//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 // Story: The Elements of Eternity // by Aura Burst //------------------------------// Alright, I thought. Let’s do this. I retreated into the forest and strayed north, taking care not to lose sight of the path. The last thing I needed was to get lost and waste hours, if not days, trying to regain my bearings. Leaves obscured the path almost entirely, but there were enough unique trees and large rocks to identify the area. At least, I hoped there were. For good measure, I used my hoof to rake out a large arrow in the leaves, pointing me in the correct direction. I made sure to leave my bags on the ground nearby as well, so I would not forget where the arrow was. Finding an almost almost perfectly circular clearing, I positioned myself in the center and flared my wings. I felt light, as though the air itself was in my favor. It seemed to swirl around the clearing, yearning to lift me above the treetops and into the clouds. A new sense of determination washed over me. The air filled my wings as I brought them down at my sides. I could feel gravity fighting against me. With every beat of my wings, my hooves lifted from the ground for just a second before dropping back down. The feeling was completely foreign to me, like using muscles that hadn’t been used in months. I suppose that’s exactly what I was trying to do. But it was exhausting, and after just ten or twelve flaps of my wings, I found my body screaming for rest. I panted heavily, my heart racing as fatigue worked its way throughout my body. My legs felt as though I’d just ran a substantial distance, even though I’d barely used them. I dropped to the ground, passively noticing that a circular space had cleared in the leaves below me. Had I ever been able to fly at all? Were my wings just for show? I scratched my head in frustration. Lifting such a heavy body with such tiny wings didn’t even seem plausible. Shaking the weakness from my feathers, I stood once again and prepared for another round. I hopped into the air with all of my strength, flapping twice each time I left the ground. As time passed, I was able to continue the action for longer periods of time without tiring. Soon though, I realized an observer would probably think I was some kind of large moth having a seizure, so I decided to try a different approach. If nothing else, maybe I’d be able to figure out how to glide. At the very least, it would solve my immediate problem. Most of the usable tree branches were too high up, so I opted to use a nearby boulder as my point of practice. Of course, that would be less dangerous as well. If I absolutely had to break my neck, it would be best to do it after saving the world. Just go for it, I told myself. The sooner this is over, the better. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath, leaping from the stone and fanning out my feathers. Air flowed past and gravity seemed to disappear altogether. The winds seemed to swirl around me, giving me the power I needed. I was a goddess of the sky, and I would never again be grounded. I would soar above the treetops and dance among the clouds. A nosedive into the ground below claimed otherwise. Spitting out a mouthful of leaves, I growled in frustration. One would think I’d eventually learn to land on my hooves if I was already fairly certain I was going to fail. The next attempt was significantly more graceful, if only because I maintained the correct orientation the entire time. Meanwhile, as I jumped off of a rock over and over again for no observable reason, the sun was doing a good job of creeping across the sky. Nightfall would likely arrive before I made any progress at all, but it wasn’t as though I would be going anywhere, anyway. Although, I was concerned that the night would prove to be colder than I would have previously expected. In a world where the seasons don’t make any sense, it’s best to be cautious about such things. It was time for a break anyway, so I took the opportunity to sneak a peak into my saddlebags. In addition to some bread and a wool blanket, Dew had given me a smooth, black stone tethered by string to a small bar of metal. I immediately shoved them back into the bag with a slightly exaggerated motion. If events thus far reflected my luck in any way, I could have very easily, though accidentally, burned down the whole forest with such things. That thought briefly sparked unwanted curiosity in wondering whether or not the local environment, strange as it was, would somehow respond to such an event by making it rain or something. Fortunately, I managed to push the thought from my mind before things got ugly. The ambient sounds of the forest had changed with the shifting of the seasons. While summer had had more birds and less wind, autumn seemed to have slightly fewer birds and just a bit more wind. Additionally, the creatures at home on the forest floor had previously been silent in their travels, but the crunchy leaves that blanketed the ground now made such a thing impossible. As I rested and snacked on