”Right. Good. The smoke colored woman almost sounded surprised by Nymf’s surrender. Her words were almost impossible to hear, carried too quickly away by the intensifying wind. The storm was almost upon them and Nymf wondered how long she had stood at that cliffs edge. Bullets of rain fell from above and she only just noticed that her mane, wings and tail were completely soaked through.
”Let’s start by getting out of this fucking rain then, huh?” The stranger’s smile was meant to be comforting, but Nymf could see past it. She was worried. The oncoming hurricane threatened them from all sides and her mind flashed briefly to the limp son she’d left buried in nothing but sea grass. It felt wrong to leave him there but she knew that there was no time to change that now.
Nymf followed dutifully behind her new companion as she turned inland. They would be safer there, Nymf knew, though she was ignorant to the sea and the storms it brought to the land.
Every step was agony. Pulses of pain shot through her body as she fought against the battering wind. She clamped her wings tightly against her sides and ducked her head, praying with every step that they would soon come to their destination. As they walked an odd umbrella formed above them, providing a shield from the rain. Nymf gazed up, curious, and watched in awe as droplets of water rolled off the sides of the invisible dome. Wonderstruck, she studied the woman who had rescued her from the cliff’s edge. It seemed that there was more to her than the coarse manner in which she had lured Nymf away from her demise.
Breaking into a run ahead of her, Nymf groaned as she forced her limbs to obey. Her joints and muscles cried out in pain and more afterbirth fell from her with every jarring step.
”Keep up!” She heard the mare call from her position up front. Nymf clenched her jaw and closed her eyes, praying that her body would not betray her weakness.
She almost cried out in relief when they came to the mouth of a cave and flew inside of it. Finally sheltered from the storm Nymf screeched to a half, her body trembled from the effort of her exertion. She unfurled her wings and flapped them several time, sending droplets of water against the cave walls. From drooped eyelids she watched the strange mare and a question was soon on her lips as she realized that she didn’t even know the horse’s name.
”Who are you?” The words fell from her velveteen lips, her voice raspy and breathless. Why did you stop me?
