There's blood on the crown

Fweiu shrank back down to her own human form. The back of her top was becoming wet with blood. Ice began to lift itself off of the arena ground, floating back to her where it would orbit around her again.

She definitely took offense at his last comment. It also made her feel like, maybe, this wasn't working. She almost began to consider the idea that, maybe, this wasn't actually a smart plan. But she revolted against that thought. This island was making her think too much like a human, sometimes. Daenmor had Rukt'In blood in him. She understood her people, damn it.

"It's my turn for a question. Daenmor. Why do you think I'm doing this?"

Fweiu hissed with frustration.

It made sense that fighting wouldn't help Daenmor work through his feelings. That actually explained a whole lot about him. But it also meant that, alright, maybe this wasn't actually a good idea. It made her think that Frysta might have known more than he told her. If only he had brought it up in any other way than announcing his 'disapproval' publically, she might have asked him about it.

Now she actually had some anger to work through.

"So here's my dilemma." She circled him, keeping her distance. "I want to make this right. I want to give you a chance to join our family. Officially. But I could never do that if you're just going to treat us as your enemies. Half the time, I think that's the last thing you would want with how much you hate us. So... what should I do about you?"

The crowd was starting to look, and sound, quite confused. One of them, who must have been able to hear their conversation, shouted "Kick his ass!"

"Daenmor, do you even know what it would have meant to be my brother? With the ways he made us compete? We would have been mortal enemies. And I would have needed to risk everything, just to make you my enemy."

She knew, right as the words were leaving her mouth, that they were only making things worse. So she changed to something that might actually help

"But none of this changes how I treated you. I could have tried to reach out to you, or any of our half-siblings, but instead I treated you like we were nothing to each other. I should have done better."

She waited for his response. At least some of the crowd were getting interested enough in the drama to shut up, but she still hated that there was an audience for this. Their fight, and their argument, should have been private things.

Huh. That actually seemed to work.

But they still had to finish their fight. A nonviolent resolution reached in Punch City (as Daenmor had called it) would feel like a kind of blasphemy. Plus, now Daenmor's hair color was on the line. "Now I'm really motivated!" Fweiu smiled. "White is awful on you. It makes you look like an elderly human."

She burst forward, partial-shifting to the point that she was ten feet tall. She aimed a hammerfist strike at the top of his head - and at the same time, a block of ice would come flying in to hit him right in the stomach.

Fweiu could feel the sharpness of his teeth, warm blood against the skin of her arm. She was stunned for a moment as he dug in, and she roared, whether in pain or with the triumph of breaking his teeth, nobody could tell, least of all her. She couldn't believe he caught that strike with his mouth! The crazy bastard!

Her first instinct was to try to pull away, which was a bad idea. That made it hurt and bleed even more. What teeth he had left had sunk in deep. So she tried something else.

She would start to grow. Quickly. All the way to her true form. If he didn't react fast, she was pretty sure that would do something nasty to his jaw. Even if he shifted all the way to his full wyvern form to keep up with the size. Her foreleg, which used to be her arm, was about to get much bigger than anything she thought he could fit in his mouth.