Ru refuses to accept her infantine experience, budding, floundering to grasp any available sense of how the real world worked. It stung her pride as her hooves missed his form entirely, other than the pokes and prattles of a child who was trying very, very hard to strike out intentionally (Ru’s small, previous bite worth very little). A diminutive although noticeable feeling erupted within her core. Beaming brightly amongst the high nerves, within the call for a steely disposition to stand firm. To embrace every moment of this encounter. It wasn’t so much the fear that boiled down to it, rather the juvenile desire to have something, someone to protect her when all else was lost. Once more, facing down the wall of the impending wave – and how that pitiful part of her shook with the stark realization that she was truly on her own.

It had every right to shake her, to crack as she realized he had drawn back. Recoiling to punch the trigger. Thinking, ‘he’s coming in for another – ’ Just as she reached the ground with her fore hooves, her body went rigid when the phantom materialized for another heavy assault. The youth was expecting it, bracing for it – unable to escape the inevitable collision. The scrapes and burns upon her skin throbbed, with the high pitched drumming in her ears.

The majority of her weight rested in her hindlegs when the stallion lunged forwards. The previous, light bruising against her chest from the first battering briefly numbed on initial impact; a sweet reprieve, lasting no longer than a second. The youth grit her teeth down as she spat out her breath in a ragged, pitched growl. It felt like lightning had struck her breast, and sparked a wildfire across her nerves. His chest had made its mark, smacking into her and sending her back along the dusty earth. So much that she’d bounced back from the attack. Her left hock scraped along a tree – and as a result the girl’s hind legs crumbled from the pain. A partial fall, although it provided some space between them. It was a last minute effort as she swung her head to the left, catching the edge of the striking hoof that made a haphazard cut against the girl’s cheek. A surface wound that stung with the smell of iron.

At this point her resolve had weakened. With all Ru's efforts, it dissolved and seemed to lay bare and naked in that moment, vulnerable. Feeding off the raw instincts of a scared and lonely child. Left with one small, primitive objective – survival at all cost. It spread with the aching in her chest.

Having swung her head to the left, she ushered those hind limbs - UP! Placing a sordid weight in her fore legs. Ru anticipated turning away from Volterra with a grimace, continuing on her left, pivoting on that side with her fore leg as she swung those haunches around to meet Volterra. As the fatigue and the weight of the night injected themselves into her veins, a moment of clarity fell upon Ru. As she turned her right wing opened up, seeking to smack the stallion’s face as she swung around. A diversion perhaps? There wasn’t much time to speculate, the action was unto itself random and disjointed, for the moment passed quickly. And she’d moved on to follow through with her initial plan. Aiming to buck at his chest.

The youth, slick in sweat, could not reconcile her current state. The world around her seemed to be closing in, with the trees as the pillars of her cage – and the oppressive heat as its overbearing crosshatches. The moon may have provided the girl with strength, it was stealing away her breath instead -  resting far above with callous eyes. Shedding light on the obvious, on the holes of the child’s yearning for protection – I have to keep on trying. She reasoned with herself.

Just keep breathing.

[667/800 words]
[3/3]