The Same Story For Different Fools - 37

Chapter Thirty Seven,
The Nightmare's Imp
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Well, having been firmly detached from the building’s walls of ice, flailed this way and that as it stamped its heavy hooves upon the firm ground in distaste. “That tastes foul!” Well protested, shaking its body furiously, its stretched tongue lashing this way and that in its exclamation as the beast tried to shake the flavor from memory.

“Ungrateful little imp.” Winter retorted firmly, bringing the flask of sweetly smelling alcohol to her lips pointedly. “This is the finest mead I’ve got,” Winter informed as she lowered the drink, a satisfied smile gliding across her features in pleasure as she topped the flask with the cap thoughtfully, “Probably not going to get any more for some time, and I’ve wasted half of it releasing YOU from that wall!”

“Yuck! Ugh! Bleh! YUCK! Aww, gross! I can still taste it!!”

“We don’t have TIME for this, Power of Mine!” Winter exclaimed in frustration as she strapped the flask upon her belt once again, “We can catch the travelling party up, but only if we move now. The walk here was an hour, at the most. The run back will be half of that. We spent most of that time reviving those two hundred and fifty fallen. Ten minutes remain, and that’s being optimistic!” Winter calculated precisely as she drew her heavy cloak’s hood back over her Nightmare features.

Well froze in its bucking and leaping about to stare blankly at Winter in stunned, silent shock. “How do you know all this?”

“Nightmares have an incredible sense of time.” Winter informed absently, “We see, feel every minute in each hour. Every hour in each day. Every day in each year. Every year in each lifetime. You’ll never find a LATE Nightmare. Well, you won’t find any Nightmare other than myself now a days, actually.” Winter blinked at the somber thought, frowning softly, “How fortunate for everyone,” She murmured softly, a bitter twitch of a smile pulling at her full lips softly.

“Kneel.” Winter demanded, firmly nodding her head the beast before her.

“Ah, so, that’s the point of this form, eh?” Well deduced, prancing forward as its figure loomed over Winter’s bloodied one, “You’re always up to something, Madness.” Well informed resolutely, its fur bristling with glee at the delightful prospect, “And whether you like it or not, you need me. Your leg is hurt. You’re injured. You won’t make it by yourself. You need me to carry you, or you’ll be stuck here forever, mistaken for the dead!”

“I’m not injured, my leg just doesn’t work.” Winter scoffed derusively.

“You need me.” Well condemned, its gleaming red eyes shimmering with pleasure.

“You’re wasting time, Power of Mine.” Winter growled, her lips parting to reveal her sharpened teeth in anger.

“You’re not denying it.”

“I’m not accepting it, either.”

“This is, this is what those Thinking Creatures refer to as an.. Opportunity, right? I think I’ll use this one!” Well bounded with joy, its weighted hooves slamming the frozen ground with an unintentional malice.

“Well then,” Winter indulged with a pointed stare, a sarcastic smile quirking across her lips. “State your demands. It won’t be an ‘Opportunity’ for much longer.”

“I wish for a form OUTSIDE of a stone. I will remain in this form indefinitely.” Well informed with a commanding air about the creature, pride raising the form of the beast a fair deal taller.

“Ridiculous demands.” Winter dismissed simply, gesturing off handedly with disinterest. “Remaining in that form will give away my spell casting, at the very least. At the MOST they will assume you are a fearsome demon from these frozen rocks, and spear you to death before you so much as glance upon Asgard’s roads.” Winter informed the hard reality set before the creature with a pleasant, charming smile upon her features. “So, you will do as I ask, and I won’t use a riding crop. Do we have a deal?” Winter offered mockingly, a blunt eyebrow raised to the beast before her.

“Er.. Deal. Definitely.. Definitely a deal!” Well stammered in a rush as the creature knelt to the ground before Winter’s body. Winter rested a hand upon the beast’s furred back, collecting her balance for a moment before clumsily resting upon the middle of the creature’s backbone.

