Keir's Revenge Matrix

Antares looked up and she had to agree with Whym's assessment; the zombies DID seem to be herding them, in a way. It occurred to her that they were close enough to attack, but instead of attacking the beasts were merely gnashing their teeth, rearing, and waving their horns around threateningly. She didn't have a whole lot of time to consider it as she realized the walls were getting more and more narrow; her focus HAD to be on the maze itself. 

She stumbled as she too finally caught a shimmering glimpse of a three-tailed fox. "I saw it!" she shouted over the thunder of hooves, more amazed than anything else. She managed to regain her footing in time to avoid being touched by the zombies--only to find they were boxed in, in an area similar to the beginning of the maze. Her heart sank down to her hooves. Had they just gone in a giant circle this whole time?? The black mare skid to a halt but refused to give up. "Try the walls again!!" she ordered as she immediately started pawing. To her dismay, all of the walls were solid. 

Falling to all four hooves at around the same time as Whym, she looked around and realized what had surprised her travelling companion. There were no zombies here--though they could still be heard beyond the small rectangle. Her nostrils flared and she took a few seconds to catch her breath. "We are not dying here." she said firmly, planting her hooves. She would fight back the entire army if she had to! "And no, not now." She failed to realize this implied that Whym could take a snip of her mane at a later time. 


Her ears came forward as the three-tailed fox appeared again, its eyes wild as if terrified. It yipped a few times then seemed to realize they didn't understand it. Its fluffy tails shimmered and an arrow appeared pointing upwards against one of the walls. There was a small mark on the floor there as well, and a blinking design appeared. Antares stepped over to the illusion-touched place and traced the design and the wall tilted forward, creating a staircase leading upwards. She sighed in relief, her face breaking into a smile. She turned to thank the animal, but by then it was gone. 

"Come on, Whym, I think this is the way out!" she exclaimed as she started up the stairs. "I can't wait to get out of here and go somewhere less crazy!" she babbled a bit as excitement got to her. The stairs were cool and echoed loudly as she clopped up them. "Did you think the Swamp Region would be this insane?" 

It took her a moment to realize the stairs didn't truly lead out. Well, they led out of the maze but it led into a giant room. A room which has a soft purplish glow to it--possibly due to the large neon sign. Antares squinted at the sign, her tail swishing behind her. She was stupid to think Keir was done with them. Her eyes ran over the sign and she stepped back in confusion and disgust. "What the--?!" she snorted, not even sure what to fill in the blank with. That was before the door slammed shut behind them, sealing them in. 

---

Word count for this post: 555 (+2 chime for both)

Total word count: 6025
Whym total chime: 23
Antares total chime: 22

“You saw it?!” Whym gleefully said. Finally, she had evidence that she wasn’t hallucinating a random fox! Unless… Unless they were both hallucinating, but the cheerful quirlicorn decided to not consider that alternative. “Great! Maybe we’re both lovers of foxes or something… Hmm… Do I remember any tails from them? Get it? Tails and tales?! I really make myself laugh at times. Maybe I should become a stand-up comedian. Do you think that I’ll be good at it, Antares? Oh, oh! And I’m sure that I’ll be able to duplicate your mane sometime in the future or something- there are hundreds of potion masters out there. Well, half of them are probably fake, but that’s not the point.” 


She grinned, despite the fact that the walls were very, very solid to her hooves. “So I can have a snippet later! I’ll treasure it forever and ever and ever! I’ll fight any predators that dare take the great Antares’ mane.” Standing on her hind legs, Whym pretended to hit an invisible enemy. “And dying here would be so anti-dramatic. Hm… So I don’t have any plans to fall onto the ground and join the zombie army anytime soon! I wouldn’t look good in green, right? Please tell me that green doesn’t suit me. I don’t wanna turn into grass!” 


