Tembovu was, it turned out, exactly who she needed for this. She felt a little bit annoyed at this fact but really, it was a small, tiny feeling in comparison to the gratitude. This strange request wasn’t greeted by laughter or disgust as she had feared, but considered seriously. He had every right to refuse the request, of course, and she truly wouldn’t have held it against him if he had declined her. Alysanne would have just and gone and found someone else, or perhaps picked up a spar with one of the warriors. She had told Nyx she wanted to learn how to fight, after all.

But Tembovu didn’t balk away from her request. He was taking her seriously, switching into a professional and almost clinical mode as he thought about the best place for the wound. She stayed quiet and still as he looked her over, watching him and waiting for what he would decide. When he nodded slightly, seemingly to himself, she knew the choice had been made.

Her chest.

She would have liked for it to be somewhere she could hide with her wings but, as she had discovered with her other wounds, being jostled by feathers throughout the day wasn’t exactly helpful for the healing process and she did not want to repeat the experience from last time when she had slipped into a near-delirious fever from the wound. The pegasus mare couldn’t find her voice to speak or make a reply, her eyes never leaving his, but she nodded in agreement to his choice of location - standing up and lifting her head when he approached and placed his horn hip.

With that first gentle press she had trembled, but remained firm in her stance - nodding once more to encourage him despite the fear that was raging within her. How could she ever claim to distrust Tembovu when she was asking him to do this? This was far more intimate than anything she had ever asked anyone before. Literally placing her life in his possession for a few moments.

Then he pushed forward and all of Alysanne’s doubts and fears rushed forward, causing her to gasp with the pain and their release, but she did not move. Her eyes slid closed and she ground her teeth together but she did not move. This was what she wanted, she had no right to cry out in pain.

But did it ever hurt.

She kept her eyes closed and her teeth clenched until she felt him move away once more - sick with the sensation that she could actually feel his horn leave her chest. Alysanne stood there for a few moments, hearing his question but not really registering it as she thought about what her answer would be. Was she fine? What kind of horse asked someone to stab her? Her breathing was heavy as though she had just galloped all the way from the Throat to the Edge.

It only took a moment for her to open her eyes, to seek out his gaze and offer some strange form of shaky smile as she whispered back. “I’m… fine. Thank you.”

She almost reached out to him, to thank him with a soft touch of her muzzle to his, but before she did something else caught her attention. To her horror, as she looked at him, Alysanne felt the pressure build up behind her eyes and she knew she was going to start crying. It wasn’t all from the pain - she had been hurt worse before - but the pain acted as a catalyst and now (oh god why now) she could feel tears forming.

“Shit.” The curse was awkward and hushed, it wasn’t exactly something that Alysanne did after all. She quickly shook her head but that didn’t dispel the shine of tears in her green eyes so she turned her head away - blatantly looking anywhere but Tembovu. As if that would somehow hide the horrid thing that was happening to her right now.

But she didn’t bolt just yet - she thought, after what had just happened, he deserved a little bit more than to see her fly off in tears. Especially after he had just stabbed her. Alysanne struggled to get control over her emotions so her voice wouldn’t shake so much, all while pointedly avoiding his gaze. She almost wanted to laugh this situation had quickly dissolved into something more ridiculous than dramatic! “I really appreciate you helping me, Tembovu, I do but this is… well I think this is about something else. And I’m not ready for you to see me cry.” She smiled faintly then, though with her head turned away he might not have been able to even see it. Sure, he had just stabbed her in the chest but watching her cry? Oh no, that was far too big of a step for their relationship to take today.