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Description
Featuring Dove
Winter, Year 765 of the New Age
Widow's Hollow, Blackwood

There is a very thin line between a creature who preys on others for necessity, and a creature who preys on others because it can… When Uir created her dark forest and molded the Fawnlings she called her children, she bestowed upon them the gift of knowledge and the ability to make great, terrible decisions. With that knowledge, came dark things, curses that bound souls just as they took them away.

Dove was both the giver and the taker, and she was also neither. She transcended the line between the wolf that rips and tears, and the rabbit that waits in silent hiding. The want for blood that turns the air into copper and stains the ground red, and the tremor in the muscles of creatures who are afraid and preparing to run. Her enemies looked at her scarred hide and slender body, and saw a creature who traveled by daylight and watched the forest before she entered it. Her scent filled their lungs and their mouths salivated over the thought of their teeth cutting into her flesh and bone. She was prey.

But Dove knew there was an enormous power in being underestimated, and like all things before her, she commanded her own fate. Unlike the bastard herds to the North and South, Dove rose up to meet the Mother's ancient call, and come fire or water or thunder or ice, she would never back down, she would never retreat, she would never turn her back.

Just as a wolf cannot deny its instinct to destroy the tender bones of those it preyed upon, Dove could not deny the hot molten gold that filled her insides and pushed her farther.

When her constantly roaming attention caught the glinting yellow-eyed stare of the cat huddled down in the undergrowth, Dove did not run away. She did not flinch or freeze or attempt to chase it away. The only sign that she had noticed at all were her slowly flaring nostrils as she inhaled the musky scent of the predator, and her tattered ears that turned towards it to catch the sounds of its paws as it brushed lightly across the snow.

She only waited patiently. Though it passed as easily as a brief second, the time that stretched between the two animals weighed heavily. The sun began to set, throwing their shadows deeper into the frozen wood, and turning the crystals of snow at their feet into tiny flakes of gold. Dove didn't mind. There was no end to her patience, especially when playing such an enticing game. In many ways, she was the perfect predator. Willing to stand still and silent for hours until her victim finally broke. The encroaching darkness did not scare her. Dove had built herself upon the ruins of stronger creatures, had clawed her way up on the backs of superior animals. Blazing fires had not stopped her. Crushing jaws had not defeated her. How little did her would-be attacker know about the loaded doe that had caught its eye. How unfortunate that he had not turned back before she became aware of his presence.

Like the crows in the frozen tree limbs keeping an eerie watch, Dove’s sharp brown eyes did not leave the silhouette of the hunting cat. She could feel the thoughts passing through its mind as if they were her own, and when the cat’s mouth watered desperately for the blood that pumped through her heart, Dove’s own tongue curled across her lip and tusks. Adrenaline, slow and sluggish at first, then electric and sweet, began to fill the cat's veins until excitement was bursting from its mind like fireflies and Dove could feel how badly it needed her, the deep gutteral ache of hunger that hadn't been satisfied for days clawing up in the cat's chest, threatening to tear it apart before it could even reach her...

How fragile were the strings that tugged at life’s limbs. How easily those strings could be cut and the puppets would fall.

With a flick of her long, dark lashes, Dove shifted the entire course that nature had taken such precious time to draw. The roles of vicious clawed cat and intelligent scarred doe were reversed, and in an instant the lynx’s primal need for death was muted. The instinct that caused it to stalk Dove and lower its slender body to the ground in wait became dormant, and the muscles that had been coiled for attack relaxed all at once. The golden eyes that had been fixed on her only moments ago, glittering with hunger, became distant and dull. Where wild excitement had filled its core, now only a blank dark space made up the entirety of the predator's being. Far, far back, in the deep recesses of its tangled mind, the cat's instinct and self awareness was tied down and locked away.

“Hmm,” Dove cooed, and her voice was like the purr of a playful lion, soft and deep. Without a single trace of fear, she stepped lightly through the glistening snow and circled the panting cat with a dark, mischievous smile turning the corners of her mouth into a wicked smirk. It appeared to be a game for the seal bay doe, a competition of cat and mouse that she was destined to win every single time.

How easily she had taken the monsterous rage of an untamed beast, and snuffed it out like a dying ember. The light that made the lynx dangerous, gave it the edge that enabled it to rule, became a cold, quiet darkness far too easily.

With a breathy chuckle that puffed steam into the frigid air, Dove strode confidently back onto the worn path with her elegant head poised high. Behind her, the cat lingered panting, body leaning forward ever so slightly as if it were preparing to follow her. But just before the cat took a step into the snowy tracks she'd left, Dove switched off their connection and it frayed, suspending in the air for only a moment until the cat's own consciousness came surging back. It was no surprise that it was startled, and Dove heard a strangled cry of surprise before it whirled around and fled back into the underbrush, kicking clumps of snow and mud up in its wake.

Dove's gaze remained on the thicket where it vanished, eyes glinting with amusement before she too slunk back into the shadows.

