//------------------------------// // 80 - Farewells and Detours // Story: Age of Kings // by A bag of plums //------------------------------// In the wee hours of the morning, just as the sky was beginning to color, Sonata Dusk was shaken awake in her bed. “Mhhm? Wazzgoinon?” the youngest siren sister asked blearily. Beside her, Aria Blaze and Adagio Dazzle were just as wrong-footed. Their room was still dark, except for a single candle. A single candle that was now illuminating Moon Tide’s face. “Moon Tide?” Sonata asked, sitting up. “What are you doing here?” Moon Tide gave Sonata a look of longing, but said nothing. The siren noticed a thread of negative emotion coming out of the normally unsinkable mage. “Is… is something wrong?” Sonata asked, edging closer to Moon Tide. She had never seen Moon Tide like this before, so quiet and melancholy-looking. The youngest siren reached out with her arms, hugging the mage’s shoulders. “I’m going away for a while,” Moon Tide whispered to the three girls. “I don’t know when I’ll be back, but I wanted to say goodbye to you… in case I don’t return.” “Why wouldn’t you make it back?” Adagio asked with a yawn. “Are you doing something dangerous?” “The queen has ordered me to do something about Morn Dread…” Moon Tide sighed, scrubbing her eyes. “He has brought ruin to this kingdom, and he must be stopped before the damage is too great to repair.” “The queen ordered you to do this?” Aria cocked her head to the side. Without her hair up in its pigtails, she looked older and less cynical. “But, he’s your son.” If it were possible, Moon Tide deflated even more. “Yes, Aria. I know he is.” Adagio tiptoed to Moon Tide’s side and held her. “Is there anything we can do to help?” She asked. “Look after the queen and the kingdom for me,” Moon Tide said. She slowly pried the sirens’ arms off her body and wiped her eyes. “I’ll get something nice for you as a souvenir, hmm? Just… keep things together until this whole affair is over. That is all I can ask of you.” “Everything will still be standing here when you get back, I promise!” Sonata exclaimed, doing a salute like a royal guard might. Aria glanced at Sonata, but for once in her life, did not comment. “We’ll keep the queen company in your absence,” she vowed. “Well, since you asked so nicely,” Adagio’s face was dead serious. “We will. For you.” With a glance at the rising sun, Moon Tide swept up all three sirens in a bear hug. She had no idea when she would see them again, if ever. There were so many unknowns, and for the first time in her life, she did not have all the answers, nor perhaps the courage to seek them out.  “But I will try anyway,” the mage whispered.  And with that, Moon Tide left the muses in their room, and within the hour, was on the fastest horse she could find, on her way to Saddle Arabia. Emerald pulled at her cloak again as the night air bit against her skin. Five days ago, they had left the Saddle Arabian town behind with Salt Flats’ caravan. The traders had an entire convoy of camels and horses, almost two dozen of them. Many of the animals were laden with goods like spices and valuable textiles, as well as herbs that had been gathered in more lush parts of the land. The traders had the better plan of moving in the night and resting in the day. That way, at least traveling felt less awful and less strenuous. Emerald was sitting on a camel, which was near the middle of the caravan. The animal was definitely faster than walking, but after days on its back swaying back and forth, the former pegasus felt as though she were slightly dizzy all the time. The robes and head wraps Jewel Pin had bought did their job well enough to deflect the heat in the day, but even these garments could not hold up beneath the unrelenting solar assault. At night, they worked about as well to stave off the cold, but they still needed a fire or the cover of their tents to keep warm. It reminded Emerald of her days at the Crystal Empire. While she had fur back then to fight the frost, she didn’t here. What was more, there seemed to be no end to the ocean of sand that they found themselves in. Salt Flats and the rest of his caravan seemed confident in where they had to go, but Emerald for the life of her could not tell if they were actually making progress or just going around in circles. And so it was that Emerald’s heart leapt when the caravan leader shouted something in Saddle Arabian, pointing ahead past a sloping dune. There, at the bottom, was an oasis, sparkling under the moonlight most invitingly.  