Boundary Point

For a split second, Twilight felt the trickle of warm water on her head. She knew what she had done. She remembered getting up. Leaping out of the dead tree. The rush of wind behind her as she ran. She recalled how every part of her was in agreement when she lowered her head and set her horn parallel to the forest floor. She recalled the pressure against her legs as the Unneb's appendage resisted, but eventually gave way to Twilight's horn. She even felt the moment of impact, where the force of her impaling the creature carried through her horn, past her skull, down through her spine and into her rear legs as she struck. The grating, abrasive bone beneath the bird’s flesh juddered through her horn and into her eyes, shaking them.

The creature screamed an awful, low screech as it wobbled back. Letting go of Xavier, it tried to find new ground to stand on as it recoiled from Twilight’s attack, whipping its long neck from side to side.

Twilight felt the creature pull from her horn. But something that dwelled deep within her screamed to keep it pinned. To push harder. To go deeper. Shatter its bone if she had to, and pierce to the other side.

The purple mare pushed with all the might she could muster up. Her rear muscles tightened, but the force she added was not enough. She could feel the beast pulling away from her. As she gritted her teeth, her eyes caught a glint of motion from beneath her, where she saw the human start to move.

Xavier, back still clustered with wounds and head bleeding, warped himself beneath the creature and started slashing at the other leg. Twilight could not see exactly what he had cut, but she felt another spray of tepid droplets against her face, followed by a curtain of blood from somewhere ahead of her pouring and knew he got an artery.

The Unneb wobbled over, freeing Twilight, who stumbled forward. Then inspiration gripped her mane as she worked with the inertia and took two more steps, her body now directly over the human. She bent her knees slightly, lowering herself to shield him with her body, and watched the large vicious bird twist and tumble about.

The creature collapsed four paces ahead of her, its low screams vibrating both to the bone as it wailed about. A second later, it righted itself. It whipped itself about, then froze, staring at Twilight with a deep blue eye, still shielding Xavier, her horn lowered again at the creature. The blue iris closed, shrinking its pupil to a black dot with the image of the two creatures ahead of it reflected in it.

Serene quiet covered the forest floor as the Unneb tilted its head at the pony who had caught it off guard. Its throat inflated a little as it bellowed out, grunting over and over again at the mare. Then, it lifted its right leg, only to let out a shriek and set it back down. It turned its head and looked at Twilight again with a single eye of midnight blue. Narrowing for a second, it lifted its left leg, and Twilight saw that it was bleeding far more than Xavier was. It was pouring atop the forest floor like freshly made chocolate into a bowl. Then it let out a guttural bellow.

A memory of her brother practicing when she was a filly wrapped Twilight up. And she mimicked the memory of him, letting his example guide her. She kept her head low and let out a snort. She slammed her front left hoof into the ground, and scraped the forest floor back, tossing a bit of dirt atop Xavier’s mauled body. Not once, not twice, but thrice.

“Run,” Xavier meekly whimpered.

“No,” Twilight said with a razor focus, her eyes were still on the beast. “You got its leg.”

“Too import-” Xavier whined before Twilight cut him off.

“It’s already dead,” she hissed. “We just need to bide for time.”

The creature once more bellowed forth, screaming at a higher pitch, one that made Twilight fold her ears back immediately. It clicked its beak three times before twisting itself towards the forest and charging away from the pair.

The thumps of the creature’s steps quickly diminished as Twilight kept her horn level. Moments passed into minutes when Twilight’s legs jittered, then her rear ones gave out, her rump collapsing atop of Xavier, who let out a pained oof. She didn’t move, but she gasped. Taking shallow breath after shallow breath, the air she pulled in kept hitting her teeth, which hissed over and over again. Then her eyes looked up and saw the bit at the tip of her horn she could see and let out a whimper. She could see it was discolored, covered in blood. Tears welled up at the sight. But before she could fall, her ears twisted downwards, Xavier too was collecting shallow breaths. Too shallow.

Out of instinct, Twilight turned, and lowered herself to nudge his head with her snout, the scent of his blood and salt nipped at her nose. Casting a glance alongside Xavier’s back, her eyes shook as she saw dozens of perforations, each one oozing with blood.

“Can you walk?” Twilight gently whispered to Xavier. The human twisted himself to the floor and pushed up. He then gave a pathetic cry and fell back into the dirt. Twilight grimaced and looked away in the direction the Unneb went.

