After roughly twenty minutes of consistent whining and then two seconds of a volley of high-pitched yapping from the fluffy toy-looking dog, both rider and horse seemed aggravated. Gorgon's ears were slicked back and her strides came choppy, faltering when the dog began its' fluffy-headed rapid-fire protest. Belen had just about had it with the tiny creature she considered punting on a daily basis -- and even more so now, on the top of her horse, she considered hurling the dog at the ground. But, with far more control than she felt, Belen was just about to rein Gorgon to a halt when the mare decided she'd had absolutely enough and came to an abrupt halt. Belen glared down, "That wasn't nice, Sister," she managed as she dismounted and quickly lifted up the dog and set him down.
Little Lion streaked off, yapping the entire way. Belen shook her head before noticing the intense glare of the blue roan. "What, Sis? I just let him down a bit ago. And I can't read his mind, although I'm pretty sure there ain't nothing to read," she told Gorgon, who only shook her mane, stomped a hoof and looked away as if to say Belen shouldn't have felt so sorry for the little fuzzball and just left him in the street where she found him.
And Belen was sorely wondering why she didn't when, in the distance, she heard a yelp and suddenly a shot of guilt went through her. Great, just when she was thinking she should hurt or left the dog to something to eat it, it has to go and get eaten! Or hurt.
Belen barely noticed the gentle shake of the forest and the trees. It, however, didn't go unnoticed by the blue roan paint who spun around, looking almost cat-like. Gorgon danced on the tips of her hooves, whites flashing, head flicking before she bumped Belen and then nipped at her, tight and tense. Belen glanced at Gorgon, brows furrowed, watching her mount sidestep and edge away from the direction the dog's yelp had been.
Belen was just thinking this really wasn't good, reading for the reins, but honestly thinking about dragging the mare with her to find the stupid dog when aforementioned stupid dog raced at her, button eyes round and wide and practically hyperventilating. Belen swooped it up protectively and stuffed it back in his saddle-bag seat, finely noticing that the forest was shaking violently and there was an awful loud crashing and dreadful ripping sound getting a lot louder.
The moment she saw something emerge in their clearing, Belen threw herself across the mare's back, grappling spastically for a hold as the mare wheeled and pounded in the opposite direction of the creature. Belen, caught between wanting to look and wanting to get a proper seat, couldn't help but to scramble for the stirrups, grab mane and rein and hold fast, saddle pressing into her stomach. And then she glanced back, eyes rounding to plates as the biggest motherloving boar she'd ever seen came plunging after them.
It was unnatural. She knew that much. But it didn't seem to matter, as it viciously squealed, tusks curved and ripping as it swung its head, trees bending and breaking at its' will. Belen's ass found home around the time her feet did and she gave as much head to her mare she could.
Belen glanced back to make sure the stupid dog was still in his nest, and there he was, cowering in the saddlebag, growling as if he could fight the boar himself, but looking worriedly at Belen. Leave it to the dog to make a mess and have her clean it up.
She inhaled noisily, winced as Gorgon took a tree and stumbled slightly on the landing but barely missed a stride, and let the magic thread itself from her center and up through her limbs. Belen inhaled again, fueling it, feeding it, stoking it until it grew hot and only then did she trust herself to loose her left hand from Gorgon's black mane and angle the distressed mare left. The boar honed in just as Belen touched her sternum and tore out something like electricity from her being and flicked out her fingers at the beast barreling down on them.
Unnaturally, the power exploded from her fingertips, damaging them [as it usually did] and zipped and arced from hand to ground to boar. Belen inhaled again as blue light shone from the backs of her eyes and out and snapped her fingers as a colorful tendril of light shot to the boar and through.
The boar collapsed with a hoarse scream and convulsed a great deal before subsiding into a general stillness that Belen couldn't be sure about. It could be simply stunned...
Gorgon, understandably, wanted nothing to do with the creature that had been just about to trample them all to death, but Belen tightened around Gorgon and drove her towards the boar. "Shh, shh, Sister. It's okay, really. I got your back, yeah?" She crooned, stroking the mare along her hot neck before slipping off and quickly tying them to a branch. Usually the mare was ground-tied, but Belen couldn't help not quite trusting the little mare.
Coming up to the boar, Belen was impressed at its magnitude. There was no way in hell it was natural. Was it... Belen almost went pale. Some kind of forest spirit or guardian or some kind of protector? Or worse yet... the livestock or pet of some massive giant who'd come and squish them like ants? But really, there was no way the boar could be native -- at least at that goddamn size -- to the area! The forest would have been long gone. Pigs were just naturally destructive.
Belen decided the best thing to do was... well, she wanted to skin it and take its body parts but she was pretty sure her poor mare wasn't about ready to haul something quite so cumbersome. So the next best thing to do was... vaporize it. Or leave it, since that seemed the most natural and let a lot of creatures feed off it or-- she fell back when the boar suddenly jerked and lunged up, her mare screaming in the background as Belen did something like a scramble crab-walk before she simply abandoned that all together and fell to the flat of her back.
The boar struggled up, massive as it swung its confused, pain-addled head. It was hurt, the first attack only stunning it, but the tendril of light leaning a burning, clear hole through his body, but clearly it hadn't been aimed right. Belen had never quite cursed so much in her entire life as she sucked in enough breath to fuel her for three days, felt her body practically boiling from the inside and the euphoria tingle up her spine, and held her hands up at the boar's chest as it stumbled over her.
Belen's hands convulsed, muscles tightening and jerking and she was always amazed her hands were nothing more than burnt and the fingernails painfully split -- she kind of always expected broken fingers or hands -- and then a multi-colored thread of energy as thick as Belen's arm arrowed through the boar. It shuddered and Belen barely managed to roll [and keep rolling] far away as it collapsed, again, for what she hoped was the last time.
She was beginning to feel bad for killing something so many times.
Belen only stopped when she felt her body bounce with the boar's thud. She struggled to her own feet, trying not to hyperventilate, as she sluggishly moved toward Gorgon, whose ears rolled white and pranced fearfully in place. Belen sunk to her knees, forced herself to take long breaths, and then rose again, dizzy from exertion but finally managed to grapple onto her horse and coo her until Gorgon was annoyed and exhausted that Belen was fussing so much over her.
Gorgon then presumed to ignore her.
Belen sat with a thump, because her whole body was numb and that was good since her hands were certainly going to hurt after this. After all these years she STILL couldn't manage proportion of power right. Go figure.
Belen glanced at the boar. If it got up ONE MORE TIME... Belen was going to scream and then cut out it's oversized heart. But she was fairly sure it was dead. Thank the Gods. She wasn't sure she could stand to see it "rise from the dead" once more. Either could her horse.
