Thunder spoke, but it was not of the clouds.
Her footfalls were an entire thunderclap, steady and determined as the Mother of Companions arrived at the dunes with an arsenal of weaponry readied and wielded. Armed with toothy collars and phantom steel, the Sultana appeared spikier than any cactus - or was it just her dagger-like eyes? Perhaps they were her sharpest blade of all.
The constrictor upon the thief’s crown reared his head in anticipation, forked tongue briefly peaking out of his lips to taste what might have approached. Due to his poor eyesight, it was necessary to attempt a taste at the air and what it held. Toulouse though, had a perfect view of the woman and was soon to eye the rival’s own bonded. A parrot? The Sultana had arrived to battle with… a parrot?

It seemed the Sultana would not tarry though, and as the rain pelting his elegantly cloaked hide began to slow, the thief found himself under the gaze of the Mother. Tink, tink, tink - rain upon armor was awfully loud, even the kind that caused you to seemingly dissapear into the night. Sucking in a breath, the kind that could not be silenced (and that he deeply regretted) Toulouse felt her knife-like gaze upon the dune where he stood and, suddenly, his feet felt the urge to move. Just one step would be all it took to give away his location, and so the gelding remained frozen, rigid and painfully still as his rival welcomed the power from the atmosphere into her midst.
Magic.

It seemed as all sound was ceasing when the Sultana’s magic took a hold of it, nothing but vibrant hisses and whip-like zaps carrying urgency and fear across the air. Toulouse knew what that was. Only a few weeks prior Oizys had used a similar attack on him.
The dogs emerged, approached, hissing and barking as their assault began. Indesicion gripped him, holding him in place as he weighed up the consequences of giving up his exact location over that zap and pang of a shock. Either would potentially leave him without victory.
Closer and closer they came, and finally he had an answer as he gazed into their jaws. Toulouse knew what that felt like, he knew that bite.

Just a second longer and he would have been shocked into oblivion, though luckily the beast had managed to snag himself a brilliant leap to the left of the lashing surge, the fluorescent light of which illuminating his legs and underbelly as he stormed to the side. A back pastern, soft and fleshy, was snagged by a whip-like spark upon his devious dash, causing him to grit his teeth against the torment and pain as his right back leg locked momentarily to brace against the shock and burn. He took a few limping paces and he continued his escape, excluding his injured hock from his step for a small number of awkward strides as he assessed it’s damage; minimal, just annoyingly painful.
Not a moment later the gelding’s sights were fixed back upon the dark woman, arching his back and spine to build power from his hind as he quickly planned his assault.

Drawing the bullwhip from it’s place around his neck, Toulouse expertly held it by the handle between his teeth as his paces took him closer to his target. Boomslang gave a quiet hiss of his own, once again tasting the air as their rival’s heat signature came into the his view.
There was not a moment to loose; The gelding would act now before he was discovered. His strides becoming longer, faster, he approached.

Rearing his head high and striking out to the air with his two front feet, Toulouse sought to gain enough momentum to send the whip’s lash belting down around Ampere’s front right leg. The gelding aimed for one of the most forgiving points, the pastern, in the hopes of plucking it out from under her as he began his next move.
His spine still arched, horns at the ready, A grunt came to escape his nares as he pushed himself off of powerful hindquarters, all with the plot to drive his horns into her hip and even spill her over, all the while keeping a firm grip upon the end of the Bullwhip’s handle. It was early days, but for now the thief felt as though he had the upper hand.