“Xavier, I can’t carry you,” Twilight bemoaned. She then looked up at Xavier’s backpack, then looked back to him. “Maybe I can drag you, but…”

Then a roaring crack made Twilight’s head twist behind her. One of the lumps of red and orange was immolating, a great fire reaching towards the sky, turning what had been the last pile of feathers into nothing but ash. Then, that ash wafted up towards the treetops. It spiraled over and over again until a bright white light burst forth. The same glorious red and orange feathers now took their proper place as its crest of 3 narrow strips of orange wobbled atop a phoenix. Then, it glided down, flying directly at Twilight.

The Element of Magic ducked as the Phoenix dove past her and landed next to one of the piles of ashes. The radiant creature clawed at it once, then twice. It let out a screeching cry before turning to the other pile of ash and waddled towards it. Once more, it repeated the ritual, letting out a cry, but this time it was like a dirge, reverberating throughout the forest. Clicking its beak, it turned, and waddled next to the roots of a tree, and looked down. Twilight’s ears were fixed, her heart sinking as she listened to its song, unable to turn away.

Twilight could see it was looking at the jagged remains of what almost seemed like fine china to her, with turquoise spots on it. She then muttered to herself, “Eggs…”

The bird finally spread its large amber and crimson wings and flapped three times in the air. It spiraled upwards and took off into the forest, letting out a wail that stung her ears like a wasp.

Twilight watched as the bird left from view, flying deeper into the forest. She shook her head and turned towards Xavier, and saw the shape he was in. His back was wounded, face first on the forest floor, and his breathing was short and pained.

“Xavier,” Twilight started when a cry came from the forest. Twilight quickly twisted her head up at this new threat when she saw the Phoenix that had just left, return. Its body was low to the ground with its wings spread, flying straight at Twilight.

Once more Twilight threw herself up and was about to lower her head. But she saw that she could not level her horn at the Phoenix in time. She winced as she prepared herself for the worst. However, the bird suddenly tilted slightly upwards, climbing in the air for a moment. Then it landed atop of Xavier’s limp legs with a thud, screeching at Twilight. Xavier groaned meekly as the bird rested its full weight atop of him. Its slightly open mouth letting out a hollow hissing sound as it gazed at her with its burning eyes. Slowly, the outer feathers of the Phoenix retracted, but the inner arch remained. Its wings slowly extended as its feathers ruffled, almost as if it were mimicking Celestia’s sun in miniature.

Twilight took half a step back from the bird, then looked over at Xavier, then once more at the bird. It stood proud, its glowing yellow eyes locked on to her. Twilight took a step forward when it whistled with a harmonic crescendo at her, raising its tri-feathered crest at the unicorn.

“Easy there,” Twilight said, lowering her head for a moment. “I need to have a look at him.”

The Phoenix clicked its beak and cocked its head for a moment. Twilight approached again, this time with a soothing voice, “It’s okay, I know you’re just trying to make sure he is okay too.”

The bird wobbled its head for a second, then rotated it before squawking once more at Twilight.

Twilight gave an uneasy smile and uttered, “Bit smaller than Philomena aren’t you?”

The bird clicked its beak twice at Twilight, then shrank as its feathers relaxed. Leaping off the human, it wobbled awkwardly around the mare. Finally, spreading its wings and letting out a fierce cackle, it tried to herd the mare closer to the human.

“Okay, okay,” Twilight grumbled as she approached Xavier. “Took you long enough.”

Getting behind the human, Twilight pushed at Xavier with her hoof. Applying force to his shoulder, she made him turn over. He whimpered as she recoiled, yanking her head back now that she had a better look at his wounds. A mangled mess was revealed to her. Debris and dirt mixed in with fresh blood, each wound oozing slowly. Her mouth opened two, then three times, but only silence fell out.

“Right, Xavier,” Twilight finally said. “You’re hurt, badly. Before I can do anything, I’m need to clean your wounds.” She cooed at him in a calm voice, “I’m going to grab some of those wrappings you have in your bag and get to work, alright?”

Xavier only let out a wheeze and another whine. Twilight approached his backpack, bit the metal tag and pulled, opening it. Pawing at it for a moment, she sighed, then shoved her snout in. She pulled out a small brick of orange painted metal, then a bundle of rope, before finally finding one of the rolls of wrappings he had collected.

