Freerunner
Author's Notes: So, this one took me a lot longer than I intended to. Something about writing a story that did not have a happy ending didn't sit well with me, but in this case it can't be helped - as it's essentially a prequel to an as-yet unpublished novel I can't very well go and change how things turned out.
Set in the same universe as my previous submission Tass this does take place very far away from the setting of that story, so no, no winged horses in this one.
Constructive criticism welcome, trolls will be laughed at.
Sasha ran.
Ever since the strange bay stallion had told her that morning of a safe place to hide she'd been running non-stop. Her lungs were aching, her legs even more so, and her vision was clouding from exhaustion, but she couldn't stop; not before she reached the plains.
Around her the trees of the forest were blending together into two thick walls. Leaving the road was out of the question, if she stopped here there was a risk that humans would find her, and if they did they would punish her for her disobedience.
Life as a freerunner really wasn't turning out to be as carefree as she'd thought when she'd made her escape through the broken pasture fence. It had been three days by now, and she had barely slept since then. She just had to get away as fast as she could.
The summer sun was low in the sky when the road opened up into wide, grassy plains, leaving the forest behind from one step to the next. A soft breeze blew through the tall grass, giving an impression of waves on the ocean - a sight Sasha had only seen once, when she was a young filly, but the memory stuck with her.
This sight made her stop finally, and she realized just how exhausted she really was. With sides heaving and legs shaking under her she stepped out into the open, ripping off large mouthfuls of grass as she walked across the plain. The road had split into two, one moving north along the edge of the forest, the other south while cutting through the plains towards a far off river. Neither of those were the destination she sought, and she happily put the human made road behind her in favor of feeling tall grass playing against her legs. In the distance, a couple of hours away at most, rose the mountains the stallion had said would provide refuge.
She had no real reason to trust him, of course. He'd claimed to be a freerunner like her, and the lack of any humans when she'd met him confirmed that story, but when she'd escaped she'd had no plan, no idea where she would go. One direction was as good as any other, and he'd simply suggested one that didn't involve turning around and going back the way she'd come from.
She didn't realize it at first, too focused on the mountains on the horizon, illuminated in every shade of gold, red and orange by the setting sun behind her, but when she nearly fell to the ground because of a small rock under one hoof she realized she'd been limping. There was no way to continue running now, so the promise of safety had better shine true; she wouldn't even consider the consequences if it didn't.
The limp made her estimate of a couple of hours to reach the foot of the mountains suddenly very optimistic. She could walk, sure, but anything faster than was simply out of the question, so for once her stubbornness was to her advantage. While some mares would probably have given up right there Sasha did not, taking it one step at a time towards the mountains, only interrupted by filling her mouth with grass every now and then.
The sun had long since set when the grass slowly grew thinner and the ground harder as dirt made way for rock. In front of her the mountains rose far higher than any house or tree she'd ever seen. Where the forest had seemed impossibly tall it was dwarfed by the silent majesty of the rocky cliff face she now stared at.
"What now?" she asked with a quiet whicker, not really expecting anyone to hear, and indeed no reply came, not even the echo of her own voice. She looked around, unable to see why the mountain would be any better than any other place in the world, but she had no energy left to think about it. Running for three days straight, with neither sleep nor food nor even a moment's rest had finally drained the last of her energy, and she practically collapsed where she stood.
There wasn't a spot on her body that wasn't aching at that point. Every muscle had been worked far beyond its limits to bring her this far, and now that she was finally laying still they all voiced their complaints in unison. If she hadn't been so spent that she literally didn't have the energy to keep her eyes open the pain would have stopped her from getting any sleep that night. Instead she slept through the worst of it as deeply as a foal convinced its dam is watching over it.
* * *
"Who are you?"
At first the deep nicker made its way into her dreams, causing an odd half-lucid image of a gelding she'd known a couple of years prior, but when the real owner of the voice nudged his muzzle against her shoulder she woke with a start.
She was not immediately aware where she was, but as the pains in her muscles started to make themselves known she remembered. Running. Fear. She turned her head and stared straight up in the face of a white stallion with a look of concern in his brown eyes.
"Who are you?" he asked again, a touch of curiosity mixing with his concern, but Sasha was unable to reply. She stared in disbelief at the golden horn rising from his forehead, eyes growing wider by the second as she realized where she must have ended up. She'd heard stories, legends and fairy tales about these almost-horses, but like most others she'd never paid them much heed. They were the very definition of the freerunners, but no one she'd ever met truly believed they existed.
The longer she stayed silent, staring at him, the more concerned the stallion looked. "Are you okay?" he asked her, while giving her shoulder a light sniff. "Can you ... say anything at all?"
It was mostly by instinct Sasha nodded once and returned a very quiet and extremely tired nicker. "Sasha," she managed to push past her lips. Her lungs were still burning from exhaustion, and even just breathing was causing her a lot of pain.
Hearing her reply made the unicorn look positively relieved. "Well, Sasha," he nickered warmly. "What happened to you?" With seemingly no regard for her personal space he reached across her to run his muzzle down along her foreleg, but she didn't have the strength to protest.
"Ran," she coughed, her vision clouding slightly under the strain. "I ... had to."
The stallion continued his examination of her legs, slowly tracing his muzzle along each of them in turn. Sasha convinced herself it was just a reflection of the morning sun, but she could almost have sworn the golden horn was glowing as he did.
"Think you're able to stand?" he asked finally, lifting his head and taking a step back, out of her field of vision. A surprising feeling of being left alone gripped her, and despite the loud protests of her legs she forced herself back up on all four hooves.
She was a pitiful sight, and she realized that immediately. Her legs were shaking, threatening to give way under her any second, and her ribs had become apparent under her brown coat. She was stained with sweat and dirt to the point it was hard to tell her coat even was brown, and both mane and tail felt like a tangled mess. Compared to the stallion, whom she could now see more fully, she was downright ugly. Brilliant white, not a speck of dust, and an air of natural grace and strength she couldn't hope to match.
