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Chosen

Chapter 5

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Chirmaya Nashaar

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Tayna didn't know how long she ran for. For a time, it was effortless as dark melded into light, paws pounding rock and coarse turf alike in her headlong flight. Magic lent strength to her paws, woven into the fibre of her being without her even being aware of its presence. She didn't have to think about using it, and for that she was glad. If she had to concentrate on magic like she had in the training grounds, and with that godforsaken pebble, she wasn't sure she would have gotten very far at all.

The ground proved treacherous underfoot as she fled, leaping rocks and crags with an ease that surprised her. It was almost as if she remembered the movements from a past life. Tayna flinched, reminded that she probably did. Muscle memory and all that. Yet she still wished to have those memories between her ears, if only to make sense of them all.

As dawn cast a golden glow over the mountains, her eyes flickered from her path over and over again, jaw slowly falling slack at the sheer, raw beauty laid out before her. The mountains split the sky, impossibly high with jagged, rocky peaks, and it was all she could do to not clasp her paws to her chest and stand in sheer awe of them. There was little to no vegetation and only a thin, rough layer of grass clung to the slopes as if in obstinate defiance of the harsh environment. From time to time, she raced past stunted, scrub-like trees and bushes, branches tucked in for protection, unlike the great pines and beeches she was used to. The vixen swallowed. The mountains were a very different world. And yet one she would have to survive in.

She paused to drink at a winding creek, dropping to her knees and thirstily scooping up water in the cup of her paw. She'd brought nothing with her bar the sharpened dagger she'd strapped to her hip, the shield on her back and the sword on her opposite hip. She supposed the clothes she wore counted too. Tayna trembled. It seemed hasty in hindsight, yet she'd been chased off with a scowl and a slap when she'd tried to take extra food from the mess hall. All she had managed to filch was a small skin intended to hold wine or mead or any kind of liquor.

Paw shaking, she dipped it carefully below the surface of the clear water and watched as bubbles jostled to the surface, bursting into non-existence as she filled the brown skin. She shoved the stopper back in, jamming it in as tightly as she was able, and was on her way again, shaking her hair back from her shoulders.

It was not long, however, before the figurative dogs barked at her heels. As she ran without aim or purposes, except to push herself far, far away, it was a simple feat for the Alliance to realise that she was not using the most efficient routes through the mountains. As much as Tayna tried to skirt the foot of each monstrous peak, the twisting route through steep valleys and deep gorges slowed her vastly, even with her increased strength. A dull rancour of shouting and clanging followed her from less than a league away. Far enough so that they wouldn't be able to see her from her current position, yet still very much too close for comfort. Were they closing in on her? She shuddered. It was as if they were trying to flush a fox out from its hole.

She considered making like one of her four-legged kind, but the bare mountainsides offered no holes to dive into nor nooks to cradle her limbs. As she ran, she shook, at first so little that her exhaustion was barely noticeable. And yet it grew irrevocably until each step came with a great force of will and effort. The pads of her paws ached and tears streamed down her muzzle as she ducked into the hollow beneath a massive fallen tree to shiver and rest. The leaves had long since dropped from its branches after its felling, but its roots curved darkly towards the cloudy sky, grey clouds scudding with great haste.

Tayna put her head in her paws, ears pricked. The Alliance were quiet - the hunting party, for once, with silence on their lips. She couldn't be sure if it was a blessing or a curse that she found them quiet. Where were they? Her heart hammered. Close? Far? Given up? Wouldn't she wish!

It would be so easy to give up,_Tayna thought as she staggered upright, pushing off the rotting log with all the strength she felt she had left. _I could stop now and let them catch me. It would all be over then. It could be so easy.

_ _

The words stirred something in her chest. Could she let someone else bear the burden of her and her magic - the power everyone craved from her? All over? Back to the Alliance and working from dawn past dusk on magic she had no idea how to control or even reliably use? She clenched her jaw. Everything to do with her magic was a fluke if it even happened at all! The thought of Devan's rolling eyes soured her gaze and, steadying herself, she scrambled away from the fallen tree and flung herself down the side of the valley towards the rush of water.

