FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

Chosen

Chapter Six

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Written by Arian Mabe (Amethyst Mare)

Commissioned by Chirmaya Nashaar

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"You need to relax."

Tayna scowled. Relaxing was easier said than done.

She paced back and forth on the hillside, having been guided down into gentler terrain by Tuck's skilled hooves. Traipsing from rock to coarse grass, he left barely a hoof print in his wake, leaving Tayna feeling decidedly ungainly in her heavy, stomping step. The vixen bit her tongue as she followed, looking down at her paws lest she place them where they were liable to slip, skidding over loose stones and careering back down the slope.

Picking up her pace, she glanced at the blustery, grey clouds overhead. At least it was dry. But Tuck was further ahead still and she cursed under her breath, breaking into a jog to catch up. She wouldn't want to be left behind - she doubted she'd even find her way back! He said they were gathering... She frowned. What was it that he'd said again?

She cast through her mind for the word. It would not come and she tightened her paw into a fist, frustration clawing at her stomach. It couldn't be that difficult! The corner of her lips twitched and she pressed them resolutely together, sealing her anger behind them. Not all teachers were like Devan, surely. He was a one-off. If she was to learn, she would have to be nice, as strange a concept as that was to her.

And, this time, she really did want to learn. Tuck, at the very least, was yet to shout at her for not being able to magically levitate a Church-damned pebble.

The horse squatted, legs apart, in front of a small shrub. She studied it from a distance. It was nondescript, nothing special. It just looked like a bush. A stunted, gnarled bush with only a few leaves clinging on stubbornly. He could have picked a better one.

"This is something you should already have learned to do so you can replenish your essence stores," he grunted, running a finger along the edge of one leaf. "I'm not sure how you ever managed to lift that pebble, if what you tell me is true, without being told how to tap into a living energy source."

The vixen blinked and fought down the urge to tilt her head to the side, a little tick she had had since she had been a cub. Tuck shook his head.

"Here."

Tuck grabbed her paw and thrust it at the plant. She yelped and struggled as the sharp point of a twig grazed her palm. Yanking her paw away, she glared at him and sucked a bead of blood from the join between her index finger and her palm, lapping away the metallic drop. She shuddered, something deep inside her remembering the taste of blood under very different circumstances. Her memories refused to draw a line between the sensation and what her past held and she growled, rubbing the flat of her paw over her leggings, thrusting the thought of blood and bleeding from her mind.

Her past would just have to wait for her to be ready to examine it.

Watching Tuck warily, lest he try to grab her again, the vixen inclined her head towards the bush.

"Not that you're done latching on to me, what's this about?" She bobbed her muzzle towards the bush as a leaf fluttered to the ground. "And don't even think about trying to lunge at me again. Do you want to set me off or something? I don't exactly have all that much control here."

She cast him a glare that would have made a lesser person quail. Tuck started, ears flicking back.

"Blood." He pointed at her paw. "I thought it would help illustrate your life essence. It's kind of how essence flows through all living things... Just my way of explaining it."

She rolled her eyes, fingers smearing blood over her palm from where it still leaked from the minute slit in her skin. Sometimes paw wounds were as bad as head wounds to close up.

"And you couldn't have just told me that?" She demanded, tail fluffed up.

Tuck shot her a look and returned his attention to the shrub. The vixen leaned over his shoulder, trying to get a better look at whatever it was he was doing. It seemed like all he was doing was holding his paw to the plant but that didn't make any sense.

"What_are_ you doing?"

He frowned.

"Trying to sense how strong its essence is. But you are making it very difficult with all your chatter."

Tayna huffed and folded her arms.

"How am I even supposed to sense..." She waved her paws as if that would explain her point. "This...this..." Tayna frowned, forehead creasing and ruffling up her fur. "Essence? That's what you called it?"

Tuck sighed and rocked back on his haunches, legs bent and folded neatly beneath his buttocks as he crouched. Paw extended, he held it to the plant and waited as the wind coiled cold air about the vixen. Tayna shivered and tapped her paw as she waited, blowing into cupped paws to draw some semblance of warmth back into them.

"There is little essence here for our usage," he said after what seemed like an exceedingly long time to Tayna. "You would do better to learn with a tree. It will have more."

