[BU-Lit] Caught in the Storm

    None of them had expected to end up in a situation as fragil of this. Hailey and Teppe had been out that day, though it had been chilly, but there had been no sign of a storm. A bit of running, a bit of relaxing, this was supposed to have been a pleasant day, until they got caught. Swampy had come out of her shell for once, getting to a new area and wanting to enjoy the day. When she had left, the sky had been clear, though it was freezing, and now she found herself in a blizzard. Wyvern and Tempest had been out on a stroll, got caught by the storm, and happened to stumble upon the other three and grouped up. No one could see anything because of the density of the snow, but they all figured grouping up would give them a better chance of survival than going off on their own, even if they had no idea who the others were.

    At least they were all  horses, and though not all horses were friendly, they were not carnivores. Not most of them in any case. The wind and ice bashed against their sides, and all of them were afraid. They had no idea where they were, the storm could have completely pushed them outside of their way, and if they would not succume to the storm, what if they could not find their way back home? They were lost inside the storm for over half an hour, when they encountered others.

    "Look, do you see that?" Tempest said, pointing towards a direction with her nose. "There's dark shapes there ahead of us. Can you see it?" The others looked towards where she pointed and though it was difficult to see much, there seemed to be two darker blobs in the distance. Large blobs. Hopefully nothing bad. "We have to go towards there, what if they are in need of our help? And we already gathered a small herd here, we have to help others as well !" Teppe shouted over the howling of the wind.

    Not that they had much of a choice anyway, because as they made their way towards the shadows, it appeared the shadows also came towards them. And then, suddenly, the storm seemed to lessen, and the snow fell straight down instead of stabbing into their eyes. A small clearing appeared where they stood, and into it stepped two other equines. One as white as the snow falling down and one shining with radiant colors. Two equines, who seemed completely contest within this storm and the coldness.

    In fact, it appeared to all of them that the clearing moved where ever the two horses went. Did they have control of this storm, did they create the storm? Hailey felt fear creeping into her veins and she took a few steps back until she felt the wind from outside of the circle pulling on her tail, trying to drag her back into it's deadly movements. "Who, who are you?" she softly asked, clearly audible because it was completely peaceful in the clearing.

    "My name is Fierte and this" the colorful one nodded towards the white one, "is Duva. Are you all alright, are you missing members of your herd?" Fierte assumed all these horses belonged together, but if someone was missing they would have to search for them as fast as they could. Duva and himself had combined their ice magic to control at least a small portion of the storm, and they themselves were well equipped against the cold because of their powers, but someone that would wander out there could easily trip, break a leg and die from hypothermia.

    "No, its just us. We do not all belong together, but we had decided to stick to each other, at least until we would get out of this raging weather." Swampy spoke, definitely not comfortable. She was more used to high humidity, trees and deep puddles of water, not this frozen wasteland. "How is the storm not hitting you two?" She then asked, curiosusly looking from Fierte to Duva and back to the stallion again. "Yea, how are you doing that?" Tempest asked as well. She was not sure whether to be afraid of the two equines or whether to admire them, but she was grateful in any case.

    "Both Fierte and I possess Ice magic, which combined together is powerful enough to keep us and a little part around us safe." Duva spoke in a cheerful tone, obviously not feeling like she was stuck in a tragedy like the herd was thinking. "I am glad we found you, it is incredibly dangerous right now. This storm hit out of nowhere, even I did not feel it coming, while usually I have a good sense when snow is in the air."

    Fierte snapped his head back, sensing another presence coming their way. He poked Duva, making her aware of it as well and through their combined magic she could feel what he felt. "Yes I feel it too Fierte and it is big. Do you think it is maybe a bear?" She looked nervously at the stallion, unsure of what to do. Her nervousness definitely had an affect on the other horses, who had come to the point where they accepted these two ice controllers were of no harm to them.

