He had grown so used to the taste and grit of the sand between his teeth. It coated his tongue, becoming a welcome, creeping disgust that dwelled at the back of his throat.
Despite the bitter taste, here he stood.... alone in this massive structure he had never before laid eyes upon. The Colosseum was vast - there was no denying it. In the time he was gone, no one could really explain how the stone walls had come to be seemingly overnight. They were neither new nor old, the test of time wearing the corners of each brick and only adding to the confusion of the Colosseum's birth. But the Warden knew one thing... when he stood here, he felt it. Knew it, in all its predatory glory.
Felt the surge — of power, of raw emotion, of the audience's howls of encouragement. Years past, it may have been — for now it all lay empty, barren and dusted in frigid snow — but the call still lit his nerves on fire, even now. The color of the blood that ran rivulets in the sand so long ago, they matched his eyes beautifully.
For a few minutes, the grit of sand had fallen away from his tongue. He could smell the age-old sweat as gladiators clashed, teeth and hooves and pure strength battling for the crowd's amusement. It reminded of a not-so faint memory that rose to the edges of his subconscious, that warmed him while the blizzard raged on above and around them.
In the Colosseum's raw power, he felt his own when teeth and anger met the Stormsinger's (trigger warning: gore). Oh.. how beautiful a day that was, in all its sadism, its blood, its fury! How feeble arrogance made you when it blinded your eyes with white-hot lightning... arrogance that felled you at the knees, that sent you running far away from Novus not long after.
So there the Titan of Solterra stood, in the middle of the empty Colosseum ring as he reminisced, the cold nipping angrily at him. Nipping at skin muddled by scars and fresh wounds — a testament to his journey in his own time away from Novus. And for a brief moment, everything — memories of his own, memories that haunted the halls of the Colosseum, the anger and copper blood that soaked into the sand, the sweat and tears and clash of metal upon metal — all coalesced into something beautiful.
Peace.
His mind lulled, and for the first time in ages... the spines that split his sternum jostled ever so slightly. Their jagged maw split, laying bare the gruesome-looking cavity to the subzero air, its beautiful red a stark contrast to the muted sand and vivid white snow. Behind those strong spines, thrummed a heart. Its beat drummed a heavy tune as it raged through his veins, filling his ears and nearly drowning out any noise around him.
i'm meaner than my demons, i'm bigger than these bones
The snow had not stopped Teiran from performing her rounds. If anything it forced her to be even more vigilant than ever because she had no idea what sorts of creatures or people would be seeking shelter from the strange weather. She needed to ensure the court's safety, even if that meant trudging through a snow covered desert.
That's how she found the hoofprints, huge as they were, leaving mammoth sized craters in the snow. Sage green eyes traced their path and she followed them to the canyon, and directly to the entrance of the Colosseum. Stepping lightly, prowling as a lioness might, Teiran entered. Shadows fell over her rose hued body as she kept to the darkness ringing the outer edge of the structure, cold eyes watching.
The soldier was expecting a foe, not a friend. Always expecting a foe.
She saw Torstein instead and she was not sure which category he fell under.
Teiran recalled bits and pieces of his presence. He had been there when the Davke had attacked; she remembered his hulking form in the streets. She thought, perhaps that he had family but he'd disappeared for a long while. When exactly had been the last time she'd seen him? She could not remember and as far as Teiran was concerned abandonment did not make him her friend.
For awhile she merely watched him, not considering how such an action might be reacted to. She was watching when the strange spines on his chest parted, revealing his beating heart and she thought what a vulnerable thing—a stupid, vulnerable thing. She thught it would be all too easy to put a dagger in it, bared open to the world like that. A small part of her, the part that had been educated and enjoyed it, was curious. The rest of her could only wonder why.
Regardless, Teiran would not do such a thing, not without reason at least.
"You might be careful with that," she said, voice echoing off the high stone walls as she stepped closer to the center ring. The cold made Teiran stiffer, more mechanical, and despite the way he so obviously towered over her, how one small kick from his hoof could break any of her bones, she had no fear of him. "Unless you prefer to expose your weaknesses so readily." She stopped and looked at him, sage green eyes sharp as a hawk's.