Turning back to her Ritter, Twilight circumnavigated the human, watched by the phoenix. Kneeling, and pulling her front legs inwards, she bit a bundle of the bandages in her mouth and started wiping Xavier’s back with the clump. Twilight’s eyes narrowed as she saw the damage the Unneb inflicted on Xavier. Then she let out a gasp, nearly dropping the clump of cloth in her mouth when she saw how deep the punctures went.

Holding her eyes closed for a moment, she gagged. Moments passed before she let out a grunt, and started cleaning his wound again, this time with more vigor. She left streaks of red across even the unharmed parts of his back as she swayed her head to and fro. Opening her eyes, she spat out the clump of bandages and panted for a few moments, averting her gaze.

Xavier mumbled, “At last… at last I was able to deliver a direct blow to its…”

“Leg, yes, good job,” Twilight grumbled, taking a moment to breathe. Then she glanced back at her work and saw that while she got the worst of it, the holed flesh was still bleeding.

“Oh no…” Twilight murmured. “Xavier, we need to start a fire to cauterize your woun-“

Xavier wiggled, then whimpered, “Gangrene.”

“It’s either that or you bleed out,” Twilight answered. She got up and approached Xavier’s pack and started digging through it again. “Hang on, let me find some sticks so you can…”

“No, we have alcohol. Pack it with wrappings…” he trailed off. “Pour alcohol and pack it until it’s taut.”

“No offence, but I would prefer not to taste any more human blood,” Twilight replied, stopping to gag once more, then moving back towards his bag.

“I won’t start a fire,” Xavier said in a muffled tone.

“You have to!” Twilight twisted herself away from the bag and screamed at the human. “Do you have a death wish?”

Xavier didn’t respond.

Twilight just stared at the prone human and bit her lower lip. Then she shouted, “Stop fighting me on every little thing! It’s like you have this natural inclination to buck at everything I do! You’re impossible to please! You only argue and… and…”

Twilight trailed off as she didn’t receive a response. Xavier simply lay, holes in his back facing the sky. She shook her head and looked away and growled, “Please… just this once-”

“It… didn’t… help… them…”

Twilight’s ears flickered and a light blue color flashed across her violet eyes. She turned to the two dead phoenix piles of ash, then at the live one, who simply cocked her head at her. Twilight whispered, “Of course…” her mind flashed: Even their mystic fire was insufficient to protect them and the one that survived still had to undergo pyrocyclic regeneration to recover, profane heat would be even less likely to help…

The branches of the forest rang out. The wind shook the limbs, rattling them around the two. Twilight shoved her head in Xavier’s backpack and pulled out the flank paint and a box that had 'rubbing alcohol' printed on it. Stepping on the end, she forced the box open before pulling out a brown bottle with a metal cap.

Twilight grabbed some more wrappings, bit down and ripped them off, clumping them together. Then turned to the bottle, turned it upright and, holding the sides with her knees, bit the cap and twisted it off. She took the bottle, turned it, and poured enough to soak the bandages lightly. She carefully placed the bottle down and bit the bandages again. Then she turned to Xavier's back and carefully used her mouth to stuff them into each hole he had. Each time she stuffed what she could, then pinched it off with her hoof at his back and ripped it and each time he cried. The bottom of Xavier’s throat finally catching its own phlegm as the metallic scent of blood overwhelmed Twilight’s nose. She gagged a few moments off to the side, trying to clear her sinuses of the iron scent.

“Why?” she said as she was trying to cough the taste of blood out of her mouth.

“Phoenix song… beautiful… followed… trap…” Xavier mumbled.

“… it set a trap?” Twilight glanced over at the back of Xavier’s head.

“Yes… heard me… climbed up a tree… took me from above…” Xavier groaned. “The song… I just had to find its source… I didn’t know it was a cry for help.”

“…and what made you think it wasn’t?” Twilight said.

“How could it be? Such harmony…” Xavier whimpered. Then Xavier gasped, his wrapped hands both extended on the floor as his face contorted. “Of course… It got one…I think… left it alive to call for help… others came… it ambushed them…”

“And it attacked you because it was defending its prizes…” Twilight finished.

Xavier simply nodded.

Twilight looked left and right, and said, “We can’t stay here.”

