((ooc: Continued from Your Steed, Fair Knight.))

The Mansion grounds were dark, and deserted. It was still a bit too cold out for most of the nocturnal students: for at least a month more, they’d be more inclined to midnight Halo tournaments than to midnight excursions. Out here, there was only the dim light of the half moon, the frost-hardened ground, and the towering black shadow that awaited its rider.

The black stallion stood facing the Mansion, outside of the lights its windows cast. His breath formed ghostly clouds in the air, rising slowly above his silent form. It wore a dark saddle on its broad back, but neither bit nor bridle touched its mouth. Reigns were used when the rider was in command. Tonight, that simply would not do.

Tonight, he was going to aid the Prince of Orkney him(or her)self. (It had been wiki researching earlier, when its hooves were more opposable.) Sir Maya-Gawain, fighter of Cthulhu, he/she whose ribcage protected damsels, wanted to try and control his/her shifting. For that, he/she needed to stay awake. And adrenaline--as Maya had very wisely informed him--helped.

The aughisky’s mane and tail streamed out in the night breeze, like black weeds on the bottom of a Scottish lake.

Guingalet had plans to be quite helpful. Quite helpful, indeed.

When she saw the black steed waiting for her silently between light and shadow, Maya almost forgot he was a Mansion student called Calley who eats breakfast sitting on the kitchen counter, and laughs a lot. The sight was almost unreal, and the mirror girl smiled as she walked out the door, her breath turning into puffs of ghost-pale mist. She could see the horse breathing mist too. He did look like something out of legends of old. He really did.
And so the game begun.

It would have been no use just walking up to him like he was Calley-the-shifter, and talk about the whole thing before starting it. Maya was... well, Maya tonight, not the Prince of Orkney, not even a knight with or without shining armor. But she was the same person as that one, and she was also the goddess off illusion, and even dressed in cargo pants and sweatshirt, she left reality somewhere behind, inside the Mansion.

She stopped a few feet away from the aughisky, arms hanging at her side, looking at him with a smile playing on her lips. Then she lifted one hand, palm up, and stepped closer to the steed.

"Look at you, Guingalet" she murmured "Ready for tonight?"

The stallion dipped his head, bumping the coarse hair over his nose against her outstretched hand in silent greeting. One of his forepaws pawed at the ground, cutting through the frost. He couldn’t talk in this form: a horse’s mouth is not well suited to forming human words, even for a chimeraing mutant.

Instead, he tossed back his head and turned his body to the side, presenting the lady with the silver glint of a stirrup. His head bobbed again, clearly indicating what he meant.

Up, Lady Knight.

Her ride was begun.

Maya patted the aughisky on the nose, and her hand slid up and then down the neck until it found the saddle. Her mind ignored the fact she was patting a Mansion student in an affectionate way; Calley was cool. He'd play along.
Lifting one foot into the stirrup, the girl swung herself up onto the steed's back with ease; when it came to climbing things, she'd always been a master. The other foot found the stirrup as well, and Maya settled down, hands moving to the horse's neck, searching for something to hold on to.

"We don't like reigns, do we" she chuckled, patting the neck instead "All right, Guingalet, show me what you've got."

Seconds after she said that, strangely enough, a curious thought popped into her mind out of nowhere at all, or rather, out of a subconscious filed with good old fashioned doom and gloom Scottish folklore.

I hope the Mansion doesn't have a pool.

>> "We don't like reigns, do we.”

The stallion’s tail flicked; one dark eye turned back to her, silently making his opinion known. Reigns: they were for control. He had vetoed that already. In any case, they did nothing to help a lady keep to her seat. If he wanted her off, he would have forced her to ride bareback: he doubted he’d stay on long like that, with what he had planned. That simply would not due. He’d benevolently gone out of his way, trading sleigh ride favors with some of the younger students, to ensure he was saddled... and to ensure a few other things. That she stayed on him as she rode was merely the first. For tonight, that dark eye promised, she would be needing no reigns. Only the saddle horn, and whatever death grip her own hands could provide. Until they reached their destination.

Without warning, the black horse bolted. Gently. From a stop, through a few paces of walking, tottering, and cantering, all the way to a full gallop. He could have gone straight to a gallop, but he didn’t have full faith in her... expert horsemanship.

The few lights still on in the Mansion danced and blurred like spirits in the darkness as the stallion raced the around building’s side, to its back. Moonlight glinted over white concrete, and a calm reflective surface.

The Mansion did indeed have a pool.