And yet there wasn't the faintest hint of condescension or superiority when he spoke to her. "You should be able to walk for a bit," he offered, stepping closer and turning so she could lean against him if the need should arise. "There's a cave not far from here, just a few minutes. Do you think you can make it that far?"
Sasha didn't think so, but she wisely kept her mouth shut though she couldn't keep the doubt from showing in her body language. To make matters worse her right foreleg proved incapable of supporting her weight, so she had to limp on three legs while making copious use of the unicorn's offer to lean on him.
The cave proved to be a surprisingly comfortable place to rest. Not only was it mostly obscured from view by thick ivy climbing the mountainside, but the years had brought a thick layer of soil to cover the floor, and later the grass of the plains had made some headway into it to provide a soft place to sleep near the entrance. The ceiling was pleasantly high, as well, the cave easily three or four times her height at the walls, and even more nearer the center.
Sasha only barely made it inside the shade of the cave before collapsing again, panting and coughing to the point she thought her last moments had come. Again she could feel the stallion's concerned gaze resting on her, but try as she might she couldn't bite back the coughs rocking her entire body, she could only let it run its course.
"Here, let me," she finally heard him nicker, and though the cough had her shutting her eyes tight in pain so she couldn't see him, she could still feel his presence above her. Something cold spread through her throat, soothing the worst of the pain and dulling the urge to cough. Breathing still wasn't easy, but at least she didn't feel like every breath took all her remaining energy anymore.
Opening her eyes she looked up at the stallion, but where she thought to see some amazing solution to her pains she merely found him with his head held close to her neck, the golden horn again seeming to glow with an inner light though it was quickly fading. "How did you ..." she started, but was silenced with a soft hush from the unicorn.
"Don't worry," he nickered to her. "You've pushed yourself far harder than you should, Sasha, but you'll recover. Here now, relax. Rest. I'll take care of you."
Sasha shook her head, trying to get back up on her hooves, but the unicorn needed only press his muzzle against her neck to hold her down on the ground.
"You need rest. You've got a sprained leg, and that alone will take some time to heal and recover."
Sasha felt cold inside. Leg injuries were usually death sentences, so why was this stallion speaking of one as carelessly as if she'd bumped against a wall? "I can't ..." she began, but a more pressing question pushed itself to the top of her awareness. "I don't know your name," she whickered.
The stallion smiled, an expression that filled his entire face from lips to eyes. "Krollan," he answered her. "Thunder."
There was something reassuring about knowing his name, or perhaps her mind just sought an excuse to sink into the murky depths of unconsciousness. All the same she passed out, finding a short respite from the pains of her broken body.
* * *
Under the watchful eyes of Krollan, and with just the slightest aid of his magic to stay asleep, Sasha slept through the day while the stallion did what he could to help her recover. He was young, however, and knew only the most basic uses of his magical powers, but he had the good sense to go slow and be sure his actions would not cause even more damage to the mare.
By the time the sun was growing redder on the far horizon Krollan decided he could do nothing more that day, and he went to stand guard at the cave's entrance while letting Sasha wake in her own time. He didn't expect any dangerous predators to come sniffing around the area if he went outside to graze; rather, he figured it would be calming for the brown mare to not wake up all alone.
Brown. He'd wondered about her color all day, and the lack of a horn. Of course, he'd heard about the hornless slaves of humans, but this was the first time he'd actually seen one of them. He'd never imagined that they could be any other color than the same white every last unicorn carried, or at best a duller grey, so to realize that they could carry a coat so vastly different from anything he was used to was quite the surprise to him, and it made him curious about her.
Sunset came and went, the shadows growing longer and longer while the sun illuminated the cave in bloodred rays for the final few minutes it was in the sky. The night was dark, with only the faint light of the stars and the thin slice of a waning moon to see by. Krollan was coming close to nodding off himself when he heard the mare stir in the cave, and he turned his head to watch her wake up from her long slumber.
When she woke, there were three things that were quickly obvious to Sasha. First of all, her legs no longer felt like they were wrapped in glowing hot barbed wire. Second, that it had gone from morning to night while she'd slept. And third, that the unicorn had for some reason stayed with her. With her head still partially wrapped in the confusing embrace of sleep she wasn't entirely certain which surprised her the most, but as she slowly grew more lucid she started settling on the third. He could as easily have left her here to fend for herself, but he hadn't.
Krollan turned fully to her when she rolled upright, and caught her gaze when she looked in his direction. "I hope you are feeling better," he said, again with that reassuring, downright trustworthy smile in his eyes.
It took Sasha a couple of moments to reply, but when she did it was with a nod. "I am. Thank you," she nickered, finding herself unable to take her eyes off the stallion's horn. Even in the night it seemed to stand out clearly against the darkness. "Krollan, was it?" she asked to break the awkward silence.
The unicorn nodded. "Yes. Do you remember coming to the cave?"
Sasha had to think. Her memory of the past two days were jumbled, from about the time she'd run into the bay stallion in the forest. "I ... think so. You woke me up, then we came here, and ..." She cocked her head as her memory blanked out. "Have I slept all day?"
"You must have needed it," Krollan said with a shrug. "Mind if I come all the way in? It's a bit drafty here."
His question took Sasha by surprise, and she could do nothing more than give an indifferent toss of her head.
All the way in really just meant a few steps through the narrow entrance into the wider cave, but it brought the unicorn away from the breeze that had started to really cool off his legs. "So," he nickered, taking up a relaxed pose no more than a body length from Sasha. "Would you care to share why you are here?"
She hadn't intended to talk about it, and definitely not to someone she'd just met regardless how nice he seemed to be. But conversely, she hadn't been thinking of much else in the past three days. Or was it four by now? She wasn't sure, still not fully understanding that she'd slept through an entire day.
She was off to a slow start in explaining, and Krollan needed to stop her at several points to ask questions about life among humans she had never thought it was possible not to know. She explained about being forcibly weaned, and he asked why her sire hadn't prevented that. She explained about stallions and geldings, and he remained completely silent if wide-eyed. She explained about riding, and he asked why horses took humans as mates; then it was her turn to be completely silent.
