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 Posted: Mon Jul 11, 2011 9:23 am
Awed, Adagio drew in a quick gasp of air. Samsara was both beautiful and fearsome, unlike any other soquili that was in the herd. Samsara had asked that they listen and Adagio was all ears. "What is it that we can help you with us? Please, tell us," she breathed.
Her mind swam with visions. She would be the one to speak with Samsara and make peace between her and Padmapani. The only thing that the skinwalker required was respect and Adagio would honor that.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:14 am
"No, Adagio. No, no..." whispered Shrivatsa. She trembled with the need for retreat. She was filled with dread and the look on the skinwalker's face only made it worse. She looked into those golden eyes and felt herself frozen. They were so cold, so full of malice. She didn't understand how Adagio couldn't see that murderous intent, but at the same time she herself felt unable to flee. The skinwalker spoke and she obeyed.
"Adagio, run!" Though her voice was nothing stronger than a strained whisper it was full of urgency and fear.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:25 am
Her two targets stood still, like terrified rabbits before the kill. Samsara felt a surge of hunger at the comparison. She kept her wings open as she walked toward them with dangerous and stately grace. What fools they were. What idiots. They were staring unmoving at their death as it strode toward them.
Her eyes flicked toward the frightened one, the white mare with the markings the color of dried blood. "You. You will go to Hayagriva and tell him that I was here. You will tell him that I have not forgotten and that he won't forget either."
"You." She looked then at the winged fool. "You will stand there and be very, very still." She smiled and her fangs were bare before them. Too late, she saw realization and fear coming to the blue mare. During her speaking she had walked close enough for escape to be impossible. Mouth open, she lunged.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:33 am
Never before in her life had Adagio known mortal fear until now. She saw Samsara shooting toward her and it was as if time slowed. As if she was drowning, she sucked air frantically into her lungs. Her wings opened and flailed in an attempt to bring her into the air but they were too slow. The skinwalker's teeth sank into her shoulder.
Her voice, usually full of music and beautiful, tore in a hoarse scream. She tried to pull back but that just made the imbedded teeth tear all the more. Her wings kept flapping but it was now the senseless flailing of a pinned dove rather than an attempt to fly.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:39 am
The nightmare descended upon them. When Adagio screamed Shrivatsa let out a whinny of terror and turned to bolt. She had only taken a few steps when she heard Adagio's pained voice again. She couldn't leave her there! While tears of fear began to gather at the corners of her eyes she spun around and ran straight at Samsara.
"Adagio, RUN!" she screamed. She had spent all her time receiving her emotional and spiritual training with Vara, not in the fighting lessons of Hayagriva. Not knowing what else to do, she lowered her head and hoped to be able to knock the skinwalker over with her charge.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 9:45 am
Her prey's cries of pain were sweeter than the finest music for Samsara. She twisted her head and dug her teeth in a little deeper, and then she saw the other running at her. It was a reckless and desperate move with more bravery than tactic. When Samsara had only been newly changed such a tactic might have worked on her, but not now.
She pulled her teeth from the wind mare and transformed. She felt her senses sharpening as the pelt pulled around her, but that wasn't all that was sharper. Too slow. Everything that the two mares did was far too slow. As the charging mare reached her Samsara stood back on her hind legs and lashed out with two paws bristling with claws.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:05 am
Adagio sobbed when the skinwalker let her go and staggered away from her. She continued flapping her wings but it was as if she was a filly all over again. She couldn't remember how to get off the ground. "Please!" she cried. "Please!" She didn't know whether she spoke to Shrivatsa or to Samsara. Pain lanced through her.
She heard Shrivatsa's cry of "RUN!" and tried. She turned her back on the skinwalker and her cousin, not wanting to see what would result from that clash. She staggered away from that scene but couldn't get her legs to coordinate well enough to gallop.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:12 am
Nausea roiled within Shrivatsa while watching Samsara change into a panther. Her mind rejected it as unnatural but her eyes couldn't look away. It was too late to change her course so she kept thundering ahead toward the skinwalker. Samsara's attacks were as fast as a snake and Shrivatsa felt the impact of one paw and then another against her face and neck. The claws dug into her and left behind red tears through her white fur.
One of the claws was still stuck to her and the weight of the skinwalker stole her balance away from her. She crashed into the ground with her hooves still kicking out uselessly. Above her stood the skinwalker, and Shrivatsa knew that there was nothing she could do now.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:16 am
Samsara bore the mare to the ground and shut her eyes against the dust and leaves thrown into the air from the impact. When she opened them again the mare was staring at her, already given in to the inevitable. Fortunately for her, she was the one chosen to be the messenger, not the sacrifice.
"Tell him!" She hissed while leaning her claws deeper inward. "Tell him what you saw and heard! Tell him!" She released then and tore off after the wind. She hadn't gone far and in a matter of moments Samsara had caught up again.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:21 am
"Please! No! No! No!" screamed Adagio, but it was to no avail. The skinwalker was upon her once more and this time there was no Shrivatsa to distract her. The pain that she had felt before was nothing compared to what she felt now. Her flapping ceased and then her running did. She collapsed to the ground bleeding and torn with the skinwalker still atop her.
She cried and screamed until her voice was raw and then was silent. Soon the silence overwhelmed her and drew her down into blackness. Her pain faded into that darkness and all else, though she thought she could hear a song floating on the wind in the distance...
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:27 am
Shrivatsa wept. She sobbed in pain and terror, then cried harder when she heard Adagio's pained shouts. Her cousin was dying. She had no doubts in her mind about that. She would never see Adagio's face again, never be aggravated by her self-assurance again. She would never again stand with Adagio to listen to Vara's wisdom and learning.
She somehow managed to make it back upright but didn't know what to do once she had. She found herself running back in the direction of the herd with tears streaming down her cheeks mixing with the blood still oozing from her scratches. She wanted to wake up and find that this was all a dream. She wanted to see Adagio flying overhead and to know that she was safe. She wanted the herd to be just around the next corner and to find her mother waiting for her to comfort her. She wanted all those things, but none of them were granted to her.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:39 am
When Samsara left the winged mare she was bloody and broken. Her beautiful feathers lay strewn over the ground and her breathing was rough and unsteady. She was dying. With the rate that she was losing blood, Samsara doubted she would survive more than an hour. She felt no need to stay and witness it. She wanted to disappear now before the herd could find her. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of attempting revenge.
She transformed back into a soquili to travel faster. She galloped through the forest with her wings flapping between every other step. Each beat carried her off the ground in an extended leap with her tail stretching out behind to steady her. She was triumphant. She was exhilarated and enthused. Her smile was as pure and as cruel as any that had ever graced a soquili's face.
It was not one life she had destroyed today but three. One was the life she had taken, the blue winged mare. The other was the life she had traumatized, the friend who survived. The last... the last was her father. She knew him so well that she could envision his anguish and sorrow at what had been done against his name.
The taste of blood was strong in her mouth and the wind that drew through her pelt threw off droplets behind her. She was Samsara the skinwalker, and the day was hers.
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Posted: Wed Jul 27, 2011 10:44 am
Deeper and deeper Adagio sank. She was far beyond pain, far beyond fear, and the music grew louder and louder in her ears. It was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard and she knew a moment of sorrow that she could not find her voice to sing along.
Her body bled and slowed, her heart and breath growing more quiet. She had been left for dead and it certainly seemed like that would be the end result... but the shadow of another fell over her. At the touch of a spiraled horn the music suddenly grew fainter and pain and awareness started seeping back. She awoke with a gasp and a cry, staring into the eyes of the one that had rescued her.
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