//------------------------------//
// Rest Experience 2: Foalish Phrasing 
// Story: Equestria Was Merely a Setback! 
// by Thunderscourge 
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A/N: Special thanks to Refferee, nioniosbbbb, SilentMech, Tinee_The_TinCan, Ketvirtas, The1templar, zsewqthewolf, and Ozymandias42 for the comments last chapter! They are very much appreciated, and I hope to hear from you all again this chapter.

I hope you all enjoy, and please leave your thoughts in the comments below!






The rush from Silvermoon to the nearby settlement known as Fairbreeze Village was brief, but it revealed something to Kael and Trixie they had not pondered previously. Outside the city and by the edge of the forest was a stretch of blackened land where bones lay strewn about, and a consultation with the map provided to them by Reuenthal named the place as “the Dead Scar”. Fittingly named, it unnerved the two worried Elves as they looked back at it from the safety of the forest, though only Trixie mentally linked it to the invasion of the Scourge they had learned of. Kael was too preoccupied with thoughts of his alternate self to entertain such other thoughts, and so it was Trixie alone who was burdened by the thoughts of how that land once was where their fellow Elves were cut down and massacred by the dreadful undead.

Upon reaching Fairbreeze, which only really a two floored inn with some small structures by it, the two travelers considered what to do next. Reuenthal wanted them to keep fleeing, and there likely was some form of transportation from the area as a result of that fact, but that likelihood was extinguished by the lack of people to be seen there. It seemed that, given a glance to a nearby path, that the people of the settlement all had left to head to Silvermoon in seeming concern for what was happening there. 

A more paragon part of Trixie wanted to warn those rushing to the city, but the rest of her kept her mouth shut. Drawing attention to herself and her companion could lead to both of them being in danger, and it was likely these Elves would turn back after hearing the clash of metal and battle in the city.

At least, that’s what she told herself as she and Kael approached the inn. Only one person was to be found inside, a woman who appeared to be in charge of the establishment, and she greeted the two dryly before telling them that they were out of luck if they wanted a room or a ride since the Dragonhawk master had left to go help in the Silvermoon crisis.

“Are you sure there is nowhere we can sleep?”

At Trixie’s attempt to plead the innkeeper paused and began to rethink the situation at Fairbreeze. After a moment she realized that one of her tenants had left at the first sound of danger, and likely would not be returning despite having paid his fees for the night.

Seeing as someone already paid for the room, the innkeeper granted it to them for free, and they both made haste upstairs as soon as they were granted permission to do so. The reason for the speed lay in their fortune in the area being deserted, which meant that if they hid right away that no-one would likely encounter them and thusly reveal their identity, which the innkeeper did not seem to be aware of given Kael’s red mask and how it seemed to shroud his face well enough.

Mentally exhausted despite their short day, due in part to both their odd sleep schedule and the events of the previous hour, Kael made way to the bed provided to them and made his intention of sleeping clear by stretching out and yawning loudly.

“I am going to rest now. You should see about coming to be soon as well, Trixie, so that we may begin at tomorrow’s early dawn freshly and leave at the most opportune moment. I do not wish to linger here for long lest that…man…come by and harass us.”

Trixie nodded and, while just as tired for the same reasons, did not wish to sleep just yet. She, like Kael, was worried about the Kael from Outlands they had seen, and a part of her wanted to be awake just in case something came their way. The most likely time of conflict would be the next few hours, and she wouldn’t mind forsaking that much rest if it meant being ready for those who would seek to hunt them.

Of course, her pride would not allow her to reveal this concern and care for Kael, who she was about to lose sleep over in an effort to protect them both, so she masked it with her reason for staying up later the night prior.

“Fine, rest now, I’ll join you soon enough. I want to do at least a little more reading before I do so though.”

Kael wasn’t entirely sure he bought her words, but he did not care. Daylight was still shining outside, yet he felt an ache in his head he could not shake. He’d have likened it to the sensation of magic withdrawal he felt previously except for the fact that his mind was too focused on sleeping to notice.

So, Kael went to bed as Trixie opened up her book to a random page and began reciting words beyond her comprehension, providing a soft tune of sorts for the man to fall asleep to with her voice.

