“Don’t do this.” The words were out before she could stop them. Worse, they were said in the tone of a little girl, and that made her hate herself.
It was a pleading tone. Not because she wanted to live, but because she didn’t want to die by the hand of her own mother.
How pathetic is my life?
But Meara wouldn’t be deterred.
Gisela ducked the next sword stroke and twisted away. This was when having two legs was beneficial. She was much spryer than her four-legged mother, and those two legs allowed her to run up the ladder to the main deck.
As she reached the walkway, her mother appeared behind her and buried her hand in Gisela’s hair. “I told you not to fail me.”
Yes, she had, and Gisela had known the price of failure. But she’d never dreamt that the price would come at the hands of her mother.
Gisela tried to pry her mother’s hand loose from her hair. “Let go!”
Her mother raised the sword to cut her throat.
Just as her mother would have sliced, Gisela turned into a bee and flew around to sting her mother’s back.
Meara screamed as she swished her tail, trying to strike Gisela.
Gisela flew toward the docks, but because she was injured, she couldn’t hold her form. She hit the docks hard in her human body, then cursed the fact she was naked again.
The one thing she truly hated about shape shifting. Why couldn’t they keep their clothes when they shifted back to human?
She barely had time to consider that before Meara appeared at her side.
Her mother kicked her to her back with one hoof. A hoof she then put down on the center of her chest. She pressed so tightly that Gisela could barely breathe as pain exploded through her.It felt as if her ribs were breaking. She gasped for breath. An anguished breath that made her wound ache more.
It was over. She couldn’t shift. Couldn’t fight her mother off given the weight of her equine body.
If I’m going to die…
She wanted it to be in the body she was born in.
Closing her eyes, she exhaled and released all the energy she’d cultivated through her life to make sure she always appeared human. That she never once screwed up and became the thing her mother hated most.
A unicorn.
The moment she shifted, Meara screamed and backed up.
Gisela snorted and felt a new strength run through her. This was unlike anything she’d ever experienced. Warm and soothing. She was still wounded, but the pain wasn’t so bad now. It was as if her body was so happy to be what it was born to be that it didn’t care about anything else.
And that body gave her another gift…
A weapon.
Lowering her head, she charged at Meara.
Just as she would have reached her mother and stabbed her through her cold, callous heart with her horn, Meara vanished.
Rearing up, Gisela cried out in rage.Coward!
The word had barely gone through her mind before she realized she wasn’t alone.
Xaydin was at her right side.
In front of her, Masakage and Candara stared at her in disbelief.
