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 Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 9:50 pm
 She hadn't even confided in her father or new found sister yet. Sangria was decidedly nervous about the upcoming meeting with a figure that she had taken never existed. It was by a fluke that she had found Jezabelle and the truth had been flung into the open by the unraveling of lies. Sangria had taken a moment to herself on this journey in order to find something to hunt. Although she knew that Relic had taken no interest in accompanying her Sangria wasn't sure what Jezabelle thought. She had not asked and was enjoying the camaraderie too much to risk shattering the fragile, if not, strengthening connection between them.
So it was with little warning that she had broken away from her father and sister to hunt on her own. She was following the scent of a wounded creature that had almost escaped her. It had been quick enough to evade her dart but she had managed to inflict damage with her knife. She used her tracking skills and kept to the center of the tiny game path that she found herself on. The forest was eerily quiet as if it knew that there were more predators than normal amongst its darkened canopy. Sangria breathed in deeply and tasted the copper tang on the air. Somewhere nearby her prey lay ... was it attempting to go any further, thus fighting fate's design or had it given up?
As Sangria tracked her victim she realized that she had pulled farther away from Jezabelle and Relic than she had originally planned. She glanced along the darkened path from which she had traveled and gave a slight roll of her shoulders. She wouldn't have a problem tracking them back down. Eventually she would either return satiated or frustrated over a lack of a kill. The fact that she had not been able to dart her prey chafed at Sangria's confidence. She'd never been one to miss with her syringes. To miss now in a critical race against time was never a good sign. She gave her head a barely perceptible shake before eying the next patch of ground. A larger puddle of crimson liquid graced her eyes and she gave a wicked smile. The creature had lain down here. Sangria nosed the puddle and felt the liquid's warmth instantly. The blood was still warm which meant that her prey was decidedly nearby undercover it seemed. Now was the time to use her other senses. Her eyes closed as she withdrew another syringe from her wrap. Scarcely breathing Sangria moved her ears about ... seeking any minute trace of sound that would give away her prey's location. Her eyes widened after a few minutes. Something large seemed to be moving in her direction. Sangria kept the syringe clamped between her teeth as she let her gaze roam the surrounding area. Whomever or whatever was out there was going to get a rude awakening. Anger flooded her mind as even now her prey had time to escape her clutches.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:12 pm
 Jessamine was still reeling at her recent revelations. Eva had explained everything to her as she understood it, and Jess was still processing. They had...they had hunted together. Eva had not judged her, and in fact encouraged her to gorge herself when she had admitted how long it had been since she'd eaten. A rustling of the bushes put her thoughts to the back of her mind, and when a wounded rabbit came limping practically in front of her she at first clamped down on her urges but...Eva had explained things... The rabbit seemed to sense it had jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire, because it started fleeing in a third direction, away from her and away from the way it had come. Jessamine lost interest, because the bushes were rustling like something bigger was coming. She let the rabbit flee, it wouldn't last long and she'd recently eaten so her urges didn't so much as twitch in her mind. She had her cleaver in her teeth with barely a thought and waited for whatever was chasing the rabbit to show itself.
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Posted: Thu Jan 31, 2013 10:32 pm
The creature had definitely fled. Sangria's anger flared toward this unknown intruder and she gripped the syringe even tighter as she moved with a new purpose through the foliage. She'd take down whatever it was that had scared her prey away. Perhaps she was dealing with a wolf or large cat although the sounds that reached her ears didn't sound like either one of those creatures. It almost sounded like there was another Soquili in the forest tonight.
Sangria had never once tried hunting one of her own kind. Relic had always encouraged her to go after prey that was smaller than she was. Time stood still now as she found herself making the hardest decision that she would ever have to make. Her breaths evened out as she strode forward with a renewed purpose. She would see this hunt through to the end. If it meant that her target had changed then so be it. Her gaze narrowed towards a form that was just becoming visible. A white pelt, pale as moonlight strode towards her and Sangria jerked her head back before flinging the syringe forward. As soon as it left her teeth she was reaching back to loose her weapon from its lace holding.
