Palei Hantu
The Myinn go to war on the morrow,
spurred by suspicion and fear,
led by a captain who
thinks them all at
the end of their rope.
The major will disagree,
of course,
and say that they should not act just yet,
that marching will be a mistake,
but it will be too late.
The captain is beyond reasoning,
and most of the other Myinn are too,
gripped by panic for the missing boats
and murder of Peridot.
Dawn Patrol, blinded by love,
has saved the mare he loves
along with her kin.
But in doing so he has condemned
all the Myinn of Myinnkiun.
And for what?
She does not love him.
Her heart is elsewhere,
and her mind as well.
She did not kill Peridot,
she couldn't have,
yet she is struck with panicked desperation.
I wonder if it was the lunar Princess she saw.
Trapped amongst the stars above?
Has she been waiting for a ship to land,
bearing news of her people's crimes in Equestria?
Either way,
she will not run with him into the jungle.
They couldn't even if they wanted.
The Myinn go to war on the morrow.
And both of them will march,
too scared to utter any truths they hold that might save them.
Had I to guess
Who killed Peridot?
Who was the other unicorn
that Tommyrum saw?
I cannot tell. Not for certain.
Peridot did not have friends.
Who would she stumble toward the docks with
at that late hour?
Cabotage might have walked her there,
to gaze upon the empty waters,
and discuss the missing ships.
Or perchance it was Majority,
having made sure she was too drunk to swim
who then half led, half hauled Peridot
to the docks
and into those dark depths
that stole the breath from her lungs and
stalled the flow of blood in her veins?
Did he frame the kelpie
to silence the growing complaints
of the crippling taxes?
I cannot tell.
Shooting Star,
soldier of the night.
Did he think his training and
that playing by rules his Princess wrote
another world away
would help him?
Did he think,
of all the magical and majestic creatures on the planet,
only the Myinn
could be dreamwalkers?
They are fools.
All of them.
They go to war on the morrow,
and they will not come marching home again.
I do not know who threw the spear
that U Low Kene now clenches,
hidden in the edge of the jungle.
He never reached the wall
And Spotlight only came to life well after the spear had flown.
I got lucky,
avoiding detection and
alerting that guard
of my hunter's approach.
I suppose it doesn't matter who it was.
The Myinn go to war on the morrow.
And when U Low Kene runs to warn our kin,
the opportunity will be mine
to escape.
While the Myinn die in the jungle,
I must make with haste,
and reach the mainland
before the Mooken come looking for more blood to draw,
lest I suffer the same fate
as the town of Myinnkuin will.