Welcome to Gaia! ::

Red tracked the Baowi across the tundra with a focus that turned miles into moments. It was not likely to be actually miles, but Red didn't care either way. Her only focus was on the pawprints in front of her, her only desire – plastered blatantly across her face – was to hunt and find and fight it's owner. Snow, ubiquitous in this white land, drifted past her, kissing her cloaked shoulders and the ears of her Notbjaovin pelt.

It was about then that she lost the trail.

Red snarled in frustration: at the ground, at the tracks, at the snow, and her head throbbed. She would have her revenge. She would find her foe. She would kill it. With a shreik, she kicked a the nearest drift of snow. It dissolved easily into a puff of whiteness, satisfying and yet not. It was all she had.

She kicked another, and then another, taking the small satisfaction from the smoke-like shimmering snowy fluffs. But it wasn't enough – it wasn't a beast, to test her new ice-bound claws and fangs. She turned to return, disgruntled, to the village.

It was then that she realized that she had travelled a long way. Is that dot in the distance it? she asked herself, squinting in the blinding light of the white, shining, reflective snow. Or that other dot? she wondered, glancing around the horizon, Or that speck there?

It was flat land all around, sparkling with snow and ice and treachery, and any destination was a mere silhouette in the distance. Eh. she decided, a little deflated, I'll find out when I'm closer.

She began to trudge, slowly, back along the ice, her head throbbing with every step. Snow crunched under her feet, an interesting sound that she appreciated as the silence of the tundra pressed on on her ears. Red hated silence. Eventually, even the crunch of snow under her feet was not enough, and she found she had to make a sound, a loud one, any loud one.

So she yelled, a great shout that died in the dulled acoustics of the ice, coming back to her ears as a muted whisper. It was more satisfying than the snowdrifts, and she shouted again: “Raaaaaah!” she yelled.

“HWWWWRRR.” came an answer, startling her, and she made a fast turn around to find, not a few feet away, the Baowi. She blinked, surprised, and then grinned.

“I've got ya you sneaky b*****d!” she snarled at it, crouching into a battle stance, “Come an' get some!” she summoned her magic into icicle barbs on her fists, “I'll kick yer big hairy arse!”

It bellowed at her, dodging her attacks with ease as she leapt at it, attacking with her not-so-bare hands.

“C'mon!” she demanded, slicing at it with her improvised claws, “Fight me!” But it only dodged. Red wanted a fight, a good one, full of violence, and its lack of violence frustrated her. “C'mon!” she demanded again. It dodged once more...

It's glance behind her should have warned her, but nobody called Zamanavyi a particularly observant girl, in or out of combat, and the slam from behind caught her completely by surprise and drove her to the ground. She gasped on the permafrost, winded, her icicle claws shattering as she fell. A paw slammed down, and she flipped herself over, missing being crushed beneath it's clawed mass as she realized that there were two Baowis attacking her now. She hissed ferally at them and, with another rolling dodge, managed to get back on her feet.

Her icicles responded to her call... but slowly... and she had no other weapons. Damn... she grit her teeth.

Which left her no other option but to run and buy some time to be ready...