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:24 pm
Some sixth sense suddenly screamed in her mind and Jessamine jerked her head backwards just as an object went flying past her face. It grazed her cheek and she could feel blood welling to the surface already. It stung, but it also made her angry. Whatever was beyond the bushes was clearly dangerous.
A flash of white, and a glint of moonlight off of metal drew her eyes. She clenched her teeth around her cleaver and prepared to defend herself. The old urges were still floating just beneath the surface of her skin, but she felt in control now. She felt like it was her choice to let it go or not.
"That was quite rude," she sneered around her knife, the words clear from long practice, "I advise against trying it again."
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 10:39 pm
Sangria wrenched her weapon free just in time to catch the mysterious stranger break through to stand on the path before her. A small smirk graced her features as she caught the scored line of red on the other mare's cheek. Red eyes sought out any further indications of her syringe in the immediate vicinity. Failing to see the object Sangria instead turned her attention to the mare standing before her.
Pale white locks glowed underneath the full moon. The mare's body was also quite pale. A brief flash of confusion swept through Sangria as she caught sight of a weapon similar to her own clenched in the mare's teeth. The articulated words reached Sangria's ears and she was surprised that the mare could talk around such a beautiful weapon. Narrowing her eyes to linger on the blood welling on the stranger's cheek, Sangria had to wonder if any of the paralytic drugs had managed to make its way into the mare's bloodstream. Time would reveal the answer she supposed.
She paused as she manipulated her teeth around the handle of her own weapon. "Hmm, it was rather rude I suppose. I wonder though if you would be able to dodge as quickly the second time around if I did try again."
Sangria's stance was one that spoke of confrontation. She wanted this stranger out of her way. The best idea would be to attack again but she'd wait to see if anything of the stranger's status changed.
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 11:09 pm
Jessamine could feel numbness spreading through her cheek where the projectile had grazed her. 'Poisoned,' she thought sarcastically, 'perfect.'
She could see the mare in front of her was bristling for a confrontation, but for some reason Jessamine felt hesitant. She let her eyes fall on the cleaver in the other mare's possession and something tickled the back of her brain. There was something...Jess shook it off, this mare was dangerous and she needed to focus.
"Oh, I don't know. Will you again throw it through the brush without a thought as to who or what could be on the other side? In that case, perhaps you may hit me. Otherwise, I rather doubt it." she replied, though it was getting harder to speak around her knife due to the paralysis spreading through her face, so a few of the words were slurred.
Jessamine had not survived all these years on her own by chance. It was not something she had sought to achieve, and certainly not something she practiced by choice, but her nature had not won her any allies (in fact, had driven her first love away). She'd learned to fight quick and dirty, and to dodge as much as she could, since her small frame couldn't absorb much damage before she was out of a fight. The mare before her had a similar frame and Jess had a feeling if it came to a fight that they would be almost evenly matched.
And yet, she still found herself reluctant to fight with her. There was something...but she pinpoint what it was. Was it simply that the other mare had a knife similar to hers? Perhaps it was the lace, which could be compared with hers...or even, the purple bow that adorned her hair.
A thought struck Jessamine and her jaw dropped, her knife tumbling to the ground. She stumbled back as if struck.
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Posted: Sun Mar 10, 2013 11:35 pm
Sangria couldn't tell if her syringe had had any effect or not. That she had hit the mare was answered. The faint welling of blood had slowed but Sangria still found her gaze drawn to the crimson liquid. How cruel was it that she had missed now twice in a row? Her pride was certainly taking a beating this night. First she had lost the prey she had originally been chasing down and now she had apparently missed hitting anything vital on this stranger. Sangria clenched the handle of her weapon in her teeth and ground down on it in frustration.
C'mon. Why isn't it working?
