Wish Fulfillment

Shorey gave Rally a look, silently indicating with her eyes the direction the two should travel in. The stallion didn’t waste any time following behind her, moving as quickly and quietly as she could. Her heart beat out of her chest from the danger she was in, harder now than it had probably ever before in her life. This wasn’t like the mountain she was on before, or sleeping out in the cold every night. If she got caught by one of these timberwolves, it would be certain death.

She had to force herself to keep her breathing steady as she followed Shorey. She looked behind her every so often to make sure the creatures weren’t following. Every time she turned around, she saw them stalking around in the same general area, not really moving, just trying to catch a sniff of something. It made her gradually more confident, or perhaps just less nervous. Every second that they didn’t follow was another second that her heart rate slowed down from a million beats a minute.

The timberwolves could still be heard, but eventually, the two got far enough that they could slow their pace a little bit, only having to keep quiet and stay alert. The stallion turned around and walked backwards to watch them, allowing herself to smile a little bit when she saw them still several hundred yards away but drawing no closer. She wasn’t going to breath a sigh of relief just yet, but certainly within a few minutes she would be able to. The little ordeal turned out to not be as difficult as she imagined it would be.

Then the unicorn stepped on a branch.

It felt impossibly fast to Rally how quickly all of their heads turned, the wolves not waiting a moment to start chasing after them. The stallion screamed as she ran forward, Shorey running just a second behind her. As they ran, the former couldn’t help but think of the odds that she would alert the timberwolves and put her life in danger once again. Murphy’s Law seemed out to prove itself to her.

“I’m gonna die out here!” She couldn’t help but yell as she ran. “If stuff like this keeps happening, I’m gonna die!”

“Just don’t stop running!” Shorey commanded behind her. “I’m sure we can lose them, or they’ll get bored after a while! Just keep going!”

It was easier said than done. The stallion’s legs were not up to this task after doing nothing but walking for the last week. They were sore, and she wanted to do nothing but stop and rest for a month.

She didn’t know how long or far they ran, but it felt like a long while. The timberwolves behind them sounded like they were no worse from wear either. She didn’t dare turn around to check though. She was already playing it dangerously, having to gallop as a pony she decided. She wasn’t going to risk making a false step and ending up as timberwolf food.

It was a significant risk even without looking behind her. She was slowing down, no longer steaming ahead at a full gallop. She was not alternating between galloping and trotting, getting more and more worn out exponentially. She didn’t dare stop for a second though, hearing the predators howling behind her.

“Come on, Rally!” Shorey encouraged, sounding more like a high school gym teacher than a mare with urgency about a dangerous situation. “You have to keep going! Don’t fall behind!” She slowed up to keep pace with the stallion.

“I’m trying,” she huffed, desperately trying to force herself to keep running, thankful that she was even still moving. “I’m trying my best. I need to stop and rest.”

She knew better than to do that though. She could hear timberwolves closing in on them, getting closer and closer faster and faster since she’d slowed down. In a second, they were right behind them, the whole pack running even pace with Shorey and Rally. It almost seemed as though they were taunting the two, and Rally heard something that sounded a bit like a hyena laugh behind her.

But there was a river ahead that they were approaching, maybe a few hundred yards away from what the stallion judged. She knew Shorey could swim– as a human anyway– but Rally herself could not. Not that there was any other option. If they could just get to that, then maybe…

“FUCK!” came Rally’s sudden loud scream, followed by a surge of pain in her flank. Or rather, in her tail as one of the wolves grabbed it with a claw. Rather than stopping her though, it simply tore off, leaving what felt like less than half a tail and what had to be the worst pain of her life. It renewed her adrenaline and got her to speed up again at least.

Shorey cursed, too, as one of the wolves swiped at her body with a claw, leaving bleeding cuts in her side. Neither stopped though, although Rally did start to slow down once they came up to the river. She was not a strong swimmer, even on Earth. Probably the best she could manage was to keep her head above water, something that wasn’t a guarantee in a river like this. Would timberwolves even be deterred by water?

No choice in the matter came for her, because she was being pushed in by Shorey before she could consider it.

Thankfully, it seemed to be a bit easier to keep her head above water with four legs, but Rally still struggled. A river like this was never something she had been in before, minus once when she was rafting down one at a camp. But then she had a life jacket, and no mythical otherworldly creatures chasing her. But the current was slow, and the ease she had keeping her head up compared to her human form managed to help her stay calm.

The water was freezing, cutting both she and Shorey like knives that stabbed at them continuously. The air wasn’t as cold here as it was on the plain, but refrigerator temperature still wasn’t very good. Hypothermia was going to be a risk, assuming that Rally could even make it across this thing.

But that was something to consider once the two of them got to safety. The stallion kept her eyes on the mare ahead of her and tried to follow behind her, but she wasn’t quick enough. Her companion was actually moving forward while Rally herself seemed to remain stuck in place. In a minute, Shorey was climbing up on the other bank and flopping onto her back in the grass while Rally still struggled to get off of this one.

But she could take her time getting across the river if need be. A glance behind her showed the timberwolves were not interested in jumping in the water after them. They stopped along the banks edge, pacing back and forth as though trying to contemplate how to maneuver this situation before sitting on their haunches. It was good, and helped Rally’s heart stop beating as hard, but she still needed to cross this thing. There were a hundred things that could happen in the middle of this river to potentially cause her to drown.

“Come on, Rally,” Shorey finally called from her spot in the grass. “You can’t stay in that water. Get over here.”

