ORIGIN

Tema did not notice anything was wrong until the last moment, at which her instinct was not to run, not to avoid the ambush but rather to shove Sunny's stone into her bag. She knew it was the snail's. The shape was unmistakable, the colour and its translucence were something she had yet to see anywhere else. She would know it anywhere. Now, all she could hope was that it still held life within it, to give it some meaning, some purpose. Sunny's death would be made useful in service or the Void, as Sunny should have been.

And then she was on her back, trapped beneath the hulking form of a gembound she could only think to describe as a creature. A monster. "You did this!" She cried, voice harsh from wear and laced with rage. It did not matter that there was no sign of a fight here. It did not matter that Sunny might have passed cycles ago rather than hours ago. Vjira was here, at the wrong place in the wrong time, and Tema had no one else to blame. Visions of Chaos overtook her, and all she wanted was to destroy.

Tema's only goal for the moment was to break free, to claw and writhe until she hit an eye or otherwise untangled herself from her opponent. She squirmed, trying desperately with whatever limbs she could get free, with whatever her teeth could reach, to get them OFF!

Tema's claws found purchase, if only for a moment, and she seized the opportunity to right herself when the monster was distracted by the cut. A retaliatory attack followed, a heavy swing of claws that rivalled her own, and the bear saw nothing but blood. Oil. A film over her vision as she leaped out of the way, turning to deliver a devastating strike of her own.

The bear reared up on unsteady hind legs, jaws opening wide to reveal sharp, yellowed teeth that promptly lodged themselves somewhere at the junction between the creature's wing and shoulder. Then she pulled, hard, ripping flesh as she dropped back to all fours. It was not as deep a bite as she had tried for, but she found herself smiling at the taste of blood. The taste of revenge.

Her bite was the match used to light the fuse as nothing short of fireworks filled her vision, bright bioluminescent lights shifting in colour and pattern made Vjira's body seem less than solid, a mirage of the dehydrated. A mirage of the maddened. The bear did not even think to lick the blood from her lips in the chaos of it all.

Tema felt the pain before she saw the strike, a sudden sting and half-blindness as blood poured into her eye from the cut on her face. The bear struck out wildly, a frenzy of slashing claws and snaps as jaws closed on air.

The distance that the flurry of blows created was used to wipe the blood from her face, just barely in time to rear back out of the way. Vjira hit hard (when she hit) and the bear couldn't very well do some good damage to the beast if she wasn't careful to keep herself in good shape. Not that Tema was thinking that; all that was on the bear's mind was blood.

It did not matter that she was versed in magic, not muscle. It did not matter that she was taking risks. All that mattered in this moment was her jaws opening for another bite, and Vjira's closest limb.