Their eyes are drawn heavenwards, even in the Lady’s exhaustion. They may be huddled, driven to the earth and humbled by their own mortal frailty, but they are not prey. And their eyes flash, hell and sea foam and the white of the moon, to see the blue bitch descending roughly before them. Like some foal with no coordination, thinking herself imposing as she slams upon the earth. And Hotaru sees now why her kind have developed such hatred for these beasts, and revels in the ancient animosity that sings in her blood. This is her namesake, her title and crown. This evil, this disgust, is hers to own. It bolsters her weakness, for she may lay broken but she is not defeated. There is no intimidation here, for Hotaru has felt the caress of feathers in the light of love. There is nothing in Ampere that frightens her, not when she has seen, felt, and done so much worse than what this mare offers. Phaedra is there at her shoulder, heralding the bloodlust that builds, whispering sordid advice. We are queens and serpents, she can hear her mother saying, eyes like flint and a mountain of bone crumbling beneath her capable hooves. So strike, Hotaru.
 
And as the bitch speaks, Hotaru lifts obediently to her knees, as bloodied and broken as a body can be. And she laughs. Loud, mocking, and hysterical. Her teeth are stained with crimson and her eyes are wild. Alice bristles and snarls like the depths of hell beside her, and they are one in their righteous hatred. She levies herself to her hooves, a herculean effort. Hotaru shoulders the mantle of her kingdom, her people, and her pride. For her pride is the heaviest of all. And she turns her blood-soaked grin towards Ampere, standing on limbs that seek to shatter, and realizes that the outcome of this fight does not matter. She is a QUEEN. And lips curl back from her teeth with the grandeur of the damned, hysterical in her deep, perverse pleasure. A Lady did not cower from a fight.
 
“I stole it fair and square,” she cackles, her sides heaving with malice more so than the pain. “It’s not my fault your stupid bitch of an underling couldn’t keep her guard up.” Even in her state of disrepair, she lets the cloak flutter to the ground beside her, safe. Inclines her head – she is so far above this whelp of a wolf that does not know the power of teeth – to proudly display the crown the woman seeks. Smirks like death and discordance, and embraces the cruel, brittle hatred that was her mother’s legacy. For all mares would envy those born of Phaedra’s blood, because it was her birthright to be unstoppable. “She tried to fight me for it you know. She failed, and so the desert sends another pitiful fighter,” a casual sort of offhand comment, eyes gleaming with sadism. Even if she loses here, it is not an honorable battle. And she will wait in the shadows, a viper, until Ampere steps one foot in the wrong direction. Then Hotaru’s fangs would taste that tainted blood, and the lightning bitch would be felled. In time, she soothed herself. In time.
 
“But here you are…so far away from your stud. This is what Gaucho finds pride in? You? Dishonorable, disgusting, preying upon me where no eyes can see how weak and pathetic you are,” and she spits her own blood to the snow in mockery of Ampere’s toted pride. Grins like a skull facing its burial rites. “You hail yourself Guardian, and yet you fight me when I am already damaged. You are nothing but a coward pretending to be a savior.” And then she simpers and coos, eyes mockingly sympathetic. “But it’s okay, I won’t tell your little secret. I’ll let you fight and beat me, let you nurse your pathetic attempt at triumph. I’ll even let your herd keep their petty alliance, unlike your wounded Sultan. But when the time comes? When I am strong, and my pack is behind me?” Alice snarls like death at her heels, and Hotaru lets the armor Ampere sought slide across her skin. A twist of the dagger, mocking what Ampere sought, and her pitiful crusade. “We will rip your throat out,” and she lunges, on screaming bone and wounded pride, horn lancing straight for Ampere’s throat. Alice darts through the snow in tandem, eyes sharply tracking the glint of metal, and her acid-laced teeth seek to find purchase on Ampere’s right hind leg, hoping for devastation - especially if Hotaru’s attack forced Ampere to rear onto her hind legs. They will fight here, even if they lose. They couldn’t win if they didn’t try.

---

Attack: {1/4}
Words: {800/800}