Trapped and Hurt!

Merlas snorted and leapt forwards at a canter, her hooves drumming on the forest floor, then a gallop before flaring her wings, taking off into the sky. She whinnied with delight, kicking out and shaking her mane as she climbed higher into the sky. The mare glided in and out of the clouds calmly, enjoying the water dripping down her back and legs. She snorted and started her descent towards a lake in the middle of a forest. She landed at a thundering gallop, meaning to slow down gradually as she usually did, but there was a loud snap and a surge of pain shot up her back legs. She had been caught in a human hunter's trap. She was jerked to a halt, crashing down into the undergrowth and falling onto her side. One wing was trapped under her, causing more pain and rendering her unable to help herself. The metal teeth of the bear trap were digging into her legs. She whinnied and neighed in distress,, pulling against the trap as hard as she could, but the trap held on grimly, biting down harder on her fragile limbs. Eventually, she lay still, apart from her ears swiveling and the occasional desperate neigh. She snorted gently, closing her eyes, using her free wing to cover herself.

An hour later, she opened her eyes again, seeing that night had fallen already. She struggled to her hooves, managing to pull one leg out of the trap, but it snapped shut tighter around her other leg. She neighed loudly in pain. She turned her head to lick the blood off her freed leg, whimpering quietly as she held the leg with the bear trap carefully off the ground. She looked around desperately, hoping that there was some one around who would help her.

Natalie walked at the side of the lake, tears rolling down her pale, heart-shaped face. She looked to the other side of the lake in a distant manner. She let out a harsh sob, and hugged her wollen clock up around her freezing face. It felt as though her tears were freezing. She wasn't panicked anymore...she wasn't even frightened....just devestated. This was it...
It was where she would die...
Alone...
Cold...
Hungry...
Stranded...
Her breathing rattled as the cold wind swept her brown hair off her face.
She shivered, and sobbed again.


She felt as though every hair on her body had stood on it's end and frozen. Wave after wave of sorrow ran through her. She fell to her knees...sobbing and shaking, as the wind bit again. This time making her feel sick.

Merlas had continued her frantic looking around and spotted Natalie on the other side of the lake. She lifted her head and whinnied loudly, hoping that she would be able to help.

Natalie looked up, started by the foreign sound. She looked at the horse...and it was familiar...but to whom it belonged was not yet apparent. Natalie's memory had not yet come back to her, frozen into a silent coma in the back on her mind.
She got up, all the goosebumps all over her body rising to a high altitude. She was confused as to what to do.

"Hello..." she said, "I'm going to...try and free you...I hope you don't mind me using magic."

She raised her wand to the metal bar of the trap.

"Reducto," she said calmly, and the bar crippled slightly.

Natalie bent down, and with all the strength she could muster, she pulled the top of the trap upwards so as to not hurt the horse, and eased it off Merlas' leg.

Merlas' ears pricked when Natalie came over, but pinned them back to her neck as she touched the trap. More blood poured out of the deep wounds as she lifted her leg out of the trap before twisting her head and neck round to lick the wound clean. She looked at Natalie, thanking her with a look of gratitude.

Natalie smiled at the horse, her cold, chapped lips erupting in more cracks.

She sat down on the ground beside the horse, rocking back and forth and beginning to sob again.

Merlas nickered gently, worried. She limped over to Natalie, keeping her injured leg off the ground the best she could. She lay down awkwardly next to the girl and extended one wing, wrapping it around her, trying to warm her up.

Natalie smiled sadly at the horse.

"How do I know you?" she said, more to herself than to the horse, looking at the creature with almost longing eyes.

Merlas put her head on one side, questioning Natalie's look as she shifted her feathered wings to keep Natalie warmer.

"I know I know you....I just...can't remember..." she said, almost stubbornly.
She sighed.

"Why is it so hard..." she said, tears of frustration forming in her eyes again.

Merlas tossed her head as if she was laughing and shook her mane. She used her nose to point to a small branding on her shoulder in the shape of a small wolf. Merlas looked at Natalie again and noticed the tears. Worry appeared in her eyes. She bent her head to Natalie's face and nudged her gently, asking what was wrong.

Natalie looked at the wolf...

"Her name's Shadow...isn't it...Shadow Roth..." she whispered.

She looked at her wrist suddenly as the braclet Shadow has once given her grew warn.

"What does this mean?" she said.

Merlas nodded in answer to the mark, and sniffed the bracelet carefully.

Natalie got up suddenly.

She opened her mind.

"Shadow," she whispered, in her head and out loud, "can you hear me...I have your horse..."

I'm comeing right now. Shadow thought back to Natalie.

Natalie looked at the horse.

"She is coming," she whispered.

Merlas nodded her head gratefully, and Shadow strode through the trees.

Natalie walked to Shadow silently and ghost-like, starved for so long of human company.

She hugged her, tears of happiness running down her freezing, palid face, leaving trails of pink.

Shadow hugged her friend back and took off her cloak; sensing how cold her friend was.

"Thank you...I am so cold...even for a vampire...I must be more human than I thought," she whispered.

She glaced at the horse.

"She can hardly walk...I freed her...a I want to heal her...but I can't remember how..." she stammered.

Shadow smiled at her friend before her smile faded and she strode towards Merlas. The mare nickered gently at her. Shadow sat next to her, running a light hand over her leg. Merlas flinched violently as she touched the wound.

Natalie sat down beside Shadow.

"Aren't you wandering why I am here?..." she asked.

"I am, but if you wanted me to know, you would have said." Shadow said.

"Maybe I was waiting for you to ask..." said Natalie, frowning.

"Ok, why are you here?" Shadow asked, looking up at her friend.