The horse broke away at the last second, leaping cleanly over one corner of the water, and again over the low fence that separated the tamed grounds from the forest at the Mansion’s back. They disappeared into the trees, black into black.

The aughisky had better plans.

It took a few moments of confusion till Maya found her balance on the suddenly moving horse. She soon figured out she'll have to do most of the work with her legs; pulling on the mane didn't seem like a good idea.
If Gawain managed to do it last time, how hard can it be, right?
It was fun. It was something new, and exciting, and out of the legends of old; it was free, and adventurous, and...
Owsh*ttheydohaveapool
... hellooo adrenaline rush.

For a split second Maya was dead sure she was going to tumble out of the saddle; to her utter surprise, she did not. If it was some inherited talent for horsemanship or just mere survival instincts, she couldn't tell. But it was definitely a success. The girl grinned as she found her rhythm again.

"So, not goin' for a swim huh" she chuckled, patting the aughisky's neck "Were are ya takin' me, huh?"

They were off Mansion grounds. They were also off reality time. Maya's grin grew wider as the shadows closed over them.

All stories take place in the woods. Even those that don't.

The chuckle was greeted by an ear flick, and a leap over a fallen tree. His hooves left sharp cuts in the frozen ground; semi-circles carved into dead ferns and fallen leaves, marking their passage like fairy tale bread crumbs.

As they went deeper into the forest, a mist began to build in the air, deepening to a true fog; it picked up the faint moonlight, and shimmered silver-white in the air around them. Trees became black forms in the white; the ground was something that existed, somewhere below the horse’s legs.

Then, suddenly, the white wall opened up: the horse skidded to a halt in a clearing. The fog left this small circle entirely untouched.

Standing in the center, held vertical by a tangle of green vines growing far out of their season, was a lance. It looked to be grown itself, rather than carved: bark still clung to its length, and though it tapered to a point, it had no metal cap.

Calley had standards, remember. There would be absolutely no riders without lances, from here on out. He owed a lot of shopping cart rides, for this. And this wasn’t even the half of it. A knight does not need a lance, unless there’s something to fight.

The back trees shivered, as something bellowed from the belly of the woods.

The whole setting was growing more and more unreal by the minute. Maya wondered if Calley - or someone else - had something to do with it, or it just happened to be one of the nights when Nature decided to play along with the imagination of teenage mutants. Either way, it almost looked to perfect.

They came to a halt at a clearing, and Maya opened her mouth to ask, when she noticed the lance. Or something that didn't need much re-imagination to become a lance, especially not in a forest, at night, in mist and moonlight.
Crossing the threshold from the real world to the enchanted one had always been one of her favorite parts in Arthurian legends. Sometimes it happened without anyone noticing it, sometimes only the readers knew; if it had ever been real, this was what it must have felt like.

Maya grinned and nudged the aughisky closer to the bush with the lance, leaning down from the saddle to pick it up. It felt heavier than she'd expected, and it took her some time to find the right hold on her new weapon. The process was sped up by the grown that came from the shadows.

"You'd better have been planning that too" she grunted, finally finding her balance with the lance in her hand, her forearm and elbow holding it firmly to her side. She had no idea how jousting actually worked; she was only going by instinct here, and stuff she read in books. She knew for a fact that resting the lance across the horse's back, however tempting it felt, would be a very bad idea. So she went with future muscle ache instead.

Maybe we should have done this on a Gawain night.

The black stallion stepped obediently forward, allowing his Lady Knight to claim her weapon from horse back. A simple toss of mane was all the answer she got for questioning his plans. Deeper into the darkness, but distinctly closer than it had been before, the beast bellowed again. It was enough to send a shudder through ground, and the trees: dead leaves that had clung tight through the autumn and winter winds were finally shaken free. They came drifting down in a skeleton rain.

The stallion broke into a trot, diving them back into the wall of white fog.

The next clearing arrived just as suddenly. In a tangle of vines hanging from the tree limbs above, a wooden shield was nested.

Fairy tales come in threes, as even their most casual reader must know. A weapon. A defense. The night shook; the dread voice came again, ever closer. A foe. Never, ever question your aughisky's plans.

It will do you no good.

"Whoa. That's a lot of planning right there."

Maya grinned as they slowed down once again, arriving to the second clearing. She had some trouble keeping the lance from getting caught in bushes and low branches; she wondered how knights used to do it.
Well, they probably used the roads.
Maya finally managed to hold the lance in an upright position, resting the handle against the stirrup, and holding it at the middle. It was easier to balance like this than with the lance pointing forward.
And now she had a shield to deal with.

