//------------------------------// // Chapter 2: A New Mare // Story: The Stone Queen // by albedoequals1 //------------------------------// Four Years Later “Time! Return your weapons!” Stephani set down her shield and practice spear with the others and returned to stand in a line with the other foals in front of her uncle Xifomachos, the combat instructor. “Today, we have one other item of business,” Xifomachos said. “Stephani is old enough to receive her trial to become an adult. Step forward, Stephani.” Stephani walked forward with a measured stride, aiming for the sweet spot between rushing and dawdling. Xifomachos pulled a blanket off of a small cage with a fox inside. The fox jumped up and bounced around inside the cage. “You’re in luck. This trial should be easy. All you have to do is catch this fox and bring it back to me.” “How am I supposed to-” Xifomachos opened the cage and the fox took off like a shot, running full speed for the treeline. “Better hurry, filly.” Stephani lost another precious second to confusion, then ran after the fox with all the speed she could. The fox may have had a head start, but Stephani’s long legs were quickly closing the distance between them. Maybe this wouldn’t be so hard. The fox abruptly jinked to the left, and Stephani nearly lost her footing trying to match the maneuver. She widened her stance so she’d be ready for the next turn, but it slowed her running. The fox ran through a bush and Stephani leapt over it, only to find herself falling into a ravine. Her hooves slipped and she tumbled head-over-hocks down the muddy embankment. She tucked her legs close to her body to protect both them and her belly, and finally landed with a splash in the ankle-deep creek at the bottom. Stephani scrambled to her hooves to find the fox standing on the other side of the creek, watching her. She froze and stared back for a second. Perhaps this was the test. Maybe she was supposed to use charm to capture the fox. She folded her hind legs slowly and sat down, then lowered her head. “Hey, little guy, come on back. I won’t hurt you. I just need to take you back to my uncle so he can see I’m ready to be a mare. You wouldn’t want me to stay a filly forever, would you?” The fox cocked its head. “I don’t have anything to feed you, but I could scratch your head? Maybe I could feed you when we get back?” The fox started to casually walk away. “Don’t you walk away from me!” Stephani stood up and the fox took off running once more, so she chased it again. “Right,” she panted, “no more talking!” The fox led her on a merry chase for the next several hours. They alternately crept through the forest and ran full speed, but every time Stephani thought she was about to catch it, the fox would trick her and get away again. Stephani’s face was bruised and scratched from tree branches, her coat was covered with mud, and her breath came in wheezes, but the fox seemed to be tiring too. She was getting close to the fox, like she had many times before, herding it toward a cliff in hopes of trapping it, when it suddenly ran up into a tree on the cliff edge. Now it really was trapped. Stephani carefully started climbing the tree herself. The fox retreated to a branch that extended over the edge of the cliff. Stephani looked down and considered her strategy carefully. The cliff was not completely vertical; a fall from here should be survivable. The tree branch was quite thick, and the tree had strong roots, so it should be able to support her weight. If she didn’t catch this fox, she would be a laughingstock. The whole village would treat her like a foal. Who knew if she would even get another chance if she failed? Stephani slowly edged out on the branch. The fox backed away, but it could only go a little further. She made sure she was gripping the branch tightly with her hind legs, then reached out and grabbed the fox in her forehooves. It wiggled and squirmed, but she had it. She had caught her elusive quarry! Now her uncle would have to admit that she was ready- The fox sank its razor sharp teeth into Stephani’s shoulder and bit hard. She cried out and tried to pull it off, and suddenly, it was out of her grasp and she was falling. She hit the steep rocky slope with her back and tumbled down to the bottom. For a long time, she just lay in the dirt, too dazed to move. She was covered with bruises and scrapes and dirt, but more importantly, she had failed. There was no way she would catch the fox now. She couldn’t even see it, and she would have to go a long way around to get back up the cliff. It was over. She sat up and the bite wound in her shoulder throbbed. Blood