Whym gasped when the fox appeared again, “Little fox! It’s so nice to see you again. You look very fluffy. Can I pet you? Your fur must be soft, and you look a-dor-a-ble!” When the fox disappeared from view, the quirlicorn pouted and turned her attention back to Antares. “Aww… Do you think that we’ll see it again? It looked so wonderfully cute but also looked terrified for some reason. I really, really want to pet it. Maybe we should track it in the maze? Oh wait, the zombies.” She flicked her ears in that direction, where the zombies snarled at the doorway. “So, what do you think we’re gonna do after leaving this place? I’ll probably have nightmares of my brains being chewed on in the future, but maybe I should also research zombie-repelling plants. That would be very useful. I think.” 


She stepped on the first few stairs, following Antares. “Do you think that these stairs are made of ice? Brrr, they’re so cold! Hmm… could be marble though. Not very slippery. If they were slippery, we’d have a lot of problems. Including melting. Well, hopefully not us melting, but you know what I mean, right? Right?” Her tail waved in excitement. “And when we’re finally out, we can finally examine your mane. I gotta put it in a scientific experiment. It’s too awesome to be ignored like that!” 


When the two finally reached the next room and the door closed and very literally disappeared behind them, Whym groaned, “I bet that whatever this is is going to be way worse than zombies, right? I mean, zombies are a warmup? I dunno. Could be. Anyhow, what-” She cut herself off as she finally saw the neon sign. Whym squinted, “That’s way too bright. Can’t you turn the light a bit off? I can’t even read whatever that says! Antares, can you read it? Maybe it’s my eyesight being burnt off by this thingy or something.” 


She flopped onto the ground, “And do I really want to know what it says? I have a feeling that the answer is no.”

---

Total word count (for this post): 569
Whym: 6620 // 26 chimes [total] 
Antares: 6339 // 25 chimes [total] 

Antares really should have answered Whym, but she was so excited to finally be out that she hardly even heard Whym going on about snipping her mane and scientific experiments. To be honest, the voice of the double-horned mare was starting to become something of a white noise to Antares. Besides, at least ONE chunk of that was directed at the disappearing fox. She did, however, catch the last bit of Whym's ramblings. "I really hope this isn't worse." she sighed, her heart sinking at the suggestion. 

The appy squinted at the sign, tilting her head slightly. "In order for the next door to open, you must knock all of the elephants unconscious. If you kill an elephant or both of you become unconscious, you would have 10 minutes to recover/regroup (or the amount of time it takes both of you to regain consciousness), but the number of elephants would double. Good luck!" She read out loud. She then turned to face Whym, confusion written on her features. "What elephants?" 

There was a loud BOOM as one of the walls fell inward. At the same time, the sign disappeared--probably some sort of magic going on there--and a shuffling of feet could be heard. Heavy feet, much heavier than a quirlicorn's. Antares instinctively stepped closer to Whym, her nostrils flaring as she tested the air. Whatever it was didn't smell like a quirlicorn. Before she had time to figure it out, a different light turned on, this one not quite so bright, and revealed three medium-sized elephants making their way in through the fallen wall. Their massive ears flapped and they raised their trunks with trumpeting cries, seeming ready to fight. 

".......oh....." Antares swallowed nervously. She really hoped they wouldn't have to kill the elephants. Not to mention she didn't think she and Whym had a chance against them. How could they fight them? They were outnumbered! Her mind raced as her eyes darted around, one ear pointed at Whym since Whym no doubt had a lot to say about elephants. 
They were faster, more agile than the pachyderms, and fortunately the animals were not full-grown which meant they weren't at full strength. The fight might be more even than Antares initially thought, but it would still prove a challenge to knock them all unconscious. She didn't even WANT to consider what would happen if one of the elephants managed to get a good strike on Whym or herself, making more elephants come in. 

"Question: how tired are you?" Antares asked as a new idea popped into her head. Maybe, just maybe, the two mares could zoom past the elephants and exit the way the elephants entered! This was assuming, of course, that the entrance was also an exit, which wasn't a guarantee at all considering their experience in the maze. Still, it was worth a try. Things couldn't get much worse--unless the elephants decided to charge... 

"Do you think we could make it to that wall?" Antares pointed with her horn, her cloud-like mane swirling about her head. 

