Before he can taste the Dauntless' crisp skin on his ever craving tongue, the behemoth halts abruptly, striking out powerfully with his muddy left foreleg while an abysslike mouth, wide and hungry, barrels toward his neck like a starved bottom feeding fish. In a chaos of rain and stink and hooves and instinct, the agile dun explodes to the right, a patch of burnt skin between his teeth like some grotesque playbill. However, the appaloosa is not entirely unscathed. Although Archibald's incisors only brush his slick neck, the draft's deft foot catches the muscle above his left patella with a slick smack as the dun reels frantically away, mud splattering perilously over his heaving sides.
Hooves dig into the slippery mud as he skids to a stop; the King of Thieves seems almost small beneath a halo of water, head thrust downward, near leg held aloft painfully against his chest while his shoulder throbs with effort and cold. Quietly, he glances heavenward, catching the circling dragon's eyes with a grimace.
The bitch's magic sloughs off like love gone bad, draining from the bronze's mind as easily as it had corrupted it, leaving a sting of resentment in the back of his throat like old bile.
With ease, the immense Shire takes a kneel, and for half a heartbeat, Jackal feels the kiss of victory sting his blood - but something is wrong. Worry creases ugly wrinkles over sterling eyes, and the dun begins to feel a faint quaver whispering in his bones. What had been still and calm a moment before leaps suddenly to life, bucking and leaping beneath three striped hooves like a capricious child. Velvet lips pucker with uncertainty as the trembling increases; he had trusted the earth for so many years to remain stable beneath his feet, and only now it begins to throw tantrums? Jackal feels the impact of the word earthquake in all its splendor as never before. A dark-rimmed ear tilts backward with unease before his balance is thrown, injured leg cast down to help support him, clattering clumsily onto the mud. Teeth grit furiously to staunch the scream which threatens to burst from his chest like some shade from his past; in something of a foggy epiphany, he realizes why the Dauntless kneels. With the massive center of balance lowered, he does not convulse or fall as much as if he stood. Fitfully, Jackal allows his forelimbs to slide through the soft mud, body leaning forward in something of an awkward cat-stretch, although he still rocks and shakes as if taken by a seizure. His harrowing leg begins to tremble under pressure, throbbing angrily like lips before a passionate kiss.
Slowly, the dun lifts his head upward and sterling eyes meet jade with steely resolve, understanding passing through their fleeting glance like electric impulses in the brain. The dragon glides downward from his high circle with predatory grace, fire boiling in his belly and threatening to burst from his throat. He creeps silently toward Goliath's prodigious rump, a sinister reptilian grin unfurling across his slender face before the flames licking his throat are delivered under the hissing rain, a prophet reborn. They roll relentlessly in the direction of the big dark arse before it. Orange traces the dragons' face, hardening his languid features until they seem cast from bronze and fire.
And the King of Thieves kneels under a shroud of rain, quavering before this god of fire, this ravenous flame, the manic pulse of his heart drowning out the earthquake and the rain and his own niggling doubts.
4 / 4
600 words
Jackal balks from the bite and strike; Archibald's teeth only graze his neck, but his hoof manages to catch the tendon above the left knee whilst Jackal escapes. He manages to limp to a stop, but the earthquake takes him unaware, and he almost looses his balance before following Archibald's example and kneeling. Meanwhile, Dei comes from behind Archibald and unleashes fire onto his rump.
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david and goliath, archibald challenge