trickled down her leg, leaving trails in the grime. Stephani cried from shame and frustration. She was no warrior; she had been bested by a mere fox. The sun was already setting; she would not be coming home tonight. She licked her wound to make sure it would not get infected, and limped over to a nearby stream for a drink. She wanted to drink until she could drink no more, but knew it was better to only drink a little after her exhausting run. She hobbled over to a large tree and curled up against its roots, too tired to do anything else but sleep. No wild animals bothered her during the night, and the next day she woke up rested, but very stiff. She got up and stretched, then took another drink from the stream. She found a relatively still spot in it and looked at her reflection. Her shoulder had stopped bleeding during the night, but her leg was a sticky mess. Her whole body was so filthy that she hardly recognized herself. The only place where her white coat was visible was the tip of one ear. She briefly entertained the idea of taking a bath in the stream, but bending over to take a drink had been painful enough. Besides that, it felt wrong to sully such clear water. Stephani sighed and started the long walk back to the village. In her haste to catch the fox, she had paid little attention to the direction she was traveling. From the position of the sun now, she guessed she had been traveling mostly south, but the best way to get back to her village would be to find the ocean and follow the coast back. A little over two hours of walking brought her to the shore. She walked in the surf for awhile, enjoying the soothing feeling of the waves on her sore hooves, but before long, the extra work of walking in sand began to irritate her tired legs and she moved back the grass beyond the beach. It was well after noon by the time she came to a landmark she recognized. She sat down to rest for a moment, but that just gave her more opportunity to notice how hungry she was. With a grumble, she got back to her feet and pressed on. She finally came in sight of her village less than an hour before sundown. The others expressed varying degrees of shock and amusement at her condition, but she ignored them all and went straight to her uncle. Xifomachos was waiting for her at the training yard. He said nothing as she approached, but he eyed her filthy, battered body appraisingly. “I failed, Uncle,” Stephani said bluntly, looking him in the eye. “The fox outsmarted me and I have no idea where it went.” She turned away and noticed the cage that the fox had been released from the day before once again had a fox in it. A very familiar-looking fox. “Is that…?” “Yes, it’s the same fox,” Xifomachos replied. “Do you think I have time to train multiple foxes?” Stephani just stared. “Now the important question: What did you learn from this experience?” Stephani thought about the question for a moment. The fox was her uncle’s trained pet. She had been meant to fail. Her two days of suffering had been for nothing. Or had it? Xifomachos expected her to have gained some wisdom from this disaster; what could she say? “I learned...that not all conflicts can be won, and sometimes it is better to abandon a failed endeavor than to persist until it kills you.” Xifomachos stared at her for a tense few seconds, then gave a nod. “That’s not exactly the lesson I was going for, but it will do. Go get cleaned up. It’s one thing for fillies to be all dirty, but mares need to see to their own upkeep.” “Yes, sir.” Stephani turned away and walked stiffly towards her family’s house. Xifomachos had called her a mare! She had passed the trial after all. Filos came up beside her as she walked. “Well, what did he say? Did you pass?” “I did.” “You look terrible. What did that fox do, use you as a plow?” Stephani swatted him with her tail. “So, have you decided what you will call yourself now?” “I’m still thinking about it, but I like the name Inferno.” Filos snickered. “That’s a pretty pompous name to live up to, or maybe bad luck, depending on how you mean it.” Stephani scowled at him. “Well, you’re coming up soon. What will you be called?” Her friend gave her a cheeky grin. “If we can really call ourselves anything, then I’m going down in history as O, Starlight Shining on the Clear Sky.” He made a sweeping gesture toward the heavens. “O for short.” “O?” Stephani asked incredulously. “It’s perfect! Historians will have to fill up a whole line on a scroll with my name, but my friends will just say, ‘O, it’s you.’ Get it?” He beamed smugly at the sheer genius of his name. “You’re something else, Fil.” “I try.”