Once more Xavier tried to push himself up only for him to cry sharply in pain. However, he continued up, as his voice rose in pitch. Setting one foot on the forest floor, he pushed up, only for his back to give out. He twisted back for a second before gravity took over, forcing him to fall a long enough distance that his face bounced off the ground.

Twilight let out a heave, then looked around. She once more approached Xavier’s backpack and pawed at what she had pulled out. Then she saw it, one of the two single sized tents he had packed. She turned slowly to look at Xavier, swallowed and turned back to the otherworldly cloth that the tent was made from. It almost glistened at her. Kneeling over, she felt its texture with the tip of her nose, and it was smooth. Too smooth, almost like touching warm, elastic ice. Bending over, she grabbed one rope attached to it with her mouth and began to tie a knot.

The unicorn’s voice strained as she once more forced her rear legs to straighten out. Her hooves finally found some tree roots as she climbed up the slope, and she pressed hard against them. Ropes she tied haphazardly covered her chest, and were pressing against the flesh near her esophagus like a collar made for tilling. Xavier was a meter away, wrapped in the tent, occasionally whimpering as Twilight pulled him over something sticking out of the ground.

Letting out a heave, Twilight took a few more steps. Along with the cutting pain on her chest, her rump and rear hooves were hotter than the flames of Tartarus, her muscles pouring molten acid atop her nerves. And above the treetops, the Phoenix followed them. It didn’t spread its wings, but followed by leaping from branch to branch, letting out a chirp every so often.

Taking another breath, Twilight pushed forward. She finally pulled Xavier over the slope. She froze for a second; her form jittering from the effort. Turning to her left, something on the forest floor caught her eye: roots. Many roots, densely on top of each other like a roof, almost. And depression in the earth under them. Twilight changed her direction. She twisted and strained as she let out more cries of pain before finally arriving. Looking in, she saw nothing but dead grass in a pile at the far wall.

Once more, she summoned up the strength to pull herself in. Each step burned her muscles, but soon, she got Xavier and their belongings in. Twilight bent over and untangled herself. Taking two steps before falling to the earth, her chest thanked her for alleviating its pain. She stayed still for a while, and eventually let her eyes close. Then, for a split second, Twilight thought she had heard too much silence, as her ears quickly folded towards Xavier.

As if on cue, Twilight heard haggard, soft breaths. She let out a sigh of relief, for Xavier had saved her from having to get up before she was ready. Twilight’s head drooped forward, opening the spillways of the dam that held back all the stress she had accrued. And for each moment on the ground, her body thanked her for relaxing with a slight buzzing sensation. She opened her eyes and saw that it was getting darker. A frown escaped her face, for as much as she tried to relax, the dam was never empty. Calling forth her body, Twilight slowly lifted herself up. Quietly she encouraged it, only for her legs to give out, and fall back on the dirt floor, not like a feather, but a rock. Allowing gravity to subsume her, Twilight rolled over onto her side and just let the floor take her in its cool, damp embrace.

Being embraced by the earth was akin to her first evening in Celestia's castle. The assuredness of her position amongst the sun. The security that only a goddess could casually drape over her subjects. Twilight’s eyes snapped open, and she pushed herself up. She was not in Canterlot. And she was far from her rightful orbit. With a groan, she looked up and saw that the world around her was getting darker and darker.

Once again on all fours, she turned and approached Xavier. Slowly, she stepped towards him, her hooves sinking into the soft ground with each step. Twilight looked at her front hooves and saw small chips, both ragged and smooth, surrounding the toe of her hoof. Her face contorted, twisted as she slowly winced. She lifted each of her front hooves and twisted her head to examine them. Then let out another sigh of relief before blinking for a moment and shaking the one she had raised. The light feathering that had grown danced in the air to a silent aria. Twilight closed her eyes and bit her lower lip, before releasing it and once again moved towards her Ritter.

Peeling him out of the casket of fabric she had entombed him in, she rolled him out. He creaked in pain as he turned on the ground. Stopping him with her hoof, she gently nipped the end of his shirt and pulled, getting a good look at his back. Twilight could already see that the bandages were the color of wet, ripe cherries. Twilight’s ears stood erect for a second before folding back, and a scowl emerged from her face, turning away with closed eyes. Letting out a huff, she turned toward the end of what was supposed to be a tent where she had tied up Xavier’s backpack. Along with his bow and arrows wrapped up in some of his clothes, she dragged each one at the end of the train, so she did not have to go back and retrieve them. She once more open his bag and pulled out more bandages and alcohol. Moving with exhaustion, she turned back to Xavier’s lying body and gently nipped the blood-soaked bandages and changed them.

