The Kindreds, Volume 1

The Eleventh, Pt. 1

Sada had awoken somewhere between late at night and early in the morning with the little winged unicorn sprawled across her lap. Looking at her, she'd recalled a lullaby one of her nurses had sung to her as a child. It mentioned a horse with the wings of an angel who carried heroes into and out of battle; everyone who rode him was victorious. Another story told of a horse with a sword upon its head. It had the ability to taste poison and remain unaffected by it, and so a paranoid king sent all of his men to search for this horned horse to test his food, which he was certain would be poisoned. While he was unattended by his guard, sent to find this magickal creature, the king was murdered by a sword. The first horse was called a pegasus, the second a unicorn. Looking at this filly with both wings and a horn, Sada thought she seemed to be a mix of the two fantastical creatures, and she wasn't sure what manner of a name would reflect that. Regardless, this little unicorn-pegasus shouldn't exist outside of lullabies and nursery rhymes. Sada was delighted that she did.

The typical blanket of animals she had grown used to waking to was gone from her lap. Her heart sank when she noticed, but a quick glance up revealed their ensemble of sleeping bodies scattered just a few paces away. None had been sleeping on the side of her where the unicorn-pegasus laid.

Once Sada had made certain that the wounds from the fox really were healed and it wasn't a delusion, she made herself get up and find a better shelter further from the thicket where the fight had taken place. She'd also stopped beside a shallow puddle to rinse her skin of the blood, but it was already dried, and the rinsing hadn't done much. The marks on her shoulders were still throbbing and inflamed, but the wounds weren't deep or bleeding. She still worried of infection. There had been no discernable yarrow or comfrey to make a poultice with, so she settled with wrapping her cloak around her shoulders. Then, upon finding a nice hollow in the ground, she'd gone to sleep again. The filly had followed Sada through all of it until she laid down to sleep. Then she disappeared and Sada thought with some sadness that it was the end of their short companionship. But she'd awoken that morning to find the filly there, warming her side.

.  .  .

Upon resuming her journey, Sada was delighted when the filly followed her again. She had even waited patiently when Sada got stuck in a patch of sticky bushes, their leaves and blossoms oozing what felt like honey. Now she traipsed alongside Sada as she searched for a stream or pond large enough to rinse herself and her blood-stained clothes in. The healing of her wounds hadn't been a dream. The scars were fresh but fully healed, a miracle she had to keep reminding herself of with frequent touches to her ribs. Each time she saw evidence of her healing, she grinned at the filly and thanked her again.

They had been walking for a time when the foal nickered suddenly. Sada rubbed her arm when it began to prickle with icy heat in response.

"What is it, Lady Blue?" Sada asked her.

She had taken to calling the foal that, as she had no idea what to name a winged and horned horse; neither 'unicorn' nor 'pegasus' felt right, and that would be like calling a dog 'dog' in any case. She had also taken to speaking aloud to Lady Blue, either singing or telling her the many thoughts that bounced through her head. She wasn't sure if she was imagining it when the winged unicorn would snort and whinny as though responding to her.

To this question, Lady Blue just grunted in response and cantered away, and Sada watched in confusion as she disappeared over a ridge. Having no better sense of where to go, she followed her. The hill on the other side wasn't steep, but the ferns and moss decorating its slopes were slick with water. Sada realized why when she descended into the thick, cool mist spawning the moisture. She had managed to walk a few feet before the fog obscured her vision and she had to resort to half-crawling down the slippery hillside. But even that tactic soon failed her. She missed a foothold and slid the rest of the way through the cold fog with a yelp.

She was deposited by the hillside into a wide but shallow gorge. The walls were fuzzy hills of pink and yellow and blue moss, bespeckled with miniature flowers that leaned toward her when she moved her hand over them. Small waterfalls fell from hidden crooks in the moss. There were few ferns or other forms of foliage here, though there was an abundance of sand. It led to the center of the gorge in little paths, where several of the waterfalls ended their journey in a gurgling pond.

Sada brushed herself off as she stood, thanking the Lord that these woods were scarce of rocks and sharp things. When she stood, she realized she had slid all the way through the cold, leaving it above her with the ceiling of mist that now floated over her head. To her left she saw several pools, some flat and others bubbling, before her view was cut off by a wall of fog and mist. To her right was another wall of moss like the one she'd slid down. Rainbows filled the air like vibrant clouds, suspended in time and space. There was also the sound of distant singing mingling with the instruments of the forest. It sounded like it was coming from behind the fog. Sada paused to marvel at it until she heard a familiar whinny and found Lady Blue standing in one of the pools. Sada picked her way over the damp sand and wet moss that made up the floor of the valley and joined the foal at the pond.

Dipping her fingers in, she found that the water was hot like the humid air. Already she was beginning to sweat, and that was certainly saying something considering she existed in a constant state of cold. She glanced around to ensure there were no other visitors in the gorge, then threw off her cloak. She peeled her tattered and stained gown and once-white petticoat off her body, then wrestled her way out of her corset, though she left her shift on. It felt strange to strip completely in the middle of the woods. Once her shoes and stockings had also been tugged off, she walked to Lady Blue through the pond, using the colorful stones ringing it as handholds. She was stamping her hooves in the shallow water and squealing delightedly. Sada laughed along with her excited whinnies.

Lining the pool were brilliant rocks glittering with specks of crystal. Scattered along the sandy bank were various women's gadgets: a necklace, a few bracelets, a string of pearls, and even a pearl comb. She had time to wonder who in this empty gorge they belonged to before a splash from the filly distracted her. She splashed her back, grinning. As Sada reached the center of the pool, she noticed swarms of little white fish streaming around her and the winged unicorn's legs. Gemstones also glinted up from the bottom of the pool. Sada followed the rapid path of the fish over the edge of the pond, which she saw cascaded over a short ledge into another, bigger pool. Sada stepped down into this one and sank deeply into it.

She sighed as she floated onto her back and the water caressed every part of her body, melting the aching and stiffness of her muscles. Her body may have adapted to the constant exercise she'd forced it through as of late, but it still felt the effects. And even if it had grown used to walking, it certainly wasn't used to fighting; every limb was on aching from her fight with the fox. But the heat of the water wrapped around her and seemed to whisk her aches away in its lazy current. To Sada, who Jezebel often joked to be literally cold-blooded, this seemed to be a small grove from Paradise.

After her eyelids had become droopy with serenity, Sada made herself stand from her blissful floating. As she did, she noticed with horror the pink tint her blood had given the water. She desperately hoped she hadn't ruined the drinking hole of any creatures of the forest. Hopefully they wouldn't seek her out to enact revenge for tainting their springs, either. But it was already bloodied now, and there was nothing to be done about that. She retrieved her garments from the side of the pond where she'd left them and began to clean her clothes.

As Sada was scrubbing her tattered petticoat under the water and trying to figure out how her servants had washed her clothes, she felt the current of the big pond begin to swirl harder around her body. She paid no mind to it and just switched to a wringing method on her skirt. It seemed to get more of the blood out, and was gentler on the rips the fox had decorated it with. Then the current pushed forcefully against her, and her feet were swept up in the water and her head plunged under. She spluttered as she stood, combing her hair out of her face, and squinted into the water. She saw nothing. She glanced down at her legs instead to see if the team of white fish had returned, but gasped when she saw hair floating beneath the surface of the water.

Her first thought was that she had stumbled into a watery graveyard, and the hair belonged to a disembodied head.

Then a blue-skinned woman rose out of the pool directly in front of her, naked and very alive.