I’d say I was walking like a statue but that wouldn’t make sense, would it, since statues don’t actually walk. Defeats the purpose of a statue staying…stationary. S’kinda the point. But I was almost just as stiff as I stomped down into darkness and an echo that was familiar to me, the echo of earth bouncing noises all around us, right back at as and away from us and in our ears and against our bodies and whatever. I listened as she dropped straight knowledge that I accepted with gritted teeth and not one glance backward. Rougarou. Okay. I think I’ll remember that shit this time.

You were just simply enamored with her and the lilt of her voice talking about you, wondering and asking about you and being interested in you. You preened on my head, your whole body swerved around so you could watch her walk along behind me. I caught a glimpse of her legs in my head as your mind wondered on them; so long and so brown, but she wasn’t getting them twisted or knotted or anything! So much longer than my legs, at any rate. I snorted a little and it sounded like a lot of snorting with the echoes amplifying it. Don’t remind me. Those long legs were making me sick to my stomach; it shouldn’t make sense to me that she should be so tall by now—I mean, hadn’t I just seen her as a spindly little foalish thing? But it did make sense to me and that was the sick part, wasn’t it, that was the part that weighed me down like a lodestone, the part that made my insides roll with hot, oily guilt--

*"Is it always a fight? Trying to get companions? How did you get him?"*

Oh god will you please stop talking to me.

But you were trilling on my head, excited and pleased that she wanted to learn more about you and ready to hear that story again, that story I sometimes lulled you to sleep with: the tale of how I found you with some freaky time shit. But I wasn’t gonna go into that much detail. I mean…I dunno, I felt like keeping you to myself and I didn’t really wanna talk to her anyway and it’s…I mean, whatever. “Found his egg in a forest,” I said tersely, my hooves going stomp stomp stomp deeper into the cavern, “shit looked weird so I cared for it. Took him…around…showing him different things and he…hatched for me during a lightning storm.”

I snorted the sentimental residue out of my voice; I don’t know why I was leaving out the part about my Pa being the one who gifted him to me. It just…it didn’t seem relevant even though it totally was, but it would feel like I was bragging and I ain’t about that life. “Anyway,” I continued on, “his wasn’t the first egg I’ve found before. Happens a lot. Something or someone shows up and it’s an idiot dance on who can do the slickest shit to impress whatever the fuck’s guarding the egg at the time. S’…kinda dumb, actually.” Says the bitch who had done it at least twice.

I stopped talking though; there was a faint glow coming down the end of the tunnel and I knew we were getting close. That light pierced my eyes and my brain and my heart and already it was doing twisty things to my memories; you perked up, paying attention to the shift in my thoughts while my mouth twisted and I bit my tongue, wondering if I were really ready for this after all.

Whatever. I was here. I stomped my ass right into that room, my mind and my heart all kinds of fluttering, knowing that this earth kid was following right behind. I walked right into a mess, too.

The shards on the floor were still there.


"talk"

Quit Hollerin' "Why God?", he ain't got shit to do with it.