It seemed like the tremors wouldn’t ever end as Tourmaline covered her head from the falling debris. Expecting a stone to fall at any moment and crush her underneath its weight, she couldn’t bring herself to move as the shaking finally stopped. After a moment—or many moments for all she knew—she dared to peek past her hooves. Her eyes widened as she found herself and Trixie enveloped in a pink, magical barrier that showed many cracks and dents throughout its surface.
Looking to the side, she saw the unicorn had covered herself as she had, only her horn held its pink glow. “Is it over?” Trixie asked, her voice barely above a squeak.
Tourmaline looked behind them to find that the tunnel leading back to their friends was now sealed off. A feeling of ice gripped at her belly as she ran through Trixie’s barrier. “Wanderer! Tormod! Can you hear me?”
Straining her ears, it seemed that something tickled at the edge of her senses, but it was too faint to hear. Biting her at her lip, she dug at the collapsed dirt, frantically trying to dig her was past the collapse.
“Don’t!” Trixie yelled and Tourmaline felt herself pulled away by the tail—just as some stone came loose and landed where she had just stood.
Tourmaline scowled at her. “They might be buried under there!”
“If we start digging, we might bury ourselves!” Trixie countered, her fearful gaze darting to the ceiling.
Both mares whirled as they heard the sound of rocks falling and muffled cries coming from the other side of the collapse.
Climbing halfway up the fallen dirt and rock, Tourmaline shouted, “Wanderer! Can you hear me? Are you okay?”
Straining, her ears, she could make out his voice calling her name. “I’m in here! We’re okay!”
“Both of us!” Trixie added, also stepping closer.
“Tourmaline! Trixie!” They heard the others calling for them.
She coughed as a bit of dust made its way into her throat. “We’re here! Is everyone okay?”
“We’re okay.” Tourmaline heard her brother say. “You’re not hurt, are you?”
“No, just a little roughed up,” she said before she flapped her wings to get above the stone as it threatened to shift. “Can you get through?”
“No. We—” Her ears laid back as her brother shouted, “Wanderer, stop! You dig through that and you might crush them!”
“We have to get to them!” she heard his panicked shout clearly even through the debris. “Who knows what’s down that hall!”
Tourmaline gulped and both mares looked down the darkened tunnel. Thankfully, nothing emerged to devour them.
They whirled back as the stones shifted again, and Tourmaline had to shield her face as debris rained around her. “Wanderer, stop!”
The sound of digging stopped and the cave-in settled finally.
“—ou okay?” She heard him shout from the other side.
Coughing out a bit of dust, she croaked, “Yes, but we can’t get through.”
“What should we do?” Trixie shouted, casting another worried glance behind her.
“Just keep following the path,” they heard Tormod call. “The tunnel you want is smooth, any jagged tunnel is a beetle cave and you don’t want them. We’ll follow our path and meet up with you further down. Okay?”
“All right,” Trixie called back.
“Keep safe, my friends,” they heard Faith say. “We will meet again soon.”
Tourmaline flicked an ear as she heard Wanderer call her name. “Tourmaline, please be safe.”
Laying her ears back, she said, “You too.”
As the sounds of their hoofsteps faded, she turned to face her companion—who looked at her with worried eyes. Letting out a low breath, Tourmaline stood straighter, glaring down the path. “Come on, we can’t stay here.”
The unicorn gulped and nodded, turning to follow her. Walking down the musty tunnel, Tourmaline looked for anything that seemed out of the ordinary, not wanting to set off any more traps. As badly as she wanted to just fly down the tunnel to regroup with the others, she knew that such recklessness would only get them hurt. With only their agonizingly-slow hoofsteps breaking the silence, she found the hair along her spine start to stand and her jaw clench.
’This can’t be everything. Did they really think one trap was going to be enough to keep us out? What if they had set more traps along the other hall where Wanderer went? Sweet Celestia, don’t let anything happen to him or my brother. Why did I get separated from them? With her of all ponies? I hate this. I hate it!’
She found herself glaring at the unicorn behind her, whose horn kept its glow to light the tunnel which set the shadows dancing as they passed. Trixie either hadn’t seen her glare or was ignoring it, but, as much as Tourmaline wanted to blame everything on Trixie, she knew that it wasn’t her fault they had been separated from their friends.
