Welcome to Gaia! ::

Shaheen was no stranger to earning rank through the spilling of blood, countless hours of hard work and training, and yes, a lot of sweat. She had worked hard for her title of Chieftain. She had learnt every aspect of battle that there could possibly be learnt. She had fought and practiced and had mastered every weapon that was placed in her hand, often going until her hands were too chafed, blistered, cracked and bleeding to continue on.

But that seemed like such a long time ago, now. Even if she had only been very newly risen to her position before the fall of the islands, the time since then felt like decades to her. And if one thing had been made abundantly clear in the last few months it was that she no longer deserved the title that had been bestowed upon her. She had nothing left anymore. Her shattered pride, her wounded ego, her faded sense of self respect. All gone, leaving her with nothing more then whispers in her head and a grey tainted appearance.

She could not give up, however. Not yet. She could work towards becoming what she once was. She could put herself through a vigorous training regime once more. She earn back everything that she had squandered. And then..then she would find a cure to the insanity that continued to plague her, and rise up higher then she had been, hopefully by becoming better then she ever was.

And so she had been looking for somebody who might be willing to train with her, her wanderings bringing her to the all too familiar conquest encampment, her golden eyes settling on a small horsewoman whom she remembered from Fright Night, and who she also recalled speaking to about a future spar. She stood back to watch her for a time, admiring the way she wielded her weapon, weighing and judging her skillful mastery of the bow and arrow before moving forward, and calling out towards her.

"Hello, Lan. Would you like to take me up on that offer to spar, today?" She was already summoning her dagger to hand, eager to begin, and not wasting any time on idle chit chat.

She really should have been ready for the arrow that came flying towards her so readily, especially after her last spar with that student who had beaten her oh so soundly. Her only excuse could have been that she was distracted, always distracted by the voices that murmured away in her head. But that just wasn't good enough anymore. She could not allow that to be an excuse anymore. She would overcome her handicap, would find a way to rise again.

The arrow took her on the left side of her rib cage, warm blood already began to spill down her bronzed flesh. The pain from the wound was sharp and immediate, and would hopefully serve to clear her mind a little.

"Great!" She smirked, adding a tone of enthusiasm to her voice even if her eyes were now narrowed, her body launching itself automatically into a more battle ready position before she threw herself forward with two powerful flaps of the wings at her back, and lashed out at the other woman with her dagger.


HP: 32
Damage: 2

Limited supplies? Yes, that might account for how far Shaheen had let herself slide these past few months. Though if she were being honest, she might not have nodded along with Lan's words, and might instead have spoken of how they were only limited by themselves. But no, she kept that to herself for the moment, clenching her teeth against Lan's newest attack before taking another swipe with her dagger and pushing herself back, though her blade might have only managed to barely slice through the fabric of the conquest nobles adornment.

"You mean the students?" She assumed that's what Lan meant by 'natives'.

"I have found them to be more then accommodating when approached for a spar." Not that she was exactly proud of the amount of times she had found herself face to face with a student for lack of a better opponent, but they did at least prove useful in that regard.

Until, of course, they defeated her. Then they were just overstepping themselves.

HP: 27
Damage: 0 (btw this is why she has such low self esteem, stupid troll dice)

Shaheen might not have visibly winced, but she did so inwardly at the woman's words. Students would think they were even more on par with the horsemen now, because the war chieftain had pretty much seen to that. Maybe one day she would be able to redeem herself, and prove the thought wrong, but she wasn't there yet and it would be foolish to challenge the boil again when she was still clearly so far off from being at her peak.

"While I have no problem in using humans in such a way, treating the 'natives' as you so put it in the same manner makes little sense. Well, unless they have aligned themselves with the humans." Like that girl who had cornered tried to tell Shaheen that she should no longer harm humans.

"But the others, the initiates, they are helping us. It wouldn't do any good to start shooting at them with arrows and driving them away, would it? They're harvesting Fear just as we are, and if what Medea has shown us can be believed..." She shrugged, seeing no reason to continue on in that line of thought. While she harbored no feelings of sentimentality towards the students or the other denizens of Halloween in general, she could not help but notice that they could be useful at times. One had to learn when and where it was appropriate to pick a battle. This was not the time, the place, or the right people.

The chieftain spun to the side as the arrow tore by, releasing her dagger in a throw towards the other woman as she did so, hoping to hear it tear through cloth and connect with flesh but finding herself quite disappointed.


HP: 27
Damage: 0

Yes, maybe if they stopped talking, Shaheen would be able to concentrate long enough to at least land a hit. Not that it should have been so difficult, or that she should have been making excuses for herself.

"Indeed." Was her only reply, her lips curling up in their usual smirk as her spin came to a halt, only to feel an arrow burying itself near her collarbone. She let out a hiss of pain, golden eyes narrowing before she pushed forward, using her wings to lend her speed before she slashed with her dagger once more, this time at least rewarded when she felt the blow connect.

HP: 19
Damage: 3

Shaheen had just enough time to see the conquest woman raising her bow, but in a maneuver that was definitely not meant for shooting arrows. She couldn't move out of the way fast enough, and felt the stinging slap of the bow against her cheek, sending her reeling backwards and to the side.

She stumbled to a stop, one hand raising to her face, a bit of blood dribbling out from the corner of her mouth and running down to her chin as her face broke into a smile, her hair eyes flashing gold and her hair falling in tangles, strands of it obscuring her vision.

"Nice move." She complimented, before throwing herself forward again, slashing out with her dagger once more.

HP: 13
Damage: 4

If Shaheen hadn't been trying very hard to concentrate on the battle at hand she might have scoffed a laugh. She might have once been an example of prowess among the War clan, but those days were no longer. She had some good days in her still, yes, of that she could not deny. There were times when the whispers would subside and she could feel more like herself, though never quite the same as she used to be.

Like right now for instance. Right now she felt fairly clear headed, though just before she swung a rush of whispers invaded her mind and she hesitated, her blade barely even nipping the conquest woman as one hand raised to her temple, her eyes closing for just a moment as she tried to will the voices away. Not here, not now. It just needed to stop.

HP: 13
Damage: 1