" What a beautiful child". One of the horsetaurs loomed over the newborn, smiling widely. She let the little one grab tightly onto her hood. For such a young one, she certainly had a strong grip. Perhaps she'd be a tulip stepper when she grew up.
" Ah, don't touch her." The mother gently shoved the other horsetaur away. Centaurworld was a wonderful place, but not everyone was gentle with babies. And this one in particular was special, no, perfect. This one was perfect because she was hers. Luckily her friend understood and backed away.
" What are you going to name her?" She asked, having taken a step away from the child.
Her legs were barely the size of twigs, but somehow they supported her feeble efforts to stand. The still nameless child looked up at the sky in pure wonder. All the world was fresh, and the smallest cloud inspired infinite awe.
Before the mother could answer, an alarm blared. The child was knocked over, and the mother didn't get a chance to comfort her. A horsetaur guard ran up to them, panic clear on his face.
" All hooves on deck! Something's wrong in the villages." This particular horsetaur was known for his stoic expression and lack of emotion. Seeing him with a slight frown would have been enough to cause terror. He was in hysterics. Even as the pair asked what had happened, he could give no clear answer.
" What about my daughter?" Was the only question the mother could ask.
" Give her to me, I'll put her with the foal-taurs. Captain's got the best guards watching the young ones."
The mother looked down at her child, who was already attempting to stand again. A guard certainly had a better chance of protecting her. Dragging out every second, she picked up her child and handed her over. Before they left, she swooped in to give her a quick kiss on the cheek.
" See you soon little one."
. . .
The foal-taur was bored, no other way to describe it. She twitched and squirmed in her seat, since the stupid horsetaur wouldn't let her do anything fun. Now that she had legs, they itched desperately, wanting nothing more than to be tested out. No, he kept her in a burrow deep underground. There was nothing but dirt.
Everything was fresh, like she opened a new gift whenever she looked around. For goodness sake, she didn't know that pink existed until a few minutes ago. How many other colors existed. The foaltaur would have rather died than spent another second in that burrow.
The horsetaur was busy now, trying to wrangle a herd of older children. Perfect. Hopefully one day she'd be able to run like everyone else, but it still took her a considerable amount of effort to stand up. It took nearly every ounce of focus to begin to walk. However, once she started, it seemed nothing could stop her.
It was momentum. The faster she went, the faster she wanted to go. Wind rushed against her body. Her hooves slammed against the ground. All the while, her heart flooded with sheer joy. Ut wasn't until she saw a sharp turn that fear took hold. Before she really knew what was happening, her face was on the ground.
The soothing of nearby leaftaurs did nearly nothing to assuage the searing pain, or dampen the flow of tears. Nor did it prevent the humiliation of landing straight into the dirt. If one good thing came out of the experience, shed learned a valuable lesson. Don't run off for no reason. She hobbled along the path back home. Perhaps it was boring, but the foaltaur didn't think anything as bad as falling could happen back there.
She was sure she was going the right way. Not only had she traveled in a straight line, but her instincts told her this place was familiar. Yet, everything looked wrong. From what she remembered, none of the trees were torn down before, and there wasn't any red stuff on the ground.
Her doubts must have been imagined though, because she soon found the burrow she was being kept at. Everyone was asleep though, with more red stuff covering their bodies. No matter how much she poked them, they didn't wake up. Maybe she'd try and find her mother.
Just as she was about to leave, someone moved. A flood of relief came over her as she went to the creature. Independent as she was, every creature knows the peril of being alone.
It was big, with two giant horns on its head. All of its muscles were pulled and distorted. Emptiness filled the creature's eyes. The sight of it made the foal-taur nauseous, but surely it was going to help her.
A horrible sound erupted from its throat. Before she could move, it struck her. If falling over was painful, this was agony. As pain sizzled through her flesh, it charged at her with frightening speed. Forgetting about her earlier lesson, she ran.