That mare, if she'd been hit enough, should have been showing signs of impairment by now. Sangria shifted her weight from her left to her right hooves before listening to the mare's words. A slow grin formed as she heard the slurred speech. Now things were getting interesting. "I don't know about throwing it through the brush because now I can see you dead on. It was the fact that you disturbed my hunt that I only threw the syringe. Are you feeling okay there?"
The last line was added as mockingly as she could deliver the line. She knew that the slurred speech was a sign that at least some of her poison had gone to work. It wasn't enough to incapacitate the mare though. Sangria would need to use another syringe to and have it stick for total paralysis to occur.
As she ducked her head to switch the knife for another syringe Sangria heard a clang of metal striking rock. Her head swung up in time to see the mare take a step back. Her weapon lay unattended on the ground. Sangria narrowed her gaze, was this some sort of trick?
"What's your problem now?"
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 12:50 am
Jessamine stared at the mare across from her in a daze. The mare in front of her looked remarkably like her with hints of Relic, now that she was looking for it. But. It couldn't be. There was no way...she'd run so far away. Of all the soquili in all the world, how had she managed to run into one of her own children?
No! She snapped her jaw shut and ground her teeth together. It seemed surreal because it wasn't true. She had worked too hard to distance herself from them, she couldn't have stumbled upon a daughter so easily. Besides, she'd been traveling ever since that ill fated attempt she'd made at parenting with her sweet Jezabelle.
A voice whispered to her that it didn't have to be this way anymore, she knew now why she craved flesh. It wasn't unnatural as she had always believed...she was not a freak. There was no reason she couldn't meet her children now, she wouldn't hurt them. Even if she would, they were surely grown now (the mare before her seemed just the right age to be one of her youngest...) and could protect themselves from her if need be.
.
.
.
And yet, the river of self-loathing had not abated with just a single conversation between sisters. A large part of her still thought of her urges as unholy and wrong. There was the fear that her blind hunger would overtake her again, because it always had before. Evangeline had told her that everything she felt was normal down to the blind frenzy she went into sometimes when she had deprived herself for too long. It was a part of her that was never going to go away, because it belonged. Still, so many years of belief were not easily erased with a single conversation.
Her instinct when it came to her children had always been to put them with someone who would keep them safe, primarily from her. It had been barely a thought moments ago, the possibility of reuniting with her children, but needed time to grow into something more before she was ready to face them. She knew she needed time to make such a decision...
Time, it was turning out, she didn't have as she stared at her maybe-maybe-not daughter not ten feet from her. Her thoughts were a snarl inside her skull. She bowed her neck, lowering her face to be within inches of her dropped cleaver. Silky white hair pooled around her face, dragging on the ground and hiding all but her eyes from view as she stared at the mare in front of her. She had gone from hostile to almost ready to flee, and she asked the question she knew she had to to clear up her suspicions. Jess didn't know if she wanted to be right or wrong.
"...who, is your father?" she said, her voice tense but hesitant, only very slightly slurring her words now that she wasn't trying to talk through a chunk of wood.
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Posted: Mon Mar 11, 2013 1:13 am
Sangria had secured another syringe and kept it down at hoof level. Her eyes, although downcast, still kept enough of the other mare in her vision. Sangria wasn't sure what was going on with this stranger. She'd gone silent and was watching her with a strange expression. She found that she didn't like the contemplative searching look that the other mare had given her before she had fallen silent. It was almost like she was fighting a war inside of her own mind.
Slightly puzzled, Sangria took the moment to raise her gaze to look this stranger over. Besides Jezabelle, and her father, she'd never seen another individual that had carried a weapon. Was it becoming more of a craze now amongst other Soquili or was there something else at work. Sangria's knife lay unattended at her feet as she continued to grip the syringe in between her teeth. It was a lot smaller than her knife and thus easier to grip.
The sudden and unexpected question from the mare in front of her caught Sangria unaware. There wasn't any hesitance on her response either. The words she spoke were by rote, she couldn't have changed them if she tried.
"Relic is my father."
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