In perfect running posture to get the most strength from her legs and best breath in her lungs, Luna rushed at the unicorn colt, who stood teasingly behind a tree, swirling his tuft of a foal's tail. His blue eyes wide with excitement, he nodded his muzzle with a hyper throb.
When she neared him, he hopped backward playfully. She touched his mischievous horn—
—and saw a flash. A man's face. Slits for eyes. No nose. Resting upon the back of another human's head. (She knew that, or else the shoulders were backwards, because she could see a shoulder facing the wrong way.) A black cape covered all but the snakelike face and shoulder.
The snakelike face guzzled silver blood from a fatal injury in a grown unicorn.
Luna wavered at the sight. She knew without a doubt it was the future. But the unicorn she saw was a mare. Anyway, she had no time to dwell on it. The colt was going to get her!
She bolted, racing between trees, scampering past a thestral foal and ducking so hard to avoid a branch her face's height that she didn't notice another branch reaching to trip her. She slammed into it and laughed out wheezes as she smashed to the ground on her back.
The colt pranced delightedly up to her, touched her knee with his hoof, then sped off again.
Luna remained on the ground, laughing her guts out.
The unicorn colt trotted over a fallen log then pranced back to Luna. Sniffing her shoe. He kept one eye on her face while clamping his teeth down. He bit, tugged, and—
She touched his side. He sprang backward in shock. Without waiting for him to recover, she ran at top speed. Just far enough that he couldn't tag her super fast.
As he chased her, the playful foal released a succession of whinnies. Followed by a long, unbridled nnneeeiiiggghhh as he attacked. Nuzzling her ribs, he whuffled softly then charged.
Luna chased him over a shallow stream. They splashed up water even though it was cold and the water made their ankles almost unbearably chilly.
Luna reached for the unicorn and brushed by his horn. She saw a flash of Harry Potter holding up the Triwizzard trophy.
Harry was too young to enter.
She didn't dwell on it. She released the unicorn horn and went flying in between some trees after twisting her body to the right.
Keeping her neck tilted, chin directly above her left shoulder, and line of sight upon the encroaching colt, Luna wasn't watching where she was going. It wasn't surprising that she bumped into something solid.
She swung her gaze toward it after crashing flat on her butt to the ground.
It was a thestral foal.
"Uh, hello." Luna reached up and petted its muzzle. She was too winded to continue her game of tag anyway. Pulse throbbing in her ears, she called, "Truce!"
The unicorn flopped beside her with something in his mouth. Luna stroked his damp neck. He nuzzled her thigh twice insistently. She caressed his back. He dropped the object across her lap.
It was a braided rope as long as a lead rope.
Sensing what he wanted, Luna panted, "Let me rest first."
His tuft of a tail swished.
She hoped Professor McGonagall wouldn't murder her in her sleep. Because she was likely to have her head on her desk in Transfiguration class tomorrow.
But it didn't matter what the woman did to her, she decided with a grin. Either way, she was going to play tug-o'-war with the unicorn colt.
Her palms were sweaty when she gripped the rope in her hands. She reached in one of the pockets of her rucksack and pulled out an elixir to wipe out fatigue. She drank it then tossed the other half of the rope at the colt.
The thestral foal watched the two of them play. His black ears twitched back and forward as his put his willpower upon the unicorn. Hoping he would win, even though he weighed less than Luna.
Luna dragged the unicorn over a tree stump, pulling with half her might. With his teeth gripped down, the unicorn yanked her back over the stump and jerked her against his side. He dropped the rope to whuffle in her ear.
She giggled. "That tickles," she muttered as she rubbed her scorched hands against her witch's robe. She had contracted a splinter that had been burrowed in the rope. She plucked it out with her teeth.
Again, she tossed the colt the rope. As she pulled with her ankles, her lower back thrummed with the ache of the awkward angle.
Some doxies darted out of a bush, making Luna flinch then stumble against the colt's neck when the cloud of doxies thickened. One of them picked up a stick and purposefully hit Luna on the head with it.
The unicorn colt reacted without thinking. He hadn't known Luna long, but he loved the sweet girl already. So he bit the doxy's foot, making the thing fly hard to get away from him then whisper in another doxy's ear. The second doxy nodded.
As they aimed to ruin the unicorn and Luna's fun, the thestral foal snuck up on the conspiring doxies and started kicking them each in the head. One by one, they fell silently to the young equine's sneaky kicks.
His kicks wouldn't hurt them. Just knock them out for several hours.
The unicorn whinnied his thanks and nuzzled the thestral. Luna smiled warmly.
A black kitten walked on careful, padded feet. Walked up to Luna, just to rub against her ankles. It left as quickly as it had come. Padding carefully into the darkness.
Luna and the unicorn colt resumed their struggle. When Luna seemed to be winning, the colt hooked his hoof behind the trunk of a skinny tree. Then he yanked Luna into him again.
"Alright," she uttered sweetly. "I guess it's time I quit going easy on you." She patted his neck with a smile as sweet as velvety sugar.
This time, Luna fiercely tugged the rope. She pulled with all her might, wrapping it around a tree trunk. The unicorn released it and reared in forfeit.
Then he lowered his front legs to the ground and shook his tail in the air. Tossing his head, he seemed to say, "Bring it!" with his sparkling eyes.
One step in Luna's favor. Another in the unicorn's. The small of Luna's back did not appreciate her posture. The two of them kept it up, matching each other for strength.
The unicorn jerked her to the stream and yanked so that she fell in after slipping on his neck.
She landed on her butt, with her legs splayed. She brought her hands to her face after bonking her nose against a plant hanging out of the water.
The unicorn worried she might be hurt. Leaning down into the water, he felt Luna vibrating.
He whinnied, frightened that she was severly hurt and crying.
Then he looked at her mouth and realized…
…she was guffawing.
Reaching up to pet his nose, she remarked, "That's the most fun I've had since my mother's death. Thank you, sweetheart!"
He whickered joyously in response.
