Black Horns, Mountain Shadow [High Fantasy, non-LitRPG]

"Your command?"

Val tentatively balanced her axe across the back of the ibex's saddle, watching the animal to see how it took the weight. If they could take the weight of two soldier Laons on their paired saddles, she wasn't so worried, but she had spent most of her life being sensitive of her size and it still made her uneasy to trust their backs. The buck they had bought her stood taller than most of the other does, his horns impressively arching over the back of his head, yet it was a hard habit to break.

"To High Haven, you'll have to show the way," she replied to the young bean-pole of a soldier standing with her, Ja'to, his horns so short they were more like a goats than the others of her species. He had shaved most of his head, wearing the long black hair on one side of his skull in a single braid that he looped over one of his horns.

"We graze the herds of ibex on the lower slopes, the valley leads down from there?"

"Sure," replied Val, dismissing the soldier.

She had bathed and slept the night within the Matriarch's palace. As she awakened, the elder Matriarch still continued to draw a slow breath, and the vigil over her passing continued, casting a quiet over the palace she was not certain it always had. That did not distract a small number of the maiden's from taking a great interest in her when she came to the shared stone baths they used, warmed by the Mountain God's hot belly deep below the ground. The water was a cloudy white and Val sank most of her height beneath the surface, much to the disappointment of the maiden's who expressed amused curiosity over her figure and height, many of them nursing bellies in various states of pregnancy.

A worker had sanded her broken horn smooth again, and bought clothing, all sized correctly for her and in Laon styles, as well as armor that it appeared they were actively adjusting to her based on the measurements one of the workers was taking when they visited. She did not see Ja'ti again, but Za'kel hurried in and out on occasion, organizing a flurry of minor arrangements around her.

Their attitudes were never warm like humans could be with each other, but their actions spoke to the welcome she was being given as gift after gift seemed to make their way to her. The drones were the only ones brave enough, or poor mannered enough, to outright snipe critique at her. Val had concluded that it just seemed to be their nature, like Dorius and his family they were unused to another around them that was an equal and just did not seem to know how to treat someone accordingly. It appeared they all jostled with each other in their own hierarchies and competitions, explaining their constant attitudes, although she could not divine any pattern to their seniority over each other except that Za'kel was at the very top.

She slept a relatively comfortable night - or at least she thought it was a night, she did not know how to read the sand timers they kept underground. An older maiden took the evening to explain missing parts of her biology for her, including more details about how she would continue to mature over the next decades, just in case she did not meet any other Laons in that time. After a day of rest, by her estimate, every moment of it building a faint anxiety in her heart to return to Dorius, she declared she was ready to move on and Za'kel had insisted on keeping his Matriarch's suggestion of equipping her with a retinue of her own if she was going to continue to wander. At her insistence, she would only take volunteers, and so two soldiers had been found to follow her.

Ja'to it seemed was hot blooded for a soldier, and the idea of spending his youth exploring far beyond where his kind usually ventured must have appealed to the youngster. His eyes had lit up at the sight of Val, his fingers gripping his polearm eagerly. Too restless for the rest of his caste, it seemed an adventure in the world beyond was the opportunity he had been waiting most of his life until that point for.

The second was a seemingly rare, older female soldier called Ka'name with a grisly scar across her face that continued onto her collarbone and shoulder. Val was less certain what her motivations were, she was like Til'wane and exceptionally difficult to read. Ja'to had done most of the speaking for the pair of them so far. Her horns were dark and gleaming black though, and her skull shaved short into a thin black peach fuzz.

Thoroughly loaded with clothing and fresh supplies, a gifted trio of Ibex, and a new set of armor she wore under her heavy wolf skin cloak, Za'kel traveled with them at the edge of Kal'gah, one of his older daughters accompanying him at the front of his saddle.

"Will you come back?" he asked slyly as he jiggled his daughter on his knee in front of him. She had some of the ibex's long wool in her hands, carefully braiding it with intense concentration.

