This is the sequel to my lead magnet novella Broken Wings. I found it in file cleaning and decided to revamp it for you all. This story takes place right after BW’s end.
***
“Nightleaf!” Sunrise shrieked as the cold water hit her legs. “Stop splashing!”
“Come on!” He nickered. “It’s not that cold.”
“It’s freezing and you know it. Come out of there! I want to play chase.”
She was right. Fresh melted snow from the mountains had turned the creeks into ice water. He held his breath, dipped his head down, and in a minute grabbed a pink and blue stone, washed smooth by the river.
“I got something for ya.” He trotted out of the river and shook his black coat dry. He set the pebble down. “Something you can add to that nice collection of stones you’ve been putting on Starshine’s grave.”
Tears welled in her eyes. “You know about that?”
“I added the blue one.” He swished his tail. “I’m sorry about your mama, Sunrise.”
She ducked behind her unusually thick forelock. “Thank you Nightleaf… you’ve been very kind to me.”
He rubbed against her. “I won’t leave you, Sunrise.”
“Never in a thousand years?” She asked playfully.”
“Never in a thousand years, until the King comes.” He said.
***
Far away from the mourning wails of Prairie Tribe pegasi, a single black pegasus stallion ran.
Hooves churning up forest earth, Chance ducked his head low, barely able to see through the hot tears in his blue eyes.
He stopped, gasping for air, the gravity of what he was doing finally setting in. What sort of a stallion abandoned his filly? What father left his daughter behind?
But Sunrise was gone. His Sunrise, his sweet mate.
And that filly… she was the cause. She killed Sunrise.
He growled, smashing two hind hooves into a tree. What was he even doing? He couldn’t go back, but there was nowhere else for him to go. Not within the territories, at least.
But is there somewhere beyond the territories?
There had to be. Alicorns didn’t own territory, but they didn’t roam in other territories all year long. They headed… North somewhere.
The Dawnlands. Of course! The snowy terrain of the very north of Equinox would be the perfect place to hide. Only Alicorns headed up there for part of the year. He could stay up there until he figured out what to do.
Follow the moss to the Dawnlands. That’s what his mother had always said in her stories.
Emberpine. Another one he loved, lost.
He switched his tail. No. He wasn’t going to think about that. He was Chance, not Nightleaf. Not the scared colt who wouldn’t amount to anything.
He was leaving all that pain behind today.
***
The only real problem of getting to the Northlands was entering Unicorn Territories. They patrolled even the Neutrals and claimed foreigners as prisoners. He’d be able to avoid Fire Clan– good because they stabbed first and asked questions later– but he would be right alongside Water Clan’s territory. He met Water Clan once, a long time ago at a diplomat meeting before the Battle of Anger, but since then their leadership changed and they had become just as ruthless as the rest of the Clans.
It wasn’t long before he found himself in the most dangerous neutral of all: the border between Water Clan and Fire Clan, a smoky, swampy place, part cypress trees and part charred birch.
The moon was high in the sky now. Chance shuffled into the shadows, wishing he had some charcoal to darken his white face. He didn’t dare duck towards the charred side of the forest– no one wanted to mess with Fire Clan unicorns. And who knew where those ashes came from.
A howl echoed somewhere far off, but he knew from a distant memory that it was no wild beast that made the noise.
It was the war cry of a Unicorn.
A low rumble shifted the earth, increasing into the firm drumming of hoofbeats. He quickly darted into the brush to hide, recognizing what was coming.
A raiding party.
Suddenly through the brush crashed seven Water Clan Unicorns, painted and dyed for war. From the blood splattered on their hide, they had just come from a raid. Chance ducked his head into the leaves, peeking one eye through to keep watch.
Four passed by, their cloven hooves making a thunderous noise against the earth. Three paused and began to talk a few feet from where he stood. He turned so he could get a better look.
They were just as terrifying as he remembered. Long, sickle-shaped horns curled to the sky, and their thick lion’s manes and beards were decorated with horns of many colors– their killed enemies. Their tail was ropy down to the thick tuft on the end, powerful enough to break a pegasus’s leg with one whip.
He burrowed deeper. These were creatures not to be messed with.
“Can ye believe it?” A young dappled gray unicorn stallion reared up and flashed his front hooves. “That Fire brute didn’t know what hit ‘im! I jus’ came right up and said, “ello, now, let me introduce ye to a friend o’ mine,” and then I got ‘im right in the face with me claid!”
“We know, Glade.” A silver-white stallion grunted. “Ya keep jabberin’ on about ‘im I’m gonna knock yer chompers out.”
“The stallion was half blind, lad.” A grulla mare nickered. “He had more gray hairs than Marsh here. If ye had fought the swampcat of a unicorn I was matched against, ye wouldn’t last a second!”
“Oh yah?” Glade pinned his head. “We’ll see about that. Noon-time, near Gator creek. A bit of a brawl, ta see who’s really lying?”
“You want ta serve yerself as gatorbait?” Marsh chuckled. “All of the Territories know that Cat here is gonna whup your rump half across the Clans.”