He could see himself falling asleep to that sound this night, the next night, and every night after. If the prince had not been distraught over recent events, he’d have actually considered himself happy by the full realization of his feelings concerning a particular awkward woman whose mannerisms were so out of this world that he couldn’t help but be entertained and amused.





Kael fully expected to have at least two limbs hugged around him when he woke up early the next morning. Trixie was put off by everything just like he was, only from a different perspective, and so he had expected (and hoped) she would seek physical comfort that night by wrapping her arms around him.

So when Kael brought a hand to touch one of the limbs on top of him, he was surprised to feel that beneath the soft covers he was feeling fur. His groggy eyes batted open slowly as he ran his hand down the limb on top of his body until he reached one end, at which point his eyes shot open completely.

He had just touched a warm, furry being’s chest. Not an Elf.

Kael removed the limb, which he soon found out was a leg, from on top of him and moved himself to better look at what was sleeping beside him.

He sat up and groaned as he realized that he was not, in fact, being cuddled by his companion of the past few days.

“Trixie, why is there a discolored horse in our bed?”

Beside him was a miniature horse, just at the size where one could comfortably ride, sleeping next to him in the large bed he and Trixie had been provided. Its fur was blue, just barely noticeable in the faint light creaking into the room from the early morning, and it reacted to his moving of its leg and hoof by stretching it back out and poking him with its soft foot.

Why was there a horse in his bed? Why wasn’t Trixie responding? Had she left in the middle of the night and left this here as a prank?

Kael began to grow worried by the lack of response he was receiving, so he began to look around to room in the hope of finding Trixie laying somewhere as if she fell asleep in the wrong spot and this horse was just some random joke from the innkeeper, “Trixie?”

“Yeah, yeah, I can hear you, I’m trying to sleep…”

That made Kael’s spine shiver. He thought he heard that from right beside him, and since he had not been looking he had not seen it, but…

Kael looked down at the horse and furrowed his brow, worried that it did perhaps respond to him, “Did you just…”

The horse, or rather pony given its size, let out a yawn before poking him again with a hoof as it stretched out in a sleep manner. It tried curling its head into its chest before placing the more emotive leg over its eyes.

“My head hurts and I didn’t even drink last night…” it said with what was definitely Trixie’s voice, only to then peek out through the leg it put over its eyes, “Where is this horse you speak of?”

Shocked and unsure about how to respond, Kael tried to find a rational explanation for this in his mind only to come up with none. The horse was talking. Talking with Trixie’s voice as if it was her.

“…look at your hand.”

The horse, which seemed to be Trixie given its responsiveness and voice, put its hoof lazily in front of its face again, “What’s wrong with it?”

Kael did not even need to respond before the horse-Trixie yelped and jumped up suddenly, its movement nearly knocking Kael off the bed. He realized just as she did this that he was right on the edge, no doubt pushed there by the large being who also populated the bed, and struggled to keep himself from falling over completely as this pony-Trixie began looking itself over.

Its eyes were the same shade of purple as Trixie’s eyes shone before, and its mane was actually an exact replica albeit bigger of how it had been as an Elf. The silver-blue mane was of course partially distorted by bed-hair, but it held the recognizable shape it had previously had, though none of this was of course any comfort to Trixie who began to panic at this sudden change, “What did you do to me? Why do I have a hoof!?”

Kael didn’t like being accused, though he was just as baffled as she was by this. Why was she a horse now? “Don’t look at me! I didn’t expect to wake up with a horse next to me!”

Trixie stopped her panic just long enough to realize that she was glad she removed her clothes before going to bed sans her underwear, as the robes that lay at the end of the bed lazily would undoubtedly not fit her in this body. Her bra had come undone during the night at some point, and her underpants also were removed by her transformation. This fact was more embarrassing for Kael than it was Trixie, but she noted it all nonetheless as she sat with the covers draping over her back, “These clothes don’t really fit me anymore. Just when I was getting used to wearing them…”

“I noticed,” Kael noted as he turned his head away, not wanting to see anything scandalous because of this random event, even using the purple blanket they had been sleeping under to shield her from his view. After a moment of this, he took a peek at her face only to notice that something was sticking out from the top of it that he hadn’t thought of before, “You’re a Unicorn too! I’m glad you didn’t gouge out my eye in the middle of the night!”

