Under the Shell

by Wuten

Chapter 2

“No, no… try it again!” Husk grunted, waving his hooves frantically. “This time, no weird colors; focus your magic, don't use it all at once!”

“I’m trying…” Tennae reverted back to her original form, looking up at the helmed changeling. “It’s hard, though…”

“It takes practice, but we don’t have much time for that,” Husk sighed, sitting down and looking up at the sky. It was hard to discern through the trees, but it was definitely getting darker. “Let’s settle in for tonight,” he turned to one of the larger trees, eyeing it before hovering up to it with his wings. “It looks like this isn’t inhabited at all… we’ll dig in deep and rest here tonight.”

“Okay…” Tennae looked around as the area around them began to slowly get draped in a blanket of darkness. Night was quickly approaching, and any young changeling knew that to be caught out alone at night would certainly be a dangerous situation.

"Alright, it looks sturdy enough," Husk tapped his hoof against the trunk of the tree. "Come on, quickly," he beckoned her to him.

Tennae scurried over to the tree, carefully stepping inside the hollowed out trunk. "What is this stuff?" She asked, lifting her hoof and eyeing the strange substance that coated the tree's insides.

"Sap, I'd imagine," Husk grimaced, climbing in behind her. "Not the most ideal of things to-"

Husk cut himself off as Tennae licked off the sap from her hoof. "Hey, this is pretty good!" She smiled, scooping up another hoof worth. "Here, try it—"

"Sorry, not my type," he hissed softly, raising a hoof up to stop her. "Besides, we changelings don't usually ea—*HURK*" he continued, but was interrupted by Tennae shoving her hoof into his mouth; not in rudeness, but as a reflex as her ears twitched.

"Something's out there," she whispered quietly, turning her head towards the opening. It was slightly higher than their heads, so the only things visible were the leaves of the trees across from the hole.

Husk pressed her hoof down from his mouth, giving her an angry glare before sneaking up to the side of the hole, peering outside. "I don't see anything..." he muttered as Tennae took the other side.

"I know I heard something..." She looked outside, eyeing the immediate area; still nothing.

"Your concern and reflexes are good, but I'm sure it wasn't an—"

A loud roar rocked through the tree, shaking the two changelings deep in their exoskeletons. A few thumps shook the ground, and suddenly the tree itself shifted, seeming to lift up on its own.

"Oh no... MOVE!" Husk gasped, pushing the young changeling out the hole, and himself following close behind. "Fly, and don't look behind you!" He called out to her, his wings buzzing as they shot through the forest.

Tennae frantically buzzed her wings, trying her best to keep up with Husk. "Wh-what was that?" She asked, noticeably shaken up.

"From what I could tell, we decided to take refuge inside the mouth of an Ent… I should have been able to tell, but the forest here is too strange, even for me,” Husk called back to her. “Just keep going, they’re big but they’re slow! We’ll outrun it in no ti—”

“Grooooooooaaaaaaah!” the ent roared behind them, as the thundering steps began booming even faster and louder than before.

“Oh no… Tennae, keep moving!” Husk turned to look; the ent was right on the younger changeling’s tail, barely even ten feet between the two of them now. “Pull up!”

Tennae’s little wings vibrated rapidly and she lifted further off the ground, attempting to get out of the ent’s reach.

The movement wasn’t quick enough, however; the ent brought up one of its mighty branched arms, and swat Tennae out of the air like a fly. She landed on the ground with a sickening thud, and lie there, motionless.

“Tennae? Tennae!” Husk called out to her, but no response came. Husk cursed himself for trying, but mustered up his resolve and pulled back into a dive, directly towards the approaching ent.

His fast strikes worked in distracting the ent, but he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep them up for long. He needed to draw it away, somehow…

Landing, Husk deftly dodged a slam of the ent’s mighty branches, before traveling up its arm-like outgrowth. From there, he did everything he could; bite, hit, magical blasts from his horn, they all seemingly did nothing in the face of the mighty creature.

But he did get its attention away from Tennae, and that was the important part. Now… to get its attention off him.

“Tennae!” he called out as he tried his best holding onto the back of the ent. “You need to transform! It knows what you look like normally, maybe if you transform into something different it’ll leave us alone!”

Tennae’s eyes fluttered open as she heard Husk call out to her. She turned, and saw the massive ent swinging wildly in the air at some black object…

Husk!

“Husk?” Tennae’s eyes opened wide as her vision returned.

“Oh good, you’re awake,” he grunted as he ducked under a swing from the ent. “Transform, quickly!”

“B-but into what? I don’t have a grasp on it yet!” she stammered frantically, watching as he dodged yet another slam from the great branches.

“Anything! Just make sure it’s big and scary and can take on this thing!” Husk called out, before ungracefully receiving a glancing blow from the ent, sending him spiraling to the ground.

“Husk!” she gasped, her gaze returning to the ent, her horn glowing a brighter green than it had earlier. “How DARE you!”

A dense green aura enveloped her as magic poured from her horn. She tilted her head up as her body began to change; a long, flowing mane draped down her head and from her tail. Both it and her coat were now white as the purest snow, and her horn was now that of a unicorn’s.

The new stranger took the attention of the ent as it left Husk alone, turning now to the unicorn before it. It let out a bellowing roar, and Tennae almost immediately cowered from it.

“I… I won’t let you hurt him!” she growled, her horn glowing brightly, firing off a magical blast that even sent Tennae rolling backwards from the force of it. The blast struck the ent near the base of its roots, and it let out an angry roar and thumped the massive branches against the ground.

“Go away! I’m warning you!” Tennae called out to the ent, recovering from the blast. ‘I really hope that worked… I don’t know if I could do it again...’ she thought to herself, finding that she was short on breath after that.

The ent let out another roar, before charging at her. Tennae flinched, but opened her eyes as a new sound entered her ears; it wasn’t the roar of the ent, but…

“AWOOOOOOOO!”

End Chapter 2

Author's Note:

Who could this mysterious savior be, hm?

I think we all know who.

~Wuten

Comments

[Pro Wrestling Pony]

“AWOOOOOOOO!”

[Vitae]

7895607
I love you

[tsaukpaetra]

Huh, that was a rather swift departure from canon. 😅