[PRP] Hostility & Hospitality (see inside)

[xo maho]

Grinning - for what must have been the first time in a week - down at the little orange mare before him, Sora took a few steps into the water. He moved a bit off to the side so as not to threaten her, but wasn't so close to land that she would get beached if she got much closer. "Greetings, ocean dweller," he replied in kind, one side of his grin twitching up a little at the peculiar speech. "Tidings here are mostly of my family and our visitors, I'm afraid. Nothing really about the Kawani or the shore as a whole, but we ourselves have been made... wealthy in friends lately." He glanced back up the beach to where his parents tended Alexi, and noticed that both were looking down the beach. Following their gaze, he spotted his sister - and then the mare beyond. He groaned. "And it looks as though we have another one." Maybe Del will scare her off, he thought willfully.


What tidings have you of the ocean?" he asked, wondering if she could answer in kind. The land under the water seemed almost secretive, though he knew it was probably far from it - it was simply much harder to see and much larger, which meant bigger distances between peoples.

Something about the mare jolted Del from her cheerful mood of greeting. There had been something cold in the way she had surveyed them, the whole family, first as one and then individually, as though she were looking for something... It struck Delmaria as off, and in a moment, her guard was up. Her stride slowed as she stepped closer to the mare. "Hello," she said, a bit more coolly than her first greeting. She doesn't have wings, Del noted, glad that that, at least, couldn't be a reason for her father to look past personality. "What brings you to our beach?" Her tail flicked a bit heavily in the sand, the fin swiping one way and then stilling, leaving a swath of smoothness in its wake. "If you're lost, we're very good at giving directions." She almost added a big smile to see if it would put the mare on edge, but her heart wasn't in it. Being over-helpful would do well enough.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Isadora smiled at the young stallion. "You've have quite the busy life right now. I do not often get visitors to my cave." She smiled at him, a secret knowing smile. "Much and more happens under the waves. The coral grows more colorful, the seafoam maiden has taken her destiny into her own hooves. Perhaps a happy ending this time. And beneath the ocean roves a band of reasonably good-hearted scallywags as it were."

She looked down the beach at the mare standing there talking to the blue mare. She dropped her voice and octave. "There is something wrong about that one. The stranger smells like death and decay and nothing good. She may not mean you harm, but what she seeks will bring nothing good."  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Kamila smiled broader, trying to ease the mare into thinking she was just a kind, friendly stranger. "Hey, I'm Kandari! Sorry, I must have seemed so unpleasant, the sun was in my eyes and it took me a moment to see you clearly."


Her scarf billowed slightly in the wind. "I'm looking for my fair cousin. I'm dreadful with directions and apparently I'm terribly lost. Her name is Davina Mo Nighean Donne, lately of Highgarden. Would you know how to get there and were I could find some fresh water to drink?"

The lie was easy on her tongue as she got closer to the mare.  

[xo maho]

"Busy doesn't begin to cover it," he muttered petulantly, then his ears practically glued themselves forward to listen to the tidings from beneath the waves. The mare seemed to speak in riddles, though perhaps some of what she said could be literal - the color growing more colorful, for one. A seafoam maiden? A mare made of seafoam? Was that even possible? Perhaps the seathi meant one of her own kind, or perhaps a mer - but made of seafoam simply didn't make sense. "Good for her, taking initiative," he said, but with no real idea of what he spoke. As to the scallywags, he knew of them. They traded with the pirates every once in a while, and it was hard not to like them, little thieves though they were.

As the mare looked down the beach and spoke some more, Sora felt himself bristle and follow the little seathi's gaze. The chestnut mare his sister seemed to be greeting looked innocent enough. But just in case... Sora began plodding down the beach. "Follow me, if you would," he told the seathi. "I'm Sora, by the way."

