[SE] on a winning streak

MAEA

The doe did not flinch at the movement of his hand. Her eyes remained calm, open and trusting that this hunter would not do her any harm. When his palm hesitated without connecting with her pale hide, a gentle sigh breathed a trickle of air his way, before Maea shifted back into her Ancient form.

Rising to her feet, she busied herself with brushing ash and embers off her clothes. "I thought it would be quicker to just show you," she murmured, as if she hadn't been enjoying herself royally. Only, the effect on the dragoon wasn't what she had expected. The softness of his tone left her feeling a touch embarrassed, for showing off and for... mixing up practicality with sentiment that shouldn't even be there.

Shifting to find another spot to sit, as her earlier one still smoldered and snapped under cooling metals the tiger had shed, Maea picked up her grapes and popped a purple globule into her mouth. Why did she keep getting thrown off, lately? Truths she'd thought carved in bedrock kept being upended, plans thrown off course, habits forced to adjustment... It was most disconcerting.

I see a new horizon, holding on to hope
Say goodbye to all my pain when it's time for me to go

BASE INSPIRED BY ODD <3