"This looked easier in to books" she muttered as she lifted the shield off the branches, and hooked her arm into the leather straps "I'll either have to start seriously workin' out, or start walkin' around in armor."
The shield was heavy, but just like the lance, at least it was well balanced. Maya contemplated the fact that now she'll have to deal with the latter using only her right arm. Well. No pain, no game.
"I hope the next stop is the damsel in distress" she grinned, ignoring the fact that she was Maya at the moment, plus she was supposed to be a knight, which was two reasons why she shouldn't think indecent thoughts like that.
Well. Not like knights were all saints.

The growl interrupted her thoughts. So, maybe before getting to the damsel, there's gonna be a monster on the list. It made more sense this was, she had to hand Calley that.
She wondered what the monster would be. There was no limit to the imagination here - she had no idea about the Mansion resources, or the powers of her fellow students. It could have been practically anything. A dragon. A lion. A wild boar. A giant. The Questing Beast.

Oh man, let it be the Questing Beast.

"All right, Guingalet" she said, adjusting her shield and tipping the lance forward "Let's see who's on the menu tonight..."

Katrina waited, her breath fogging the air even through the bright red ninja scarf tied around her face. That little wisp, however, was nothing compared to the thick blanket of woolly fog that had settled on the mansion grounds.

It was crazy to be out in the cold at such an hour just as it was crazy to jump straight out from the infirmary bed into another adventure. At least this time the adventure was all just for fun and even close to the insanity level of trying to take on an elder god in clay form. It had been a very close fight. They had just barely defeated it, and Katrina hadn't been of much help at all. If she was going to be of any assistance next time, she (and a few other members of the party) would need more practice. Just in case that wasn't the final boss, they definitely needed to level up more.

Despite being cold, she felt good. As he had done with everyone who had joined in the fight, Doc. Prof had healed her up in no time, leaving no trace of her injuries other than three parallel lines on the skin of her upper left forearm where Carrick's claws had apparently raked her as he tried to stop her from falling to her death. A little scar was small price to pay to not be dead, she thought.

She waited some more, trying to keep her mind from wandering too far from its task.

Hark! The sound of heroic hoof beats gallantly approached from the area of the swimming pool. Cue: the lance growing up from the eternally emerald vine that would retain its color through the coldest of seasons even until the end of time, or until the little illusionist stopped imagining it to be so, whichever came first.

The horse and his rider galloped into the clearing. They could not see her from where she was perched in the tree, but she could see them. Maya, as the girl was called, looked a little like a sack of potatoes on Calley's back. It might not be her first time on horseback, but it was probably close to it. Nevertheless, she managed to take the lance that had been placed for her there.

Cue: a terrifyingly mysterious roar from the distance and appropriate tree shivers and leaf drops. The fair knight did not look afraid. At least, not yet.

The black horse trotted out of the clearing and Katrina let the eternal emerald vine withered away. Another appeared hanging from a different tree, this one holding a shield. It had been there all along, but the knight didn't need to know that. Moments later, horse and rider were back. The next clearing was actually the same clearing as before, but who could tell in the fog?

This time the roaring was closer. Was that a twinge of worry on the lady knight's face? Katrina smiled an invisible smile as once again the pair rode out of her clearing.

The branch she was sitting on rippled in the moonlight. Roughly carved muscles stretched and flexed beneath dark black fur. Twigs became fingers that wrapped tightly around her midriff. The arm was connect to long, hard trunk of a torso. Three snarling black dog heads turned this way and that, searching for prey with watery yellow eyes. Drool dripped from sharp, moon-white, hungry teeth. Down and down the monster stretched into the fog below, where it stood on four strong horse hooves, each seemingly as wide across as small tree trunks. The finishing touch, two long snakelike tails thrashed behind the beast, each tipped with a deadly curved bone, as sharp as a sickle.

Cerberutaur roared again to challenge those hoot beats that once again approached. Katrina screamed a real scream, as loudly and shrilly as she could.

>> "I hope the next stop is the damsel in distress."

Cue the damsel's scream.

The black horse startled, tossing his head and rearing back slightly. Then (after assuring himself that his Lady Knight was still in her saddle) he took off at a headlong gallop. Trees emerged from the fog; twisted dark shapes that just as quickly disappeared as the horse raced through the night.

The third clearing opened before them.

A bone-tipped tail scythed just above their heads. If not for Maya's loyal steed and his quick hooves, her quest clearly would have ended. Clearly. The stallion cantered them around the clearing to face the beast more properly.

Three snarling heads faced back. A blonde haired young woman of no relation to the steed was held captive in its foul hand, high, high, high above their heads.

