Miria lifts herself on a hoof slowly. It feels as if her shoulder is dislocated. A sharp pain rushes up her body and her body betrays her, letting her fall back on her weight, a sharp cry issuing from her lips. She slams back on her bad side, the pain making her grown. Blood flows down from her scalp from a thin wound on her forehead. But what hurts really is where that she lizard bit into her shoulder, wrenching it out from its socket she thinks.
She looks at the room which is in shambles. The sofa ripped in half, the tables and windows smashed, long scratches and gouges ripped into tile and wood at once. The reptile had even thrown down the fridge, letting it crash to the floor. She'd been rampaging through the rooms destroying everything and at once still remaining fairly quiet. A predator at work.
It had been all so sudden, this attack, she thinks. She'd had no time to prepare. She'd been quietly meditating in the living room when she'd heard a shriek come from Yuganna. Without hesitating she'd rushed into the other room. That had been a mistake.
As Miria had rushed into the room she'd been halted by Yuganna, prone on the floor, a long laceration coming down her shoulder, her left wing bloody, smelling strongly of raptor. So used to the smell was she that she hadn't realized the raptor who struck yuganna was still there when until she attacked Miria herself. The raptor's teeth clamped down, biting into her shoulder and twisting back, a crunch heard under the skin. Miria had screamed then, loudly. She'd then been thrown back across the room and slammed into the opposing wall. Upon hitting the hard material she'd blacked out.
Unlike in her "other life" in this one her body is not nearly so powerful or sturdy. She still retains some of that ungodly strength and speed she had back then but it is not the same, or so the memories and dreams would seem to tell her. She still wakes in a cold sweat when she has them. It had been enough that she'd never had a proper rest and that was why she wasn't in her room when Yuganna went looking for her and why Yuganna now lies on the floor, trembling blood trickling down the open gash at her side.
Miria tries to rise once more and feels something hard and rough slam her back down. "No," says the rough feminine voice. "I prefer you on the floor like this."
Miria stares at the large reptile. She is like razor, but with an orange like pelt that almost seems furry with hard looking feathers sprouting from her skull in a multitude of colors of blue and purple. The eyes however, are a strong amber. The raptor lowers her head, snorting against Miria's ear, teeth opening slowly, eyes blinking. The creature regards her coldly as if sizing up a piece of meat. Which Miria supposes, is exactly how the creature sees her.
She chuckles. So long has she been with razor she's lost all sight of what these creatures can do normally. Razor is so... tame. So very different from the predator before her.
"What do you find amusing pony?" says the creature with a lilt in her voice. "Do you find your impending death amusing?"
"If you're going to kill me," says Miria, "just do it and don't dawdle."
"You seem rather quick to wish to die," says the reptile.
"No," says Miria. "I just know there are two who will kill you after. Or one at least."
"That is amusing," says the reptile. "To think a pony would..."
The door slams with a jarring sound. Wood splinters. The predator jerks her head at the last moment, narrowly avoiding a long, thick sword that slams into the wall to the right of the monster's head, burying itself halfway.
"That was just a warning," says a hard voice. "The next one will lop off your head!"
Miria looks up from the floor, staring at Ophelia through blurry eyes. The pegasus stands on her two hind legs, her eyes already glowing a vibrant amber, eyes narrowed in a rage. "Ophelia..." she whispers.
"A pony would dare to..."
"MOTHER, GET OFF OF HER!" Razor butts Ophelia aside with his head and puts himself before her, placing himself between the two. Miria feels the tension on her back ease a bit, the predator on her shocked.
"Lews?" she says. "You would speak this way to your mother?!"
"Mother?" Miria whispers, her eyes widening, heart thundering in her chest. This large unruly reptile is Razor's mother? It makes sense now, she thinks, as to why she sought Miria herself out specifically and why Miria couldn't sense the danger. The smell is half of half of Razor. But why did she call him "Lews?"
"That's not the name I go by anymore," says Razor, moving towards his mother, back arched low, lips pulled back from his gums, baring his teeth. "My name is Razor."
"And you cut just as sharply," says the large reptile, pushing herself off Miria to circle her son. "When did you get so snappish with your mother?"
Miria hears a low growl issue from Razor's lips, his body squatting down further, claws poised. "The day my mother decided it was within her rights to attack my second family!"
"Second family!?" screeches the larger reptile. "I am your family! And I will teach you what that means as soon as I get rid of this vile mammal who taints you!"
Miria sees the reptile turn her attentions towards Ophelia, back hunching, arms raising themselves. "Run..." Miria whispers. "Run..."
Ophelia simply stares dumbly at the reptile, lip curling up, confused. She hasn't dealt with raptors before. Not ones who don't cower to her every whim. And that can be the killing point here. "Ophelia..." Miria whispers in a strained voice. But she knows it will be too little, too late...
"NO!" Razor shrieks and the next second he has leapt onto his mother's back and slammed the weight of both his feet against her, sickle like talons coming down and raking down her side as he pushes away. The wounds are quick and truthfully, fairly shallow. An act done more on instinct then anything else.
The animal raises herself slowly, her right leg bleeding profusely. She stands and stumbles forward, missing a step before righting herself on a quivering leg. So the wound is actually deeper then I surmized, Miria thinks. He continues to surprise me.
Razor walks towards his mother slowly, his talons clicking on the tile, arms bent low and spread wide as talons curve back, mouth opening wide in a hiss, tail sticking straight up.
It's an attack posture, Miria sees. She stares, dumbstruck by it. When did Razor become so dangerous? The female raptor, his mother, seems to have an equal confusion.
"Lews..." she says, a quiver in her jaw. "When did... when did..."
Razor straightens himself slowly, keeping himself tensed lest his mother commit to some other act of violence. "When?" he says. "Slowly. Over time. When I found I had something to protect. To fight for."
The female cocks her head, her eyes blinking in confusion.
"Your food?" she says. "But we all share. That's what raptors do. How can..."
"No," says Razor, shaking his head. "Not food. My wife and unborn child."
"Wife?" says the his mother. "Child? By whom? A raptor and pony can not copulate child. You are deluded if..."
"Would you argue a god in her judgement?"
"That mare is not a god!" screams his mother, her wounds forgotten, posture lowered, tail raised and arms spread with talons curved forward. She is twice Razor's size and the wound that pained her before seems all but forgotten now. "Oh no..." Miria whispers.
"No," says another voice she has grown used to hearing, but not from the body from which it issues. A body of pitch blackness, with a mane absorbing all the light before it, eyes reflecting like twin moons, wings spread wide, shadow towering over both predators. Her body adorned in an armor of a deathly paleness like death. Princess Luna, but... not the way Miria knows her. And when she speaks her mouth is full of sharp curved fangs matching the hunters before her.
"That mare is no god," says Luna. "But I am. Would you challenge the rule of your god?"
The predator shifts from one foot to the other, her scales bristling. She turns from Razor to Ophelia and then her eyes lock on Miria herself, eyes narrowing. She shuts her eyes and turns away. "No," she says, her arms and tail dropping, head bowing. "You are my god."
And Miria sees Luna smile and for the first time since seeing the princess does she truly feel fear...