__________________________

Breakdown
+1 stamina - art

+2 enthralling magic - lit - 1000-1999 words

Description
Featuring Dove
Winter, Year 765 of the New Age
Widow's Hollow, Blackwood

There is a very thin line between a creature who preys on others for necessity, and a creature who preys on others because it can… When Uir created her dark forest and molded the Fawnlings she called her children, she bestowed upon them the gift of knowledge and the ability to make great, terrible decisions. With that knowledge, came dark things, curses that bound souls just as they took them away.

Dove was both the giver and the taker, and she was also neither. She transcended the line between the wolf that rips and tears, and the rabbit that waits in silent hiding. The want for blood that turns the air into copper and stains the ground red, and the tremor in the muscles of creatures who are afraid and preparing to run. Her enemies looked at her scarred hide and slender body, and saw a creature who traveled by daylight and watched the forest before she entered it. Her scent filled their lungs and their mouths salivated over the thought of their teeth cutting into her flesh and bone. She was prey.

But Dove knew there was an enormous power in being underestimated, and like all things before her, she commanded her own fate. Unlike the bastard herds to the North and South, Dove rose up to meet the Mother's ancient call, and come fire or water or thunder or ice, she would never back down, she would never retreat, she would never turn her back.

Just as a wolf cannot deny its instinct to destroy the tender bones of those it preyed upon, Dove could not deny the hot molten gold that filled her insides and pushed her farther.

When her constantly roaming attention caught the glinting yellow-eyed stare of the cat huddled down in the undergrowth, Dove did not run away. She did not flinch or freeze or attempt to chase it away. The only sign that she had noticed at all were her slowly flaring nostrils as she inhaled the musky scent of the predator, and her tattered ears that turned towards it to catch the sounds of its paws as it brushed lightly across the snow.

She only waited patiently. Though it passed as easily as a brief second, the time that stretched between the two animals weighed heavily. The sun began to set, throwing their shadows deeper into the frozen wood, and turning the crystals of snow at their feet into tiny flakes of gold. Dove didn't mind. There was no end to her patience, especially when playing such an enticing game. In many ways, she was the perfect predator. Willing to stand still and silent for hours until her victim finally broke. The encroaching darkness did not scare her. Dove had built herself upon the ruins of stronger creatures, had clawed her way up on the backs of superior animals. Blazing fires had not stopped her. Crushing jaws had not defeated her. How little did her would-be attacker know about the loaded doe that had caught its eye. How unfortunate that he had not turned back before she became aware of his presence.

Like the crows in the frozen tree limbs keeping an eerie watch, Dove’s sharp brown eyes did not leave the silhouette of the hunting cat. She could feel the thoughts passing through its mind as if they were her own, and when the cat’s mouth watered desperately for the blood that pumped through her heart, Dove’s own tongue curled across her lip and tusks. Adrenaline, slow and sluggish at first, then electric and sweet, began to fill the cat's veins until excitement was bursting from its mind like fireflies and Dove could feel how badly it needed her, the deep gutteral ache of hunger that hadn't been satisfied for days clawing up in the cat's chest, threatening to tear it apart before it could even reach her...

How fragile were the strings that tugged at life’s limbs. How easily those strings could be cut and the puppets would fall.

With a flick of her long, dark lashes, Dove shifted the entire course that nature had taken such precious time to draw. The roles of vicious clawed cat and intelligent scarred doe were reversed, and in an instant the lynx’s primal need for death was muted. The instinct that caused it to stalk Dove and lower its slender body to the ground in wait became dormant, and the muscles that had been coiled for attack relaxed all at once. The golden eyes that had been fixed on her only moments ago, glittering with hunger, became distant and dull. Where wild excitement had filled its core, now only a blank dark space made up the entirety of the predator's being. Far, far back, in the deep recesses of its tangled mind, the cat's instinct and self awareness was tied down and locked away.

“Hmm,” Dove cooed, and her voice was like the purr of a playful lion, soft and deep. Without a single trace of fear, she stepped lightly through the glistening snow and circled the panting cat with a dark, mischievous smile turning the corners of her mouth into a wicked smirk. It appeared to be a game for the seal bay doe, a competition of cat and mouse that she was destined to win every single time.

How easily she had taken the monsterous rage of an untamed beast, and snuffed it out like a dying ember. The light that made the lynx dangerous, gave it the edge that enabled it to rule, became a cold, quiet darkness far too easily.

With a breathy chuckle that puffed steam into the frigid air, Dove strode confidently back onto the worn path with her elegant head poised high. Behind her, the cat lingered panting, body leaning forward ever so slightly as if it were preparing to follow her. But just before the cat took a step into the snowy tracks she'd left, Dove switched off their connection and it frayed, suspending in the air for only a moment until the cat's own consciousness came surging back. It was no surprise that it was startled, and Dove heard a strangled cry of surprise before it whirled around and fled back into the underbrush, kicking clumps of snow and mud up in its wake.

Dove's gaze remained on the thicket where it vanished, eyes glinting with amusement before she too slunk back into the shadows.

__________________________

Breakdown
+1 stamina - art

+2 enthralling magic - lit - 1000-1999 words