Frozen

by B_25

4 – Fight

~ 4 ~

Fight

Spike knew he was a coward, though liked to pretend otherwise.

It was always situations themselves that provoked his cowardice. When he was back in his room, alone and under a warm blanket, he was never a coward there; in the comics he read safely under his sheets, he could never understand why, in conflict with the villain, the hero's sidekick would always run away from the battle.

But as his feet sunk into the snow, things were different than how they were in fiction. Wind actually cut across his cheek and his legs ached and burned; the blood in the snow was real and monsters were not a thing of fantasy, but rather, inspired by reality.

Spike knew he was a coward. He just didn't want to admit it.

“Hihya!” Spike's foot was caught snug by something beneath the snow, causing him to fall forward. At once, the distant footsteps changed to breathing in his ear fin. He should have known better than to embark on this journey alone, that his cowardice wouldn't miraculously disappear upon deciding on a simple stupid choice.

“Yuahh!” The breathing changed to a distant yelp as something else collided with the snow. Spike looked up to see Shining standing over him. “You beasts stand away from my brother!” One of the wolves began to charge at him, and Shining did the same to him, their charges lasting only a few seconds before the two crossed—Shining leaping up to its chest as the other brought his claw into his barrel.

Spike rose back to his feet. “S-Shining!”

The stallion was too busy throwing his head back and slamming it forward into the wolf's muzzle, repeatedly. A few headbutts later, the wolf unlatched its claws and began to fall back, with the stallion launching off its chest and spinning back around once he landed back on the ground.

Shining glanced back. “The sword! I need you to find my sword!”

Spike twirled around as he looked. “I-I can't see it! There's too much snow and—“

“No excuses!” Shining yelped as a wolf charged at the right of him, knocking him to the ground and pinning him there. “Just find it!” He kicked his hooves against the muzzle of the beast.

There was no way the sword could be found in such a condition, not too mention under such intense stress. Spike wanted to cry as he fell to all fours and dug about in the snow, but he knew all he was doing was wasting time.

“Any day now!”

Spike closed his eyes for a moment as a burp left him, leaving a trail of smoke. “That's it!”

“Spike!”

“Just give me a second!” Spike inhaled as much air as he could manage, feeling a heat beginning to burn in his chest as he charged forth toward the struggle. Then he felt it, the fire begging for release, and he was more than happy to comply as he leaped into the air—unleashing a jet of green flames upon the wolf/

Shining was afforded a moment in his opponent's shock deliver a strike across its muzzle, knocking it off himself as it rolled about the snow in order to put out its burning coat.

“Thanks for the assist.” Shining took a stance once more as the rest of the pact caught up. “But we're still finished without that sword.”

“I was just getting to that!” Spike charged his chest once more as he planted his feet firmly into the ground, and with a few seconds of air, unleashed another stream of flames as he slowly twirled himself around—melting the snow and pushing apart the mist. On the ground, something glinted. “There, grab it!”

Shining made a break forward, hopping left and right in his movement, though he kept still as one of the wolves stepped over his sword. He didn't break speed as he carried forward; in fact, he sprinted faster as he came before the beast.

Spike covered his eyes as the wolf's claws came down on the stallion...

...but Shining was too quick for them as he bent forward and changed into a slide, passing beneath and between the wolf's legs and picking up the sword with his mouth. Once he passed underneath the wolf's tail, he spun himself around and delivered a slash to its heels.

The wolf fell immediately.

“Quick!” Shining called from behind the fallen body. “Get over here now!”

Spike went to break into a sprint but felt something grab his leg. He looked down, following the charred white arm to the burned face of the wolf before, its snarl more ugly than before. He chuckled. “Uh, I didn't mean it?”

The wolf clenched its paw, raising the drake into the air and smashing him into the ground behind him, before hurling him forward. Spike screamed the whole way, his back aching as the wolves below reached up to him, and by the time he was to meet the ground, he fell on something much softer than snow.

“Not what I have in mind,” Shining said as he shifted in place, getting the drake settled on his back, “but it'll do.” He pressed his hooves against the ground, and in giving a mighty neigh, charged forward once more.

Spike was already alerted to the wolves on their trail, but on having grown a little wiser, charged another flame and unleashed a curved burning wall before their pursuers—each coming to a stop well before the flame.

The two carried forward, through the wind and mist, free from danger for the present moment. In spite of this, the drake still had to sigh as he turned back around.

“Fire? That's their weakness!”

Comments

[Love Moth]

The plot thickens