//------------------------------// // Razorwing // Story: Wyvern // by PegasusKlondike //------------------------------// The wind howled like the dire wolves that stalked this tundra. Venerax shuddered as a particularly piercing gale penetrated his thick scaly armor. The young dragons huddled together for warmth against the blowing wind and stinging snow. Venerax twisted his long neck to rest his head by Cirzoke, exhausted from three days of searching the polar ice with no wyverns to show for it. The pack of dragon raiders rested in the lee of a small hill, taking whatever shelter that could be offered on the mostly flat and windswept tundra. "Still think this raid was a good idea?" he shouted over the howling wind. Cirzoke snorted a puff of smoke at his friend, a meaningless gesture of annoyance that was lost in the wind. "It will be one of the defining moments of our lives Venerax. If you could keep your head out of the storm clouds for a few minutes you might appreciate that. When we go back to the crater bearing a dead wyvern, all the finest females will be at our claws, all the elders will share the most choice prizes from their hoards!" "You do know that the twins are females, right?" Cirzoke glanced over at Valcor and Volcar, the two indistinguishable twin females that had accompanied them on the raid. "Good luck with them Venerax, they say that their hearts are harder than their scales. And if they do not want females, they can have only the strongest and most appealing males as their mates." With a few winks he slid a little closer to the twins. "And you think you are such a male? Please Cirzoke, my sister and I have seen ponies that appealed to us more than you!" "Shut up Valcor!" "I'm Volcar! Learn the difference!" Cirzoke grumbled at his misjudgment, scooting back closer to Venerax. The dragons were all hungry, though the land to the south was rife with their preferred meals of minerals and gems, the tundra was barren of such sustenance. And so they resorted to a more primal portion of their diet, fresh meat. None of them knew which one had assigned Az to hunting for now, but someone had to have sent him out for food. Venerax began to worry for the yellow drake, Az wasn't the brightest dragon he had ever met and his sun yellow scales made him stick out on the tundra. A splash of unnatural color in an otherwise white, black and brown world. Should have sent one of the twins, their bright white scales made them blend in somewhat. A faint roar sounded in the distance, Venerax lifted his head from the snow to search for the origin. It wasn't hard to spot Az flying in at full speed, threatening to crash land if he did not pull up. "SLOW DOWN YOU FOOL! YOU'RE GOING TO CRASH!" Az roared again, obviously extremely excited about something. The other dragons all yelled at him to put on the brakes, but Az refused to listen, too eager to tell his news. With a rush of wind he overshot his landing, crashing into a snowbank behind the pack of dragons. Standing up he shook the snow from his scales. Almost bouncing he ran to the other dragons. "I found one! I found one!" "Well where is it? Where's the food?" One of the other dragons asked. "Not food, a wyvern! I found one out on the tundra!" After he said the word 'wyvern', his speech became so quick and frenzied that it sounded like a giant hummingbird singing. Cirzoke grabbed Az by the shoulders, slapping him with a clawed paw until he calmed down. "Slow down Az, how did you find a wyvern?" Az shook off the blunt force of the slaps, regaining his senses he started again, but more slowly this time. "I was out hunting like Kelmore told me to and I found a tasty looking white bear to kill. I hit it with some fire and torched it good." the yellow drake grinned at the memory, "But then I heard this strange roar, like one of ours, but it didn't say anything that I could understand. I wondered if it was some kind of small dragon whose territory I had invaded, so I hid behind a huge rock. I waited less than a minute before this thing showed up! It was only about my size, maybe smaller. It was red and yellow, but in stripes instead of blotches. The thing had two horns on its head and no front legs. Anyways, it found the bear I killed and sniffed at it for a little bit, then it opened up its mouth and sprayed the body with ice! After that it started to eat, and I came straight back here!" Cirzoke stood in awe, "A wyvern, you found a wyvern Az!" Cirzoke cried out and danced a merry jig, happy they had found the beast of ice, and that it was no bigger than Az. "Well, what in Tartarus are we waiting for? Let's move out and kill a wyvern!" Venerax shouted. All twelve dragons beat their huge wings, Az leading the way as they hunted down the solitary wyvern. Az, in a bout of unfitting