Girl At War

Aftermath - 39

**Please don't be mad at me....**

"This is nothing like Valhalla." Thor wonderingly observed. He staggered to his feet.

"That's because we're alive...." Natasha murmured in surprise. She repeated it louder, finally believing it. "We're alive!"

"Well, somebody's observant." Eloyse sarcastically mumbled, brushing dirt off her pants, "I woulda hated to put forth all that effort for you to think you've died." Her eyes strayed around at the wreckage. What a mess... "Shyden?" Her heart skipped a beat, all pretense of joking gone. "Shyden! Damian!" She wheeled, looking all around. There, near the edge of her protection barrier. The team was slowly getting to their feet, mumbling in awe at the destruction. Eloyse didn't hear them.

"Damian?" Her heart skipped a beat. It couldn't be. The dark lump wasn't him. It was too big for Shyden. Something inside her, something she couldn't control, dragged her towards it. She had to know. Her footsteps were loud in the sudden silence. The sun shone warm on her back, but she didn't notice.

Two more steps, then she was by him. Her eyes on his body, she waited, tense. Then it happened, his rose and fell with a gasping breath. The air whooshed from his bleeding nose with a raspy, dying sound. Eloyse dropped to her knees with a soft cry. She scooped up his ungainly head, feeling the dried blood on it. A soft moan caught her attention.

Shyden.

Her breath hitched. Quickly, she looked in the direction of the sound. Shyden was there, lying on his back right next to Damian. She checked his meter bar. It was over half-way; he would live. Keeping Damian's head in her lap, Eloyse leaned over and touched her brother, getting no response. But he would live.

A weak cough from Damian brought Eloyse back to her beloved horse. She summoned her energy and checked him out. Collapsed lung, compound break on a foreleg, severe trauma to the head, gaping wound in the side, dangerously low on blood. And in that moment, Eloyse knew her power wasn't enough. She numbed his pain. The effort caused a dark wave to flash before her vision, but she fought it off. The little stallion's eyes opened, relief showing in them. Eloyse gazed into the blue eye, her own heart numb with pain.

"Damian, no. You can't do this..." Eloyse whispered. The perfect ears slowly swivelled forward, listening. Eloyse smoothed his forelock out of his eyes; straightened his mane. She was drained. For the first time in her life, she hated her powers. She had the right power, she could heal him! Yet she couldn't, she was too weak. But the knowledge she had the right powers made her furious. If she had different powers, she would know it was hopeless. Yet somehow it was still hopeless.

Eloyse hugged the brown-and-white head closer, feeling the fluttering air from his nose. His black, white, and brown legs stirred feebly, then were still. His stocky body and roman-nosed head had never been so beautiful, Eloyse thought. His thick, tangled mane. The way he always ended his neigh with a hoarse croak. His little quirks, how he hated drinking from water that wasn't running, how he loved to take Eloyse's hats off, or how he proudly bossed the other horses.

His breath rattled in his throat, a horrible thing to hear. Eloyse shivered at sound. Suddenly she knew what had to happen. She couldn't heal him, but she could do something else.

She took a last, long look into the deep blue eye. Damian trustingly stared back. Tears trickling from her own eyes, Eloyse gently put a hand on either side of the horse's head. She smiled, a sweet, heartbroken smile. Closing her eyes, she directed all the energy that she had left into her hands. The rasping breath faded, the faint beat of his heart through her hands vanished.

Eloyse opened her eyes. The little stallion was still, his eyes closed peacefully. Eloyse lost it. She burst into tears, flinging herself over Damian.