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// Chapter I :Final....rest ? 
// Story: The filly of the copper mane 
// by Maulet Paya 
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Dying is not a pleasant thing, especially when death is caused by half a dozen obsidian bolts, but I don't care ... A smile crossed my face as I took with difficulty my last breaths of air, leaning on the still hot corpse of one of the soldiers of Xateas who have tried to take the port. Fighting to keep my eyes open just a little more, I watched with joy and relief as the last ship disappeared on the horizon, knowing that the people I love most in the world were safe and going to a better place. With these pleasant feelings in my heart, I let the darkness embrace me and take me to whatever there is after the end of life.


The birds sang and the sun warmed my skin, but that was not possible ... Little by little, my mind began to take the drowsiness off me while trying to understand how it could be that I was feeling things around me if I was dead.It is impossible that I survived my wounds.I am in the afterlife? , I thought to myself. I slowly opened my eyes, adapting to the light of my surroundings. I tried to move my hands to try to cover the sunlight and to my confusion, my hands were not where they should. Flashing a couple more times to clarify my vision, I focused my eyes on what was in front of me. A pair of hooves of lapis lazuli color. My mind was trying to process what my eyes were seeing, without much success. I tried to move one of the hooves back and forth, and the strange limb responded to my orders perfectly. In a stroke of initiative and stupidity I raised my left limb and lowered it as fast as I could against the other.
…
“Merda, that hurts!” I shouted, trying to ease the pain of one of the hooves by rubbing it with the other. Suddenly, the reality of what had just happened hit me like a wave of ocean. I felt pain, and that only It can mean two things,  I am not dead and  something has happened to my body. Making a titanic effort not to panic, I breathed slowly and deeply to calm my nerves. After a while, already calmer, I opened again my eyes. I needed to examine my body to see how far it had changed and find out exactly where I was.


Turning my head back I saw that the changes in my physiognomy were total. A layer of fur  of the same color as my hooves covered my small quadruped body, as I deduced when I saw that my legs were now the same length as what my arms used to be and also ended in hooves. Behind the legs was what looked like a single tail, short and with a lot of hair, very different from the three fleshy and pink tails I had before. But the most unusual of all and what caught my attention were a new pair of limbs that were born on my back. They were two bird wings, the same color as the rest of my body except for some feather with golden and white colors.

After a few attempts I managed to discover what new muscles I had to move to open the wings. To my surprise, they were strangely small in relation to the rest of my body.It is impossible to fly with this, I thought a little sadly, concluding that the wings were vestigial extremities of the species that I had become for some reason. Completing the body exam, I tried to find out where I was looking around. I was in at the entrance of a forest, with the trees behind me and in front of me a small stream of clear water that I had not noticed before. Beyond there was a green hill that didn't  let me see further. Looking up I saw a blue sky with a few clouds moving slowly, sometimes covering a yellow sun as they passed. This confirmed my suspicions. It was not in Heaven that promised my mother's religion and neither in that of my father's beliefs, I was one hundred percent sure that I was in a world other than Sepharad, seeing how the sun was of another color and much smaller .

Realizing that it was time to start up, I tried to stand up with my four legs. One by one I put my firm hooves on the ground, lifting my weight with my legs. I was already standing, now the hard part, figuring out how to walk with 4 legs instead of two. Deciding to imitate the quadruped animals of my world I advanced the right front leg, followed shortly thereafter by the left rear. Little by little and with more difficulty than I would like to admit I was moving towards the creek, not without falling a couple of times, dirtying my fur with mud and grass while releasing a few curses.

I leaned my head towards the water to see my reflection, finally getting a complete view of my body. In the creek I saw a creature with blue fur with gold freckles all over the face and a reddish copper mane, curly and tangled in a bad way. A pair of blue ears on the head of the being moved from side to side following the quiet sounds of the forest. But what made my mouth open in surprise were the two huge emerald eyes that occupied most of my face Never in my life had I seen a creature with such disproportionately huge eyes, but I had never been in another world, so I moved my shoulders in resignation and looked up from the water. I crossed the creek through a shallow place a couple of meters by my side getting wet in the process and continued on towards the hill to have a better view of my surroundings from the top.


While walking I ran my tongue through my teeth, realizing that they were those of a herbivorous animal, flat and short. To check if I was right I took a bite of a particularly green weed grass at the base of the hill and for my surprise, it tasted pretty good. And thanks to EnYaume that i had food on hand, or a hoof, because the climb was much longer and harder than i had anticipated. After what seemed like an hour of slopes, small bites of grass and many more falls and curses I reached the top of the hill. I collapsed on the ground to catch my breath, exhausted after the great effort made to climb. To anyone's surprise, I didn't know how to use this body efficiently. To my relief, there were signs of civilization in front of me.


A village not much larger than my hometown stood at the foot of the hill, surrounded by a deep and dark forest on one side and fields of crops on the other. I also saw a huge tree of unnatural color with what I would swear was a castle built in it. Forcing my sight I saw the natives and for even more relief they were creatures of a species similar to mine. Die lynched by a crowd for being an abomination removed from the list of horrible things that can happen to me , I thought with a little smile. The city was quiet and pleasant, like everything I had seen in this world so far, so I decided to go down the hill to build relationships with the natives.


Walking along the cobbled streets and flanked by wooden houses of at most two floors and beautiful colors I watched the natives who trotted through the streets. To my surprise all the creatures were bigger than me and most had no wings. Some even had a horn in the middle of their foreheads that somehow shone in an aura of color and moved objects in the air at will in a way that  i could only describe as… ..magic.I banish that stupid thought  off my mind, magic was just a children's story, it must be some kind of gravitational device or psychic power. But what intrigued me most was the color palette. It was infinite! There were creatures with fur of every imaginable color and hair of various colors that seemed to be natural. The more I saw the more it hurt my head trying to apply what I knew about animal biology in these creatures until suddenly something collided with me, making me jump from the surprise while stirring all my limbs. I always react to surprises like that,  for  the enjoyment of my prankers sisters.



Falling to the ground with my face I let out a grunt of pain and tried to get up as fast as I could, crashing my face against the ground again, getting up to the second and taking a defensive position. In front of me a creature watched me with a small smile of apology, or with a murderous face, I don't know if we share meanings as far as facial expressions are concerned. The creature used the…. Aura of his horn to take off his glasses and spoke to me in a calm and interrogative tone ... but I didn't understand a word. I'm stupid, as it hadn't occurred to me before! I am in another world to know in what distant place of the universe or even of another universe, of course I do not understand the native language, fucking dumb bastard!. Seeing my confused face, the creature spoke to me again with a tone and facial expression that can only translate as concern , with the same result as before. Desperate, I spoke to him in my language in case by some remote chance of destiny the creature understood me. Seeing that now who had the face of confusion was the creature I tried with another language, and with another and with another, only managing to increase the face of confusion and concern of the creature. I was seriously screwed .


From behind him another native without horn or wings and what i could only describe as a kind of pink bow tie around the neck approached us and taking a small look, he said something to the being of the horn.The two exchanged a few words and began to look around, as if they were looking for something. Little by little, more creatures came closer, talking to each other. Before I knew it, I was surrounded. Fuck, I think my luck is over.



Before I could do anything, a reddish aura had surrounded me and to my misfortune lifted in the air.  I try to get rid of the grip of the strange light, shaking legs and wings wildly as I screamed demanding that I be released in Xatian, the language I use use when I want to make as much noise as possible. The light left me in the rump of the creature that had collided with me and without releasing its grip began to walk next to that of the bow tie towards a white building with a red symbol above the door.



I cursed on more time , expecting the worst while the three of us enter the building.