Battered, but not destroyed, by the ghost fight in the colosseum, Sovereign led the party back into the stony, cold halls of the dungeon. Fetch chittered mindlessly behind him about floating and otherworlds, which he assumed had something to do with what they’d just faced, but it was all kinds of jumbled and nonsensical. He had to admit that both Fetch and Terrence had been crucial in the fight, though. He’d never faced anything quite like that.

Just up the hall, light cut across the dust and grime to illuminate the wall. A doorway. 

“Guards up,” Sovereign called, quietly trodding up to the room and peering inside. 

Books. So many books. They stretched from the floor to the ceiling like ancient giants, heavy and old enough that they’d begun to collapse the aged bookshelves. Where they didn’t perch on their proper shelves, they littered the floors and the tables. Some had even seemed to have been dropped pages-down. 

“Dust and tomes. Words and tombs,” Fetch whispered reverently. She walked towards one of the shelves and reached out her nose as if to touch one, but before she made contact the books fluttered to life. Like a swarm of frenzied bats they took flight from all around the group, spewing decades of dust into the air. The air went from musty and unventilated to almost unbreathable.

“Careful!” Sovereign choked, ducking as several of the books swooped low to snap their pages at him. 

–

 Terrence hardly had time to catch his breath after the battle with the ghost. He’d valiantly charged into the arena first, and had thus spent the longest running. Eventually his allies had joined him, but it had been several laps before any relief had been granted to him. It was enough to leave him lathered, with grit from the strange arena still clinging to his legs, as an irritating reminder. He let the others go past him as they continued their descent.He did his best to slow his pace and cool down, but before he was fully ready he heard a panicked, choked shout from ahead.

He galloped forward, and skidded to a stop on the engraved tiles. The air was filled with ancient dust, disturbed by what could only have been described as a legion of aged books. Their brittle, yellowed pages beat the air. Their spines were a myriad of colours, gilted, graven, twisted and cracked. They had taken to the air and were aggressively swooping at the other Coursers. One heavy midnight blue leather bound tome with an ornate spine gilded with copper seemed to notice him, and picked up speed. It accelerated, gaining height, and then slammed down onto his shoulder. A sharp whinny broke from his throat.

“Form up!” The thick, cloying dust made it hard to speak, and he coughed out the command. He was sure if they were going to manage to best this magic they’d need to do it together. Being scattered along the length of the library would make them too easy to pick off one by one. Each moment more and more of the books took flight, attempting to batter the horses.

_

Fortune had been close to Fetch when she had first touched the old tome. Before the chaos had broken loose the ancient library had been a sort of wonder. Towering shelves filled with thoughts and histories from a forgotten age. She’d been hopeful that they could perhaps find some long lost information. Fortune yearned to learn more about the strange below, and what had befallen their once riders. But then the books seemed to have other ideas. In the hectic seconds since the start of the attack the books had begun shrieking. Fortune couldn’t understand any of the words. The languages were long dead, or just unknown to her.

A narrow tome, wrapped in a patterned green cover darted towards her, and Fortune narrowly ducked it. It collided with a shelf behind her head, and set off another set of books. These ones were much heavier. They screamed their contents as they pelted her rump. Reflexively she kicked out at one offended book, and caught it along its spine. Met with the forceful impact, the ancient tome split, and tumbled to the ground. Fortune wasted no time stomping the book, even as its compatriots continued to pelt her.

As she defeated the single book, Terrence arrived. While she couldn’t say she was fond of him, he’d proven his worth in their earlier battle. She took his advice, and made her way towards him. Maybe together they’d have more luck than apart.

The cacophony of the books and the dust made it nearly impossible to communicate to the other. “You can fight back!” The thick, dry dust caught in her throat, making it hard to get even that much out. She tried to demonstrate what she’d done before, in case any of the others were watching.With a front leg she knocked a book from the air, and stomped on it hard.The book ceased moving. And screaming. But that didn’t stop three more books from hitting her hard in the side, threatening to knock the air from her lungs.

_ 

Fetch reared and let out a startled scream as the books came to life, flurrying around her head and snapping their time-worn pages at her. She bucked and kicked, only marginally satisfied by the crunching and snapping of old leather spines beneath her hooves. 

The screeching was almost unbearable. One hulking black tone with a sickly split leather cover was particularly heinous. It shouted at her in some aggressive language. 

”No!” She screamed back at it, almost as though she could understand it. “No I won’t!” 

For whatever reason, that seemed to enrage the book even more. It flapped its thick pages at her ever faster and shouted its nonsense even louder. Around her, the books began to pelt and her knees and flank, digging into her skin with their shop corners. 

She was all too happy to retreat to Terrence when he entered the foray. She’d fought with Terrence many times before. He was safe.
 

—

Sovereign grunted as the first of the books landed a hit, slamming him in the side of the neck. He reared and came down hard on another book - something green and suspiciously scaly, with gold filigree across the front. Like the snake he suspected it was made from, it wiggled and slithered out from under him, but not without a nasty dent in its structure. 

Another book snuck up behind him and snapped its pages on the base of his tail, causing Socereign to shout and buck forward. “Augh!” He shouted, frustrated. He couldn’t protect his back and his front at the same time from these things - there were just too many. 

Thankfully, that was when Terrence decided to make his entrance. At the other horse’s call, Sovereign gratefully backed up toward him. 

“Back to back,” he called to the others. “We can protect each other’s backs and crush these things faster.” As if illustrating his point, he caught a book in his teeth and slammed it on the ground, where he was able to stomp down on it. The book put up a fight for only a moment before losing its lifesource in a pathetic puff of dust. 

Back to back like the four points of a compass rose, they’d be able to defeat these things.