She ran too fast for her lungs to keep up, but she didn't dare slow down. Monsters were everywhere, all of them nearly identical to the one that hurt her. As long as she kept moving, they couldn't catch her. But she couldn't keep it up for long. The ache in her legs was becoming unbearable. Just as she felt she was going to collapse, she saw a wagon.
Of course, she didn't know what a wagon was. Nor did she know why she felt safer inside it. However, deep inside, instinct knew that the minotaurs might not find her in the dark. By some miracle it worked. The monsters looked for a moment, but soon abandoned the search.
Fresh air filled the foaltaur's lungs. Some sort of calm washed over her. That's when the wagon began to move. She had to cover her mouth to keep from letting out a terrified shriek. More of the monsters were in the wagon. No matter what, she couldn't let them hurt her. That's how it played out for a few hours. A horde of minotaurs enjoying their successful raid, and a scared foal-taur in the shadows. Yet, all of them had the same destination.
Loud noises, horrifically loud noises, woke the foal-taur from her fitful sleep. She instinctively cowered backwards, but the monsters were nowhere to be seen. Hesitantly, she stepped out of the wagon.
The area was filled with monsters in camps. All of it was centered around a giant circle made out of light. Curiosity consumed her and she forgot her worries just long enough to wander up to it. Just as she was getting a good look at it, one of the monsters pointed towards her and screamed. The minotaurs surrounded her, cutting off every possible escape.
Helpless, she leaned up against the light, only to find that it wasn't solid. In fact, there didn't seem to be anything behind it. Before she could digest this revelation, she saw the monsters charging towards her. Without understanding what she was doing, she leaped into the portal.
The foal-taur had no idea what to expect, but somehow this defied expectations. There was always something around her. There was always color and sound. She'd always been somewhere. This, this was nowhere.
All she could see was white, and although the foal-taur could hardly confirm it, she was sure it stretched out into infinity. The very sound of her hoofsteps was deafening compared to the infinite silence.
Every muscle primed itself to run out of this place, but for the first time the foal-taur ignored her instincts. If she went back, the monsters would hurt her. Besides, as her eyes adjusted, she could see a darker patch at the other end. Maybe it was safe.
It only took a few steps before she realized just how wrong this place was. All of the sudden, there was a horrible smell. It was like rotting flesh mixed with smoke. The hairs on her back stood on end. The cold breath on her neck confirmed what she was dreading.
Someone else was in there.
The foaltaur sprinted towards the other end, getting just close enough to feel a warm breeze. Then something caught her leg. It felt liquid, like it should have slid right off. Instead, it yanked her backwards with such force that she feared her leg would be ripped off. The thing lifted her into the air, giving her a glimpse of his face.
No eyes. No skin. No motion. Nothing. The foal-taur felt no fear, only dread. Her limbs froze up, leaving the only sign of life her shaky breaths. The thing opened his mouth. Instead of the horrible screech she expected, he sang. It was an almost beautiful song. Under any other circumstances it would have been calming.
She was back on the ground, though still held in place by the black liquid. Without that horrible eyeless face by hers, the trance like state was lifted. Now she was tugging desperately, trying anything to get away. At first, she couldn't budge. Yet, as she got more frantic, it began to tear. Finally, it broke.
Before it even noticed, she was running to the other side. An ear splitting roar sounded from behind her. Not thinking, the foal-taur looked back. Just in time to see a green light headed straight towards her.
. . .
She was numb all over. Everyone acts as though numbness is the absence of feeling, but pain is always just below the surface. HEr head felt like a hot coal, and her stomach seemed to slosh around. Somehow she'd fallen to the floor, but that wasn't what concerned her.
She couldn't get up. Her legs weren't working like before. They felt different too, and she was sure there were less than before. When she opened her eyes, she saw that they looked completely different. As if that wasn't enough, another creature was in the room.
Although she didn't have the words to describe it, she was looking at a horse.
For a moment, she was scared of this new creature. But a strange sense of calm soon replaced the fear. This was a friend. Managing to pull herself into an unsteady stand, she reached out. The creature backed up at first, but hesitantly approached. The girl put her hand on the horse's muzzle.
