To 8Ball3- hey hey hey, I don't care ^_^
Hello? Hello? Oy, wake up. Something rough dragged on her cheek, warm and accompanied by the smell of apples and fur. Lou? Storm snuffled her face, her hooves clopping softly on the earth, worried, somewhere by her head. Coldness washed over her, the roar of water all around. Lou, what happened?
Prying her eyes open, Louisa saw the blurry shadow that was her pegasus. Storm was licking her face, grumbling and concerned, telling her to wake. She was lying in the shallows of a river. Her clothes, her skin, her limbs, all felt stiff and leaden. Someone had pushed her heart into her head and set it to thump erratically while her chest heaved, burning with each breath.
Storm huffed. Lou!
"I'm up." Louisa groaned. Storm gave a surprised, but delighted whinny, wriggling in her glee. She licked her human's face with relieved gusto, throwing herself down as Louisa sat up, getting comfortable across her lap.
I've been looking for you for ages! Storm accused, ears lying flat. Where were you? Where are the others? Hey, what's wrong? Louisa then realised she was crying.
It had happened again.
She had lost them again.
She didn't remember telling Storm, the story came out on its own. Storm licked her face, tucked her head under Louisa's hand, headbutted her gently in the chest, anything she could do to provide comfort. It was not enough. It would never be enough. Louisa clung to her, crying into her tufty mane, nothing of the world around her registering, nothing of it making any sense, nothing of it even existing in that moment. It didn't exist, it shouldn't exist. It had no right, not without them.
Maybe she fell asleep at some point, maybe she passed out. She didn't know. She only knew that she awoke screaming and startling Storm damn near out of her wits.
No! Storm whickered, biting Louisa's sleeve gently and pulling for her attention. I'm here, listen to me! Oy, that's my leg you just punched.
"S-s-sorry." Louisa rasped. Storm nipped her fingers lightly, snorting. She ducked her head, letting Louisa hug her around the neck, helping her sit up.
Before she could even stop herself, Louisa looked around. She noticed there was no smouldering fire, no Huxley preparing beans for breakfast. Raijin wasn't talking in his sleep and Ruby wasn't fidgeting with her hair, still cut wonky by Apollo's shooting.
Something shrivelled in her chest.
There would be no more of that.
No more stealing cookies with Raijin, no more making faces at the boys with Ruby, no more mimicking Huxley's grumpiness and then teasing him about his map. Storm had no-one to feed her apples behind Louisa's back, had no-one to shower her with ear scratches, no-one to chase and torment and frighten into stillness.
What were they going to do?
What were they supposed to do?
Was there even a point anymore? If there was, Louisa didn't see it. She only saw her friends' bodies. Broken. Empty. Gone.
She walked again. Like last time. She walked and she walked. Ate little, slept less. Was sleep even a thing now? Had no idea where she was. Couldn't even find their last campsite, the last place they had all been together, joking and laughing and preparing for the following day.
The only difference- Storm.
Storm stayed beside her. Biting her sleeve here and there, pulling her out of the way of low hanging branches or protruding tree roots. Finding berries and snorting at them until Louisa picked some. Headbutted her until she ate some. Found streams to headbutt Louisa into refilling her bottle, wash up a bit. That had been hard at first, after she had found her. Louisa's clothes had burned and seared to her skin, the same burns spreading onto her legs, lower stomach, hands and forearms. Louisa had had to use a knife to cut the material off, scrubbing the particularly stubborn patches off with her fingernails. The water helped, absorbing the stark bloodiness of the burns and turning them to a more manageable pink. A bit of ambrosia and the damaged skin started to take on its natural hues. The burns never disappeared. Not entirely.
The injuries still weighed on her. Maybe not so much physically, but enough for Storm to see Louisa was not readily available. She walked with her head down, examining her hands, eyes dark and ringed with darker shadows. No matter what Storm said or did, there was just no response. Not even a recognition she had spoken.
Storm was beside her when her knees gave out. It had been a week, maybe two. Maybe more. Louisa couldn't tell anymore. She just remembered sinking to her knees, as if someone had stolen the bones from her legs. She fell forward, catching herself on her hands, heaving. Storm whinnied in alarm, trotting around her, biting at her clothes, her hair, licking her face. She recoiled when Louisa threw up, more bile than vomit, so empty her stomach.
Lou? She took a nervous step towards her, sniffing worriedly. Lou? Thunder crashed, Storm shrieked and bucked, Louisa fell sideways. It began to rain. Furious black clouds had rolled in, low and weeping heavily.
Louisa lay on her back, digging the heels of her hands into her eyes, gritting her teeth. Purple splodges danced through her vision, hurting under the pressure. A small part of her was aware, distantly, of Storm trying to get her attention, nudging her, pulling on her clothes and her hair. Cold splashes on her skin, random at first, but quickly evolving into a relentless downpour. Her clothes stuck to her.
She made a decision that day. It would be her, just her and Storm, from that point on. No more friends. No more friends that looked to her for help, looked to her to talk to and muck around with, looked to her with respect, amusement or exasperation, or even a mix of all three.
No more friends was an easy decision to make.
No more friends meant no-one else had to die because of her.
