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11-07-2013, 12:06 AM
A chilly remark dragged my thoughts unceremoniously back to earth.
You have no horn.
I turned my head abruptly to face the infant unicorn, blinking away the fleeting impression of Katyusha that forced its way into my waking mind. That wasn’t right; I’d left her – them, I reminded myself – behind. But they would survive. They were young.
History repeats itself.
“Of course I don’t,” I replied, mystification writ large upon my features. Why should I? I had no use for such cumbersome accoutrements as wings and horns and jewelry and things that obstruct the simple comfort of naked flesh against flesh. I had shouldered the burden of a crown once already; I did not fancy the thought of carrying one with me, waking or asleep, for the rest of my days.
I turned to address the blue filly properly, amiable despite her accusing words, a question already half-formed upon my lips, when movement flashed along the edge of my eye. I had been charged thus once before in a place far from here, and I remembered well the aggressive curve of his brow and the purposeful weight of his strides. Steeling myself, I backed readily away from the filly, because of course one must be permitted to protect one’s future. Why someone should feel so threatened by a horse such as myself, all slender lines and angles and defenseless in all but the most primal of ways, probably confused me more than Lothíriel’s muted scorn.
Before I had a chance to ask, my aggressor spoke, and in an instant I felt wrongness beneath my hooves.
---
I stifled a yelp as her head came down across mine. Disoriented as I was by the meteoric flash behind me, the pungent odor of burning weeds and the crackle of flame that roared in counterpoint to Bashkin's sudden insistent shove, I surrendered, stutter-stepping away as she moved to plant herself between me and...something.
I'd had dreams - dreams of demons and dragons and fantastical beasts beyond even Nature's infinite imaginings - but I had never seen such a creature of sinuous and multifarious radiance. I cast a tentative glance into the surrounding darkness, so much deeper now alongside that dancing flame, and with a little noise in my throat I saw that the stars had all but vanished into the clouds and shadows overhead.
My thoughts leapt first to Sasha, but of course he was not here. Suddenly I felt small and vulnerable. Only Bashkin remained, a dark and half-lit wall of storm gray flesh, planting herself between me and the fiery djinn as though...
What? As though I mattered?
---
Bent now to the will of my memory rather than the Stormborn’s incontrovertible strength, I took several fevered steps sideways as though scalded. “Gospodi!” I hissed under my breath, fixing a wide-eyed look at the suddenly-shriveled grass blackening the space I had occupied scarcely a moment before.
Rude.
“What was that for?” I demanded indignantly, shrugging back a sudden wave of fatigue taking root in my legs.
You have no horn.
I turned my head abruptly to face the infant unicorn, blinking away the fleeting impression of Katyusha that forced its way into my waking mind. That wasn’t right; I’d left her – them, I reminded myself – behind. But they would survive. They were young.
History repeats itself.
“Of course I don’t,” I replied, mystification writ large upon my features. Why should I? I had no use for such cumbersome accoutrements as wings and horns and jewelry and things that obstruct the simple comfort of naked flesh against flesh. I had shouldered the burden of a crown once already; I did not fancy the thought of carrying one with me, waking or asleep, for the rest of my days.
I turned to address the blue filly properly, amiable despite her accusing words, a question already half-formed upon my lips, when movement flashed along the edge of my eye. I had been charged thus once before in a place far from here, and I remembered well the aggressive curve of his brow and the purposeful weight of his strides. Steeling myself, I backed readily away from the filly, because of course one must be permitted to protect one’s future. Why someone should feel so threatened by a horse such as myself, all slender lines and angles and defenseless in all but the most primal of ways, probably confused me more than Lothíriel’s muted scorn.
Before I had a chance to ask, my aggressor spoke, and in an instant I felt wrongness beneath my hooves.
I stifled a yelp as her head came down across mine. Disoriented as I was by the meteoric flash behind me, the pungent odor of burning weeds and the crackle of flame that roared in counterpoint to Bashkin's sudden insistent shove, I surrendered, stutter-stepping away as she moved to plant herself between me and...something.
I'd had dreams - dreams of demons and dragons and fantastical beasts beyond even Nature's infinite imaginings - but I had never seen such a creature of sinuous and multifarious radiance. I cast a tentative glance into the surrounding darkness, so much deeper now alongside that dancing flame, and with a little noise in my throat I saw that the stars had all but vanished into the clouds and shadows overhead.
My thoughts leapt first to Sasha, but of course he was not here. Suddenly I felt small and vulnerable. Only Bashkin remained, a dark and half-lit wall of storm gray flesh, planting herself between me and the fiery djinn as though...
What? As though I mattered?
Bent now to the will of my memory rather than the Stormborn’s incontrovertible strength, I took several fevered steps sideways as though scalded. “Gospodi!” I hissed under my breath, fixing a wide-eyed look at the suddenly-shriveled grass blackening the space I had occupied scarcely a moment before.
Rude.
“What was that for?” I demanded indignantly, shrugging back a sudden wave of fatigue taking root in my legs.