---

+508 words (for this post) +2 chime each
Word count total: 7102
Whym Chime: 28
Antares Chime: 27

Whym somehow managed to stay quiet until Antares had finished reading the sign. “Elephants?” she gaped. “I love animals! Though, I haven’t really spoken all that much to elephants before. Well… when I say ‘really spoken’, I actually mean not at all. I don’t have Zoolingualism or whatever it’s called, but I used to pretend that I could speak to birds. They kind of just flew away though. Hey Antares, do you think that I’m super spooky or something?” She puffed up her cheeks. “Maybe I look spooky when I do this. Or maybe it looks like I’m in the middle of eating. I wonder what type of elephants they are. Imagine if they are bright yellow. Like highlighter yellow. That’d be awesome!” 


When the elephants entered the arena-like field, Whym was somewhat disappointed about the fact that they weren’t bright yellow, but they’re- “Bright pink!” she exclaimed. “This is awesome! If we weren’t faced with becoming unconscious and becoming elephant-food, I’d totally want to hang out with them! Hey, do you think that we could delay knocking them out? They look so cool! It’d be such a waste to leave this place. I’m already in love. Do you think that they’ll like us?” Her ears twitched in excitement. “I really, really wanna talk to them.” 


She smelled the air, and wrinkled her nose. “Doesn’t seem like they took a bath before coming here though. Strange, seeing how most elephants spray water all over themselves. What do you think that- oh no… We have to knock them out. B-But they’re so cute!” She frowned. It was more likely that the elephants would knock the quirlicorns unconscious first. Neither of them had any special powers, and Whym doubted that Antares was an elephant-fighter before this. 


“Were you an elephant-fighter before this?” Whym questioned, hoping that the answer was ‘yes’ against all odds. “It’d be super helpful right now.” She yawned. “Pretty tired from running last time, but there’s nothing like adrenaline that comes from running away from storming elephants!” She glanced at the wall, her blue eyes skimming it. “I don’t know. I think that they’d want to protect their turf and all, right? Besides, they came from that area and the threat is that they’d increase the number of elephants if we were knocked unconscious, and it’s pretty likely that they come through that hole. And hey! Maybe we can look at more pink-ness if we do. I’m down for it!” 


Whym supposed that it wasn’t a terrible overall plan. It was only slightly… terrible. Yeah, only slightly. Definitely no danger or assumptions. “Maybe our powers would develop while running. Stamina, maybe? Would be kind of boring though… What power do you want? I think that I’d want something awesome.” She pointed her ears towards the elephants. “Right, right, I should pay attention. Let’s go for it! Three, two, one, charge!!” 


She galloped towards the elephants, not bothering to glance back to Antares to see if the other was following. Besides, it was too late. The elephants charged back, the floor trembling at their weight. Whym narrowly dodged the first trunk that was shot at her and rolled on the ground to avoid several more. “We can do this!” she yelled.


‘We’re doomed,’ she thought. 

---

Total word count (for this post): 545
Whym: 7673 // 30 chimes [total] 
Antares: 7392 // 29 chimes [total] 

"No, I wasn't an elephant fighter." Antares sighed, pawing the ground nervously as Whym confessed how tired she was. She glanced around, taking in the other's explanation of how her plan probably wouldn't work. Whym was right of course, but Antares couldn't think of anything else. Unless they could somehow trick the elephants? Perhaps by playing dead? No, that was a terrible idea. She was spending too much time around Whym.

Speaking of Whym, she seemed to be rambling a bit much. "Whym." Antares said, hoping to sort of ground her friend. Were they friends? At any rate, Whym seemed to get the message, right before she CHARGED RIGHT AT THE ELEPHANTS.

"WAIT!!!" Antares shouted, but too late. She HAD planned on discussing who should go which way to avoid being struck by the elephants' trunks, or maybe confuse them a little, but Whym was already facing the first of the elephants. Antares inwardly cringed before racing after, hoping to help at least a little. She wasn't sure if Whym was brave, impulsive or--no, wait, Whym was definitely impulsive. Antares jumped aside as an elephant charged her, turning swiftly to avoid its muscular bulk. "We CAN?!?" she neighed back, not sure at all about this. What was with Keir and elephants, anyway??

