The winds are buffeting her even as she stands cradled in her isolated misery, clawing at the silent walls that surround her. It’s too far from her to cut her any longer but she’s left with the remnants of the devastation, blood so thick upon her hide that she resembles her father. The storm howls so loud she can hardly hear her own thoughts, and she welcomes it, because it washes away the horrible silence from Alice’s end. It feels wrong, to feel the hound warm and soft against her left foreleg, but not hear her or feel her inside her head and soul. Alice is the contrast to every evil on this battlefield – all for a singular piece of armor. Because Gaucho apparently couldn’t accept that there were ways to conquer independent of the physical body, because he and Ampere believed in survival of the fittest - but not when it meant their own flock was not fit. She hated them for their prejudice, for their muscle-headed idiocy, for their eternal pissing contest with her herd. A burden that had fallen to her shoulders when Ophelia had abandoned her – and Hotaru had never been able to find her, to beg why, why did you pick me? She’d never asked for any of this, but she bears it resolutely, grim and violent in the face of unfairness. 
 
She’s given peace as the storm cuts Ampere from her, lets Hotaru try and replenish as much strength as she can. She can’t afford to move with how much blood she’s losing from the knife wound and the lacerations. It stains the snow, burns through her like fire, and every breath hurts worse than the last, especially with the broken rib on her right side from Tingal. The mare’s teeth clench upon the dagger’s hilt to try and distract herself, grinding her molars hatefully into the blade as she bides her time. Instinct tells her to keep moving, to fight against the slowing power of the snow, because there was a reason the term sitting duck had been created.
 
Except Hotaru can’t move, she’s far too exhausted. She knows her right foreleg cannot withstand much more, lest she risks snapping the bone completely. If it breaks, I’m dead. I won’t get home. I need to get home, she thinks, feeling gutted with the sudden loneliness she feels. It compounds on top of Alice’s silence until she feels she’s going to go mad. Hotaru’s tempted to throw the crown to the earth and let Ampere have her twisted idea of triumph, because she just wants to go home. She needs her pack; needs them to lick her wounds, remind her that while she’s righteous and powerful on her own, she’s capable of weakness. That Tingal didn’t break her, that Ampere won’t either, and that they still love her.
 
Instead, she summons the last vestiges of her strength, and she closes her eyes. She envisions her people, their faces turned towards her, trusting in her abilities. Bicolored eyes open and she can feel them all behind her, giving her an emotional strength that she holds close as Ampere comes barreling towards her past the dying storm. She cannot carry on to the end of this fight on her own, but perhaps they can carry her. Even if they’re not with her.
 
And finally the silence breaks, and Alice must have been repeating the words as a mantra, because they flood instantly into Hotaru’s head. I am here.
 
It startles Hotaru, and she swings her head towards Alice to try and see her form her right eye, joy bubbling up in her heart. But then her name is shattering through the bond a second time, and Hotaru realizes she’d looked away from Ampere. She lurches forward instinctively, not sure where Ampere is aiming, and feels the weight of the solid mare slam into her injured right side. The shield presses her armor into her, and Hotaru howls as she feels a secondary rib snap beneath the pressure. Her lacerations are ripped open by the jostling and she goes stumbling away, the blade dropping from her mouth freely as Ampere rips it back. Alice darts between her flailing legs, going for Ampere’s right knee beneath the shield, trying to cripple her while she’s distracted, hoping to hide her own approach by going through Hotaru’s legs.
 
Hotaru's wheezing, can’t catch her breath as she tries not to slip and fall in the snow, but she hoarsely spits back words. “Only monsters would kill innocents to try and hurt the guilty,” Hotaru wheezes, horn lowered defensively as she hobbles to try and face Ampere. She has nothing left to give, no other attack to initiate, but she’d not go down without trying to spear the bitch one last time. 

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