Wingbeats

15: Fire... The Unexpected Party Favor

Nox had expected some hoopla over his wings. He had expected to be attacked and he had expected to engage in some sort of fight.

He had not expected to suddenly burst into ghostly black flames.

That was new.

One moment he had been about to rip Whyle in half with his new talons (he still wasn't sure what was up with them, but he wasn't about to question suddenly having the ability to eviscerate someone he hated), and the next fire coated his vision like screen between his eyes and the world beyond. It tickled, and he could smell the air turn to carbon as the fire crackled, so he had panicked.

A fact he was internally embarrassed about almost two seconds later when he realized he was fine. He wasn't burning alive, and not only that, he felt as if he had just ingested enough caffeine to make him the equivalent of a pegasus bolt of lightning.

And then he felt the air whirl about him, looking down barely in time to realize it was Angel before she slammed into Whyle with enough force that something HAD to have been broken.

He also realized, rather dumbly, thoughts returning to fight mode, that had she not slammed into the black unicorn, he would have been impaled. They tussled in the dirt furiously, Angel's wings beating against Whyle in wave after wave of dirt and debris, both of them shrieking.

Angel had switched places with Nox.

"Get out of here!" She bellowed, dodging Whyle's horn and bulling him away from the still aflame Nox. The woodland seemed to zero in on their fight, drawing in a ring of armored unicorns and other horses who kept distance from Nox's fire. They knew they could eventually corner the slim white mare, but the demonic flaming pegasus was out of bounds.

Angel knew that too.

And she was doing her best to exploit that even as Nox scrambled to join the fight.

"GO!"

Whyle blew through Angel with a roar, but Nox was airborne. Up where no unicorn could reach, and then above the trees and powering away.