He looked around, shifting his weight as if preparing to stand and drag them off somewhere else. Tayna nipped the inside of her cheek, dancing from hind paw to paw. She hadn't trained in days - not in fighting, at least - and unspent energy thrummed through her like water overflowing from a cup.

"Oh, give over!"

Pushing his shoulder lightly to jostle him to the side, Tayna sank to her knees and curled her fingers around the main stem of the bush, close to the base where its roots burrowed into the rugged ground. She smirked. How hard could it be? She'd used magic without even knowing what essence was.

Inhaling deeply, the vixen waited, paw cooling to the temperature of the bush. Somewhere high above, a skylark warbled. Tayna exhaled slowly. The equine scraped his hooves through the stones.

"What happens now?" She asked when the silence dragged on, paw cold from being held away from her body. "This is what you did, right? Did you take all of the essence it had? Can all of it be taken?"

Tuck laughed, chest rumbling as he bellowed and slapped his thigh. Huffing, Tayna clenched her paw tighter around the bush and waited him out, expression stony. What was so funny?

When the horse finally regained his composure, he inclined his head and held out his paw to her.

"It may be easier if I show you. If you are as yet unable to sense essence, this will be trickier. Not impossible, just harder."

Eyeing his paw dubiously, Tayna hesitated before taking it, shuddering at the warmth of him seeping into her. She couldn't remember the last time she'd touched someone else without a sword or some other weapon in paw. It didn't feel entirely unpleasant.

Tuck closed his eyes, lips parted.

"Feel what I'm feeling."

Copying him, Tayna let her eyes fall closed and focused on the equine. Her paw tickled with heat and she reflexively tried to pull it away, only held in place by a suddenly unyielding grip. She whimpered as the heat flared in intensity, though not to the point where it began to hurt.

And then the darkness of magic and essence cleared. Not much but it was enough to let in a ray of light and knowledge to Tayna's soul. The vixen blinked, feeling intimately how Tuck sought a barrier between him and the plant. She felt him probe it and, rather than breaking down the barrier, drew from the barrier itself, which spread all over the surface of the bush like a second skin.

As he pulled what she thought had to be essence into himself, the equine inhaled slowly and deeply. Tayna shivered, the heat spreading to her skin as he pushed something into her, feeding it through himself as if he was merely a cup transferring water to its master's mouth. The warmth seeped into her skin, finding a place deep inside her that she hadn't known existed. The vixen's stomach bubbled and she couldn't keep the smile from her muzzle, as invisible as it was to Tuck. Essence! That store! Was that where hers was? Could she use it?

The vixen's mind brimmed over with more questions than answers and she fidgeted, brushing windswept hairs away from her face as she waited on Tuck to conclude his gathering from the plant - the essence source.

Releasing her paw, he broke the moment and let the essence spring back on to the plant, sealing the hole he had left in what he had drawn from it. Tayna licked her lips, fingers twitching.

"There." He flexed his fingers and blinked in the comparatively bright light. "I've transferred some essence to you. How do you feel?"

Tayna stared.

"Honestly? No different."

"Hm." The horse frowned and swatted imaginary flies, tail flicking back and forth manically. "You must have a great store of essence already. I would normally feel quite a bit...how could I say it?"

He rubbed his shoulder, lips moving without sound.

"Ah. Think about drinking when you don't realise you've been thirsty. You don't know you're missing water before you start drinking, right?"

Tayna nodded.

"It feels like being refreshed with that cup of water. Something is being filled up inside you - a store."

He bobbed his head at the bush.

"Now you try it. Do you understand what I did?"

The vixen nodded.

"Yes!"

He smiled and sat back, giving her space.

"Good. It would be a damn side more difficult to tell you than show you."

"Mm..."

The vixen murmured under her breath, tongue poking out the corner of her mouth as she concentrated. Warmth tickled her fingertips, a link shooting through her body as if to connect her mind to her paw. She delved deeper into that untapped part of her mind like unlocking a door, trying and failing several times as it just slipped out of reach. The vixen scowled. It was like her magic was mocking her, dancing just beyond her reach. But she would have it.

She tried again, forehead wrinkling, and, this time, opened the mental door. Dipping inside, she smiled and reached out to the plant, feeling its rough stem with her fingertips. Slowly but surely, she drew essence from its skin as if she was drinking from a cup, filling up her own cup of essence in turn - or so Tuck had said. That was how it worked, right? Sweat trickled through the fur under her arms, paws hot as she 'drank' in an ever-increasing amount of essence.

