illynx,

Something was off. The golden backed Lady raised her head and adjusted the angle of her path to turn her listening ears in the direction of the entrance, an unfamiliar odor that made her hair figuratively stand on edge; dark rimmed and like steady pillars, her ears were raised into full attention and her neck was arched into a graceful and alert posture, her golden eyes scanning the splendorous horizon of her home in the dim light that she had grown so accustomed to that she now dreaded the reappearance of the sun. Impending light induced migraines would have to be worried about later, however, as the scent was still present, drawing closer even, and she found herself inwardly congratulating herself on deciding to make her rounds today rather than taking a few hours to graze upon the vibrant and quite delicious grass and wild flowers that had began to grow in the past week.

Her steps became more slow and thoughtful as she approached the entrance that was not so many yards away from her current position. Clinging to the rims of the valley and the bordering coniferous forests, the deepened shadow they provided darkened her rich brown belt into a muddy black, her golden spine no longer gleaming under the starlight that she normally welcomed. A grim line had arrived upon her face, her gaze narrowed as the smell ahead seemed to be coming from within the land itself. Quickening her pace as much as she could without sacrificing any silence, she drew within sight of the source of the raunchy stench.

An equine.

Her already grim expression suddenly contorted into a soundless snarl, her eyes deepening in their scowl as she found her opponent settled on what could easily be defined as the most defensible hillside in the Basin. The precarious boulders, one of every mountain mother's most dreaded fears for their small and inquisitive children were to her back, Illynx giving a brief glimpse to the entrance near the mare's right flank, wishing she would simply turn back around and leave if no one approached her, and cursing the slick ground even as she decided it would be dealt with when the time arose.

But something in the way she stood, that upright head and watchfulness, perhaps, gave the Lady a clue that this bitch was here on unfriendly terms. No need to delay the friendly greeting, mentally crooned the mynx, her head lowering as she stalked within range of the foolish, white faced mare.

Like an over sized, funny looking panther, the mare leaped from her shadow, charging to close the distance between herself and the equine from the shadow to the right front side of the invader, all cover dropped for the plan that she had quickly concocted after deciding that she would be unable to creep up to the top of the hill to push the boulders down on top of the intruder with any chance of catching her unaware. Salutations! she sarcastically cried, her black tail fanned out and rippling behind her sleek frame, more sleek than it had been before the Gods had gone away, but filling out rather nicely now that there was plenty of foraging to be had. Just before they would collide for what Illynx hoped was a believable straight forward horn charge (albeit a bit naive), her head lowered to angle the tip for use in what she hoped appeared to be an attack towards the chest or face, she abruptly swung hard to the right in a feint and attempted to streak up the steep incline to the right of her opponent and run down her left side between the entrance and the dolt. Her prepared horn rose and struck out towards where she hoped a left hip or back bit of the belly would be, desiring blood for the mare's impudence, immediately dipping her head earthwards after the attack. With her lowered teeth, she snaked out an attempted bite towards the rather painful grip of a gaskin or hock, knowing full and well that such wounds made the leg almost useless, not waiting to assure she had the flesh between her front teeth before twisting her head savagely to the right for fuller effect as well as to better avoid any kicks that may arise from the assault.

Ahead of her, the boulders loomed, seeming to glare upon the two dancers, desiring to feel soft flesh smashing beneath their bulk with one wrong hoof-fall.

[ 1/4 :: 757 words : Illynx charges in with a fake front attack, then feints to the right to send a horn towards her left hip. She then directs a bite towards the left hind leg, hoping to slow movement. ]

No magic used.

intending to burn - pretending to fight it
everyone learns faster on fire

illynx,

Illynx knew her opponent did not flee for safety when suddenly an ass replaced where the challenger's face had been, and so forward she charged, knowing full and well that the stones that had precariously loitered upon their ledges would now come crashing down under the weight of the leaping fool. She had to admit to herself, however, that for being a tall and hideous blight upon nature, the dark mare was rather graceful while scurrying up a moving floor of boulders, though her heart raged for her people as she foresaw the aftermath (and subsequent work) that the herd would have to deal with once this was all said and done; the proximity of the path that led out of the valley to the landslide was too close to leave the entrance open for travelers, making the already difficult trek up the mountain now most difficult as soon as one thought their journey had ended. With ears pinned to her crown, the mare faced the tumbling stones without an ounce of fear, attempting to maintain her composure when all she wished to do was follow after the wench and send her flying off the highest end of the mountain she could find.

