[/html]Cassandra let herself curse her sister's horse silently as they rode. Of course she knew that the smell of death and rot terrified it in the same way it still terrified Soir, but it could have spared its rider the need to further contaminate herself with that frightful impurity. The blood-stained woman clung awkwardly to Myrika, caught between her desperate need to not defile anything else and the instinct to live and keep living. It was the struggle that best defined the last few minutes, though they seemed hours already, and there would be hours yet. Days, weeks. She hoped not months.
She drifted off once or twice, listening to the steady hoofsteps. Her mind had emptied, and she could focus on nothing in the darkness. Her sister's back was warm and nostalgic, full of a painful comfort. She wanted to bury her face in the caramel fur and disappear into a different summer evening, before they'd both changed, and before everything became different.
The pallid woman started a little when they finally came to a stop and straightened conspicuously to look around. There was a barn and a corral smelling strongly of horses. There was an old brick building with a fire burning out front. All around, the smell of coyotes and hybrids, some distantly familiar, some not, some young, one quite old. There was a surprising cohesion and peace to it, but Cassandra rejected it immediately. This was not home. This would never be home.
Once more, she slid stupidly from her seat and landed heavily on one foot, leaning her weight onto Myrika's outstretched arm so as to keep her balance. Then she shifted to lean against the fence of the corral while Soir was led inside. The other horse had followed, but stood watching from just outside the dim circle of light cast by the small fire. They left him be, and Cassandra followed her sister inside. Her body was eager for rest and wanted nothing more but to lie down for a few hours, but her mind had stirred again, recovering from the quiet, soporific ride, and it was abuzz with too many thoughts to rest.
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