Leaving horror behind...

“Easy girl,” Peach said as she approached the brown horse with the blonde mane, “I am not going to hurt you… Easy girl… what’s your name?”

Peach slowly reached out and got a hold of the bridle for the horse.

“Hold on girl, I will get this off,” Peach said as gently as she could, “There you go… poor thing, how long were you left with this thing on?”

Peach examined the bridle; it looked nasty as if it had been left on for days. Looking around the tree, it looked like the horse had been tied to this one tree for days… She had even been sleeping with her saddle on and there was horse poop on it.

“Disgusting,” Peach said, “How could anyone neglect you like this?”

Peach noticed a name tag riveted on to the leather work of the saddle. It was in an alien langue that she did not know nor could read, but somehow as she ran a finger over the brass, a word formed in Peach’s head.

“Epona,” she breathed and the horse stopped and looked at Peach, “Is that your name? Epona?”

The wind was dying down and a stench started to make Peach’s eye’s water. Peach noticed birds beyond the tree. She slowly left the horse and carefully made her way only to stop and gag in horror at the sight.

“Oh no…” Peach turned back to the living horse.

In a shallow pit were the remains of a second horse and the two riders, they must have been dead for a few days already. And it was clearly the horse and riders that the weasel-men had been eating.

“Let’s go,” Peach went back to the living horse, “We have to get out of here.”

*

There were very few people who Zelda truly called friends and Impa was one of them. She stood next to the blonde girl with a concerned look on her face.

“Zelda, what is the Tri-**** saying?”

Zelda lowered her arm and turned to her white-haired friend.

“It is not saying anything Impa,” she sighed, “It is also reaching out, but not to me…”

*

Toadsworth and Mario watched as Professor Gadd started assembling the, the, well whatever it was, and only became more concerned as he started cackling.

“Are you sure about this bro?” Mario turned and asked Luigi.

“Nope,” Luigi said as he tapped another layer of pillows to the helmet he had put on.

*

“Hold up Epona,” Peach said as they approached a small patch of trees, “I need to pee…”

Peach and ridden the horse to a river and used the water to wash off the saddle and horse a bit before continuing. They had followed the river in search of a village and Peach had spotted a patch of trees a safe distance from the river.

“Alright, now I just need this magic rubber suit to give me a break,” Peach muttered as she approached the tree, “Ah… oh.”

Peach let out a gasp in surprise as a slight breeze informed her that a seam had formed between the legs of her catsuit and it was open. Peach led the horse to the tree and left her as she went to the back of the tree. She looked around and checked the ground before relieving herself, and remained vigilant as she did. Once done, Peach took a large leaf from the tree above her and cleaned herself off before looking back up at the tree. She stood still as the open seem between her legs closed itself back up automatically.

“I should not be surprised, I guess. Hmm, those are apples. And they look ripe…” Peach looked around before turning back to the tree, “I suppose one or two would be fine.”

Peach went to the trunk of the tree and jumped up to the base of the lowest branch and climbed up and out into the branches to pick an apple or two. She managed to kick two loose with a stomp and then jumped back to the ground. Picking them up, she looked at Epona…

“Tell you what,” Peach addressed the horse, “Let me slice this up for you…”

Peach put one apple in the pouch behind her back and pulled her sword and started slicing up the apple into eighths and fed them to Epona. Epona ate greedily.

“You haven’t had any real food in a while,” Peach said, “I am sorry Epona. Let me cut up the other apple and we can split it, ok?”

Peach knew from her training to jump horses that while it was safe for most horses to eat apples, it was an occasional snack and too many could be bad for the horse’s health. Given that Epona might have had nothing but what little grass was under the tree she was tied to for who knows how long, Peach felt it was better to give her some more food to eat until she figured out how to get real feed for the poor girl. Peach reached in the pouch and the apple seemed to materialize in her hand as she thought of the apple. She sliced the apple with her sword, when she was done, she slung the blade under her arm and took one half of the apple to bite into while offering the other to Epona. Epona snorted in thanks and took the offered half. Peach sliced the core out of her half and eat the rest looking around.

“I don’t suppose you know which way a village would be located do you?” Peach rhetorically asked the horse.