Yet the warmth failed to fade as she'd expected - it had to run out eventually - and she frowned. Was something wrong? The heat grew and grew, hot enough to warm her through... And, still, the essence came, flooding to her touch like a pool of power that she could dip into and draw from at any time.

The vixen laughed, hair lifting from her face in a breeze that was far from natural. Was this what magic could feel like? Even in the little act of gathering its fuel? Exhilaration vibrated through her nervous system, dragging her along for the ride. Tuck grinned right along with her.

And then the heat exploded.

Tayna shot back as the bush burst into flames, magic spiralling out a breath before it did. Tuck swore and scrambled away, shoving his buttocks over the rough ground and roughing up his tail beneath him in his haste, bone pressed back against muscle. The bush burned out in a spectacular fireball that crumbled it to cinders in a matter of seconds, leaving no evidence behind of its existence bar a pile of charred bark and the distinct scent of burning. Tayna gulped, her eyes streaming as she coughed into both paws, smoke winding away on the breeze.

Tuck ruffled his fingers through his mane and cursed quietly, exhaling a breath that sounded like he'd been holding it for a long time. He glared between the bush and Tayna as the vixen ducked her muzzle and mumbled an apology. She couldn't be too sorry though. Nerves twisted into excitement, heart beating quicker and quicker, already thinking of what she could draw essence from next. When the bush had gone up in flames, it had been impossible to miss the zing of energy exchange, essence converting into heat at her fingertips.

Tuck stood and brushed off his trousers, tail flicking from side to side.

"That's good," he said, rubbing the side of his muzzle, though he didn't manage to hide the grin twitching at his lips. "I wouldn't suggest lighting your source on fire every time you are trying to gather essence, however."

Tayna blushed to the tips of her ears.

"I didn't mean to!"

She fidgeted and played with the singed hem of her trousers, lips twisting. She wouldn't be able to find new clothing any time soon. That was a bind. Tuck rolled his eyes.

"That much is clear," he snorted. "Follow me."

Tuck straightened, trotting off and lifting his knees higher than seemed necessary to clear his hooves from the rocky ground. Tayna giggled. Equines were so funny when they ran. She, on the other hand, broke into an easy lope, stride covering the ground with ease as a warm tingle spread through her body.

Tayna grinned fiercely. That feeling... Magic? It had to be! That was why she could run so quickly. Well, sometimes. It was erratic and came without her bidding still, like setting the damn bush on fire. She barked, high on the sensation.

Pushing the thought from her mind, she matched Tuck's pace, jogging lightly alongside the long-legged equine without breaking a sweat until the invisible path they followed dipped down into a greener valley. Slowing as he meandered carefully down the decline, Tuck led her to the row of sturdy willows, which dipped their trailing branches towards the cool water. In the crook of the valley, they were protected from the worst of the wind and battering weather.

Tayna trailed her paw over the silvery bark of a birch, flicking her mind out to see if she could sense its essence too. Flowers tickled her senses, imagined petals even grazing her fur, and dropped away like a stone from a cliff just as quickly as she pressed on, too determined to give up at the first obstacle. Yet it evaded her mental touch but that would be okay. The vixen sighed and rubbed her arm. She was learning and learning better this time.

Tuck nodded at the trees, gesturing with a wide sweep of his arm.

"Now - try again."

This time, Tayna quieted her mind. It took more than one attempt - several, in fact - but the first time it worked was the charm. Soon she found herself skilfully and proudly gathering essence from tree after tree, sealing up the skin of essence after she had drawn all she desired from the plant.

Pausing with her paw raised to the branch of a willow with drooping leaves, Tayna's ears flicked as if to catch a noise. Her lips turned down and she glanced back over her shoulder.

"What was that sound?"

The equine stretched his arms out in front of his chest and rolled his shoulders, ears swivelling back and forth.

"What sound?"

Tuck shook his head.

"There isn't anything. Do you think you can hear something I can't?"

Tayna hesitated, eyes moving between the horse and the tree. He crossed his arms impatiently.

"Plants are easiest when you are travelling, for gathering essence." Tuck returned to his lesson without delay. "It doesn't do very well for you in the desert though, so you have to be careful. Most places around here are full of plants, so you'll never run dry."