When Trixie finally glanced at her, Tourmaline averted her eyes, her troubled frown growing. Being honest with herself, she knew that a lot of the things she had blamed Trixie for wasn’t really her fault. Admitting they were more happenstance than anything the unicorn meant to do. At the time, however, her emotions wouldn’t have allowed her to have thought rationally—not that many could honestly blame her. Right?
Her ears flicked as Trixie’s voice cut the silence. “Tourmaline. Let’s talk.”
She grit her teeth. “Talk about what?”
“We need to talk,” The unicorn said, stopping in her stride. “If we’re going to go further, we need to air out our problems.”
Laying her ears back, she had to suppress an annoyed growl. “Are we really doing this?”
Trixie’s tone didn’t falter as her gaze hardened. “We’re really doing this.”
Tourmaline stopped and turned to face the unicorn, who held a firm, unwavering expression. “Fine. Let’s do this then,” she said as she sat on her haunches. “You first.”
“Trixie knows she hasn’t been the traveling companion you could’ve wanted, and she’s made mistakes since we’ve started this whole crazy adventure, but never once did she ever want any of this to happen. Trixie has tried so hard to make up for everything that’s happened, and everypony has accepted her apology except for you,” the unicorn said, wrapping her tail around her front hooves. “Trixie wants to know why.”
Many angered retorts wanted to escape past her teeth, but Tourmaline bit them all back—old slights refusing to truly settle. Taking a moment to collect herself, she replied, “First off, Trixie, you shouldn’t ever expect to please everyone. There’ll be ponies who aren’t going to like you, or anything you do, for reasons you’ll never understand. There’s nothing you can do about it. It’s how ponies work.”
As Trixie tried to argue, she held a hoof up to stop her. “Let me finish,” she said, resting her hoof back to the ground. “Despite that, I’ve had to look very hard at why I’ve been mad at you and… I’ve come to my conclusion.”
The unicorn’s brow shot up. “Which is?”
“I was jealous of you,” she said, looking Trixie dead in the eye.
“Of me?” Trixie’s eyes widened, her third-person mode of speech slipping away.
“I was jealous of all the attention Wanderer was giving you. How out of his way he went to help you, a stranger who I’m sure he had never met in his life, for no reason at all that I knew of at the time. When he finally told us why, it all made sense, but a lot had happened before then and I was... emotional.” She frowned, sighing a bit. “It’s something I had to learn about myself that I didn’t like learning.”
“I...ah..” Trixie rubbed the back of her neck, seeming a loss for words. “You know, I never once thought about how it would appear if I was in your horseshoes. If my colt friend started going crazy over another mare…” she looked the cavern ceiling a moment before continuing. “ Yeah, I can see why you hate me so much.” She looked back at Tourmaline. “But you know he and I… it was never even a thought.”
A faint, warm smiled pulled at Tourmaline’s lips. “Yes, I’m certain of it now. And I didn’t hate you, I just… really really disliked you.” She sighed, letting her tension go with that sigh. “I still have some growing up to do, and I’ve realized it.”
Trixie looked away for a moment before looking back at her. “Can we, finally bury the hatchet, as they say?”
Tourmaline closed her eyes and blew a sigh through her nose, looking up to look the unicorn in the eye once more. “Yes. Let’s put it behind us.” She held up a hoof towards her, waiting to see her reaction.
Lifting her own hoof up, Trixie bumped hooves with her. “It was pretty funny when that tent pole smacked him across the flank.”
A burst of laughter escaped Tourmaline before she brought a hoof up to cover her mouth, a fierce blush on her cheeks. “Sweet Celestia, that was so funny. Especially the way he hopped around rubbing his butt.”
Despite the darkness, despite the real danger that lurked ahead for them, the two mares shared a much-needed laugh.
-0-
The clip-clop of his hoof falls rang in his ears as he trotted down the now-stone hallway. Despite knowing that he should slow down and be quieter, his anxiousness wouldn’t allow for a slower pace. Somewhere, up ahead, would be Tourmaline and Trixie and Celestia-knew-what-else waiting for them.
“Wanderer, if you don’t slow down, I am going to tie your tail around your hooves,” Tormod warned as he and the other three hurried to keep up.
Casting a look over his shoulder, he said, “We don’t have time to slow down, Tormod. We’ve got to find Tourmaline and Trixie before someone else finds them first.”