    "I am not sure. It is definitely big, bigger than any of us, but, I do not know.' Fierte stared intently into the storm, trying to combine his magic and his other senses to get a clear image, but he could just not do it. "Prepare" he nodded to Duva. He took over holding the clearing while Duva readied herself to use her magic against the possible predator. It was not that they could not have hold the storm of on their own, but it just cost them less effort and energy when they worked together.

    Duva built up the energy inside of her, ready to leash out with a deadly cone of ice, but then into the circle stepped a familiar figure, and she quickly let the magic flow back into the earth, seeing no reason to use it anymore. In front of them another horse had entered the circle, a huge horse that was, covered in hair, fur, and more hair. Upon closer look however, the horse was not that huge. But its hairs had been blowing everywhere and now that it entered the circle it felt back along its body and it actually appeared to be a tiny horse.

    The little guy introduced himself as Caramel, and looked pretty shaken up. "Thank, thank you so much. I was so lost and afraid out there. How is it not storming in here?" The equines looked down on the small horse, noticing he did not have a horn, was he not a boucle? and explained how the magic worked. His eyes shot wide open at the sound of that ice power and looked at Fierte and Duva, but there was only awe shadowed in it, no fear.

    "We should try to make our way towards, well, anywhere" Fierte said. "Even though we can not see where we are, we should still attempt to exit the storm as fast as we can. Stay as close as possible please." When he saw all the horses nodding, and Duva had taken over her half of the barrier again, they started moving, in the opposite direction from where they came from. They did not know which way that was exactly, but finding their way home should be done afterwards.

    They traveled for half an hour, after which they still could not see far out of the barrier, when they saw another shape appearing. Another horse? Another boucle in distress? Fierte made sure everyone was aware, then moved towards the shape. This time Duva did not have to relinquish her share of the barrier, as they had enough horses to fight if necessary and they approached the animal, not the other way around in Caramels case.

They walked until the blob merged itself into the safe zone, showing it was yet another horse. This was as dark blue as the starry night sky, and actually had stars on his body, but his feet were as white as snow. Or maybe they were white from the snow.

    "Hello my friend" one horse from the group greeted the blue stallion and asked for his name. He appeared so lost, no one was afraid he would attack.

    "He-Hello. My name is Theseus. I am lost and afraid. I could swear I heard howling before, and not howling from the wind." It was explained to him, as it was to the others, how this safe zone was made and kept and he eagerly joined himself into the group. But the howling worried the other equines, and it was quite possible there were wolves nearby.

    "We are with enough to fight of a few wolves, we should be safe enough for now. Besides, they have to deal with the storm as much as we do. Let's make sure to get to safety first. It's been going on for hours now, hopefully it will lay down soon." Hailey said. And she was right.

    They were in the storm for another 20 minutes, but then finally the wind started to calm down and they were able to see further away, the snow forming a massive blanket over the world around them. Fierte and Duva constantly worked to lessen the snow ahead of them, so that walking through it would become more easy, and they tried to make their way out of the open field they had stranded in.

    And when they did reach the edge of the field, and started to find cover under the trees, they looked behind them and and dropped their jaws in awe. "This is most definitely the most beatiful thing I have ever seen" Teppe said. After a quick glance towards Hailey he added "After you of course dear." She was pregnant of his baby who was to be born soon and in this time he tried to be extra sweet to her.

    "No kidding, this is marvelous. Possibly prettier than the night sky with all its stars" Theseus answered, marveling in the white blue glistering beauty of their surroundings. The storm had been aweful, and dangerous, but the aftersight of it was amazing. Yet he was still worried about the howling from before.

    The group stood there for a few minutes, enjoying the beauty but also the renewed sense of safety they felt. They had no idea where they were, but at least they could try to find their home now without having to worry for their lives. Many thanks were expressed towards the two Ice masters, who only felt it was their job to not just help themselves but also others, and then plans were being made for everyone to find their home again.

    Most of them described places that they recognised, and realised they lived relatively close to each other, and so they decided to split the group and go home with those horses. Only Theseus, Fierte and Duva stayed behind, as they had to go in the other direction. And so everyone went their own way, with new friends made, on their way home.