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"Nothing to hide?" asked Proserpina. "Then I suppose you won't mind if-" She fell silent, listening. She could hear something, a soft sound steadily growing louder. It almost sounded like the bats that swirled around... if the bats had been about a hundred times larger. Something big with wings was coming their way. She glared back at Elaenyra. It looked like the little bat had done it's work. Help was on the way to drive off the scary shadow monster. Typical.

"Hear that?" she hissed. "Is that your savior coming, or your jailer?" She gave a fanged sneer. "Don't worry, I'll let him rescue you." Even as she spoke she was drawing away, deeper into the darkness.

Proserpina chose just the right moment to disappear. As she drew away she saw the massive figure descending from the sky. It was one of the largest soquili she had ever seen and with a truly bizarre profile. It was hard to even tell how many wings the stallion had. She made out the silhouette of feathers against the night sky, but there were also bat-like membranes. Whatever it was, she didn't want to face it.

She dashed off with barely a sound. Though other soquili sometimes saw her quiet movement as a sign of something supernatural, it was actually her paws that made the difference. They lightly fell upon the earth in ways that hooves couldn't compare to. She heard raised voices behind her but paid them no heed. They couldn't catch her now. She was swift as a shadow and silent as a ghost, gone into the night from whence she came.

Weeks passed. Still Elaenyra was chained, and still her father was her jailer. Her thoughts grew darker with each night spent staring at the empty sky overhead and even the bats gave her more space once she started eating the ones that flew too close. There were bones scattered throughout the area she could move in, the bones of animals that were more free with her and had died for it.

It was dark. She wondered if Hialeah would come, but hoped she wouldn't. Hialeah was just a set of eyes from her father. They would never grow close and form that familiar-soquili bond that others spoke so highly of. Elaenyra wouldn't attach herself to such a creature.

And it was then that she saw it, out of the corner of her eye. There was a flicker of shadow and a glint, as if of moonlight off something red.

Silence flooded Elaenyra's mind. Freedom? The shadow monster had returned, but to free her? Agitated, she tossed her head. The chains that muzzled her clanked and thudded against her fur. Rust had begun to stain her where the shackles bound her and her fur had thinned in those places as well. Her body was becoming accustomed to captivity, and her mind perhaps had as well.

She could feel her heart beating in her chest, seemingly abnormally loud in her shock.

"Do it."

The words that came from her didn't even sound like her voice. They were harsh, feral. She wasn't even aware that she was planning to speak until the words were spoken.

It had been months since Elaenyra had last flown. She tried now, but they wouldn't obey. She was forced to move along the ground like an animal. Like the animal she had been since her father decided she was one. Part of her screamed for his blood and for vengeance, but the other part felt like shaking from relief. It was over. She was free now and the shadow mare would protect her and keep her from being chained like that again.

Or so she had decided.

She had determined that the mare of darkness was her knight and her protector even before she found out her name- Proserpina, apparently. She had thought that the one to rescue her would be a stallion in shining armor. Instead it was a mare who looked like she had fallen out of a nightmare.

"I won't ever leave your side," she whispered to Proserpina as they paused to drink at a riverside under the stars.

Elaenyra flushed with chagrin, but she was no less determine. "I don't care if you like me or not. I'm staying with you. If you try to leave me, I'll follow. I will find you." She had something like a parody of sweetness about her. She played at being the princess, but her blood as well as her mind was corrupted. It was rare to find a kind Draculesti. She wasn't one of them.

"I would do it!" Elaenyra as almost surprised at her own intensity... almost. She had never been one to feel things halfway. It was part of the reason why her father had her chained, after all. A stallion had declined her and she'd tried to tear his throat open...

"I would do it." The muzzle was gone from Elaenyra's mouth. She was able to fully bare her teeth for the first time in so long.

She did not have a healthy mind. That was not clear to her, but it was clear to anyone else that had ever met her. She truly barely knew Proserpina, but her devotion and obsession soared. She had been freed. Proserpina was her hero and she would do anything to stay in her regard. Anything.