For a long while, all he heard was the rush of blood past his ears and the crisp snow beneath his hooves. His breath frosted and rose into the air, and his warm red eyes traced it up to the sky, where it eventually dissipated.
But as with all good things and peace, it must end. Aside from the crunch of snow beneath his own hooves, he suddenly heard someone else's presence behind him. Before he even turned around, the spines upon his chest snapped loudly shut.. the sound something akin to the maw of an alligator doing just the same. The teeth settled in between each other, fitting perfectly - and it was only then that he turned, the peace and warmth gone from his eyes and ears slicked back against the arching crest of his crown.
His lips set into a thin, unamused line as he regarded the marwari cross that now shared the Colosseum with him. There was nothing more than a heavy silence as he looked upon her, and a brief memory flashed into his mind - the elks. He saw her when he, Solis, and the others herded the elks. From that, he assumed she was indeed Solterran - but there was no way to confirm unless she spoke to confirm such. And even if she did, it wouldn't lessen the tension that set into his shoulders.
Slowly, the Titan turned to fully face her head on. He had not forgotten her words, but he had yet to really respond to them - instead, he was taking to simply observing her. She was far smaller than he, although her demeanor was as solid and frigid as they come. Not a particularly bad trait, but...
Oh. That collar.
Bloody eyes settled heavily on the silver collar that lay about her throat. The cold, calculating demeanor. There were too many similarities for him not to think it. Was she related to Seraphina in some way, or was he simply wrong and this just happened to be an (un)happy coincidence?
And then his eyes lifted to hers once more, the Third upon his forehead opened starkly - its gaze feverish and trained on hers. The silence between them only grew heavier, even as he took a single step forward, closing the large distance between them (the Colosseum was truly massive, after all) by a minute foot or two.
With his words, with his step, the spines upon his chest once again cracked open - a small sliver of blood red seen amidst the ivory of his pelt. "Is it something you planned on taking advantage of?" he questioned, voice hoarse in the frigidity of the air; his equally as sharp gaze not leaving her own.
i'm meaner than my demons, i'm bigger than these bones
When he turned, the open cavity of Torstein's chest was closed to her. The two stared at each other unfalteringly—the soldier and the titan—with nothing but the cloud of their breath between them. His shoulders were stiff. From the cold or her intrusion she didn't consider. She rarely considered such things simply because she didn't know that she should.
When the red of his eyes fell to her collar she did not cower, did not turn away. Everyone stared at it. From curiosity, pity, uncertainty. Fear.
Teiran did not think that Torstein feared her.
Was that a mistake? Perhaps he should fear the girl raised to kill but not to care; the girl with snakes below her skin and lions inside her bones.
He stared at her with three eyes that she would not flinch beneath the gaze of. Then he stepped closer and the serpent in her coiled, the hunter crouched. The soldier on the surface however, collared by cold steel, did not react. She stood still as the heavy stone walls around them, unyielding to pressure. Then the spines on his chest separated again, exposing nothing but a vein of ruby red flesh from within.
Then Teiran, too, took a step closer and in the light filtering through the open ceiling of the Colosseum there was a different sort of glinting in the sage green of her eyes. "Only if you give me a reason to." There was little inflection to her voice to indicate whether she was joking with or threatening the behemoth man with the life source he would expose to the world.
If she were a different person she might have smiled, might have gotten some enjoyment from the way her heart beat a little quicker as if in anticipation, or the way the first trickling of adrenaline made her muscles shiver. If she were not a girl who only knew how to do her job, not a girl who did not understand how not to provoke and fight she might not have said,
Fear was reserved for few circumstances in his life. Respect would be a more fitting word - he respected the stoic discipline, the silent power that emanated from her in steadfast waves.
But the respect did not tame the ever so slight, coy curl that nestled in the corner of his lips, his eyes trained so faithfully on her. But his gaze — his actual gaze, not the Third's — was not peering deep into her own... oh no. Instead, he watched her posture, watched as her muscles tensed ever so slightly when he stepped forward. Not a sign of fear, that he was certain, but of readiness.
