As the daughter of two wanderers, it only seemed fair to Elegance that she be allowed to roam as they did. ELEGANCE
(Though it had been explained to her many times why her sire - Nashua - left so frequently. He had duties on the Isle to the King of the North. Her mother was a creature of the clouds, it was explained. And while she was cloud-colored just as her mother and striped as her father, it would seem that Elegance was not permitted either of the privileges that her parents enjoyed. She and her twin sister, Luminesce, where to stay in Taiga under the careful watch of their grandmother and extended family.)
The pale pegasus gave an indignant sigh, wondering where her sister had managed to vanish too.
Elegance blinked and her vision changed - a variation of red and orange and yellow shades - that told her something was nearby. She could hear her father warning her to stay put, to quiet and dim her fireflies. To watch whatever it was she was seeing and if all else failed, to shout should she ever find herself in danger. 'Taiga seems like a big place,' her father had told her one afternoon, giving her a half-smirk that made the adolescent smile despite her frustrated mood. 'So good thing we have a big family, huh?'
What Ellie didn't say was that she didn't want to shout; she wanted to fight.
So when there is a cacophony of shouts echoing nearby, they send her fireflies into a frenzy and then a fluster because the yearling pegasus is gone. She is racing through the redwoods in a four-beat cadence towards the sounds and the flickering shades of green and yellow follow behind her like a battle emblem. Her head turns from one direction to the other until she manages to see a cluster of heat ahead of her and Ellie spurs herself forward, unaware of what exactly she is pitching herself into.
Cheri! A boy yells - a cousin, she thinks half-remembering - and Elegance flares her wings wide when she stops before the three other horses gathered. Fighting something that takes no shape with her vision. It is a blur that blends in with the filly and the colt that crashes into them. A monster, she realizes and would have felt the trepidation of fear creeping along her spine had she given herself time to reflect on it.
They are all a tangle and perhaps she'll apologize for this later, but Ellie's teeth aim to grab the midnight-colored flesh of the snarling girl. If the horned colt engages the beast, she'll attempt to drag this unmet cousin back. Perhaps the unknown horse will help; perhaps it will turn tail and run as they all get dragged below to some underworld that none of their young minds could conceive.
Just another day in this land they called Beqanna.