[open] they don't love you like i love you; any

[Gale]

Gale this is going to break me clean in two -- this is going to bring me close to you Gale falls asleep as a stoat, curled tightly in a nest of black-furred companions. The Curse takes advantage of his weariness and of the magical drain that keeping a shape while sleeping pulls from the Chief, and wraps the unconscious Gale in a dark blanket of shadow that will not clear till he wakes as a horse near sunset. His body walks down the beach. Slowly at first, for the Curse has never tried walking before, but with steadily increasing confidence. Eventually he trots, then canters, then gallops down the beach, digging deep gouges with his hooves. He’s not going fast enough, even though his blue eyes stream with the wind, and between one stride and the next he becomes a bird, one that soars upward on a warm summer gust and then plunges back down to earth at breakneck speeds. The adrenaline is invigorating, but the deeply sleeping Gale does nothing more than dream of flying. His body lands on the black sand as a pegasus once more, and he slows to a stop some distance down the beach from where the tricolored mare races.  With Gale asleep, the curse has no reference for who the glowing creature is, but she is a pretty sight against the turquoise sea and he is content to simply watch her run by even if she does not choose to stop her race along the shore. @[Fenwe]