"Pegasus Games" by Matthew T. Summers

The doors were closed. Eth’s eyes were closed. Every sense in his body was focused on the task on hand.


The thrum of noise continued, pervading every core of his being… The chant was starting to reach a feverish pitch, though the language was still unknown to him, even after all this time. Eth did not care. He started slightly when a slim hand touched his hindquarters, but he reassured himself quickly; that would only be one of the humans.


The sensation of leather sliding over his folded wings and being fastened securely underneath his body only further reinforced this thought. It was nearly time… His blood began to pound in his ears, and Eth pawed at the ground slightly, the tips of his wings trembling with excitement. Soon…


With a roar and a blinding flash of light, the doors flew open and the very essence of the crowd rushed in with all the fury of a tidal wave. Eth’s eyes flew open and, without waiting for the slow human beside him, strode forward into the sunlight willingly. Once outside of the confining restrains of his pen, he unfurled his wings and neighed softly in relief… a cramp now would not bode well.


A thump of hooves near him caught his attention, and he glanced over at the beast beside him. Jat nodded his head once in his direction, careful to keep his head lower than Eth’s; his brother knew whom the lead was, and no challenge would be forthcoming from any of his herd today.


For today was not rutting season… today was the GAME.


Three other Pegasi fell in step behind the brothers, but Eth gave them no mind. Their social ranking was too low to even afford eye contact; the only reason they even were here in the first place was because of the choices that the humans made.


The humans… Eth still was not sure about his feelings for them. Since their domestication of his kind, so many freedoms had been taken away. His herd no longer soared amongst the clouds, chasing the rain for as far as they could fly… females in heat were often mated to less desirables among his herd, or even with studs foreign to his lands… and their damnable children had an annoying tendency to pull on his tail, mane and feathers until he felt like screaming.


But…


Life with the humans was not all bad. Food for his herd was plentiful, more so than during even the most plentiful of seasons while wild. They groomed his herd; they kept them well and free of sickness; and were invaluable with helping during the birthing of each season’s foals. The foals that were born from studs outside of the herd were always shuttled away after a few months, mercifully reducing the amount of time that Eth found himself forced to accept their presence. And, he had to admit, being set as a stud himself hadn’t been all bad at all.


Eth sighed happily as he looked around the arena. And the humans had brought to the Pegasus… the game. Nothing his ancestors had ever done could come close to this sensation, and even now… the thousands of humans in the stands continued to chant, fuelling his blood and pushing his pulse ever higher.



Five humans waited for them in the center of the arena. Eth ignored the others, striding proudly up to HIS human, a fiery-maned female that always carried…


Yes!


Eth happily wrapped his lips around the apple she produced from her chain armor. The sweetness bit into his taste buds, the tartness of its green skin only slightly off-putting. As she mounted him, he spit the stem out with distaste and stood proudly, his wings carefully folded against his side as he waited for the signal.


His eyes met the Pegasus on the opposite side of the arena, and his blood began to boil. Oh yes, he recognized this one. This male had been used to stud on no less than six of his mares, and he had been brash enough to crow about it to Eth every chance he got.


But there were no bars preventing him from fully expressing his anger and disappointment over the humans’ choices for his herd’s foals. There were no apples that mysteriously made him sleepy, no medicines to keep his eyelids heavy… no, today, oh glorious of days, today his anger would be felt in full by the arrogant stallion across from him.


The stallion met Eth’s look of glee with one of shock and, almost immediately afterwards, one of fear. The stallion was smaller, weaker than he… and Eth knew instinctively that he was slower as well.


This was going to be a fun game, indeed…


The crowd fell to a hush as a loud whistle sounded. Eth broke his gaze away and peered upward into the bustle of humanity around him and waited for the man who’d started talking to finish. By the mother’s mane, but humans loved to hear themselves speak…


After he finally stopped speaking, another human moved to the center of the field, the large round ball clasped firmly in his hands. Eth pawed at the ground anxiously, eager to get the game started…


The man paused…


The ball was released…


As one, his brethren sprang to the air, and the game was on!


The next two hours… glorious. Eth and his human retrieved the ball hundreds of times. The stallion from the other team made the mistake only once of getting between Eth and the ball… a dive from fifty feet up and a side slam sent the stallion spiraling to the ground, his left wing shattered and his future in the game all but over.


His herd’s honor restored, Eth and his team proceeded to trounce the invaders. Eth even allowed Jat to nuzzle up against him, the spirit of the win still ripe in both of their bloods. Eth’s human produced another apple from within her mail, but Eth was not interested in food.


Not now. Not when the win was still fresh in his blood. As he entered his stables again, his wings folded carefully again in order to not scrape them against unforgiving metal and wood, a warm feeling infused his very soul.


Tonight would be a very good night with the mares, indeed. Jat had performed well, perhaps it was time Eth allowed him a bit more leeway with the herd. He’d always had his eye on one of the mares…


Yes. That would be his reward. Perhaps the humans would even understand and allow Jat to start his own herd as well.


Then there would be two of his herds, via bloodlines, to compete in the games…


And the doors closed behind the mighty Pegasus with a soft sigh of relief… and the games were over.


For now.