Ni'Srilan: The Desert: oh, wait, you're not ;

Pawns. Fenris asked her about pawns. Using her people, moving them like pieces on a chessboard. And the Queen, the most powerful of them all. Does she? Does she move them to her will?

But who is the opponent?

He makes her ache, and as she pulls away she thinks of running. Running far, far away. Running from the desert and the dunes, or maybe into the desert and the dunes. But away from him, away from these feelings and his feelings. (Are his feelings hers now? Or were they always hers?) She wants to run away and try and see what the wind feels like. Wants to run away and forget there are shards and evil and the promise of her Relic being gone someday. She doesn’t know what she’ll do without it. Search for the Quitessence but…how could she stand against a Shard Holder?

She hears him, hears him begin to run and then try to catch her with his Water. She pushes herself harder. She has not run in so long. Too long. She feels his aching again, and she feels almost too hot without his body there to cool hers. He touches her with the edge of his lips, and Fire curls instantly around his muzzle, singeing a few hairs, but not burning. (She would Heal him anyway.)

“You know,” she tries to breathe out, but her running slows as she speaks. “You’re not a warrior. I think I could take you.” She stops suddenly and swings her hind legs around to her right, turning to face him. Her chest heaves, and her pale mane clings to the side of her neck with sweat. “I think you may have to take me down.”

Because she doesn’t want to think. She just wants to move.