Wind Runner

Twenty-Nine; Restless One

I awake in a small moving box. Never good. Oh a trailer. Now the box has stopped. People are coming to the door. Blood's men. I listen.

"We broke down. I don't know how she's doing. She could be hurt. Let's open the doors and check."

I surge to my feet, silent. The second the door opens, I will run.

The animal in me and I come to a truce, for now, I am in control.

The door opens, and I fly out. I rear, screaming angrily. The animal in me wants to kill. But I manage to fight the urges and instead run. And I am flying across the land, the men's shouts growing faint. Then they cease altogether.

My heart beats in time to my hoofbeats, and the landscape is zipping by. It is night, and the moon shines on me, illuminating my body as I move.

Dust I kick up floats in the air, looking ghostly and pale in the night.

I don't know where I am going, but I know I need to get away from Blood's men. I will find the battle later. And I will kill Blood. The animal inside me agrees completely, my mind is at peace.
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3rd person POV

The Indian boy stands at a clearing. He is in his month of exile where he is supposed to have his spirit animal revealed to him. He imagines a fierce creature like a bear, or mountain lion. But he is losing hope. The month is almost up, and he has not seen it. He had asked his teacher, the shaman, how he would know his animal, and the shaman had smiled and said 'you will know. She will be unworldly, touched with madness.'

He gets a strange feeling, and when he looks up, he is startled, and gasps.

A tall, ghostly black mare with icy blue eyes watches him. But that is not what makes him gasp.

Pale, transparent white wings sit at her sides. The feathers stir in the breeze, the only motion on the otherworldly creature. Then a cloud sweeps over the moon and when the light returns, the wings are gone.

The depths of her icy blue eyes shine with hidden emotions. She looks wise and intelligent, and he would not know the madness was there if it did not shine mischievously in her eyes.

Her wings tell him she is dying. Somehow he knows her whole story. How she sacrificed her life for her mate. Her race to the battlefield to save him before she dies.

She made a deal with death so her family will live.

All thoughts of a bear or lion melt away. This spirit before him beats them all. She radiates ferocity, compassion, madness, and awareness with every being in her. The complete opposite all within one being.

Wordlessly he takes a step forwards, and she does not move. He take another, and another, until he is right next to her, breathing the air she does.

"Easy Ahote. Easy restless one."

He knows that is what she is. She is restless. Restless to protect. To fight. To move on before her time on Earth is up.

She regards him with a knowing emotion is her eyes. She is young at heart, but old in spirit.

He takes the eagle feather from his hair and ties it into her mane, tying it so it would never fall out.

She watches him, then moves, rearing up gracefully and getting something from the high branches of a tree.

When she drops, in her teeth she holds a dead star that had been caught in the branches. A small, glittering black stone with icy blue colors running through it.

Immediately he knows he will carve it to the shape of her and wear it around his neck.

She makes a soft sound, giving him a gentle look, then she turns, vanishing into the fog without a sound. He hurries forwards, looking at the direction she went, but there is nothing there. No tracks on the ground either, despite it's softness that easily catches tracks.

The only remainder of her is the small glittering black stone he clutches in his hands.
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The boy, now a man, walks into the village, lost in thought. Everyone gathers around, asking about his journey. All know that if he did not see his animal he will not be the shamans apprentice much longer.

The boy, Aklaq {black bear} looks to his teacher for permission to speak about it, and the shaman nods, wanting to know what he saw.

"I saw madness, and she was beautiful. She was an unworldly black mare, better than any bear or lion, for she taught me many things in only a little while."

Everyone is silent, confused. And the boy continues.

"She was dying, racing to save her family before she died. She was touched by madness that wanted her soul, so she made a deal with it, she would die, so her family could live. She was powerful and humble. Fierce and kind. She was a guardian, and she gave me this," he shows the crowd the dead star, already carved into the shape of a rearing black horse with bright blue eyes. Everyone looks at it with breathless awe. Dead stars were incredibly rare. And seeing your spirit animal was rare, but the boy had both.

The boy himself nodded to everyone and retired to his tent, where he sat thinking of his protector.

Back to Ryder's POV

I run, appearing at the edge of the moonlit battlefield. At one end, Blood's many soldiers march towards the other army. And there I see a total of four herd all working together. I even see a pack of werewolves along with Ed. I smile sadly. At the back, I see him. Adam.

My heart beats painfully in my chest. I realize that this is it.

I shake it off and run to the battle just as the two forces meet.

A/N: Approaching the battle! I don't really have much to say except that the end is drawing close. Laters!

~Silver_Storyteller