“You’ve lost a lot of blood, you’ll need to drink some water,” Twilight said after pulling the first bandage off. “Do you have enough energy to start a fire?”

Xavier nodded, “Build it… bring me my bag… I can ignite it…”

“After this,” Twilight said. Then, as she had done before, she went about replacing the bandages. Each time she pulled one out, and forced a new one in, he let out pitiful cries.

After pulling out the first packed bandages, Twilight prepared the fresh set of wrappings when her eye caught something. Gazing at the wound, she could see it was still bleeding.

Gulping, Twilight quickly bit the bottle cap, twisted it off, and prepared the next round of bandages. Xavier groaned, then let out a hack, coughing up phlegm onto the floor. Twilight twisted her head to put the bottle down, and said, in a gruff tone draping the room, “You’re fine, you’re fine…” She picked up the cap and, using her front knees to hold the bottle, twisted it back on, with several slight twists of her head.

She repacked the wounds, making sure the bandage was tight enough to apply pressure without tearing. She herself whined as the taste of both blood and medicinal alcohol slashed her tastebuds, but finally, her work was done. Pulling back, she let out a gag, her tongue forced out of her snout, hanging in the air for a few moments before she reeled it back in.

Letting out a haggard hack, she got up and stumbled away from Xavier, only to fall on her front knees and start breathing in and out with an open mouth. Then she spat on the ground over and over again before taking a moment, closing her eyes and sniffling.

Twilight pushed herself up and walked out of the shelter of roots. Looking up, she saw it was brighter than what she saw in the den, but the tall tale signs of the end of the day were etched into the clouds. Turning to scan the forest floor carefully, she started to pick up stick after stick, and returned to her camp before going out for more. Eventually, she even started to rip low hanging tree limbs off and gather dried leaves for tender.

Once her pile of sticks and tinder were gathered, she went back into the den, pulled out a few of the things she packed in her saddlebag, and placed them to the far end of the burrow, ordering them neatly. “Keep watch,” she commanded, not bothering to even see if Xavier heard as she walked back outside.

She scanned the ground for a while before a grey, jagged rock caught her eyes. She picked it up and placed it in the free space she made in her saddlebag before approaching another stone. And she repeated the task, putting stone after stone into her saddlebag, then returning to the den to deposit the heavy goods. On the third trip, Twilight muttered as she left the den, “Elysia, I feel more like Winona then a lead mare…” Soon, however, finding stones became harder and harder. She gazed at the forest floor for a dozen minutes. Then, she took a deep breath, looked back to the camp she was making, and moved away, turning back every few moments and seeing how far she was. Eventually, turning once more, she could barely see the burrow. But she could still see the tree she hid Xavier under far off in the woods. Taking a breath in and out, she lined her rear against a tree and let out a smashing buck against it, finally screamed a barbarous wail.

Then she bucked again. Then again. Then again, leaving impressions of her rear hooves against the bark. Then she ran up to another tree and started bucking it. And she repeated this over and over again, taking out the depths of her blinding rage and frustration on the woods itself. She reared up and screamed as her horn emitted a celestial glow, and the ring reacted, shocking her, but she bit her lip as she bellowed out from the bottom of her lungs. Her deep rancor called forth more of her magic, but the ring only responded with larger and larger arcs of lightning. Once more Twilight endured the pain, letting it feed into the fires of her own animosity. She prepared for another maelstrom of might when a cracking sound snapped forth from her forehead. Immediately she froze, her magic ceasing like a lightning strike as quiet now echoed through the forest. Silence swallowed her as she stared up. Her eyes were wide. Her breathing was heavy. She stayed still until, at last, she winced, and collapsed on the dead leaves of the forest, her front legs hiding her from the rest of the woods.

