My attempts at pushing the painted stallion back had worked, and for that I allowed myself a brief moment of success to ring in my mind. Though, as my attempts to grab his flesh failed, I was surprised at the amount of pressure I had given him to give me room. He had moved to my right just enough to evade my teeth. At least I finally had breathing room. My blue eyes searched for his, locking with them momentarily but all I could see was black. I searched for a second to try and spot something aside from the dark and cold I felt from his gaze. Ears flickered momentarily as I felt the pain in my chest begin to grow with the pressure of pain from his attack as well as mine. I began to grow distracted from the pain and bruises forming on my pelt, but at least I had gotten the space I needed.

My pulse raced, my breathing grew heavy, and I made a crucial mistake. I took my eyes off of him for a split second, only to see him rush at me. I barely had any time to recoup from our collision and he was charging me again. Pressing my ears flat against my skull, I recoiled my head to my chest with the idea in mind that he would run at my front again, but I was wrong. He ran at me and I blinked for a moment, only to see the flighty tail behind the stag whip near my face. I pulled my head further toward my chest, tucking it in momentarily before realizing he had reached my right side after he had just distracted me with the idea that he might just focus my left. My eyes grew wide and I pushed my neck out, reaching for perhaps more room. I went to reach my head around, trying to land my eyes on Ashamin - but that failed as well. He collided with me, crashing into my right side with a force I had never felt before. I stumbled to my left, back legs slipping against the earth and scrambling to reach stability once more. At this point, all the breath I had in my lungs had escaped into a rush; a grunt thrown out into the air of the fading daylight. The swift realization that he wasn't going to play nice seemed to hit me like a brick, and I wouldn't let him down.

Once my legs had reached stable ground, I turned toward the Haruspex in a quarter of a circle, hooves raking across the earth as I reached up, rearing toward him. Aiming to land on that snake of a tail that chased after him like a madman. Hoping to land on his ever so long tail, I pushed off of my sore hind legs, extending my head from my chest in the attempts to graze my crowned horn along his right hip. I didn't want to maim him, but I did want to draw blood. He was such a kind and gentle soul, at least so I thought. I couldn't shake the emotionless gaze that had locked with mine. I just needed to remember that if he wanted me dead, chances are, I would have been already.

I did my best to catch my breath in all this movement, but I felt as though I was failing. My muscles twitched from use I hadn't known before and my body ached with bruises and pain. My blue eyes grew darker in the fading light, the dying lights of the sky graced the two of us as we danced in what seemed to me like a barbaric game of pain. I began to regret accepting his spar all together, especially knowing that Lochan could strike at any moment. I also felt as though I didn't know anything about the painted stallion anymore. Did he have any tricks under his sleeve? Would he just need to rough me up and end me? Or was it all in the name of 'good fun'? All I knew is that I did my best to treat it with a light heart, but it was hard to do with a broken heart and battered body.

"Talk."
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Word Count: 711/800
Attack: 2/3
Summary: Successful in pushing Ashamin away from her, she gets distracted by having space between them. When Ashamin attacks her right side, she stumbles to the left but regains her balance after a few moments and turns partially, rearing up and aims to stamp her hooves down onto Ashamin's tail. Then she tries to cut him with her horn along his right hip.
OOC: Sorry for the delay as well!

I had a dream you were two towns from me

GOT TO SLEEP,
     spent the whole night

running