Keeper of Life - NaPoWrMo Entry

The sands, of time tailing like her own twisted brood. Of caves that were filled with her own, the smiles of her sister as she returned from the outside. She could see Scar as he slept in the mouth of the cave in his small tent, of his curious ways, and how he was afraid of the confined spaces that lurked below in their caverns.

She had marveled at how one could prefer the sand, the poison, the danger, the mutated creatures, over the comfort of the caves, over their home. Yet once she was no longer useful as a broodmother and Scar took her into the sands the stars told her she was home here. Lights of a million lanterns guiding her, it was her own fractured memory, countless moments in time that seemed to connect in a way only she could unravel. They told her everything, time, direction, temperature, weather. The sky warned her when a storm was coming, and reminded her what she was fighting for. As they walked toward the city she would look to them for their guidance, and because she did, she was always home, among the sand.

And those memories, they were filled with those she had walked the sands with and those the sands had claimed. The broodlings that endured more then their own share, she thought of Scar, of Bute and Yoke, of Grave and Fury . How many had she left behind, had fallen along the way, or died during their hunts? Every one of them had taken a part of her with them and now she feared there was nothing left.

Fang stood, resolute as they hovered around him, waiting to strike. His words sinking into even the stone walls, “Lady!” She tried to focus on him, of his image, a dark blob that was about to die. She looked up and through the air dust formed. It danced on the currents the battle had created, it reminded her of the stars.

'No more,' Coal thought, the words coming into her head as if from an external source. The echos of his voice still resonated inside her, and she forced herself on those syllables. Scar's voice came back to her, “The sand will break even the brave, it will take the strong and the unstoppable. If you do nothing else Coal, know that you should never surrender.”

“Kill it!”

“No.” A saturated white light consumed them all, the bulbs attached to her collar popped and the chain shattered. The guardians staggered and twisted their heads trying to push the ringing from their ears. Valor staggered for only a second, then purged the room. As she did the glass pushed from its frame and shattered. Coal held fang as she dove out and plummeted toward the ground. The last thing Coal heard was the string of profanity from Valor, it made her smile.

She closed her eyes and dust formed around them along with the glow of her horn. The explosion poured dirt and broken cobblestone into the street.

“Lady!” his voice rocked through the darkness, pain lurched into her body. “Get up!” She wanted to lie here forever, to just continue sleeping. “Sister Coal, get up now!” She opened her eyes to see Fang, and pegasi screaming down.

She pushed him aside as spears dug into the soft compacted crater she now laid in. When she turned to face them on feeble legs Fang disapproved and told her to run, she did, the chain trailing behind.

“Lady this way,” another voice rang out, and they both knew it. She had such reliable underlings. They followed his voice, their winged pursuers above. Coal directed them into a crowd where they mingled seamlessly. If not for Fang to occasionally lean on however she would probably collapsed. Her muscles already begged to let loose as her disguise faltered, yet through fevered trembling she continued. Whatever event was going on gave them more then enough cover. Their movements were muffled and she had to tilt her head. When they paused she prodded her right ear and found that she had, indeed, lost hearing there. One ear and one eye down, she still had lots left.

“Lady, thank the stars I found you, come,” Claw said.

He directed them through a back alley that looped and rebounded, it dizzied Coal but she was unseen. It was good, it meant she could drop disguise. When her leg buckled Fang was there to push her back up, to tell her to continue. Small vocal flinches of pain came from her mouth no matter how hard she held it shut. She would have died long ago without them.

“Stop,” Coal said leaning against the wall. Her sickly frame still shaking. Fang came over to help.

“We have to keep going,” Claw said, agitated.

“Son Claw come here,” she ordered and he did.

“Yes Lad-” his neck twisted and he fell limp on the ground. She collapsed next to him, tears welling. Claw's form shifted back into that of Lance as Fang looked on.

“Am I to assume I don't know my own underlings?” she asked.

“We have to go Lady,” Fang said helping her up. In the sands she would have been left for dead, too weak to continue on. Frang practically drug her now.

“Where's the spear?” she asked as she limped forward.

“Safe,” he replied. They heard fliers overhead, passing them and knew the direction of the trap, they walked the other way.

“I ordered no going back for prisoners,” she said trying to stave off the darkness that constantly ebbed at the sides of her vision. How long had she spent at death's door?

“Screw orders,” he told her with a smile.