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Red was not happy about fleeing – of course she was not! Fleeing was for cowards and children, and she wasn't a coward or a child... well, not a child anymore. She was a full-grown dovaa by her own reckoning, her clan chosen, her body different. That she was not a grown up didn't matter s**t to her – she was grown enough, and it was about time.

So, she felt, she should not be fleeing. Yet here she was, dashing across the packed snow and ice, the wind lashing her face as she ran from the two lumbering shapes behind her. If she kept running, she might escape them. If she kept running, help might come.

Red didn't give a s**t about escape or help. She wanted battle. She wanted a fight. She wanted to not be a coward, which she was not. She would show those stupid Baowi who they were messing with: Red, the newly-minted Aiskala dovaa and a warrior – a warrior, damn it – of the wild tribe.

Red stopped running and turned to face the beasts, her claws fully restored to their cold, glimmering glory. “Come and get it, ya oversized puppies!” she shouted, her voice echoing over the ice as they bounded towards her. She growled in exasperation: they were taking too long to reach her. Apparently she'd been faster than she'd thought. “Oh to Oblivion with it!” she snarled, and ran towards them.

This was the opposite of fleeing, and her whole body gloried in the rush of it. “I'll kick your asses on early time!” she howled, leaping into the air, her claws brandished before her as they skidded on the ice, trying to slow down.

Their surprise was her advantage. She came down on them like a rock, landing on the broad back of one of the Baowi and digging her claws into it with all the force gravity could give her. “Yeah?!” she taunted, as it tried to shake her off and stop its movement at the same time, “Yeah?! How do you like that?!” It failed to keep its balance and fell on its side with a mighty whumph and Red, seizing the oppurtunity, let into its side with her claws. “Huh?!” she crowed, cutting into it with her claws, through fur, skin, and blubber, “How do you like that now?!” Finally, with a slash of her claw, she hit muscle and blood. It was blazingly hot against her cheek, and she shrieked her delight at the feeling of hot blood and ice. It moaned, swiping at her with a struggling paw, and she dodged away as its fellow came for it, all teeth and claws and power.

She stared it down, grinning as the downed one struggled to its feet and they approached her again, steadier now. “This'll end here, you know.” she said to them, wiping some drool off of her face and taking her fighting stance. The spit crystallized in the air and dropped to the ground, a little drop of ice. “I'm gonna kick your furred asses and that's where it'll end.”

They bellowed at her in unison, pacing around to try to flank her. One limped, dripping blood into the stark white snow. Red watched them for a moment, and then decided not to care about their strategy. Only hers... such as it was.

“YAAAA!” she yelled, kicking at the snow. Her fledgeling magic did the rest, powered by her belligerance. The snow became ice. The ice became icicles. The icicles became fangs that launced themselves at the Baowi, even as Red herself hurtled through the air at it. It couldn't dodge all that came at it.

Icicles pierced its pelt, and ice claws ravaged its head as Red struck it, again and again, braving its terrible mouth with her ferocity. Finally, she kicked it, breaking away. “You dead yet?!” she crowed, as it teetered, its head a bloody ruin.

The Baowi made a long, gurgling, mournful wail, and then crumpled to the ground, its skull broken....

(675/600)