Deadly Chocolates

Gwen had the party mostly set up in the clear, green field near her house. She wasn’t far from where her horses were grazing, only the wooden fence separating the spaces. A few of them had seemed curious earlier, but most of them had gone back to their grazing. 

The only two that had stayed to watch were Butterfly and Hymn. The Nordanner and the Loshenka seemed very interested in the goings on. 

Butterfly kept trying to get one of the balloons free to play with, but the black and green winged Nordanner didn’t care for it when the balloons popped. They were now up to three instances of Butterfly managing to pull a balloon loose, popping it, and then bolting around the field in a panic, and were seeming to be working on a fourth. 

“Butterfly, no. That’s not for you. You have to know what’s going to happen.” Gwen tried to carefully disengage the Nordanner from the strings of the balloons. The mare was absolutely determined to try again. 

Hymn stood not far off, the seafoam splash tobiano enjoying the warmth of the sun, little flecks of glitter shining in her coat. The mare finally walked over, her long rapunzel tail swishing idly as they pushed Butterfly away from the balloons. 

Butterfly snorted and released the balloons, stomping her feet in annoyance before running a short distance away. 

Hymn simply regarded the Nordanner with an enviable calm until the other mare finally turned her attention to something else. 

“Thank you.” Gwen chuckled as she patted Hymn’s white marked neck before fishing out a batch of chocolates from the box they’d been shipped in. Before she could set them on the table, Hymn rather abruptly reared up and gave an irritated whinny. 

“Hymn, what on earth?” Gwen regarded the Loshenka, backing away from the white stockinged legs as the mare came back down and tossed her head in irritation. To say it was unusual for Hymn to be at all aggressive was an understatement. 

The commotion got Butterfly’s attention and the Nordanner walked back over. As soon as the mare got close to Gwen they seemed to share in the same agitation as Hymn. Butterfly snorted and pawed hard at the ground with her hooves, the green wing pattern around them getting coated in a layer of dust. 

Gwen looked around as she tried to figure out what had set the two mare’s ears back. The day was quiet. A few birds that didn’t move south for the winter whistled lazily in the trees. There was no sign of trouble anywhere, not fast approaching storm clouds, nothing. 

Whatever it was, the two mares seemed determined to get Gwen away from it. Butterfly jumped the fence while Hymn managed to kick over the table with the food on it. 

Before Gwen could move, Butterfly had put herself between Gwen and the table, frantically pushing the water fae away from the spilled food. 

“Hymn, Butterfly! What on earth has gotten into you?” Gwen tried to get Butterfly to move so she could start to clean up, but before she could even start to get the Nordanner to move Hymn had jumped the fence as well. 

Now both mares stood as a very obstinate obstacle to the strewn food. 

Gwen stopped trying to get around them both, annoyed but now truly alarmed. Butterfly could be a little spirited at times, but this level of aggression was strange. Hymn was about as docile as they came, so for them this was unheard of. 

“Okay, you have my attention. Why did you knock over the table of food?” Gwen reached out tentatively, stroking at both of their necks. The contrast between the two was almost alarming, Butterfly’s black coat and Hymn’s seafoam and white. And the differences didn’t stop there. Butterfly was tense, as if still expecting an attack of some kind. Hymn was calm, like an immovable wall of sorts. 

Pale eyes met green eyes as the two mares seemed to be making up their minds. Finally Hymn moved away, pawing at the chocolate box on the ground. 

Gwen frowned and moved over to her, Butterfly’s ears pinning back for all the mare didn’t move. 

“The chocolates? What’s wrong with the chocolates?” Gwen picked up the box. It had landed upside down, but other than jarring the lid loose nothing had spilled from it. 

Hymn tossed her head, nuzzling the box as if trying to hit it away from Gwen. 

“You just had me pick it up.” Gwen protested as Butterfly came up behind her and huffed in frustration, eyeing the box. 

Hymn once again tossed her head and touched her nose more gently to the box before backing away as if afraid. Butterfly headbutted Gwen from behind as if trying to make sure the fae was paying attention to Hymn. 

“Wait, so there’s something wrong with the chocolate?” Gwen looked between the two horses. 

Both of them tossed their heads, the Loshenka’s long tail almost taking out another table as they swished it in irritation. 

Gwen opened the box of chocolates as the smell of almonds and something else hit them. “These weren’t supposed to have nuts in them…” She broke one open, already suspecting the answer. There were no nuts in the chocolates. 

“You smelled that first, didn’t you?” Gwen asked as she put the box down quickly, washing her hands just in case. “Those could have killed someone.” 

Butterfly and Hymn relaxed as soon Gwen put down the chocolates, the two of them coming over to her for reassurances. 

Gwen took some time to pet both Butterfly and Hymn, the Nordanner still more noticeably tense than the Loshenka, but that wasn’t too surprising. Butterfly was certainly more highstrung. 

She fished out a few slices of apple from the snacks strewn about the yard and offered them up. “I’ll get you both a better treat later. You both deserve it.” She scratched one pale and one black behind before moving to open the fence. “Come on, let's get you back in the field. Then I’ll try to figure out who sent those poisoned chocolates.” 

Hymn followed along, more than happy to be let through the gate. Butterfly on the other hand backed up and took a small running start to simply jump back over the fence. 

“Well, that works too.” Gwen chuckled as Hymn walked through the open gate, though she glanced back at what could have been very deadly chocolates. She owed both those mares her life, and they’d saved whatever guests she had coming over as well.