Baab the elephant skidded to a halt as he ran past one of the random quirlicorns. He huffed loudly as he turned around and pointed his trunk at the one nearest to him. "DON'T LET THEM GET AWAY!!!" he trumpeted loudly at his compatriots. "AND YOU!!!" he said, turning to face the other one, ears flapping and eyes narrowed. "YOU'RE NOT GOING ANYWHERE!!!! STOP TRYING TO RUN! FIGHT US! FIGHT US!!!!" He stomped his massive feet angrily, giving a loud battle-cry. He would NOT lose here today!! None of them would!! Elephants RULED!!!

Antares didn't know why one of the elephants was tossing its head all crazy and being so very loud, but she knew it was still as dangerous as the others. "WHYM, WATCH OUT!" she warned as it seemed like it was about to charge her. She started to run towards the chatterbox of a mare, but was knocked off-balance as one of the elephants rammed into her shoulder. She stumbled, then turned to kick the creature in the face with her hind legs, hoping to give herself some distance so she could recover. It was looking more and more like that door wasn't going to be an option.

Wait. 

Where was the door??

Well now it definitely wasn't an option. "The door disappeared!!" Antares neighed loudly, trying to be heard over the extreme noise of the elephants' trumpeting and the ground thundering under everyone's feet. She dodged again as the elephant attempted a second charge, trying to catch her breath. They couldn't keep this up forever. Maybe they had no choice by to try and land a few good kicks on the elephants' heads..... As much as she hated the idea, the continued survival of Whym and herself was far more important than a few sore heads and knocked-out elephants.

---

+515 words (for this post) +2 chime each
Word count total: 8162
Whym Chime: 30
Antares Chime: 29

Baab the elephant glanced at the disappeared door and laughed at the two puny quirlicorns who thought that they even stood a chance against the mighty elephants! He tossed his head, trumpheting his trunk in a loud manner. Too bad that there wasn’t any water around… Baab’s stomach growled. He was rather hungry. 


Well, at least that gave him incentive to fight, Baab supposed. “Let’s knock ‘em out and then look for food!” he ordered in elephant knowledge, much to the delight of his partners. “We’re way larger and probably heavier- don’t worry, we aren’t fat- so we can win!! We never lose!” Baab stomped the ground. “They will shake under our mighty power!” A smile curved up his lips. “Stampede!!” 


Whym yelped at the floor shook under her. “Wait what?” She dodged a trunk, and threw a quick look at the door that indeed disappeared. Not that she thought that Antares was making it up, but after the previous invisible staircases and walls, she didn’t know what to believe anymore. “It disappeared?! How did it- Keir!!” She glared at the ceiling. “Why are you doing this?” Keir had just been demoted to last place in her list of deities. 


Unfortunately, she couldn’t glare at the ceiling for that long, as she was nearly knocked by a huge pink leg. “Hey! I was glaring at the ceiling!” she scolded the elephant that nearly hurt her. “Don’t distract me! This is an important task! Worthy of treasure. Like gold, and jewels, and- and all of the shiny stuff!” Whym mentally noted that perhaps she should try for an acting class, since she was obviously very realistic in her words. ...She had a feeling that Antares might disagree with her words. 


“Hey Antares!” she yelled over the elephants, straining her vocal cords. “How fast do you think it would take to turn into professional elephant fighters? Under ten minutes, preferably?” Whym felt her legs start to feel sore, despite the running adrenaline that continued to seep into her veins. “And also, how does one turn into a professional pink elephant fighter?” She winced as the elephants decided to roar together. Her ears were probably going to be dead after this, if they survived. 


Using this opportunity, Whym ran over to Antares and poked her with a hoof. “Antares? Oh, yeah. And…” She grinned. “A few pieces of your mane fell onto the ground. I really want to make a pillow with it. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a nap? Wait, no. Not a good idea. We’d be sleeping targets, and then we’ll have to go with double. Where is Keir getting all of these radioactive elephants from, by the way? Are they native to the Swamp Region?” The elephants unfortunately recovered. “Errr… A plan would be nice. You’re logical, right?” She didn’t wait for a response. “Okay, great! Try to come up with a plan, then! Got to split up now! Don’t get stamped by the elephants!” 


