Since the giant lizard at Helovia's Heart had crawled from the burning fires and attacked the land, Kahlua had done little. The bruises had long since faded but the frightful memory had not. The only thing she had done was make a stop by the Threshold on her way home from the Heart to try and recruit someone new back to the herd. Ultimately, she had failed. Despite a strong showing from the Edge, the Basin had won the newcomer with cruel words whispered from the lips of Illynx. To be honest, Kahlua didn't understand it. She knew little of the animosity between the Edge and Basin, having primarily stayed out of politics since her arrival here in Helovia. So to her, Illynx's cruel words had been nothing more than hateful lies spread to win another body into her land.

Disappointed by her inability to bring home a newcomer, Kahlua had settled herself to wander slowly home and mosey about the Edge. She would have liked to say the spring brought new life into the land that had failed it in winter but the words would have been lies. With only the moon lighting the land, it was still cold and rather destitute. At least the evergreens still brought color into the land. As it was now, she was nestled in among the evergreens, laying down briefly and trying to enjoy the eternal night.

Her light slumber was broken by strange sounds in the distance. For the most part, the Edge was quiet and Kahlua was surprised to hear such a racket in the distance. Almost instantly a sense of dread settled into her bones. She knew exactly what this was- it was another monster that had crawled from the depths of hell and had come to terrorize her homeland. In little more than a moment she was on her feet, standing under the boughs of the evergreen. She was shaking, head to hoof she was a vibrating mess.

She wanted to run- she was ready to tuck her tail and retreat into the distance like a scared and beaten dog. Still, something in her stupid head told her different. After all, Ricochet hadn't killed her, right? And the monster... she had gone against the first monster and lived. If Onni could be brave, then Kahlua could too. After all, this was her home. She had just made it here and she was well on her way to becoming a Glazier. She couldn't let all the hard work she had put into buttering up Lace go to waste just for some stupid monster of the darkness. She was afraid- but ambitions were bigger than fear.

So, step by step she made her way toward the sounds through the thickest grove of trees she could find, ready for some giant terror to look down upon her and breath fire. What she found was so very different- a mess of horses thrashing at one another in the woods. She was confused and it showed on her face. She didn't recognize all the horses, but of course why would she? She had met but few of her herd mates. A bright laugh fell from her face and she suddenly relaxed. Of course! She had fumbled into a tournament of sorts- the warriors of the herd battling one another for whatever it was that they were after. She shook her head and walked into a small clearing, about 20 yards by 10 yards and mostly covered with soft, damp moss. The moon lit the area brightly, giving her good light to watch the warriors in the trees carry on with their tournament. Poor, stupid Kahlua. She should have turned tail and run like she wanted to the first time.

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She could have chosen a better place to present herself as a living target, but poor stupid Kahlua was too wrapped up in her fantasy world- a world where brave knights fight for the pure joy of winning, to win a lady's heart or to bring honor to their name. Had she been prepared to find a battle she would have chosen a location with surer footing. Damp, loose, moss covered ground would not serve to anchor her footing. Had she been prepared to find a battle she would have chosen to stay in the thick trees. Wide open spaces would give her no chance to hide or use obstacles to her advantage. Had she been prepared to find a battle she would have chosen to run far, far away.

So enthralled as she was in watching the others hack and slash back and forth, she forget to keep tabs on her surroundings as they related to herself. She often did, though, since she placed so much trust in the world to keep her safe. Today, however, would not be a safe day in her life. She did not feel icy daggers peering at her from the shadows, she did not hear the whine of grinding teeth, she did not know what had found her in the woods. Her first clue was the soft thud of hooves against the mossy ground. At the first few thuds she thought it was a fight in the distance and did not concern herself with it. With the next step, the sound growing nearer, she became concerned.

Whirling herself about to face the noise, Kahlua's eye's grew wide as she saw a unicorn rushing at her head on. “No, you don't understand,” she managed to spit out before instinct took over. She had meant to say 'No, you don't understand, I'm not here to fight in the tournament,' but the stallion clearly had no intention of stopping his charge and Kahlua had no intention of being impaled to death. She leaped her front end to the right, her hind hooves unfortunately slipping just slightly on the loose moss over the ground. It was not enough to bring her to the earth, but enough to leave her hindquarters behind, placing her body at a slight angle to Farenjer. The stallion's horn slid across the upper portion of her left thigh, tearing a gash in the skin about a foot long and opening the blood vessels beneath. Sticky, red fluid began to trickle down her left hind limb as Kahlua winced in pain.