But as the first of the stone assailants breezed by her head, she found it best to slow her upward momentum and to instead dive hard to the right as her teeth clicked down on empty air, into the open area alongside the base of the hill; her hindquarters slip low as she pivots about their focal point, turning to face the ramifications of Confutatis's absurd plan, to await the assured attack from above. A glance was spared to the white faced invader as her footing found itself, the scamp's own trickery attempting to swallow her into the chasms that opened in between the tumbling stones as it pulled her back down to the base of the slope; amusement writ itself upon a divinely sculpted face, the almost laughing features of the GildedBlade turned to await the opportune moment to strike. Grey masses tumble all about her gold dipped legs, the mare dancing gingerly about their heavy thuds into the earth, though several of the rocks hit home on her left ribs and one on her chest from the main fount that poured the loosely packed stone down the hill, and a handful of long, elegant tail hair is torn from it's place by a quickly placed hind-leg, the tendrils falling slowly to the earth.

The blows left bruises where ever they landed, but the pain was slight in comparison to the agony of dragon's claws, and it honestly only honed her opinion that this was to be much easier than her battle with Smoke; her opponent had already played her most dangerous card, immediately sending the stones tumbling downward, all while Illynx had plenty of time to foresee the assault. Her hindquarters bundled together as the slide brought her dark fleshed opponent back down the slope towards her, leaping out to regain a good position just as the other mare drove out to grasp at an ear, the stone continuing to pull her down the rise. Confutatis's teeth grasped the high nub of an ear pressed into dark hair in mid-leap, acid broiling across the surface where the ivory grip of the equine had met their mark; but the ear was too flat to truly grab or rip, instead leaving a film of rather agonizing saliva across it's velveteen surface, drawing to the unsuspecting mare's face a grimace and wide, pain laced eyes and a quick jerk of her head to the right. No cry of pain escaped her, however, but a savage growl, a sound so guttural that it shocked even Illynx as she felt her body move through the open air, adjusting her angle in the leap so that she would land either alongside the quickly moving land-rat or behind her; either one served her purposes.

Assuming that the wretch couldn't buck while being tugged down the hill by the miniature avalanche, the GildedBlade sent her namesake slashing at any bit of flesh she could get near it's dangerous tip without sacrificing her rather precarious balance. Hooves scramble atop the moving ground, finding purchase only to have it taken away, and the mare is momentarily glad that her experiences in the mountains had adequately prepared her for such a moment; the path up the mountain had several patches where the loose gravel would try to slay the unsuspecting (well, not the gravel, really, but gravity itself), and she applied all that she had learned in her years of traversing the slick and treacherous terrain in this one moment, allowing her wrath to spend itself out, she hoped, upon the flesh of the intruder.

[ 2/4 :: 799 words : Hohum summary is just not my cup of tea today. xD ]

No magic used.

[OOC: Also realized I forgot to post my stats on the first one after you'd replied. :S Thank you for finding them Wanderer! I am rather dingy here lately. ]

intending to burn - pretending to fight it
everyone learns faster on fire

illynx,

She realized shortly after her enraged horn assaults were unleashed that her legs were becoming rather severely bruised and battered from the knee down from the rushing tumble of stones, parts of her golden hair sheared straight from the flesh, leaving slick patches of yellow tinted flesh exposed to the still chilly spring air and aching with each passing inch. It had been a good while since she'd taken a ride down a tumbling bunch of rocks, and the mass that the pale faced wench had unleashed was by far the closest thing to an avalanche that Illynx had ever encountered. It would not deter her from her course, however; one look down at her stone mount, once beautiful in its treacherous grace, and the one who had brought it all down was enough to keep her focus. Cold, colder than the ice that seemed to glisten upon every surface of the Basin, her golden eyes flashed in the darkness, struggling to hold fast to the shadow that was the intruder, the cause of all the mayhem that rushed beneath her gilded limbs. Satisfaction coursed through her just as the pain of the rocks smashing against her legs had nearly made the game not worth it, her sword having plunged deep into flesh.

The scream of the woman was more invigorating than the heat of her blood as it rolled down the golden spire; yet just as quickly as the lust of her blade had been sated, the prey was gone. Knowing such a wound wouldn't allow the mare to get far, Illynx wondered as to her tactic; the cougar had already proven that she was not an honorable sort, having attempted to bring a whole hill down on her head, and the abrupt change of position had made the distrustful warrior wary of more tricks. The thunk of hooves on wood quickly drew the Lady's eyes to the source of the sound, the shadow that hovered upon the long dead tree. Her haunches lower under her slender and graceful frame, hind-hooves digging hard into the moving earth to slow her rate of speed, slowly earning her traction as her front legs plunged downwards to direct her motion. Grit stained her teeth, that she had not known she had exposed in a savage snarl, her narrowed gaze locked once more upon the silhouette on the trunk that seemed to hover on the surface of the settling rock.

For a moment, it was only the song of the rocks coming to rest once more that filled her ears, the quiet hiss of dust emerging from slits in between the stones and the thuds of her own heart filling the spaces in between her deep breaths. Perhaps the mare would turn and run, to which Illynx would gladly give chase; her ears lay back upon her delicate features as she watched the shape atop the fallen tree much like a hawk observing a mouse. But then, much to the brindle's surprise, the intruder spoke.

