EREBOS

For all her efforts in courting guidance, prowess, and inspiration, she didn’t galvanize much wisdom or information. The world’s mysteries continued laying uncovered, dismayed and untarnished, earning only the slightest of sighs as she touched back down to earth, ignorant of her own gifts and abilities, inept at recalling their worth. His eyes followed and flicked over the illustrious plumage, over the quaking limbs and feathers, struggling not to show his disappointment as another labyrinth door remained firmly shut. The young beast furnished a quick mask, the winsome smile, the gallant, intrepid means and measures to an end, the beseeched, swift brow of a refined, rogue gentleman, while his heart sparked an exasperated plea. For the bitterest of seconds and instances, he almost thought to not relish her with any guidance on the grand lineage of the horned beasts and their broadened swords, their intriguing prowess, their illustrious capabilities, but his mother’s wisdom outweighed the satanic stretches of ferocity, and he quelled in quiet acquiescence. There could be other times for subversion and rebellion. His boyish voice ghosted through the air, a tinge of disenchantment floating in its wake, an idle, fraught hand toying with the strings of delusion. “That’s too bad.” He glanced upward, towards the long rapier extended from his brow, a formation of kings and queens, gods and goddesses, stories and myths drenched and soaked in the wiles of cunning witches and spellbinding motives: hardly a fair trade. But another piece of him wanted her to see, wanted her to know, of the legacy, of the supremacy, of the dominion unicorns held. Erebos pieced together what information he had, swinging his head side to side, listening to the whistle of his cutlass as it sliced and pierced through the wind – ceasing to laugh, to regale, the filly with his own bits and pieces of knowledge. “All unicorns have horns.” His eyes widened, immersed in the alluring snare, lacing his mischievous stare over her wings, her features. “Some have giant antlers! Or two blades!” He paused to gain his breath, to maintain the enlightening ferocity. “We can use them for lots of things – but mostly for battle!” His father’s punctured enemies, his brethren’s conquered foes, his kin’s dominated waterways, sands, and beaches of Isilme – and reached out to the valleys below, the peaks behind, wielding dominion and might.