Biting her lower lip in frustration, her face crinkled around her snout. She let out another frustrated cry before she calmed down. She breathed in, then breathed out for a few moments, letting the sizzle of the electricity that had coursed through her body fully diminish. Relaxing, her ears turned towards a sound she didn’t catch before. Picking herself up, she moved towards the familiar sound. Stopping every few paces, she would stop occasionally, and buck against a tree a few times, tearing bark off and leaving her hoof prints. She continued this until she finally arrived at the source of the sound. Her ears had discovered a stream. It was pristine, clear, with an after-scent of oranges like one of Pinkie Pie’s dessert phases. A cornucopia of fishes swam under its surface and smooth pebbles lined the edge. Both sides were lined with tall cattails as far as she could see.

Not even bothering to take a breather, she grabbed what rocks she could and finally returned to Xavier. Following the markings on the trees she had made with her bucks, the wind jostled her mane, cooling her as the last vestiges of the sun were about to disappear. Arriving back at camp, she saw the phoenix that had followed them in the treetops atop the roof of roots. It raised the arches of its wings high at Twilight, not fully extending out its feathers as it let out a chirp and three clicks. The mare ignored the greeting as she lowered her head to enter the shelter she had taken up in. Her head turned left when she entered and saw that Xavier had not moved one inch. She glared at the human and muttered, “Good boy.”

Walking over to the wood she gathered, she started biting the branches and twigs she had left, setting up the sticks in a symmetric cone that was low to the floor. Each stick leaned against the other as she carefully balanced them. Then she encircled it with the rocks she had gathered before finally preparing the tender.

Approaching Xavier’s backpack, she bit it and dragged it over to the human. Then once more she forced her head into it, finding his waterskin and dragging it out. “Start the fire,” she mumbled through her lips, turning to leave the burrow, “I’ll be back with water.” He lightly opened his eyes, and shoved his hand into his bag, slowly digging around. He pulled out a silver tool wrapped in black, the lacquer, and a piece of tightly compacted purple cloth trapped in a clear material. He continued to dig around, grunting until he pulled out a small orange rectangle.

“Tinder,” he mumbled quietly, but Twilight was already exiting the burrow.

Following the marks she made again, she once more found the stream and filled up the waterskin. Closing it and turning back, the leaves crunched beneath her hoof as the skies were now caught between day and night. For a split second, Twilight thought she lost her way before a flicker of orange caught her eye. Following it, she had found her way back to the den, Xavier still laying, clutching the orange rectangle as a fire blazed in front of him.

Twilight lowered herself into the burrow and dropped the waterskin in front of Xavier. It bounced for a moment, startling the human with a shudder. The mare parked herself in front of the fire, taking in its soothing warmth as Xavier dug into his bag again, this time pulling out a black cylinder and a small light blue box. He opened it, and moved a small tablet from it, to the waterskin. Then he screwed on the black cylinder to the top of the bag. Finally, letting it sit on its side for a few minutes before lightly shaking it, he put his lips on the other end of the black cylinder, and started to chug.

Crackling sounds blanketed the two as their shadows danced behind them. Twilight got up, and quickly walked over to look at Xavier’s back as the fire flickered to the beat of her steps. She let out a sigh of relief, as her eyes saw that the bandages still had a healthy helping of cotton white on them.

“Looks like the bleeding finally stopped,” Twilight said, stepping away from Xavier and approaching the fire.

Xavier’s eyes weakly opened and stared at Twilight with a glazed look, saying “Your horn… blood,” as he let the augmented waterskin fall to the side.

Twilight’s ears folded back, she tried to make a sound, but nothing came out as her eyes turned to the abyss of red and orange ahead of her. Then, she slowly turned to Xavier, tears dripping from her eyes.

“Thank you,” he said, taking deep breaths. “Your secret, your horn, was used in violence. I swear, I will never tell another soul…” he trailed off. “As long as I have life in me, your horn… will have never…” Xavier groaned, then with a thud, rolled sideways like a ragdoll onto the forest floor. “You are not a blood horn. I’m… going to bed now.”

Twilight turned at Xavier, pursed her lips, then winced as she turned back to the fire, “I wish I could believe you.”

As she closed her eyes, the roots above them shook. She jumped up, staring at the sky, only to realize it was the Phoenix that had followed them. It landed on the roots and perched above the fire. Then turned downwards into the encampment to look at Twilight with its shining eyes, pinning at the mare before it flew up to a branch, and parked itself high above the two.

“Fine,” Twilight said, “You take first watch,” and just like Xavier, she let her muscles relax, falling to the ground with a thud in front of the fire, letting sleep come to claim her.