I was just happy to be together again and I guess the sky was happy for us too, cuz it was lit.

I remember, long ago up in the north, right before a certain kind of heartbreak kept me awake at night with monsters and nightmares and the creeping monsters of my own memories--I’d been in love. I’d fallen in love with the north (even though it was so damn cold) and the sky that adorned it, because, sometimes, it would dance. And here I was so far south, having staked a home next to the waves and the god awful sandy beaches, and for the first time the sky showed me Hey, I can dance wherever the fuck I feel like dancing. Rock the fuck on, sky. Rock the fuck on.

I lay with Chico draped across me, his wings and mane splayed out all around n’ shit, keeping me warm as we watched the lights play out across the sky. There was an ache in both of our chests that said many things--guilt, hurt, a fierce gladness to see each other again--that acknowledged the Yeah, I fucked up and the Hey, you fucked up and it hurt, bitch without letting it hang in the air. But we weren’t the type to argue it out, to hash it with words cuz who the fuck knows how to do that? We sat there and basked in the hurt of it, and I lay there and he lay on top of me to keep me warm, and we both watched the lights that ribboned above us and he learned from me how to love them, too.

Yo, he said suddenly in my head, the first words we had exchanged for a while; I followed his sight down from the sky, down to the valley that ended with the jagged edge of the World itself. There was a snow puff or some shit stalking that divide, coming dangerously close to the the maw of the Ocean And Everything, and after the first confused notion that it was a snow golem I recognized just who and what that floating piece of puff marshmallow was.

A surge of indignant anger washed over me, killing that mood in an instant, the quiet, forgiving contemplation that I was basking in with Chico. Despite that, I was still about to ignore that ho, and I cast my eyes back up into the dancing sky resolutely. Except it didn’t work because I was looking without seeing; my eyes were glazed over with the memory of the Steppe, of finding Leos and the little tantrums we both threw up there in the frozen north. The beauty of the sky was forgotten; I was pissed.

Handle that, was Chico’s word of advice. I snorted and lashed my too-small tail on the ground because hell no I didn’t wanna do no shit like that. So, naturally, I rolled to my feet even as Chico continued to cling to my back, and I jogged down the hill towards the valley with teeth.


Cuz he had a point and I wasn’t really in a position to ignore it at the moment; Chico was right. I couldn’t just act pissy and ignore a problem that was probably gonna keep brushing against my shoulders if I was gonna keep calling this place home. Better to bury the hatchet while I still could (or at the very least, mark that shit and keep an eye on it, make sure it don’t end up in my back or whatever).

“Hey kid!” I called out as I came nearer to the slender figure dancing (gracefully?) against the edges of the cliff, flirting with the idea of flight, of death if she didn’t jump right. The delicacy of--her I guess--from the smallness to her wispy build to her wobbling gait--none of it inspired any sympathy from me. My blood still popped and burned as I approached. “Hey, you got somethin’ to say to me?”

Was I trying to start a fight? Noooo…..? Okay fuck it, y’all already know how abrasive I can be and my tone wasn’t helping things, but. At least I was adressing it, y’know? At least I wasn’t asking some passive aggressive bullshit and letting the shame of it hang in the air and--

(okay sure whatever there’s still a lot of salt there)

I planted my feet, waiting with a square stance like a bulldog’s. “Why’d you call my brother a monster?” Explain that shit to me, please. Explain the goofy-ass, gangly-ass, soft-ass nerd of a motherfucker being any kind of monster to me.

"talk"

It was fitting that a girl like this lived in the Edge, a place adorned and embedded with glass all over the place. She wasn’t that much shorter than me, but she was fragile, like spun sugar. So you’ll excuse me if I found it kind of hilarious that she was puffin’ up at me like she was fixin’ to slap a hoe. Like…calm down Stay Puft™. I’m here to talk at with you, not throw some fists.

But at least she didn’t turn away--and the bite in her wasn’t something I could scoff at, either. At least there was that.

*Why? Because last time he turned into that ugly mutant beast, he tried to eat my face, that's why. What's it got to do with you?*

I snorted. “What’s it got to do with--I just said why, what the hell,” I blurted, livid that she would still call him a monster to my face. Was the bitch not paying attention? The fuck? “That’s my brother you’re talking about,” I growled, and Chico hopped down from my back, settling down nicely on the ground as a fat little skunk to watch this shit show go down.


