someone should have read the news

Beta managed to stumble to their feet, but not in time to try and dodge the icy breath that the dragon hurtled its way. It shrunk back with a groan as the ice froze together parts of its fur and a strong chill went up their spine, even through the pain of the icicles stabbing at their skin. It could barely see anything, but an idea raced to its head - maybe it could turn it around on her. She was giving it plenty of weapons, wasn't she?

It tried to lash out at the ice, to maybe throw some of it in Asimona's face to blind her, but they swung their paw too far and, instead of launching the ice at her, it only came back to it, hitting Beta in the face instead. They howled and stumbled back, pawing at their stinging eyes.

Asimona glared down at the creature as it screeched and hissed. What in the hell was wrong with it? All of the other of Vargas's spawn had apparently been formidable opponents and had started a damn war between the groups! But this one was pathetic, tripping over its feet, failing right and left, unable to get a single hit in. She snarled and lunged forward, reaching forward with her claws to grab the thing and throw it to the ground, pressing her weight on top of it to hold it there.

"Who are you?!" she snarled. "What are you even doing here?! I know you're one of Vargas's spawn, you have his stupid fucking face! Tell me what you want with my family!"

Beta had just gotten the last of the ice shards out of its eyes when the dragon suddenly tackled it to the ground. This was not how it had imagined its day going, not at all! It was supposed to have sneaked up on the dragon, got a hit in, waved it off in the spirit of practice, and gone to the next target. And, eventually, tell Master Vargas that it had sneaked up on a dragon! A dragon!! But no, it had to just fail everything.

"Fuck. Ow! OW! Lady, ow, come on, what the fuck are you doing that for?! Come on, I was just practicing! I'm Ruby-Beta, jeez, get off me!" It struggled against her weight, clawing at the ground for some kind of hold to get it out from under her. "What the hell are you talking about? Who the fuck is your family and why the hell should I care? Just lemme go!" Wildly, it scraped at the ground and threw a cloud of dust at her eyes, hoping to get her off of it for just a second.

She snarled and held tighter. "Don't try to weasel your way out of this one!" she snapped at the creature beneath her. It wasn't going to trick her into lowering her guard. She knew how they all fought. They fought dirty, because the winner was the winner, no matter what you did, huh? Despicable. She hated the lot of them, any that had those eyes or really any part of Vargas in their genes.

"Shut up," she snarled. "You think I'm gonna believe you're "just practicing"?! After your siblings tried to kill my son and started a war with my family? You think I'm gonna believe you just happened to run into me or something? Bullshit! Vargas put you up to this!" She was going to continue, but the sudden dust in her eyes had her rearing back with a roar as her eyes began to sting. She flapped her wings hard, stirring up more duster beneath them and willed the wind to blow it at Ruby-Beta instead.

The instant she reared back, Beta jerked out from beneath her and didn't waste any time. It wasn't going to run, though, because she'd just chase, as she did before. So, instead, it lashed forward with one of its paws, striking hard at one of her legs. The wind was whipping up dust in its face, but it still landed the hit, right next to her knee. As soon as it hit, it hissed and staggered back, closing its eyes against the dust. "God, why did you have to be such a pain? Vargas just told me to train! I don't know what the fuck the others have been doing, I don't know about any war! Fuck! Don't follow me!"

It turned, then, and stumbled towards the exit of Monoceros, head down against the wind, still shivering from the icy blast and blood dribbling down its shoulder. That was so damn pathetic. If Master Vargas had seen that display...it would be over for them.

*exit

She roared with pain as the strike landed, stumbling to the side as her leg gave way beneath her. She slammed onto her stomach and groaned, raisined her head as the creature ran out of the cave. Asimona growled, not believe a word it had said. She didn't trust any of them. It was just trying to get out of trouble, wasn't it? It got caught and was trying to weasel its way out of any consequences.

Well, she wasn't going to stand for it. She tried to get to her feet, but her leg wouldn't stand up straight. She couldn't take off like this either. She snarled and just sent a loud roar in Beta's direction as it fled the cave. Hopefully the wounds she'd given it would be enough to remember her by.

*exit