The Trial of Morrigan Crow; Morrigan Crow's Revenge

Chapter 14 - A Most Noble Steed

She looked over her shoulder and saw everybody behind her has swallowed back into the crowd or had shot off down a side street.

Fire burns in Morrigan's chest as she is going to hit the golden target...she has everything planned out, knowing exactly what's going to happen next.

The stampeding rhino was gaining speed as Cadence struggled to stay on its back.

She looked terrified. Her long, black braid had fallen half-loose and wild, and she was shouting and pulling hard on the reins to no avail; she'd lost all control of her steed. The rhino, on the other hand, was fierce and determined. He had sussed out who his biggest competition was and was aiming right for them, horn first. Morrigan tugged hard on Fen's fur and yelled into the Magnificat's ear to warn her, "Fen! Rhino!"

Fen didn't look back, but instead picked up her speed and began weaving left and right, trying to throw the rhino off. The great horned oaf kept pace but much less gracefully, ramming into other candidates and knocking them over with a series of bellows and crashing noises. Morrigan looked over her shoulder, watching Cadence stare ahead with wide-eyed terror, unable to steer or slow down, unable to do anything but clutch at the reins for dear life.

Fen ran faster and faster, widening the gap between her and the crowd; the rogue rhinoceros alone stayed close on her tail.

Fen was a mad thing, single-minded and possessed... but she was also panting heavily now, beginning to lose stamina.

Suddenly the rhino was thundering alongside them, shaking his enormous head.

"Watch out, Fen!" yelled Morrigan as the beast shoved violently into them from the side. Cadence screamed. Morrigan threw herself down onto Fen's furry neck and clung on tight. The Magnificat lost her balance but quickly recovered, taking a defensive swipe at the rhinoceros. She sliced him right across the face with her long, sharp claws, and he bellowed in pain.

Morrigan quickly whipped around as she heard sound of another piercing scream behind them. She turned just in time to see the rhinoceros stumble, throwing Cadence off its back as she fell to the ground with a sickening thud. The rhino tumbled horn over hooves and then, struggling upright, charged away down the nearest side street, his greed for a golden target apparently forgotten. He bawled loudly as he fled, the deep gashes in his leathery face weeping blood, all fierceness and aggression vanquished by just one slash of Fen's mighty claws. Fenestra hurtled onward, finally free of her pursuer.

Cadence was left in the middle of Grand Boulevard. She shook her head, looking dazed. The rest of the candidates were catching up and would soon be upon her. Here and there targets exploded in the background, sending clouds of bright pink and red dust into the air, coming closer to where the girl sat unmoving on the ground.

Although this wasn't the first time she saw this, it still sort of caught her off guard to see Cadence being thrown onto the the ground.

Morrigan looked ahead. A hundred yards away, Grand Boulevard opened up into the enormous cobbled plaza of Courage Square, and at the center she could see them—four golden targets, placed evenly around the edge of an elaborate fountain. Morrigan could just make out the fifth target in the fountain's center, at the top of the statue. It gleamed gold in the sunshine, held aloft in the mouth of a concrete fish.

She's not going to let this chance slip through her hands again...neither was she going to put Cadence in danger.

Morrigan looked over her shoulder to see her frozen in time, staring back at the wall of hooves and colored dust that was barreling toward her with no sign of slowing down.

Morrigan closed her eyes as she concentrated. She started to hum a familiar tune, Fen seemed to heard it as she tilted her head a little to Morrigan before concentrating on getting her to the golden target again. Her eyes closed, as she felt a familiar tingle on the tips of her fingers. Warmth travelled in her body as she smiled. She concentrated on the Wunder, remembering what she knows about it. Wunder can create and destroy...She wanted to hit the golden target and save Cadence, so a plan of using Wunder to form a protection around Cadence formed in Morrigan's head. She sighed a shaky breathe, as this was the first time she had done this. With her eyes closed, she imagine Cadence siting on the ground with a protection like semi-circle that barely anyone could see around her. She could feel the strings of Wunder she gathered travelling to Cadence, knitting a protection barrier around her. Morrigan was a bit worried that the barrier may not be able to form in time as people from behind them was just hundreds of meters away from Cadence, the Wunder finally done its job as it knitted a protection for Cadence, to shield her from the danger.

Morrigan felt as if hours has past, while it was only a few second on Fen's back. As soon as she opened her eyes. she felt power leaking from her body as tiredness overwhelmed her. She struggled to open her eyes as she saw the golden target just meters away from her, shaking herself awake.

The other candidates wasn't there yet, she was the first one.

Fenestra reared back, took a running leap, as she launched from her powerful hind legs and soared through the air landing at the top of the statue, wrapping her paws around the fish's head, and digging her claws in.

"Hit it!" Fen shouted.

Morrigan dragged her exhausted body and reached up as high as she could. Morrigan reached up as she hit the target with all the strength left in her.

BANG!

It exploded in a cloud of golden dust, coating Morrigan's face, white clothes, and long black braided hair, color of victory.

A harassed-looking Society official came walking up to her while shouting through the noise, "You! The one who rode the big cat, what's your name?"

"Morrigan Crow, and that's not a big cat, it's a Magnificat," Morrigan said as she saw in the corner of her eyes that Fen unsheathed her claws when the man said 'cat'.

The official didn't know that Morrigan just saved him from being teared to shed from a Magnificat as he handed her a little golden envelope.

At that moment Noelle sauntered past, surrounded by friends. She too was covered in shimmering gold dust and held her gold envelope like a trophy. "I saw a pink target on the corner of Roderick Street and just decided to go for it, I don't know why. Maybe because pink's my favorite color," she said breezily. "Imagine my surprise when it turned out to be one of the hidden gold targets! Guess I'm just lucky." She looked back at Morrigan but froze as she saw Morrigan also covered in golden dust as a scowl formed on her face.

Fen and Morrigan quickly went back to Jupiter as he saw Morrigan holding golden envelope, his face went from surprise to confuse to glaring at a certain Magnificat.

"Fen! I thought I said to not go for the golden target! What were you think-"

Morrigan quickly cut off Jupiter's rant, "No, no Jupiter...I wanted to go for the golden target, Fen just respected my decision."

Both Jupiter and Fen looked surprise as Fen was already ready to listen to Jupiter's rant. Jupiter frowned, knowing that wasn't true, but before he was going to say anything, he spotted Inspector Flintlock in the corner of his eyes.

"You got lucky here Miss Crow, but I'll let you know that I have eyes are everywhere. I'll be watching you—both of you. Very closely."

-----------------Bonus Scene-----------------------

The inspector turned on his heel and marched away. He hesitated before turning around when he was a few meters away and shouted to them, "I'll find evidence Captain North, that you smuggled Miss. Crow into the Free State to be your candidate as she is your daughter in the Republic! "

Since he didn't lower his voice, all the patrons and candidates in the hall heard that as all eyes turned to Jupiter and Morrigan.

He left the hall as it was in complete utter silence for a whole minute.

"Creep," Fenestra called after him.

The Newspaper tomorrow: 

"Jupiter North has a daughter...?!"

"The Secret between Captain Jupiter North and his Candidate"

"Jupiter North's candidate, Morrigan Crow's, real identity"

I'm sorry I couldn't help it lol. It's just so sweet and cute to see Jupiter being Morrigan's dad.