They talked through the night, and slowly came closer to the real reason she'd slipped from the pasture in the cover of the night. Her explanations turned towards the topics of whips and spurs, towards yells and kicks as reward for misunderstanding orders. The unicorn was visibly mortified as she told of bleeding wounds, and he couldn't hold back an angry stomp when she told how her brother had met his end in front of a plow, literally worked to death. That was two weeks prior, and had been the catalyst for her rebellion. She did not wish to share his fate.
It was starting to get lighter outside by the time she was done with a story that had gotten far longer than she intended it to be. Instead of merely telling the unicorn stallion that her brother had died in a way that could easily lead to her own demise she had basically told him the majority of her life, all the hardships that had left her bitter and afraid.
"So I ran, and here I am," she nickered, stifling a yawn. "Just headed towards the sunrise." She rubbed her muzzle against a foreleg, it was starting to ache again though nowhere near as bad as before.
Krollan nodded slowly. "A very understandable choice to make, I couldn't imagine living in a place like that. No, the Valley is and always will be my home."
"Valley?" Sasha asked him curiously, but then succumbed to a yawn that refused to be held back. Krollan chuckled.
"Get some more sleep, then I'll tell you all about the Valley when you wake up." He shifted his pose a bit, legs creaking in protest from standing still for too long. "I'll be right outside if you need me." With that he turned and ducked out under the ivy cover, and Sasha allowed herself to drift back into slumber.
* * *
Sasha only slept for a few hours this time, just enough to make up for the night spent awake. She was woken up by a low rumble deep in her belly, which really was no surprise as she practically hadn't eaten since her escape. Rolling over onto her other side she got to her hooves, and winced in pain when she put weight on her right foreleg. She remembered too late Krollan's warning that she'd sprained it. Pain or not, though, moving around made her stomach even more insistent that she find something to eat, and while the short grass growing in the cave probably could sustain her, her mouth watered at the thought of the juicy freshness of the tall grass making up the majority of the wide plain just beyond the cave's entrance, and so she slowly walked outside while careful to spare her injured leg. This time she was only mildly surprised to find Krollan standing just outside, dozing but not fully asleep.
The unicorn greeted her with a friendly nicker, arching his back before turning to her. "You're looking healthier already. Sleep really does the body good." His smile quickly faded when he saw her limping, however, but he didn't say anything about it.
"Again, thank you," Sasha whickered. "Not sure what I would have done if you hadn't found me when you did. This ..." She raised her right leg a bit, then carefully set it back down. "Wouldn't want to be all alone with that." She continued past him, biting off a large mouthful of grass and greedily chewing it. She was starving, she was thirsty, and her bladder was starting to notice just how long she'd slept. It hadn't complained during the night, probably because she'd stayed still, but now it was quickly beginning to hurt.
For her it wasn't much of an issue, modesty was one of those things horses simply didn't care about. It was, however, also something she hadn't mentioned to Krollan during their lengthy talk, and when he saw her simply raise her tail and spread her legs to take care of the problem he hurriedly turned away, nearly falling over his own legs, much to Sasha's surprise. She would have asked about it, but she wasn't even sure what she'd just done wrong to make him react the way he did, and an awkward silence fell over the both of them which only served to make the sound of urine hitting the ground all the louder.
Even when she was done, and was again standing normally with her tail preserving a modesty she usually didn't pay any heed, Sasha found herself without the proper words to break the silence until she suddenly remembered the last thing the stallion had mentioned before she fell asleep.
"You said you lived in a valley?" she asked out loud, and her voice nearly made him jump. "This doesn't look like one to me."
Krollan carefully looked at her over his shoulder and relaxed. "Well, yes," he nickered back, again turning to her. "It's on the other side of the mountains, or rather, within the mountains." Now it was his turn to do most of the talking, telling her of the Valley which was home to all of his kind, though most of his descriptions were lost on her. She just couldn't imagine the waterfalls or the broad expanses of colorful summer flowers, and the idea of a herd as large as that of the unicorns was so foreign to her she had nothing to compare it to.
From there he continued to tell her about himself, how he was in training as a scout and was living here, away from the Valley, as a rite of passage. With a bit of a smirk he explained that the rules said he couldn't have the company of another unicorn, a very specific rule meant to avoid confusion about other animals like deer, foxes or birds, but one he was now completely following despite having someone to actually talk to. This seemed to amuse him a great deal, but Sasha couldn't quite see the punchline.
The afternoon passed quickly as he talked at length about the herd, about his family, about his friends back in the Valley. Just as he had done she asked a lot of questions to better understand, and just as he she was shocked at how alien her life was compared to his. They spoke the same language, but as she pointed out late in the evening it was much like having a dog explain to a cat why it loves swimming.
Of course, then she had to explain about cats and dogs, and her comparison to wolves and mountain lions, just much smaller and nicer, didn't seem to sit well with him.
That was pretty much the story for the next several days. The two exchanged one story after the next and slowly became more and more knowledgable about this other world in which the other lived. Morning and evening Krollan would treat her foreleg with a gentle touch of his magic, and with every day it hurt less. Three days later Sasha could again put weight on it if she was careful, and after another two days the pain was gone entirely though the leg still remained weakened from lack of proper use. This spurred her to go for short runs across the plain, and Krollan happily joined by her side. They didn't race, her leg still wasn't strong enough for that, but simply running beside each other with the wind picking up their manes and tails was enough fun for the both of them.
It was around this time Sasha realized that she had pretty much found exactly what she was hoping for when she slipped through a broken fence a long time ago, in a world so different to the one she now lived in. She wasn't sure if she'd call herself and Krollan a herd, but they'd become good friends in the days that had passed since he'd found her, and that was good enough. He had done so much for her in saving her life, and despite his claims to the contrary she did not feel that simply being company could adequately show her gratitude. She was desperate for an idea to reciprocate, to prove that she could do more than simply take favors without giving any back.
* * *
Four days after her leg had fully recovered, nearly two full weeks after coming to the vast plains and the mountains, Sasha stirred from a night's sleep that had been full of odd, incoherent dreams. The mirages of sleep flew from her mind before she was awake enough to hold on to them, and she was left with an odd sense of forgetting things best remembered.