Giving up wasn't an option. Her lips twisted. Let them try to catch her. She had reason to flee. And what use did they have for her? A tool in their underground war? She could have scoffed at the ridiculousness of it all, and her derision lent energy to her paws, using the natural decline of the slope to increase her speed.

There was no sense in being caught and trapped like a fox in a box yet again. Tayna's nose twitched. She was out now and there was no going back.

Her scent. She needed to conceal her scent. Or at least try. She splashed into the stream at the bottom of the valley, soaking her leggings as water poured into her calf-length boots. They were stolen, of course, but she still yelped at the cold, clapping her paw instantly over her muzzle. Yet it was all a moment too late.

Scuffles and whispers flitted down the valley and Tayna leapt on to the bank, ducking low-hanging branches with the wild-eyed sprint of a cornered beast. The river helped mask her passage and she stumbled through the undergrowth until she came face to face with the source of the crashing water. The river began - at least as far as she could see - as a waterfall pouring from the rock face, pounding down into a deep plunge pool below. Framed by moss-covered rocks, it would have been a scene of raw beauty at any other time.

Tayna gulped and peered into the water. Foam swirled across the surface, a plunging darkness curdling in its depths. There was no telling how deep it was. No swimming it either with that waterfall above.

The vixen stiffened. Members of the Alliance - voices she didn't recognise that were nevertheless dulled by the roar of the waterfall - shouted and slammed the flats of their paws over what could have been tautly stretched animal skins, back down the valley where she had been only a short time ago. She listened intently, trying to discern their purpose. Yes, animal skins acting as drums made the most sense, used by hunters to flush out prey with the noise and clamour.

And she was the hunted.

Shimmying over a rock on the very edge of the deluge, she ducked out of sight, only the tip of her nose and worried eyes showing over the edge. There was no movement in the vegetation and yet her heart drummed a sickening beat against her ribcage. There was no escape. Her paws slipped on the rock and she blinked as spray and foam flew into her eyes. She craned her head to look at the sheer rock face, wondering if there were enough nooks and crannies for fingers and toes to scramble up. Yet she could only see her broken body smashed over the rocks if she tried.

Closing her eyes, she pressed her forehead to the damp, rough rock, moss tickling her cheek. It was hopeless. If she hid, would they not find her? Tayna mind raced, desperate. Where wouldn't they look for her? Was there anywhere the Alliance wouldn't hunt her down? Somewhere too dangerous for them to consider her hiding?

"Oi! You! Vixen!"

Tayna gulped for breath, eyes bulging out of their sockets. She scanned the valley for the voice, her adversaries - any rustling of undergrowth that may have foretold their arrival. There was nowhere to run and nowhere to hide that wouldn't kill her. The vixen clutched at her throat, breath coming sluggishly. It was the end, it had to be. She wasn't getting out of this one without being hauled back to the Alliance.

A stone smacked into her head. Tayna whipped around, a feral snarl breaking her lips.

"Sheesh, no need to show your teeth."

She pricked her ears, attention caught. An equine with a muzzle that took no prisoners peered over the tall rock her forehead had just been pressed to, ignorant to the water seeping between his hoof-tipped fingers. His black hands dug into the slippery moss for purchase and he thrust his head forward, nostrils flaring. A short, black mane stuck straight up from the back of his neck and head, swaying in the breeze from the waterfall's passing.

The blocky-headed horse snorted, ears warily pinned back. Her eyes dropped to the dagger held in his paw, pointed directly at her as if she had become yet another target.

"Are you friend or foe?"

Tayna eyed the dagger contemptuously. As if she couldn't just flick it aside. He had no idea what she was capable of. The vixen grimaced, doubt crossing her muzzle. Well, if her endurance complied, that was. She didn't know how much she had left in her.

"I'd like to say I'm a friend, but I don't even know anymore."

"Are they after you?" He jerked his head at the rising scuffling in the bushes. "What've you done to get on their bad side? Stolen something? You with the Church?"

His eyes widened and he yanked his head back.

"Wait...no. That's it. I've gone and answered my own darn question again."

He ground his teeth together, grey nose wrinkling.

"I recognise you. You're one of the Church's puppets."

Tayna growled, ears flipping back.

"Not anymore I'm not," she declared. "And I'm not with the damn Alliance either, before you ask. I'm just trying to get away from there and get home again."

He studied her.

