Silver Hooves in the Darkness

Chapter One

Cenere hunted in the Maze.

The curved, delicate ears on the top of the equina's head rotated slowly to focus on the source of the sound from the bestial intruder, who devoured her kind. But it was its cloying sweetness that confirmed the creature's closeness and made her quiver with fear.

The glowing gem in the hollow of her neck pulsed unevenly, its green light casting flickering rays down the black walls of her current Run.

From where she stood, connecting corridors of the Maze shifted into and out of existence with a gentle hiss, the opening and closing of oval portals in the walls the only testament to their brief existence.

The hunter stood unseen, but known, where darkness merged with the fading limit of the light her gem radiated to guide her. The creature rippled the border, a tentative movement, and almost revealed its form. Not you, little equina. Not yet, it soothed, caressing her mind with malevolent amusement.

The equina gasped at its invasive thought.

Near the darkness that concealed it, another portal opened, then closed. The scent had retreated. The Death Bringer had gone.

Her gem flickered a bright red for an instant in warning, not of the danger she had just encountered, but of her deadline. The time to complete her Carry had almost elapsed.

 The equina stamped her foot, her silver anklets tinkling and carrying away her fear. She touched the soft leather pouch attached by metal clips to the flexible cloth bandoliers that crisscrossed her bare, flat chest. Her matching silver bracelets caught the light of her gem and glinted.

 Her mood shifted to annoyance. She had escaped Cenere, but now she needed to use more energy from her gem to achieve greater speed as she crossed the Maze. To miss her deadline in the delivery of the book that she carried meant less payment. Less payment meant worse choices for a future Carry.

 A slight breeze from farther down her Run lifted the tendrils of her white hair, which had pulled free from the single tight braid that ran down the back of her head and neck. She swished her matching tail, resigned to her plight. She would not garner any boast ribbons for superior effort. She set her hands on her hips. A short, silken black kirtle patterned with pairs of blue wings covered her lower torso, an incredible illusion designed for the sensibilities of her human masters. It would vanish once she changed her form and resumed her race through the Maze. She wrinkled her furry golden nose in determination. The equina leaned forward. She raised her arms, and then, clicked her bracelets to herald her determination. It was time to gallop! The equina sprinted toward the darkness where the monster had been.

And she became what she truly was. The transformation always carried the scents of salt, earth and other odors she had known only from her dreams. Her metallic adornments tipped her changing limbs. The kirtle faded away; her bandoliers stretched against her shifting, thickening form. Her face elongated as if to point the way. As she accelerated, her gem grew in brilliance until it consumed her with blazing light. With guidance from the mutable tones and colors of her gem, her expanded consciousness reached beyond her own radiance and searched the blackness of the Maze for the glowing symbol of Dome Biblia, her destination.

 Pounding hooves resounded in the darkness. Running on four legs was the most natural feeling of all.