With Krollan happily standing guard at night she'd taken to the luxury laying down to sleep in the soft grass and moss covering the cave's floor, and the same had been true this night. Looking around she spotted Krollan dozing by the cave entrance, and to her surprise the early, red rays of the rising sun made her realize for the first time just how handsome he actually was. Shadows accentuated the muscles of his neck and shoulder, and most of his hindquarters were left entirely in the dark where the sun had not yet reached. He was young, yes, perhaps a year younger than herself, but he was definitely handsome enough to ...
Her daydreaming was cut short when one of the night's dreams suddenly made itself apparent in her memory, and her tail gave an involuntary twitch. She quickly rose to her hooves and stormed out past Krollan, who only managed a startled "Bluh?" before she was out of sight beyond the hanging ivy.
Of course, Sasha didn't stay outside for long. Her bladder had merely made a very stern demand to be emptied immediately, and with that done she returned to the cave without hesitation. Between the one dream she remembered and the short time she'd had to think, she felt she'd come up with the perfect way of showing the stallion her gratitude for his kindness. She slipped back into the cave to find him still bleary-eyed but awake.
"Sorry about that," she nickered, with a tone warmer and more ingratiating than she'd even intended it to be. "Just had to, you know, go," she explained with a bit of a giggle. Her tail flicked behind her as she approached Krollan, an odd anxiety growing in her chest as she got closer. He seemed perfectly unaware of her intent, though, so she continued, walking as closely by him as she could, with shoulder brushing against shoulder, and he turned his head to her with a look of surprise just as she came completely past him with her tail raised.
She had expected surprise. She had also expected that surprise would turn into enthusiasm at her wordless offer, but instead his expression became one of anger, and without a word he was now the one to storm out of the cave. Sasha was shocked, and just stood there staring after him for several long seconds before she was even of the mind to lower her tail. That had definitely not gone as she wanted.
In the past two weeks she'd never seen him angry, and perhaps somewhere deep within she'd come to the conclusion that he was simply incapable of anger. He'd been nice and kind to her, always with a smile and an infectiously happy mood. Now she wasn't sure what to think, and she paced nervously back and forth in the cave for several minutes before finding the courage to follow him outside with her head held deliberately low to show submission. She wasn't sure what was waiting for her on the other side of the ivy separating the cave from the rest of the world.
"What are you thinking?!" was the greeting that met her the moment her brown head appeared through the foliage. She immediately shied back, but not wanting to seem like she was running from her responsibility she forced herself the rest of the way out to the obviously still angry unicorn.
"I'm sorry," she mumbled quietly, unable to meet his gaze. "I just ... I thought you might ..." She wasn't even sure what she'd thought. Her actions had been more or less instinctive. She'd come into heat, she'd seen a stallion she liked, and things had just gone from there.
Krollan couldn't stand still, pacing in much the same way she'd done in the cave. "I take it mateship is different with horses, as well," he said after a bit. "Do you just ... choose a new stallion with every foal?"
Sasha hesitated, and then decided she didn't need to get into humans being in control of that aspect of their lives. "Yes," she said. "More or less, anyway. I guess you do not."
Krollan shook his head. "No, far from it." He stopped in his tracks and faced her. "We choose someone we can see ourselves spending the rest of our lives with. We do not reconsider, once a unicorn takes a mate that is it. Me, I'm just barely old enough to even start thinking about looking for a mate. Very few have made their wovs at a younger age than I."
Sasha wasn't sure what to say, and she didn't even dare look directly at him. She understood what he was telling her, but she still found him both handsome and attractive. She realized, somewhat bitterly, that the next few days were going to be a living hell as her heat ran its course. "Thank you for your honesty," she nickered, turning away while consciously holding her tail down as she sought out a good grazing spot far from the unicorn.
In this manner a fond friendship quickly turned to awkward silence, quite literally overnight. Sasha made sure to keep her distance, and whenever she happened to glance in Krollan's direction - which was more often than she was comfortable admitting - she felt her tail instinctively react by lifting up. Krollan did his best to pretend he did not notice, which was at least easy considering the distance between the two, and as the afternoon grew longer he retreated to the cave, leaving Sasha alone outside for the first time since he'd met her.
At first his absence made Sasha uncomfortable, not only because of the pleasant tingling sensation she got from looking at him was gone, but now she suddenly found herself extremely vulnerable, alone with no one to help watch out for dangers. She knew he was close, and yet her heat had effectively driven a wedge between them. The evening provided ample time to think, but she came to no solution, no easy remedy for the dire mistake she'd made in freely offering herself to him.
She retreated to the cave as well just as the sun was setting, and they both went to great lengths not to look at each other. Krollan took up his place by the entrance to stand guard, and Sasha laid down to sleep with a quiet sigh. The joy she'd felt just a day before was gone now.
Sometimes fate has a strange way of playing its hand. It had already done a lot to make sure the two would meet; it was no coincidence that Krollan had caught a cold that had delayed the start of his rite of passage, just as it was no coincidence that the fence board had broken just when it did, and just as it was no coincidence that a heavy storm blew over the plains just that night, with loud thunder, bright lightning, and rain so thick it was impossible to see more than a few steps ahead. Sasha woke to the first crack of thunder, but Krollan quickly calmed her and told her to go back to sleep, which she did, returning to dreams in which he did not turn her away.
The next morning it was still pouring down, although the crashes of thunder and flashes of lightning had thankfully passed. The lack of sun made the light in the cave rather dim, and the sound of the rain falling in steady streams just beyond the ivy was as deafening as standing by a waterfall. It took Sasha several minutes just to find the will to get up as she really wasn't looking forward to the trip outside the cave, but after a while she couldn't ignore nature's call any longer. She didn't get to take more than two steps towards the entrance before Krollan stopped her.
"Don't, it's not worth it," he nickered. "You won't dry out for a week if you go out there."
Sasha dipped her head a bit in frustration. "Then what? Can unicorns just ignore their bladders for days, because I know I can't."
