My body does not meet the flesh of another, and my rump continues to spin like a top for a moment before I come to a stop. I look around, side to side, wondering for only a moment where this girl has gone to now.

The first disappearing act by the mare had been slightly amusing, but this time her complete evasion of my attacks just pissed me off. Was I not faster than this larger girl, who had no wind on her side? Were my attacks so predictable she could slide from them with without so much as a brush of feathers? I curse under my breath, sucking in what little air was left up here, above the clouds. Thankfully, my eye sight had not yet failed me, though the thin levels of oxygen threatened with small spots of black in my peripheral. I can see if figure sink down; without the rain stinging in my vision, I can follow her movements. I have time to right my wings as she falls, allowing herself underneath me. What a fool.

For a brief moment, I am almost stunned into immobility that she is actually trying to attack my legs. As she soars up, mouth agape, hungry teeth searching for flesh, I can do little but laugh. Had the thin air made me delusional or was this girl really just a fucking idiot? Instead of the flesh on my legs, I attempt to feed her something else, much harder. I have but to shift forward a few inches before I can pull up on my back legs, and slam them down with all the force my tired limbs have left toward her open mouth and face; that is exactly what I do. A crack on the skull might actually do her some good. "Fool," I coo, using the momentum of my legs reaching back upward from their assault upon her to curve my front end back downward, wings curving, the thin air curling around them and send my front hooves in quick pursuit of my last attack.

I reach out my front hooves toward her left shoulder or, at least, where I vaguely assumed her shoulder would be in the air. My body turning vertical, ass to the sky, wings stretching out valiantly behind me, a cape of soggy brown feathers. Out come the knives, my teeth, reaching out toward the left, seeking the gentle feathers of a wing, wishing to meet them with anything other than tenderness. Should my teeth make purchase, I would clamp down and continue on my conquest downward, back toward the swirling carpet of clouds and the thunderstorm below. She fights for selfish gain, and I cannot forgive her for trying to usurp the family I had guarded for so long. If this is where my reign ends, I would have her pay such a hefty sum. Forget the cold growing on my body; forget the breaths with run ragged in my lungs. I would not bow to another fool seeking to relieve me of my duties. The last time I had, the price we all paid was the ruin of my home.

The red Cliffs had fallen, but my desert home would not crumble beneath the hooves of another.
""

[ 4/4; 570 words; 1/2 magic ]