Whym gathered strength into her hooves and darted to the other side. She certainly wouldn’t give the elephants the advantage of having only one target. Even if the elephants managed to knock her unconscious… Well, that would still be bad. But the elephants might not know that part. 


“Oh, and do you think that Keir dipped them in a hot tub full of pink paint?”

---

Total word count (for this post): 561
Whym: 8749 // 34 chimes [total] 
Antares: 8468 // 33 chimes [total] 

Antares used her speed to her advantage, testing to see how agile the elephants were. They seemed to like staying in a close group; maybe she and Whym could find a way to trip them and– “I sincerely doubt we can become professionals in ten minutes or less!” she called back to Whym, trying to focus but finding focusing to be incredibly difficult, what with avoiding elephants and Whym’s unproductive comments. Antares wondered briefly if this was Whym’s way of coping with stress, but she dismissed the idea. She didn’t need to be thinking about that right now.

Whatever they were doing by scrambling around, it seemed to work. The elephants clashed together and turned on each other for a moment. Antares turned to face Whym as she was poked. “Pillow?--No, don’t–exactly–” She realized the noise must have gotten to Whym. Every time she tried to get a word in, Whym acted as if she wasn’t even talking. Or maybe her own hearing was affected and she was speaking much quieter than she thought. Maybe a mixture of both. “Try to get them to run in a circle, I got an idea!” Antares neighed after her as Whym took off again. She ran in the opposite direction, feeling a surge of determination as her plan started to become more solid in her mind. If they could get the elephants flowing in one direction, then suddenly switch directions on them, it might cause them to stagger and trip over each other, perhaps giving them enough time to strike them on their heads and knock them unconscious. It was iffy, but better than simply trying to dodge. She wished there was a way to fully explain her plan to Whym, but the fewer times they tripped up the elephants the better. If they weren’t expecting it, it would probably be much easier to trip them.

“Does it matter why they’re pink??” she neighed at Whym’s question. She valued the mare’s curiosity, but she really needed to learn to  prioritize.

“COME ON, MEN! AND WOMEN! HONESTLY, I DON’T KNOW WHAT MOST OF YOU ARE! CHAAAAAAAAAAARGE!!!” Baab cried, rallying the other elephants to him. Now that they were organized, they could easily squash the puny quirlicorns! “LET’S GET THAT STARRY ONE FIRST! SHE SEEMS TO BE THE LEADER!!!”

“Uh oh….” Antares saw them all collectively look at her and almost froze in place. She swallowed back the jolt of fear that shot through her, forcing herself to keep moving. To stop now would definitely mean death. Well, at least this way she would be able to carry out her plan more easily–if she could just get Whym’s attention. “WHYM!!! I’M GOING TO TRY SOMETHING!! BE READY TO KNOCK SOME OF THEM OUT!!” she shouted as loudly as she could as she ran around the group of pink elephants.

“WE ARE UNSTOPPABLE!!! WE ARE BRIGHT! PINK! ELEPHAAAAAAAANTS!!!” Baab urged his comrades on and they rushed like a wall after the dark mare. Her mane and tail looked like poofy clouds behind her. It reminded him of cotton candy, which reminded him he hadn’t had lunch yet, which reminded him how hungry he still was. “LET’S HURRY UP SO WE CAN HAVE LUNCH!!!” he shouted.
“YAY!!! LUUUUUUUUUUUUNCH!!!” the others echoed his cry as they rumbled forward.

---

+550 words for this post (+1 chime each) 
Word count total: 9273
Whym chime: 35
Antares chime: 34

Whym had a sense that she was not able to hear Antares’ words clearly over the stomping. She could sort of see the other mare’s mouth moving frantically at points, but only caught a few words. She heard something about running in a circle? Or, at least, she thought that she did. 


Like any quirlicorn with a semblance of common sense would do, Whym picked up her pace and ran around in circles, somehow dodging the elephants. The floor shook under her hooves, as the elephants trumpeted in unison. “So they could speak in elephant!” she realized with a beaming smile. “That’s so cool. I want to learn how to speak in elephant language!” 