“We’re not going to do them any good if we get caught because you ran headlong into an ambush,” the unicorn said. “So slow down.”
“I agree, Wanderer,” Faith said, her ears swiveling on her head as she listened to the caverns. “Your haste is warranted, but we should be cautious.”
Gritting his teeth, Wanderer slowed from his trot to let the others catch up. Tormod and Scarlet’s coats were lathered with a sweat—evidence from all the running the two had done before and after the cave in—where he and Faith had only begun to tire.
As the two caught their breath, he smirked to himself. ’Magic and flight is nice, but I’ll take earth pony stamina any day.’
“Do you think it’s really a good idea for us to be passing all of these side tunnels?” Scarlet Scroll asked, brushing her bangs out of her face as she looked down one such tunnel. “What if there are ponies hiding down them?”
Wanderer’s ear turned to listen down one of the side tunnels before Faith spoke. “I do not believe they would hide in the maze of beetle caverns, Scarlet. This stone pathway is part of the original structure that was built to imprison the Gorgon and are the only paths that will lead to her. She will want to keep them protected rather than any side tunnels.”
“But we haven’t seen anypony since we got here,” the mare argued, turning her partially-hidden gaze to the doe. “What if you’re wrong? What if they are and we are just passing them up? What then?”
Faith bit her cheek before responding, “In truth, I cannot know.”
“Then maybe we should look,” Scarlet said, turning for a side passage before she even stopped speaking.
“Stop!” Tormod shouted, using his magic to pull her back from the cavern’s mouth. “If we go searching, we might not ever find our way back here in time to stop the Gorgon.”
Scarlet turned a harsh glare his way. “Then I’ll go by myself. You don’t have to follow me.”
“Scarlet, I know you’re worried about Rogue, and with good reason, but if you go down those caverns you might not ever find him,” Wanderer said as he stepped closer to her. “Just trust us, okay? We’ll find him and everypony else from Greensborough and we can all finally go home.”
She glared at him, and he half wondered if she was going to swing at him. Thankfully, she sighed, seeming to deflate. “I’m sorry.”
“Don’t be,” he said, patting her withers before turning his gaze back to Tormod. “Any idea how much further we have?”
Tormod looked back down the cavern and shook his head. “My spell is still telling me to head this way.”
“Any idea where Tourmaline’s tunnel might empty out?” Wanderer asked as he reset his hat on his head. Staring down the tunnel, his foreleg bounced on its hoof—the desire to get moving coming back.
Closing his eyes, Tormod concentrated a moment before a thoughtful frown pulled at his lips. “It’s faint, but I think it does meet further down, but I can’t pinpoint where.”
Stepping past his friend, Wanderer waved for them to follow. “Let’s get moving. The sooner we meet up, the sooner we get this done.”
As the four of them continued, Wanderer’s mind wandered once again. A hopeful spring in his step as he knew the two tunnels would connect sooner or later. All he wanted was to make sure Tourmaline and Trixie were safe and sound and that—
Barely able to get his hooves up in time, he still grunted as a form charged out from a side tunnel and pinned him to the floor.
“Wanderer!” his friends cries joined the chorus of angered neighs as more forms rushed out of the side tunnel for them.
“Bringers!” Faith shouted before she bounded to meet the closest attacker.
Wanderer struggled to throw off his attacker before he recognized the colors of their mane. “Rogue!”
The navy-blue earth pony only nickered hatefully at him as Rogue tried to choke him.
Prying the hooves off his neck, he shouted, “Snap out of it!” before planting his back hooves under Rogue’s belly and kicking him away.
Even as Rogue bounced off the wall, Wanderer could see that Faith was busy dodging and ducking under the swings of the possessed Bringers. Thankfully, the doe kept out of their reach and used the butt end of her spear to knock her attackers unconscious. Tormod and another unicorn traded magical beams—sparks of magic flying from struck walls or barriers. Scarlet kept to the air, keeping out of reach of the mainly unicorn and earth pony Bringers.
When Rogue charged back at him, Wanderer turned to meet his charge. Rogue brought back a hoof for a punch and Wanderer waited for him to strike. His eyes widened as Rogue whirled and leveled a buck at him and Wanderer barely turned his shoulder in time to take the kick that sent him tumbling.
Hissing at the burning pain shooting down his leg, a growl escaped Wanderer’s gritted teeth. “All right, so you’re not just straightforward.”