"I don't believe you."

The vixen's heart sank. Or, at least, it would have if it had not already been residing somewhere in the region of her boots.

"Why would you?" Tayna shot back bitterly. "No one does. Not even when I tell them that I don't remember a damn thing. Everyone thinks I'm lying, so why would I expect you to be any different?"

The equine parted his lips as if to say more and then abruptly shut his mouth, muscles tensing.

"Tuck? What's going on here?"

A small pair of pointed ear-tips came into view beside Tuck's shoulder, white and with fluffy tufts at the tips.

"So that's your name then," Tayna murmured.

The twitching ears rose higher, allowing Tayna the first good look at the woman's face. And what she saw had her shrinking back, eyes wide. Her fox-like muzzle was as white as snow on the mountaintops but she had a ruff of fur framing her cheeks, puffing them out beyond what would be normal for any natural vulpine. Her ears were too narrow to be of Tayna's kind, rising several inches up from her skull and positioned in a similar way to a rabbit's atop her head.

On closer inspection, her snout was too narrow and fine to be fox-like either, but Tayna struggled to relate her to any other species she was familiar with. The one disturbingly discerning feature on her muzzle was the black marking framing her eyes. They angled ever so slightly inwards, the waves drawing the watcher in and in until they fell into the sapphire pools.

Tayna shivered. Sapphire wasn't a natural colour. It was a magic colour. She knew of this species, although she had never seen one before. Her mother had called them Estrel, once upon a time. It had been many years since she'd been told fairy tales about their magical prowess and wild natures, however.

"This is one of the Chosen, Fayla. Let's be on our way." He scratched the back of his neck, fingers ruffling through his coarse mane. "She's trouble, trouble to us." He frowned. "Don't even know what one of them is doing all the way out here. Either way...let's leave her to her fate."

Fayla's lips twisted with concern and, ignoring Tuck, she peered further over the rock at the cowering vixen.

"Tuck, she's shivering...look at her. She can't mean any harm."

Tuck shook his head vehemently and jabbed a finger at Tayna. The stubby hoof at his fingertip was cracked down the middle.

"I don't care. She's one of them, Fayla, don't you see?"

The creature folded her arms, pointed ears slipping back halfway. Yet she was not subdued.

"All I see is a scared fox. What do you see?"

"One of the Chosen."

"Maybe so." Fayla conceded. "But, right now, she's scared and out on her own." She set her jaw. "She's coming with us."

"Fayla!"

Ignoring him, Fayla stretched her lithe body out over the rock and reached down as far as she could, paw waving back and forth as she struggled to keep her balance.

"Grab my paw," she said with a small smile. "It's okay, I promise. We're not going to do anything bad to you."

She looked back over Tayna's shoulder.

"But we have to move - now. They're almost on you." Fayla stretched further, urgency flashing through her eyes. "Quickly!"

Tayna made her decision in a split second and lunged for Fayla's paw, desperation forcing her to throw caution to the wind. What did she have to lose?

The Estrel clung on to her and nearly toppled over the rock herself, only caught in time by a curse and Tuck's large hand. Hauling them both up and over the rock face, the horse snorted as Tayna's chest heaved, shoulders set back. The decision had been made.

Shaking his head, Tuck shrugged a cloth pack more comfortably up on to his shoulder, straps running under his armpits. Tayna hunched over behind him, knees bent as she pushed herself back beneath the ledge - not that it would protect her from the hunters coming.

"You're coming with us then," he said, eyes rolling so far back that they almost completely disappeared into his skull. "God forbid it... Fayla, if she turns on us..."

He pressed his lips into a hard line, looking down his nose at the Estrel who hopped from hind paw to paw, long tail lashing. It snaked back and forth like a feline's, although it was tipped with a long, draping tuft of hair that ran several inches down the length from the tapered tip. Tayna's eyes followed it hypnotically.

"It will not come to that," Fayla assured him, taking Tayna's paw. "I'm sure you have a tale to tell us but we must be going... What was your name?"

Tayna licked her lips, mouth dry as the two turned their eyes on her. Tuck opened his mouth although no sound came out, expecting himself to know the answer to the question before truly listening to it.

"Tayna."