Unfortunately, Whym did not have the time to trumpet like an elephant, for they had soon recovered and returned to their stomping frenzy. 


“Of course it matters! Pink matters very much,” Whym shouted over the noise. “It’s like- It’s like saying that your mane doesn’t matter. Your mane matters very much. Like, it is so pretty. Have you even seen it before? Well, of course you have. It’s your mane, so- Well, I can’t assume either. Maybe you’ve never looked at the mirror or something.”


She saw Antares’ mouth open and close several times, and with a start, Whym realized that the other was trying to tell her something. With narrowed eyes and a curious mind, Whym inched closer to the other and heard her yell something about being ready to knock the elephants out.


“Huh?” she yelled back. “How am I supposed to do that? In case you haven’t noticed, they’re a million times larger than the two of us combined! I can’t even knock out a raging sheep. And sheep have fluff on them. Like, all over their body!” Okay, maybe sheep weren’t that relevant right now, but her mind always hopped a hundred places at once. 


She groaned slightly when she realized that Antares probably couldn’t hear her anyways, since the latter decided to start running in circles.


All of a sudden, Whym realized that Antares likely told her to lead the elephants in a circle. She grinned and shouted, “I got your message!” Perhaps it was a tad too late, but at least Whym finally understood. She ducked under another attacking trunk and started to gallop in a circle, trying to lead the elephants into a circle. Several of them followed her, although Whym didn’t look back. She did not dare to, since craning her neck and refocusing her eyes would take energy that she did not have, and the time that she did not have either.


Baab the elephant did not even realize that he was being led on a circle as he charged after the dark mare. Two of the more confused ones ran after the talkative one (no, he didn’t know what those puny quirlicorns were saying, but he could still hear noises; his ears functioned perfectly fine). “ELEPHANTS! WE! WILL! WIN!”

“WIIIIIIIIN!” the elephants chorused, stomping after the dark mare. 


A confused elephant instead shouted, “LUNCH!!!!” 


“LUUUUUNCH!” the other elephants chorused again. 

---

Total word count (for this post): 514
Whym: 9813 // 39 chimes [total] 
Antares: 9532 // 38 chimes [total] 

"JUST PRETEND THEY'RE LARGE, SMOOTH SHEEP!" Antares neighed back as Whym explained something about knocking out sheep. It didn't matter how she knocked them out, so long as she got some of them! Please, Whym, please-- Antares really needed her to cooperate, or they were both likely to die! ... or, at the very least, suffer a whole lot of trampling.

Unfortunately, it seemed like the excitable mare hadn't heard her over the noise the elephants were making, or else she'd only heard a fraction of it. Antares struggled to lead the overgrown trunk-faced animals towards Whym, but she couldn't find her for a moment in all the chaos. She couldn't look around as she was running; it was a struggle to simply not get run over! She heard Whym say something about a message, then realized that, even though it wasn't quite as she planned, the two of them were successfully herding the group of agitated pachyderms. They were in two separate circles, but they were both going in the same direction! That was something! Okay, Whym, Antares silently hoped, don't fail me now. She knew what she had to do; somehow get the two circles to become one giant circle. And fast; she was tired, and she knew Whym had to be tired as well. 

"Come on, big stomper." Whym muttered, swerving suddenly in hopes of getting the large elephant charging after her to come in line with the ones following Whym. She almost bumped into her comrade, but managed to catch herself, giving Whym a quick nod and a "Sorry!!!" Taking advantage of their close proximity, she added, "I'm going to turn around and force them to stop! You get ready to attack them, okay?? 

"Stop focusing on my mane! Can I count on you, Whym?" Her voice was urgent, but she was doing her absolute best not to panic. Panic wasn't going to help either of them in this situation. 