Trixie brought a hoof up to her head and touched the horn protruding from her head, only to realize the strong and pointed object was most certainly there, “Oh, that,” realizing that Kael seemed even more put of by her change than her, and also not liking the feeling of being judged, Trixie pointed the horn at him, “Watch what you say or I’ll do it now.”

Kael held his hands up defensively, “Can we question why you are a horse now?”

“I don’t know. Why are you an Elf?” Trixie retorted smarmily, finding herself more and more comfortable in this body with each passing second. It felt normal and natural, much unlike the feeling she had when waking up as an Elf.

“Seriously, Trixie. If someone transformed you we need to do something about it. We don’t even know if you will return to your previous form.”

Trixie shrugged, finding herself not all that worried as she thought more about it. This felt…right, “This actually feels kind of familiar…” she paused and smiled at Kael as a thought dawned on her, “What if this is my real body?”

That possibility had certainly crossed Kael’s mind, and it put a lot of what she had done and said previously in context. Her word choice, her way of sitting on the ground, her impossibly high alcohol tolerance for someone of her constitution, her lack of regard for clothing…

“It would explain a few of your more eccentric qualities…” Kael admitted as he pondered the possibility. It didn’t make the fact that he was at this point falling in love with her dorky, prideful personality any easier on his mind given the oddity of loving an animal. A part of him wasn’t at all surprised actually, and he more he thought the faster the feeling faded from him.

How had he known? Did he somehow know her before the amnesia? If so, how?

Still, so little was known about this transformation that there was little reason to wonder as to why specific things made sense. The basics needed to be discovered, such as why the transformation occurred and why she was ever one form or the other. Furthermore, Kael doubted others would be as…understanding about a talking, sapient horse.

“Okay then, let us work with the logic that this is your true form. I do not believe others will take all that kindly to a talking horse. It will most definitely draw attention, and not the kind I think you would like.”

That was something Trixie could agree with fully, and so she nodded slowly as she considered he ramifications of her supposedly new body, “Hmmph,” taking a look down at herself and then at Kael, Trixie shrugged with her blue furred shoulders, “Well, what now?”

A sudden urge overtook Kael, who brought a hand out to touch the top of Trixie’s equine chest. Moving the hand down slowly, he began to smile as he realized how soft she was.

As Kael’s hand slowly moved to the place in-between her front leg and barrel he spoke with a voice full of mirth and amusement, “You’re fuzzy.”

Trixie was obviously not as amused by this, though she couldn’t ignore the good feeling that the petting was drawing from her, “This isn’t a petting zoo!” she felt a twitch in her lower right leg, which was the one next to her tormenter who dared to continue rubbing her side, “Kae-ae-llll...”

Her leg splayed out and bumped into Kael’s legs as Trixie lost control of it, only to pull it back in and have it kick out again. She forcibly tried to stop it as Kael began to laugh while continuing the motion, Trixie’s body tingling in a fashion she wasn’t familiar with as her blue fur moved back and forth with his hand.

Kael was fully amused by the whole situation now, forgetting the implications of having feelings for a horse while observing Trixie’s leg lose control like a dog’s might under similar situations, “Did your leg just…”

“Stop it!” Trixie yelped before rolling over to her side in an attempt to free herself from his grip, as well as to stop the tingling feeling.

Kael held his hands up in surrender, allowing Trixie to escape from his touch even if she was the softest thing he remembered touching, “Okay, okay. Sorry, I just couldn’t resist.”

Trixie pulled all of her legs in close to her and gave him a pouting face while her eyes averted to the side, “It’s okay, just don’t do it again,” after a moment she added quickly and softly, “Without my permission.”

Things calmed down at that point given Trixie’s lapse in speaking and Kael’s own nervousness stemming from the situation as a whole now that he was no longer concerned with the benefits of a furred companion. If he went outside with a horse of an odd color, that would draw attention. If Trixie couldn’t keep quiet like a normal horse, that’d draw much more. That’s not to mention the lack of modesty Trixie would possess as a horse, which he doubted she would mind but it was making him nervous nonetheless.

He wanted to say to himself it was just concern for his companion’s well-being, though he knew it was more selfish than that. The idea of strangers seeing her naked, even as an animal, irritated him…Kael would shake his head of those thoughts if it wouldn’t make Trixie question his action, and so he quietly banished the ideas of Trixie’s modesty in favor for the sour expression the equine had grown. For a large animal, she was quite expressive, and he found it easy to gauge her feelings based on the position of her muzzle and face.