The way the mare seemed oblivious to the sudden cooling off of her greeting didn't make Del any less suspicious. Indeed, her immediate perception that Del didn't like her made her even more suspicious - no one should be so good at reading strangers' body language, least of all someone playing at being an innocent, well-meaning stranger. Del gave her a humoring smile. "You must be very lost if you're looking for Highgarden, and I'm rather afraid that you don't really look like anyone from there that I've ever heard of, least of all fair Davina. Tell me, what is truly your business in wanting to find her, or you will be turned away without fresh water for miles." Del practically growled in defense of the filly who had been her friend for the few night she'd passed among the family so long ago. Davina had told Delmaria all about what it was like to fly, to have family who could, too, and for the only time ever, Del had imagined it without attaching jealousy to the thought.  

[xo maho]

"I don't know if I like the look of her." The way the mare had gazed up at them with calculating eyes had been strange, almost haunting. And sure enough, it appeared that Sora sensed it, as well, for he began to converge on the mare, moving to stand next to his sister. Niall thought he saw a flash of orange in the water, but couldn't be sure. Delmaria had tensed up, that was for sure - her tail was held stiffly, as if she was getting ready to strike the mare with it. "I think Del and Sora are both a bit suspicious," he muttered.

Destati looked up at her mate, following his gaze. "The two of them will be able to handle it, surely," she said. "They're a force to be reckoned with when they cooperate. Do we have vines, Niall?" she asked, lowering her brows as she studied the situation down the beach.

Niall shook his head and turned back to the mares awaiting his response. "We have only thorny ones, I'm afraid. Other than that, we have kelp or seaweed, whichever you prefer. It does come with a risk of sand, though."  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

"Seaweed would be good. Would it be better dry or wet for tying purposes?" She tilted her head at the couple. She'd had very little use for seaweed till recently so it was a very interesting situation to find herself having to use it so frequently now.

"I said to come here Alexi, your wounds need tending if they are to get well." As did his mind, but she didn't know what to do for that exactly.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Kamila had had enough of games. This was not going to end well. So be it then. She pulled the knife with one quick motion and held it to the blue mare's throat. "Tell me or I'll feed the sand your blood."  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Alexi felt himself blush at her chiding. He knew that he was not healing as he should. He knew that he needed to make an effort, but an effort seemed so extensive was beyond him at the moment. Something in the back of his neck prickled, a sense more ancient than time itself. His muscles tensed without his consent and he found his eyes searching around him with an urgency he recognized.

He suddenly felt like prey.

He turned his head and looked down the long beach both ways. He saw it as it happened, and he felt his muscles moving in a way they had not in a long time. The glint of metal flashed as his hooves hit the soft sand as the thought registered. Knife  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Isadora nodded at the stallion named Sora and followed his path with her own through the calm blue waters. When they got closer, she saw the flash of the knife and how it was pressed tightly to the blue mares throat.

She had been right about the stranger and her intentions. Closer now, she felt even more of death and a terrible longing, something that tickled something in her that she did not have a name for.

"You're wrong you know," Isadora said conversationally. "You'll not find what your looking for that way. I doubt you'll find it at all, but you will find something you don't expect I dare say."

She tilted her head at the mare, her orange eyes shining in the sun. "A rose by any other name," her voice fell softly.  

[xo maho]

The steel pressed cold and sharply against her throat, and Del took a deep breath. She felt a tiny prickle as the skin over her expanding muscles earned a small cut from the thin blade.

Delmaria had never been more calm in her life. It had surprised her, surely, but after the fraction of a second of shock, all her instincts to run, to scream, to kick - all flatlined.

Her father would call this the calm before the storm.

"My dear Miss Kandari," murmured Del, smiling a grim smile that some might mistake as a genuine little sparkly one. "I am afraid that you might want to reconsider your actions, in case you have found yourself to be grievously mistaken in your estimation of this family." Her pale eyes stared into the mare's, calculating her.