“Well t’at’s ‘is decision, Marsh.” Cat swished her tail. “I accept yer challenge, laddie.”
Glade nodded. “It’ll be grand.”
“Shaddup, all of ye!” Another Unicorn, much brawnier and taller and the color of ash, marched over. “We ‘ad a good run tonigh’, but that doesn’t mean ye can slack off now. We gotta bring the goods back ta camp and then ye can jabber about yer stories.”
“Yes sir, Bobmoss.” Glade said with a slight cheeky grin toward Cat.
Chance nearly choked trying not to laugh at the older stallion’s name.
“It’s Commander Moss to you, warrior!” The stallion snapped, clacking his yellowed teeth.
“How did the runt do?” Marsh asked.
“I would advise ye not to call the chief’s daughter a runt.” Commander Moss said. “On another note, Willowlake did better than all of ye put together.”
“And how is that?” Glade asked. “She’s got a broken claid and she’s half our size! She’ll never make a warrior.”
In the blink of an eye, Moss had bowled over Glade and had his thin horn pointed at the younger stallion’s chest. “See here.” He growled. “I’m in the same thinking as the rest of ye, but I’m not about to lose my job because some punk decided to open his big mouth against the bonphrionsa.”
“Yah, yah.” Glade nodded, staring at the horn. “All right, Bo– Commander Moss, I get yer point. Ye can just lower yer claid now.”
Chance was beginning to understand that claid meant horn. He’d heard that Clan Unicorns had a different language than pegasi.
“Good.” Moss stood up. “Not a peep more, do ya hear me? The one who speaks next will be executed.”
Chance had never heard such perfect silence. He realized he had been holding his breath and slowly let it out.
Mistake.
` Cat’s head jerked up. “I hear somethin’!”
Chance stiffened and tried to shift the leaves more over his face. It was almost obnoxiously loud.
“It’s just the wind in the trees, Cat.” Marsh said.
“Ain’t no leaves, you thick-headed sea cow. It’s the brush movin’ with some creature. And breathin’.”
“A bird. Mebbe a fishin’ hawk.” Glade said.
“This far south?” Cat looked over at Commander Moss. “Ya hear it?”
“I do.” Commander Moss stared straight at the spot where Chance stood. He noticed that his eyes were green, an intense emerald.
It felt like they were staring into his soul.
“I see you there!” He shouted. “Come out!”
Chance didn’t move a muscle.
“Come out! Or I’ll rip yer head off!”
Chance slowly adjusted and stepped out of the shadows. The younger Unicorn warriors bowed back so their horns pointed straight at his heart.
“Stand down, Foggy!” Glade shouted. “Yer no match fer a warrior sech as meself!”
“I mean no harm.” Chance stammered. “I was just passing through.”
“Just passin’ through, eh?” Commander Moss asked. “And why is that?”
“I… eh…” Chance looked at the horns, unable to say anything. His mouth was drier than Sand Tribe desert.
“Lower yer claids.” Commander Moss said softly to the other unicorns. He glared at Chance. “Answer me, Foggy. Why are you here?”
“I was trying to get to the Dawnlands.” Chance sputtered.
A most unexpected thing happened. The unicorns threw their heads back and began laughing. A cruel, brawny laugh, almost donkey-like in tone.
“The Dawnlands?” Cat sputtered. “Why in the name o’ the great Righ Waternight would ya want ta go there? It’s nothin’ but barren iceland!”
“Ya must be one dull piece of limestone!” Glade chuckled.
“And that’s sayin’ somethin’, takin’ into consideration the company we’re in.” Marsh howled in laughter.
“Ey now! I take high offense ta that!”
“Silence, all of ye!” Commander Moss nodded, having stayed stony-faced this entire time. “Insane er not, we’ve still got to take this one ta the Righ.”
“‘Low me, Commander.” Glade said, snatching Chance’s mane.
“This is all a misunderstanding.” Chance said.
“Nah, ‘low ME!” Marsh shoved in and pulled on his tail in the opposite direction. Chance bit back a yell of pain.
“Do ya want to split the fella in half?” Cat snapped.
Both stallions adjusted their grip so that his spine wasn’t protesting with a burning sensation.
“Try to drag him without killing him.” Commander Moss groaned.
“Yessir.” Glade and Marsh glared at each other and both began dragging him forward. Despite their apparent lack of brain cells, they were surprisingly strong.
“Can’t we talk about this like civilized creatures?” Chance asked.
“Who said we was civilized?” Marsh mumbled.
“I didn’t.” Glade chuckled, almost losing hold of Chance’s mane in the process.
“Will you shuddup for once in your miserable leechy lives and just do the job?” Commander Moss begged.
“Fine, fine, no need for the snappishness.” Marsh bristled.
“If ya did yer job right the first time ‘round, there wouldn’t be a need to snap, now would there?” Cat said.
“Since when did ye become Commander’s pet?” Glade demanded.
“I’m still serious about that execution threat!” Moss barked.
(For your own curiosity, here’s what an Equinoxian unicorn looks like)