Rogue said nothing as he charged again. This time Wanderer met his charge head-on, however, instead of butting heads, Wanderer ducked low and tripped up Rogue’s hooves. He landed with a grunt and Wanderer wrapped a foreleg around his neck, keeping him from turning and trying to get at him.
“Rogue! Stop! I’m trying to help you!”
Rogue neighed and tried to buck him, but Wanderer kept his hold, keeping Rogue from doing anything more than squirm.
“You’re wife’s here! Scarlet’s here! Stop already!” His vision flashed as he felt Rogue smack the back of his head against his snout. Feeling a rush of heat run down his chin, he flung Rogue as hard as he could. Shaking the dizziness from his vision and turned to deflect another Bringer’s attack off his foreleg.
“Faith!” he shouted as he grabbed ahold of his attacker. Pivoting, he shoved the stumbling Bringer at the doe warrior as she brought her spear staff around in a swing. The ‘conk’ of wood meeting skull was audible enough that Wanderer would’ve laughed if he didn’t have to duck the swing of another Bringer—this one wielding a blade in his mouth.
Swearing, Wanderer backpedaled to avoid a stab and flicked his foreleg. The wooden timberwolf claw slid out and he blocked the next attack with its hardened edge. As the Bringer brought back his blade for another attack, Wanderer stepped inside the swing and punched him across cheek—sending the Bringer stumbling. Not about to let him come at him again with that sword, Wanderer whirled bucked the Bringer full in the face—flipping him over to land with a pained groan.
“Wanderer! The cure!” he heard Scarlet shout before she tackled another Bringer that threatened to flank Tormod.
His eyes widened and he wanted to smack himself for forgetting such an important fact. Just as he was about to reach for his saddlebag, he grunted as Rogue crashed into him again.
“This is getting annoying!” he shouted as Rogue pummeled at him, forcing him to throw his forelegs up to protect himself.
The move caused his blade to land a glancing cut on Rogue’s barrel, but that did nothing to slow the rain of blows aimed at his head.
Stinging from the onslaught, Wanderer tried to roll out from under him, but Rogue had him pinned.
Until a lilac form tackled his navy-blue attacker off of him. “Rogue, stop! It isn’t you!”
Shaking his head of the dancing lights in his vision, Wanderer’s gaze focused to see Scarlet atop of Rogue, trying to keep him down. “It’s me, Scarlet, your wife! Rogue, snap out of it!”
Rogue whinnied and tried to throw her, gnashing his teeth.
“Rogue!”
Her plea turned into a pained grunt as Rogue got a hoof free and slapped her, sending her stumbling away.
Growling, Wanderer rushed back in and tackled Rogue before he could get back to his hooves. “Scarlet, I’ll hold him. Get the cure out of my bag. Now!”
Even as he struggled to hold Rogue, he felt Scarlet rooting through his saddlebag, removing a ceramic jar. “You’ve only got one! The others are broken!”
Swearing as he realized they must have been crushed at some point in the fight, he looked at her as he held Rogue down. “It’ll be enough. I’ll hold, you pour.”
She rushed to his side and Wanderer reached to hold Rogue’s head still. He hissed as Rogue turned and bit his leg.
“Ow!” Out of instinct, he punched Rogue across the face, freeing his leg.
“Don’t hurt him!” Scarlet screeched at him.
“Tell him that!” he countered as he held Rogue’s jaw open. “Make him drink!”
Upending the jar, Scarlet poured the glowing liquid into the open maw of her husband. Wanderer held even tighter as Rogue thrashed, kicking at him to get free. As the liquid rushed back into his throat, Wanderer clamped Rogue’s muzzle to keep him from coughing it back up.
As Rogue was forced to swallow the concoction, Wanderer hoped back as Rogue’s angry whinnies turned into a neigh of pain—his back arching. His body took on same glow the cure had before it vanished, Rogue slumping to the ground.
“Rogue!” Scarlet yelled, her voice taking a higher octave. She rushed to his side and laid an ear over his mouth. “He’s not breathing!”
“Sweet Celestia,” Wanderer swore as he rushed over and felt for a pulse, turning his head to listen. Thankfully, he felt a strong pulse and could see Rogue’s barrel raise slightly.