Still, if her fight with Ricochet had taught her anything, it was that battles waited for no one. She didn't know why she was in this particular spar, or what the stakes were, but she had always been confused about a lot of things. This would be no different. As soon as the stallion's horn stopped raking against her skin, Kahlua dug her front hooves into the moss and bucked. Hard. With any luck she would hit the stallion on his left rib cage, but then who could say where he had gotten to in that brief moment between his strike and her kick. As her hind hooves came back to the earth, Kahlua immediately began to canter off. She took four strides before stopping and turning. She hoped to put some distance between herself and the stallion, allowing her some time to consider the situation she had inadvertently gotten in to. She was near one of the narrow ends of the clearing now, about five yards of open space on either side of her and behind her before trees became an obstacle.

As she turned, she tried to catch sight of the stallion once more. From what she had seen as he rushed past they were about even in height, if he was just slightly taller. Otherwise, the moonlight had made it hard to see. She thought that he may have been a little thicker in build than she was, but dancing shadows and dark nights could play tricks on the eyes. Regardless, thinking back briefly to her fight with Ricochet, she tried to pull some other lessons she had learned. The close-quarters combat with Ricochet had been tough on her lithe body. She did not possess the strength that he did and in a battle of muscle she would certainly lose again. If she was able to keep some distance in this fight, perhaps she would be able to use her speed to her advantage. For now, she set her mind to what was to come and watched for the stallion. In preparation, she dug her hooves into the moss in the dirt, hoping to give herself some purchase on the ground should she need to bound away again.

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Had Kahlua bothered to look back to the stallion as she cantered away, she would have almost been pleased with herself to find the wound she had left on his left flank. She was not one for violence, generally happy to live a happy and peaceful life so long as she was given the power she desired. Unfortunately, in this situation, she had no choice but to defend herself. Besides, the stallion was ruining the perfectly unscathed coat she wore and tainting the bleached white portions a sickly red. If that didn't call for retaliation, Kahlua couldn't think of something that would.

After hitting his flank so squarely, Kahlua had heard the sounds of the stallion moving away from her as she had moved forward. A slight smirk lit her lips then, as she turned, glad that her plan to distance herself from the stallion had worked. With her hooves dug into the ground now, she could watch as he turned toward her and pulled his ears back. Her smile quickly faded as he lunged toward her. Clearly he had not understood what she had said to him. Where instinct had been guiding her before, she felt a familiar fear creeping into her bones. The dancing of the moonlight in the trees did nothing to ease her troubled mind.

As the stallion ran across the field toward her, Kahlua found that she had plenty of time to prepare. It was both a blessing and a curse. Although she would have time to react to the stallion, the idle time gave the wound on her left thigh plenty of time to start aching. A dull throb began pulsing and she gritted her teeth against the pain. Her ears rapidly flicked several times from facing the stallion to down on her head. Indecision clouded her judgment and kept her almost frozen in place. She should have run, except the confusion took so much of her limited brain power to process that she could do little else.

“I'm not here to be part of the tournament,” she finished her words through gritted teeth as the stallion drew nearer. Her speech was fast and high-pitched, fear evident in the way the words fell from her lips. Still, Farenjer showed no signs of stopping. Wide eyes watched him fearfully, a thin line of blue iris visible between her open pupils and white sclera. She was lucky he had not tried to pierce her heart this time around, for surely she would have fallen.

As the stallion came upon her left side and halted to rear, Kahlua suddenly realized she needed to move, frightened or not. She bounded forward, moving along his left side, but before she could get too far the stallion's hooves landed hard on the left side of her rump. The extra weight, if only present for a moment, left her straining to keep her back end standing. She screamed in anger and pain as bruising began to settle in where he had hit. The extra motion in the area also caused additional damage to the tear his horn had previously inflicted. His bite reached her croup and provided a second wave of pain that augmented the first and caused her to shudder.

Wanting to run and hide, but also wanting to punish the stallion, Kahlua wasted no time in attacking the first thing she saw- his gaskin. She reared lowly, attempting to smash her hooves into his gaskin or hock joint. Really, anything on his leg would do. While lashing out with her hooves, Kahlua also attempted to bite her teeth into his croup. As soon as she felt her feet touch mossy earth again, Kahlua raced off. On her first step out, she bucked quickly again. If she did not hit him, at least it might have acted as a preventative measure to keep him from following her immediately.

As she moved out, she cantered on her left lead to try and prevent excess strain on her bruising and torn left hind limb. After about three paces, back near the center of the open area, Kahlua halted. This time, instead of turning her whole body to face where she thought the stallion might be, she just turned her head to the left to look back. Somewhere underneath the fear was a glimmer of hope that he would finally understand she wasn't here for the tournament. Some small part of her hoped that he would stop his attacks and let her be, let her run off into the distance to tend to her few but painful wounds. She would likely not be so lucky.

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