Body Prologue

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Tursi raised her head and flared her nostrils, tasting of the stale, metallic odor of the storm. The clouds above her head raged and tossed, their backside lit occasionally by a crash of thunder. Sound boomed out over the Vale, pulsing down through Tursi's bones and shaking her to her very hooves. Little fingers of lightning stretched like living things to touch the earth, and brought death in their caress. The little umber filly stood bold upon the hillside, chest puffed out, and stared into the storm.

The rain came down, drilling at her head. Soft at first, the little drops soon became more and more insistent. Tursi's tail, now grown out nearly full, flicked in dismissal of the water. The nearly half-grown unicorn stood her sentry upon the forested hill, refusing to back down despite rain or lightning or the harsh wind. She would do her father proud.

Tursi blinked as rain fell into her lashes, dropped onto her eye. She shook her head and scraped a hoof against the ground, impatient and defiant. No storm would see her tail turned, no matter of its strength. She pushed her chest further out, bracing her hooves and continued searching the storm. Her eyes were squinted to keep out the rain.

Suddenly there was a rustle behind her. Tursi whipped around, lowering her head and brandishing her horn, small though it was, but she could see nothing. Cautiously, the filly took a few steps forward, her head whipping back and forth, trying to track the noise. She stepped into the woods, where less rain got through, and fully opened her eyes. Darkness met her, darkness teamed with silence. The filly stood there several moments more, barely breathing, then turned around to go back to her post.

A silhouette perched upon the ledge, neck arched, strong beak cleaning the underside of a huge blue wing meticulously. The creature looked up, and Tursi froze a moment as she caught the eyes of a gryphon, a giant formel, soggy and buffeted by wind, but fierce nonetheless.

"Wingcat!" Tursi whistled as loudly as she could. "A wingcat on the lookout ledge!" Her words were drowned by the storm. The wingcat stood slowly, unstretching itself, and Tursi could not take her eyes from its gaze. Her legs ached to turn and run for dear life, but Tursi's eye were stuck as a fly in a spider's web. Upon the horizon, lightning flashed, lighting up the staggeringly huge mountains where the gryphons made their home.

"You need not fear me, little one," purred the blue formel, the female gryphon. About this time of year, Tursi knew, the gryphon formels descended from their perches in the mountains and attacked the herd, taking away younglings like Tursi herself. Her mind knew this, but her eyes did not. They were stuck upon the gryphon's face, staring into brightly colored eyes and the dark, slitted pupils that expanded and contracted when the lightning struck.

"No, little unicorn, I was merely stretching my wings when this big storm hit, and the winds tossed me until I knew not where I was going, and which way was home. I tried to fly the right way, but ended up here. Pity. Little one, I suppose you know the way back to my mountains?"

Tursi nodded dumbly.

"Ah," said the gryphon. "Ah, that's good news indeed. Point me straight, could you? For my memory has gone completely. Do they lie east? No, you say? West, perhaps?" Tursi shook her head again. "Then only one option remains. My mountains, then, do they lie straight ahead? Out there, behind you?" The gryphon stretched out a paw. Tursi's eyes rolled down, breaking the trance for a brief moment, and she realized that now the creature's mighty foreleg was right next to her shoulder. The huge talons extended. Stormlight caught the end of the formel's claws and glinted and sparked upon the sharp tips, then danced across the arched edge of them. The gryphon's hindquarters rippled with muscle, then soundlessly, she pounced upon the little umber unicorn, daughter of the prince. Thunder growled in the distance.