The Kindreds, Volume 1

The Eleventh, Pt. 4

She squealed, clasped her hands over her mouth when she realized the noise she'd made, then whirled around expecting to find another Nymph behind her. Her eyes landed on Lady Blue. When Sada noticed her, she stretched out her neck, chomped at the air a few times, and wriggled her lips so that they stretched away from her teeth in a very comedic gesture. She looked like the geldings in the stables when they could smell the apple slices Sada held behind her back. Her first reaction was to giggle at the display, but she quickly realized what the filly wanted when she butted Sada in the belly.

Sada turned around once more, and she felt something nuzzling into the small of her back. Then there was another forceful tug. This time she held herself steady. The corset tightened. Lady Blue tugged again, and it cinched closer around her waist. After one more tug, the pulling stopped and Sada heard the sound of retreating hooves. Sada managed to tie the laces into a bow. The corset wasn't as tight as it should be, and it was more than a little out of place, but Sada was quite pleased with how it had turned out. Lady Blue nickered in a very self-satisfied sounding way.

Sada thanked her (aloud and in her mind, just in case the filly was listening) then pulled her petticoat over the bodice and her gown over the skirts. This she was able to tie into a bow herself, with some effort. She twirled so that Lady Blue could admire their shared work. The foal nickered again, and she giggled. Once she had clasped her cloak around her shoulders, she gathered up her boots and joined the caelicorn on the other side of the springs, then the two of them climbed out of the gorge.

Out of the warm mist of the hot springs, the air felt cool in comparison. Lady Blue cantered off once they reached level ground and now Sada followed at a distance. She had come to accept that she was lost in these woods and had given up on aiming in any specific direction. She would begin the day with the sun to her left, but by the time it set it would often be anywhere but on her right. When it seemed that Lady Blue planned to lead her in a relatively steady course, she'd decided that a creature born of this world had a better chance at navigating it than she did. Now she sent a thought to the filly: Find the Elf King. Then she decided that fate would have its course with her.

Holding her boots and stockings and walking barefoot in the moss, she fell back into her usual rhythm. Sada began to sing as she watched the caelicorn kicking the air and flapping her brilliant wings. Hidden between the trees and undergrowth, an ensemble of animals began to follow along, keeping their usual distance. Sada smiled at the company and let the distant music of the forest guide her song and her step as she followed the little blue caelicorn through the woods.

.  .  .

Sada and her friend had been walking for a while, moving slowly through the undergrowth as the woods changed around them; the trees had begun growing closer together, and the space betwixt them was filled with bright bushes and fauna all decorated with vibrant flowers, fruits, or berries that Sada had to resist eating. Some of the tree also had swirling patterns seemingly engraved into each of their trunks. The pale whorls had begun appearing on the odd trunk the day before, but here, almost every tree was marked with them. Besides the trees themselves changing, even the ground was different. In addition to the thick roots that now webbed the forest floor, it had become even more irregular. Grassy hills like submerged Troll heads and mist-filled gorges decorated the surface of the earth, and Sada had to pick up two walking staffs in order to stop herself from tripping as she traveled.

She navigated the forest more easily with no shoes on, but she'd become too nervous that someone might see her bare footed, so she'd stopped to pull on her stockings and boots, tying the garter ribbon below her knees since she would be walking. At least the stiff sides of her riding shoes kept her ankles from twisting too badly on the moguls. Lady Blue, unhampered by the bumpy terrain, had taken to cantering off ahead of Sada and returning every so often for a few moments of walking. There were many beautiful paths of sunlight branching off from the main route they followed, and Sada desperately wanted to turn away from the direction the caelicorn led her to explore them. But she'd learned quickly that the events that came by her self-led exploration did not turn out in her favor.