Private | Honor in War | Muiris & Kathra

A long, heavy sigh escaped the mare as she trudged along the steps of Skelder Town. Training was done for the day, and the valkyries had dispersed to do whatever. Her friends Addeva and Alyshia had headed back to their house to visit their dad and younger brothers. Not feeling much inclined to head back to her house, which was a good days travel, to visit her own sibling, she'd settled for just wandering around the town.

Her thoughts wandered as her purple teke adjusted the steel axe strapped to her side. She hadn't been in the only group that the flanks had aggravated. No, so had her two friends, and so had an Adohian merchant ship, along with their ambassador and her young child. Her belief in the idea that the banishment had all but eradicated the flanks now dashed, she'd begun wondering if Hira should have just killed the lot of them on the spot.

No, that's what the flanks would do. Stone Hooves have more honor than that.

Honor, what a strange concept. Brushing that contemplation off quickly she saw a pair of young foals playing in the streets. The Valkyrie smiled a little, they reminded her of her two youngest cousins. She had been surprised when the war-lord had returned with two young foals, and even more surprised upon learning they were her own. Who had fathered them? No one could say, but they were Hira's children, they were Stone Hooves, and so Kathra welcomed them to the fold like any proper war-forged would.

So lost in her own thoughts was she, that she didn't see Muiris's approach. She looked up when he spoke, ears flicking forward in attention.

"Huh? Oh hello Muiris."

Her hooves shuffled as she turned to face him better, seeing the white wolf that was pressed against the raider's legs defensively. Made sense, she hadn't known that the raider had a wolf. Purple eyes looked back up to meet his.

"I am well, and yourself? Not often I see you wandering the streets."

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"Glad to hear" the valkyrie said with a small smile. Though that smile vanished to be replaced by one of grave seriousness when he mentioned the attack. "Yeah, you and everyone else." She murmured, flicking her ears back. They flicked forward when he thanked her, and she pawed the ground with a hoof sheepishly and looked away with another small smile.

"It was nothing, really. that's what we do right? Us scouts, raiders, valkyries. We keep our herd safe, like the shields do for Hira."

Biting her lip she nodded quietly as he asked if she would tell him about what happened. "Mhm..." She glanced about at the horses passing by the pair, her telekinesis briefly glowed over the leather wrapped axe handle at her side. Since the attack, there had been more and more murmuring about the flanks's presence in onea. Whispers of sympathizers and spies had floated around occasionally, but enough to make Kathra wary of speaking about the attack where other ears could hear.

Yes, she figured it was best if they talked about this away from the main hustle and bustle of Skelder.

With one final look around, she beckoned Muiris to follow with a flick of her tail. She remained silent as they made their way to the outskirts of the town, where less unwanted attention would be drawn by the subject of an attack. "It's better we talk away from where others might hear." She said simply, as they came to a stop in a small glade not too far from the town.

"I don't know how much Ezmeralda might have mentioned to you, and I can't say much on how the night started for her and the other herders. But I'll tell you what I can about the Valkyrie's perspective." She took a deep breath before beginning

"A couple days before, Hira asked me to lead a group of my shield-sisters on a patrol. It wasn't anything special, just standard training. So I called upon Zetstoka and Amber, who I'd been on missions with before, to come with me and two of our newer recruits, Otama and Skye.

The first day passed without incident, we left the barracks and made good time through the woods, and camped for the night. The next day, the day of the attack, had seemed to be shaping out the same way. By the time the sun had begun to set, we were looking for a new place to make camp so we could head back to Skelder in the morning. It was around then we spotted smoke from the herder's camp. Knowing there had been some cultist and flank activity recently, we'd decided to check it out, and if they were friendly, to just camp with them for the day if they would let us."

She paused, giving Muiris a moment to absorb what she'd said before continuing.

"By the time we reached it, the flanks had already started their ambush on the herders. None of them wore any identifying insignia, so we figured it was a bunch of thieves preying upon a group of herders who were letting their flocks graze. So we charged, expecting them to turn tain after a small scuffle upon realizing their targets weren't as defenseless as they thought. Each of us separated to engage the raiders one on one. My target had already pinned Chirin down and looked to be ready to kill him, but I managed to get the brute off him before it was too late. All of us appeared to be evenly matched, and I managed to beat my opponent into retreating after a few blows. I remember turning to face down a new one to aid my sisters, when I saw that Otama had fallen. One of those damnable flanks had smashed her leg in with her warhammer. Amber was already by her side and helping Otama to safety, the mare who did it must have never seen battle before, as she just stood there in shock."

