The winter chill is like an old friend to her now, a decidedly familiar acquaintance that beads her breath and frosts the air that comes from her nostrils. She embraces the frigid temperatures, and simply thanks her good fortune that it's a far cry from the sweltering heat of summer. She slips through the Threshold, eager to do her part for the herd by trying to recruit new members. Despite the cold. If that's not dedication, she doesn't know what is.

Her lion is much less fussed about the snowy ground. He's only disgruntled that hunting is so much more effort when he has to dig for his dinner, but Nyx knows he enjoys the fact that this makes the hunt last longer. No rabbit or vole is safe from his clutches as he throws himself through the snow, easily blending in with it and stealthing up on his prey with his wide, furry paws acting like snow-shoes. Whilst Nyx sinks in up to her fetlocks, Dominus skates easily across the surface, diving face-down into a burrow and emerging with a still-twitching hare between his bloodied jaws. He makes a point of ignoring Nyx's disgust and carrying it alongside her, crimson oozing down his chin.

When the lion sees the dragon, he growls around his dinner, his tail lashing as he sends a vision to Nyx. Flying prey, he states, but the silver mare's heart has already begun to thud. She recognises that dragon - it is the white belonging to none other than Lace. Her stride lengthens into a flowing trot, stepping high over the snowdrifts, eager to reach the man she has always had an immense soft spot for. To think of the irony - he brought her to the Edge when she first entered Helovia, and now she will do her level best to bring him back with her. Role reversal at its finest.

She sees him in all his cobweb-faced glory, and her face splits into a broad smile. Air huffs gently from her nostrils as she reaches out her muzzle to try and touch to his own, tentatively, softly, the greeting of an old friend. "Lace," she greets. He is a good friend, a fine ally, and so attractive it shouldn't be allowed...Dominus gurgles irritably around his hare, before settling down to eat it whilst side-eyeing Fajira with disgust. Blood squirts up the steel soldier's foreleg, but she hardly notices - she only has eyes for the white dragon's bonded. "It's good to see you again, friend." Why did you leave?

______________________

@[Lace] LAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA*breathe*AAAAAAACEEEEE <33

With a savage tug, Dominus tears the rabbit's head from its fixings. It rolls away a short distance and, after snapping up the rest of the carcass, the lion begins to play with the head. He bats it from paw to paw, rolling it across the snow and then biting it until its skull cracks, all the time keeping his eye on the dragon, daring her to try and take it. Is she noms? he questions his bonded, and the mare gives him a whithering glance. "Go for it. You'll look great with half your mane burned to dust." The thought sobers the giant feline, and with an irritable grunt he goes back to playing with the head.

Nyx looks back to Lace, not even noticing him giving her the once-over because she's doing exactly the same to him. She feels guilty for doing so, because after all, hadn't she promised to have a spar-with-possible-added-sexytimes with handsome young Déodat? But she can still look, and look she does. He's aged well, like fine wine. He is still the same man that her father so respected, but he's older now, harder. When they met back in the time of Isilme, she'd always thought him sort of...innocent. Not now.

He pulls her close and she bends willingly into the embrace, a small and gentle whicker of pleasure leaving her flared nostrils. "So do you," she says, dragging her gaze from him with one flick of her icy eyes. He asks what's come of the Edge, and the steel soldier gives a small snort. Where to start?

"I'm unsure when you left, but when I returned after leaving to find my father, I was brought back to the Edge by a mare named Resplendence. I found it ruled by Kaj and Kahlua still, but also a stallion called Archibald. There'd been some...trouble within the herd, as they were currently sheltering the Moon Goddess, who'd apparently gone on a bit of a murder spree." She's also found the glass wall shattered to pieces, to her dismay. At the memory, Dominus grunts angrily, remembering the vicious stab of broken glass into his paw. "Shortly after I joined, we invaded the Hidden Falls. I've got no idea why, I just know I was asked to remain in the Edge and guard against any counter-invasion. I wasn't best pleased." She laughs, short and sharp. She can laugh about it now, but she'd been furious at the time about missing her chance to bathe her horn in blood.

"After the invasion, the herd split in two - some of us remained in the Edge, whereas some moved to the Falls. Kaj and Archibald took the Falls' crown, and Kahlua held a contest of sorts to determine the Edge's new leaders. It was stressful, to say the least, and a couple of the herds' residents made their disapproval of the choices clear. I damn near ran a gobby little grullo shitbag through with my horn." Not knowing she's fantasizing about the stabbing of Lace's own son, of course. "Anyway, two new kings were chosen. A unicorn named Mauja, and a black two-horned guy called Torleik." She'd finally learnt Black Hottie's real name in the most recent meeting.

She looks to him then. "So what have you been up to?"

______________________

@[Lace]

The dragon takes him up on his challenge, and the lion gives a hiss of delight. He presses one paw down hard on the head and his other paw lifts, claws popping free of their sheaths and extending savagely upwards, hooking his barbed talons in preparation to rip through tender wing-flesh...

But she swerves, and the cobweb-stallion's sudden explosive rage drags a thunderous roar from the lion's gaping jaws. He rises, preparing to leap, to protect - but Nyx mentally hauls him back. She, too, is shocked at Lace's display of emotion, because he'd always struck her as so calm, so cold. Evidently there is a beast in every man. "Can I, uh, assume you don't like Archibald?" He wasn't exactly her bosom-buddy either, but she respected him as one of the few to have defeated her in battle.