Sighing, his anxiety going with it, he turned to look at Scarlet. “He’s breathing. He—”
“Are you sure? I didn’t hear him. I.. I…”
“Scarlet, calm down. Focus, all right?”
She nodded and held her husband’s head close, shaking as tears ran down her face.
They both nearly jumped out of their skins as a form slammed into the wall next to them, magic sparks flying. Looking, they saw the unicorn Bringer slide down, groaning.
“He put up a fight,” Tormod said as he trotted up to them, his coat lathered in sweat. “Thought I’d never get him to drop his guard.”
“Everyone all right?” Wanderer asked, looking to see that the small group of Bringers were all down, sporting a few wounds, but all breathing.
“We are,” Faith said as she placed her spear against the wall. “They were not as skilled as I thought they’d be.”
Wanderer turned to look at the fallen, a thoughtful frown pulling at his face. “They don’t look like soldiers. They must have come from Greensborough.” He took Tormod’s offered hoof to stand. “Hopefully, that’s all of them now.”
“Not all of them,” Scarlet said, still cradling Rogue as he rested. “Stone Hoof isn’t here.”
Looking back, Wanderer saw the slate-gray pegasus wasn’t among them. “Either he’s waiting in another ambush, or he’s with Harbinger.”
Tormod frowned. “We’ll have to be careful,” he said before using his magic to float his saddlebags to him, lifting a jar from within. “We should cure them while they’re down, we can’t leave them like this.”
“Indeed,” Faith said as she collected her satchel. “But we will have to be swift. The time of the solstice is getting close.”
Getting to his hooves, Wanderer peered inside his saddlebags, only to wince at the mess within. “I don’t have anymore. All of mine are crushed.”
Faith gave him a small smile. “I carried extra, just in case we needed them.” She passed him a few jars and they went about force feeding the remaining Bringers.
Once the deed was done, Wanderer looked back at Faith. “Still got more?”
“Mh-hm.” She nodded. “Here, take some.”
Putting the offered jars into his saddlebag, he—and the others—looked up as he felt a chill wash over him.
“What was that?” Wanderer asked, the hairs on his spine standing.
“That was magic of the Advent,” Faith said as she slung her satchel back over her back. “We need to hurry.”
Wanderer started away before he heard Tormod ask, “Scarlet?”
She shook her head. “No, I’m going to stay with Rogue and the others. Make sure they have someone with them when they wake up. Go on, we’ll be fine.”
“But—”
“Go!” she yelled. “Stop them before they do worse to all of us.”
Wanderer nodded, tugging Tormod along. “Come on. Trixie and Tourmaline might need our help. We got to find them and Harbinger before it’s too late.”
His friend sighed and nodded. “Let’s go.”
Sparing a glance over his shoulder at Scarlet Scroll as they left, Wanderer hoped the next time he saw them, it wasn’t with bad news.
-0-
Bark and bits of wood flew past his head as the rotten tree exploded next to him. Running past the shower of wood, the Elder kept ahead of the Guardian’s fist as it tried once again to crush him. With a leap, he twirled and shot another ray at the monster, only to see it do nothing more than anger the creature further.
’I feel as if I am striking stone,’ he thought as he landed back on his hooves and ran, avoiding another blow by the tree creatures. ’If I do not find a way to defeat the guardian, I will not be able to get to Faith’s side before it is too late.’
Even as his warriors hurled spears or stones, he knew that it was going to take something more to bring it down. He was sure that if the creature had still been living, they would’ve already defeated it. However, with the curse, the thing kept moving even with wounds that would have proven fatal otherwise.
As the monster uprooted a tree, the Elder scrambled out of the way as it hurled it at him. Leaping past, the Elder ran under its legs and fired another beam at the creature’s back and kept moving as it turned a leg to stomp on him.
A warrior rushed past him and leaped onto the leg and began scaling upwards. Even as others tried to distract the beast, the Elder shot another beam as it lifted an arm to smash the brave warrior. The creature groaned, flinching from the attack, and the warrior ran up for its eyes. Bringing back his hoofblade, the warrior slashed the creature across one of its pale orbs.
The Guardian howled and the warrior leaped to clear the thrashing monster. The Elder yelled as the warrior was clipped by one of its arms, the poor buck flailing. The warrior hit with a grunt, but before he could get back up, the guardian stomped him flat.