And while he surveyed her stance while taking a few more slow, lumbering steps towards her... the Third's gaze was instead staunchly focused on her own. It sought what Torstein asked of it: Armed? Its feverish gaze heeded his call, pupil dilating as she refused to break gaze with him. It did not disappoint him, aided beautifully by her discipline.
O-only with the surpr-ising stren-gth coiled b-beneath her muscles a-a-and hoo-ves...
The spines split open a little more and his eyes met her own with an unfaltering gaze, but the Titan was never stupid enough to let his guard down. His slow, steady pace did not cease as he languidly closed the distance between them.
When he walked, the muscle and flesh hidden behind that maw of teeth on his chest contracted, tensed, and flexed to match the movements of his gait. There was no illusion here: the heart - his heart - thrummed a beautiful and bloody beat behind the walls of its ivory cage.
Only if you gave me a reason to elicited a surprisingly heartfelt chuckle which reverberated deep in his chest. "Likewise, I make it a habit not to pick fights with those who do not give me reason to," a pregnant, dragging pause cutting off the heady confidence of his voice.
And slowly, the gap was closed between them... and finally the Titan stood before the soldier, standing with her a few feet away and markedly to his left. Chest to chest would be stupid, no matter the circumstances. He was a force to be reckoned with, but he was not daft... you don't survive 10 years with a hole in your chest and an exposed heart through sheer idiocy.
The pungent silence was marked by a question for the soldier, and an ear twitched slightly. There was no verbal answer to her question - just the cacophonous sound of ivory teeth snapping shut. The force of their metaphorical bite was even more apparent up close, the sound that much louder and their reaction time a mere split second.
"They aren't slow," stated matter-of-factly. "And you come armed with only your teeth, hooves and muscle, do you not?"
i'm meaner than my demons, i'm bigger than these bones
Torstein continued to close the space between them, lumbering, lumbering closer and closer. He was a behemoth, more than 6 hands taller than her, lined with thicker muscle, built with heavier bones. Oh, Teiran knew he could crush her skull and each miniscule bone in her body if he so desired. It was easy to see his strengths. His weaknesses, though, were what she wanted to know. The heart, so readily opened up to the world, was the simple one, but what else was hiding beneath his ivory and plum skin?
Oh how when Teiran had been young she could have only dreamed of being powerful enough to crack a skull with but one kick.
There was something decidedly alluring about the raw strength and intensity that was evident in this man. It spoke to the girl in her who had been forced to fight for her life against other children, all trained to do the same thing. Kill her. It spoke to the girl who had been thrown to the wolves and somehow survived, if only by the skin of her teeth. Teiran knew she was strong for someone of her size, it was, of course, her greatest asset in battle. A lot of her opponents overlooked her, underestimated her. A lot of them paid for it.
The spines on Torstein’s chest split open a little further. Some may have been hesitant to look upon the mass of living, moving muscle and tissue, whether they were weak in the stomach or in the mind. Teiran, however, studied it intensely and the scholar deep down inside her was admittedly curious. She had seen battle, blood and flesh and exposed organs were nothing new to her. Not dead ones, anyway. This was something entirely new, and oh how tempted she was to want to put a dagger into it, just to see.
He spoke and still closed the distance between them, and the air was electric with this strange tension that they have. “I suppose it is a good thing neither of us is picking a fight with the other, then,” she responded, as invariably as always. Or were they? Was this some strange dance they were doing, testing each other, before one of them made the first move? Teiran thought of the last time she’d had a proper fight, and it was when the Davke had attacked. How long ago, then, was that? What was a soldier without a battle to take part in?
Torstein was but a few feet from her now, to her right. Only her head turned toward him, her hooves fixed to the same place on the Colosseum floor they had been. Then the maw of his chest snapped closed, the spines nestling in against each other. She did not flinch, her sage eyes lowered to that place on his chest. It was a challenge, calling out to her, begging her to put her skills to the test. But he was right, she did not have any weapons on her, and she was no fool to think she could put a hoof through that and, even if she managed to make contact, keep it when those spines closed.
“Yes.” There was no point in lying to him. Teiran had no hidden dagger within these walls that she could pull out and surprise him with. “Today is your lucky day,” but still she wished, wished, wished. She knew she would leave this place unsatisfied.
