Ankyra Sound a blackout oath i swore and meant but couldn't conjure up again

An attempt was made -- Raleska could leave it at that, at best.

Once, she might have laughed at him. He was, after all, born of the blood her blood had waged against; he was an enemy, inexorably -- in the way her mother would always be inexorably of her blood.

Yet, Raleska did not feel any triumph, watching her enemy struggle. She felt something that wasn't pity, but wasn't scorn either. It was something sad, something sorrowful -- like watching something living suffer. She derived no joy in that.

She derived no joy in helping him either. She wanted so desperately to leave him there in the sand, for the birds to pick over.. but it just wasn't her. He was lucky, in that measure, that she was not entirely her mother's daughter.

"Here." Raleska came towards him timidly, keeping her hind legs angled away from him. It could all be a ploy, she knew - maybe he was feigning weakness to get her close. She thought she was being stupid, helping him - but she couldn't just leave him in good conscience all the same.

Shakily offering her shoulder, Raleska felt her breathing rate rapidly increase -- and prepared for the moment this all went disastrously south.