skiamachy

Vesper · 01-23-2012, 09:32 AM

[html]

634

Set in Hollow's Ruins, any date works.
I would prefer one character only for the purpose of sparring, though if someone really wants to thread with me for some reason and would rather do one of the prompts, that's acceptable too. <3

The ragged hybrid stood on the stump of the charred ash tree, her breath leaving her mouth in puffs of vapor until she could control the rise and fall of her chest. One hand, claws unsheathed, wandered up to the dark splash of fur among the white below her throat, as if the river-bed color had spilled like blood to pool along her collarbone.

And then, once her lungs filled with the crisp winter air, Vesper battled herself again.

She had always thought of herself as an adept fighter in her youth, of course, but even now, as she worked to improve, there was much that she could not do well. The last bitter days of December had shown her how important it was for her to be able to fight, whether it was in her preferred and streamlined form or this gangly androgynous shape. Even when she claimed ranks among the Lumen tier, not for an instant did she think of abandoning her other skills. Inferni needed her to know what was going on outside its territory for protection—and it needed her to fall back and help protect it if she did not succeed.

The sun was cast at a perfect angle, and her shadow danced before her on the other trees, falling dark on their odd carvings. Any coyote well versed with the clan territory and history may have been uneasy in the ruins, but to Ves, the markings might as well have been those in a book; she was illiterate and did not care. The red color seeping into the dark hues of the grove could have been anything besides blood. All she knew was that it was private, and she had a good place to practice balance and strikes, unable to dodge too far lest she topple off her perch.

She took swipes at her shadow wherever it lay, and immediately she threw another arm up to counter the blow she gave. She ducked, punched, remained poised on her toes on the stump, her pale cornflower eyes quickly seeking out her next target. She moved without thought, simply trusting her body as her lupine mentor taught her, and she assumed that every enemy blow aimed to kill her as her leader had warned.

Each time she struck and countered her own blows, her body leaping quickly to action, she had to pull out the next move fast—pushing herself, coming up with tricks, tossing complicated moves that she had to counter in an instant. The times she stumped herself were the times that she finally drew breath and stopped, until she realized what else she could possibly do—and then she worked again.

At one point, her clawed hand lashed out quickly as if to deliver a sharp blow to her imaginary opponent’s throat—but her shadow vanished, and Vesper stood dumbly for a moment before tilting her head to view the sky. The clouds had covered the sun, ending her little game by erasing her opponent self.

And so there was nothing more to do here, unless a clan mate turned up willing to take on the role of her shadow. That was what she really needed; she was severely limited by her own experiences, and if she went into battle only self-taught, her techniques would be crippled and then she would be. She just wished that she’d kept up with the relationships she’d forged in Inferni; though she wasn’t suddenly mad at anyone, these past few weeks she had been rather aloof even to those she named comrade and more hesitantly named friend. There was no point in calling out to someone already busy.

All she could do was take a seat on the stump and wish dreadfully for a sparring partner and a handful of water.

Login




Remember me Lost Password?