[To have a steed that could be guided without the jerk of reins or the press of knees, one that could be instructed with words, that could adjust its gait and actually watch for and prevent a rider’s fall… There was a reason that obedient jinba mounts were priceless, armless or not.
But Hayame was never broken fully to the saddle. She would be a different, far less fiery woman if she had been. She can only use instinct, not training, to try and account for a rider, only use the weight of Liem’s body on her back to remind her that she has to account for his height, his balance-
She tries. It’s a good thing he has a decent seat himself. Something falls on her (them), stringy and sloughed from the beast, Liem fires off an arrow, and-
No matter how hard she resists the foreign, clawing presence in her mind, she isn’t Hayame anymore. She is a man desperate, changing, blinded, afraid, reaching for a power and the trees and being snapped up- and then she is Hayame again so suddenly that her legs falter again, she almost crumbles, the scream echoing half muted as her right ear’s hearing suddenly vanishes as it had been on and off since her dream of dryads, the smell of blood is in her nostrils and she doesn’t realize yet it’s because she’s bleeding, but-
There’s no time to examine what it means, not yet. The roots settle, she can risk taking her eye off the ground, Liem’s arrow had wounded it… and her bow was six feet tall, her arrows thicker, longer, the make of others who looked like her who knew what a jinba needed out of a weapon.]
Liem, down- !
[She barks out order for him to stay momentarily where he was, waiting for a moment of clear earth and clear gaps through the trees to twist suddenly from the waist enough that she can bring her bow to bear behind her as she gallops forward, hooves pounding the earth one more beat, two, three, as she sights along the arrow, the beast lunges after them, faster-
She may not be as accurate any longer… but the howling abomination is large. She may not be able to punch through a body made of crystal and root like a human’s, like flesh or thin armor her powerful arrows could stab straight through like paper, but… If she aims lower than usual to account for its speed, more to the left than usual to account for her altered depth perception…
Hayame looses the arrow aimed once more at the skull illuminated by unholy glow, then has to twist back around to watch her hooves as she throws more of herself into the gallop, racing it towards the clearing in a final burst.]
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But Hayame was never broken fully to the saddle. She would be a different, far less fiery woman if she had been. She can only use instinct, not training, to try and account for a rider, only use the weight of Liem’s body on her back to remind her that she has to account for his height, his balance-
She tries. It’s a good thing he has a decent seat himself. Something falls on her (them), stringy and sloughed from the beast, Liem fires off an arrow, and-
No matter how hard she resists the foreign, clawing presence in her mind, she isn’t Hayame anymore. She is a man desperate, changing, blinded, afraid, reaching for a power and the trees and being snapped up- and then she is Hayame again so suddenly that her legs falter again, she almost crumbles, the scream echoing half muted as her right ear’s hearing suddenly vanishes as it had been on and off since her dream of dryads, the smell of blood is in her nostrils and she doesn’t realize yet it’s because she’s bleeding, but-
There’s no time to examine what it means, not yet. The roots settle, she can risk taking her eye off the ground, Liem’s arrow had wounded it… and her bow was six feet tall, her arrows thicker, longer, the make of others who looked like her who knew what a jinba needed out of a weapon.]
Liem, down- !
[She barks out order for him to stay momentarily where he was, waiting for a moment of clear earth and clear gaps through the trees to twist suddenly from the waist enough that she can bring her bow to bear behind her as she gallops forward, hooves pounding the earth one more beat, two, three, as she sights along the arrow, the beast lunges after them, faster-
She may not be as accurate any longer… but the howling abomination is large. She may not be able to punch through a body made of crystal and root like a human’s, like flesh or thin armor her powerful arrows could stab straight through like paper, but… If she aims lower than usual to account for its speed, more to the left than usual to account for her altered depth perception…
Hayame looses the arrow aimed once more at the skull illuminated by unholy glow, then has to twist back around to watch her hooves as she throws more of herself into the gallop, racing it towards the clearing in a final burst.]