Matches and Monsters

The fight was over. Longhorn stood  triumphantly inside the now singed warehouse, unconscious dragon  bound before and grinning comrades behind him. The insides of the  building, with the exception of a large circle of floor underneath the ponies, was covered by a thick layer of soot. After directing his companions to pat out the few errant flames remaining from the dragons assault , He took stock of his surroundings. A shattered window, an unhinged door, burned shelves and unknown amount of structural damage caused by both the sudden inferno and the summoning beforehoof, He had a feeling the warehouse owner is going to demand an explanation and/or  extra compensation for this.  He'd generously grant the latter to avoid the former.

"Hey Baron, check this out."  one of the pegasi beckoning him towards the drake's side. "Come look what it has in its claws."

Trotting over to the dragon, he saw something trashing violently in his captives claws. Despite being beaten, gagged, bound and magically tranquilized/traumatized, the monstrous creature had still kept a vice like grip on its constantly biting catch. The bites seemed to have almost no effect on the armored giant, but here and there he spotted a small tickle of blood on the dragons hands, indicating of a lucky bite between the scales. Once more using his magic, Longhorn took hold of the snake and pried it from the cold, numbed fingers of his adversary.

Like the feline from before, he levitated the reptile in-front of him. Suspended in magic before him was a large (for a limbless lizard) black snake with two yellow dots on the sides of its head.

The snake stopped trashing and stared at him, mouth slightly open. At first the Baron feared it was one of the spitting snakes of the far away continents and hasty drew a magical shield before him. Yet as the venom never came, he noticed the snake's gaze going over his whole body, his compatriots, and finally stopping to stare him directly in the eye. Mouth still hanging slightly open, the snake seemed to, for the lack of a better word to describe reptile emotion, stare stupidly at him.

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She ran along the street, barely wasting a second to look behind her. Just a moment ago she had been through hell, in the most literal sense. Dashing out of the burning building, she had learned soon that she could move a lot faster on all fours than on her hind legs. Taking quick, short jumps, she moved through the alien streets. Pausing only for a second to take note of her strange, almost grotesque looking bare tail, she nevertheless pressed on to presumed safety.  Along the street she dashed, unnaturally wide cobblestone road flanked by gigantic houses. She ran, until the stone road turned into a dirt path, and houses were replaced by massive towering trees, all surrounded by a sea of grass reaching up to eye-level. Pausing to breathe, she stood up on her back two legs and looked around. Before her was an eldritch wilderness, taller and more primeval than a girl like her had ever seen. Behind her was a city of giants, with houses and roads both familiar and unearthly at the same time. Staying there on the border between alien civilization and alien nature, she quickly threw looks at both ways of the road. The illuminated city, though threateningly large, seemed more comforting than the dark abyss of greenery before her, and with a quick skitter she moved back towards the alien buildings.

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He stumbled through the streets, a strange loss of balance overtaking him. The burning building behind him, he tried to rise again back to two feet to run. Rearing back up, he felt a strange stiffness in his back, preventing him to fully stretch out his back. he could only take a few steps before he once again fell back on all fours. Not letting that stop him, he raised once again and kept on walking and stumbling down between the docks and warehouses. After clumsily moving for what seemed like ages, he came upon a house with light shining through its windows. Quickly limping up to the front door, he raised his hand and hastily  banged on the door.

["Coming, Coming!"]

A strange, whinnying sound was heard on the on the other side of the door, and before he could prepare, the door opened. As he stood there, he came face to face with what should not be. At his eye-level, two enormous golden orbs stared unblinkingly into his soul, surrounded by a strange, open-mouthed colorful horse thing. With a yelp he jumped backward, and started to flee on all fours, all need for two-legged locomotion forgotten in that soul-draining terror he felt. He ran for what seemed like hours, sprinting between oddly colorful houses faster than he ever had before, stopping only as  he reached a bridge. Looking around, he saw a darkened path leading between trees, benches and trash bins dotted haphazardly along the snaking dirt road. He was in a park, on a wooden bridge leading over a small stream. Taking a moment to look around the desolate greenery, he walked off the bridge, and crawled under it. Under there he hoped to go unnoticed by the abominable residents of this madness-cursed place. The under-bridge  was tight, but out of sight, and with a weary sigh he laid down on the dirt, waiting for morning. And hopefully with it, sobriety from this insanity.

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Silverleaf moved through the front door of her modest house, the wet feline resting on her back.  Locking the door behind her, she quietly made her way to the kitchen. There she saw, as she had expected, her beloved sitting before the stove, watching over a tea kettle.

"Rooty's asleep?" she quietly asked, joining him near the fireplace.

"Out as daylight." he answered in hushed tone, giving his spouse a warm smile,"She still cant stay awake more than a minute during my stories."

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Looking at her, he could read from her face that she was oddly exited. Rising his eyebrow at her strange mood, he could not help but to ask.

"You seem happy. Had a good walk?"

"Yes, and look what i brought with me!" Silverleaf reached for the kitten on her back, bringing it before her. The gray

coated cat squirmed in her grip for a moment, before resigning itself to just stare at both of them.

"Now won't you look at that... The cat matches your coat perfectly. Where did you find it?

"Huh? I could have sworn..." She gave the cat a long stare, before just shaking her head and muttering something about orange. She set it down near the fire, and instead of bolting away as she expected it to do, it just stood there, seemingly mesmerized by the flames."Near the dock's. She was completely soaked." Ignoring the slightly depressing way the kitten had probably gotten near the dock's, the stallion removed the tea kettle from the stove and poured two cups of tea.

"She? How can you tell?" He said, looking at the small feline, of whom's gender defining qualities he could not spot.

"Mare's intuition." She answered with a grin. "But anyway, what should we name her?"

"How about.." he began. Once more noting the matching coats with his beloved, and the strange fascination with fire the fur-ball was now showing.

"...Matches?" He said, looking at the cat as if to get a confirmation from the critter. The kitten responded with a long stare.

"Matches... Yeah, that's a great name for her. I bet Rooty is going to be so thrilled by this tomorrow." Sipping from her cup, she let her gaze travel around the kitchen, til it stopped on the clock.

"Your night-shift will start soon. Are you ready for it?"

"Yeah, all is set. I will step out in ten minutes." The cat was still staring at him. Her persistent and unblinking gaze was starting to slightly unease him. It felt as if Matches wanted something from him.

"Has she been fed?" He said, taking a guess at the reason behind the stare.