Baab the elephant gave a different elephant an annoyed slap with his trunk as they almost crashed. "HEY, WATCH WHERE YOU'RE GOING!!!" he ordered loudly.
"WHO PUT YOU IN CHARGE?" the elephant countered irritably, swerving to avoid accidentally tripping. 
"I'M BAAB! I'M ALWAYS IN CHARGE!" Baab reminded him/her (he still wasn't sure who these other elephants were).
"HOW DO I KNOW YOU'RE NOT JUST PRETENDING TO BE BAAB?" 
A third elephant piped up, "GUYS, DO YOU REALLY THINK IT'S A GOOD IDEA TO FIGHT WHILE WE'RE CHASING LUNCH?"
"WE'RE NOT CHASING LUNCH, WE'RE CHASING INTRUDERS!" Baab shouted, anger spurring him forward. "AND I! AM! BAAB!" he whacked the one who DARED to question his mighty Baab-ness. What kind of an idiot could hope to pretend to be him? The idea was ridiculous! He was clearly Baab, and no other could ever hope to be as magnificent or pink or mighty as he! 

Antares heard the elephants roaring, and she heard what sounded like a heavy slap or punch, but she didn't dare look back, her attention firmly on Whym as she waited for her to answer.

---

+509 words for this post (+2 chime each) 
Word count total: 10296
Whym chime: 41
Antares chime: 40

“But your mane is so pretty!” Whym yelled back at Antares. The former really, really wanted to learn of the latter’s mane maintenance and products. She eyed the other’s mane in a single-hooved concentration, nearly forgetting about the elephants behind the two of them in her haste. “It’s so smooth and, you know, mane-y!” She blinked. “Wait… That is probably not the best way to describe your awesome mane. Is mane-y a word? I don’t know. I don’t remember. Hm. Still! Your mane is the best mane I have seen for like… ever!!”

Recalling the rest of Anatres’ words, Whym quickly nodded. “Yep! You can count on me. I think. I hope. I don’t know if I’ll remember. Wait, what are we doing? Hm… Right! The elephants! I almost forgot.” A nervous chuckle escaped her lips. “Keir wouldn’t actually force us to perish, would he?” She paused in her words. “Probably not. His mane is definitely not as nice as yours. Hey, can I snip your mane sometime later so that I might find a similar fabric? Wait, what were we talking about? I forgot again.” The constant running was definitely not helping her brain function.

“Hmm… Right! Errr yes! I’ll try to murder all of them- not murder, but stop them! Don’t you worry, mighty Keir with an inferior mane! We won’t hurt your precious animals!” she declared proudly. After all, she was very polite. Most of the time. Well, maybe none. But that was okay.

Once Antares stopped in her tracks to hopefully confuse the elephants into stopping, Whym charged towards the elephants, screaming, “HERE COMES THE MANE ATTACK!!!!” The elephants did stop and nearly trip over each other in their haste and confusion, and Whym took that opportunity to weave between the elephants’ legs, bumping into them here and there to unbalance them (it likely hurt her more than the elephants, considering the difference in size). However, the elephants, already beginning to trip, only began to fall more rapidly due to Whym’s interference.

Several of them knocked others out and caused somewhat of a domino effect. Whym’s eyes widened as she realized that “Antares!” she screamed, “Don’t get stampeded by the elephants!” She narrowly dodged an elephant tumbling down before she could become Whym-meat and skidded out of the worst area. Another elephant landed on a few strands of her tail, and the mare had to break those pieces off (ouch!) before she managed to escape. She hurriedly looked around for Antares. “Antares?! Antares?!?! Are you okay?! I don’t see you!”

Meanwhile, Baab was screaming at the elephants. “STOP FALLING LIKE OUR FOOD SHOULD! WE NEED TO UNITE FOR FOOOOD!” he stomped on the ground and shook it, which did not help the other elephants. He watched as several more of his comrades fell onto the ground. “FOOOOOOD!!! GET UP!” He looked around for the two puny quirlicorns and scowled when he didn’t see them.

How could such ferocious elephants be defeated by two quirlicorns? Without magic, at that! Baab refused to accept this humiliation. Then, an elephant knocked into him, and his fury tripled.

___
Total word count (for this post): 518
Whym: 10840 // 43 chimes [total]
Antares: 10559 // 42 chimes [total]