Her story incites more ire from Lace, and she's almost quelled by it. "They were chosen based on who could best protect the herd using their tactics. Torleik is the military lead, who organises the soldiers like myself, whereas Mauja is the more diplomatic lead." Which is a shitload of irony considering the things the spotted one had told her about his murder-happy ways. She fixes Lace with her icy stare. "What history is there between you and these men?" Had he fought with them? Had they stolen his favourite woman, slaughtered his child? He paces, and her gaze follows him, tail twitching anxiously. She's never seen him like this, and she doesn't like it.

"As for the war taking place without consent...I confess I'm unsure. I only know what I was told, and I assume the decision to invade was not taken lightly." Helovia isn't like Isilme, wars aren't a daily passtime. She knows the leads wouldn't endanger the herd without good reason, especially not Kahlua. At Lace's concerns about Mauja, the silver twitches her head. "Mauja has told me some things about his past, but in spite of that I think he is a good man, Lace. I wouldn't say I trust him, but I respect him and I believe he wants what's best for the Edge. Torleik is an unknown quantity, as I've never spoken directly to him. He gets a gold medal for handsome brooding, though." Whoops, did I say that out loud?

He turns, and she looks back to him. "Maybe you should come back there with me, to try and right these wrongs?" Her expression is hopeful. She'd love to have him back living with her again, and she's sure he could put forward some good ideas to improve the herd.

Fajira swoops for the head, and Dominus releases an anguished bellow as she snatches it from him. Again his hooked claws reach out, attempting to grab hold of both sides of her svelte, long tail to try and rasp his talons down each side of it and attempt to drag her down to earth. How dare she take a cat's prize! Nyx turns to him with a hiss, but she's powerless to stop him when he loses his temper. Like her, he has something of the storm in him.

He nearly killed Fajira. The silver snorts her displeasure, casting a glance down to Dominus. They might argue often, they might not always see eye to eye, and Nyx might want to slap him silly sometimes, but she loved him. Would die for him. If something happened to him, if he was killed...she couldn't imagine the emptiness. "I understand," she murmurs, continuing to look down at the lion. But, says the little voice in her head, crawling like a cockroach through her thoughts; you did the same thing. When she fought Archibald, had she not aimed a double-barrelled kick at his bonded? If she'd hit full-force, could she have not killed the dog and condemned the stallion to emptiness? How could she judge? She'd been afraid, deathly scared of carnivores - ironic, given what she was now bonded to - and had reacted accordingly. What if Archibald had done the same?

But she says nothing, worrying that Lace will judge her if he knows what she almost did.

Her head and ears prick as the grullo explains that Mauja had ruled the Edge before - no, she hadn't known that. Unicorn supremists. She twitches. Oddly enough, she seems to befriend a lot of unicorn supremists, even though she does not share their beliefs. Mauja, d'Artagnan, Déodat, all men who made their racism evident, brazen and unashamed...the mare had never understood it. She'd lain with kings without horns, with wings and not, and borne hybrid children for them. She was good friends with Lace, an equine. Yet she consorted with racists, and turned a blind eye to their behaviour. What did that make her?

"The Edge is mixed-race now, despite being ruled by two unicorns. I think...perhaps racism is something you grow out of. A disease that you eliminate." Nyx's parents had had the right idea. Create an army based on strength, not based on what species you were. How successful they'd been! Admittedly Adalwulf had also managed to create a gigantic army made only of equines, but he'd been the exception, not the rule.

The soldier is distracted by a savage hiss, and watches Dominus' claws glance off the dragon's scales. He retreats, the tail whisking narrowly over his head, death-glaring the flying dragon. In a display of feline pride, he turns his back on Fajira then proceeds to clean his claw-sheaths with a barbed tongue, studiously ignoring her attempts to goad him into jumping for the head. Kings like him do not play with lesser species. Nyx can feel his disgust at the loss of his toy, and snorts her amusement.

At the mention of Torleik, the silver's eyes widen. Oh, Cinnoru - I remember. That's why Black Hottie had looked so familiar. It had happened shortly after she joined the Edge the first time and she'd been there, watching, as Torleik and his young companion came to the great glass wall. There'd been an altercation between him and Lace, and Nyx had watched in horror as everything spiralled into madness. The things Lace had said about unicorns had shaken her to her core, given she was one. "Damn. I'd forgotten about that." Her head swings thoughtfully to the side, resting one front hoof as she muses over the memory.

Given his history with the leaders, she isn't surprised when he hesitates about joining her. Disappointment stabs an arrow through her heart, but she can understand the decision. "The only thing I can hope is that time has mellowed both their stance and yours, Lace. I would love to have you living with me again - I don't have many friends, but you're one of them." She manages to summon up a somewhat weak smile.

A mere soldier, unconcerned with politics. She winces. That's what she is, down to a tee. If Mauja or Torleik commands her to attack something or someone, she will do so, and ask questions later. She has always been a follower, not a leader - a gun for hire, not a queen. Neither Mauja nor Torleik have yet earned her devout loyalty, because neither of them have defeated her in battle and that's her barometer for offering her services without question, but she does respect them and would likely do exactly as they commanded. "I'm prepared for those consequences," she says, looking at him straight. "Maybe....maybe the Edge needs more people like you, who will question the leaders' decisions, rather than people like me, who just go along with them without batting an eyelid."