Title: Double Loss
Fandom: Magic Knight Rayearth
Rating: PG-13, to be safe
Length: 383 words
Content notes: Um... non-graphic description of someone being turned to stone, oblique mention of someone dying.
Author notes: More from the Innouva in the manga universe fic. Written in just under an hour. Also, third challenge in a row! Woo hoo!
Summary: Innouva suffers a double loss.
Prompt: Fairytale Backup Plan

Innouva had been battling the Magic Knights for only a few minutes when he started to lose the fight. He had had the advantage in the beginning, having taken them by surprise while they were eating their breakfast, but they had quickly rallied and were starting to push him back.

As he was forced further and further away from the Magic Knights by their attacks, he kept looking for an opening to regain the offensive. It was that search that became his downfall. As he backed up once again, he failed to pay attention to where he was putting his feet and stumbled over a rock. Looking up at the Magic Knights, he saw their latest attack coming straight at him and braced himself for its impact, knowing that he would have no time to shield against it.

But instead of feeling the bite of the Magic Knights’ attack, he felt Zagato’s magic wash over him and suddenly he could not move. :My lord?: he thought, sending the thought casting out for his master’s presence. :What are you doing?:

:Saving you,: the reply came. :I can’t lose you, too. You would have not time to recover from this attack of theirs before they started the next one and that one would kill you. I’ve turned you to stone. The Magic Knights will leave and you’ll be safe.:

Innouva didn’t know if he wanted to thank Zagato for saving him, since he had been perfectly prepared to die for his master, but he could respect that losing him might be too much for the Soru, so he did so anyway. Then he allowed the stone spell to take him and he drifted.

He wasn’t sure how long he drifted in the grip of the stone spell—a day? Two days? Surely not more than two—but sometime later, he felt both the stone spell and the one holding him in human form begin to fade. As he began to slip back into his animal form, he heard Zagato’s voice.

:Innouva,: the Soru said, :I have lost. The only thing I ask of you now is to live.:

:My lord,: Innouva said, :I-:

:Please…live… For me.: Then the sense of Zagato’s presence disappeared and Innouva raised his muzzle to the sky and howled in grief.