does anyone miss my secondhand smoke?
A small, shimmering butterfly flits past the border to the Jungle and in an instant it is gone. If anyone were watching it closely, they would have to have eyesight even better than an eagle’s to see the nearly microscopic mosquito that took its place, buzzing annoyingly deeper into the kingdom of women. The shapeshifting insect is no spy, for sure, but all the same she feels uneasy as she delves deeper into the trees. A bug is not the best camouflage; she could be swatted aside or eaten by a bird. Perhaps something larger, something carnivorous would be better suited, at least until she runs across another horse?
The blink of an eye and the mosquito with a rim of glitter is replaced by a jaguar clutching the trees tens of feet above the ground, rosettes of glitter about her neck. She scans the horizon silently, but as of yet there are no horses nearby. She is anxious, but if you were to ask her she wouldn’t really know how to explain it. Perhaps it is just nerves that have set her stomach to rolling. She hasn’t tried to join a kingdom before, especially not one as famed as the all-mare kingdom.
But what does she have to fear? She is a shifter, all powerful and unstoppable. She scales the tree effortlessly and drops to the Jungle floor, all long legs and golden fur. There is very little light and even less undergrowth—even though she is hardly a few hundred feet amid the jungle’s trees—but it seems she is still alone, at least for now. But then again, there are not many who are eager to disturb a jaguar in its most natural habitat of all.
With a sigh, she sheds her skin. A young mare, a medley of breeds, now stands in the jungle cat’s place. She is definitely an interesting sight, all dark brown with pink spreading over her back and withers. Instead of white socks, hers are pink, ending in bay points. Pink tobiano, a color expert would say, but she just calls herself different. Add the sparkles to her mane and she just grumbles. It’s bad enough that she stays sparkly when she shifts.
Now the lurkers can come out to play, at least. A horse is a lot more harmless than a jaguar.
ASTERISQUE