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She was waiting for him. She didn't actually know that he would come, not for certain. It was just a feeling that she got, or maybe it was just her last remanents of hope, ones that would very shortly be shattered into oblivion with the rest of her if he didn't show. Two days she had spent holed away in a room at their house, before she couldn't stand to be there any longer and had taken off into the forest. Time passed, but it could have been hours or even days for all she was paying attention. She had chosen to dwell on things alone, to sit and think in the not so quiet but somehow comforting surroundings of the tall trees and greenery. It had just gotten to that point, that point where it was almost unbearable to be around others for an extended period of time, though she had tried. The point where she found herself losing out to the voices more often the she won. The point where it was time.

And she was afraid.

She had at least left a note on the door of Shik's abode, an invitation to join her this night, in this particular spot. The pumpkin sun had sunk far down below the horizon, and a brightly shining moon had taken it's place, bathing her surroundings in a pale silver light. She idly sketched patterns and drawings into the dirt next to where she sat with one fingernail, the swirls of the lost clans among other things. She did this, and she continued to wait. In a cleared area near the forests edge, she would wait all night if that's how long it took for him to seek her out. If he even knew she was waiting for him, at least. Who knew if he would even come home to see the note?

But after tonight...she couldn't wait any longer. She needed to leave, to do something, if there was anything that could still be done, and she could not gauruntee to anybody, least of all to herself, that she would make it back.

For ages Shaheen sat, doing her absolute best not to give in to that nagging, negative feeling that tugged at her insides. She had started out with hope but it quickly began to turn and sour the longer she waited, her fingers stopping their careful tracings in the dirt, instead digging like claws into the ground as her shoulders hunched forward. Where had he gone? Why had he left her? These questions continued to spin in her mind, along with the whispers that never ceased to aggravate every cynical thought that she had.

Eventually her head began to swim with the poison and taint that insanity forced upon her. She felt dizzy, nauseous, but empty and cold inside. She had placed her trust in one individual, had somehow foolishly believed his words when he had said he was in this for the long haul. That he wouldn't leave.....

He said if you left that you could hunt him down and kill him.

Even that little recollection wasn't enough to spur her from where she sat. Again, she had very little idea how long he'd even been gone. Had it been days? Had it only been minutes? Nothing in this world felt real anymore. It was all turning to ash. The grey bordered around the edges of her vision, creeping in ever closer. She shouldn't have waited so long. Maybe if she had known how quickly it would progress, she would not have. Too proud, too stubborn, and now too far gone.

Though Shikoba might have tried to make his arrival a noisy one, Shaheen could not hear it, not over the voices that roared in her head. When she finally did sense a presense, whether by sound or instinct alone, her head cocked just slightly to the side, almost nothing more then a twitch, before she turned towards him from where she was seated.

In the moonlight it might have been hard to see at first. Her hair, once vibrant, like spun gold, now lifeless and grey. Her face was etched with the taint, now creeping in from the left as well. Her arms, the mottled feathers of her wings, her entire body.

The amount it had spread was almost inconcievable.

"Hello, Shikoba." Her voice barely even sounded like her own, hissed out between clenched teeth "Have you come to take us home?"

Shaheen pressed a hand to her temple when he spoke, as if his voice on top of the ones in her head was causing her a massive headache. Her upper lip curled back from her teeth, the words he directed at her nearly lost in a cacaphony that only she could hear.

"Lies." She hissed, suddenly moving, her wings sweeping out behind her as she sprang to her feet in swift movements and turned towards him. She didn't bother explaining what part of what he said she considered to be false. She was beyond reasoning at that point. Her fingers flexed at her sides, held clawed like talons, and her eyes shone in the darkness, flashing in the moonlight.

But something inside of her still struggled as he contined to speak. He claimed to have only been gone for a day. Was that true? He said that he had the answer to her problem, and then mentioned fixing her up.

Something in her hard gaze softened for just a split second, the barest hint of a moment where she looked like she might relax, and back down.

And then he pulled out the dagger. Not his usual dagger created of his own Fear, but something new and different. Her eyes were drawn to it, locked on it the second it had made it's appearance, and breathing seemed to quicken at the sight of it.

"You would try to kill us." She moved that gaze back up to his, the accusation in her voice impossible to ignore. It made so much sense now! He had realized his mistake in letting her in to his home, on making a promise that he now had no intention on keeping.

He wasn't going to let her hold up her end of the little bargain they had struck and let her kill him. He was going to do her in before she could get the chance, by whatever magic that dagger held.

There were no more words, just a flash near her hand when her own dagger came summoned to her side, grasped in fingers curled tight around the hilt, and a purposeful step made towards him.

He might not have wanted a fight, but he was about to get one.

His words were like white noise, a sound that aggravated her more the longer it played. She did hesitate momentarily when he'd said he couldn't have killed her if he tried, but it was more in response to him sheathing the dagger that he had held then anything else. Right at that moment, Shaheen was caught between a strong urge of fight or flight, and if the immediate threat was gone...