Another pause, though this one seemed to be from the chimera just trying to control her temper.

"By then, I'd realized that these weren't thieves. That this was a coordinated attack by the bloody flanks, the stallion I'd been fighting had said something during our fight that made me realize just who these bastards were. And at the same time, I knew we were too under prepared to deal with trained raiders, and so my strategy quickly changed to distraction so the herders could get away. Just as I thought we were ready to break the engagement and protect the fleeing herders, the leader of the raiding party turned up, holding one of them at arrowpoint. As much as I wanted to do something, as much as my soul screamed to do something, I couldn't risk sending my sisters or the herders to their deaths."

Kathra's ears flicked back against her skull as she let out a sharp huff.

"So I let them go. I let them go and take Goss with them. It wasn't much, but knew I couldn't just leave the others defenseless while I took the Valkyries back to skelder, so I led all of them to my parents homestead so that any injuries could be tended too. The next morning I split us into groups to be bodyguards to Ezmerelda, Chirin, and Isa back to their homes. I had my brother Murdok help me take Otama back to skelder, where the medics would treat her."


As she finished, she shifted her hooves and met Muiris's gaze, then looked away and kicked at the ground with one of her cleated horseshoes, making skid marks in the ground as she let the tale sink in. She took a deep breath, looking up to the mountain where the shrines to Kaia and Ayla lay. She wondered when she would make the pilgrimage up to it's peak to see them herself, as her mother had many years ago before her birth. Her gaze fell back to the raider and his familiar as she awaited his responce

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(ooc: oops, I walled) 

Kathra's eyes widened a little when Muiris said the Ezmeralda never got home.

"Really? I'll have to speak with the others, I never heard about a second commotion, she is alright now though, yes?"

She'd make a mental note of that fact, before looking over at the wolf that her friend had by his side. Unconsciously she began looking over every detail of the canine's face, something she'd begun picking up after the raid. Sure Kaia had blessed the mare at birth, but aside from mastering shifting parts of her body for convenience, she hadn't taken training her blessing beyond that seriously. Now, however, she didn't take her gift for granted, not after she saw what she could do with just partial shifting in a fight. No, she would make sure that by the time she would be sent on another mission, she'd be ready.

Her focus was so deep on Avocano she didn't notice the longer bits of white fur that had begun sprouting on her cheeks and muzzle until she felt the itching of her horn shrinking. Jerking her head back with a start as the hair receded with a throbbing bit of pain as the horn slowly grew back out. She blinked the pain away and looked back at Muiris.

"Uh... sorry, about that. My blessing tends to have it's moments when I'm deep in thought."

Clearing her throat she returned to the topic at hand.

"Otama came off the worst for wear, despite our best efforts, she ended up losing her leg. She's back training though, she got a prosthetic and took some aging potions... the others had a few cuts and bruises, but nothing too serious. As for the other herders, Chirin received a nasty cut on his face, and broke part of his horn off. But that's about it, unless I'm forgetting something. My mother was able to tend to everyone back at our farmstead before we went our separate ways in the morning."

Looking back out into the wilds for a moment, her cloven hoof kicked a bit of earth underneath her.

"I remember grandfather and my great uncle speaking of the Flanks, when I was a filly. They said they were strong fighters, and ran thick with necromancer blood, among other things. They're much like us, Muiris, but only more aggressive, and with a different moral code. As horrible as I know they are, they know how to strategize. They wanted supplies, and they picked a soft target.

Think about it Muiris, you want supplies, who do you attack, the well defended raiders who will cause you casualties? Or do you attack the herders, who don't have the same training as the raiders, but the same amount of supplies?"

Kathra's eyes met Muiris's, a fire in the back of their purple depths.

"They don't have our honor, a war-forged with honor doesn't slay the warlord in cold blood, a forged with honor dosen't start a coup so they could slaughter their leader. They're prepared to fight without honor, Muiris, they're ready to fight dirty.

If we can't match them blow for underhoofed blow, we'll be on the back step sooner than we'd like."


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