She had strayed from her mother's side, milled about the crowd with the intent of getting closer to the Goddess. Now she looked up from the conversation with the pretty, gold-bejeweled Rexanna, wide eyed and equally shocked and impressed at the swift and ruthless efficiency with which the Lady expedited troublemakers. A part of the girl wished that her latest idol wouldn't be so rough, but the other - a very secret and not so gentle side - all but quivered in satisfaction. Serve them right for being rude and troublesome! She would never have tried to rip out strands from the pretty tail, she had not been saying mean things to others or acted like a hippo with ingrown nails.

She, Erthë, was still there in the green labyrinth, surrounded by friends and strangers and in the close vicinity of the powerful, pretty god. Surely that had to mean that she was welcome?

Throwing a quick beaming smile at Rex the filly bounded away, fully intending to actually say something to the dark-wielder. But before she had a chance, a voice interrupted the silver-tonged queen and stopped her dead in her tracks. Quivering with fearful premonition Erthë listened to the conversation, torn between unease at the otherworldly threats and fierce pride as their protector refused to give in. The problem was that the foal had a nagging suspicion that she knew where this was going. She had seen it before, born witness to shared insults and the subsequent chaos that followed.

It would happen again, and this time she was just as unprepared, just as frightened. She threw a wild look around in search for her mother's dark shape, but before she had time to turn and make her way back a shape appeared among them, gigantic and imposing and more evil than anything the child had ever seen. The Bear had only seemed sick and wronged to her, but this one, this... Wolf seemed only bad to her. The child gave off a startled cry when it abruptly moved and multiplied to evade the Goddess' attack, she wanted to help and run back to mother and her legs were just frozen in place, quivering at the knees as she watched in horror as one of the wolves - or was it THE wolf? - lunged at her goddess.

"No!" she screamed, suddenly furious at the audacity of the giant beast. How dare he, the nerve of him! Small as she was her anger seemed too great to contain, she had to DO something. Buffeted hither and thither as the crowd suddenly began to move forward, towards the battle, Erthë stared around wildly for something, anything that could help her avenge this insult to her Lady. The one seeing eye caught sight of a broken splinter of the green treelike stalks that surrounded them, small and light but as sharp and hard as any steel. Picking it up in the coils of her tail the child then threw herself into the fray, deaf to the calls of her blackird mother.

She passed a bay unicorn colt that stood and seemed to be doing nothing, slipped behind a brave pinto stallion just as he made his charge and followed, like a pale shadow or glittering moon-beam in the wake of a white-faced young woman with broken horn as she charged the Wolf.

Erthë had no horns suited for attack. Her wings were not yet big enough to carry her through the sky, and with the frosty pale skin that almost glowed in the dark she could not be as stealthy and unseen as her mother. But she had learned to be quick, to be brave and light on her feet, and so she slipped in and tried to stab the bamboo splinter into the massive paw, like a crude dagger. Then she made to dart back, fearful of the gleaming eyes and the sizzling drool, terrified that the sharp teeth might reach back and close around her fragile form.

She could feel the familiar itch in the lungs that heralded a coughing fit, could feel the horrible pain as boils burst on the inside of her legs. Already she was in pain, but the filly couldn't bring herself to care about none of it, only the anger that burned blissfully in her gut.

So this was battle rage. How terrible and sweet - no wonder grown ups argued so much, if this was what they felt before throwing horrible words at each other.