...But no, he had summoned his own dagger now, and was on the attack, driving towards her. She hissed from between clenched teeth, moving forward to take the attack head on, and bringing up her own blade to try and guard against the blow. It came swift and strong, as attacks from Shikoba often did, and she was perhaps lucky that she was able to come away from it fairly unscathed, her arm taking the brunt of the impact, a slice against skin etched in grey. There was pain, but it was given barely a thought. There was no reason to give it any thought. She had one purpose right now, and that was to cut this man down, to get him out of her way.

Then maybe she could go home.

The idea spurned her onward, and she delivered a wild slash of her own, but it was sloppy, faulty, as though she gave no thought at all to how he might respond. The precision of a woman who normally tried to think out her opponents moves five ahead of her own was gone, her motions instead almost chaotic.


HP: 47
Damage: 6

Shaheen didn't plan on going down. She was out for blood, but not the in the more "playful" fashion that was more her norm. This was not for enjoyment. She felt no thrill of the fight singing in her veins. All she felt was an icy coldness, an emptyness inside, and a certain longing, a calling to a place she couldn't quite yet reach. She was close though...so close...

She just had to eleminate this one final obstacle that had put itself in her path.

To start with, her blade seemed to clash against Shik's more often then it was able to connect to his flesh. The sound of steel on steel was ringing in her ears, just an add on to the other noises that only she could hear. Each blow that he dealt back in kind was met with a snarl and another wild swing of her own. Despite her current state, it was hard to ignore his strength, as though he had undergone a boost in power, or was perhaps just more in tune with his Fear. It was odd to think that Shaheen, who's own Fear had become chaotic, was able to stand up against it. Somehow, though the insanity was destroying her, there was also a strange sense of power to be had from it all.

Still, he was driving her back, and greyed flesh was beginning to crumble under the blows that struck against her arms and shoulders, sifting to the ground like ash. With a flair and rapid beat of her wings, she jumped back and away from him, her softly glowing eyes glaring at him from their inky depths.

And then her lips slowly curled up, a twisted and dark form of what might have once been her usual sassy smirk. With a loud hiss that seemed to rattle out from deep within her chest, she lunged forward again, taking a step before leaping towards him, arms outstretched, dagger gone, fingers curling into claws...

And with swirls of yellow light dimmed by hues of grey, they were no longer fingers, but actual claws that were aimed straight for Shikoba's chest. She was no longer the mostly grey woman, but a lioness, who's fur was tainted by exaclty the same marks of insanity. The lioness roared out, snapping with impossibly long and sharp teeth as she struck. If she coulnd't beat him as a woman, she would attempt to destroy him like this.


HP: 40
Damage: 11

It was so much easier in this form to overpower him, that if she had been all there in the head at that moment she might have chastised herself for not doing it sooner. As it was, her actions were based purely on instinct alone. One thing wasn't working to get the results she intended, so another took it's place. This way was proving to be more effecient, so she would stick with it until the job was done.

At least, in theory that's how it should have worked. Of course, she didn't really realize that Shik could retaliate in a similar way, by shifting to his own mount form and bear-handling her with brute strength, sending her snarling self spinning and falling straight into the dirt with a large whump, ribs creaking, the air knocked out of her, and nerve endings screaming in pain from the claws that had pushed their way past her fur and into her chest. It was painful. It burned. Her chest felt too tight.

None of that mattered, and certainly none of it was going to put her down and out of this fight. Not yet.

She scrambled back to her paws a half a second after she had hit the ground, glowing eyes rolling towards her intended target, who was now a massive bear that was baring down on her with claws and teeth to rival her own. With a defiant roar, one that might have said "******** you this isn't over yet.", she sprang back towards him, this time raising up on hind legs before slapping one giant and clawed paw out towards him, aiming for that jaw she so loved to abuse in his other form.


HP: 29
Damage: 6

The lioness backed off, taking a few slow yet deliberate steps back, her muscular shoulders raised, her head partially lowered, and her hackles up, fur bristling along her spine. Her teeth were bare, lip pulled back in a constant snarl, and golden eyes were locked steady on his, awaiting what she assumed would be an instant retaliation.

Only it didn't come. For whatever reason, he was almost behaving more cautiously now, and that finally put Shaheen on her guard, much more wary than she had been at the start of all of this.

With a small lunge forward she roared in response to his growl, one that started off as a snarl and grew, mouth open wide to show off all of those teeth that she would gladly tear into him with, and then snapping them shut.

As he paced around her, she watched him steadily, following his movements. Swiping her paw at him, she ended up swatting a loose rock up towards his head.

HP: 29
Damage: 1

Carefully following his every step, shifting so that she was always facing him no matter where he decided to move, Shaheen was most definitely not going to make this easy for him. Not when he had threatened her life with a dagger. Not when there was someplace that she needed to be, and he wasn't invited to come along.

He was lacking in the proper credentials to go home with her.

When he finally made his move, she braced herself for impact, hunching her shoulders and digging claws into the ground. Unfortunately, he changed the direction that he came at her from, bowling into her and sending her, once again, quite forcefully into the ground.

Luckily for her, while he had brute strength and muscle to back him, she had speed and flexibility. She was able to turn, to take the hit and lift front paws to wrap around the mass of bear in front of her. If she was going down, she was taking him with her, and in the process, she was also going to lift her back legs, bunch them up tight against her belly, and then kick out towards BearShik's stomach, while also attempting to dig her teeth into his shoulder.


HP: 24
Damage: 8