It was quite the feat, in her opinion, as her body stretched and pulled upon its wounds in a fruitless desire to please its master. Her chest held a rather large, noticeable hole from where her heart had once rested, and her arms and chest refused to forget this fact. Her right leg refused to move all together, and consisted of no other feeling than a fierce, raging fire that Winter felt begin to surge back into her mind, as her Power was manifested before her, and thus, not holding the wounds silent.

Her hands sizzled and burned with Frost Bite that fell deep the bone. The charred, blackened flesh that dropped everything offered to them served as her fastenings to the muscled beast. It was.. Unsettling, to say the least. A large, swelling bruise stretched and pulled at the flesh of the top of head as a rather large, ugly shape took collection from the event in which Winter had slammed her own skull into another’s. A whim Winter found that she dearly regretted, to say the least.

“You’ve got a lot to learn about opportunities, Power of Mine.” Winter notified, her pained fingers knotting into the long hair of Well’s mane as the creature rose to its feet in a single, fluid movement. Smoothly, Winter’s body shifted with the beasts movements, leaning towards the beast to match her own muscles with the creatures’s fluid breath.

“Why’s this?” Well inquired, tentatively taking a step forward upon the ice, balancing the new burden upon its back with an assessing mind. Finding the proper shift in balance necessary, Well leapt forward suddenly, hooves carving deep into the ice upon the ground fearlessly.

“Oof!” Winter yelped upon the sudden shift in shock as she adjusted her hold open the creature’s back to keep from falling entirely forward against the creature, “Stop asking questions.” Winter growled in annoyance, her many wounds bleeding a new and roaring with protest as her body shifted painfully. Well dashed through the shifting stones, its stretched muscles moving to the graceful tune that a cats body does as the beast lunged across a sudden chasm that dashed in and out of sight in split seconds. “Ach!”

“You’re too loud, Madness!” Well scolded with a snort.

“If you think I’m doing it on purpose, you’re sore- OW!” Winter yelped, gnashing her teeth angrily at the sound torn from her injured lips, “Sorely mistaken. You did that on PURPOSE!” She accused with anger.

“Would you rather I ran INTO that boulder?” Well threw back, hoofbeats pounding upon a brief stretch of ice before leaping impossibly far across the next crackling chasm that stood before it. “Why would I stop asking questions?” Well inquired as the beast slammed weightedly onto the solid, slippery ground. Winter hissed beneath her breath to the jarring, painful movement audibly.

“You still owe me-“ Winter cut off as she leaned to the side with Well as the beast rounded a sharp, skidding corner, “-five reasons why asking Laufey why he despises me was a TERRIBLE idea.” Winter finished breathlessly as the creature straightened from the turn, leaping into yet another with a nimble, yet oddly large body.

“You’ve been allowing me to talk until now!”

“I was preoccupied by the fi-“ Winter gasped loudly upon yet another jolting twist in the path, “Oh, I will hurt you.” Winter promised venomously. “-Fight at hand. I didn’t have the time to discipline the voices residing within my head.” Winter determinately finished, daring the creature to interrupt her once more with a sudden shake.

“I’m just ONE voice-“ Well started hopefully.

“Quiet.” Winter forced out the short statement firmly, blackened blood speckling her parted, ill tempered lips at the strain her bleeding wounds brought upon her.

“That’s not fair, you’re-“ Well began once more.

“Shut it.” Winter snapped with a growl, her life blood, the shade of ink, steadily dripping down the corner of her pained lips silently.

“MADNESS!” Well complained miserably. Mischievously, the beast purred once before it leapt once upon the breaking ice, waiting a moment for Winter to adjust her grip before skidding to a harsh, sliding stop.

“Achhhhh!” Winter’s shout of pain turned to a furious hiss half way through its creation. “QUIT IT!” She snarled through her teeth.

“I can’t help it!” Well defended with a laugh, dashing steadily ahead upon a sudden whim, “The noises you little Nightmares make are so ADORABLE! I envy your lovers!”

“I WILL use that whip if you continue with this.” Winter warned, lifting her head from just above the beast’s shifting shoulders to direct a glare at the back of the creature’s head in hatred.

Silence filled the air for a fair moment, removing the unsteady pounding of the hoof beats, of course, before Well’s voice leapt tentatively upon Winter’s senses. “Point taken.”