He felt a seething rage burned within as another of his people fell; the Elder used the surge of emotion to power his next blast. The golden beam struck the Guardian and it stumbled and fell—uprooting many trees as it landed.
Not about to let it get back on its feet, the Elder blasted at it again. “Fall, creature! Return to—” His eyes widened as he felt the vines wrap around his fetlocks, and he shouted as he was whipped into the air.
“Elder!” his warriors shouted, running to help him.
The Elder grunted and blasted the vine holding him, the Guardian groaning again as he fell free. A hiss of pain escaped him as he felt his right, front leg twist wrong as he landed. Getting back to his hooves—favoring his injured leg that shot red-hot waves of pain through his body—he saw the Guardian get back to its own feet—scattering the warriors that tried to hack at it.
“Blessed Mother, what do we need to do to stop it?”
Throwing up a barrier as the Guardian swept at him, he cried out as he felt it shatter under the sheer strength of the beast. Hissing as his leg burned anew as he bounced, the Elder could only close his eyes as the Guardian raised an arm to smash him into the dirt.
-0-
Flapping her wings as hard as she could, Tourmaline fled as fast as the hallway would let her. The screeching of beetles goaded her on to another burst of speed as Trixie fled beside her.
“I thought the beetles were all gone!” Trixie screamed as the two turned down another bend in the hall, the clicking of beetle claws echoing behind them.
“Must have been some holdouts!” Tourmaline replied as she ducked a low-hanging beam, swearing as the hall narrowed and forced her to run on hoof. “When will this tunnel end? We’ve got to find Wanderer and the others.”
“If we stop, we won’t ever find out,” the unicorn said as she dug into her cape and threw some pellets behind her. The pellets popping and flashing that had the pursuing beetles screeching even louder.
Even as the beetles fell back, Tourmaline swore again. “Can’t believe I lost my spear. Otherwise, I’d be fighting them.”
“Maybe it was a good thing you did,” Trixie said as they kept running. “We’re only two and we can’t fight them all no matter much we’ve trained.”
As much as her pride wanted to argue, Tourmaline knew she was right. “Well, we better keep moving. This tunnel has to end sooner or later.”
Tourmaline’s ears stood erect as they heard a voice calling their names.
“Wanderer!” she shouted and the two sped ahead.
Echoes of the others shouting grew louder as the hallway emptied out into a larger one.
“Tormod, Wanderer! Where are you?” Trixie shouted as she looked behind them, biting her lip.
“Trixie! Tourmaline!” they heard Wanderer shout.
“There they are!” Tourmaline heard her brother shout. She turned to see him, Wanderer, and Faith running for them from another hall. “Are you two all right?” he asked.
“I coul—” Was as far as she got before Wanderer crushed her in a bone-crunching hug.
“Sweet Celestia, I was so scared,” he said, relief thick in his voice.
“Wanderer, I…” she winced as she felt her ribs threatening to give. “Too tight.”
As he stepped back to let her breathe, she stretched her wings out as they began to cramp. “What happened back there? Where’s Scarlet?”
“We ran into a Bringer ambush, Rogue was one of them,” Tormod said as he looked down the torch-lit hallway. “She stayed behind with them after we cured them.”
“Is that all of the Bringers then?” Trixie asked as she kept looking over her shoulder back the way they had come.
“Not all of them,” Wanderer said, his tail flicking as he also watched the hallway. “Stone Hoof wasn’t there.”
“Trixie thinks we should—” She whirled as the screeching of the beetles erupted from behind them. “Sweet Celestia, they caught up with us!”
“We do not have time to battle them,” Faith said, as she urged them on. “Do you not feel the chill in the air? The hour of the Solstice is almost here and Harbinger will begin his ritual to free the Gorgon if we do not stop him!”
“We have to go then,” Wanderer said before looking at Tormor and Trixie. “Can you two drop that tunnel to buy us some time?”
Tormod nodded once before he and Trixie blasted at the smaller hallway entrance, collapsing the stone just as the beetles came within sight of their light.
“My friends! Come!” Faith urged as she bounded ahead, the ponies soon giving chase.
Even as she galloped beside him, Tourmaline quickly planted a kiss on his cheek—the move almost causing the stallion to trip and tumble.
“Was worried about you too,” she said, a smile spreading across her face.
He grinned wider before the two of them galloped down the hallway, the air beginning to mist in front of their faces…