“I’m trying,” she replied, not able to really shiver despite how the water’s temperature was still cutting her. “It’s hard to move forward though! I’m not good at swimming!” Not to mention, she was worried about a rough current grabbing her, or bashing her head on a rock, or a million other things that could happen.

“You can do it, Rally,” the mare coaxed. “Your head is above water already. Just push yourself forward. You’re doing good.”

The stallion took the encouragement, and carefully started to make her way forward, making sure her breathing was steady. Each inch farther she got from the bank, the more assured she started to become. An inch turned into a foot, and then a yard, and then a quarter of the way across. She started to get into a rhythm, and moved a little bit faster as she progressed.

“That’s it, just like that,” Shorey encouraged. “You’re doing good. Over halfway there.” Rally didn’t stop for a second, taking the words as reason to move even faster now, although her fastest was still much slower than Shorey. No matter though, because she was getting there.

It was about three quarters of the way in when Rally’s fears materialized, a particularly rough current of the river pushing her head under the water. She started to panic and flail as she choked, now struggling just to keep her head above water. After everything that she went through up to this point, she was certain that this would be the thing that would bring her to her end. That was, at least until Shorey jumped back in and grabbed the fat of the stallion’s neck in her teeth.

“Stay calm,” she instructed as she wrapped her hooves around Rally to keep her up. “You need to be calm so you can start swimming again.”

Rally coughed up water in response, her whole body shaking as Shorey basically dragged her the rest of the way to the other bank. Both climbed up and flopped into the grass, the stallion still coughing as she gasped for breath. It was all she could do to stay alive in spite of everything up to this point, and closed her eyes so she could rest and breathe. It was all she could do at this point.

A long minute of silence passed before a strong, brisk wind ruffled through the two’s fur and seemingly brought conversation back with it. “How are you feeling?” Shorey asked, breaking the quietness between them.

“Relatively? Good. In general? Awful. How am I even still alive?” She didn’t know, and decided not to consider it. As terrible as this all was, all of this struggling to survive focused attention away from her body. That was one good thing at least.

“I’m kind of at a point where I think the world should just kill me,” she continued after a small pause, her teeth chattering as she closed her eyes again. “I know we need to get out of the cold, but it’s going to be something else after this.”

“And I’ll be there to save you again, so we’ll be able to deal with whatever comes our way,” Shorey asserted, breathing just as heavily as Rally was. “Feeling okay enough to get up?”

“Yeah,” came the stallion's reply as she forced her tired body up. “I think… uhh…”

A glance to the other side of the river showed the wolves were still there back to pacing around and trying to figure out how to get across. One of them was sticking its wooden paw in the water, seemingly trying to test it out.

“I don’t think I have a choice in getting up since those things are gonna find out how to get across and kill us in about ten minutes.”

“Yeah, we should probably get out of here.”

“Need help getting up?” Rally asked, offering a hoof that the mare grabbed at, wrapping her fetlocks around it to pull her into a standing position. A second later, she realized what she just did, and started to laugh.

“What is it?”

“I’ve been trying to grip with my hooves,” the stallion said, “but I just realized that I was hanging off that cliff with my fetlocks. That shouldn’t be possible, unless fetlocks are actually supposed to be how you’re supposed to use these things.” She picked up a rock by the bank to test, and laughed when it latched on instantly.

“That would’ve made things a lot easier,” she got out like it was the funniest thing in the world. “It’s very helpful to learn this a minute after I lost our supplies in the river. Thank God I can use these hooves now!”

Shorey only sighed, not seeing the humor that Rally apparently saw, and said, “Let’s get going now.”

They started off with that, moving at a slow but sure pace away from the river and the timberwolves. They didn’t stop again until they were sure the creatures weren’t going to follow them, and then only did so they could examine their wounds.

Rally’s tail– or perhaps more accurately, what was left of it– was not a pretty sight. What was once something long and flowing was now reduced to shreds, practically nothing left except for pain and a little tuft of hair above her dock. If there was any sense of modesty she could’ve had before, it was now gone.

Not that they’re going to be starting at my genitals anyway, she thought. More likely, they’d be more curious and confused about the bloodied mess of fur that was where her tail used to be before it was painfully ripped off. Her flank ached badly.

Shorey did not look much better than the stallion did. Her face didn’t show it, but Rally would not have been surprised if the mare was in more pain than she was. There were three claw marks on the left side of her body, from her leg to about her shoulder. They didn’t look too deep from Rally’s position, but they were still dripping a little bit of blood into the grass. She had a little bit of a gait because of the cuts, a sight that made Rally feel awful for being the reason– indirectly at least– that she was in this position.

“We need to get you to a doctor when we can,” Rally said, her body shivering. “And myself for that matter, too. But you especially. That looks bad.”

“It looks worse than it feels,” was Shorey’s quick reply, certainly disliking the fact that they stopped for even a moment. “Now let’s get out of this cold please?”

“Yeah… hey, Shorey?” The mare turned fully to the stallion now as she said, “I’m sorry that you’re in this position. I know it’s my fault.”

“It’s fine, Rally. Unless you’re whoever that Zulu person is supposed to be, it’s not your fault.”

“Okay,” the unicorn accepted, now finally walking forward again. She hoped this was all coincidence and that Lord Zulu’s punishment ended with sticking her on that mountain. If he was watching them and specifically taking his anger out on Rally, then she didn’t want Shorey to be caught in the crossfire.

She worried that the mare already was.