with a sire that could shift into an elephant and the Edge herd members that could shift into just about anything else, the dark colt shouldn’t have been quite as shocked as he was. But to see a yearling filly slightly smaller than himself shift into a gargantuan bear… It took Kianzo by surprise. And then, to see her so assuredly mount the bear (as a bear) like a stallion without any hesitation… Things shifted in the dark colt. Southern things, heated things, that were aroused by such a display of power.

Keusi, meanwhile, yipped a gleeful and haunting laugh as she immediately realized the weakness the grey filly other bear was exposing in the already wounded prey. The striped hyena was already coiling her explosively powerful haunches the moment the bear-filly’s ferociously snarled command ripped the red air between them. And, though the hyena had bone crushing jaws, there was a pause in her leap as her eyes warily watched the bears still mobile forelimbs.

Kianzo, however, sent to ashen hyenas to confine the bear’s shoulders, jaws, and forelegs while leaping forward toward its neck. However, upon reaching the neck so gloriously outstretched by the bear-filly, he paused. His sharp navy eyes looked deep into the bear’s white-rimmed, brown eyes, finding them flecked with black and honey. His gaze roved from one to the other, seeing the outstanding red capillaries that bulged in fear and fury against its sclera.

And then he glanced up to the bear-filly’s gaze, bright blue lingering her strained electric depths. Then, with a dark smirk, he dipped his head and plunging his viciously long and sharp, spiraled length into the thick, warm flesh. Red flashed out in pulses—a gurgled roar was choked off and the golden yearling barely had enough time to escape out from beneath the now-limp form.

A silence filled the clearing—where, moments before, life and death had struggled in roars, shouts, with magical sparks and ash. Blood stained the gold of his face and stung his eyes as it dripped down his horn. But his sharp blue gaze was trained only on his unexpected ally.

“So. Blood, hyenas, and bears?” Keusi yipped, eyes glancing to the skies (she was used to sharing her meal with Khairi, and so her attention was on the eagle of earlier), “And eagles?” Kianzo tacked on as an afterthought with Keusi’s mental questions. His thick tail swayed around his golden hocks as he closely studied the gargoyle queen.

The hyena, herself, lapped at the pooling, steaming liquid. She nipped up an already-forming blood clot with her incisors, gleefully swinging the gruesome trophy around the red willows.