small pieces of bread torn from the remainder of the loaf, I occasionally heard the tiny critters dashing between hiding places and scurrying about. Once, I even caught a glimpse of a squirrel darting up into a tree. My mind wandered. Sky goddesses? Darkness? Hateful villagers? Dynamic geography? Amnesia? It was just one thing after another after another. At the rate things were going, I’d probably be fighting ghosts and protecting the world from spacemares by the end of the week. Or zombie ponies. That would be a nightmare. “Meow,” squeaked a tiny voice from behind me. I jumped to my hooves and glanced around, seeking the source. I scanned the area, but nothing was immediately apparent. “Meow.” I lowered my gaze to the ground near my hooves and saw that I had been approached by some sort of puffy, gray woodland creature. It stared up at me, tilting its head slightly to the side. Its whiskers twitched once as it took a step closer. Though it was primarily gray, its tiny paws were white, its ears black, and it’s eyes a deep shade of green. “Meow?” I was overcome by an unfamiliar emotion. Comparable to happiness, but slightly more giddy. Excited, even. As though seeing this little animal before me inspired an explosion of positive feelings that I couldn’t seem to understand. I carefully reached toward it. The fearless animal sniffed at my hoof, then hopped forward and rubbed its head against my leg. “You... You’re absolutely adorable!!” Well, I guess I finally made a friend, I thought with a hint of sarcasm. I’d have preferred a friend of a similar species to my own, but I supposed I was in no place to be picky. It could have easily been worse. For example-- I stopped myself. I had horrible luck. The last thing I needed to do was give nature ideas as to how it could harass me. Of course, nature was probably more creative than I. Whatever it decided to throw at me would likely be a lot worse than anything I could come up with. Of course, though, I was already on that train of thought, and it was heading for a very terrible place. A place where I would think something along the lines of “Hey, at least there isn’t some horrible beast nearby that thinks I’m a danger to this little furry thing, which is its child.” A deep growl came from behind me. It couldn’t have possibly been anything dangerous, though. There wasn’t anything dangerous at all in that forest. Whoops, just did it again. The monster let out a piercing screech. Given the growl, I would have expected more of a roar, but technical details were hardly in the forefront of my mind. I grabbed my bags in my teeth, slinging them onto my back, (see that? Quick thinking.) and leaped at least four pony-lengths forward, pivoting to face the beast. Yes. “beast” was definitely the proper term. It had mangy gray fur and glowing eyes. Specifically glowing red. Its horns curved down and then out to the sides, and its fangs extended far below its chin, making me briefly wonder how it could possibly chew anything. Its claws glinted in the sunlight, suggesting they were some sort of metal. Though it wouldn’t be the strangest thing I’d seen, it was still terrifying. And it was also lumbering straight toward me. Quick! Be quick! You’re much smaller than he is! I told myself. All I had to do was run, and there’d be no way he’d be able to catch me. I slipped on the leaves as I turned to escape, but managed to regain my balance before things got ugly. I dodged trees, jumping over rocks and ducking beneath low branches. There was no way he’d be able to keep up. Just ahead, a group of trees exploded into splinters and shrapnel and the ground rumbled. I jumped, landing with all four hooves against a large boulder, and pushed hard, springing in the other direction. Of course it would be extremely fast. Otherwise it would have been ridiculous. Heavy footsteps slammed into the ground behind me as the creature pursued. I had managed to find my way back to the path for the moment. The trees hadn’t been slowing it down at all, anyway. If I could get back to the village, maybe the ponies there would help me, if only for the sake of me saving them from something potentially worse later on. Or maybe the seasons would shift back and it would somehow be erased or something. Regardless, I wouldn’t be able to escape just by running from it. It was just too damned fast. Suddenly, I found myself wondering if there was some kind of law dictating that any thing that can go wrong will. It wasn’t because of the monster, or the amnesia, or the hateful villagers, or the ridiculous quest, or anything else thus far. It was because, at that moment, I realized that the road was curving the wrong way. Before I could fully comprehend what had happened, I blew past the edge of the cliff and out into the open air. It was a moment of pure terror. I’d fallen distances before, but this was something entirely different. There was no perfectly rounded pool of water. No darkness leading into a sky dimension leading back into darkness. No conveniently-placed hay cart. There was nothing waiting at the bottom