There's a hole in my heart that's bleeding
The attuned felt his shifts roil again within him as the he and the ancient tussled, her magic siphoning energy from him that made his jaw tighten. His griffin would tear the space apart with wings and talons meant for sky and open tundra, not a living altar that pressed in on all sides. His other shifts were not meant for the message he needed to send. But her kick skimmed close enough that instinct finally snapped its teeth around restraint. Noah rocked back a half-step, boots scraping.
The choice came like the dropping of the Citadel gates.
His body answered.
Bone and muscle rolled beneath skin, the hutner surging into something wholly terrifying and undeniable. From skin fur burst white and dense, swallowing scars as his frame widened and dropped, mass redistributing and expanding. He landed heavily on all fours, claws biting into the sticky ground. Even on all fours he was towering. Parting his jaws, he roared. It was not sound alone but force -- a thunderous, chest-rattling bellow that rolled through the jewels and iron, through blood and heat.
This was warning made flesh.
Noah surged forward, massive paws slamming into the ground as he barreled toward her. The rush of air alone was violent, meant to drive the message home. His presence filled the space, eclipsed subtlety entirely, a wall of white fury and a restrained force that dared her to test it further. Breath thundered from his lungs, eyes bright and unblinking, fixed on her with primal authority.
He snapped powerful jaws toward her, and some merciful part of him hoped she was able to scurry away and run back to some other part of safety in the climb, while the more primal, pulsing part of him wanted to rip her arm off.
2/4 -- Noah shifts into a polar bear and charges, trying to bite her.
But its given me strength I needed to carry on
