Efphion is restless and has paced the distance of all Solterra in just a few days, and she has not yet left the borders of Solterra. She burns with wrath and fury, it consumes her. She is nothing more than violence and hatred when she stalks into the Oasis that has brought her the relief of cool waters. The ash stained mare moves with determination, as though the Oasis will cool the hot fury that has ignited a fire inside the warrior. She is a wolf starved of their kill, though hers is a sort of vengeance that cannot be killed with time. Effy will starve until she takes a bite out of the justice she seeks from the flesh of her blasphemous sister. The tides of war would crash around the one who had shamed the Sun, as a child she was a disease to be culled from the herd. Effy's breaths come out with forceful aggression as she reaches the small shelf of sandstone that hangs over the Oasis.
She stares into the pristine waters that are framed by the dull colours of sandstone. The oasis does not shy away from the ire in her gaze, nor does it offer her solutions or solace for the pain that her fury brings. It threatens to consume her the longer she puts off the expression of her violence. Eik had promised her a fight, and she has half a mind to seek him out to tear into him to relieve herself. Instead, her wrath spills from her ink kissed lips. A violent cry escapes her lungs, the tides of violence quickly recede and the sound becomes no more than a snarl. Effy plunges into the center of the Oasis, and the water that surrounds her does not soothe the burns brought upon by the tides of her wrath. She emerges from beneath the surface with a furious gasp. Effy wishes for pain, or for something to soothe the heat of her wounds that none could see. Nobody but her.
The Oasis is wide and deep enough that she never quite feels as trapped as she truly is, able to hide beneath the waterfall or lounge against the shoreline at will. There was even a road that led straight to the gleaming waters, one beaten down by many hooves, where she could watch others travel or perhaps tempt them down to the waters to entertain herself -- it was a prison with gilded bars, but it was still a prison she was trapped within.
Movement near the road captured her attention from where she dwelled beneath the roaring waterfall, the hippocampus mare diving down deep before propelling herself forward with powerful flicks of her tail, towards where she could see hooves churning at the sands below. There’s no stopping the drive that propels her forward, that tells her that whatever moves in the water is prey for the taking -- she’s likely too fast for the other mare to see more than a horse-shaped blur beneath the water, her teeth sinking into Effy’s flesh in her effort to drag her down into the water as well.
When she realizes what she has hold of is not a large fish or perhaps an unwary land creature, she releases quickly, fins flaring and pushing herself backwards until she’s clear of the other mare -- keeping a wary eye on her for what she might do in return, unwilling to apologize for her instincts when she was just starting to learn to trust them again.
Efphion is not given a chance to let the water soothe the fires inside before she is bitten. Her flesh stings where the teeth of the creature sank into her. The sudden jet of water makes her grit her teeth, but she quickly removes herself from the Oasis. Effy is furious at first. She turns aggressively to see what horrible creature has dared accost her. What she sees next, startles her. Half equine, half fish. Her golden eyes narrow. Reth acknowledged the existence of such creatures only in their folklore. Just as they merely only spoke of the gods. But Effy knows just as well as her blasphemous sister how very real the gods are. Reth, nor her gods could prepare her for something they had believed was a myth. Effy is speechless as she stares into the waters. She wonders if this creature is a mirage or a figment of her imagination brought on by the storm of wrath inside her.
"....Did you just bite me? What??? What are you?" She demands to the creature trapped inside the pool. Effy is not concerned with the momentary lapse in her wrath. It is an interesting change to let her curiosity swallow her rage. It is the very reason she came to the Oasis. Effy cannot imagine such an encounter in her wildest dreams. No, in her dreams she consumes the world with rage, and hate. She saturates it. But this, this was something unimaginable. She is unsure of how to proceed. Effy is baffled by the revelation that these creatures exist at all. "What are you doing here?" Effy demands again, it is easy to see she lacks manners. It is just as easy to see that she teeters between confusion and wrath. She will be quick to recover and return the blows next time. It isn't every day that one is attacked by a strange half fish half equine.
"Speech"
@Jaylin
Ahh sorry for the wait.. and that this is awful
rulers make bad lovers, you better put your kingdom up for sale
She tastes blood in the water, spilling crimson and iron-sharp across her tongue, and for a moment the instinct to latch on and drag her prey beneath the waves nearly wins out -- except that this is not a deer, and she doubts that the silver queen would come to visit her if she should drag one of her people beneath the waters of the Oasis…. No matter how many bones rested in the sandy bottom, from reigns long before Seraphina’s.
She releases her grip and her fins flare outwards, shoving the hippocampus back and away from any retribution yet to come -- deep enough a normal horse would strain to touch, she treads water and stares at the intruder through bright blue eyes, the other two sets closed firmly against the glaring sun above.
“I did,” She confirms, although there is no remorse in her voice, no sense of contrition in her bones. She has spent long enough apologizing for what she is -- too close to feral for comfort as a child, too easily made into a weapon, and Efphion’s confusion is a familiar sight. “I am…. Cursed. I used to soar with the wings of a dragon. Now I'm trapped here.”
Efphion stares at the other semi-equine expectantly. She waits for an answer, and it comes to her in with their admission of guilt. She says it so matter-of-factly as if this is normal for her. Effy finds herself at a loss for words as they stare each other down. "Oh." The stupid sound falls from her mouth, she just accepts the admission without rage. She has never felt like she was struggling to breath in a conversation. Efphion is familiar with dominating conversations. Her attempts so far have been a failure she will remain bitter about for the weeks to come. Effy could do nothing more than blink stupidly at this creature. They tell her that they are cursed, that they used to be able to soar the skies. How she ended up in this pool became a mystery to Effy. The wings of a dragon. She tilts her head to the side with curiosity and hates how much she is like her sister at this moment.
"How does one capture someone like you? Trap you? Is this some sort of wizard's doing?" Effy asks her. The storm that brews inside her is momentarily restrained. Effy feels as though she is broken, she feels empty without the cushioning of rage to catch her. It is all she knows. She is known for her wrath, not for her intellect. Effy is not her sister. The anger inside her flares momentarily. It is like an angry fire, that threatens to lash anyone who fuels it. Efphion is at the mercy of her rage, but she has no awareness of this fact. She denies it. No awareness by choosing to ignore the problem. She has no time to self reflect. Effy hates to admit that she is curious about this sort-of equine. She isn't sure what to define them as, a dragon equine or a fish equine. "How do you plan to get out of here? I'm no magician. Nor do I have the charisma to convince someone to come and help you... So are you ... partially a dragon?" Effy asks, and it sounds incredulous. But the question is a thought that slips past her lips.
She stares down the other mare with a sort of challenge in her eyes, with her teeth ready to be bared and lash out should the other mare decide to retaliate. It was not her fault, after all, that the mare had come wading in without a sense of caution, the way a particularly foolhardy deer might -- what if it had been a crocodile waiting beneath the water? There would not have been such mercy shown.
“A sea witch.” She corrects, and her tail thrashes briefly at the mere mention of the witch, a storm brewing in her eyes. “A witch cursed me, and stole my daughter.” She cannot wait to be free from this prison, to seek out her daughter and to enact her revenge, but she must be patient -- she would not survive if she rushed her escape, would not be able to travel the desert in the form she had been trapped in.
“I am still planning my escape. If you cannot help, then that is nothing new -- there are many who cannot help, through no fault of their own. It is a strange situation.” That was an understatement, certainly, and she might have laughed at herself if she were not busy keeping an eye on the other equine. “My monah is a dragon. My father is an equine. I am dovahkiin -- halfbreed, even if I do not have my wings right now.”
