Zahra, Ilham, and Hanna

It was pride that turned angels into devils

The kitsune’s young driving instincts did not discriminate – a meal was a meal, and with the spotted stallion they had come to reply upon yet to return with their breakfast, the famished puppy could think of no delicacy finer than the feathered flesh as it tipped from the boughs far over her head.

Black, glossy clean feather’s seemed to shine, to exaggerate the beauty of the prize as it slipped between spindly shafts of warm sunlight and in one blazing action Bird lifted across crouching limbs tentatively, bright white ears betraying too easily the intention ripe behind her glistening green eyes. As her tongue slipped accidentally from beneath flared whiskers to caress the soft cheek as it trembled with excitement, the most unexpected thing happened – her prey began a gruesome transformation, and suddenly became the least appetising thing she could think of…

Though slow and measured was her impromptu dance, Zahra stepped lithely, beautifully through the matted forest litter, weaving a complex pattern through and around the dusty spotlight which sank through the thick canopy overhead. The ribbon streamed from her upturned lips, twirling and snapping softly with every deliberately sharp pivot. But her absentminded show was over more suddenly than it had begun. The black bird which had (uninterestingly) attracted her sister’s interest began to grow from beneath, in length – to change form and colour altogether!

Disbelief… Alarm…

The foal watched with wide, astonished eyes – though somewhere in the back of her mind she could recall seeing a similarly bizarre transformation, long, long ago. The tiny white kitsune (golden accents yet to mare the crisp, mostly clean pelt), skidded to a hasty halt between gangly black forelegs and Zahra could feel her sister trembling fiercely. A tender nuzzle was offered briefly upon the puppy’s soft cheek and in the seconds which followed, the creature – an enormously poised winged horse – came to rest right before them. Appropriately intimidated, the two-coloured filly shuffled backwards, making certain that her younger sister remained safely tucked beneath and the ribbon slipped out of her grip, curling down to sit delicately upon the ground.

The stranger spoke which only fed further the insecurity overwhelming Zahra’s mind. “I…” the foal began hesitantly, stumbling between thoughts; words failing to fall together across her tongue. “We… we made it… and,” she answered in part, after a length pause spent admiring fearfully the astounding creature that the mare in truth was. Not only was she nearly as tall as the tangled timber ceiling of the forest (the perspective of a very small child, of course), the crow-mare had four strange bent horns and hard, unsettling eyes. Still the most unusual part of her was slow to emerge – the earth seemed to grow upon her, or devour each leg the longer she remained. Impressionable eyes soon found themselves fixed to the spectacle and she blurted anxiously, “Miss! Miss, the forest is trying to eat you!”

Zahra certainly had no ambition to join her and shook as she stood with jaws agape, watching.

A shrill voice shattered the moment and the foal’s knobbly knees twisted together as she spun awkwardly and distractedly to meet the arrival. Zero burst through the trees and in that split second she both lunged towards the sanctuary his awesomely convenient timing presented, and balked suddenly to a halt as the word bursting from his lungs did not affirm her relief. Iso was not her? That isn’t me? and her eyes trailed back towards the looming crow-mare upon who the colt’s confident gaze had been set. Feeling both unnerved and overcome with disappointment, Zahra shrank towards her flanking sister with hunched shoulders and ears folded uncertainly to either side of her black brow. Perhaps she could slip from the presence of the strange earth-eaten mare while Zero distracted her…

He seemed equally confronted though, paused in place with what she could only presume to be blended confusion and surprise marring the bold self-assurance she had very much remembered. The golden-bellied girl squirmed as she dithered, the tallest acting as a mountain between them. The collar was beginning to press painfully across her sloping, fleshless withers, its ill-fit a burden that called for frequent rest-periods upon the ground – her golden gaze turned to scout the wooden bars of what now felt like closing prison walls for her brother; the greatest safety-net she could find in this world.

Hey!

An anti-climax…

Adrenaline purged for nothing?

Breath tumbled at such a rate from her clenched chest that each paper thin nostril rattled vigorously and loudly. There was no disguising her discomfort – the stress pinching viciously at the tight, thin canvas of her coat. Nervously and quietly she held her ground, waiting to see what perhaps her brave-best-friend would do next.