Val hummed as she stepped up onto her own Ibex, shifting in the saddle to center her weight as the buck danced slightly. "I'm not sure. If we had our way I'm sure Dorius would return to his estates south, if not…" she trailed off, not really sure what that scenario might fully look like.

"The Fae have always served the Dragon throne," repeated Za'kel somewhat wistfully, "Safe wandering Alate. Remember the Young Matriarch's warning, your life is not yours to give the humes."

Val nodded, signed a farewell, and tapped her heel to the back of the buck. Ka'name and Ja'to needed no verbal order from her, both urging their steeds forward as well. The trio of ibex kicked into a dancing trot, surprisingly nimble despite their size on their cloven hooves, and they departed quickly into the blue tunnels, the earth closing around the city behind them.

In silence, Ja'to wove them confidently through the tunnels till they emerged a few hours later, Val lifting a hand to her eyes to shield them from the bright and oppressive sunlight after so many hours underground. They paused for a few minutes to readjust their eyes and Val climbed to the edge of a cliff, trying to get a sense of her position again. They had emerged into a valley with a number of workers supervising herds of ibex that grazed not only in the meadow, but also clambering above them on cliff faces leading further into the mountains. She recognized some of the peaks, and with the slope of the ground figured they were still on the eastern side of the peaks. The tree line obscured views below them too much for her to determine where High Haven was or how far they still had to travel, but it felt like it could be no more than a day. She returned to the Laons and ordered them onwards.

—

In the setting darkness, the ibex picked their way down the last of the slope before the flat meadow to the rear of High Haven. Val felt a nervous bubble growing in her stomach, suddenly shy to return. Would Dorius be surprised she was back so quick? Or would he be worried not expecting her to take so long? And more ominously, what had passed in her short absence now news had returned that the Dragon God was calmed and the gate could be opened again?

Her stomach turned and almost made her ill at the thought of Bastian. If he still remained. What would he think of her absence? She did not feel like her short journey had changed her, not in the way she might hope, but hopes had often let her down and she had long since grown used to making do with what she could. When Dorius had last left her, she had been dressed in her battle ruined undergarments and missing her axe, a wolf hide tied around her body as the only covering she had left, and now she returned in pristine armor and dangling Laon beads, riding one of their white mounts. When Bastian had left her… well. She loosened her grip on the reins of her ibex and scratched at her chin below her lower lip in thought.

Stolen story; please report.

Her meditations were shattered by a shift in the harmonics around her. A great wave of elation that shuddered across the vibrating network that she recognized instantly. She tugged back on her reins, spinning her mount and turned back up to the mountain, eyes glancing between the peaks for a dark shape.

"Alate?" asked Ja'to cautiously, turning his mount to come back to her.

"Eyes up, do you see anything? The dragon or the winged horses?" she rushed out in a panic.

A second wave followed, sending her heart racing as the vibrations seemed to physically hit her chest and shudder through her gut. Spiraling, high pitched notes screamed in her ears, sending splitting white pain behind her eyes with their screeches. Yet still no dark figure emerged, and no bestial cry followed.

"You fear the Dragon God?" asked Ja'to, his eyes darting to her face and beyond to the mountains rapidly as he tried to follow her eye line.

"Alate!" grunted Ka'name, raising her hand to point. Val followed her motion up beyond the western edge, and the small shape of something in white darting free from the sterile edges of the snow at the very top of the mountain range. It had to be Whitesmoke. Which meant she was near.

Without warning a dark shape launched itself after, and the white horse dived, a tiny speck against the bloody sky from so far away. Twisting, the dark shape pulled both wings tight, streaking after to follow the horse in a dive.

Whitesmoke slipped sideways, and the wings of the black mass followed, snapping open and wheeling the massive dragon after. From this far away her gold horns and spines could not be made out, only the general shape of her dark form. Just as Val felt a growing panic in her chest at the odd behavior, the dragon kicked out a foot and grabbed the winged horse from the air by one wing. They were too far to hear the scream of pain that horse must have given, but the desperate flailing of the distant shape was unmistakable. Then a second foot joined and the white stallion in the distance was torn in two, one half falling clear of the dragon and the other still gripped in one foot. If there was blood, it could not be seen against the vermillion sky.