The name came out as a whisper, rasping through her hoarse throat. Fayla leaned in closer, cupping her ear to listen. The vixen took a deep breath.

"My name...is Tayna."

*

Sitting cross-legged as the fire crackled, Tayna cradled a clay mug between two paws and sipped water, which had been flavoured with herbs. Her nose wrinkled. Mint? She had not known that mint still grew wild, only ever finding it in the estate gardens. She stared into the cup forlornly as leaves swirled through the shadow below the surface of the water, appearing darker than they truly were.

The unlikely duo, bickering like siblings the whole way, had led Tayna along routes she would never have found alone and out of harm's way. Slowly but surely, the noise of the Alliance hunting party faded into the distance as they clung to the rock face, ducking behind the waterfall and letting the water wash away their tracks as they crossed the water on stealthy paws.

Only a short distance along the cliff was a rockier section where the footing of stone had broken away gradually, worn from weather and time. With a greater number of gouges in the rock, Fayla and Tuck were able to scoot up with no problem at all. Expecting Tayna to experience more difficulty, Tuck threw down a rope for her only to find the vixen standing only slightly out of breath right next to him. Her cheeks glowed with heat and she shot back from the cliff edge, away from her pursuers.

She lost track of their winding route, watching Fayla's heels as lethargy set in, the inevitable creep of the rising tide. There was no escaping exhaustion, even for one like her. When they made it to the cave, which was apparently their destination, not that she'd been told, Fayla grabbed her shoulders and steered her down on to all fours. Forced to crawl down a damp tunnel, which was large enough for her but had Tuck grumbling at how it scraped down the length of his back, she held her breath until she emerged into a comparatively blessedly dry cavern.

Collapsing on her rump, Tayna murmured her apologies as Fayla and Tuck bustled around, setting up camp in a more efficient manner than she could have ever managed. When the mug of revitalising water infusion - or so it was described to her - was pressed into her paw, she did not complain but only drank obediently as Tuck prepared dinner. His tail flicked, long, black hairs swatting invisible flies in silent agitation. Tayna sighed. It didn't take a mind reader to figure he didn't want her there.

Tayna stroked her cup and surveyed her companions with as much wariness as Tuck afforded her.

"What do you know about me then?"

Tayna did her best to conceal the tremble from her voice. Fayla started, tail swishing around the cave floor and looping over her ankle. She did not wear shoes, and her long, flexible toes curled towards the warmth of the fire. The Estrel leaned forward, sitting with her legs tucked beneath her.

"Shouldn't you be the one telling us about yourself?"

The vixen rubbed her throat and sipped from her cup, if but for something to do.

"Not really sure what I can tell you," she said honestly. "I woke up...maybe a moon ago? I lost track of time. Either way, I woke up some time ago and was in a keep controlled by the Alliance on the mountainside. Do you know of it?"

Fayla and Tuck shook their heads. Kindling snapped in the fire and Tayna glanced up to follow the trail of smoke curling out of a hole in the ceiling. They weren't all that far underground, although the top of the cave dipped into darkness.

"Maybe they keep it hidden somehow? I've never been outside the actual walls of the keep during daylight hours. They told me that I was skilled in magic but had lost the ability to use this magic, that I had powers." She frowned. "They told me that I was one of the Chosen but I don't have any memory of this. I still don't know if this is true. How can I?"

Tuck snorted.

"No memories at all?"

Tayna shook her head and stared between the knees of her crossed legs.

"I know it sounds ridiculous..." She bit her lip, fighting down the tears that threatened to well up. "They didn't believe me either. They had me in the training grounds at first, fighting every day. That wasn't so bad, not in hindsight."

She paused, rubbing the tip of a finger beneath her eye.

Damn it...

_ _

"I had a friend there. Or, at least, she used to be my friend. I could fight with her in the training grounds, even if she didn't want me there. She was pretty good too."

Tayna chuckled.

"I got better and better at fighting though. They eventually caught on to it and said that my powers - whatever those actually are - were coming back. Then they drilled me through magic training again and again and again..."

The vixen trailed off, inhaling deeply and slowly.

"But that's over now. I escaped. There's nothing more to tell."

"Did you kill anyone when you escaped?" Tuck asked, stirring a pot hanging from a spit above the fire. "Doesn't sound like an easy task to get out of a keep swarming with the Alliance."

