"Okay Velvet, once more." We have stopped for the night, Ganger was scouting ahead, and I was helping Velvet with voice exercises. We are now only one thousand seven hundred thirty eight miles away from the Equestrian border and the chasm was the only 'real' danger, much to our relief. "Ah~. Now you."
"A...Ah...Ah~" Like cats scratching a chalk board.
"Better, better but your voice is still a little scratchy. Now let's just try talking, okay?"
"O-okay. Um...how are you?"
"Hmm...maybe a little dehydrated, but overall fine. I hope Ganger will get back soon though."
She nodded her head in agreement. "She will b-be fine."
"Yes she can take care of herself, when she needs too." I sighed. "How about yourself? How are you?"
"I-I..." She sighed and brought her mini chalk board and wrote. "I was fine...until now..."
"We shouldn't put extra stress on your voice." I smiled. "Do not worry though Velvet, you are improving." She smiled and wrote. "Thank you." down.
After a few minutes of silence she tried talk some more. "You don't look like other zebras."
I looked at her with a raised an eyebrow. "No, I suppose I don't, do I? The other zebras I have seen don't have a mane like mine. Hmm....I never thought about it very much before." There was a short pause. "Something wrong?" I said in a deeper voice then normal.
"The streak in you mane. It c-changed color." She said in what sounded like a surprised voice. It was hard to tell because her voice being scratchy.
"Did it? What color?"
"B-black."
"Interesting." I shook thoughts of home from my head. "Has it done that before?"
"Yes..."
"Hmm I see." I chuckled. "There seems to be a lot about myself that I don't know about." I looked at her and then the ground.
"Sorry?"
"Nothing to be sorry about." I shrugged. "Hey, since you're talking, can you tell me how you came upon Ganger and her group?"
"My group and I were on our way back to Equeastria."
"On hoof?! Are you crazy!?"
"It was our only option... We arrived on a sky wagon. After a few hours the wagon got destroyed somehow. The pegasus that pulled the wagon went to get another one but never returned. A day later we heard news of a pegasus corpse a mile away from the village we were at. Our pilot matched the description, and we left the next day. We made the mistake of traveling through in the night time." She looked at the ground. "We got half way to that hut when that....monster showed up."
She started shaking and I put a hoof on her shoulder. "I don't need to hear about the monster, okay?" She sighed in relief and nodded her head. "Now, when did the Changelings find you?"
"They heard us screaming and rushed over. But by the time they got to us....it was too l-late."
"I see, it was good of them to take care of you."
"It was a pleasant surprise to know they weren't hostile."
"Especially after seeing what that monster looked like."
"Don't remind me..."
"Sorry." I looked around. "Ganger should be back by now..." Velvet nodded in agreement. "It would be a good idea to rest your voice Velvet. I will keep watch for Ganger in case she comes back."
"I could help. I'm not tired."
I thought about it and shrugged. "You should really be resting. But I see no harm in it."
Velvet fell asleep an hour ago and Ganger just got back. She landed kind of rough, so I looked her over. I couldn't find anything wrong with her so I just gave her space. She got up and looked at me. "You wouldn't believe what I found!"
"I-is it bad?"
"Bad? It's a bucking oasis! I'll take you there in the morning, right now I'm beat."
"Mind telling me about this place?"
"I will later. Sorry if I worried you guys."
"You did worry us. I think you owe Velvet an apology. That comes later though, how far away is this oasis?"
"About two hundred feet away."
"That's not too far...all thing considered. Rest up, it looks like you need it."
"What about you?"
"I'm joining you, just not right now."
"Okay then. Goodnight."
"Goodnight"
"It should be just around this corner." Said the Changeling while leading us to the 'oasis'. She woke us up in the early morning to get started. Two hundred feet was turned into maybe three hundred because Velvet and I can't fly. "And here we are!"
Velvet and I looked around and only saw an entrance to a cave. Velvet looked at Ganger with a raised eyebrow, and I looked at her with a blank expression. "It's just a cave..."
"Yeah but it's what's inside the cave. C'mon!" And she started walking towards the cave entrance.
We reluctantly followed her into the cave, keeping our guards up. Not that we don't trust her, we just just don't want any surprises. I was beginning to understand why it took her so long to get back. We went deep into the cave before any signs of "oasis" appeared. Changelings seem to have a different take on oasis' then zebras and ponies. We were standing in a larger cavern with a large pool against the back wall. There was an opening in the ceiling, allowing light to come in.
"Well there's water at least." I said looking around for food.
"Um...Ganger? Is there any food?" Wrote Velvet.
"Uh not that I've found...yet. But there's plenty of water and just look at this place! Isn't it beautiful?"
"It's just a cave."
"Well yes...but we can check our supplies, right?"
"I suppose we could fill up on water, but what will we do for food?"
"We haven't been eating that much, we should be fine."
"True. Hmm..." I tapped my chin in thought. I dumped the contents of my bag onto the ground and all three of us looked them over. "We will have to fill these two canteens." I put the two empty canteens off to the side. "And we have two more days worth of food."
"See? We're good on food."
"For two more days if we don't properly ration it." I grabbed the map and began looking at it.
"Any villages nearby?" Wrote Velvet.
I sighed. "No it doesn't look like it. We need to closely monitor how much food we eat."
"How far until the next village?"
I scanned the map some more. "Our luck seem to not be the great..."
"I don't like the sound of that..." Said Ganger. "How far is it?"
"Well we seem to be in the middle of the wastelands. Meaning the next village is five hundred miles south."
"Well at least we need to go in that direction right?"
"Yes I suppose you're right." I said, packing everything up.
"When I was here last night I found a tunnel. Maybe if we took it, we could cover some ground, without going outside in the heat. What do you think?"
"Do we have a light source? And are there any threats?"
She thought about it "No and maybe."
"I don't want to take the chance of something being in that tunnel. We should continue travelling as we have been."
"Come on! We could cut our water consumption in half."
I thought about it. "It still seems to unsafe." I looked at Velvet. "What do you think?"
"I'm with her."
"Ugh fine! Lead the way Ganger."
"Cool!"
"Somethings wrong with Ganger." Said a mysterious voice. The other's didn't seem to hear it, so I just shook my head and continued to walk.