Sora saw a flash of silver in the sunlight, and all at once, dread dropped like a stone into his stomach. His hooves stumbled forward more quickly, until he was only ten feet behind her. The distance still felt so great he could cry, but all he could do was call his sister's name - once: sharp, loud, and desperate. If his parents weren't already watching, they would be at attention now. "Don't hurt her - please don't hurt her - we'll give you anything - anything you want," he stammered out, but the mare's eyes were glued to his sister, intense and scary.

Destati's eyes snapped up as, seemingly all at the same time and also in slow motion, the lavender male bolted upright, her son's voice cut through the air, and something flashed down the beach. While Alexi had been her focus all day, the attention she had been paying to him evaporated as she laid eyes on her children.

"Oh my gods," she breathed.

The mare she had thought so unassuming just moments ago had a knife to Delmaria's neck. "Niall," she murmured, "get Olivia to safety, if she will go. If Alexi doesn't get too close to the situation, collect him, as well."

With a deep breath, Destati galloped down the beach after her children, inserting herself between a shell-shocked Sora and an eerily calm Delmaria. "And what is it you hope to achieve by going through with a senseless show of violence?" she snapped at the mare, but Delmaria's tail flick - which would have been innocuous to those who didn't know her - silenced the mother. Her daughter had a plan, no matter how much she wanted to scream at her to get out of the way, to take her instead. Delmaria somehow had a plan.

"This situation is under control, little brother," Delmaria whispered, feeling the warmth of her mother's presence behind her left flank. Keeping her eyes on Kandari's - or whatever her name really was, for a mare who falsified her intentions would surely falsify her name - Delmaria addressed the mare again. "You see, I may look like a pathetic little crossbreed, unable to fly and with salt crusted across my wings, for that is indeed what I am. A little bit pathetic." Her eyes narrowed. "And it might be that I could tell you what I know, but I may also not know anything. What I do know, however, is that in order to get secrets from a kelpi..." Delmaria's lips curved up in a smirk. "You have to let her drag you down to the deep."

With a flick of her tail that was so quick it became a blur, Delmaria rammed the length of it into the legs of the treacherous mare. As she moved, she stepped out of the way of the knife, but didn't quite miss it; it cut a stinging lance in the meat of her shoulder.

Oh gods oh gods oh gods oh gods oh -

Sora's train of though played over his sister's words, missing them completely as he watched the mares face off, watched every twitch of a facial expression. This could only end badly, what with the way the situation had begun. There was no one it would end in a friendly farewell unless his sister had made some questionable friends - and while Sora didn't doubt that, he did doubt that this mare was one of them. The only types of questionable friends that Del was likely to make were the little pirates, and she'd already met a few of them. So had he, for a matter of fact, and they really weren't that bad. They were thieves, certainly, but they weren't really the type to threaten others with violence unless they were really set on their treasure. With that the way it was, this situation became well and truly alar-

And then movement blurred in front of him and the mare and his sister were no longer face to face - Del was whirling away from her and he was stumbling backwards and -

Thump!

He fell on his backside. "Del," he mumbled under his breath as he got up, watching his mother and sister converge on the mare, "we are not friends."

It appeared, indeed, that her daughter had had a plan, although it was rather upsetting to hear what Del had to say about herself. Whether it was the truth or not, Destati resolved to ask later, because as soon as she was done with her speech, a flurry of action was set in motion. Destati spotted a trail of red blood begin to trickle ever so slowly down Delmaria's shoulder, but her daughter was moving again as soon as the other mare lost her footing. She began a circle around the chestnut mare, and Destati followed suit, keeping her trapped between them. For all she had a knife, they had eight hooves and a galloping, battle-worn unicorn somewhere. If the mare wanted to make a run for it, Destati wouldn't stop her, and she could most certainly surprise her; after all, Destati and Delmaria had never been trained. Niall was clumsier than all three of their foals combined. If there was to be a fight, Alexi would probably be their only hope, and he was wounded. If it came to it, it would be numbers versus know-how, and Destati would not let any one of her own die today.

