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Shaheen had made her way over to the conquest section of the encampment solely to seek out a certain short and deathly pale artisan with long black and grey hair. She felt a little badly that she hadn't come to find her before, considering she had promised the other woman an update on how she was dealing with...some issues she'd been having.

And so the horsewoman wandered rather aimlessly around the encampment, ignoring any stares she might have gotten from the conquest horsemen who might have wondered what she was doing here to begin with. She was on a mission, her golden eyes sweeping back and forth, searching low to the ground for her rather vertically challenged friend.

And then her eyes landed on a familiar pair of sleeves that were trailing down towards the ground and her gaze snapped back up. "Zhi!" She said, sounding rather cheerful for once, a large smirk spreading across her face.

"Maybe you could help me! I'm looking for another artisan like you. Lifen? Do you know her?" She continued her approach, perhaps straightening her shoulders just a little before crossing arms under her chest give them a little extra..oomph?

Always teasing.

Shaheen had to dodge the sleeves, her body bending in ways that might have appeared uncomfortable or even inhuman. Hours upon hours of training had left her body quite graceful and flexible, and she utilized those skills now to keep from getting whipped in the face and possibly having an eye taken out. "Zhi, calm down! I'm fully covered!" Well, her chest was fully covered. Her outfits often left very little to the imagination but at least the parts that mattered were hidden.

Of course, emphasizing them once he had discontinued his flailing only seemed to make the problem worse, again, and she quickly uncrossed her arms with a chuckle and a small shake of her head. "You are ridiculous, Zhi. What do you think is going to happen? That they were going to jump out and bite you?" More light laughter as she studied him, lips pursing together. Okay, she had clearly teased him enough, he was going into full blown freak out mode and yelling at her and covering his eyes. Pretty soon he'd be speaking in gibberish again, and if he did that, she would probably die of laughter. Very counter-productive.

She rolled her eyes and moved forward, bring up a hand to lift up the sleeve that had flopped over his head and let it fall back down the way it was supposed to. "Well, where do you artisans usually spend your time, then? Surely you must know. Do you have a special place set up somewhere?" She was frowning now, feeling slightly confused.

There, that was better. She offered him a somewhat smile/smirk when he finally dropped his hands back down to his sides, careful not to stand up straighter and push her chest out as she was tempted to do. No, she needed information from him, and putting him into another fit of hysterics was not going to help anything. She needed to control these urges.

Control. She could do that....sometimes.

And then Zhi had to go and drop a bomb on her, and her mouth suddenly gaped open in surprise before she exclaimed. "You're a what???" Imperial soldier. This man. This man here. This one with the flailing arms and the aversion towards boobs and the whipping sleeves and the horribly amusing facial expressions.

Was a soldier.

A soldier.

Shaheen's eyes suddenly lit up, almost dangerously so, as smile filled with dark intentions curled it's way upwards on her face. "Prove it." She practically purred, her demeanor completely changing now as she took a step back away from him, a dagger suddenly leaping to her hand.

"Fight me."

No? NO!? How could he just say no to her like that? Well, unfortunately for Zhi, Shaheen was not taking no for an answer. She narrowed her eyes at him, smirk slipping away as she took a step towards him, dagger flashing in the light of the pumpkin sun. A sleeve whipped out towards her, catching her on the cheek just beneath her eye and she whipped her head away, her eyes squinting shut as her arm came up to block that which was already pulling away.

When she opened them again, it was to see that he was making some grand and ridiculous looking escape. Really, she refused to believe one could move quickly or even battle efficiently in robes such as those that he was wearing. She did know that Conquest horsemen specialized in combat with a bow and arrow, so perhaps movement was not really necessary...

"Hey!" She called out to him, before her wings unfurled behind her and she took off into the air after him, unsumonning her dagger as she went. She caught up with him in no time, and dove down on him from above and behind, grabbing a hold of him with her arms and flapping her wings hard to force them both down into the ground and the dirt, attempting to roll so as not to do any harm to herself in the process.

Her shirt may have lifted up ever so slightly in the tussle so that she was no longer completely covered. Mostly covered, but not completely ;D.

HP: 39
Damage: 9 (some of that is probably psychological damage I'm sure)
FP: 1

When the conquest horseman went still beneath her she worried for a moment that she had possibly hurt him more then she had intended, "Zhi?" She asked, cocking her head to the side curiously just as she was about to lift herself up off of him and give him a chance to rise up again, and hopefully this time face her like a man instead of running away like a total coward.

The sudden struggling and flailing caught her off guard. She had really hoped for better out of a supposed soldier. Still despite her attempts at tightening her grip on him and hopefully subduing him until he could calm down and behave less erratically, he managed to send an elbow flying up into her jaw, cracking against it and popping it out of joint.

"AGH!" She cried out, rolling off of him now and sending a foot kicking out at his side even as she reached up to push her jaw back into place, pain throbbing through it.

Huh, so that's how Shik felt every time she slammed a fist against his jaw. Interesting.

She pushed herself to her feet, hair disheveled, body filmed with grime and dust. Unconsciously she reached up to pull her shirt back down, readjusting it so that she was no longer falling out.

"Are you ready to fight me now?" She asked, but speaking was still painful and made her wince.

HP: 31
Damage: 5

"I never back off." Her smile was nothing more then a flash of gritted teeth, her eyes narrowed and focused. "Come on, Zhi. It's fun." She certainly looked happy, in a scary and disturbing kind of way. And finally, finally he was summoning his weapon, and agreeing to spar with her, even if he did say it would just be this one time.

Excellent.

"Sure, just this once. Afterwards maybe we can go frolicking in a meadow and braid each others hair." She was being sarcastic, of course, if that wasn't painfully obvious. She was watching him closely, dagger back in her hand, stance wide and low, wings poised and at the ready behind her in case she needed to----

The arrow was released, aimed low towards her leg and with a flap of her wings she dodged to the side so that it hit the side of her calf, furrowing through her skin, leaving a deep cut from which blood began to drip slowly. Her fear shield would take care of that, however. It was minor, really. The pain was almost intoxicating, giving her life. Even as she threw herself sideways she hurled her dagger towards the Soldier, also aiming low. Tit for tat.


HP: 28
Damage: 4

The sound her blade made as it tore threw fabric and sunk wetly into flesh raised the corners of Shaheen's lips into an even larger smile, though that quickly faded the second she caught sight of an arrow that was heading directly for her face. She made another lunge to the side with a flap of her wings. lashing out with her arm to knock the arrow to the side but having the tip of he graze across the skin of her arm.

Wings still beating, she let herself settle back down to the earth, landing first on one foot as she summoned her dagger back to her hand then held it up as if to throw it once more before instead surging forward with one last sweep of her wings to speed her along, slashing her dagger towards Zhi's chest.

HP: 26
Damage: 4

Even as he grabbed for her wrist and attempted to push her away she strained against him until her dagger met fabric and flesh once more, her teeth gritted as she fought past the resistance he was offering. With a growl and a beat of her wings she finally pulled away, noting with some consternation that he no longer had his weapon summoned.

Oh right, arrows, long range. Dur.

Not wanting to give herself unfair advantage in their spar, Shaheen backed up further still, rolling her shoulders, flipping her dagger back and forth between her hands, giving him ample opportunity to go on the offensive once more.

And just in case he thought that she was backing off because she was calling quits on the spar, she threw her dagger at him again, a clumsy throw, meant more as a warning that this fight was far from finished. It could easily have been dodged.


HP: 25
Damage: Nope~