He grazed the tip of his finger to the tree's trunk and Tayna wrinkled her nose, the scent of flowers flooding her nostrils so intimately that she could almost imagine the petals nuzzling her lips.

"Why can I smell flowers all the way up here?" She eyed the tree. "It doesn't even have flowers on it. It's the wrong time of year for that."

"You can smell something?"

Tuck twisted his lips thoughtfully.

"I think that's your ability to sense of essence coming back. It's like the muscle memory of fighting and running. You never truly forget how to harness the ability. As we practice, it may grow stronger."

Tayna's fingers tingled and she smiled for the first time on their outing. Any improvement was good and she flushed with pride as she more easily drew essence from the tree, sealing the 'skin' back over the drop she'd taken in its absence. It would not be left vulnerable then, as Tuck had said. She wasn't sure if that was important or not yet but she was going to do it right either way.

The vixen stopped, heart pounding.

"I_definitely_ heard something."

Tuck's eyes shot wide.

"I heard it too..." He screwed up his muzzle, trying to listen over the rustling of the breeze through the willows. "Is that...a horn?"

Tayna licked her lips, mouth suddenly dry.

"A horn." She repeatedly hollowly. "A hunting horn."

It had happened. Too soon - far, far too soon. Ears back, she swung her gaze wildly from left to right. Escape! There had to be somewhere to run to!

Tuck gulped, comprehension dawning on his face in a lucid flash that Tayna would rather have seen in the comparative safety of their cave. He lunged for his deposited pack and slung it over his shoulder, fingers grappling hastily with the fabric strap, which dropped down his arm before being forcibly yanked back up into place again. His hooves slipped in the mud as he whipped to face her and grabbed her arm, throwing her before him as if he could propel her into motion through brute force. He was strong enough that the vixen stumbled a few steps and he darted past her, huge hooves pounding the softer ground.

"We've got to move - now!"

Tayna didn't need to be told twice. Having no pack of her own, she sprinted after the equine, trying to tap into her essence store. She had no idea what she'd do with her freshly gathered essence even if she did manage to tap into it - spend it on movement, make her run faster? But she had Tuck to think about, the equine's barrel chest heaving as he pushed himself to a breakneck pace.

Tayna's heart beat quicker and quicker, a terrifying drum against the inside of her ribcage. She couldn't leave him - not even if they caught up with her. What would they do without her? Would the Alliance capture them? Torture them? Hold them hostage? One thought after the other whirled through the vixen's mind until she snarled and forced them away, thinking only of placing on paw in front of the other.

Run, fox, run...

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Breath rasped harshly through her windpipe, searing a throat that was already sore from lack of water. Magic beyond her reach - she'd only just learned how to harvest essence! Or even store it for later! - all she could do was fling her body into a headlong run, pelt whipping over the mountainside.

They scarpered out of the valley, fleeing for the safety of the mountains. Trees and rocks flew past the fox, her sense of direction long lost as sweat matted her fur. Her boots protected her from the worst of the stones as she followed Tuck, eyes fixed on a spot between his shoulder blades as if he could anchor her in the moment. Panic licked at the pit of her stomach and she growled, striving to shake it off as it sought a chilling hold on her heart.

She'd never escape. She'd just go back to them. And then what? What would happen then? Punished? What would happen to Tuck and Fayla? The thoughts would not leave her mind and so she used them to put speed to her paws, drawing up alongside a tiring Tuck with a dogged gait to his step. The sight of him running with his head down, neck straining, emboldened her. If Tuck could keep going, she would too. They had to get away - then they'd all be safe again.

Somewhere behind, hot on her heels, a bird shrieked. Tayan swore. Hawks. Hunting hawks. Usually quiet hunters, they were sent out to scare her. They'd wear hoods until their keepers released them, flying high and dropping onto hapless prey like death from above.

That was beside the point. Breath raked through Tayna's lungs as her eyes bulged. Her paws pounded the earth, throwing herself past Tuck. The Alliance didn't have hawks.

But the Church did.

"Hide!" She shouted, though her voice came out in a whisper, breath needed elsewhere. "It's the Church! They've come!" She tried to scream and failed, terror dying on her lips. "For me!"

