[AW] Holiday {relic contest}

[Avdotya]

A V D O T Y A SHE WAITS; SEETHING, BLOOMING. With the night ushering daylight to its slumber once more, Avdotya, too, began to tie the loose ends of her activity until morning's next glow. Behind her lay a bloodied scene of a job well-accomplished, the body having already been swarmed by the vultures to be picked clean and dry. The only trace of her success lay in the dried red residue left upon the blade of her spear, an imperfection with which the mare simply could not tolerate. In a way, she viewed her spear as a partner, and so, Avdotya had grown almost obsessive in the cleaning of its glinting edges. On a nightly basis, she ensured at least a brief stop at the water's edge of Vitae Oasis, a stop that she was en route to at this very moment. Her cracked hooves dragged effortlessly over the crest of a dune overlooking the oasis, allowing her to survey the current occupants... though, much to her surprise, there were none - not yet, at least - and so she ambled down the slope of sand towards the quiet shore. Except quiet never lasted, and amidst the shuffling of the desert underfoot, quite a clatter violated her ears. Avdotya paused abruptly, curling her head and neck back with distaste while her amber eyes pinpointed the source. Her gaze narrowed at the sight of a man who now stood upon the beach of Vitae, exclaiming something or other about the fish gliding by beneath the surface. As the stranger continued in his awe, the woman slunk closer from the foliage of the oasis like a cat after prey, but he was not her target. Instead, Avdotya (still under the cover of overgrown palm fronds and shrubbery) unsheathed her blood spear and skewered one of the very fish he was admiring. It struggled while stuck between the sand and the point of her blade, but it was only when the small creature succumbed to its fate that the mare slipped out from the leaves and revealed herself to him. "If all it takes is a fish to delight you, perhaps you should get out more." She scolded, her tongue sharp with the choppiness of her accent. In spite of the biting words, Avdotya did not present as overtly threatening. In fact, she even cocked a heel after she had prowled closer to the shaft of her spear that still stood stuck in the sand and water. She was not underestimating this man, but she certainly found it difficult to notice even an ounce of ill-will in a being so fascinated by a simple fish. @damascus

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