Angel (Funk's Foals 15 contest entry)

Teatime42, March 15, 2014; 17:07 / FB 19267
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Angel

----

Though I didn't realize it for quite some time, I first met her when I was but just a few moments old.

Screeching, chirping, loud noises booming around me, strange sounds and stranger smells.

But, I remember now, that there was a slight change in the sound, something had happened.

In the womb I remember hearing the slow beat of my mother's heart, the life flowing through her, and the faster beats of smaller hearts, racing compared to my mother.

I remember 3 others, though one was slower, and quieter, and three voice like mine I heard now.

And with another spurt of loud noise, I heard only two.

Everything seemed to stop for me, the noise was there, the smells, the world continues moving beneath me and around me.

But for one moment, none of it mattered, as I heard a noise that drove it all back.

A crack, that seemed to tear the world asunder, and a noise, a voice, that spoke to me, promising me something.

And I was afraid.

It wanted to take me, wanted to take me from my mother, from my family.

From myself.

I shrieked, and the spell was broken, I scrambled away, flailing, but something had me, I couldn't move.

But, a new voice spoke, and I knew who this one was.

“Dun wowwy babbeh! Yu gud babbeh! Yu nu get hewties!”

I believed her, though I didn't understand her. She was my mother, my mummah. I knew on a level so deep that it could never be wrong, that she loved me, and she would always love me and keep me safe.

I still don't know who was more mistaken, her or me.

----

The next time I met her, was not too long after that.

Barely 2 weeks later, of course I wasn't so good at keeping track of time then, and looking back on my thoughts and memories, I sometimes wonder how I lived to be this age.

We had grown, not much, but still. We could walk after a fashion, though straight lines were still far beyond us. But we didn't care, My Brother, Sister, and I rampaged around the small clearing next to our home. Playing a game that was simplicity itself, run around, run into each other, roll around, and get back up to run some more.

Eventually, we took a nap, and I dreamed dreams that were strangely alike to what our lives had been until now. Full of play, plenty of love, food, and warmth.

I awoke to nightmare.

At the first shriek, I was already up, and looking around. It took barely a split second to see what was wrong.

It felt much longer.

We didn't have names yet, we got them later that day. Until then my Brother had been called “Puwpwe eawthie babbeh”, I was called “Bwown eawthie babbeh”, and my sister was called, “Pink wingie babbeh”.

She was later named “Wose”, though she never got to hear it herself.

A large creature stood over her, massive. Black as the shadows, it was covered in feathers not too unlike my sister's, though it had wings bigger than all of us combined.

It's head dipped down one last time, and the shriek ended, though sister continued to twitch.

There was a scream.

“NUUUUU! NUU HEWT BABBEHS! MEANIE MUNSTAH WEAVE BABBEHS AWONE!”

My father, my Daddeh charged the monster, and ran into it. Daddeh fought the monster, rolling around with it like I rolled around with my brother. The monster fought back, and amidst the shrieks of the monster, and the screaming of my brother that I just now noticed, I heard the screams of pain from my Daddeh as well.

But those were not my focus.

Sister was.

Her pink body was stained red, and there were... things coming out of her. Things I did my best not to look too hard at.

I don't know when, or how, but I was beside her. Her eyes were darting around, they focused on me for a moment. Her front legs moved briefly, her mouth quivered. I could hear her.

“Hugs?”

“Hugs pwease?”

“Pwease make it beddah, pwease hugs bwuddah...”

But her eyes lost focus, and... something else. Suddenly, it wasn't my sister anymore. It was nothing now.

My eyes blurred now, and it was hard to see, but I saw something alongside me, massive wings spread, darkness growing.

The monster was back, I screamed, but it ignored me. It picked up my sister, somehow, and with a nearly deafening CRACK of it's wings, was gone.

My Mummah found me next to her body, nearly incoherent, shrieking about the monster taking sister away. When they tried to comfort me, I couldn't, or wouldn't, hear them.

I don't know what they did with her body.

Or Daddeh's.

----

Without Daddeh around, things were harder, food was more scarce.

And it was less warm.

At first I thought it was just me, but when I woke up early one day, I found that the clearing was covered in a small amount of whiteness.

Mummah said it was “Fwost”, and that it was “Cowd wadah”.

But, more importantly, it meant that the “Cowd times”, what I would eventually know as Winter, were fast approaching.

But, between me, Mummah, and my Brother “Night”, we were doing our best to gather food.

Mummah knew what to do, she'd survived one cowd time already, she said her “Hoomin Daddeh” had protected her, and she'd seen how he did it.

I was always an early riser, ever since Rose I'd had a hard time sleeping.

I went out, the Bright ball in the sky, was just coming up, and the clearing was even more covered in Frost than before. It was one of the most beautiful things I had ever seen, and rather than romp around in it as I had done with Night in days past, I walked around carefully, underneath the trees and bushes.

It was so quiet, so peaceful.

I decided to try and find some food, maybe even find something to surprise them with.

I'd always been pretty good at finding my way back home, so I set out alone.

After a while, I had managed to find some nice Clover, something Mummah would love since it was the same color as her, and had the same name.

I walked straight back, without detouring. Night had gotten lost one day by not paying attention, and Mummah had booped him rather hard when she had found him. Yelling for help could make monsters come.

Since then, Night wouldn't go out without either me or Mummah.

When I got back to the clearing, I was dismayed to see two large groupings of gaps in the Frost, it was ruined.

I still circled around the clearing, carefully watching my step to not ruin it more.

And I looked up.

And there was a strange Fluffy.