intelligence, said that they should land and sneak up on it. Otherwise they might scare off their only chance of killing a wyvern before they had to fly back to the crater. Venerax saw his first wyvern that day, but it would not be his last. Landing discreetly the dragon raiders crept up on the feasting wyvern. It was just as Az had said, red and yellow stripes on a mainly brown body, a pair of horns on a triangular head. But what he failed to mention was the size of the claws on those hind legs, and that tail! That tail looked like it was in constant motion, swishing back and forth, curling on itself like a snake. The beast in question was busy tearing into the flesh of the white bear Az had killed as unintentional bait. Head deep within the bear's stomach cavity, it did not notice when the twelve dragons crept close to it. Cirzoke looked positively ecstatic, barely able to control his eagerness to fight this thing. Venerax held him back with a claw. "Hold Cirzoke, Az found the wyvern, and he should be the first one to attack." Cirzoke lost some of his bluster, "Oh alright, make us proud big fella!" He gave Az an encouraging pat on the neck. Az grinned like a fool and crept forward, getting dangerously close to the feasting wyvern. The crunch of snow under the yellow drake's foot froze the distracted wyvern in place. Lifting its bloody muzzle out of its gory meal, it sniffed the air. Catching the scent of its hereditary opposite, the creature spun around, hissing and growling at Az. Az decided to make a proper duel, standing on his back legs he roared, spraying a pillar of fire in the air as a challenge. Instead of intimidation, the wyvern became enraged, whipping out with that sinuous tail to hit Az in the neck. The yellow dragon placed a claw on his neck where the tail had struck, suddenly he felt very tired and extremely heavy. Foam dripped from his mouth, and Az fell to his knees before the wyvern. The wyvern reared up on his back legs, drawing in a breath he fired the hoarfrost beam that made wyverns so different from dragons. Az screamed as the ice reached his bones and froze his magma hot blood. He fell to the snow covered ground, and the wyvern placed a clawed foot on his back, spreading his wings and thumping them against his chest. "AZ!" screamed Venerax. The wyvern noticed them for the first time, too caught up in its bloodlust before. Venerax expected it to attack, but instead it sucked in more air than should have been possible, letting it out in an ear splitting roar. The dragons slapped their claws to the sides of their heads, hoping to muffle the roar. It carried across the tundra, echoing for miles and miles. "KILL IT! KILL IT NOW!" Venerax shouted. All eleven of the remaining dragons charged the wyvern, flying above it they sprayed down torrents of fire as hot as magma. The wyvern writhed in his agony, coated in flame he looked like some perversion of a phoenix in flight. In desperation the creature let loose its icy breath on its own body, freezing its own limbs to stop the pain of heat. Clawing at itself, the wyvern's struggles became weaker as it finally admitted that it was dead. Cirzoke landed next to the charred wyvern corpse, panting at the adrenaline rush of the battle. "We did it, we killed a wyvern." Venerax landed next to him, grabbing Cirzoke by the shoulders. "At what cost? AT WHAT COST?!?" The twins desperately did what they could for Az, but he was dead the moment that venom had entered his veins. "We have to get out of here! What if it was calling for others?" Off in the distance, across the tundra, another roar chilled their hearts and froze the dragons in terror. And another sounded in the distance, from a completely different direction. In tandem more of the roars rose from every direction, filling the tundra winds with the anger of dozens of wyverns. Small black shapes took to the sky, the horizon studded with scores of wyverns, all enraged by the intrusion of flame breathers into their realm. Venerax shivered in terror, his eyes wide from the Pandora's box of primal fury that they had unleashed. But one thing would be burned into his memory for the rest of time. Rising amongst the dark shapes came a figure of titanic proportions. Dwarfing the small males, she roared with enough force to rattle bones and shake the frozen ground. As a wave of fear the wyverns tore across the tundra, their one goal being the utter annihilation of the dragons in their territory. "Fly...FLY DAMN YOU!" Venerax shouted to the dragon raiders. *********************************************************** Klondike opened his eyes to greet the morning sun. He had not been able to find a place to sleep last night, after his pledge of service to Owayn he had spoken in private to Aurora for a while. They had talked long into