Niall stood frozen at the top of the beach, frozen with his mouth agape. His mate was in danger, his children were in danger, and his guests were in danger, and yet he had been charged with getting only one - perhaps two - of them to safety. Granted, he'd likely trip and fall head over heels on his way down there, and Destati probably knew that. Still, his heartbeat felt as though it had tripled and his breath caught in his throat. Finally, he tore his gaze from them. "Olivia," he croaked, "will you come with me? We have a safe haven in the forest, a meeting place for when danger comes. If you could someone Alexi...?" Of course, given the nature of the stallion they had been treating, Niall had very few expectations that Alexi could be controlled, even if it was to get him to safety.

Nyx Queen of Darkness

Omg done! Uhhh Niall will go after Olivia/Alexi/errybody else?
Note to self: Niall needs 101 words.

 

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Olivia's eyes had been drawn to the spectacle happening down the beach. In here there was the natural response to do something, anything to help the captive mare. However, she knew that though she could wield words fiercely and be courageous when treating a wound, this was not in her wheelhouse. If she stayed, she would only get in the way. Yet, she hated to leave.

There were only so many ways that this fight could end, and most of them resulted in some kind of bloodshed. She didn't want to leave them behind to deal with their wounds if she could help. But here was Niall asking her very kindly to come away with him. She should respect his wishes, in fact if she did not go soon then....Alexi!

(131 Olivia)  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

All of Alexi's sore muscles responded despite the pain that lanced through his body. His body protested moving so much, but that instinct and training that had been drilled into him was too powerful to overcome. There was no way to stop his body from responding to the threat at hand.

The sand churned under his feet and his hooves dug deep into the sand as he propelled his body forward. His whole being ached, but he felt more alive in this moment than he had in a long time.

He saw the kelpi mare swing her tail, and the brown mare stumbling but keeping the blade between her teeth.

He did not pause, he did not think out his next actions. He kept hearing his father's last words echo in his head, and he knew that this was not that situation.


Alexi 142
 

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Kamila had been honed to fight by the House of Black and White, but she had not had much dealings with kelpis or their tails. The mare had taken her by surprise and she'd swiped hard with her knife. It was only a flesh wound, but it was first blood.

Her knee buckled and she almost went down, blinding pain lancing through her leg into her shoulder. But now was not the time to allow pain to overtake her. She pushed herself up, rising as the purple unicorn came after her.

She whipped her body out of the way at the last moment and slashed viciously with her tail like a whip. There was a loud smack as it hit the stallions chest and neck. It would not stop him for long but it would at least sting a little.

Kamila kept her body angled so that she could see them all as the stallion stumbled. "Tell me what I ask and I will spare you!" She could take them, and if not she could run faster than them.


(K 179)
 

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

Olivia felt herself starting forward when Alex had moved toward the fight. He was not healed enough, foolish stallion! But he was more alive in this moment than she had seen him the entire few weeks she'd known him.

She turned to Niall torn between being lead to the wood and safety and staying to help the injured. There would surely be injured. She took a step forward and halted, then looked to Niall. "How can we leave them for safety? We have to stay. I cannot bear leaving. What if they need us?"

Olivia saw the tail smack Alexi's chest and neck, knowing that soon his blood would be running down his side. All the careful care and his wound would be open and bleeding again. In her mind, she was already going over what she would need and hoping, desperately that none of it would be beyond her skill.  

[Nyx Queen of Darkness]

The brown mare's tail struck Alexi full in the chest and neck, knocking the wind from his lungs. Somehow he kept his hooves though and turned, a little slowly.

He could feel his heart racing, her words were a pounding throbbing living thing around him. "Leave now," his voice was rough and tired. "We outnumber you. We can outfight you. And if you stay, we will kill you."

In his heart though, he did not know if he had it in him to kill again--not after the last time. It had taken so much, but then...there was a time to kill wasn't there? His sense of survival was strong and so was his sense of right and wrong.

She has to have killed before, he tells himself. It would be okay if he had to kill her, but...he did not know if he could. He didn't know if he was capable of doing that again.