“Trixie, what is wrong?” he paused as he realized how she might snark about the basic fact that she was a horse now, “Besides the obvious.”

She pulled her hooves over her face in embarrassment and self-pity, trying to hide herself from view as the rest of her was covered by the purple blanket, “I’m a freak. How can I be famous or taken seriously if I’m just some animal?”

Doubtful about his crush being returned, and also unsure about how his feelings would change given her transformation, Kael decided to just be supportive/friendly, not anything more. He brought a hand to her shoulders and neck and began to stroke them gently, trying his best to not emulate the petting he was doing previously.

“We’ll find a way around this. If you became an Elf once, or the reverse, there must be a way to undo this process.”

Trixie’s only verbal response was a pout, which Kael responded to with a sigh of his own. It was time to fully contemplate the issue, and that meant understanding how it may have come about.

“What were you doing last night?” Kael reasoned it was a good place to start. Perhaps something she had done caused the change?

That elicited a response from her, the mare stopping her soft sobbing to look at Kael and frown while her hooves moved to cross over one another on top of a pillow, “I was studying a new spell, mumbled some things, realized I wasn’t getting anywhere still, slept, and then now,” she paused as she tried to recollect the night, finding herself unable to remember anything else in her admittedly dark, “I think.”

That was a start at least. If she had dabbled in magic and messed something up, it could explain her either going from a natural Elf to a horse or from a transformed Elf back to her original body of a horse.

Kael got himself up and moved towards a nearby dining table that had Trixie’s blue book on it, right next to some plates, napkins, and a set of salt and pepper shakers, “Let me read your book.”

Trixie burrowed herself under the covers while Kael took the book in hand, instantly finding what he believed to be the passage Trixie dabbled in.

“You were in the general spells section I take, given the napkin as a bookmark?” Kael smirked as he removed a napkin with what appeared to be butter stains on it. It seemed that there was butter and bread before on the table, which Trixie must have polished off in her study session the night before.

“Yes…” Trixie grumbled, not really caring about the bookmark as she wallowed in self-pity. How could she be a magician if they wasn’t even a person?

Kael narrowed his eyes as he observed the glyphs on the text, “Polymorph,” he smiled as he realized what the page’s relevance was. The spell was either a perfect coincidence or the specific cause for the transformation, though something made Kael believe it to be the latter, “This spell doesn’t usually last more than a couple seconds it says, or a minute if you really know what you’re doing.”

“Well what does it do?”

“It morphs the target into an animal of some kind. The example given here is that of a sheep,” Kael smirked as he pointed the book at her, “You’re a different kind of furred animal it seems.”

That made Trixie poke her head out again for a moment of snark, partly to impose a reality check and partly to bring him down to her level of existential misery, “You’re a furred animal too, just one who walks on two legs instead of four.”

“That’s…” Kael tried to retort, only to find that he couldn’t find a good reason behind what he was going to say. He could say that Elves are smarter than animals, but the intelligence argument alone would not allow for the difference seemingly between them and animals like Trixie which seemed quite sapient despite not being bipedal animals, and while Kael wasn’t quite sure he knew of others he felt like there very well may be, “Well, I suppose you could be right. What does separate one from an animal?”

“This isn’t the time for philosophy Kael, fix me!”

Kael forcibly closed the book as he bent back in laughter. Trixie meant it as in fix her ailment, but there was a very different meaning for the word “fix” when it came to animals. Her obliviousness to this fact made it better for him, and as she spoke his laughter increased.

“What? What is so funny?”

Kael calmed himself to focus back on the task at hand. They needed to leave as soon as they possibly could, but finding a solution to Trixie’s problem first would make things easier for them later. Right now they might be able to replicate whatever made her change forms, something they might not be able to under different circumstances on the road.

“Oh, nothing, nothing at all,” Kael lied as he opened the book again and resumed reading right from where he left off, luckily turning right back to the main page concerning Polymorph.

Trixie pointed her Unicorn horn at him threateningly, “Then find a way to get me back to what you consider normal or I’ll make you as horny as I am.”