the night, Spin left for his cabin back in the woods to gather supplies for the journey, and Owayn had retired to his quarters in the saloon. He could remember every word with clarity. Their final words had filled his heart with sorrow. "Aurora, what we have is something special, something that I've never felt before. But it cannot be." "Why? Why can't you just talk to me about our feelings?" "Because, in all likelihood I walk out of this door tomorrow, and I never come back." "Don't say things like that! You are going to succeed, you are going to kill that thing and make this world safe for us!" He cupped her face with a hoof, she reached her hoof up and held it there with his. "I don't want you to be hurt when I don't come back." She let her hoof fall, and moved away from his touch. "Go, leave me. I said GO!" Her horn flared with magic as she hurled a bolt of magical rage at the stallion who refused to love her. Taking the blow he grimaced as it left a welt on his chest, he walked out and went to the one place where he could be a true pegasus. Laying on a cloud he felt cold inside. Not the cold of the wind, nor the deathly cold of the Sun Eater's breath; but the cold, bony grip of fear before a battle. As the sun warmed his body he gazed down at Windshear, so prepared to die when that monster came back for the main course. "I won't let that happen...for Pine Fresh I won't let it come to that. For Beech Nut and Chipper, I won't let that monster destroy everything we've worked so hard to build. For her...." He closed his eyes and sighed. Standing from his bed of vapors he dove down to where he was to meet Spin and the dragon slayers. He flared his wings as he landed between the trio. "You're late, guide." stated Owayn. "We agreed that we would meet at the gate at sunrise! Sunrise was fifteen minutes ago!" Owayn looked different, his normal satin noble clothing had been replaced by shining armor and enough weapons to outfit a squadron of soldiers. For a dragon slayer, he sure looked the part. Spin was still wearing his cloak to cover his wings from Owayn, but now he also wore a chainmail shirt with an ax and a crossbow on his back. Patsy seemed only a little different, wearing a studded leather vest he carried a short sword and a crossbow like Spin, but he also lugged around a pair of small chests on this back with Owayn's personal pennant waving in the breeze. "I move at my own pace, and if you can't keep up in all that metal, I'm not stopping for you Owayn." The knight was taken aback. "Well I never!" "Correction, you just did." Klondike spun on his heels and galloped for the well worn path to the dragon's lair. Spin appeared next to him, chuckling at some inside joke. "What's so funny?" "With you kid, a lot of things." The elder pegasus openly chuckled now. "Such as?" "My little trainee is growing up so fast, first he finds true love and then he puts a snobby noble in his place. Next thing you know I'll have to teach you the birds and the bees and bail you out of jail for getting in fights." Klondike nearly choked at Spin's joke. "My parents already told me all that stuff!" "Apparently not all of it kid, your little thing last night with Aurora, when you wrapped your big wings around her ever so gently, is the pegasus equivalent of getting to second base." "WHAT?!? HOW!?" "Your wings are a very vulnerable part of you if you didn't already know. Very delicate and sensitive to touch, so enveloping her like that is like rubbing the most sensitive part of your body all over her. It's a very trusting act, letting somepony mess with the most important part of a pegasus. With unicorns it's comparable to fondling their horn. Technically, she got to second base on you!" Klondike screeched to a halt, falling back to his haunches as he realized how private of an act he had committed in public! And she liked it! Had his fur not already been red, Klondike could have signaled down airships with how scarlet he had become. Spin stopped and trotted back to his gobsmacked trainee, tousling the younger pegasi's mane. "Aw, your ignorance of our tribal idiom is so cute. I might have to keep going with this, see what other hilarious tidbits you don't know. Next time she should ask you for a wing massage, it'll send shivers down to places she didn't know existed." He gave a wink and clapped Klondike on the shoulder. "Come on, Owayn is catching up." Klondike stood, shaking off the craziness of the old trapper that had taken him under his wing. Wait, under his wing....now that idiom just sounded gross! "If what you say is true about horns and wings and naughty things, alicorns must really have it happening in their personal time." Spin cackled madly, "I have never thought about it that way, you really are sharper than a tack