My hoof connects with a sound thwack on the cheeck of GISELLE, and I smirk to myself even in pain. My teeth grit as I soar upward on th eair, away from any counterattack I could receive from Giselle. However, the feeling of success is lost to a world of panic and shadow soon after, as my vision fades and I veer dangerously in the skies.

A mess of limbs and feathers, I fall from the sky, catching my wings at last second even as my body collides into ALAN. Panicked at the sight of a horn on her brow, I nip fiercely toward her head, trying to keep her from gutting me as I drop like a stone. Luckily, this bay bitch was kind enough to allow me to use her body as a landing strip.

Shockwaves rock through my body as we meet, but soon my legs are slipping down, back to the earth, in a much more manageable form. They tear down her body like angry knives before meeting the earth with some fresh plucked hair and dirt. For the first time in my life, perhaps, I am relieved to feel my hooves touch solid ground. My front legs follow suit, though these land awkwardly and I stumble forward, an ugly lurch of half bent limbs and muddled wings. My mouth comes away with more black hair, which I spit to the ground disgusted before shaking my own banner of blonde to clear my head.

I realize when my panic dissipates that my shoulder is in pain, and that must mean that I collided with her side. My large brown wings also feel as though they were folded quite rudely, but they are less worse for wear than my legs, which feel quite frankly like I beat them with rocks. Instead, just my own weight crushing down on them so suddenly was the cause. Damn it, perhaps I was getting fat. My eats cut back upon my skull as I hear the mare utter bitch in my general direction, but I am too weary to counter. Besides, I pretty much just landed on top of her, so I suppose the insult is warranted.

Then, somewhere in the air I hear a pretentious ass call my name. Paladin. With my dark eyes rollling skyward I snort. That bitch who was so hellbent on destroying him made every muscle in my body ache, and that is all I get for watching his back? Still, I can't help but feel quite pleased with myself for being such an excellent guardian of the most idiotic stallion on either. If it were anyone else, he would likely have gotten himself killed.

"Idiot."

[ WC: 450 ]