Krollan chuckled, which to Sasha seemed rather inappropriate, and gave a toss of his head towards the back of the cave. "You've never explored our shelter, have you?" he said softly. "There's a path leading deeper into the mountain, with another small cave. It can be used for such matters if one's prevented from going outside like now."
Sasha was, in a word, surprised. Not that there was a part of the cave she'd never noticed, but that there was such an ingenious solution. In a stall there would have been only one alternative, and that was not a very pleasant one - and yet, as she followed the path that was flanked by faintly glowing fungi on the walls, she found herself realizing that the cave wasn't much different from a stall now. A place to spend entire days without the possibility of going out and enjoying the warmth of the sun. The only real difference was that they were two sharing it.
The deeper cave was nowhere near as big as the first, and she'd seen stalls that were bigger too. There was barely enough room to turn around, and she ended up backing the last couple of steps towards the far end, where the dirt-packed ground sloped towards a small stream flowing through the rock. She could tell from the scent that Krollan had been here earlier, and the warm musk that filled the air made her body all tingly.
It was pleasantly quiet that far inside the mountain, but she only realized that when she returned to the main cave and the sound of the rain once more hammered against her ears.
"So what do we do now?" she asked of the unicorn, who was still standing by the entrance staring out at the violent weather.
"We wait," came his calm reply. "It's not as bad as it seems. I know these caves well, this is probably the best one we could be holed up in. Come look," he offered, and scraped at the ground. "It goes up a ways here, so the water won't run into the cave. We have grass to eat, shelter from wind and rain. Really, it could be worse."
Sasha looked around and had to admit he was right. They'd lived off the grass outside because it was juicier, tastier and it was in the sun, but there was nothing really wrong with the kind growing in the cave. "Krollan, about yesterday," she started, but the unicorn quickly shook his head.
"No, please don't, Sasha," he said urgently. "I overreacted. You took me by surprise, that's all. I ... think I understand what you intended, but no unicorn would offer herself like that, and actually wouldn't even be in season now. So yes, I was overwhelmed, and I reacted poorly. I apologize." He bowed his head to her with the last two words, and Sasha sighed inwardly. Why did he have to be so nice when it only made him even more attractive?
She stepped closer, reaching her muzzle out to his, and gave him a gentle lick along the bridge of his nose. "There is nothing to forgive," she said. "You reacted as was right for you, just as I had acted as was right for me." It wasn't even apparent to her that she would never in a million years have thought of things in such a way two weeks ago. "As you say, now we must just wait out this storm. How long can it last?"
With a nod Krollan straightened up again. "Certainly no longer than a day. These summer storms are furious, but they lose their strength quickly."
Sasha sniffed at the grass by their hooves, then nipped off a mouthful of it. "Seems we have nothing left to do than talk," she nickered once the grass was well chewed and swallowed. "Tell me more about this mateship you talked about yesterday."
Krollan shifted his weight from one side to the other, legs creaking just a bit as he did. "What about it?"
After a moment's thought Sasha knew exactly where she wanted him to start, the part she'd found the most confusing. "Do unicorns live all alone, or with all the stallions together and all the mares together, but apart from each other?"
That was a question which made Krollan blink. "Why would you think that? No, we live in a large herd, which is really a lot of family herds that ..." He paused and shook his head. "I'm getting sidetracked. Why do you ask?"
Sasha bit off more grass and chewed it while looking at the stallion. The rising sun had helped enhance his attractiveness the previous morning, but that by no means he wasn't attractive even in the pale grey light that now filled the cave, and she had to constantly focus to keep her tail from revealing where her thoughts were wandering. "Just curious," she finally said. "You seemed like ... Well, ever since that first morning you've seemed like you've never actually been near a mare," she proceeded, opting for honesty.
Perhaps her words hit a nerve, because Krollan snorted and tossed his head. "Of course I've been near mares," he retorted. "Just ... not like that. Everything about having foals, and mating, is sacred to us - for lack of a better word to use." He paused to make sure she understood, and Sasha nodded. "When I choose a mate myself one day, an unbreakable bond is formed between us, and after that I could probably stand between ten mares in season and not bat an eye, but ..." He trailed off, a red hue beginning to show under the white of his cheeks.
With a deep sigh Sasha nodded. "But until then you're like any other curious colt," she said bluntly, and Krollan lowered his head in silent admission. "So you're afraid that a moment's weakness will make you form this bond with me?"
Krollan looked uncomfortable, and Sasha couldn't blame him. It was a rather pointed question, after all. "Essentially yes," he finally mumbled, and for once it was him who tried to avoid her gaze. "I value your friendship greatly, I've learned a lot about the world beyond the mountains from you, but ... two weeks is far from enough to decide a lifetime."
Sasha felt like she was moving through a dream as she stepped closer to the embarassed stallion and again nuzzled at the side of his muzzle. "Then hear this to set your mind at ease. I promise that I will not ask a bond of you." Her words were as much a surprise to herself as they were to Krollan. "And should you offer to bond with me, I will refuse."
It probably goes without saying that Sasha was about to learn the meaning of the old truth, "Easier said than done." She caught herself numerous times about to raise her tail for the young stallion, and whenever they tried to pass the time by just talking as they'd done so often in the past weeks she found herself distracted and unable to really focus. It was proving difficult for her to wrap her mind around the concept of a stallion whose wishes did not in any way involve a willing mare in heat.
It was no easier for Krollan, of course. He'd only started to be interested in the fillies that same spring, but like him they were brought up knowing to keep somewhat apart when in season. Being stuck in the cave with a mare who so clearly would be willing if he only asked was testing his self control to its very limits, and while he tried not to show it he couldn't help but notice the occasional twitch at the base of her tail here, a near stumble as she stopped herself there. The close quarters meant the smell was getting noticeable too, and by evening he retreated to stand by the cave's entrance, muzzle almost out in the rain just to clear his head.
