Her Guardian Angel

"Shifu Faces Tai Lung" -Hanz Zimmer/John Powell

Chapter 3

“Gonna stand my ground. Won’t be turned around…”

And you wake up.

Sitting up, you notice that all traces of dizziness, sickness, or overall uncomfort had left you. You feel… clean. Proper. Adequate. All that fills your ears now is silence. Perhaps... Perhaps it was all a dream. Perhaps your family is still alive. Perhaps Rainbow Dash is living a peaceful life with no worry of death. But something still feels odd. The air still has that distorted nature about it. The moon above still draws no light from the sun. It's not a dream. It's still reality.

You can smell it in the air.

As you look around, you notice you’re in a different location entirely. In what looks to be a hut, dimly lit torches hang from the straw ceiling. Various ornaments of all different sorts hang from the walls. Though the atmosphere was comforting, these ornaments and trinkets certainly proved anything but.

For the first time in what seems like weeks, you take a long breath of fresh, rejuvenating air. It’s only at this point, though, that you realize that you had sweat running down every inch of your body, coating you in a sheen of bodily dew. Your throat hurts, probably from screaming your lungs out just now, and you seem to be panting hard. You also notice that your clothes are nowhere to be found.

But that’s of no importance right now. Right now, you have to find out just where the hell you are. Just as soon as you begin to stand up, a voice calls to you, making you jump out of your skin. You quickly jerk yourself up and take on a defensive stance.

“Exerting yourself would be unwise,
Like just now, even opening your eyes,” says the entity. You don’t dare call her one of your kind. She seems far from it. Her very atmosphere screams distrust and mystery. She’s a zebra. An odd one at that.

“Who the fuck are you and where the hell am I?” you ask, lowering your defenses only slightly. The zebra chuckles.

“Such language, my friend!
Fear not, I am the one who saved you from your end.”

“Fine. How long was I…” Your mouth immediately closes as your priorities make themselves clear once again. Your eyes widen and your heart stops beating. “No… Did you see her?! Did you see a little girl?!” you quickly ask the zebra. She retreats a little.

“I’m afraid I have not.

Why? Have you nau—” Fuck her and her stupid rhymes! Rainbow Dash is probably being killed! You run by her, unintentionally shoving her. As you bolt out of the hut, you grab one of the torches.

After running a short way, you finally find the path, and your massive pile of blood. It was hard to find though, as it was night time. The moon had taken the form of a half-moon. The blood on the path had spread out to horrifying lengths and dried into the dirt, mixing and creating a dark burgundy. You can see faint drag marks, probably from when the zebra found you. Looking down the path, you can see your way to the cabin. With the large torch in hand, you bolt as fast as possible toward the cabin, finding it much easier to run, and to breathe for that matter.

You don’t care that you’re bare-ass naked. You have to get Rainbow Dash to safety. Images of the worst outcome flood your mind and threaten to make you throw up again. You run ever faster. As you near closer, you can hear the sounds of grunting and moaning.

That familiar goddamn sound.

They were in the cabin, and from the sounds of it, they were there for a while. The cabin is in sight. Running toward it, you can see their glowing eyes in the dark bedroom. There looked to be about five of them. You don’t bother with the door; you simply crash through the glassless window, snapping the thin boards holding there. The creatures take notice and start rushing at you. Normally, you would have been able to fight more smoothly, but in your rush you were primal. Uncoordinated swings with the torch nearly miss, but the flame hits them, and they make a clear note of this. They scream and continue to attack you, all five on fire. You impale one of them with the torch, burning it from the inside out, ending it. Another one swings at you, but you duck just in time for it to miss. This leaves it open for attack, a window you forcefully take, cracking the torch across its dark face. It falls to the ground in a burning heap. Two more rush at you. Ducking again, you force one to slash the other, easily taking its head off. In a video game style, you uppercut the first with the torch, ending its existence. The final one comes up from behind you and nearly bites your shoulder. You hold its jaw closed and stick the torch into its mouth.

You had succeeded without a scratch.

The flames threaten to burn the entire house down, so you have to hurry. With several yells of Rainbow Dash’s name, you frantically run through the house. Sweat pours off your face in buckets. Besides the fire, the house looks the same, though somewhat… trashed. Furniture is now on its side and doors are ripped from their hinges. With one final call of Dash’s name, you lose hope. A lava hot tear runs down your cheek. The floorboards creak as your fist comes down onto the floor.

You failed. She’s dead.