Although he could not catch her words, her implication was clear and Tuck bobbed his muzzle, steering her up to a scattered pile of rocks where the mountain had shed some of its skin. The vixen shied away, unwilling to go near the rockslide, but he latched on to her and forced her onward, stumbling over his own hooves and cursing when one rough edge caught his fetlock.

Ducking into the shadows, Tayna bent over, gasping for breath. The equine darted back and forth, falling to his knees and scrambling back up again as he hunted. But for what? The vixen didn't have the breath to ask and could only watch as she regained some sense of herself.

When he'd found what he was searching for amongst the rocks, he snorted and leapt on to one hoof in equine jubilation, spinning about with renewed fire in his eyes. On paws and knees, she crawled forward, fear making her limbs too weak to walk. He stood in front of a dark hole between the rocks, which looked to lead into the belly of the mountain. Tuck's nostrils quivered in a squeal and he stamped when she fell back onto her buttocks. Her arms trembled too badly to push herself back up.

"Get in!" He hissed, grabbing her by the neck of her jerkin and thrusting her muzzle into the gap. "We haven't got any time to lose! In, in, in!"

"What about you?"

Tayna didn't hesitate as she waited for an answer, scrambling both arms and legs into the gap and blinking at the darkness. Fear chased at her heels, driving her on. Something instinctive welcomed the small space, wanting to curl in and hide until the danger was well passed. Yet a larger part of her mind screamed and battered that instinct down, wanting out - anywhere but in there! She'd be trapped, she'd never get out!

Pupils dilating, she inhaled in short, sharp breaths through her nose, paw curling into a tight fist. Her nails bit into her palm, but she did not feel the pain.

Tuck's lips hardened into a thin, worrisome line and he jerked his head, looking back over his shoulder with a rim of white around his irises.

"I'm too big - look at me." He gestured at himself, lips turning down. "I've got to go get Fayla, make sure she's okay. Just go through until you reach the end," he snapped, teeth clicking together sharply. "Go! Keep going through!"

The vixen swallowed hard and took one last look at daylight, the cloudy grey skies not looking so bad anymore.

"Thank you, Tuck."

She didn't wait for his response, pushing her nose into the stale darkness and crawling on all fours. The top side of the tunnel scraped her shoulders and she dropped lower to the ground, ignoring the moisture on her cheeks. Behind, Tuck's hooves clattered over stone as he made good his retreat and she only hoped that he would be as true to his word as he had been so far, meeting her on the other side.

And where would that other side be?

The tunnel narrowed sharply and she squeaked as she flattened herself onto her stomach. If Tuck knew of the tunnel - at least, he seemed like he may have used it before? - surely it would be okay to work her way through. Twisting like an eel, she kicked off the wall, forcing herself deeper and deeper.

What if there was no end to the tunnel? She squeezed her eyes closed, working her way down a gentle incline on her elbows and stomach, head dropped as low as was marginally comfortable. What if it just went on and on and left her between one world and the next? She didn't know how magic worked. What if it ended all of a sudden and left her trapped in the dark, dying a slow, lonely death?

Tayna whimpered and, refusing to open her eyes, pushed herself onto her paws and knees as the tunnel grew larger, allowing her more space to breathe. She inhaled as deeply as she could manage, back aching down the line of her compressed spine.

Blinking, she peered into the tunnel ahead, straining to see anything through the gloom. Was that patch of darkness a little bit lighter than all the other darkness? Excitement bubbled in her stomach, butterflies chasing each other around the enclosed trap of her ribcage.

The opening grew steadily closer and she scrabbled towards it, knees knocking painfully into the stony tunnel floor as she hastened. The darkness closed in at her back, prodding her on, and it was with a great sigh of relief that she cautiously poked her nose into the larger cavern at the very end of the tunnel, whiskers twitching. She stretched out her legs behind her, flexing cramped muscles the best she could.

"Tuck?"

Tayna's voice came out barely above a whisper. She cleared her throat to try again.

"Tuck?"

She boldly leaned out into the cave, blinking in the gloom. It was not their cave, however, and her heart sank into her boots. But it was not uninhabited by any means. A sleeping mat lay spread out next to the smooth cave wall with a lantern delicately position at its head. A blanket had been rolled up into the semblance of a pillow, but Tayna could not see any more than that from her hole in the wall, damp seeping through her clothes.

