Stained in red

Stallion?

The warrior paced, back and forth, and back and forth. The ledge was strong enough to hold them both, but the edge might crumble if they stepped near to the drop. Kassa was still crying, and still not quite in the present. Her Father and mother spun in her web of memory's. Kassa hadn't let herself cry too much about them yet, and now it all came pouring out.
Each drip lifted from her cheek by invisible hands that took them up, and up, and out of the clouds to where they would make their way into the afterlife.

"Stop." No snarl, no growl, just a rough voice. I could vaguely hear it, the voice... but my mother spoke again.
"Kassa, be brave. Pull back... now!" My mother's command made me let go of the string. The arrow fired into the bird, and into another memory.

"I can't sleep!" I told my Father. "The monsters! There coming! The violet..."
"Shhhh Kassara. No one is going to hurt you." His kind words wrapped around my heart. A false utopia. "Let's go down the trapdoor." So I followed him, cold feet patting on the wooden planks. The trapdoor groaned. Dad jumped down, I followed. The blankets in the little cupboard were warm. The room was small, but cosy, I slept well that night.

"Kassa. Stop." This time an edge to his voice. I felt a warm soft small hand pull me up, out of the rabbit hole. The hand touched my heart, then disappeared. But a presence remained, in my heart, in my mind, in me. I bounced back into my body, my fingers twitched. "Kassa!" Annoyance and worry. But he spun around to look at me, and his face softened.
"Sorry." I murmured.
"Sorry? Sorry? You almost died, and if you hadn't have stretched just enough for me to grab you, you would have been!" I had reached for him? I didn't remember any of that? Trust no one. But then I was stuck inside my memories, how would I have remembered?
"Where is Sembi?" I asked. I haven't seen the stallion since a bit before I dropped, when we left him on the thicker path... for some reason.
"He's coming."
"How-" but I was cut off by a snort. I whirled around to find the Stallion... if that. His wings were beautiful, the colour of liquid gold. His gold line in his back and mane seamed to glow. And then it stopped. His wings simply vanished. Are you surprised? Was I? No. I guess I had always known something was... different about him. I didn't earn my name by being a horse. Humour flickered in his eyes. He bowed his head and huffed. I bowed back.
"Spirit of the sky." I said, but not to anyone, more of an announcement or an official title. Then it struck me.
"So when I fell you couldn't have stuck out your wings then?" I asked because he was looking elsewhere. But he turned. I have my reasons. He always did. Let's go to the floor. And his wings reappeared. It was the most delicate thing I had ever seen, for such a powerful...Stallion? What do i call you? Call me Sembi, but refer to me as whatever you want, Stallion perhaps? He looked as if he knew my every thought. It creeped me out. We got onto the... Stallion. As graceful as a bird, we flew. It was the weirdest yet most wonderful experience of my life.

"We sleep here. In the morning, I'll show you the way." Sarkon told us, and pointed to a sheltered cave. That night I dreamt of Stallions... and wings.