Little did she know that it would then send him into an entirely new laughing fit. In her mind, she seemed to be thinking her words meant she would impale him with her horn, but to Kael it brought up a very different subject which once again distracted him from studying her book for a cure.

Of course, Trixie did not appreciate being laughed at in any way, so she found herself flustered as she once again levied her hollow threat, “I mean it! I’ll put this in you if you don’t stop laughing at me!”

Not fully willing to test her temperament but also not believing she would go through with the action, Kael stopped his childish laughter and resumed studying the blue book, “Okay, okay…It seems hitting the afflicted person can reverse the process. Causing some form of pain.”

“Oh…” just the thought of that made Trixie wince, “How much pain?”

Kael still doubted that this was related to this spell based on the duration she was in either form, but it was worth a try…even if it meant hurting her to undo the possible effect she was under, “It’s not specific, so I guess we would have to test it out.”

Trixie moved a hoof outside of the warmth of the blankets and held it out towards Kael while looking in a different direction, away from where she would soon experience pain, “Pinch me.”

Kael relented and moved the short distance required to pinch Trixie’s hoof, his fingers tightening their grip slowly until she flinched in pain. No change occurred, which either meant she was previously polymorphed for an exorbitantly long amount of time into an Elf and that her real form was a pony or that this was not a matter dealing with polymorphing at all.

Trixie looked down to where she had been pinched, then down to her body, and she was not pleased with the lack of change. She had hoped to be an Elf again, not caring what was her true form so long as she could just be considered normal.

“That didn’t give me that oddly shaped body that’s so top heavy. Try something harder,” she commanded, her voice serious as she decided mentally that perhaps Kael had just not hurt her enough to change anything.

Kael felt his snickering on the verge of coming back, “Harder?”

“Yes, harder Kael!” she barked back, only for Kael to hang his head and sigh. She was either really clueless or a really efficient prankster, because Kael’s mind was going places he did not want it to.

“I think we need to have a discussion about your word usage later.”

Trixie did not care for her phrasing, she cared about becoming a two legged Elf again, “Can you just do this faster? I don’t want to be an Equestrian all day. I don’t like people making fun of me, and they most certainly will.”

“I think I’ll get it worse for having a horse sleep in my room.”

Trixie, once again, did not understand the implications, “Where else would it sleep? Out in the cold?”

Ignoring her, Kael pulled his arm back to prepare a punch, “Well, here it goes.”

To catch her off guard and inflict the maximum amount of pain without doing real damage though, Kael instead forced her outstretched hoof down and into the firm bedframe with his other hand and arm. This switch up did allow for pain to be inflicted, so much so that Trixie pulled her hoof back in and causing her to begin licking it where hurt and where she believed herself to have a splinter.

“Oww, I wasn’t ready for that! You need to be more gentle with a lady, Kael. Now try again, but softer,” after the pain in her hoof went away, Trixie held it back out while denying the possibility that this still wouldn’t work, “I’m ready for you to touch me.”

This, mentally, was the last straw for her companion who in that moment gave up on her ability to not say embarrassing things.

“Forgive her Elune, for she knows not what she says,” Kael whispered to the goddess he believed to have heard Trixie pray to, despite it not ringing a bell for him as a goddess she should be praying to. It felt like it belonged to something else, but his tired and distracted brain couldn’t explain the details to him.

Trixie in turn tried to correct him, believing him to be the one who was wrong and silly, “I think you mean Luna,” the look of confusion on Kael’s face in turn made Trixie confused, as she couldn’t explain her knowledge about this so called Luna but it felt intuitive, “Luna…the one who moves the moon every night and makes sure we don’t have nightmares. You haven’t heard of her?”

Despite being confused, Kael still was pleasantly surprised by what Trixie said. Anything regarding memories was welcome between the two of them, and so this was quite the opportunity, “No, I can’t say I have,” he waved his hand around to prod her to continue, “I think though that perhaps you are beginning to remember things without even realizing them. Tell me more of your mythology.”

Trixie tried to let her mouth keep talking without her brain interfering, doing it as if by muscle memory, “Luna’s sister is named Celestia and she controls the sun, and…” this didn’t carry her very far as the moment of revelation left her as soon as it came, leaving her with some vague feelings and ideas. In frustration she shook her head when she realized that the fountain of knowledge had forsaken her, “That’s it. I think there’s a god of mischief or something in there too, but I can’t say for certain.”

