Lone Star Mountain porcelain knife

impromptu! <3

"hex say woman not right," muskrat murmured to @Makono. she had left lynx girl with hex for now, instructing the girl to begin her explorations of the shadow as quickly as she was able.

now the serpentine gaze found her lover, a grin wreathing the scarred face. "not care who they are. need to leave. off," she joked; muskrat added a flicking motion with a dismissive paw and climbed higher into the stones above the ridge, searching for any movement on the nearby mountain.

her lover joked but a cold seriousness gripped makono.

throw them down into the vale. two other faces have gone down there. maybe their sickness will eat each other.

there was a coiled tension to her muscles. her steps so often fluid now became like thundering horses. she craved something dark and terrible.

sharpness to those words. muskrat tasted their razoring in her own mouth and halted. "vale too close to shadowland," the little panther commented with a hardness flickering in her yellow eyes.

she glanced to the mountain, then to the place where others gathered in defiance of hex. of them.

a grin started on her mouth. "we find this woman. find child. then we raid vale." it pleased her. "come back. tell hex. bring girl. all of us. two, them."

glee glittered on the shark's-mouth.

the violence, the aggression.

she placated it all by reaching for a kiss. although it was hardly romantic or gentle. her voice creeping from her throat —

they will not be so happy to see my teeth a second time. humor in her coldness now. and the child must see what life will be like now. she must learn.

she turned her interest to climbing upon a large stone for continued outlook.

"she will." muskrat did not know enough flowing words to explain the process of training youth into warriorship.

sidelong glance to the eagle said she did not need to explain.

"if wise, will learn quick. will learn from each of us." the girl had climbed in quiet focus. she had known how to walk upon stone, and muskrat still wondered from where she had come.

"woman have child," she said of the ones sought. "take them to ridge? drive off?" she asked, eager for a point of direction when it came to their quest and considering that sacsayhuamán was the one to step first. her own way was to look, to assess once, to hit hard, to retreat.

in for a penny, in for a pound. such had always been her way of thinking.

take the child. gives the new one something to bond to, no? she dropped her head low and huffed the air in long breaths. she wished to move upon them now. she did not want to make this a long war but the quick stabs of a raid.

she pressed her path down upon unknown scents. thundering up when needed, prowling when trails narrowed down.

"take from mother?" muskrat muttered as they traveled fierce-faced and fraught with energy from the shadowland to the lone mountain.

snatching a child hungry and alone was one thing. as she had no ill designs upon them, muskrat considered her intervention to be far more merciful than the usual fates met by lost young.

but to take a child directly; she was not certain she wanted that. yet if the woman was not well, maybe it must be done after all.

her eyes searched for the figures as they slowed; the citrus sheen narrowed, pinpointing.

there was moonlight now, but she did not see movement, and prowled forward into a shaft of creamy glow.

cruelty twisting and shattering within her. perhaps that was the true gift her father had left behind for her in his mad wake. the ability to drive a knife in without thinking twice on it. it was her divine right. it was her warrior right.

would it not be a kindness to remove a child from any sickness?

makono had done so for herself, for akashingo.

she had given herself a lifelong condition of ego-fueled martyrdom, too, it seemed.

if you disagree, say so.

there was no anger or pointed blame. she sought an equal in this rare moment.

"want to see woman first," muskrat said lightly, aware that this was the first disagreement they'd had thus far.

nothing harsh came from royal eagle, but muskrat sensed in her lover an iron that lived just beneath her flesh. she was honed, graceful in her movements; she had been trained; she left those pieces of herself in mystery.

"when swamp panthers raid, take mother and child together. not as many enemies. kill her later, if need."

she saw the value in it. even if her teeth and jaw nearly ached with the want for violence again. it could be quick, it could be swift. a mother might be distracted by her child. a mother might fight without a clear mind.

makono said none of this. she did not want to sway her lover on the opinion that she had asked for.

then we will kill her later. if needed.

but maybe the spirit would be broken well before death ever came.

coldness to chill even a panther of deep swamp. muskrat was aware suddenly, swiftly, that she knew nothing else of her eagle save what had already been shared.

but did she wish to know? she had not asked, nor had the other given.

nudge now to the pale crown, and then the animal wife was off again, her steps sure and hungry in the gathering shadow.