Welcome to Gaia! ::

Having spent more than an hour in a sensory-deprived state where the water was neither warm nor cold, and every sound was reduced to a distant, muffled echo, Lavendulan had long since grown accustomed to the reservoir’s stillness.

One moment, she had been suspended in that familiar weightlessness; in the next she felt like she had been swept over the edge of an underwater drop-off.

Water rushed past in a sudden torrent, tugging at her hair and clothes with enough force to convince her that she had finally found what she’d been searching for.

Then it stopped.

In the space that existed between heartbeats. The rapidly increasing pressure from being pulled to depths at an alarming rate was replaced by the crushing weight of her own body as she landed upon solid ground. Sand gave beneath her with a wheezing squeak.

For a long moment, she remained where she’d lay, her limbs feeling unbearably heavy after spending so long suspended beneath the water’s surface. The sudden shift in pressure sent a sharp pain through her ears, leaving her momentarily disoriented. Even the simple act of raising her head felt far more difficult than it should.

Her irritation arrived before her bearings did.

Pushing herself onto one elbow, her eyes landed not on a face, but on a pair of boots planted in the sand behind her.

“... Seriously?” She snarled, pupils pulling into thin slits as she shrugged the mesh bag from her shoulder and tossed it at the General’s feet. “I was so close to finally having answers and you let it get away.” Lavens voice dipped into a growl as her claws dug deep into the sand while glaring daggers at the collection of trinkets strewn about the space between them as if they had offended her as much as the officer had.

“That’s not what I meant, and you know it,” Lavendulan snapped back.

Sand clung to her in the most inconvenient of places; her arms and face, gods it was all over her hair as well as under a few scales. It would be a fruitless endeavor to try to brush it all off, but he’d think her half mad if not insane if she walked back in the water so readily.

“Of course you try to save them,” Her expression twisted with disgust as she turned her head and spat a few grains of coarse sand on the ground that had found their way into her mouth from when she’d thrown her bag in frustration; that discomfort was unfortunately her own fault. “You’d have no right to call yourself a General if you didn’t.”

Her tone was still sharp, but the immediate anger seemed oddly tempered if only slightly.

Eventually Lavendulan did glance upwards; sillouted by the street lamps behind him, the General stood a couple of paces away, looking as if flight had never been an option, and he was ready for the next thing she’d swing his way. Although his face was cast in dark shadow, his expression was unmistakable.

He, like many others before him, looked down at her as if she were the one causing all the problems.

A humorless chuckle escaped her. “Whatever,” she muttered to herself.

Lavendulan rose to her feet and offered a suspiciously insincere curtsey-like bow that caused her to wince from the dull ache in her ribs. “Although I was in no danger of drowning, your concern for my safety did not warrant my ire. For that, I apologize.”

“Although very few were aware of my intent, there is no reason you could have known my purpose for being here perhaps mirrors your own.” She glanced down once more at his boots that had only barely touched water. “I’m just perhaps more than willing to get my feet wet in search of answers or actually fighting what grabbed me.”

Lavendulan’s youma instincts stirred beneath her skin.

His approach. His looming presence. The careless placement of his boot atop the treasures that had fallen free of her mesh bag. To anyone else, it might have seemed inconsequential.

To her, it was a challenge.

“I suggest you take a step back.”

A low growl vibrated in the back of her throat before she could suppress it. Every instinct urged her to bare her teeth and drive the general back and reclaim the space he’d unknowingly invaded.

“I may be a half-youma, but I will not be cowed by someone who shares the same rank as me.” They both answered to the same Queen. “If you wish to intimidate someone, I suggest you find yourself a lieutenant.”

The hand at her side flexed.

“Although unintentional, you've interrupted my hunt. So, unless you intend to satiate my desire to fight something, I politely request you get off my things.”

Won't see me punished…?

Lavendulan’s eyes narrowed skeptically.

That sounded less like a warning and more of a threat

It made her wonder whether his confidence stemmed from the backing of one of the Sovereigns. Jet, perhaps… or Lepidolite. She knew little of either beyond their names and had only seen them on the battlefield twice in the last four years.

Her gaze settled on the hand beckoning her forward.

“I’m not entirely sure how I’m supposed to respond to that.” A beat passed before adding, almost as an afterthought, “I suppose I won’t tell Wolframite if you somehow manage to hurt me.”

Even to her own ears, it felt like an odd thing to say.

Nonetheless, she wasn’t about to decline the opportunity to spar with someone new.

The temperature around Lavendulan cooled considerably as frost crept outward in thin veins across the sand, spreading from beneath her boots in a widening ring. She slowly curled her hand into a fist, and as her fingers closed, sharpened throwing stars of ice crystallized between them, their edges glinting in the dim light behind him.

“Remember,” she said evenly, shifting her feet so her stance mirrored his own, “you agreed to this." It was the only warning she gave before swinging her arm and releasing all three magical weapons in his direction with a percise flick of her wrist.

“My best is saved only for those worthy of my effort”

Like a feline ready to pounce upon its prey, Lavendulan's pupils became wide with the thrill of the moment before contracting in an almost feral focus.

The sand beneath her feet protested loudly as she dashed toward the General, frost trailing behind her. Ducking low, she pivoted at the last moment and danced around his side, where she took a swipe with her claws.

Air rushed out of her lungs from the force of his attack.

If not for the fact that she was raised around water and had spent most of her life running along the sandy beaches, Lavendulan would have surely lost her footing and stumbled backwards, or even fallen on her backside. As it was, she maintained a sure footing but did step back several paces.

If she was surprised by his strength, Laven didn't show it. If anything, her expression looked amused.

“Huh,” a quiet chuckle escaped her as she ran her tongue over sharp teeth. “You're awfully confident of your capabilities. It makes me wonder how you'd fare against someone from the old guard.” Wolframite had sparred with her on numerous occasions and taught her what it was like to fight against someone who had served the Negaverse for over a decade.

The brutality of it was something that stuck with her.

Again, Lavendulan rushed toward him, claws ready to strike, but when mere inches from his person, she teleported behind him, then lowered herself just enough to aim a kick at the back of his knees.

Nearly three-quarters of the area around him had been affected by her path of frost. Now, even she needed to be careful where she placed her feet.

It took a moment for her to register what he was referring to. But that delay was all he needed to elicit a startled yelp from her.

“Son of a….” She hissed through clenched teeth as sharp pain shot up her lower back.

Rather than back down or move away from him, Lavendulan moved instinctively to the hand that had grasped her tail in such an unkind way. Fingers curled so that sharp claws pushed through thick fabric and into what lay beneath it.

“You'd be wise not to try that again.” Cheap shots like that would earn the General no favors.