Sometimes we all need a little fantasy to help survive the reality
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She/her
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Post by Pippin on May 25, 2023 18:42:29 GMT -7
TW: Mention of violence and gore
The young colt didn’t understand what was going on. Mother had left him and his sister with father and then left. Nyko didn’t know how long ago that was now. His twin said she didn’t think she was coming back but Nyko still held out hope they would see her again. But they had left home and now Nyko was scared. If mother wanted to come back how would she find them now? The adults said this trip was for his father, to find someone who could help heal him. Nyko had to admit he didn’t like how father was right now. It almost felt as if father had left as well even though he was still with them. So maybe things would end up oaky after all, even if mother didn’t come back, hopefully father would be back to normal.
They where always on the move, though the pace was slow and plodding as the adults cared for father. Nyko was happy his twin was with him and spent most his time playing with her, pestering his slightly older half siblings and cousins or asking the adults endless questions. He could tell that the adults where worried, especially his grandfather Roman. Days past but for the young colt time didn’t hold much sway, one day was much the same as the next. With the only change being the place they bed down for at night.
Eventually though something did change. They stopped moving and Nyko saw other horses sometimes talking with Roman or being shown to father. Nyko was kept away from the strangers and for the most part he didn’t really care. All he hoped for was that he would have father back soon.
He was sleeping fitfully one night when something woke him up. At first Nyko wasn’t sure what it was as he lifted his small head blinking in the dark night. Then he saw three large shadows leaving the cleaning they all slept within. He knew at once one of the shapes was his father by the way the shadow moved. Nyko laid his head back down and almost went back to sleep, but the sight of his father leaving with the two others would not leave the young colts mind and eventually he got up as carefully as could. Heart pounding Nyko looked down at his twin still sleeping soundly before turning and heading in the same direction he had seen his father being led too and crept after them.
After several minutes of stumbling around in the dark without finding where his father had gone Nyko was about ready to turn around and go back to sleep. That was when he heard the low murmuring of voices. Nyko crept forward, not daring to even breath as he entered a thick clump of trees and underbrush. The sound grew as he went deeper. He paused as the trees on either side fell away and a small hidden clearing was before him. He spotted his grandfather standing off to the side and his father laying on the ground at the hooves of a stranger. A large shadowed creature lay on the ground next to his father.
Nyko let his gaze shift from the unmoving form of his father and took in the stranger looming over him. The horse, Nyko couldn’t tell if it was a mare or stallion, was coved in bones. From head to hoof. A skull of some animal the young colt didn’t know covered the horses face and bits of bone where tired into mane and tail so that as the beast moved all you could hear was the clicking and clacking of bones. A soft moan came from where his father lay on the ground and Nyko tore his eyes away from the stranger back to his father. It was then that Nyko saw what was truly laying besides his father. It was bleeding, from a million gashes that covered it in blood. There was so much blood the earth under both bodies was stained black from it. The bone horse lifted a front hoof and struck the creature again. With horror Nyko turned his gaze to his grandfather, but the stallion was just standing there not doing anything at all. Watching. The bone horse had started chanting something, a low almost musical tilt to the voice and the young colts eyes darted back to the bloody scene playing out in the middle of the cleaning. Then suddenly the bone horse looked up, eyes scanning the tree line. Nyko could swear its eyes met his. He backed away and turned and ran, all the way back to his sleeping family. The sound of hooves beating flesh and the strange song like chant accompanied by the music of rattling bones seemed to follow him all the way back to safety. Shaking the young colt laid back down, but sleep would not find him again that night as the image of his father laying unmoving on the ground with the bloody and broken creature and the bone horse standing over it all played in his mind over and over and over. It would be many days before he saw his father again, almost acting like his old self again. And even though Nyko was happy to have his father back he knew the nightmare of whatever he been done that night would be with him forever.
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