Her suddenly having entire memory back would be convenient, but Kael was by no means expecting it to actually happen. Piece by piece would be fine, “Well I think that is enough for now. You’ve only had a few days to remember after all,” he spoke supportively, not wanting Trixie to feel as if he was rushing her. This tangent expended, it was about time to return to the topic at hand…or hoof, as the case may be. After all, it may be the early hours of the morning, but every minute could end up being one they need in the end, “Now, I am thinking that perhaps you aren’t polymorphed since you aren’t changing back. That means this is your normal form if that is the case, or that you aren’t polymorphed. Do you remember anything more about last night?”

Trixie decided to relax herself on the bed, stealing Kael’s pillow to act as a substitute for him which she then placed her hooves around. She was exhausted, and she wanted to be at least rested if she was not to get any more actual sleep for the time being, “Well, I woke up at one point and sneezed. I think I hit my head against the back, then fell asleep again.”

“Fell asleep or were knocked out?” Kael the ever blunt inquisitor asked her, only to be rebuffed by a scoff.

“I, the great and powerful Trixie, would not knock herself out by sneezing!”

By trial and error, Kael could only really think of one last thing to try out on Trixie. With a glance to the table, he smirked in a way Reuenthal would be proud of given how it was a smile of realization that he might end up in some trouble.

“Let’s try something else then.”

Kael grabbed the pepper shaker off the table and moved to join Trixie on the bed. He fought to get on top of the pillow Trixie took from his side, and this done he held the device over her resting head.

Having noticed him get back up on the bed, Trixie cracked an eye open to look at what was hovering above her head, “What is that?”

“Pepper. It’s time to engage in a little science.”

Trixie blinked as she rolled over just in time for Kael to sprinkle some pepper over her face, “Sci-ah-ah-achooo!”

Her sneeze was like an explosion in how it rocked her head back forcibly and with a great deal of noise. When she was done with the powerful sneeze, Trixie narrowed her eyes at Kael and groaned.

“Jerk.”

Half on top of her and half beside her, Kael did his best to bow to her, “I hope you don’t hate me for it, my Elven friend.”

Trixie looked down at herself to find soft skin and no blue fur in sight except for a strand here or there on the purple sheets, “What the Hel?” Trixie ran her hands over herself to feel the change, only to realize that she was once again an Elf in every way, shape, and form, “How in Tartarus did you do that?”

“Science requires multiple tests. Time to try this again,” Kael said as he proved his theory. For whatever reason, one he hoped to discover through study one day, sneezing instigated her transformation.

To make absolutely sure though, of course he had to try again.

Trixie tried to grab the pepper container, only to catch another dose of the seasoning in the face, “Wait, I’m good now—”

Trixie found herself instantly a horse again, noticing that a purple flash happened at just the same moment she closed her eyes to sneeze. It seemed to be her color, given her eyes and now this.

A horse once again, Trixie glowered at her companion who seemed to be having the time of his life having solved this issue, “I hate you.”

Kael moved to put the pepper in his pocket, seeing it as a useful method of controlling Trixie’s body transformations. So pleased by his discoveries, he forgot that he left her in her equine form, “I think we should take this pepper with us.”

Trixie sneezed again from the leftover pepper, at which point she used one arm to pull the blanket around herself and the other to start grabbing at Kael’s hand where the pepper lay.

“Give it to me!”

Kael would have just considered it playful, and the way her voice was yelling was more in faux anger than real anger. She was embarrassed, but she was happy to have this under control. They could deal with the ramifications of her being a horse person now that they could control it all.

But Trixie had rolled to be on top of him, with only Kael’s ruined clothing and a blanket in-between them. Not only this, in her attempt to grab at the pepper shaker Trixie had ended up straddling him, causing the color to drain from his face as he tried to keep the shaker out of her reach. Given the way he forced her to inhale it, he had little doubt she would abuse and waste it on his own face at some point should he let her have it.

Not that Kael would be much better, but he’d rather not have her waste their one easy way of snapping her between forms in some ill form of revenge.

