He could feel them, sense them. Here within the forest that was not his, yet it claimed him. The dark canopies shadowed his red bay, and his dark dun points melded with the night. He was the monster within the beautiful forest, stalking those that would harm her roots. She declared her soldier with a whisper, shifting her leaves in salute of his passing.
Like a hound catching his scent, he eased into an eager lope, lion's eyes lit with hunger. The predators all, he could relate to. But there was none so true as the beast of flame within his heart. He could feel the chains rattle as the great body shifted, a deep rumbling growl in his mind, in his ears, releasing out of his own mouth. Territorial. Hungry.
He didn't stop until he saw the moon sunken in the trees, imprisoned by their numbers like bars of a cell. A false moon. A forgery. The true moon was sleeping. Dawn had come. He halted a ways away, noting a second presence as well. Two as black as death. He and Death knew each other far too intimately. He didn't like His friends coming to play. Remove them.
Great wings stretched within his mind in anticipation, then bent at the elbows with claws fisted on the ground. His feet danced in place, muscles loose and eager. A madness in his eye. Sweat drenched him. Shy sunlight painted him red once more. The feral beast snorted and pawed the earth. A tension was building. Coal into the furnace. Tinder to flame. The skull retracted, pressure in his belly rising.
Then the release. The eruption.
He roared.
His thick haunches coiled, holding himself in place as he threw his fore-hooves to the ground in rapid succession. Obsidian mane striking his neck furiously.
THU-THUMP.
THU-THUMP.
The warning. The punches left their mark on the forest floor, punctures and indentations. The threat. Heed the delirium, the insanity.
OUT!