Fayla swatted his arm.

"Tuck!"

"What?"

Tayna chuckled, surprised at her own amusement.

"It's okay...really. I don't mind. I'd ask the same questions if I was you. I don't think I would have been so quick to be kind. I hope I'm different now to how I was when I lived back on the estate."

The vixen ruffled up her hair, combing her fingers through the unruly strands. A twig stuck out from the back of her head and she grimaced as she worked it loose.

"I didn't kill anyone," she answered at last, dropping the twig on the floor. "I watched the guards to see when they changed shifts. Once they had me in magic training, they didn't seem to care where I went about the keep. Or maybe that was more the fact that Devan, this vile stoat, was supposed to be watching me. Once he was done with me, he didn't care what I did."

She moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue.

"If someone had been watching more closely, I don't think I would have gotten out. Maybe they just thought I was that useless after I kept failing, over and over again. All in all, it was surprisingly easy."

She smirked, eyes crinkling at the corners.

"All in all, the Alliance is more concerned with keeping others out rather than locking them within the walls of that keep. I think they may have wanted to consider that a little more than they did."

The vixen laughed, a chuckle bubbling up before she could stop it. It was strange to laugh and she rubbed her throat, unused to the sensation.

Fayla poked the fire with a long, blackened stick, letting the sparks crackle and jump between logs. The Estrel's tail wound sinuously around her calf, brushing up her fur in the wrong direction where her leggings rode up.

"I saw you...once," Fayla said, screwing up her muzzle. "It was from a distance and it was only Tuck that later said that you were one of the Chosen, this vixen on display. That was what you said to me, right?"

She addressed the last utterance to Tuck who frowned and slid his gaze away. She pressed on, regardless of his quiet.

"I'm sure. I mean, I think I'm sure. I've never heard of any other foxes being that kind of magic user with the Church. You must have been the only one."

"Foxes are hardly uncommon," Tuck interjected with a snort. "It could have been anyone."

Fayla rocked back, fingers curled around her ankles as she kept her balance, heels up and off the ground.

"And how many of the Chosen do you know?"

The equine blew hot air but had no answer, grumbling as he stirred the pot above the fire. He looked down at it suspiciously. Clear it was not cooking swiftly enough for his liking. Food often did that around hungry equines.

Tayna hesitated, a question lingering on the tip of her tongue.

"Did you..." She stopped, rewording the sentence in her head. "What was I doing? Was I..." She looked down, the corners of her eyes stinging with something she would not admit to. "Was I evil?"

The word sounded childish on her lips and she regretted it almost as soon as she said it. It was foolish, of course, it was. Everyone knew what Chosen did on a daily basis, performing miracles for a corrupt church. Once, Tayna had even begged her mother to go see one of them perform in a city. She couldn't remember its name though, being too young to remember anything of note beyond what play she had in store for the day and who had annoyed her most recently.

Fayla fingered the side of her narrow snout, taking her time in answering while Tuck kept his head down and sullenly stirred the pot. Tayna's eyes followed the hypnotic motion.

"I was not close..." Fayla repeated slowly, carefully, "but you were performing great feats of magic. It was quite the performance. Nothing like what we'd do on our travels out here. There were lots of flashing lights - it was dusk - and you made the elements obey your wishes like it was nothing, nothing at all. There didn't seem to be anything you couldn't do but I saw you there, wrapped in storm clouds as lightning broke through. It scored a deep crack in the ground and the crowd close to you screamed something awful."

Fayla chuckled at the memory.

"But everyone was impressed by you, I can tell you that much. You seemed to be one of the best, even if I couldn't see everything you were doing."

The Estrel's face fell all of a sudden and she moodily flicked her tail out away from her body, playing with a stuck together tuft of fur on her ankle.

"Estrel are naturally skilled with magic, yet there is no chance that I could ever come close to what you did back then." She looked Tayna over with a newfound respect glinting in her eyes. "I don't think even Tuck would be able to explain the mechanics of what you did. And he's the best at knowing what's what."

The horse grumbled and flicked her with his tail.

"Yet with little magic to speak of."

"You have plenty of magic," Fayla assured him, her paw on his shoulder. "We play to one another's strengths." She smiled. "It is good I found him. You could say that we even complement each other."

