After the Freeze; The Sort of Sun You'd Blind Yourself to Miss
Far, far in the distance, the dark buck ran, five different streaks flowing like molten light down his back and sides. "Wait!" she called, urgent, "I have a friend -" His long lopes did not cease, she gritted her teeth and brought her head low to the ground. They could do this the hard way, if he would like. She certainly could do this the hard way. Forty degrees right, then twenty left; cutting through the underbrush, it was nothing to her: silent, swiftly, she was almost upon him, she lunged -- her shoulder slammed into his flank, but he did not stumble. It was as if she did not register in his flight, moving ever onward. She kept pace but she was stunned - the glowing streak she impacted burned, like the hot hot heat of a stagnant sunburnt afternoon, the very moisture in the air scalding your pelt as you moved. She tried again, alongside now, fully - still he did not sway, but where she pressed against his skin, it burnt, hot, so hot, it was -
- SO HOT. She slammed back to wakefulness as the fire swallowed her whole - and no wonder. That brutish oaf of a Kiokote that was Once Forgotten was entirely atop her in his somnambulant quest for warmth. Underneath them, the snow had melted off the ground from the heat. The snow… She extricated herself from his bulk, looking around them thoughtfully. That was the first time in a while no ice had featured in her dreams. The sun had not yet broken, but the land around them was no longer caked in the smothering snow that had plagued the Swamp for some time now. Thin patches still scattered white across the horizon, but compared to the bonechill of the past few months, it felt like veritable spring. It seems, she considered, the cold was thawing. Her thoughts turned westward, to a hollow tree.
At her hooves, Once Forgotten muttered something in his sleep, pawing slightly at something that wasn't there - her, she'd expect. She swung a light hoof against his broad back, not unkindly. "It's not even that cold, you big baby," she murmured, "I'll be back." If the cold had broken, she was going to retrieve what was hers. It wasn't far anyway, that old hollow tree. Wherever they travelled in their search during the day, they made sure to tread backwards as night fell. She would say she bossed her companion back, but truth be told, Forgotten was a conscientious buck - far more conscientious, she was sure, than she, and even if the pet was someone else's, he was bound to guard its well-being. As it were, the pet was hers, and she could take care of it herself.
The weave of leaves was still complete, untouched from the last time they'd replenish the little food and water it might need. Carefully, she untucked the edges, pulled it from the hollow and looked in. "Twice Removed," she said, and stepped back to wait. It happened little by little, as the crisp air crept slowly in to reinvigorate the small space. First, just a subtle twitch, gauging the temperature; finding it no longer hostile, the wings briefly flicked, once, twice, more, till eventually they flexed full, and her wasp unfolded. Moments later, it emerged from the desiccated trunk, the fierce buzz of its massive dark wings familiar to her, as if it'd never left. "Welcome back," she finally completed the statement.In silence they travelled back through the thin snow. Where the earth showed brown under white, her steps left dark marks; instinctively she moved sideways, treading the patches of shallow mud that oozed back to heal over the interruptions instead - she stopped. She hadn't thought to cover her tracks in a long, long time. With Forgotten, there was no point - no amount of manoeuvring would hide his passage, he simply would, or could, not move that way. This was the first time in months, since she'd set out to help the Kiokote half-breed in his quest to find his glowing Kimeti father, that she'd run alone …and she was not exactly alone, either. Casting an eye back at Twice, hovering discreetly in place behind her, patiently waiting for the resumption of their journey, she shook her head, the shadow of a wry smile flitting across her face. Any pursuant would simply follow the unceasing hum to pinpoint her location. Really! From the shadowy depths of efficient solitude to this - what have you gotten yourself into, Cue?
And how should you get yourself out? She pondered the question idly as they traced her route back to the slumbering Kiokote, still slumbering by the looks of it, as his dark form reappeared in the distance, accompanied by the unusual silhouette of - an impressively sizey alligator sizing him up for breakfast.
AN IMPRESSIVELY SIZEY ALLIGATOR SIZING HIM UP FOR BREAKFAST.
"Oh, you have got to be kidding me," she muttered as she broke into a full-tilt dash. An alligator? Now? Still so cold and so early? The sky was still dark! They should still be beneath their lakes, waiting away the last of the frost, had the hunger broken through even the ice? This was ridiculous. "STAY," she shouted back at Twice Removed, not daring to risk the newly-awakened wasp against snapping jaws - snapping jaws that had whipped away from the buck at her cry as she raced across the ground. It knew she was coming, she would have to break away. Forty degrees right, then twenty left. She had hunted for them often since the journey began…but when was the last time she'd tasted blood in open combat? Spring, turn - kick - A low reptilian bellow, the serrated snap just missed her - but it was still sluggish from the cold…
It was as if everything around her had slowed. She pivoted as she touched ground, sloped her run to aim her shot - she saw nothing, but the pulsing spots of weakness that would gift her victory, heard nothing, but the pounding beat of a heart she would soon cease, felt nothing, but -
- sheer -
- life -
- as she leapt, arrowed: and snapped its neck with a crushing blow of the surest hoof. Nothing, but her and the fight. Nothing, but her and the kill.
The first time, for the longest time, she felt fully, utterly, herself.
She stood over her prize, as the buzzing of wings floated back to her side. Slowly, deeply, the cool near-morning air, easing back into her lungs. The knowledge of place, of history, ebbing back into her senses. Civilisation. Socialisation. What was she? She looked, just a few paces away: sleeping still, through all the noise, her travelling companion. She could just run now, the certainty gripped her heart with a sudden burst of urgency. She could run away. The quest they were on was pointless, she was sure of it. They would never find his mysterious missing father, there was none else who would care even if he did. She was wasting her time, deadening her senses, on this fool's errand, with this bumbling fool. She could run away, resume the savage thrill of the dark and the kill, right now. He would never find her, not if she didn't want him to. She could just go.
The sun edged over the horizon. He stirred, but did not wake. She stared. Next to her, dark wings whirred gently, drifting over, the subtlest of motions, just slightly over to the buck.
She could go.
Slowly, very slowly, she let out the harboured breath. Slowly, she stepped over her victory, and stood before the Kiokote. One fluid swing -
- she whacked him in the back with a solid thwack. "Get up, you big slug. It's morning, Twice is back, and we've got breakfast."
She'd figure out how to tell him he was an idiot on a stupid impossible quest and they should all just go home some other time.
END