Horseshoe tracks

Tally took a quick glance away from her surroundings to check the animal tracks she’s been following. She suspected it was just from a horse or a large stray deer, but on a second look there were too few prints for either option. Another quick glance around for danger she kneeled in the field and got a closer look. Definitely hoof prints, uniform enough whatever it was was wearing horseshoes. In the soft dirt of the field she could just barely make out writing in the prints… “They inscribed the symbol for Horn on their horseshoes?” She whispers in quiet confusion.

“While I do enjoy the view from here,” Brim spoke up from behind, making Tally realize she’s basically bent over in front of them. “I think you may want to look up instead.”

Tally did, quickly brushing herself off and looking up. There was a woman approaching them at a full sprint, tall and broad with dark skin, dressed in a kilt and red furred pants and a bronze chest plate that left the stomach exposed. Tally frowned at the obvious weak point, and frowned further as she realized she was also wearing a horned helmet. “It’s like they decided to wear a element out of every manly warrior culture they knew of without any sense of how it fits together.” Tally noted, lowering her guard a tad. “There’s a reason we don’t wear horned helms-too easy to grab and get leverage over someone’s neck that way.”

Brim chuckled behind her and reached out to push her sword arm back up into its guarding position. “Keep that in mind, I hear Minotaur horns are very sensitive. You should be able to get her under control quickly if you give it a nice long rub.” Tally had only a moment to be confused before the woman was close enough to bray in anger, literal steam coming out of her ears. Notably, they were long like a cows, and the horns curled out of a nest of curly red hair that hid her eyes. Her nose was pierced with a large metal ring, and it wasn’t furred pants she was wearing but her legs were entirely covered with fur, bending backwards like the back legs of a bull and ending with brass horseshoes.

Tally had just enough time to recognize the symbol for ‘Horn’ carved into the bottom before ducking aside with a very heroic yelp, seeing as the eight foot tall bull woman had shown her it via a flying kick of all things.

There was an awful lot of momentum involved in that much muscle moving that fast, and the woman has to reach down and drag her fingers through the dirt to help stop herself when she landed. Hooves and fingers dig through the earth, powerful muscles flexing as dust kicked up behind her and she snorted, kicking the dirt twice as if readying for another charge. “Fuck me running.” Tally swore as she got up off the ground from her dive much more inelegantly. “I thought big dumb beasts are supposed to be slow.”

“Not dumb!” Cries out the Minotaur, voice loud enough to drown out whatever quip Brim was saying. “Aster ordered to go in maze. Mazes boring! No food!” She charges once more, and this time Tally gives it her all to strike out with her sword as the bull rushes her. There’s a sharp twang of metal as one of Asters swinging fists makes contact with the blade, shaking Tally’s very bones from the impact and throwing her to the ground once more as she barely deflects the blow. Aster snorts again, none the worse for wear as Tally frantically gets up again, muscles already protesting her movements. “Aster play trick, Aster clever cow! Hear tales of mazes of flowers, mazes of cornfields. Maze made out of food!” Shes circling now instead of charging, stretching and flexing her arms as she approaches confidently now that they’ve exchanged blows. Apparently, Tally had been found wanting. “Not going to let tiny Green Bean take food!”

“Green Bean?” Tally protests, using her anger to ignore her aching shoulder. “My name is Tally, thank you very much. I don’t want your food, we can talk this out-“

"Tally? Pretty prize for Tally Bean's head." Aster brays, stomping the ground twice and snorting. "Bring to Queen, get fancy food. Banquets!" Aster licks her lips at the notion of a banquet, pronouncing the word like Brim would say 'sex' or Tally would say 'the world making sense for three seconds'.

“Well, well, well.” A tiny Brim floats in front of Tally’s eyes, shes transformed into a miniature Minotaur with absolutely ridiculously proportioned assets. “An opponent you can’t beat with brute strength, but is exposing plenty of skin. If only there was some magical spell that could take advantage of-“

Tally waves her hands through Brim to dispel her into green sparks as the Minotaur charges forward once more. “Fine.” She mutters, the hand still glowing with green sparks as she reaches out-