Air Horse: Darkening Skies

Ever Stronger Visions.

The days dawned cold and dark. Horses took shelter in caves, huddled together for warmth. It was, by far, the coldest winter anyone could remember.

Many former land horses woke up in the morning to find their wings too frozen to move. Afraid the artificial wings would break in flight, King Shady ordered all land horses to remove their wings to avoid the temptation.

Some former land horses refused to give up their wings, even for just the winter. They defiantly flew in the daytime. Artificial wings couldn't be recognized except for up close, so no one realized the deceit.

Until they fell. With a snap or a crunch, a wing would break and a horse would fall. Luckily, there had been no serious injuries. Yet.

The Kings and Queens of Rocky Cliffs were forced to take drastic measures to protect their herds. They banned flying altogether, even for naturally winged horses, until warmer weather.

Horses protested, of course, but who was there to blame? Those who fallen had learned their lesson, being scared out of their wits. But the horses felt they should blame somebody, as if one horse had to take responsibility.

So they blamed Cloudy.

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Even before Copper was fully awake, she knew Cloudy had left the cave. Copper shook her head and opened her eyes.

Cloudy's parents, Torrent and Sky, slept at the back of the cave, where it was warmer. Their nephew Toby, whose single artificial wing had broken the day before, had his real wing laid across the back of his half-brother Skip. Tussock the black whuff was snuggled into Sky's wings so only one ear showed.

Despite the fact that Toby and Skip stood at the cave's entrance, Cloudy had still managed to slip away without waking anyone.

Copper wondered briefly how much sleep Cloudy had gotten the previous night. There had once been nights that Cloudy could sleep dreamlessly, but those were merely a memory now. Cloudy was tormented each night with visions of every scrape, bump, or bruise to be suffered by a horse the following day.

"Skip," Copper whispered, poking her adopted brother with her nose.

Skip blinked sleepily at Copper. The "water" of his markings swirled slowly, as if the cold made it sluggish. It was a bit eerie how much he looked like a horse-shaped collection of water, even more so since he had removed his fake wings.

"What's up? Cloudy?" Skip asked.

Copper nodded. She was unable to keep the strain out of her voice as she said, "She's gone again."

Skip turned his head to peer outside. "It's pretty early. I don't think the sun-horse has risen yet."

Copper peered past Skip outside. He was right. The moon-horse was on the edge of the horizon.

"I'm going to look for Cloudy," Copper said.

Toby twitched and opened an eye. "Hm? Is Cloudy missing?"

"Yes, I was just going to find her," Copper said.

"We were," Skip corrected.

"I'll join you, then," Toby said.

"You don't have to," Copper protested.

"No, but she's my cousin. Plus," Toby stretched. "I'm already awake. Let's go."

The three horses filed quietly out of the cave, careful to not wake up Cloudy's parents. No one had told them about Cloudy's tendency to wander off. They worried enough about her as it was.