We are playing a game. I call it hide because when we play, I hide something and she has to find it. She calls it bring that back! because she does not understand, yet, that she has to actually look, but she's learning. When I do not bring it back and play her boring game, she always winds up playing mine instead. Sometimes she takes away the shiny things that I like to play with, and sometimes I lose them because neither of us can find them because I am that good, but I have figured out a way around these problems. I can just hide myself.

How she managed to escape me again was a mystery for the ages, a puzzle that wiser minds than my own would have to pursue and solve. Kali's entire nature was something far beyond my comprehension; even my brief look into her soul had yielded no answers, only a confusing mess of joyful noise and curious imagination, zealous over protectiveness and a simple affection for all things shiny. And while I could see the bonds that made her, the motivations and circumstances that led each decision of her life to some ultimate result, and the tight weave of her very essence against mine, I still could not for the life of me understand why she insisted on stealing my amulet and hiding it in the snow. It delighted her so thoroughly, to watch me fumble through stream and around boulder, desperately attempting to find my lost possessions, and while I could not deny her many things for long, I had for the moment grown tired of her antics. The amulet hung about my neck, and there it would remain, at least for the time being. The gems were all lost; the stones forgotten. I sighed a deep breath of relief, slapping an itch with long cords even as my tender bite tore into the weedy winter growth. Night time was falling, and with it a deep, comfortable quiet. In fact, it had been a long time since I had experienced quiet this pure.

Inky skull snapped up, black eyes widening as the sickening realization sank in against the silence of the falling dusk. Where was Kali?

It is taking her a long time to find me, and I am growing bored with my waiting. I roll in the snow, playing with my burned tail; it hurts to touch but it looks very pretty, with a little bit of shiny metal on the tip that catches the falling light. She tells me it looks sophisticated, even though she does not like the gold on her own legs, I think; she tells me that it makes her look ridiculous, even though I think it wonderful. I do not understand how I can be sophisticated if she is not when we have the same markings, and I think she is just sad because it reminds her of the bad fire god. I do not like the bad fire god; I hope that next time I see him, I am strong enough to roar in his face, like Akaith did. Akaith is gold, just like my tail now, and I hope I can show her soon, because I want her to call me sophisticated, too.

I have been waiting for an eternity, I think, and now I am tired of sitting behind this rock; I poke my head above it, peering through the snow. I wonder if she will ever come, or if she has forgotten me already. I crawl further out of the burrow I have made, moving to perch on top of the rock. I want to yell for her, but that will ruin the game. Instead, I wait for her, staring out across the tundra in the direction I think I came from. It looks like someone is coming from there, and so I think for a minute that it must be her, so I hide again, trying not to chatter happily. But it is not her, because it doesn't smell her or feel her. I lift my head out again, and shiver as the wind blows through my feathers. It will take much preening to clean myself after this. I crawl around the rock, very stealthy and silent – she would be proud of me and my ability to sneak around. I am learning to pounce on birds, and she says I look very skilled. Birds are tasty. But this is not a bird, it is a silver horse. I sneak towards him, being careful to press my body low against the ground, wings folded, creeping up from his right side. I wonder what he is staring at, and so I chirp curiously, staring upwards at his pretty head, wondering if he is made of metal like my tail. She would be mad at me for not being careful, probably. But I can take care of myself; and if she isn't going to come find me, I'll have to.

“Kali!” I cried into the wind, and the wind snatched the words away, rendering them unintelligible and vacant. I gazed into the growing dark, desperately seeking some indication of my impossible companion's presence, but the tundra betrays nothing. The wind, though, as if to apologize for stealing my voice, offers a familiar scent, the musky aroma of feathers lightly dancing upon it, accompanied by a heady stench of stallion. Fuck, I thought, setting off in the direction of the breeze, ears pinned back and eyes wrinkled in concern and annoyance. The idea of Kali alone and at the mercy of a stranger terrified me more than I would have liked to admit, and the sooner I found her, the better. I pressed on through the frozen waste, a black form accented with white and framed by a dusting of odd, golden markings. All in all I must have been an odd sight, but I did not care at the moment. Against the waning dusk, the silhouette of a unicorn had risen into view; I followed the sight, hoping desperately that the beast was a friendly one, and had seen my wayward companion.

The silver tom-horse does not seem to be very interested in what he was staring at, because now he's staring at me, and I purr at him, raising onto my haunches and unfurling my wings just a little bit. He is very pretty, and I wonder if he thinks I am, too? Because she says I am, and even though she's abandoned me here in the cold I think she is probably right. I wonder if maybe he will be my friend, and just as I am bracing to vocalize at him, I hear my name on the wind.

She's coming back for me!

The game is suddenly remembered, and I chirp urgently at him as he says what I am called, hopeful that he will help me hide and so play along. As I see her shadow growing near, I leap back behind my rock, curling up so she cannot see me and listening to see what the tom-horse will say.

His voice was smooth, authoritative, full of some confidence I felt no affinity for. All that mattered were the words that it formed. She was safe, my little demonic companion, and this unicorn seemed to bear her no ill will. Still I felt my pace lengthen as I neared the pair, a subconscious elongation of starlit strides beneath the bulk of midnight as I hasten myself towards gryphon and brute. Yea, sure enough, by the stallion's feet lies an abandoned white feather, and in my mind I can feel our bond growing strong once more. Relief floods me, not quite drowning the earlier irritation but smothering it, for now. Kali and I would be having a long talk about running off without telling each other first.

But that could wait. For now, I had a stallion to attend to. Tiredly I turned to him, wan amusement in my eyes, a rare flash of buoyant emotion on my face. “Rishima,” I replied, a faint nod accompanying the proffered title, gratitude

“Kali!”

[ working on it -.-]

“Kali!” I cried into the wind, and the wind snatched the words away, rendering them unintelligible and vacant.