There was no Tuck to be seen.

She inhaled, trying to sift through the scents with the enhanced sense of smell that ancestry had gifted her. Yet it was woefully inefficient and only revealed the musky scent of some kind of creature like her - perhaps a wolf? The scent was muddied with others as if the owner - for it only seemed to belong to one - had tried to conceal it. Tayna's ears splayed, a snarl curling along the line of her lips. The Alliance? Could they be camping on the sidelines, reserving their energy while she tired herself out fleeing from their hunters?

Pushing her body out of the hole, she cautiously edged further into the cave. The opening came into view, looking out over the mountainside as if it had been carved out from the rock originally as an unnatural shelter. In all honesty, Tayna would not have minded such a home with a view. Only the nobles ever had much of a view.

She paused, nose twitching. There were no new scents in the air and she boldly wriggled her legs around, sitting on the ledge and peering into the shadows. Finding courage she didn't know she had - though where else was she to go but onward? - Tayna dropped down into the cave, landing with a thump. Straightening her bent legs, she adjusting the neckline of her jerkin, pawing at where a scorch mark blackened the leather. Her incident with the bush had clearly had a casualty, although it could be mended. It was still annoying.

Water dripped from the ceiling of the cavern into a pool. Light shimmered off the surface from the outside world and Tayna padded up to its edge, peering into its depths. Deeper than it had first appeared, she frowned and kicked a pebble, breaking the surface in a ripple. The reflection of the mountains shivered, set alive with dancing ripples, and she watched its progress downward until it vanished into murkier depths.

The vixen's lips twisted. The pool was terribly out of place in the cavern, perfectly round as if it had been crafted rather than naturally formed. In a comparatively dry cave, the water was only generated from a point in the ceiling, where it ran to the end of a single stalagmite and fell to the pool, one drop every few seconds. Tayna eyed it and backed away, hind paw catching on the stranger's lantern. It clicked as the latch rattled and she started, skittering sideways. She laughed shakily and tugged at the edge of her jerkin from where it had ridden up over her midriff.

Easy now... She lectured herself mentally, shaking a finger in her own mind. It's just a cave. Nothing to be worried about.

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She shook her head, setting her shoulders back.

_ _

And I've hung about for long enough too. Time to get out of here before the owner of that gear comes back.

The sound of fabric scraping over stone, paws noisy in their innocence, chilled her heart. Too late. Or was it?

She stood stock still. Maybe she'd imagined it. Maybe it wasn't too late already.

Maybe they were not a foe? She hissed through her teeth. Too much to hope - far, far too much.

Turning slowly on the spot, she faced the intruder as they stepped out of the shadows - a nook near the yawning entrance. She grimaced. Technically, she would have been the intruder. The traveller would not have expected to find her where she had laid down her head...unless they were with the alliance.

The strange fur wore a long, hooded cape that draped down to her ankles and bare hind paws clad in dark brown, near black, fur. A russet muzzle poked out of the tawny cape, tipped by a moist, dark nose. Tayna held her position, taking in every nuance. Clearly a fox - there could be no question about that.

They stood as still as she, head bowed as if in silent prayer, giving no indication that they knew the vixen was there at all. Tayna's nose twitched, inhaling several breaths of the barely masked scent. Her eyes widened, tail twitching manically against her thigh.

No...

Tayna's heart stopped and then beat again, speeding up to such an inexplicable rate that it was as if each beat blurred into one continuous drone. Blood roared in her ears and the vixen swayed, putting her paw on the wall for balance. The cave juddered before her eyes and, for a moment, she feared she would topple over and faint.

She was no stranger.

The well-dressed fox pushed the hood back from her head, revealing dark brown hair cropped close to the natural length of her fur and two golden earrings dangling from the base of each ear. Pierced through, the hoops swung with the slightest tilt of her head, bouncing

Swallowing a lump in her throat that she had not known was there, Tayna reached out to the vixen, her paw shaking. She cleared her throat, lips and tongue working dryly until the word spilled out in a rush that could only be picked apart by the sharpest of ears.

"Mother?"

The strange vixen nodded and smiled. She took Tayna's paw and drew her closer, clasping it between her own. Pressing Tayna's trembling paw to her breast, her eyes brimmed over with tears.

"It has been too long, daughter."