Her laughter is rude and brittle in the darkness, a stream of notes that mocks the bleeding woman. "Speak?" she giggled breathlessly, taking a prowling and tentative step nearer the form of the upturned roots, "After you've tried to kill me with my own mountain?" Though she knew she had never given the wench a chance to speak, she still found her request to be laughable. After all, she had found the stranger well within their borders and without an invitation or escort, and she was rather convinced that the idea of talking had only crossed this mare's mind after equine blood had begun to stain the earth.

Still, there was a chance that she did indeed have something worth knowing, and Illynx was the sort to lend an ear to potentially useful gossip. Her features contorted into a strange mask, a blend of disgust and intrigue, her brain wrestling with its primal urge to rip this one's heart from her chest and the sensible desire to better the cause of the Plague and her people. "You cannot run, at least not faster than I or our patrols," she cooed from the dusty shadow, reason having won the battle for once, "and so I surely hope that what you have to say is worth more to me than a pretty new skull for my entryway." She paused, glancing out across the picturesque (albeit slightly obscured) view of the Basin, hoping even as she spoke the words that someone had noticed the cloud of dust rising from the entrance and was waiting in the darkness to provide truth to her threat. "Quickly now, before I change my mind, darling."

intending to burn - pretending to fight it
everyone learns faster on fire

illynx,

Illynx's mocking laughter was mimicked by the vagrant, drawing her bemused smile into a grim and hateful line as her golden gaze bore into the pitch outline of the black devil. It was all fine and dandy for one to share in a good laugh with the sword maiden when the joke was available for all to enjoy, but that particular jab had not been intended for the wretch to find humor in. The dim light caught the jester's pale eye, sending a chill through the former corporal as she observed it's sinister flash in the pale light, the white face of the invader, while grey and murky in the dim glow of the heavens and magical embellishments in the treeline, reminding the mare that she all to often leaped into battle ahead of her good sense. Perhaps it was best that she had not noticed how very haunting this particular horse appeared, the wickedness that seemed glazed upon her frame, for it had allowed her to fearlessly confront her opponent rather than doubt her own fire against the frigid soul of Confutatis.

The damaged ear and it's whole counterpart rise from their flattened stations at the black bitch's words, however; a test, the golden eyed queen reiterates in her own mind, looking to the invader who tossed compliments into over eager ears with a flicker of interest. Her ego purrs, wishes the wench to continue in her tales of the Gilded Blade and her glorious achievements, all her disastrous failures forgotten in the half choked appeasements that tumbled forth from the Skull Faced harlot. Her intrigue is quickly swept away, however, as the allure of the mare's initial statements evolve into threats and black mail, and it is now Illynx's time to laugh once more, the sound tinkling through the air like so much broken glass.

"How many bodies can you offer me but your own?" she cooed, her dark rimmed lips peeling back in a cruel smirk, belittling the mare's offers of advice; Illynx didn't need advice. She had a seasoned, battle minded unicorn general at her disposal for such planning. What she needed, more than anything, were warriors, bodies to throw into the front lines; as far as she could deduce, sheer numbers had been what had cost them their battles, not any lack of planning or sufficiently trained soldiers. "Your ego is vast, but not your army."

The dust had settled, leaving the peculiar intruder a well defined shadow atop her trunk, the lights borne from the Haruspex some distance away in the center of the lake providing just enough light for Illynx to discern her black figure from the star dusted, indigo sky. The bark of the tree groans under the weight of her opponent, and her smile grows all the more edged in razors. "As for my people..." a pause fills the air after her delightfully feminine tones draw to an elongated close, her gaze slipping out across the Basin for a momentary second before harshly finding their hold on the silhouette of the bartering and bleeding equine, "my concern for them is of little importance to one such as yourself. You are not one of my people. Are you really so absorbed in your own fantasies of power that you know nothing of the land you seek to dominate?" Illynx had to assume that she had somehow missed the "unicorns only" memo that much of the realm had already caught wind of, else wise she would not be here, offering only her hornless and weak body to a mare that had little concern for what threats the bleeding wench tossed her way. A long, steady gaze is given to her plain brow, the lack of adornment upon her equine's face, her mind slipping away to how Deimos or Ulrik would react to such an insolent horse; the mental images were quite thrilling, indeed. "They will not have you, hornless, and I will not parlay with a bitch who calls my generals fools and then threatens my life while trying to save her own wretched skin. You yourself have said that this battle is lost to you, and yet, you attempt to ease my wrath by further inciting it?"

"I am not afraid of you, bladeless Confutatis, daughter of warlords, and neither are my kin," proudly her crown raised, golden eyes flashing in the bleak midnight world, her lips curled into an expression of rancor so volatile that nearly all traces of beauty had left her finely crafted features, "and unless you can prove that you have a right by blood to stand on my mountain and alongside it's warriors, get the fuck off of it."

Perhaps the log would help her down.

intending to burn - pretending to fight it
everyone learns faster on fire