The wind howled like a wounded spirit, whipping at the trees and tearing across the open space between. It raked at the soquilis manes and tails, sending them tossing wild and frantic as the dark shapes huddled along the tree line, trying to escape the worst of the storm yet forced to stay beyond the dark shadows of the comforting forest by the high wooden fence that enclosed the open area.
How long had he paced this single blank space of crushed grass and dry earth? How many sunrises and sunsets had circled above him while he remained trapped in this place of fear and thick choking scent? Stamping a hoof against the frozen fingers that dragged through his coat, the tingle of the metal clasp and the soft brush of the feather startled him yet again. Grey fleshed at the corner of his eye, tugging at his ear as the feathers streamed in the wind, the wound from the metal burning with a dull ache.
Casting his mind back as the skies screamed over heard, the memory of that night filled his senses once more. That nightmarish passage of time when the two-leggers and their tame mounts stole him from his homeland and locked him up in this enclosed space. How long had he screamed and fought against the boundary that trapped him? How many days had he paced round and round the open, dead space? At some point, another had been brought to him, a mare, shivering and fearful with a nasty gash over her eye. Then more began to appear, brought in ones and twos, let loose in the walled space by the two-leggers. Some still wearing the rope around their necks, one even had the rope wrapped and twisted round her head like some weird kind of muzzle.. There were mares alone, mares with foals, young and old, even another stallion but he was taken out the next day, driven by the two leggers and their tame mounts with lashing thongs of leather, more ropes and the most horrendous noise Cloud had ever endured.
Then, for a while, the little herd of frightened, cowering soquili had been left alone. Only seeing the hunters a few times, for they would leave for several days at a time. Then... the pain came. They arrived with their ropes and whips and a pair of wild yapping tame wolves whose colours were unlike any wolf Cloud had seen before. And by the end of the day, he was shaking, sweaty, in pain and with a trail of feathers from one ear, the feathers fluttering with every breath of wind and making him skittish.
Now, with almost a full moon come and gone since then, the darkness of the night around them was barely lit by the weak silver light above, hidden by the raging clouds that shuttled across the sky like a flock of wildly swooping buzzards. The wind screamed, deafening him as he hunched against its frozen fury, longing for the safety of the trees just beyond the fence. The other soquili had taken shelter in one corner of the open space, closer to the two-legger hut but also a little more sheltered. Yet he, with his ear still stinging and the feathers whipping against his face, chose to stand alone, huddled and miserable as far from the hulking shadow of the hut as he could get. Grey eyes, dark from the shadows that shifted and weaved around him, trailed over the herd along the far fence. Shapes, slim and short, young and old, packed together, seeking warmth and reassurance from their mingled bodies. They were nothis herd, who he had left behind that fateful day he climbed the rim of their mountain home and emerged, frost-bitten and full of life, on the Kawani planes as a freshly grown young stallion. They were not even friends he had met along the way on his trip ever southwards, names and faces he had barely begun to know the few short weeks they had been there. Strangers, every one of them, witness to his weakness sin the face of the two leggers, and yet... they were there, a herd of soquili, huddled, frightened, lost and despite the crush of fur and manes, alone.
They were his heard at this moment, his mares to protect and reassure, his family to guide and cajole through this night of screeching wind and wild, clawing shadows. Shifting on legs stiff from the frozen chill, he turned, eyes scanning the frantic shadowy jerking of the branches just beyond the fence, ears flickering, struggling to catch the groans and creaks of the ancient trees as they fought to remain upright in the face of nature's raw fury. Suddenly, a loud cry of tortured wood rent the air, loud even over the howling of the wind. And one of the forest giants shifted, the loud snap and scream of rending wood and bark, then as if in slow motion, the massive monument swayed, toppled and crashed to the ground in a plume of dirt, leaves and limbs, taking bits of its neighbors with it as it gave into the battering fury of the storm.
Turning sideways, letting the wind claw at his coat and drag his tail out to one side, he squinted through the flying bits of twig and leaf and earth as the great giant slowly settled with a long, agonized groan, coming to rest in death, and, by some will of fate, right across the high wooden fence that penned he and the mares in. Had. Staring, he slowly edged closer, shoulder turned into the wind as if having to fight through the thick wall of pressurized air to reach the spot where the tree's massive branches spread across the open ground, snapped and twisted like the shattered bones of a dead deer after a Kalona attack. Yes.... the massive trunk had smashed the high fence, rendering it into pieces, and while it was jagged and standing in broken fingers, it may just be possible to escape...
Turning he called a shrill cry to the mares and their youth huddled across the area, most having turned to watch but deafened by the still raging voice of the wind. Anxious, in case the two-leggers had seen and were at any moment going to come out and stop up the gap in the fencing, Cloud pushed himself into a gallop and raced across the field, slithering to an undignified stop close to the trembling shapes.
"If you want to escape, go now, the forest has offered us a route, but we have to go now." One mare, young and clearly frightened, but with enough presence of mind to move forwards so her voice was heard above the wind, called out. "But this storm, is it safe to go when the trees themselves are failing in this wind?"
"Its that, or stay and be a slave to the two-leggers.. have them sit on your back and chase down your own kin." He replied, voice sharp and raised to reach them over the shriek of the storm.
Yet still they lingered, fearful, nervous.. Snorting, feeling driven by an urgent need to get away yet knowing he could not just leave them here, he pushed through the mass of bodied to the far rail, shivering in revulsion as the wood brushed his flank. "Move!! We leave, now!" Pushing with head, shoulder and body, nipping a rump here and an ear there, he slowly got them moving, in one trembling, fearful mass, away from the shelter of the fence and out into the open field. Bits of bark, small branches, clusters of leaves still on their twigs, all battered at them, lashing against sensitive skin, slapping wetly at thin fur. Yet slowly they eventually approached the fallen giant, still shifting slowly where it was supported by the shattered fence, its branches whipping with the fury of the winds.
It took around an hour to coax, cajoal and force the soquili to clamber over the remains of fence and tree, until at last, all but Cloud stood trembling on the far side. Struggling through the mess of the wreckage, he finally joined them, sweating, out of breath and trembling with both fear and relief.
Free.
They were free at last. Yet it wasn't over yet, they had to get away, far away, while the storm covered the sound of their escape and the fury of the wind wiped away all marks of their passing. Moving to the head of the small, mis-matched herd, Cloud put his head down and turned into the wind, leading the band of huddling mares and softly whinnying fearful foals away from the two-legger's camp, away from the open patch of dead grass with its ring of wooden planking, and back into the thick wild forest of their home.