It was a rather irrational feeling, but as the day went on into evening and Krollan excused himself from her company, Sasha began to feel that she was somehow to blame for being in heat, and after one last failed attempt at having a proper conversation with the unicorn on a topic she couldn't even remember what was only two minutes later she lied about being too tired to stay awake just to escape the awkwardness. For the first time since she'd met Krollan she slept standing up, forsaking the luxury of relaxing all of her body at once. In a way it was a testament to how well her leg had healed up, but that was one of the last things on her mind.
Her night was haunted by more dreams, but this time they did not center around her being in heat. This night she was back among humans, stuck in a dull routine of pulling a plow all day and sleeping in her stall all night. Every now and then the sound of the rain in the real world made its way into her dreamscape, and she returned to stall drenched in water, listening to the constant drum of rain against the roof. It was a sound she'd grown up with, and there was something oddly comforting about it, like getting back something thought lost, however small it may be.
Weeks went by the way they do in dreams, every day identical to the previous, and so it was rather confusing for her to fall asleep in her dreams and wake up in the real world again. At first she couldn't tell the cave from the stall, dark as it was. The sound of rain went from hitting the roof to hitting the ivy shielding them from the worst of the weather, she could sense the cave walls close by, and the halfdry grass under her hooves was not very different from the sparse straw in her stall back home.
"Just a dream," she mumbled to herself, and while those three words stuck with her for the rest of her life, thinking back on the moment she was never entirely sure which reality she had meant; whether she was aware that she'd woken up from a dream, or if she thought her time in the cave was the fantasy.
Whichever it was she did exactly as she would in her stall; she took two steps forward, spread her hindlegs, raised her tail, and emptied her bladder. It wasn't until she heard a low huff behind her that she very quickly woke up and became aware of where she was - and what she was doing. She tried to stop herself by quickly moving to the far side of the cave, but it only served to spread her scent even more in the small room. From there she could see Krollan bowed down, nostrils flaring over her warm scent and an actually quite impressive erection lightly bobbing under his belly.
Now, Sasha was no stranger to the concept of males and morning wood, but so far she'd never once managed to catch Krollan in that condition, though she hadn't deliberately tried either, and despite the awkward situation she couldn't help but be a little relieved that he actually wasn't as infallible and above reproach as he sometimes seemed.
"I'm sorry," she nickered when he raised his head to look directly at her. "I was dreaming and was ... somewhere else."
Krollan didn't reply right away, just stood there looking at her with a thoughtful expression that made her more and more uncomfortable. She could probably better have handled it if he'd come right up and tried to cover her, but he didn't. He merely stood there, the only evidence that he even noticed her scent showing between his legs, and the longer the silence lasted the more nervous Sasha was getting.
"A pleasant dream?" the stallion finally asked of her, and he took a single step forward so he was no longer getting the rich scent directly up his nostrils. Sasha breathed a quiet sigh of relief and nodded.
"Well, more or less. It was an odd one."
With a light huff Krollan stepped still closer, and Sasha found her eyes wandering back down to the rigid stallionhood as it swung slowly back and forth under him. "Well I'm glad you're awake again. You're ..." His voice trailed off when he reached her, his muzzle rubbing lightly against the side of her thigh.
Sasha's reaction was if nothing else predictable. Her tail instinctively rose up at the touch, but only for a couple of moments before she forced it back down and turned her hindquarters away from the unicorn. "What are you doing, Krollan? You asked me to st -"
Krollan interrupted her in the most effective manner available, by pushing his muzzle against hers with a hot puff of breath that made her mind cloud over with conflicting thoughts. "I'm only curious," he half whispered to her. "I just want to get a little closer, see what my peers will not before they find a mate. Will you allow me that much?"
Much to her own surprise Sasha actually hesitated at his request. She recalled other mares talking among themselves about how stallions never settle for just a sniff, but the stallions she knew of were worlds apart from Krollan. And then the thought occurred to her that the promise she'd made was of these 'bonds' between unicorns, and she found it hard to believe that such a bond could be formed simply by sniffing under a mare's tail; if it could it would probably happen a lot, and Krollan would have warned her.
And so Sasha took a breath and stepped away from the cave's wall, walking slowly down along Krollan's side. She liked the feel of having him close, a sense of safety by his presence, and it was that feeling which made her relax enough to allow her to slowly lift her tail up as her hindquarters reached the stallion's shoulder.
"Then look," she nickered to him, and Krollan didn't wait for her to repeat her permission. He was careful about it, though - made sure not to get in contact with the exposed folds, and even held his breath as he looked them over. Sasha for her part did her best to stop herself from winking at him, but even without that it was still obvious to the stallion that her sex was both swollen and wet with something other than the incessant rain outside.
Krollan really only had one problem with this arrangement - as still as she tried to hold it, Sasha's tail kept getting between his eyes and her folds, so he constantly had to move his head this way and that to get a good look. After what seemed to them both like ages he finally came up with what seemed at the time like a brilliant idea, and he ducked his head down enough that he could ease his horn under the tail's base, keeping it up and well out of the way of his line of vision.
What he had not intended to be the result of this plan was what actually happened. Lifting up her tail the unicorn got his muzzle closer to Sasha's sex than before, and inevitably his velvety soft nosepad brushed ever so gently over the puffy folds. This surprise broke Sasha's concentration, and her body reacted immediately by winking wide open right in front of him, leaving a large wet mark right on his nose. Just as surprised as Sasha was Krollan gasped, inhaling the warm scent that was now left smeared over his nose.
There was a moment of confusion in which he started to take a step back, but the smell of a mare in heat made short work of that idea, and he soon pressed his nose fully against the wet folds and breathed in her scent until his lungs refused to expand any further. He held his breath like that, eyes closed to just revel in the wonderfully intoxicating scent, feeling how it filled his head and made his entire body warm and tingly. Muscles flexed by their own accord, and the loud thud as his erect stallionhood slapped up under his belly pulled him back to reality.
Sasha hadn't moved yet, and so she still stood with her folds bared and her tail draped over the stallion's head. When he finally breathed out over her folds she was unable to contain another wink, and then another when he rubbed his nose over her sex. A faint voice was trying to remind her that he'd shown no interest until he was lured in by her scent, but then another much clearer voice reminded her that such was often the case with the stallions she'd heard of.
