Small Magic

[Josette]

Years of training, and years of survival, tore through Josette at the question. Her spine went rigid, blue eyes narrowing, right hand crossing her body to grip the sword on her left hip. "Where?" she barked.

Nicolette pointed, and Josette's sharp gaze followed her finger. It was not until she had been watching for a full thirty seconds that she finally relaxed. The horses that loped toward her were riderless; there was no approaching army, and they had not ridden into an ambush. Instead, they had ridden into a herd of wild horses.

"Look at them!" Nicolette squealed. She dropped her reins, cupped both hands to her chest, and nearly hummed with excitement. "I have been riding the province for years, and I have never seen wild horses before. This is incredible."

And it was. Even Josette found herself awestruck, slowly releasing her hold on her sword's hilt. "I have never seen wild horses either," she mumbled. "I always hoped to."

The gray gelding eased up beside the bay, Nicolette flashing her new friend a smile. "Today is your lucky day."

Together, the pair observed in silence. There were nearly thirty horses in all, their colors ranging from inky blacks to shimmering, golden palominos. At the same time she heard Nicolette coo, Josette spotted five young foals. They could only be a few months old, confident on their impossibly thin legs, but still plodding close to their mothers. Their pitiful slips of tail were not long enough to ward off flies, but they still flicked back and forth cheerfully.

The knight had seen so much evil in her life. She had witnessed violence, death, and loss for as long as she could remember, and at the young age of thirteen, she had played her own role in it. But the scene before her was so innocent, so genuine, so good; her heart swelled with it.

Perhaps that explained the pure fury that exploded within her when she spotted the massive gray monster. It crept on all fours, hunched close to the earth, its feline tail snapping through the air like a whip. It was larger than a mountain lion, perhaps four hundred pounds, and five foot tall at the shoulder. It was still six hundred feet off, by her best estimate, but she could imagine its beady eyes honing in on the baby horses. When Josette turned back to the herd, she watched a pair of fuzzy foals peel off, and chase each other closer to her. Closer to the beast.

"What is that?" Nicolette demanded, having turned to follow her companion's gaze.

Josette spat her answer. "A Cassarian. They are carnivores that prey on just about anything they can find. They are more or less enormous cats." She eased her sword from its sheath with a metallic hiss. "Has Maxum seen any combat?"

"You are going after it?" Nicolette's concern for the horses, as fierce as it was, was eclipsed by her concern for her escort. "The horses will protect themselves, will they not?"

With a sharp tug of the reins, the mercenary startled her mount from the lazy lull he had fallen into. "Cassarians stalk their pray in complete silence. If this one sticks close to the cliffs, in the shadows, it could get close enough before the horses even realize." She could not take that chance. She could not let the evil win again.