Aside from my Family, I had never seen another Fluffy before, and I was about to call out to them, when my voice caught in my throat.

She was beauty that made the frost covered meadow pale in comparison.

Her tail and mane were the same color as the frost, her coat was frost that had begun to turn back into water.

I didn't get much more than a glance, because she had gone into my families home.

I raced forward, tramping the frosted grass, in my haste, I tripped.

And as I hit the ground, there was a thunderous CRASH, and everything was suddenly silent.

I got up, but I was unhurt. I reached home, and walked in.

There I saw only one fluffy.

Not three.

She lay on her side, she looked like she was asleep.

But for the fact that her head was backwards, I would have thought Mummah was in fact asleep.

But I knew she wasn't.

Brother was no where to be found.

The Strange Fluffy was gone as well.

I stayed there for a while.

And then left.

Leaving my mother behind, a small pile of Clover beside her.

----

I don't recall much after that.

Not for some time.

I recall trying to find food, and I must have found some, enough.

I found my way to a strange place, and my first solid memory was looking out of the frozen trees, at a mass of strange and massive rocks, somehow covered with the stars themselves.

The first fluffy I found told me it was a City.

He also told me that his name was “Smawty”, and that I was now part of his herd, and would be one of his “Tuffies”.

As I had nowhere else to go, I had no problem with this.

And I was no longer alone.

I helped defend the herd from threats, mostly by simply paying attention.

It was startling how few Fluffies would watch the world around them.

I had learned the hard way what happened when one didn't watch.

And as I was watching, I saw something that seemed to suck in my attention.

She was an earth fluffy, and her fluff was filthy, much like mine had become.

But she had a life to her, she was always so happy, she knew how dangerous the world was, but she refused to let it dampen her spirits.

And, for the first time in a long time, I could feel myself thawing, much like the frost had when the Bright times had come.

Her name was “Ceweste”.

And to my surprise, she liked me too.

It wasn't long until we were special friends.

And not much longer till we would soon be a family.

Eventually, though she could still walk, it grew simply too hard for her to do so, and she had to stay in the Herd's safe place.

That was fine, the herd's mummahs were allowed to do this, were supposed to do this.

I came back one day to discover that she had given birth.

The Smarty stood over the babbehs, none of which moved, or made any noise at all.

The only noise I could hear, was of Celeste crying, and of a strange pulsing noise that came from close by.

Too this day, I don't know exactly what the Smarty said, but I remember picking up the babbehs, the babbehs that never woke up, and taking them out of the safe place.

And when I came back, all the herds toughies were present.

Blood covered their front legs.

And Celeste was no more.

“Mummah am bad mummah, hew babbehs be bad.” Smarty said.

“Dis nawt dah fiwst time.” Smarty said.

“She nu wan weave, she nu can stay, so, Hewd gib owwies. She stiww no wan weave, so, Hewd gib biggest owwies.” Smarty said.

“Hurgack!” Smarty said, as I drove my hoof into his throat, startling the toughies. By the time the first had gotten to me, I was done.

And so was Smarty.

I spat out the skin and fluff I had torn off of him, and glanced around, the toughies backing away from me.

The herds Mummah's screamed, and tried to back away from me.

They had nothing to fear from me.

The same was not true of the toughies.

It took some time, but I was patient.

I couldn't do it all at once.

I needed them to help protect my herd after all.

By the next winter, I had removed every toughie who had hurt my Celeste.

But, as I looked at my Celeste that day, I saw something in her eye, a figure moving behind me. large wings, cloaked in shadows, but bright as day.

As I turned, there was a noise that was no noise, drowning out the world around me.

Try as I might, I saw nothing, but whenever I recall Celeste in this memory, instead of her normally brown eyes, I remember green-blue, watching me from inside Celeste's eyes.

I can barely remember Celeste now.

----

This was so long ago, I've seen so much now.

I've had foals with lovers, though none meant as much to me as Celeste did, there was still love.

My foals had foals, who had foals, and even those had foals.

I'm no longer called “Smawty”, now I'm “Grey”.

I've seen so much, loved so much, laughed so much.

And as I lay here now, no feeling in my body, blood pouring out of me, I know my time has finally come.

My herd, my family, lies broken around me. Their screams, cries and chirps wash over me.

And I let it.

I can do no more.

My life is spent, my body broken.

Human's round up the young, crush the old.

They move them to a container.

I see white coming down from the sky.

So many winter's I've seen.

Each as beautiful as the last.

And this is my last.

They almost miss me, as my vision begins to fade.

My fluff has changed so, I blend in to the frost now.

But I find myself the last, atop the bodies of my loved ones.

The last, but this time I'm not alone.

I see one who survived, I wish try to warn her, to have her leave, escape.

But she walks directly too me.

Her Grey fluff untouched, her mane untarnished.

And, I remember. Everything.

Her eyes look at me for the first time, and I see her.

I know her.

I've met her so many times...

She speaks without speaking.

Will you come home now? Will you come with me now? Little Foal who refuses to leave?

I cannot leave, I think. I will not leave.

I am no monster to be feared, I am rest, I am peace. Peace you have long deserved.

I have no right, I think.

You have every right, I am every beings right, every beings guarantee. Everyone meets me eventually. Though, some meet me more often than others.

I can't see anymore, and yet I still see her. Her wings spread across the sky, enveloping everything, her reach endless.

I know her, she has ever been by my side, waiting patiently. My constant companion, my longest friend, my Angel.

I say nothing.

I don't need to, she hears me.

I feel her grasp me, her presence beyond understanding, and with a loud noise, we're gone.

And I sleep.