As Circe's body rolled away from her kick, and her hooves met naught but air, Phaedra felt a painful twinge in her right thigh - that closest to where Circe should have been. Having kicked out with the expectation of contacting something, the spy had instead overextended, painfully jolting her thigh muscle as it returned weakly to her body.

It was an intimidating thing, to fight this beast of a mare on the ground - something she had not done with that one-eared child from the Edge. As the word loose fell from the executioner's lips, a genuine smile cracked Phaedra's nervous exterior. "Sugar, tell me something I don't know." She chimed, as she continued to smile at the darker mare. Was there any doubt as to the truth in Circe's words? Of course not. Had she ever been loyal to any stallion? Doubtful. Perhaps more loyal in certain cases, as with Tolio - but it was in fact the handsome new leader of this merry band, who had caused her to break her fidelity completely.

Just as her mouth opened to speak again, it sharply clamped shut as Circe charged from the darkness. With wings still outstretched Phae desperately tried to repeat the same flighted-hop that she had utilized to avoid Circe's first attack. However, she found the lush grasses to still be slick from the frozen ground which had begun to melt somewhat, even without the light of the sun, and found that her jarred leg was still too weak from her failed kick, to find purchase upon them. Stumbling forward, Phaedra tried to force herself into the air with the brute strength of her wings. She may have been able to do it, on another day, when fear and adrenaline weren't both nattering in her ears, and when she hadn't just spent hours the previous day avoiding a mare who threw sticks - maybe then, but not today. Achieving only marginal lift, it wasn't near fast, or high enough to avoid the dark mare's attacks, only to change their impact.

At what felt like the same time, for pain seems to muddy correct intervals of measure, Phaedra felt a bright pain flare up in her shoulder, at the same time as Circe's shoulder slammed onto her left side - feeling as though the impact hit her entire ribcage. As the air was knocked forcefully from Phaedra's lungs, the thought of Birch once again rushed to her mind - and how his body seemed to be able to touch all points of hers with one blow, just as Circe's had. Phaedra squealed loudly - sounding more like the beginning of one who is going to cry, rather than the battled hardened sounds that would surely come out of Circe, were she to be similarly injured. Her 'flight' was put to an end as her body was thrown to the right, her hind end swinging badly off balance, while her wings flapped ungracefully trying to right herself on the slippery grasses.

Tears of pain and embarrassment blossomed in her gaze, as her left wing weakly moved up and down, trying to determine if the bite, or the blow to her side had affected her ability to fly. Her gaze was blurred by tears, as she carefully moved her body to try and face the dark mare again. This time as she spoke, the anger did not need to be forced, and the pain was evident - and not only physical pain this time. " I am loyal to this family sugar, if not to a man." Her voice began to tremble as she spoke, head raised slightly as if to force gravity to hold the tears in her eyes. "I have done more than you ever have to prove myself here! And I-" As her voice escalated to a full yell - for a moment her thoughts split between her speech, and her companion. GO she thought to Stella, as her gaze dropped to squarely look at Circe. "-have been here longer!" - Doesn't that matter?!

As her bonded finished her sentence, Stella had already taken to the air. Her black eyes were trained upon the larger mare, as she was carried swiftly down. Aiming for Circe's loin-area, the bird's talons were outstretched. Her body was angled so as to try and evade a buck, should one come, and also prepared to scratch at anything else that should come her way. Part of the bird's mind wanted to resist Phaedra's mental command that she should not inflict the sort of damage done just hours ago to the whitish mare in the Edge - but how could she resist, with the emotional state her bonded had been reduced to?


[WC: 794
Attack: 2/3
M&C: 1/X
Summary: Phaedra takes damage from her missed kick. She tries to repeat the maneuver and fly away from Circe, but fails to given the wet grass, and her still-weak leg. Her body is only able to rotate slightly, so that Circe's bite hits her shoulder, and her shoulder hits her rib cage, hurting, and knocking her off balance. Stella attacks Circe's back while Phaedra cries about it. :| ]

Join the waves in the ocean?
Or let my soul fade away, in the dark?
Cause I've gone astray,
& all my flowers turned to dandelions.