With Krollan's muzzle buried under her tail, and puffs of hot breath blowing out over her sensitive skin she slowly stepped her hindlegs apart, finding secure footing on the cave's floor and getting ready for what she was almost certain would follow next.
The scent alone could probably have kept him busy for hours, but Krollan's mind was slowly sinking down to a level where it was fully and completely controlled by primal instincts. Scent was all well and good, but right there in front of him was a willing mare, and he was starting to have a pretty good idea what that meant. With one last inhale of her sweet scent he raised his head up over Sasha's rump, the black tail slowly sliding off his face, and from there he rubbed the side of his muzzle down the side of her leg, sniffing and lipping at her thigh.
Muscles tensed throughout her body as the unicorn began to tease at her, but she kept her ground, with tail raised and legs spread for him. Her mind was made up by then, but she was starting to doubt whether Krollan was equally as interested. Perhaps he really was content like this, perhaps he - unlike her - wanted nothing more than he already had. She slowly turned her head around to look at him, the way he stood right behind her yet was more interested in nosing along her thigh.
Craning her neck around Sasha reached back to the stallion, brushing nose against nose for a moment and picking up her own scent on him. "Do you want to do more than sniff?" she asked with voice and body alike, puffing warmly over his muzzle. Krollan instantly perked his ears and huffed back against her, not so much a worded reply as one of base desire. He stepped a little closer to her, bumping his shoulder into her hindquarters, and with a light squeal of frustration over his being so slow Sasha pushed back against him.
That was the moment Krollan decided had to be the right one. Swinging his head up over her rump and rubbing his neck over her coat he reared up behind her, stepping forward with slightly clumsy steps as he pushed himself up over the curve of her hip. His forelegs reached forward, settling on either side of her and pulling him farther onto her back, and when he took another step forward the tip of his hard shaft pressed against her, bending for a moment before sliding off to the side, underneath her tail.
Krollan was, for lack of a better term, unaccustomed to sexual desires, and it's probably safe to say he hadn't once imagined something like what was happening could possibly happen. Sasha, on the other hand, while she'd never been put with a stallion had on numerous occasions had a chance to imagine what it would be like.
Both of them were in for a surprise when Krollan's blunt tip slipped under her tail and pushed up to her folds, the pressure alone making them part slightly and revealing a warm pink color inside. Sasha's body took over control from her, making her arch her body up under Krollan's chest and her sex wink wide open just in time for the stallion's first thrust forward.
At first the sensation was one of discomfort as the lips of her sex spread around the penetrating stallionhood, and she instinctively gripped around him with muscles she'd never even thought about having before. The first discomfort was soon replaced with something else, a feeling she didn't have time to consider fully when Krollan thrust deeper and, without realizing it, took her virginity just the same as she was in the process of taking his. For a moment it felt painful, but before she even had time to react to the pain it was followed by deep pleasure as the stallion sank still deeper into her.
Krollan normally did not get into something he wasn't prepared for, but nothing could possibly have prepared him for this. He was reasonably aware that he was in the middle of breaking any number of rules of his society, but the truth was that from the moment he'd caught Sasha's scent he hadn't really cared about that, and now with his mind swimming in the pleasures brought about by sinking into the warmth of her body's embrace it actually seemed like a really good idea to break those rules. Hesitation was still there, uncertainty of doing something new, but he followed whatever his body suggested would be the best course of action, and so he slowly pulled outwards only to thrust himself back into the mare's sex until he could feel his flaring tip pressing against something deep inside of her.
Arching her back even more made Sasha simultaneously lower her head to the cave's floor, ears turned back towards the stallion on her back along with the rest of her attention. She was feeling hot, which she vaguely thought was strange considering the chill air coming from the rainy weather outside, and the muscles of her passage were clenching tightly around the stallion's member no matter how hard she tried to relax to allow him deeper into her. She wanted him deeper, wanted that pleasant feeling of something hard and alive to continue all the way through her body. In her want she pressed back against him just as he thrust again, and then the world exploded in orgasmic pleasure.
It started with just a sudden warmth deep in her belly, but it quickly grew to envelop every nerve in her body, making her tense and wink around the intruding shaft while her lungs insisted on pushing out a low moan rather than just exhaling. A few seconds later Krollan's member seemed to grow in her tight embrace, pressing out against the walls of her passage while the huge tip pressed against the boundary that was preventing it from going any deeper in her.
For just a moment she thought that was all that would happen, but she was proven wrong when a flood of warmth spilled from the stallion's flare unhindered into her womb, joined by a groan from above her neck to match her own. Time slowed down, letting her feel in every detail how Krollan's hot essence filled her in just three long spurts. The warm seed put out the fire that had been building in her, cooling her and taking the top off the need that had been forming for the past day.
After an eternity in a few seconds she felt Krollan gently nuzzling against the side of her neck, hot breath flowing like tiny waterfalls through her mane and down her shoulder. She turned her head to him, nuzzling back and puffing at his flared nostrils. There was something wild in his eyes that she kinda liked, but it vanished when he stepped back and dragged his stallionhood back through her passage and then free of her grasp. Her tail flew higher when the stallion's exit was followed by a short gush of his seed, splashing to the ground between her hindlegs.
For a couple of seconds she felt incredibly empty after Krollan's sudden exit, and she was left standing as she had been with legs spread and tail raised until she felt a soft touch along the curve of her rump. She could feel him sniffing at her, at the scent that was now so perfectly mixed between his own and hers, and she gladly winked a new invitation to him. She felt like she could go on forever if he wanted, but rather than feeling him rise up over her again he gave her a tender lick on the winking sex before moving up along her side to nuzzle at her neck.
"That was nice," he nickered to her, stating the most obvious of his thoughts first. "Did you ..."
Sasha nodded when he trailed off, somewhat certain she knew what he wanted to ask. "It was your choice not to, and so also your choice to," she replied, remembering one of the stories he'd told her about how even choosing not to choose was a choice. "But I'm glad you chose to."