The horse turned his head away and Tayna swore the insides of his dark ears lightened with the suggestion of pink. She leaned forward, ears pricked.

"You...know how to use magic?" Tayna imposed, slipping between them in conversation, ever more the outsider. "How? How can you use it?"

Tuck shrugged.

"It's something that flows, if you can use it. Like reaching for a glass of water, you reach for the magic too. There's different sides to it though. I can't sense magical potential but I'm good at gathering essence. I'm good at knowing how to combine... I suppose you would call them spells."

Tayna sighed and slumped, rolling her shoulders forward, head spinning already. Spells? There were spells?

"That's a lot more than I'll ever know," she said, tugging at her hair. "I wish I knew. If I have magic...I may as well know how to use it. It could keep me safe. Keep me away from the Alliance."

Tuck surveyed her. Tayna wondered if the distrust would ever completely melt from his eyes. Yet she knew, in her heart, that she didn't trust the two of them either, even if they had saved her from the Alliance. Her stomach churned at not being self-sufficient and she vowed, silently, to use their knowledge to at least understand more about the mountain range. Maybe then she wouldn't be the fox down the hole when the Alliance hunting party chased after her russet tail again.

The horse cleared his throat, coughing lightly into his closed fist, which he brought close to his lips.

"I can show you how to use your magic...in part," Tuck stared, doubt clouding his tone. "Don't know if it'll do any good though. Or if it's wise to show you... Maybe gathering essence wouldn't be so bad?"

He talked as if to himself.

"No danger in that... Basic thing. Yes."

Tayna leaned forward, the white tip of her tail flicking back and forth. Her ears twitched, the vixen unable to keep them still in her keenness to know, to learn. Gathering essence? What could that be? Hadn't Devan said something, very vague, about that before? She dug back through memory as excitement bubbled in her stomach. It was already more than that dolt Devan had ever told her about magic.

Tuck sat up straighter, rocking back on his rump, tail fanned out across his sleeping mat.

"All magic stems from essence, essentially." He spread his paws wide as if to demonstrate, though she could not visibly see what he meant. "If you have never tried to do that, I can't think of where you're finding the basic energy to perform magic.

"It's erratic," Tayna confessed. "The mage who taught me - I use the term very loosely, mind you - didn't really teach me anything. So, magic just came when I was angry or upset. And what's essence?"

Tuck stared, unblinking.

"You don't even know that?"

Tayna flushed.

"No... Is that bad?"

The equine mumbled to himself, running his fingers over the backs of his paws, tracing the natural lines and direction of his coat. It had fluffed up some in the warm and dry.

"You must have been drawing from your own life essence," he muttered, eyeing her up and down. "Or you had enough essence stored from your time as a Chosen that you could pick away at it whenever times dictated it necessary. To think that you haven't been actively drawing from it..."

He sighed heavily and scratched behind his ear.

"You're going to learn how to use essence, vixen," he said, leaving no room for argument. "And then, maybe, just maybe...you'll be able to use that magic of yours. And not be at risk of setting everything on fire or something idiotic like that."

He cracked his knuckles, one by one, and peered into the pot above the fire as it bubbled away merrily. The conversation, very clearly, was over and done within his eyes.

For once, Tayna did not want to argue. Her heart warmed as Fayla passed out vegetarian bowls of broth-heavy soup and she slurped it down as if it was her last meal. Leafy greens followed and she did not lament the lack of meat, her stomach full and sated for the first time in days. She sat back against the cave wall and let her eyelids droop, safe and secure in the knowledge that she was tucked away in the warm while the Alliance were outside, her presence unknown.

The vixen smiled. Sleep claimed her as the murmur of conversation around her grew fainter and fainter, Tuck and Fayla weaving taller and taller tales in a bid to outdo one another. The Estrel giggled musically, tail sweeping round to tickle Tayna's shoulder. She'd slumped all the way back on to a temporary padding of pack and blanket that served as her sleeping mat for the moment.

The last thing she felt before slipping into a dreamless sleep was Fayla's soft paws tugging a coarse blanket up under her chin. The vixen's hind paws stuck out the bottom, yet she could not bring herself to care.

Maybe things were looking up after all.