Agggh, dammit!

The monster bucked under me, slithered away from the tip of my horn. I didn’t feel my horn penetrate bone; didn’t feel some sort of crunching scrape that told me I had hit my intended target. The same hatred I felt before rushed up inside me, the fury of this thing in my house, breaking up my things and my people—

Like my Ma, for one thing.

I pulled my horn from the monster’s back, and I felt a sick kind of satisfaction of seeing a viscousy, fleshy bits stick to it (I know, it’s gross, I don’t know), but it didn’t last long. Billowing clouds of black smoke began to issue from the monster’s back, and bells and whistles went off in my head, telling me to RUN, SAVE YOUR DUMBASS. But my head was harder than my instinct, much harder than the common sense of running from potential danger, and I had the deluded idea of standing my ground in front of these black clouds of soot and evil, and that was a horrible idea because ow oww OW OWW. OW. OKAY. OW.

OW.

NO.

JEEZ—OWW.

GET ME THE HELL OUT OF HERE.

My body reacted to my deepest wish, because fuck that. I don’t know what was in those black fumes or whatever, but they hurt like a bitch and my chest was already achy without the added sting of something, and I didn’t need that mess. So my shock reacted, and I felt the same zip-spark and the sensation of traveling super-duper mega fast—

But—

But—

Something went wrong. I could feel it fail, feel the crumbling of the spark around me, and suddenly I was several feet in the air, several feet away from where I wanted to be. I wanted to land on the ground, somewhere to the left of the monster and off of its goddamned back; I mostly got what I wanted, but instead of on the ground, I was awkwardly hovering in the air, and then my magic muscles went kaput I guess, and I pretty much just toppled to the ground.

And I stayed there for a moment.

I lay there, panting, gritting my teeth against the sharp pain of the burn on my chest, on my stomach. More aches began to manifest themselves as I lay in the dirt; the screaming thud of my legs from running, the desperate gurgle of my stomach from hunger, the burning in my lungs from exhaustion—all tied neatly together with the steady throb of my midriff from the lizard’s tail. I wanted to lay my head down; for a few seconds, I contemplated staying there, and letting my body be broken while I let the others fight for me. I let the idea of being a child again wash over me, to let my beaten body rest while the adults took care of things and cleaned up the mess. I’ll admit, it was a tempting thought; I mean, just a few days ago I was just a child, some dumb little kid with none of this confusion, and fear, and scary anger telling her to do what’s right, when right and wrong never made sense to her in the first place. I just…I was so tired, man. I just wanted to take a break.

I wanted to.

But then I looked up, and saw Ma fighting, and that was the decision made for me, wasn’t it? I wasn’t allowed to be a child. I wasn’t allowed this weakness anymore. I had to be strong. For Ma. Or whatever.

“Let’s do this,” I breathed to myself, the only pep talk I was gonna get, the only one I needed. I shook the pain off (Of course it wasn’t actually gone, it’s a mental thing okay? Shut up) and made my way to my feet, throwing my mane to get some of the nervous energy back up and running. As soon as my cloven feet hit the ground, I made my way back to the monster—slowly at first, gaining speed as I took in the complete and utter chaos that consumed the scene. So many others fighting, getting hurt, defending their land; what could I do to possibly protect these people? Who was I to protect them? My eyes spotted Ma, though, going nuts on the monster’s side, and I guess if I was gonna protect anyone, it might as well be Ma. Considering there was a giant foot coming her way, I guess.

With a snort, I put a burst power into my gallop, possibly the last burst I had left. I aimed my horn once more for the lizard, this time aimed for the claw that reached for Ma, all kinds of fire droplets falling around me like some sort of meteor shower. Miraculously, none of them hit me; my focus was set on the foot with all them long claws, desperate for my horn to pierce its softer hide, determined that his nails wouldn’t pierce mine.


[Is hit and burned in the chest and stomach by the black clouds; attempts to warp away, but her magic fails halfway through and falls a few feet to the ground away from the monster. Contemplates life, gets up, and rushes to Ophelia’s aid, aiming to attack and stab the foot that’s making its way toward Ophelia.]