Val gripped her reins tightly, her ashen hands growing pale from the force of her clenched fists, her fingernails cutting in her palms. Ja'to and Ka'name were silent at her side, eyes fixed on the sky just as she was.

The dragon seemed to toss the other half of the stallion free into the sky to fall as well and hovered in place, great wing beats surging one after another. Then another wave of magics buffeted her and Val felt the mountain shudder beneath her feet. She waited, listening for that terrible roar to sound, but the beast seemed to turn in the air and drop into a glide back between the peaks, the vibrations slowly calming as it passed from view again.

"We are exposed out here," muttered Val cautiously, the quaver in her voice giving away her disquiet at the distant carnage. She would reflect on what the Dragon God's slaughter of its loyal follower meant later.

She nudged her heels into her mount's side to urge it onwards.

—

As the goats jogged the final stretch towards the gate, Val heard a screech from overhead that was the piercing cry of a goshawk. She squinted upwards at the darkening sky, looking for the source of the cry.

Well look-y here, someone made some new friends.

The voice was unmistakable Bastian's. Val pulled her reins taught and tugged her ibex to a halt, swinging a hand out to command the two Laons to pause as well.

"Where are you?" she called aloud, twisting in her saddle to peer along the road.

The sound of wings coming closer foreboded a weight touching down on her unbroken horn, barely perceptible, but it was followed by the click of talons wrapping around her horn.

Unfortunately, up here. The tinge of melancholy in his voice sent her heart racing.

"What happened?" she asked tilting her head to try and look upwards at Bastian, only for him to flap his wings to regain his balance as she moved.

Hold steady. Bastian chastised. I'll fall off, I'm still getting used to things. What happened to your other horn? Dorius said you fought the dragon?

"He's safely here then?" asked Val, kicking her goat forward again. The two soldiers did not comment if they found it odd she was now speaking to a bird.

Safe is a relative term, but yes. Sylus is here too, and we've brokered an uneasy alliance for now. I figured it had to be you returning when I saw those shit-eating Vigilants marching off to open the rear gate.

"They're waiting for me?"

Yes. Cocky assholes, think they know everything.

"Why are you like this?" asked Val.

The feeling of a sigh that was barely containing a mix of emotions floated back to her. I was hoping you might know. The Vigilants did it to me, and they keep telling me I am the only one who can change myself back. But every day that passes and I am stuck like this… Tell me you know something? Anything at all?

Val hummed, raising a fist to him, "Can I have a look at you?"

You think your goat would scare if I landed on its horns? I'd rather not ride on your hand.

She felt a flap of wings near her head, and Bastian hopped down onto the ibex's arcing horns in front of her, then seemed to sheepishly hunch his shoulders and turn away from her, swaying with each step the ibex took. His wings and shoulders were the vibrant red of his human hair, set above a creamy white belly banded with grey all the way down his chest to his tail. Two white eyebrows streaked back from his ochre yellow beak, framing his familiar golden eyes. He clicked his beak together. Well?

Val listened, and tried to remember what she had felt of Fenris and Abrigardius as they had shifted forms, or how they felt within the network of magic around them. There was something familiar about Bastian, wrapped in a new shell just like Fenris was when the great mass of his wolf form shrunk to his human one. It seemed likely, he could unwrap just as easily if he tried.

"I think you could," she said after studying him for a moment, "I've seen the Wolf God change shape a few times now, it would seem to me returning to your human self may be the easier direction?"

What if I get myself wrong? And I'm not who I should be?

"I don't think that will happen. It's not how they explained it, you are you, you can't choose your human shape as much as you can't choose this one," replied Val, lifting her head now to watch the rear gate of High Haven begin to crack.

You think you could teach me?

Val nodded, "Although we'd best be somewhere private. Your clothes don't come with you."

Ah.

The way he replied almost made her blush. She felt her mood brighten unexpectedly.