kid." ******************************************************* The pair of dragon slayers eventually managed to keep up with the galloping locals. Klondike normally made his book drop off flights in less than a day, making it to Venerax's cave in only a few hours. But on hoof, the trip would take until tomorrow at around noon at a full gallop. Other days when his book drop off schedule coincided with the gold delivery to the dragon, he had to walk the caravan there. Klondike knew this path well, it cut through the heart of the pine forests and across several smaller rivers. But it was the only traversable path to the dragon's lair without flying. Leaping logs and jumping the stones across rivers, Klondike ran like the only thing stopping that monster from devouring everything was him. He ran for hours, his light body carrying well across the rough terrain. His only burden was a saddlebag and Spin's sword. "Kid! Slow down damn it!" Wheezed Old Spin. He slid to a stop, wings flaring as he glared down the trapper. "You may have the stamina of youth, but the rest of us are weighed down or too old for this crap! And besides, you completely outran Owayn and Patsy an hour ago." Klondike smiled at making the knight suffer just a little, and trotting to a stream he treated himself to some cold refreshing spring water. Spin sat down on the edge of the path, uncorking a wineskin to treat himself a little. About fifteen minutes later the dragon slayer and his squire cantered up the path, wheezing under the weight of all that armor. "We ain't go no further til we've had a breather!" The crimson pegasus rose from a small bed of pine needles, "We can't stop now. If what Spin said about that monster is true, it hunts in the dark and clouds. The sun is out right now, we are at our safest to travel." Sir Owayn panted heavily, the labored breathing fluttering his mustaches. "How far are we from the dragon's lair?" "We're about halfway there. Another twenty miles and we're on his doorstep." Owayn considered it, "Another five miles at most, and then we must rest for the day. We cannot face such a dragon if we can barely breathe." Klondike nodded, "Try to keep up" and took off at a much more leisurely pace. The dragon slayers shook their heads, taking off after him. ******************************************************** Once again he managed to outpace everypony else, and found a nice place to camp for the night. A hollow made by the dense canopy of a thicket of hardwood trees. A decent place to camp, sheltered from the wind and nearly invisible from above. Klondike once again waited by the path, sitting on his haunches. After a few minutes the rest of the party showed up, panting and tired from chasing him down. "Good choice of cover kid." Spin muttered to his protege. Sir Owayn and Patsy began to take off their respective burdens, rubbing feeling back into their chafed and sore muscles. Klondike spread out his cloak to act as a bedroll and crashed on a nice bed of pine needles. Covering his face with a wing, he was on the verge of sleep when a hoof prodded him in the ribs. Removing the wing he saw Spin's gray hooves standing next to his head. "I was about to have a nice nap, go away." The blade of Spin's old sword dropped down by Klondike's head. "Up lazy bones, you need practice with the blade more than you need rest." He kept his voice low to keep Owayn from hearing his true accent. "Normally you have to go through five years of training to even go into battle, I've had two days to whip you into fighting form." Leaning up on his elbows, Klondike regarded the old trapper that was removing his chainmail shirt. "And just how do you know so much about the martial practices?" Spin picked up his ax and started to swing, "I'll tell you when the time is right." Klondike rolled as the blade of the ax landed straight where his throat had been. Scooping up the sword as he snapped to his hooves he swung for Spin, starting their ritual of trying to kill each other as training. The dragon slayers watched the duo exchange blows, Owayn silently puffing on a long stemmed pipe. "Hmph, you have good form old colt. Your friend is clumsy with his parries. Remember to move your hooves, do not stay stationary." Sir Owayn advised from his seated position. Of course the bout ended with Spin disarming his inferior. "You're gettin' better kid, but remember not to attack my weapon, attack me." Picking up his sword again, Klondike hesitated a moment before attacking. "What about the thing we hunt? Its entire body is a weapon. Where am I supposed to attack on that?" He arced his blade high, almost instantly being blocked by the blade of Spin's ax. "A good point kid. But after I'm done with you, I want your entire body to be a weapon as well. To fight a weapon, you have to be a weapon." Spin slashed