Leave vengeance to me, for she who suffered was me. Leave their lives to me, for mine is the domain of life and death. Leave their suffering to me, for mine is the nectar of their defeat. Vengeance is mine, I will repay them in full for their trespasses against my divinity, against my domain, against my being. Creation is the realm of the gods, not of mortals.
-Vision received by the Allmother.
[Trai POV]
Trai thought that this fishing was decidedly more enjoyable than the last time she'd had to worry about fish. Sure, both were dangerous, but these ones were big enough for her to do something about, and her daddy wasn't carrying her, and people weren't dying all over. Well, people had still died to these "ishabaaks", but nobody that was smart or strong enough to protect themselves, so they didn't even count. She and her pack were smart, strong, and quick, so they didn't need to worry about these big, slow land fish.
Instead, Trai continued serving as bait and hook for the ishabaak. She jogged across the sand, her steps deliberately heavy and sluggish before she circled back to the wet safe area. Daddy was watching her and was super scared, but it didn't matter, because she was ok. He was always worried. Besides, there was something she couldn't quite place that let her know when the fish were approaching, and she trusted it. 3… 2… 1… She jumped to the side just as the gaping mouth of the stupid, slow thing appeared underneath. Too easy.
The rest of the body followed the snapping jaws, and just as its tail left the sand, she struck. Trai jumped up and, with all her body weight and leg strength, she kicked the ishabaak towards the dampened safe area. It continued to sail through the sky, a trickle of blood sprinkling out of its mouth at the force of the strike–Trai felt the change that the blood always brought begin to course through her veins and dilate her eyes. Everything slowed as she lost herself in the glory of combat.
Before her on the wet sand stood Hala, Greel, and Leera. As Trai fell, she signed that three more ishabaak approached and from where to them. Her back thumped against the ground and she rolled her tail like a wave against the ground to flip herself backward and dodge the next mouth. Trai danced the dance of life and death and she couldn't hold back her laughter as the too slow fish continued to miss her again and again. Before this second would-be assassin could even realize it had missed her, though, she plunged one hand into the bottom of its jaw, wrenched it to the side, and, with the corpse flopping uselessly behind her pulling arm, hurled it towards the safe area.
Her shoulder HURT when she did that. These ones were a lot smaller than the one that Ashlani had killed, so she could still deal with them, but they were heavy! With the little injury she'd been struck, Trai knew she needed to retreat back to safety where she could take a break. Even so, she couldn't help the frown that rose to her face as she began her deliberate, beautiful walk back to the wetted sand. No other fish attempted to eat her, or even came close, and she made landing on the safe sand without incident.
With repeated shakes, Trai flicked the majority of the blood from her hand, though the movement hurt. Daddy noticed and ran up to her with Vefir in tow.
"What happened Trai? None of that blood is yours, is it? I didn't see anything happen to you. Where is it?"
"I'm fiiiine. I just… hurt my shoulder picking up the prey." She mumbled the last words, embarrassed.
Patterns of crimson blood still decorated Trai's arm, her shiny green scales peeking through the crimson. Looking down, her sides and legs too were coated in gore, and Trai sighed as she tried, to little success, to wipe the viscera from her body. She did enjoy fighting, but what she enjoyed more than fighting itself was the challenge and if it didn't offer any challenge, just like this fight, it just wasn't much more than dirty exercise. Vefir, no-nonsense healer that he was, laid a hand on Trai's shoulder and, with a brief pulse of magic, set her shoulder to be whole once more.
"Be careful. Don't be like the Alpha in this way. You're doing the same thing to your arms that he always has." Then, without another word, Vefir walked away as he made sure to tap his tail against her in his usual, somewhat fatherly way. Foire sighed down at his daughter. "Like he said. Be careful." Then, reluctantly, Foire too walked away.
"That was amazing, Huntmistress Trai!" Leera's grating voice pulled Trai from her thoughts. Well, she could use the distraction.
"It was just a hunt. Thank you." She nodded quickly and continued on her path.
"You move so beautifully when you hunt. How did you learn?" Leera refused to give up, and, regardless of the actual tone of his voice or the beauty of his body, Trai briefly considered disemboweling him. It wouldn't be too hard, just one hand… No, she was still feeling the influence of the fight, the bloodlust, as well as her frustration.
"I was taught by the Swarm Alpha, my father, and Wisterl. So I follow my instincts." Trai couldn't stop herself from briefly pausing at her teacher's name. That wound still burned, and the swarm wasn't sure how to deal with such a massive loss as a whole. Keelish didn't care if members of the swarm died, but was the swarm at all still keelish? Trai had struggled to break the strangest habits from the youngest new members of the swarm. Only after this exposure had she realized how different the swarm she was born into was from those of her "same race".
"--you be available to maybe teach me about–" Trai realized she'd been lost in thought without paying Leera any attention.
"Look, Leera. We can talk later. I need to get cleaned off."
Finally, Trai could see it click with him. "Ok, great. Thank you for your guidance on the hunt, Huntmistress."
She sighed with relief as finally she could stand next to one of the wolfies and ignore the continued prattle from Leera's direction. Trai couldn't fathom how two of her mothers were able to communicate with the wolfstags so well, so, in secret, recently she had taken to calling them wolfies in the hope it would somehow encourage them to get along with her.
"Wash me down, would you, wolfy?"
She stood, hopefully waiting for one of the wolfstags to begin to cleanse the filth from her scales. There was no such luck, but one of the wolfies with shorter horns that control water was looking at her! Excited, Trai jogged over to try to ask it to help her, but before she got there, it dropped its upper body low, rump and tail high in the air and wagging wildly. When Trai made a sudden movement, it hopped up, turned to the side, and made eye contact with her as its mouth spread in a big, silly grin.
"I want a wash!" Trai giggled as the wolfstag danced back and forth, not understanding her request but happy to interact with her. As they continued chasing each other, Trai couldn't manage to get close enough to touch the wolfie, since whenever she could nearly reach him, he would twist, hop, and manage to escape. Not to be outdone, though, Trai smuggled a handful of sand when she pretended to fall, and, while the wolfie stood in his teasing, excited stance, she flicked the sand into his face.
Trai erupted into peals of laughter as, grumpy and indignant, the wolfie cleaned his face with a spray of water. A mischievous look crossed his face, and, before she knew it, Trai was sputtering as a jet of water splashed against her face. By now, she was so riled up that she'd forgotten that wolfie had already given her what she'd wanted in the first place.