“Trixie, stop it!” Kael commanded harshly as she continued to try and fight for the pepper. Every movement though made him less worried about the pepper and more worried about another rising issue.

“I said give it to me! I’m not some toy for your amusement!” Trixie commanded back before sticking her tongue out at him.

“It’s not that, you’re—”

With a sigh, Kael just let go of the pepper and let Trixie take it. This done, she smiled to herself as she stopped moving around on top of him.

“There, all better.”

Realizing that one of her hands was still on the blanket surrounding her, Trixie looked back to find that her clothes still rested at the end of the bed. This made her blush as she realized that perhaps, by Kael’s standards, she had been quite indecent. Being an equine though freed her from some of the care about such standards, yet she still wanted to maintain a decent enough appearance. It wouldn’t do to get into bad habits here.

“Oh, I should probably put those back on.”

Kael could not agree more, though he tried his best not to move, “Trixie, please, get off me.”

Trixie rolled her eyes as she moved over to where her clothes were so she could start the process of putting them on again, “Okay, I’ll get off. Don’t see what the big deal was that made you so bothered.”

Free of his unwitting tormentor, Kael whispered to himself, “How am I ever going to survive like this…”

“Also, I think you wound up with a stick in your pants last night when we were going through the woods. I need to change, so you should fix your wood issue.”

Kael let his body fall completely prone on the bed, not even knowing what to say back to that.

“I promise I won’t look,” Kael finally said after Trixie took her clothes and the purple blanket with her, the woman leaving to a corner of the room which he diverted his gaze from completely, “Aren’t you worried at all about what happened yesterday? About…”

Her response was surprisingly somber, her voice even quaking as she tried to muster the words to convey her feelings, “I would…I rather…not think about that.”

Her voice gave Kael pause, and a quick glance at her revealed that she had already managed to pull all her clothes on in what must be record time. Her head was lowered though, and Kael could see her struggling to not cry.

“I don’t want to think that friends have passed away so soon after meeting them. I want to think that somehow they’re fine. That the people in the city are fine.”

Trixie turned back to him with watering eyes, her mouth curled up in a sad smile.

“Can’t I have that?”

All the playful energy in the amnesiac prince present moments ago was replaced with the despair that some of the only people they knew may be dead. Dead because of an evil version of Kael himself, who may even be the true prince. They could play around and kid themselves, but nothing would change the reality of their situation.

Kael rose from the bed to approach Trixie, who didn’t move away from him as he approached. She was actually hurt by the loss, and pain was etched onto her face behind her fake smile.

Not caring if it came off as more than platonic, Kael brought Trixie in for a hug and let her rest her head against his chest and shoulder, “Of course you may,” he brought a consoling hand down her back just like he had in her other form, but despite the gesture he made sure to not let this distract them from their goal which Reuenthal and Mitter’meyer bought possibly with their lives, “However, we still need to worry about our own safety. I am grateful that…man didn’t follow us with his forces, but we don’t know if he will return and do so. We should get as far away from here as we can for the time being.”

No response came other than a feeling of wetness welling on his shirt, to which Kael spoke again in concern.

“Trixie?”

It was one thing to almost lose her own life her first day in Azeroth. It was another to lose someone else, “They’re okay, right?”

“I…I can’t promise that.”

The uncertainty of his statement led to Trixie’s mind wandering to other sorts of possibilities and what ifs, all of which she found amusing in comparison to the current topic, “I wonder what they’d have thought if I sneezed when we were eating...”

Kael did not even know what to say to cheer her up, but he was glad he was with her. If she was alone she undoubtedly would be far more devastated by the possible loss, “Trixie…”

Trixie released herself and stepped away so she could have space to shake her head and gather herself. After a moment she clenched her fists and took a deep breath in, at which point she turned back to face him with a more genuine, determined smile, “Let’s get going. I don’t want to waste any time.”

That was more like the Trixie Kael found himself falling for, though he couldn’t deny that part of her charm was that she was most definitely gentler than most of the other people to be found in Azeroth. She seemed to work on an entirely different level, even shunning common violence in favor of kindness and cunning.

Before Kael could get out of his own thoughts Trixie moved over to the bed with a big smirk on her face, her hands gripping the purple material, “Wait…I have an idea…”

What did she have on her mind this time? It wasn’t as if they had bags to carry such a large cloth after all…