Krollan rested his head on her neck, lips wiggling at her mane while his ears swiveled around. "I half expected the cave to crumble around us," he said after a little bit, and gave her neck a lick. "Seems it isn't nearly as bad as they say to mate with a mare you are not promised to."
With a quiet murr Sasha flicked her tail against his rump. "So if it's not such a bad thing, maybe you could do it again sometime."
He couldn't resist a bit of a laugh at that, but rather than turn her away as he had before he nodded his head and reached out to nibble at her chin. "Maybe I could."
* * *
The rain went on for another three days, about as long as Sasha stayed in season. Hesitation was dominant with the two new lovers for the first day, but when the world did not suddenly stop existing as a result of their actions Krollan visibly relaxed and Sasha ... Well, Sasha never saw a problem with raising her tail to a kind stallion in the first place.
With intimacy Krollan started showing a renewed interest in whatever he was able to share with Sasha, spending the hours between being overcome with scent-induced lust teaching her whatever he could think of, or at least doing a good job of trying to. Magic was essentially lost on her, though he tried to explain it the way he would a newborn foal it just didn't seem to click for her. The drawn symbols unicorns sometimes used to leave long-lasting messages were more of a success, and during these three days trapped in the cave she learned several of them. What she didn't know at the time was how important they would become to her only a few days later.
When the rain finally let up Sasha found herself almost missing the closeness the cave had not only afforded, but practically enforced on them. Sure, it was nice to be able to poke her head out without instantly being drenched in rain, but with the ability to step outside and the waning desire to mate they took to grazing slightly apart, with the distance slowly growing as they each sought out good spots of juicy grass. Talk soon gave way to just being happy knowing the other was there, though she caught Krollan's gaze turning up towards the mountains several times.
"What catches your mind?" she asked of him that evening, though she already had a suspicion based on his stories of why he was away from the valley beyond the tall cliffs.
At first Krollan did not seem inclined to answer her, but when she touched her muzzle to his and offered an inviting nicker he was quick to rise to the occasion. That became the last time he covered her, and unknown to them both it also became the time that actually got her pregnant. Sasha, by now used to the unicorn stallion's behavior, found confirmation for her suspicion in the way he tried to prolong the act, the gentle movements and how he hugged his legs around her.
"I'm starting to feel homesick," he said a while later, and Sasha just nodded. That was exactly what she had expected he would say.
"So how long yet?" she asked, giving a light toss of her head towards the mountain.
Krollan's response came with a tired sigh. "A day, maybe two."
Sasha stepped closer to him, leaning up against his side and pretending for a moment it was still raining and they were still in the cave, not out in the open of the plains. "I can't come with you, can I?" she continued her questions after a couple of minutes. "Because I'm, what was that term? Hornless?"
The nod Krollan gave was so faint she only noticed it because she held her head against his neck. He didn't say anything, didn't have to. They both knew their time together was coming to an end whether they wanted it to or not.
Neither slept that night, wanting to cherish the last few hours they had together, and while no more mating took place under the cover of night they talked, hugged and enjoyed the company they'd grown so accustomed to.
When dawn came it was Sasha who touched her nose to Krollan's, not the other way around, and she who spoke first. Just minutes later she was no longer certain exactly what she had said, just that it had been a goodbye, and on her way back across the plains towards where she had originally come from she turned several times to look back towards the mountains. There she saw Krollan against the grey-brown of the rocky surface, making his way up a thin path on his way back to his own home.
Just as she never saw him looking back down to her, he never timed his breaks properly to see her looking up to him. It probably would not have changed anything, the pull for Krollan to return home was too strong to be ignored in the long run, but one never knows. Sasha for one would have liked to at least know with certainty that he thought of more than his return the same as she did.
She had a pretty good idea of where she was going, and she avoided the largest roads in the woods to avoid being caught by humans. To her surprise she came across the same bay stallion she had encountered when she ran away, and while he seemed bothered to see her again he merely exchanged pleasantries and vanished between the trees, leaving her more confused than she'd been the first time.
As night took over the sky she finally reached her destination, a small inn she knew was owned by family to her owners. The smell of firewood was oddly pleasant in her nostrils, as was the warm scent of the stable. All the horses had been turned in by then and the doors closed, and the windows of the inn were dark, but the pasture had been left open as it always was, and she slipped in unnoticed by all but a single mare who stepped out of the shadows near the stable.
"There you are," she offered in greeting, a rather forward approach that made Sasha give pause at a distance.
"Who are you?" she retorted. In the dark she couldn't see much more than the mare's silhouette.
A soft nicker came from the stranger, one of amusement. "That is really not important, Sasha. What matters is I'm here as a friend."
Sasha's ears perked at the sound of her name, and her hesitation gave the strange mare ample time to step closer and then circle around her.
"I'll give you the short version, you deserve that much," she spoke as she walked. "You are going to give birth to a colt eleven months from now. Congratulations on that, by the way. Unfortunately there's -"
"By Krollan," Sasha interrupted her, and the other mare nodded her head once.
"Ahh, Krollan," she nickered to herself. "There's going to be complications during the birth, Sasha. Krollan taught you about magic, did he not? I'm going to give you one spell, one that will keep the birth from claiming your life."
Sasha was about to interrupt her again, wanted to argue or tell her she didn't understand magic, but a bright flash appeared between the two, giving her a second in which the other mare stood as visible as if it was day, but try as she might she saw nothing special in her features. Like herself she was brown with black mane and tail, no horn stood from her brow, and if she'd met her anywhere else she would have considered her just another mare.
Then the light faded, and the other mare was gone. Out of nowhere exhaustion made itself apparent, but through sheer stubbornness she dragged herself to the muddiest corner of the pasture, tiredly drawing in the mud a few of the symbols she had learned from Krollan, trying to create for herself a reminder of what had just happened in case she wouldn't remember in the morning.
Then she collapsed and slept through the rest of the night, dreams trying to imagine the place Krollan had returned to but with herself at his side along with the colt the strange mare had talked about, but with day's light she was unable to recall the dreams again, and she never noticed the symbols in the mud. Someone else did, however, but that is a whole other story of its own.