except solid, unforgiving, merciless ground. But it couldn’t end like that. I didn’t even know my name. I was an empty shell, falling to my demise, barely having existed at all. The world would never have any idea that this nameless pony ever spoke, ever walked, or ever even thought. I couldn’t allow my world to disappear so quickly, ending before it ever properly began. I had wings. What else could anypony possibly ask for in such a predicament? I rolled in the air, regaining the correct rotational orientation. My wings flared out, digging into the air around me, begging to catch hold. I turned my fall into a dive, hooves first, leveling my feathers with my body and trying to pull up. Happy thoughts. That’s what... somepony said, I guess. Just think happy thoughts, the ground was coming up much faster than I’d have preferred. What happy thoughts?! I wake up in the middle of nowhere, scared, falling all over the place, chased by all kinds of nonsense, and hated by everypony! What the hell kind of happy thoughts do I have available?! The next pony I see is getting punched RIGHT in the face. I don’t care who it is! The thought saddened me. Who could it possibly be? I was the only one out there. I wasn’t going to find anypony to punch in the face for a long time. Unless Morning Dew came after me... He seemed like a pretty nice dude. Much nicer than all the rest. Maybe this journey wouldn’t be quite as terrible if I had somepony to share it with. That is, assuming I live through the next ten seconds or so. My stomach turned as gravity shifted. The wind had caught in my wings, and I was beginning to level out. I hadn’t done anything differently, but somehow it was working now. The ground wasn’t rising as fast, and the wind had become soothing, rather than violent. The world turned as I found myself moving forward. I was flying. Except that I wasn’t flying. I was gliding. Almost certainly, if I’d attempted to flap my wings, I’d have dropped out of the sky in an instant. All I could do was ride it out and hope I could figure out how to land when I got to the bottom. The danger hadn’t passed yet. I was no longer falling toward solid ground at top speed, but the trees up ahead were approaching faster and faster. I felt a hoof skim the treetops as I attempted to gain altitude, but I’d lost too much speed. I leaned too far back, breaking the hold my wings had on the air, and tumbled through the canopy. Branches snapped as I fell, clawing at my whole body. Stinging sensations overwhelmed my senses until I felt myself hit the ground. I bounced once, then rolled the rest of the way, coughing in the dust and leaves that filled the air around me. I could feel the warmth of blood against my coat in various places across my body. I ached all over, as though I’d somehow managed to injure everything without actually breaking anything. Something was growing within my chest. Another emotion I hadn’t experienced before. Anger? Sadness? It felt as though I was about to start crying hysterically. Every nerve screamed at me in pain. But that wasn’t it. It was something different. Something completely unexpected. A laugh escaped me. I remained still, then found myself laughing even more. Each laugh returned an unpleasant stab of pain in my ribcage. But at that, I laughed even harder. I rolled to my hooves, ignoring every terrible sensation I was experiencing, and just laughed. “That was awesome!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, my voice echoing in the valley. Maybe it was the excitement of gliding so fast, or maybe it was the relief of being alive. But in that moment, it was nothing short of hilarious. I dropped to my haunches. Adrenaline was still rushing through my veins. I’d cheated Death yet again.”Bastard doesn’t know who he’s dealing with.” And then I blacked out. _________________________________________________________ Author's note: I didn't really like writing this chapter up until the falling part. I just really couldn't figure out how to transition from the forest pathway to the valley, but I knew I wanted to include a fall. That's her thing, I guess. But if it seems a little dry to you guys, I apologize. Within the next chapter or so, this story is really going to pick up. On another note, funny story. Awhile back, I was mentally working through how I was going to make a Robert Frost joke at some point in the story. It would have involved a fork in the road up in some snowy mountains, and the "road less taken" was going to be frosted over, and I was going to describe it in such a way that it was a pun. But then I realized that there isn't any part of this entire story where the characters go up into snowy mountains. And I'm not going to write an extra however-many chapters for that just for the sake of a dumb joke. But anyway, it seemed like an interesting thing to mention. I'm sure I can come up with plenty of other humorous literary references to make up for it. Five points to the first person who can find every sentence that I wrote while thinking about Minecraft. There are three or four.