“Well if you spent less time admiring your reflection, we might have caught them by now!” Zerisint huffed.
Araliris frowned at his black-furred friend. “Well excuse me! I hate having debris in my mane, and these curls love to snag everything we pass!”
“Then go ethereal. You know how, just do it.” A sound not unlike a whine of protest worked its way out of Araliris’ throat, and Zerisint rolled his eyes. “Freaking baby. Come on, we need to pick up the trail before it’s cold.”
“Fiiiine,” Araliris sighed. Focusing, his form lost some of its tangibility, and he followed after Zerisint.
The colorful miasma in the air grew more dense the further into the woodlands they went, and that meant the light felt dimmer and colder, and the spread of decay grew more severe. Araliris’ tail and ears drooped, and even his whiskers lost some of their usual perk. Zerisint appeared unaffected, but he was more jaded. “Fire damage,” Zerisint commented, pawing at one of the trees. Several layers of bark turned to ash under his pressure.
Araliris yipped and hopped sideways, and hissed at a small dead creature he’d nearly stepped on. It was the corpse of a rabbit, and getting a good look, his hackles raised all down his spine and he shuddered. “I know we’re supposed to care, but serves this little jerk right,” he grumbled.
Zerisint turned and raised a brow at his shiny, sparkly gold companion. “You do realize it was never their fault, right? That chaos was caused by the unicorn.”
“Hrmm… Yeeeah,” Araliris sighed again.
Zerisint raised a paw, indicating to be silent, and pricked up his ears. After several moments, he whispered, “There’s someone else. Kiji, I think, but let’s be cautious nonetheless. Come on.”
Stepping away from the tree, he pressed deeper into the woods with Araliris close behind.
“Who’s there?” an unfamiliar voice called as they approached a blackened stretch of land.
“Zerisint and Araliris,” Zerisint answered readily, raising his voice to carry through the dense destruction. Together, the pair stepped onto ashen land that was still warm to the touch. What looked like charred bones jutted out of the ground here and there, as well as broken weapons made by man. “Who are you two?”
A pristine white kiji, towering above the one next to it, and even Zerisint and Araliris, stood before them. “Eden,” the white one answered. The bright blue eyes and the rose vines wound around his mane and tail marked him as more interesting than usual, even with Araliris’ golden glitz to compare him to.
“Burma,” the little one answered. A python-type marking of black and tan ran down his back, and, like Eden, his back feet were replaced by hooves.
Zerisint tilted his head. Hadn’t he heard of these two? Someone Frostbite had brought into existence? Along with Dabel, they had something of a reputation, even if there wasn’t much to know about anyone but Frostbite. Before the delay could stretch on into awkwardness, he said, “Nice to meet you.”
“Nice to meet you,” Araliris quickly echoed.
Eden nodded, and Burma gave a friendly smile and an excited, if short, wave. “You are also following the trail?” Eden asked.
“Yes,” Zerisint answered. “And I can feel that we must be close to the source of this destruction.”
“I think you’re right,” Eden replied. “And I think it would be best to join our strengths. Will you accompany us?”
Zerisint glanced at Araliris, who simply shrugged, so he said, “We will.”
--
Chatter was sparse as they pressed on together. Araliris found Burma more sociable than Eden, if a little easily excitable despite the situation, but at least Burma didn’t have the same imposing air about him. Zerisint walked up ahead of their little group, next to Eden, but he was content to remain mostly silent.
“What do you think we’ll find at the source?” Burma asked quietly.
Araliris shook his head. “Another corrupted horse, maybe. It’s been a year of chaotic horse-things, what’s one more at this point?”
“Do… Do you think maybe there’s more than one? Eden mentioned the spats of death, famine, fighting, and illness have all been too spread out to be just one source.”
Araliris grimaced. “Maybe.”
“This feels more intense than previous areas, too,” Eden spoke up, turning his head to regard the pair behind him. “Like they’ve perhaps… gathered?”
“I’m unsure if that would be fortuitous or terrible,” Zerisint grunted.
“It depends on the strength of our foes. We shall see soon enough.”
--
What felt like another hour, or maybe two hours, passed, before anything else happened.
Hearing voices up ahead, the group slowed their pace, and Zerisint instructed everyone to keep low and spread out a few paces from eachother. They listened to him, given he was the eldest and feasibly had the most experience with combat, and as they approached the vast clearing ahead, they could finally see what they were up against.
Araliris’ suspicions weren’t far from their mark. Four horses in varying barding and states of life or un-life were present, each with a thematically matching rider armed with a specialized weapon. All of the kiji pricked up their ears to better listen in on the conversation, but the words came to them garbled - or rather, one might say corrupted, for they were of no language known to the mortal world.
“What are they?” Eden hissed under his breath.
“Our foes,” Zerisint whispered, careful to keep his voice from carrying past the tree line.
The group of horse riders spoke among themselves for a few moments, seeming to discuss their next plans, and the horse of the red rider scraped at the ground with a forehoof. A few moments longer, and the four seemed to come to an agreement, and each turned away from the group of kiji to press ahead together.
Zerisint saw Eden start to move, then shot a harsher whisper at him. “Don’t move yet! Wait till they’re almost out of sight. We’ll be lucky if they don’t sense us already.”
Eden grumbled, but resettled underneath the dense, dead foliage.
Once the horse riders were beyond the far treeline, Zerisint instructed the other kiji to rejoin him. “Araliris, I want you to take Burma back to the Core with you and rally as many of our kin as you can. We need as many fighters as possible to take these beings down; I can promise they won’t fall easily, even if the four of us took them one by one.”
Araliris swallowed. “They did feel pretty nasty…”
“Maybe I can get Frost!” Burma suggested. “He should be there at the Core.”
Eden nodded. “Yes. Go along with Araliris. Zerisint, am I to remain with you?”
“Yes, please. We need to keep track of our quarries and leave markers behind.”
“Very well.”
“You two, go along now,” Zerisint instructed Burma and Araliris. “There should be a portal just west of here.”
With a nod, Araliris stood a little straighter, and gestured for Burma to follow his lead. The pair vanished into the dense trees.
“Let’s go as well,” Zerisint said, once he was sure their companions were clear. He took the long way around the clearing, to ensure they maintained the cover of the woods, and then he and Eden picked up the trail of the horsemen on the other side.