Call Him Steve

No more.

His hooves skidded to a stop on the forested ground, the stubborn betrayal of the limits of his endurance having done the one order that his instinct...

...His fear...

...would never let him carry out.

The darkness behind stopped with him. The tendrils of its shadows raised off the ground, flicking of the edge of his coat. The shadows moved and writhed around him, warping and twisting near the now sparking feeble light of his horn, waiting for the few precious moments left before nothing remained.

He had been hunted before. The wilds that existed everywhere were full of creatures, and he had known for years that he was not beyond the reach of the entangling web of life. Most would give up in the hunt if the prey in question was untouchable.

So...

Slanted violet eyes searched in the darkness, searching for a face, anything, of what had hunted him all this time. All he saw were six dead laughing eyes, tiny pricks of light that waited for his strength to give.

A small desperate huff escaped him. He would be lying to say he had never thought about death. But after having died so many times already, the thought of a permanent death had slinked to only the furthest reaches of his mind. Hours ago, he didn't pay any mind to whether the thing had killed him or not. Now he merely stood in his place, giving up the light that stood at his horn. It lingered on the edge before disappeared, refusing to believe that he would give up after so long.

So you are my end...

The shadows simply stopped as they were, as though frozen in time. The dead eyes titled to one side. Was it a trick? The prey had put up an entertaining fight for so long. But now it was just being boring. In an instant the shadows writhed to life, rearing above the treeline, stark black among even amongst the twilit sky.

Six dead eyes in starry skies...

Three gaping maws upon them lie...

Living flesh and bone they sought...

And not one thing left to rot.

A sharp pain suddenly crashed through his skull, driving his vision to tunnel. For a moment he staggered until he finally collapsed to the ground.

And he could have sworn he heard voices...