He watches her come, silk and steel- but that is too mundane to be a true description. She is a burning sword, lit but the fires for sunset, streaming silk banners and lilies like hearts of flame. He wishes, just for a moment, that she had flown down from the sun. What he wouldn't have given to see her aloft, haloed by light so bright that it deters the eye. That would be the setting for such beauty. Though they meet here as soldiers, there is part of him that does not forget that she is a woman, a lady.
The way his name falls from her leaps feels almost wrong, like desecration. But the smile on her lips and the laughter in her eyes ease any worry of worship. Let her rise- he would rather be the shoulders that support her. She could command hearts and minds, he thought, if she chose. Her movement is easy, graceful. Though he admires her at the same time he studies, taking in the lithe build and quick steps that speak to agility greater than his. Where she plans to use his greater size against him, he judges that he may use it to his advantage.
Laughter rolls from his throat as she watches him, guessing the reason for assesment because it matches his own. He studies the rolls of muscle beneath the sleek hide, lending both feminine curve and silken strength. The breadth of her chest and the power there, built he assumes from her time in the air as well as on the ground. Her broad wings he notes as both a weapon and a point of weakness, though he makes the quick decision to avoid them if possible. He is too unfamiliar fighting the winged ones- he doesn't know how hard it is to cause true harm there and he does not wish to maim during a spar meant only to try their skills. It would take the joy from it.
Her eyes linger on his face and he turns his face slightly from her, catching her gaze with his own good dark eyes. For a moment there is a flicker of something else beneath the excitement, carefully restrained. It is as fleeting as a whisper, untraceable. Self-conciousness or caution, it is too quick to be sure of and perhaps not even he knows what he feels in that instant.
The fire-maid gives up what he sees as her biggest advantage in choosing to remain earthbound and he feels a flicker of regret, though he nods all the same. "As you wish."
He has not had a chance to fight someone airborne- he has only watched from a distance as the winged knights trained and fought. Another time. The possibility of the future suddenly roars in the back of his mind- how long has it been since he has planned for this, even so small a future? It makes thunder of his heart and then there is no time because the muscles beneath her ivory pelt tense and then she is in motion.
The scarred knight has no time to admired the beauty of it. He is silent where she cries out, wheeling to face her head on. He does not dodge nor try to turn away. He only prepares, gathering himself and setting his weight. Her head snakes forward as she checks her speed but Diarmuid tries not to give her the chance. He drops his weight low- just a few inches of bent knee- and lunges forward to meet her dying her charge. Teeth slide across the slab of muscle and bone that makes up his powerful shoulder, the bruising force barely registering at first. The pain comes after a moment, overwhelming the endorphins that surge in his skin.
It is battle now.
He uses the force of his lunge to try and push up into the bite, to bring their chests together with the weight of his body behind it. He tries to give her head nowhere to go but up, keeping the gilt-etched sword she bears away from his face. His powerful neck curves, muscles screaming as scar tissue stretches and he tries to bury his teeth into the crest of her neck among the satin tresses. Ever he tries to keep her to his right. If he can hold her, can stay close to her and press their bodies together, he can rob her of the use of her agility. This is in the forefront of his mind as he strikes.
His mind is wiped clean of past betrayal and future possibilities.
He drowns in the scent of lilies and heated flesh.
Summary: He meets her charge, taking her bite on his shoulder. He shoves his body into her, attempting to body check and stay too close for her to use her horn. He snakes his head around to try and grab the crest of her neck in his teeth, trying to grapple her or at least drive her away from his left side.
Attack Used: 1
Attack(s) Left: 1
Block Used: 0
Block(s) Left: 1
Item(s) Used: N/A
Response Deadline: 10/21/2017
Tags: @Israfel, @
