Raven's Watch [m] α

She had seen duels from the kootsin in musth, great thunder beasts drunk on hormones, full of spit and swagger, emerging from the ether to measure their tines against the daring of another bull. Her head swims, increasingly frustrated she has so little to defend herself with, only fangs in a tired jaw and thinned muscles that had lost so much substance from months of lone trekking in foreign lands. She would be the weaker party in a straight fight, and quickly outpaced if she chose to run.
No, neither was an option in this delicate state.
Her eyes snap to Faust’s hard-cut face as he draws a broad forward-step. He’d been providing her with meals and would fight hard for his payoff. But the wild man would not be cowed, Ayovi sees the opposite in how those heavy scarlet limbs mast beneath him.
They speak in northern tongues. She flinches when they laugh.
“Please,” the voice stammers lowly, foolishly, like it might inspire some new sensibility between man and woman.