“Are you sure?” she asked. I nodded again. I needed to drink some vibrant crimson at this point; to feed on anything but would render my recovery slower and perhaps even stunt it entirely. And sadly for us both, there was only one source of it close to me.
The maiden nodded. She let her hoof stray to my mouth, and I bit down once it was within my pitiful reach. The succulent liquid dripped into my mouth and I felt a slight ecstasy, a heaven in this hell I had fallen into. Gradually, I felt some of my strength returning with the ire of yet another defeat.
There came a point, though, where Reimu had to pry her hoof away. She had not let off a single whimper or scream of any sort during both the process of me taking some of her blood and after, as her hoof had retracted. Truly, she had been more formidable than I had first thought, even in this candy-colored world of equines that I somehow wound up being a part of.
Reimu Hakurei, the shrine maiden of paradise. She was the first human I met in Gensokyo, or at the very least, the first human who I came to see as a person. A friend, someone who was close to my equal. We fought valiantly, each seeking her own ends; the safety of the night through the day, and the end of a terrible inconvenience. In the end, I hadn’t felt ire upon defeat. She had truly bested me in ways I could not initially comprehend. She had not only bested me in battle; she had bested my deathly, unbeating heart.
Not to misunderstand; I was not in love with the girl, though if I were being honest with myself I felt more than relieved that she was here at my side. She began to wrap her wound, which was but a minor infliction, using the bow in her hair. I’d have done the same with my wounds and garments if nothing else was available, but that was both a scarcity and neither here nor there.
She glanced around, ears perked to attention as if sensing danger. I rose my head and imitated the motion, though I was a bit sluggish about it.
Silence greeted us both. I began hating the silence. Was it jeering at me too? Laughing at me like the sun which my kind could not stand for a single moment? Under other circumstances I wouldn’t mind it as much, but now it was putting me on edge—dangerously on edge. All this world had thus far to offer was pain, humiliation, and defeat. I did not care to encounter more. This silence was only adding fuel to the burning flame that was my pent-up rage and desire for vengeance.
Reimu sat down on her rump, wiping her bangs away with a front hoof before continuing to mend her injury. She looked back and forth again, as if expecting something to jump out from the darkness and lash out at us both. I did not feel fear this time, however. I felt at ease with this girl, though trepidation and annoyance coursed through me still. It was akin to diving into freezing water; the first time it would sting and render you helpless, then another time you would be prepared for it.
Again, only the silence answered to us. "Oh, gods of Makai, please spare me from more pain and defeat," I found myself muttering inaudibly.
“How are you holding up?” Reimu questioned as she finished applying her makeshift bandage.
“A little… better,” I replied, the corners of my mouth cracking up ever so slightly. “Hakurei shrine maiden… Thank you, Reimu.”
“You’re welcome,” the maiden replied, a smile of her own adorning her muzzle. The expression felt grotesque, yet the person—or pony if you must be precise and so nitpicky on this issue—wearing it gave that expression a far more fair appearance.
Without warning, a wretched armored horse leapt at and then pinned Reimu on the spot. He wore a ghoulish grin, one that betrayed his intentions to any within sight of it. I felt my legs shift, and rage boil over in my undying blood.
"What'cha doin' out here in the Everfree, girls?" the horse taunted, his grin widening. His hooves shifted up Reimu's neck, as if intent on choking her.
"It's none of your business! Buzz off!" Reimu cried, and when the horse had the gall to hit her in the temple, I felt my rage amplify tenfold and my wings spread wide.
"You… coward!" I cried in an angry hiss—I was beyond fed up at that point. My legs ached, the nerves protesting as I rose onto my hooves and jumped at the assailant without a second thought. The aching, the pain, and my state of weakness only served as fuel to my fire as I bounded over in an angry gallop, snarling as the stallion smacked Reimu again.
I shoved him off the maiden, my fangs sinking into his exposed neck. He howled in pain, galloping around and trying to shake me away, yet I would not—could not—afford to let go. The risk of releasing him was too high; I had not an inkling of what he would do to the shrine maiden, and I wouldn’t let him bring any harm to Reimu so long as I had a say in the matter! As I drank his foul blood, his attempts to throw me off grew weaker and weaker until he could no longer stand.
"You… fucking… bitch," was all he managed to gurgle out of his wretched mouth. I continued to feed, barely paying heed to his words. I also heard a cough from Reimu, and a form shifting on soft grass, and merely averted my eyes as the shrine maiden rose to stand. I forced myself to bite my quarry's neck harder, cutting off his primary means of breathing as I spotted forming bruises blemishing the face of my savior.
Normally, I relished in a small amount of blood, but here this bastard was drained as thoroughly as a glass of milk after I used a straw. Not one drop went to waste; not one drop stained the forest floor. Once the carcass was drier than a desert under the scorching sun, I let go. I then laid down, the pain in my entire body overwhelming me yet again. I stared at my handiwork; the carcass had shrunk a bit and its skin clung tightly to dehydrated muscle and bone, looking a little more like a skeleton than anything.
Reimu trotted up to me and put a hoof on my shoulder. I looked at her just once, and she nodded. She then looked at the corpse and began kicking it in its now-useless… for a lack of better words, something that neither she nor I possessed.
Can’t say I blame her. What kind of carnal desire drove these stallions to deliberately seek us out when they should’ve known they were messing with ponies whose powers they could not begin to comprehend? But then again, I found myself incapable of blaming them, no matter how much I wanted to do so—those that saw what we were capable of were few, far in between, and the rest were dead to the world.
I began to giggle with a sick sense of mirth as Reimu kept beating the dead horse, so to speak. At least, until she collapsed from exhaustion. I dare say, a good thing this hell had provided me with a most amusing sight, and the satisfaction of a monster’s just end in one sitting.
“I hope that’s the last of these guys,” Reimu sighed. I could not help but nod in agreement. "Do you have any idea where they're coming from? They just keep popping up."
I shook my head to answer her inquiry, my lips pulled into a tight, small frown. “Then we better move. I don’t care for my health to deteriorate again because of a few wretched hooves,” I stated, getting up onto my hooves a second time.
The pain was less noticeable now, since the second drainage of a deranged horse was already healing me, making the act of hauling myself up considerably easier. My companion got up again, making sure to deliver one final kick to the corpse before we moved deeper into the thicket. “Let us hope the gods are with us presently.”
We trotted for a good while—by that, I mean a few hours or so. It was no easy task to keep time in this thick forest—wandering aimlessly in the woodland for a time before suddenly stopping. The both of us found the unmarked edge of a clearing, with a pond in the center and the sky in as optimal a view as it could be.
The sky was also turning violet, with shades of red dotting the darker clouds.
Night was soon to grace the world. And yet, I felt my body tense. It was as if my makeshift solace could no longer comfort me.
Then, I heard bushes distantly rustling, followed by a wail from something I couldn't care to comprehend. The wail sounded more bestial, burning with anger, and it rose and echoed into the coming night.
"Reimu, we must move. I think there's something else in this forested area that wishes to fight us," I warned, and the shrine maiden turned to me.
"Then let it come," Reimu replied. "We can take it—I can fly and kick like no tomorrow, and you can summon your Gungnir."