Salt Flats led the caravan down towards the water. The camels needed little persuasion to move, as they had been walking for five days without a drink. Camp was quickly set up, and a fire was started. Emerald was just happy to be able to splash water on her face to get rid of the crusted sand and grime, something she had been longing to do for a while now, but could not spare the water to do it with. It was cold and it made her begin to shiver, but at least her face was now clean. Cleaner. “Waterrrrr…” Jewel Pin slid off her camel and half hobbled, half ran over to the oasis’ edge. She simply fell face first toward the water’s edge, the front of her head splashing down into the liquid. The seamstress stayed like that for a good ten minutes, then she pulled her face and soaking wet hair out of the oasis and sat on the shore, gasping for breath and shivering from the cold. As another one of the caravan led the camels to the water to drink, the others began unpacking the night’s dinner, with the Apples and the squires helping with keeping the fire going. It was not easy, but the Saddle Arabians had some kind of flammable liquid that kept the flames high, even with a small amount of wood. Dinner was quickly ready, but Emerald had to content herself with some pickled onions and radishes from a jar, because the Saddle Arabians only brought along cured and salted meats and bread on their trips. She did not blame them; Emerald knew that vegetables were difficult to keep in edible condition during long trips such as these, but she was looking forward to some fresh food once they reached Masyaf, if indeed there was any. She hoped there was. The rest of their rest stop passed quickly, with the Saddle Arabian traders singing a song around the campfire as they had done all the previous days. The younger members of Emerald’s group tried to follow along with the foreign language, and Emerald was quite sure they were butchering it, but the traders didn’t seem to mind. They were simply happy to have more voices to the song, which was accompanied by Salt Flats’ and Spectrum’s instruments. Soon afterwards, everyone rinsed out their mouths with water from the oasis and turned in as the sun began to rise over the mounds of sand. Two of the armed escorts stayed awake to watch over the caravan, but Emerald knew that they would swap out with some of the others at some time during the day. Emerald caught Posey staring into the flames once everyone had turned in. She sat there by the dying flames with her body halfway inside her bedroll, seemingly ignorant to everything else that was going on around her. She didn’t even look up when Emerald walked up next to her and crouched down beside the archer. “Something on your mind, Posey?” Emerald asked quietly.  “Mhhmm,” Posey replied. “I was just thinking.” “About what?” “Over the last few days I’ve sent Gabriel back over the mountains,” Posey explained. “To check on the progress of those we left behind. Like Morn Dread, Moon Tide, and my mother.” Emerald looked up into the night sky. There was no sign of the golden eagle. Then again, it was a long way to go, even for one blessed with the power of flight. “It will be fine, Posey. Moon Tide and your mother can take care of themselves. As for Morn…” Emerald’s face grew solemn. “We have a good head start on him. We will reach the artifact and get back to save Canterlot.” “So you keep saying,” Posey nodded. She then sighed and took off her headband, allowing her pink hair to fall down around her face. Without the headband, her face looked younger and more soft. “I just hope everything works out in the end. Sometimes I have nightmares about what might happen if we fail in our quest.” Emerald put a comforting hand around Posey’s shoulders, pulling her close. “Things will work out. We can’t afford to think about failure, because if we consider that to be a possibility, it might actually come true. So long as we focus on success, we’ll be fine.” Posey smiled and leaned into Emerald’s embrace. “You’re good at the whole motivational speech thing, you know?” “I learned a lot from being a Knight of the Round Table.” Posey opened her mouth to say something, but then she glanced at her friend and saw that the former pegasus was now also gazing into the campfire, now with unshed tears in her sparkling eyes. “Yes. Yes, you did,” Posey said at last. “We had best get some sleep, Emerald. We still have many days of travel ahead of us.” “Yes… you’re right, Posey. Good night. Or more like good morning.” Leaving the archer to her own sleeping bag, Emerald returned to her own spot, scrubbing her eyes as she lay down for the night. The next evening was a little more relaxed than the other evenings in the desert thus far. Emerald awoke to the sound of splashing water. She cracked open her eyes and rubbed the grit from them.  