Senna's Lie



Lell picked up the feather in her teeth and lay down. She worked it in her teeth for a while until she was able to get it braided into her mane. By that time many of the unicorns were stirring. Lell looked for Senna. She was lying on the other side of the herd, not sleeping but not yet resigned to getting up. Lell got up and walked over to her. Seeing her new friend, Senna stood up and shook herself.

"How goes it?" Senna asked.

Lell, though, was wondering about the resemblance between Senna and the blue stallion, and didn't answer. Instead she just looked at Senna and realized that she was very similar in build to the stallion as well. The only things that differed between them, in fact, were their coat color, and the fact that Senna's mane and tail were straight.

Senna tried again. "How are you?"

Lell was lost in thought, but her head snapped up at the question. "Oh, I'm good, you?"

"Wonderful." Senna replied.

"Senna?" Lell asked.

"Yes?"

"Do you have any Renegade relatives?"

It was Senna's head that jerked up this time, her crystal horn almost hitting Lell. "No." she replied, and walked off into the tall Plains grass.

Lell started to follow then changed her mind. Instead she walked to where the unicorns were gathering around Jan. Once everyone was up and had drunk from the stream Jan started to talk.

"The Summer Sea is two more days from here. If we keep up a good pace we will be there by sundown on our third day of travel," Jan proclaimed. Tek, his mate, stood beside him.

Lell felt a sudden sharp pain go through her when she saw them together, and thought once again of the blue stallion. A wave of longing that she didn't understand swept through her and she almost broke down.

A high-pitched scream split the air. The unicorns wheeled about. Not seeing anything but the tall brown grasses of the Plains, they stood confused. The group herd another scream, coming off from their left. Cantering in the direction it came from, Jan and Tek led the herd. The grass parted and the herd came to a halt, aghast. Five pards were tearing into the carcass of Senna. She was already dead. Lell screamed with a few others, echoing Senna's own screams from seconds before.

But Lell's herd was not the only one aroused by the screams. Charging at the clearing from the opposite direction was a huge herd of Renegades. And at the heart of that herd was the blue stallion, screaming, "Senna!!!"