Blackfoot Forest and the things that i've loved are the things i have lost

really sorry for the delay. you can archive after your last post or w/o, i'm fine with either! thanks for the thread you-uns :)

she straddled the earth and glared openly, defiantly, at merrick and his stupid widowed eye, flinching despite herself when his corpse throat croaked out its mirthless, bilious laugh. laughter like a drain that she was circling. she schooled her expression to present the most threatening display possible, but she was no threat to him and he knew it and she knew that he knew it. 

"i-i'd go die if i had a st-stupid mean ugly boy like you also!" she blurted out, folding herself away from him like origami in case he tried to extract her from the briar spinney. if the sunken socket in his face was any indication, the lich was not like to be deterred by some prickly plant if he really wanted to get at her. this gave her confidence an analeptic; was his intent to kill her, he would have probably already dragged her from her mickey mouse playhouse of ouchies. 

and if she was about to get murked, she'd go out saber rattling, mouthing off right up until said mouth was ripped clean off. 

"go back, someone will be missing their pet." she didn't really have a response ready for this when he bid it, but she wasn't about to leave the protection of the spinules with him standing there so she stuck it out, puzzling over his remark in the meanwhile. he clicked his teeth around the air of aerasha's face, then left as wordlessly as he had come. relief she didn't even know was in her reservoir washed over phaedra and with a whiny grunt, she struggled to beat back the shin-tangle she'd entangled herself within. 

glancing at the aerasha, she squinted. putting herself between phaedra and merrick had given the child an opportunity to impulsively jump into a sharp bush, but she'd hardly call that a feat of valor. especially since all the woman had to contribute to the situation was airy comments and presently, an easy smile. he could have chewed through her in order to reach his quarry, and it wasn't unreasonable to imagine this woman would still bear the demeanor of malibu barbie during the process. "yeah wooow. my mama would have'd his other eye ..." she muttered darkly, watching until merrick had fully disappeared before battling her way out of the skewerbush. 

red dapples covered her bow to stern, and she could feel the consequences of her decision now. burning stings covered her, but she braved it and masked her pain, limping into the lingering miasma of merrick's former post opposite aerasha. phaedra overtly searched the treetops now, frowning deeply. "hey budderfly, you seen a fuzzy snake lookin thing?  i needa beat him up," she huffed, wandering off without waiting for an answer in a direction that far removed her from whatever unearthly underbelly abaddon's groom had stalked off into.