Cerberutaur looked down on them. Two of its heads roared again. The third howled, as if in laughter.

Be brave, Sir Maya, and strike true.

((ooc: Godmodding of your loyal steed to launch attacks and such == fully approved.))

Maintaining balance on the back of a galloping horse with a shield and a lance in hand proved to be slightly more difficult than she'd expected.
...
All right, so it was friggin' impossible.
Maya wondered how knights in the Middle Ages used to do it, and settled for 'they must have learned to ride before they could walk'. No wonder people died young, back then.
As they broke through bushes and low tree branches, the young knight(ess) found herself thinking out-of-character thoughts about who the damse would be. And also about where the heck Calley managed to find a real monster.

At least one of those questions was answered soon after she almost got decapitated by something sharp attached to something snake-like attached to something ugly.
"Whoa!"
Maya almost lost her balance as Guingalet steered clear of swishing tails and claws, and rounded the clearing in the fog before turning to face the enemy. Maya looked up.
And up.
And up.

"You gotta be kidding me."

It was definitely not the Questing Beast. It wasn't a dragon either. And if this thing was a Mansion student... there was probably a very good reason why she hasn't seen this fella around on the school grounds.
The damsel, on the other hand... hadn't she done kinda the same thing just the day before?

Maya adjusted the shield on her arm, and found balance on the lance once again. The situation desperately called for the knightly movement of closing the visor of a helmet before the charge - unfortunately, the kinghtess observed, she was not wearing anything that could stand between her body and those sharp... things.
(Which hand would she use to close the visor anyway? Again, how did real knights do it?...)
Well, this is just a game, right? An experiment about the adrenaline.
So far, so good.

"Ya know we can only do this once, right?" she muttered, glancing down at her steed, before she poked him with her heels "Allright, let's go."
And with that heroic battle cry, Sir Maya charged on the Cerberotaur.

The impact wasn't anything she'd expected. It was much, much worse. The force of the lance hitting one of the monster's knees lifted Maya from the saddle and sent her flying backwards onto the ground. Good thing the grass was tall and the ground was wet; landing on her back still knocked the air out of her lungs. There was a burning pain in her side where the closer end of the lance hit her.
Cerberotaur howled. At least one third of him did.
Maya pushed herself up onto one knee, raising her shield by instinct without actually looking up. Something collided with the wooden surface, and knocked her over; the force of the hit sent a shockwave up her arm, making it go almost completely numb. Maya rolled, then rolled again, only struggling to her feet when she gained some distance from the beast.

Hello, adrenaline.

Nevermind that the little damsel had already been in distress more than once in the last forty eight hours. Or more than twice. What the Lady knight should really be paying attention to was the shwiss of the claws at the ends of the beast's freakishly long arm as they raked the air next to her head. Or perhaps the stomp of razorsharp hooves almost (but not quite) the size of a garden shed. Each. Or perhaps the whip-like tail, tipped in delicately sharpened death.

The lady knight charged, and her lance hit true, right in the center of a tree tru...err...Cerberutaur's left shin. Had the silly girl braced the lance against her stomach? That's what it looked like from up above in any case. Katrina gave another shout of terror to encourage the older girl.

“Help me!” She tried to make her voice sound strained, like the twiggy fingers that held her were doing so quite a bit too tightly.

The beast howled again and stomped it's feet, but didn't advance toward the fallen hero. Not yet. For now it was content to flail it's deadly extremities threateningly and show off it's fangs. Lady Knight had better think twice about approaching again.

((ooc: God modding Kat's powers for the purposes of epic. Just tell me if I need to edit. ))

Five words confirmed things: five words assured the aughisky that he was doing his namesake proud.

>> "You gotta be kidding me."

Guingalet tossed his mane with mythical levels of satisfaction as the lady knight readied for her charge. His hoofs lead them straight; her thrust was true; and lo, did his knight fly. The stallion watched her arcing path for a moment, black ears perked. Then he wisely skitter-hooved his way out of Cerbertaur's range.

>> “Help me!”

The stallion whinnied a fierce promise as he cantered to his knight's side. She was on the ground. Her lance was lost in honorable duel with the beast's foul shin; only her shield remained, and a bit worse for wear, at that.

Sage brown eyes regarded her for a moment. Then the stallion lowered his head, and touched the shield with his nose. He breathed out.

As if by some well-crafted illusion perpetrated by creative adolescents, the shield changed its form. Where once she had grasped a shield, she now clung to a full quiver, and a bow regal enough for any party's archer.

Time to go long distance on this foe.