Luna Wants a Windigo

by Lazauya

Interlude: Winter Pt. 2

The cold seeped deep into the colt’s body, crawling around in him until his bones ached. And still he seethed, the sensation creating a sadistic euphoria.

The windigo crouched on the floor, the wood starting to frost over even in the Spring air.

“I just want someone to like me….”

The windigo looked up at the colt with a questioning gaze on her face.

“Maybe….” He pondered, staring at the ceiling.

After a tense moment, the windigo rubbed her crest on the colt’s neck. The colt turned his head, and nuzzled her mane in response.

“I can… I can….” The colt’s lip wavered. “I don’t know….”

The windigo only continued with her rubbing.

The colt backed away from the windigo, It’s blank eyes stared deep into Astatine.

“What do—what do you think I should do…?” Astatine asked quietly.

The windigo stared at him, and, in a rare display of discontent, she frowned. She placed her wispy hoof upon the colts forehead, and he understood her answer.

“Yes, I….”

The windigo shifted.

“I will. I will,” he growled.

Astatine sat on his haunches, hind legs sprawling, and stared at the ground. “But…”

The windigo circled the colt.

“But… where will I…” and before Astatine could finish his question, he already had the answer. He knew where he would go. There was someone who cared.

“Ms. Joy…” he said with hopeful uncertainty. “She… cares….”

Astatine looked up. “But what if she’s l-lying?”

The windigo touched her forehead to the colt’s.

The colt nodded in understanding. “Y-you’re right…. She… Ms. Joy doesn’t lie….”

“But I don’t know where…” he said sadly. “There’s no way….”

The windigo only looked at the colt with an exasperated glare.

---

The colt got up in the morning, and went to school as usual. School was abysmal and monotonous, as it was everyday. But that day he looked at Ms. Joy with a new sense of wonder and uncertainty.

There was another expected nuisance, as there was every day. The windigo hid outside the windows in the classroom, holding it’s head up only long enough for the colt to get a nervous glance before the windigo hid, giggling about her teasing.

The day ended with an uneventful bell, and all the students funneled out the door and into the hallway and into the streets. The colt started on his walk home before he was stopped by the ethereal little filly. He stopped, nervous, and only looked at his hooves in shame. “I know I need to go, but….”

The windigo only shook her head.

The colt promptly understood. “B-but what do I do?”

The windigo flew off, and Astatine followed her. They hid in an alley, not unlike where they first met.

Much time passed before they saw the teacher leave the school. When she did, the windigo notified the colt and they stalked her home. She lived in a pleasant grove of buildings, the bricks clean and well painted, the windows without soot.

They waited for the teacher to enter her house. She trotted up to a magenta house, the windows few but prettily decorated with little flowers.

The colt got the cue to approach the door, stomach churning, a frog struggling to escape his throat. The sidewalk was pristine and the houses lining it were quaint. But Astatine felt the neighborhood stifling, as if the structures surrounding him would collapse, burying him alive to never be remembered.

And the colt reached the door.

The door was simple dark brown, stained with chemicals and lightened with weather, a vignette lining the door, and a silver handle to boot. The archway surrounding the door was simple; stones of an an arch were mortared into place, on top of a purple brick wall.

Astatine hesitated. He turned around, and found the windigo with her head out behind a trash can on the other side of the street.

The colt made up his mind and reached for the door, heart racing.

He knocked twice. Hoofsteps were heard from behind the door, getting louder until it was upon the porch and evident that the door would open. And it did.

The mare stood in front of the colt, a pleasant but worried smile winding across her muzzle. “Astatine?” she asked.

The colt pursed his lips, the thing to ask still being unclear. He looked up from his downward facing position.

“What are you doing here?” the mare asked again, concerned.

“M-Ms. Joy—I…” tumbling on his words, his heart racing even faster, “Can I… live with you?”

Ms. Joy’s eyes splayed. She lifted her hood as if to step back, but was frozen in place. The colt heart wanted to seize. The colt wished his suffering would end with a quick blow to the head.

And the colt agonized as the shocked teacher was stunned herself. But Astatine grew anxious. He stepped back, once, then twice.

And he turned to run. He ran away, again, as he had before. But now he was not going back to his mother. Astatine ran further through the city streets, even as he faintly recalled a voice calling for him, growing away.

The buildings rushed past as he rushed to the edge of the city. He was escaping from the place that trapped him.

Finally, after an eternity of running, he made it to the edge of the city. And the wendigo was there too, floating behind him, as distraught as the colt. She circled the colt, trying to gain his attention.

The colt looked up, tears in his eyes. “What do you want?!”

The windigo lengthened her radius, her frown following in suit.

“Y-you lied to me! You told me she cared!” The air became more crisp.

The windigo flew down to the colt, placing her hoof on his head.

“You…! You…. I hate…” he trailed off, sniffling. “I just want….”

The windigo nuzzled Astatine, sliding her cheek across his. “Why d-doesn’t anyone l-like me?”

The windigo only looked at the colt, not ready to give her answer.

“I just want someone to like me…. I just....”

And the windigo gave her answer.

And the colt held his pensive expression. “A-are y-you sure?”

And the windigo nodded.

Author's Note:

Woo, an update!