Keep in mind that this only took a few moments. Up until now, the nowhere king had been too startled to move, (perhaps burdened by unpleasant memories) but that was all about to change. He lunged towards them, letting out a horrible roar.
Hardly realizing it, the girl wrapped her arms around her new friend's neck. That turned out to be the right move, because the horse began to run. Every once in a while she'd look back to make sure the girl was still there, brut where wasn't much she could do beyond hope.
The nowhere king tried to stop them, but missed every time. He shot his tentacles towards them, only to miss by a hair. The horse and her rider were almost at the other side. Just a little bit further. He was gaining on them though, having abandoned trying to catch them from afar. IN a last ditch effort, the horse leaped forward. The force of the jump pulled the girl onto the horse's back, which was much easier for the both of them.
Both of them went straight through the portal.
Neither of them liked the new place. It smelled strange and made their eyes burn. Going backwards wasn't an option though, even if they had no idea what was forwards. Even when the horse's legs began to ache, or the girl realized she couldn't eat grass like her companion, they had to keep going.
Something moved in the bushes. They froze, perhaps knowing the horse could no longer run fast enough to escape. A large creature, that looked a lot like the girl, stepped out of the bushes.
. . .
The man wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it wasn't a frightened little girl ( looking no more than a year old) sitting on a horse. Both of them flinched backwards, but didn't run away. It took quite a bit of time to coax them forwards. Even then he couldn't convince the girl off her ride. Taking her to a war camp wasn't ideal, but it was the best her could do under the circumstances.
" Hey, who's your little friend, soldier?" A group of men came up to see what he'd found on patrol, and ended up with quite a shock
" I've found a horse and her rider." Nobody ever gave them better names
. . .
Throughout the years, the other soldiers noticed many strange things about Rider and Horse. For one thing, Horse never seemed to age. She was easily fourteen now, when most horses would be put out to pasture. Yet, it still had the energy of a two year old mare.
The girl wasn't normal either. Getting attached to your horse wasn't uncommon, but reusing to ride any other horse ( unless it was an emergency) turned a few heads. The two shared an almost telepathic bond. Several soldiers thought to ask, but Rider was always reassigned before they could strike up the conversation.
. . .
Horse was gone, disappeared in a flash of light. Rider was frantic. She desperately searched the bottom of the canyon, ignoring the furious shouts of scouts sent to look for her. Once she got back she wrote several thousand letters to the general, begging for answers.
It didn't take long for everyone to start looking at her like a freak. Once word got out that she refused to relocate because she was looking for her horse, it was inevitable. Only one old man kept talking to her. He told her about the olden days, where people went to another world when they disappeared like that. He said that they'd usually reappear by the ruins. By all accounts, he was crazy, but she still found herself waiting there every day.
She and Horse were supposed to take care of eachother. So, even when she worried Horse would move on without her, Rider knew that Horse was searching for her.
. . .
The flowers were singing. If this was any other day, it would be the focus. Unfortunately, Horse had gotten used to it. No, it was the song that drew her attention.
" I think I've heard this song before." Nobody responded, which might have been for the best. The words were completely foreign, but the tune was hauntingly familiar. Later, she'd try to convince herself that she heard it at a random village. Sometimes it worked.
. . .
Rider was dying. The general stabbed her, and all Horse could do was desperately beg her to hold on. It didn't surprise her when her battle wounds began toache, but she ignored her. She;d done everything to get to Rider, and wasn't leaving for a few scratches.
That's what she thought anyway. Then it started to hurt more. And more.
Blood exploded from her chest.
" Horse? What's going on?" Rider asked, her voice shaking and weak.
At first she didn't have an answer. She could hardly think through the screams of her herd and the sudden pain that shouldn't have been there.
Then she remembered the last time something like this happened. Remembered why it happened.
Horse chuckled a bit as she slumped over.
" I guess we really are sisters."