//------------------------------// // Chapter 3: Equines // Story: Fall Of The Lich King // by Pinkies Imagination //------------------------------// Chapter 3: Equines *Snap* My eyes flew open in an instant at the noise, and my whole body jumped into action. I quickly scanned the forest for any signs of movement, which proved difficult even during the day with the little amount of light which bled through the trees. Wasting no time, I shift back to my beast form and began smelling the area. When a very peculiar smell reached my nose. "Is that... perfume?" I said aloud as I faced the direction the strong smell was coming from. "Strange..." I creeped along the forest, constantly smelling the air to make sure I didn't lose the trail, before I came to a small opening in the treeline. I immediately noticed a small and winding path made of gravel leading deeper into the forest, where the trees quickly obscured my vision. Taking another sniff into the air, I confirmed the smell was indeed going down the path. Without any other objectives in mind, I decided to follow the trail. From within the treeline next to it of course. I strained my hearing to try and pick up any sound from down the trail, and for the longest time nothing happened as I walked on all fours slowly through the trees. Then suddenly I heard the loud sound of metal clanging. My ears perked up for a second before I began sprinting towards the sound when I started to make out the outline of a small hut. "So people do live in this forest..." I absentmindedly spoke as I slowly creep up to the house. "Erfi zu to herma ole Zecora!" Spoke a feminine voice I couldn't quite understand, but sounded apologetic. Another feminine voice answered, speaking more gibberish, but a couple of words I understood. "Yera gul lo Twilight, Rah zu lara Spike." As I came up to the wall of the hut, I slowly stood on two feet and peered into the window, immediately tilting my head in curiosity and surprise. Ahead of me stood a horse looking creature of bright colors and strange design. Along with a hornless zhevra and a small creature looking much like a dragon whelp, minus the wings. All three were surrounding a large looking cauldron which had presumably been knocked over, spilling it's green contents. The whelp and the zhevra got to work on cleaning up the spilled liquid, while the other looked down at it's hooves and kicked at the ground, looking embarrassed. I took this time to really take in it's features, which were bizarre to say the least, but not the strangest things I've seen in my travels. The creature resembled a horse physically, but was also much smaller and had a couple extra... parts. The most notable being the ones sticking out of it's head and the side of it's barrel. The wing's use was obvious... however I've seen many horse like creatures with horns on their head before... but most of the time they were very sharp and best used to impale their prey. This creature's horn was short and dull, what was it's point? The creature was also purple. Very purple, almost sickeningly so with a straight purple mane with one pink strip going all the way down from the top of the mane to the end of the tail. On it's hindquarters sat an image of what appeared to be a large star, surrounded by 5 smaller white stars. "Z-Zec-cora..." I heard it's voice speak, breaking my concentration. It was now that I noticed she had, at some point, turned to look straight at me with a face full of both fear, and curiosity. I blinked in surprise before I quickly leapt off the wall and ran away from the hut, jumping into the treeline and getting low to the ground to hide myself. The door burst open, and the purple equine and zhevra ran out, before stopping and scanning the area. 'This species of equines are very interesting... nothing like I've seen. So intelligent...' I thought to myself as the whelp attempted to leave the hut, only to be ushered back in by the purple equine. The purple one turned to the trees, scanning them before shouting. "Erma eila! li toh crah ma!" It shouted out as I stayed in place, before her eyes locked with mine, causing her to freeze. Perspective: Twilight {A couple minutes ago} I kicked at the floor as I blushed, looking at my hooves. 'How could I have been so clumsy?' I thought as I took a look up at the cauldron I had accidentally knocked over. I huffed and fluttered my wings as I looked for a way I could help, when suddenly I felt a cold shiver go down my spine. It felt like the temperature had suddenly dropped, and I was being watched. I looked around trying to figure out where it came from, and saw that Spike and Zecora haven't seemed to notice. Curious still, I turned and immediately froze. Sitting in the window were two very cold, and very dead looking blue eyes which glowed unnaturally bright. In that moment, I felt dread I'd never felt before. The eyes scanned me up and down, like a predator sizing up it's prey. Almost involuntarily I let out a small squeak, unable to formulate any words as the cold eyes bored into my skull. After what felt like ages, I slowly drew in a breath, and whispered to my left at Zecora. "Z-Zec-cora..." I said low, but immediately regretted it as I saw the blue eyes flick up and meet mine. As soon as they had looked at me, they disappeared along with the sound of heavy hoof steps outside. Zecora, having heard the sound as well, followed me as I hurried to the front door. I burst through, looking around for any signs of the creature. Spike tried to follow us out, but I quickly pushed him back inside and closed the door. After taking another glance around, I slowly walked out from the doorway and squinted my eyes trying to notice anything at all. "Come out!" I yelled out to the forest. "I wont hurt you!" A few moments of silence followed before I saw them again. Those two blue eyes, looking right at me. Right into me. Feeling the same dread as before blanket me, all my senses screamed at me to run away as fast as I could and take Spike with me. Gulping loudly, I shakily bumped Zecora, who turned and looked towards the direction I was staring before she froze up as well. The creature let out a low growl, before it took a step out of the treeline and into the light. I almost fainted just looking at it. The creature wore armor which looked to be made out of some kind of platemail, coving it's whole body except it's head. It was very wolflike, and when stood on two legs, very tall. It stopped after a few feet and watched us, waiting for something to happen. "C-Can you... understand us?" I asked as it's head tilted a bit. "I don't like this Twilight..." Zecora said without rhyme, and a bit of shakiness. "This creature... it reeks of death..." Perspective: Dalandor I watched as the Zhevra finished speaking to the Equine, which I had deduced to be female, and with the recurring word, also named Twilight. "Twilight?" I questioned, getting her to flick her head to me in surprise, which confirmed my suspicion. She spoke gibberish to me again. Sounded like a question, but I couldn't tell as the words were garbled from her shaken form. I shook my head, getting her to calm down a bit but still continue to vibrate with fear. Casting my gaze over to the Zhevra, she visibly recoiled even more than the purple one. I don't blame them. They've probably never seen anything like me and with this armor on... no doubt making them even more scared. With a bit of consideration, I decided I should probably just leave. They didn't seem hostile anyway, and this form was starting to get taxing to maintain with how much I've been using it. Plus, for all I know I could be deep in horde territory right now. I gave them one last look over, both of them shrinking as my gaze moved over them. Their large, expressive faces conveyed exactly how they felt, mortal fear. I stood up on two legs, towering over both of them. Causing them to look a bit anxious and worried, I sighed and spun on my feet before leaping off into the trees. After I was sure I was out of sight, I took one last look behind me making sure I wasn't being followed. Smiling a bit, I made my way back to my 'camp'. I was going to have to do a lot more scouting to figure out where in Azeroth I ended up.