Now there’s nothing left. Existence holds no weight anymore. You let a six year old die because you left her alone. A furious scream echoes throughout the woods as the heinous truth sinks in more, followed by another. Tears flow freely onto the floor, staining the dusty wood. The entire room is lit up a bright orange, the flames engulfing the rest of the house. There’s no point in holding back your sobs and screams. No one’s gonna hear you anyway. That damned fire might as well take you. They dance for you. They sing for you. And in an odd display, they say your name. It’s like they really said you’re name. But soon, you realize that the voice is coming from the front door next to you, the one area the fire hadn’t surrounded yet. The voice calls out again, as if to ask for confirmation that it is in fact you it’s talking to. As you look up through tear-blurred vision, you can see something a third your height. Her coat is a dirty light blue and her mane is that of three different colors. You quickly stand up and scoop up the child, carrying her away from the house, yelling her name as you do.

A long ways away from the burning cabin, you finally set Rainbow Dash down. She looks at you with tear stained eyes, and you return her gaze. After a moment of staring, you both wrap each other in a long warm embrace. Her tears soak your shoulder. You tell her you though you lost her, and she tells you she thought you weren’t coming back. You slowly take her shoulders and lean away to meet her teary gaze.

“I’ll always come back. I’ll never leave you again. I promise you.” She sniffles and lets out another sob. “Come on,” you say, picking her up, her stomach on your bare chest. She keeps a hold of your neck as you carry her toward the zebra’s hut. Hopefully the zebra can forgive you for shoving her earlier. You feel Dash’s cheek leaning against your shoulder. Her breathing slows to a much more relaxed one and you realize she had fallen asleep. Who can blame her? Soon, after a long while of walking, you come upon the lit up hut. The zebra is leaning against a tree outside. As you approach her, she crosses her arms. “Look… I’m sorry I shouted and shoved you earlier. I just… I needed to…” you show the zebra Dash’s sleeping form in your arms. The zebra holds up one hand and nods with a smile.

“I understand,” she says simply. No rhyme. No clever wording. Just a show of forgiveness. She motions for you to follow her. The hut is a lot bigger on the inside than it seemed on the outside. She leads you to a door.

“Give her here,
Do not fear.
I simply wish to help while she’s here.” After a moment, you notice that this is the same room you had awoken in. She meant to heal her. With that in mind, you slowly hand the zebra the sleeping child. The zebra holds her with such gentleness, as if she knew exactly what she’s doing. And that’s all the better. She points to another room. This one has two beds in it.

“Sleep until tomorrow.
Then sleep some more.
Here, there is no need for sorrow,
The monsters cannot come through my door.” You thank her and walk into the room. Behind you, you can hear the other door close.

The bed is softer than it looks, and the second you hit the mattress, you begin to fall asleep. Before you do however, you notice the wardrobe in the corner of the room. As you walk over to it, you can hear the faint sounds of jingling from the other room, followed by some muffled chants. The wardrobe, to your surprise, is full of clothes. They all look much too big for the zebra. As you pull one out, you notice that it’s exactly your size. Hauntingly so, actually. You also notice the familiarity of this shirt. It’s the shirt you had on not five hours ago, but it looked just as clean and tidy as when you first bought it. You put it on and, oddly enough, it even smells like home. It was still comfortably loose on you. The rips and tears had been fixed. You slip on some boxers and sweatpants, which all fit perfectly.

Now you’re ready for bed.

Sleep immediately washes over you as you lie down, but you don’t fall into unconsciousness quite yet. Within what seems like seconds, but which you know is hours, the door opens and the soft pitter-patter of footsteps approaches the other bed. You open your eyes to see Rainbow Dash, in a loose blue t-shirt and sweatpants in the bed opposite you. An audible ap comes from the night table next to the bed. The footsteps disappear and the door closes. In an uncomfortable act, you turn your head around to see what now lies on the night stand.

It’s your father’s pistol.

As you turn back around, you notice that Dash’s eyes have opened slightly. She groggily and ever so quietly utters your name. Her eyes widen a little.

“Who’s… Who’s gonna watch us…?” A short sense of pride comes to you. She immediately knew to stay cautious, even in her tired and worn out state.

“There’s a barrier around this place. Keeps the monsters out. And if they get in, I’m still here.” She smiles and grabs the extra pillow. A long period of silence washes over the room. After a minute or two, the silence is broken by the child next to you. She quietly says your name.

“Do… Do you think this'll ever end…?” she asks, looking at you with despair in her eyes. That’s a question you hoped she would never ask. In fact, you couldn’t count how many times you’d asked yourself that. With a solemn tone, and a long sigh, the answer breaks the silence. The answer is one that you feared uttering, even though it was the truth. You knew- and even Rainbow Dash had requested it- you were not to sugarcoat it. That would just lead to pain later on. You speak in a hushed tone the blunt answer that makes you want to cry

“…I don’t know if it ever will.”