“You think I’m just gonna you slide with calling him something he’s not?” My voice raised half an octave and I don’t wanna talk about it. “We’d been together since I was born ‘n shit. I used to jump up and down on his ass by day and lay down with him and suck on his kneecaps at night. I used to tease him, pull shit pranks on him, chase him all through the Foothills and be all kinds of an asshole to him-- but dammit he was my Bro and he made sure I ate all the nasty healthy stuff and went to bed with me in the dark and took care of me when Ma was too busy to do it. He was that kind of Bro.” It was weird being this angry while thinking about all those warm times, back when we were both such children and nothing really mattered anyway. My too-small tail lashed and Chico was having a great old time. “I’d done all kinds of things to him but he’s got a kind of love that ain’t in everyone,” I said, saying sweet words about my Bro in a harsh voice, “And in all the time I’ve known him he might’ve whimpered or pussed out of a dare, but he ain’t ever, ever, ever attack someone on purpose. So fucking forgive me if I see someone running around claiming he’s a monster when he’s anything but.”


I shrugged wildly. “Besides--if he was such a threat, why didn’t he attack us on the Steppe?” I mean, I admit; it’s not like that new monster form was easy on the eyes. I could see how someone would be afraid of it at first. But this girl walking around thinking something without looking where she was going wasn’t gonna cut it. Not when it came to my Bro.


"talk"

...Okay, I’mma come right out and say it. I hate dealing with people who speak in “metaphoricals”.

I just looked at her, my head cocked, my brow cocked, I think my ear was cocked too, just...all of it cocked to the side trying to figure out what even she was trying to say. Who the fuck mentioned a tiger? I sputtered for a moment, trying to find a way to answer her smart-ass reply. “Wha--It---but if it ain’t a tiger you can’t just call it a tiger cuz you feel like it!” She kept going on and on about how Mesec attacked her and all of me--my emotional side, my analytical side, hell even my physical ass and chest repelled the idea that Mesec would just...would just up and attack her for no real reason. In a match against bias and hearsay--fine, I guess you can just call me biased in favor of my big Bro, I don’t give a fuck, but that don’t mean I should just take some stranger for their word just cuz they say so.

I stared at her, hard. I wasn’t really looking at her spindly, snow-blue body and whether or not it was beautiful; I was really gnashing my teeth on why she was so insistent on calling Bro a monster like she was. It could’ve been a number of reasons: maybe she was starting drama, maybe Mesec did a thing that she didn’t like and now she was trying to get payback? Maybe she had something against the Moon and was out for her family (and Mesec was the wrong one to go for but I understood the sentiment). I looked at her and a really large piece of me wanted to just write her off as mean and spiteful and disregard everything she was saying as a lie. It would’ve been really easy to do, too. If my body was capable of that sort of thing.

But it wasn’t, so.

There were more possibilities to go in the pot, shit I had to consider if I took it for granted that she was attacked. Which could mean that she had been attacked by him (no no no no no no no no no no--) or something that looked like him. As soon as my brain landed on that idea my gaze changed as I stared at her, my weight shifting between my hooves. Because if something was loose attacking people like she was claiming then that was a thing I had to handle, wasn’t it?

*I don't know why he didn't do anything out there, but can you guarantee that it won't happen tomorrow, or a week from now, or in a year?"*

“Yes,” I said, hard and ready with iron-clad certainty. But I paused. It ain’t like that wolf-thing Mesec could turn into now was especially cuddly to look at; I could see how it could terrify someone who wasn’t ready for it, and give them nightmares. But being butt-ugly wasn’t an excuse to spew hate at a dude. I sighed and some of the tension drained from my shoulders. “Look,” I said, grasping at something like reasonable, “Mesec turned into that...uh, thing and he kept on task. He wasn’t pretty but he wasn’t trying to kill a guy, either.” I knew what that kind of look looked like, and it came in a long-legged womanish form that was a lot prettier and holier than Mesec’s mug. “...thing is, if there’s something out there stalking around, attacking people like you, then I need to know that. It’s my job to fight shit like that and make sure assholes like you don’t get hurt for no reason. The threat ain’t comin from Mesec, though. You can bet.”



"talk"