The dying light of the setting sun illuminated the glittering water in the oasis, as well as the people who were splashing around in it in their smallclothes. The former pegasus sat up and yawned, then slowly crawled out of her sleeping bag and walked over to the closest person, Apple Bean. The apple farmer had her boots off and was dangling her legs in the water. “Everyone seems up rather early today,” Emerald remarked as she watched the three children having a splash fight. “Eeyup,” Apple Bean replied. “Thought it might be a good idea to wash before breakfast. We’ll be leavin’ this watering hole behind soon enough, and Salt Flats thought it would be a good idea to get everything we needed done before the night gets proper cold.”  “That’s a good idea,” Emerald agreed. She did not feel inclined to get into the water herself, but she did kneel down to splash her face.  Once she was finished washing her hands and face, Emerald went back to her sleeping bag and rolled it up, then unrolled the white robes she had been using for a pillow and draped them over herself. Then she went over to the fire, which by now was just a bed of hot coals.  Baharat Anise was sitting by the fire, eating a piece of bread when Emerald approached. The navigator looked up and gave the former pegasus a polite nod before passing her some bread. Anise had her north-pointing device at her side as well as a well-worn map that was really mostly sand, but there were a handful of red dots on it that signified settlements, as well as blue spots that were meant to be oases, like this one. Seeing Emerald looking at the map, Anise pointed at one blue spot, then pointing down at the ground. Emerald understood. So, that’s where we are. She thought with a nod. She bit into the Saddle Arabian bread, which was a bit softer than the Canterlot variety.  Anise then traced her finger along the map, which Emerald interpreted as the route they would take. The path took them past two more blue spots, and then finally to a large red dot on the far side of the map. Masyaf. By their progress on the map, they were a little less than halfway there. Emerald sighed. It seemed like such a long way away, and she didn’t really want to walk through this ocean of sand anymore. But she steeled herself.  “If I want to save my friends and kingdom, a walk through the desert is a small price to pay,” Emerald said resolutely. Anise gave Emerald an encouraging pat on the arm. She might not have understood what Emerald was saying, but her tone of voice was firm and courageous enough to communicate something. They waited about another hour before saddling up on the camels to allow time for their sodden clothes to dry before the night air set in. As they traveled, Emerald looked around at the desert. It was certainly harsh and arid, but after all these days trekking through and over the dunes, she had to admit that it had a strange beauty to it as well. Maybe she would make it a point to get someone to paint it once things had all calmed down. A shout from Salt Flats came from the front. The caravan immediately ground to a halt, with the armed guards dismounting and rushing over to the leader’s side to ask what was wrong. Salt Flats pointed up into the sky. Not too far ahead, and starkly visible against the moon, was a flying white shape. At first it looked to be a cloud, but it was moving around too fast to be one. It appeared to be circling around something, but the desert mirages were clouding what might lie ahead. She had a good idea of what it might be, though. The shape matched up too well with the dragon they had seen at the foot of the mountains. Salt Flats turned his camel around and started conversing in rapid Saddle Arabian with the group’s navigator. Baharat Anise had her map out and was pointing to it and gesticulating wildly. “What do you reckon they’re talking about?” Spectrum asked from next to Emerald.  “Probably that dragon,” Posey answered. “By the looks of it, they are plotting to change our course so that we do not pass by that… creature.” “I’m not afraid,” Spectrum drew her short sword and brandished it. “There’s so many of us, and only one of it. We can win!” “Spectrum, darling, this is a trading caravan. Most of them are not trained fighters. And, they have their goods to worry about,” Jewel Pin pointed out.  “Oh. Right.” The squire looked crestfallen, but quickly recovered. “But I’m still not afraid.” There was a shout from Salt Flats, and he pulled his camel back to the front of the convoy. They rode off a bit further south, away from the circling dragon. Emerald turned her steed dutifully and followed the leader. There was still a long way to go, so this particular turn of events didn’t trouble her overmuch. She just hoped that the dragon wouldn’t follow them. Assuming it was indeed the dragon. The rest of the night passed uneventfully. As Emerald lay down to sleep for the day, she couldn’t help but think that she had heard a distant roar.