with his ax, Klondike leapt backwards, wings flared as he utilized his aerial advantage, hovering above the ground. "So to kill a monster, I have to be a monster." "Not in the slightest sense of the term. We're different from monsters like manticores, cockatrices, wendigoes and other things because we can show mercy. They exist on a level of daily survival, their thoughts always motivated by the idea that they are in constant danger. They fight because they have too." Spin swung at Klondike, who deftly backwinged away. "We fight for abstracts; concepts like 'truth', 'love' and 'harmony'. We don't see that in monsters, monsters kill so they can survive. Who's the more dangerous one in the end? The creature that fights for an undefinable concept, or the monster that fights just to live?" Their fight ended with something odd, Klondike actually scoring a small hit on Spin. The old trapper had stumbled on a stone and Klondike took that opportunity to flick his blade under the trapper's leg, scoring a small line of blood on his calf. The sun had continued its eternal journey across the northern sky, falling from Celestia's day to bring about Luna's night. If Luna liked night so much, she should vacation in Snowreach more often. Nights here could last up to a month depending on the season. The chill air was draining the warmth from the dragon slayers, and Patsy tried to start a small fire to warm up some of his master's tea. Spin walked by and kicked a shower of dirt on the bed of embers. Patsy snapped at the insolence. "What's your beef old colt? Can't a bloke have some damn hot tea?!" "No fires, might attract the Sun Eater." Spin sat on his bedroll, uncorking his wineskin to take a few drams. Owayn seemed unaffected by the cold, his horn glowing with a small stream of magic to warm himself up. He did seem interested in Klondike though, asking questions about Venerax, hoping to glean the one clue that might be the dragon's weakness. After awhile Owayn gave up, all he managed to learn was that Venerax seemed to prefer mystery novels and noire types over adventure. From what the pegasus said, he didn't even see Venerax that often, the dragon preferred to hide in the shadowed recesses of his cave, his body always hidden in the dark when he spoke to Klondike. The party would have to sleep in shifts, one pony always awake and alert. Klondike volunteered for first watch, time for himself and time to think. After several minutes of fierce debate, Spin allowed for a small bed of coals instead of a crackling fire, the light might attract some undesirables, but the ponies needed the warmth. The gentle orange light occasionally flared and flickered, reflecting in the hazel eyes of the watchpony. Leaning against the trunk of a hardwood tree, he looked up at the sky. The auroras danced through the heavens, their slow and methodical promenade which gave a glowing gown of elegance to the starlit sky. Under their light, he felt small, insignificant and yet,.... he felt important. He was important to somepony out there, even if his parents had forsaken him and his best friend died in his hooves. Somepony needed him, if it was the ponies he knew from afar, or the one he shared the most intimate moment of his life with. "When monsters look up at the night sky, what do they see? Something beautiful, or nothing at all?" he asked the universe. The stars did not answer, the auroras never stopping their gentle ballet across the heavens. ******************************************** Klondike awoke with a start, realizing he had failed at his only duty and fallen asleep on watch. Scrambling to make it look like he never had closed his eyes at all, he stopped to wonder, what woke him up? Twisting his ears he listened, straining hard to pick out any unnatural noises. There! Off to south, something big was shoving its way through the brush, not making any effort to be stealthy about it. Quietly he stood from his post, creeping his way to the fire he prodded Spin on the back. "Spin, wake up! Something is out in the bush." Spin shifted a bit, groaning at some most likely interrupted good dream. "Hmm? My turn to watch?" "No, something big is out there!" Spin opened his eyes, staring Klondike like he was crazy or something. "Probably just a moose or a bear, go back to your watch." Whatever was out in the bush started to call out, a wailing whoop that started low and ended as a shriek. "Well Spin it seems like your moose could use a lozenge." Spin growled, "Wake up the dragon slayers." He stood from his bedroll, throwing on his chainmail shirt and grabbing his ax. Klondike gave the dragon slayers a swift kick, "Get up! We're going to have company here in a few minutes!" "Hmm? What, is your monster here?" Klondike started throwing branches on the coals, building a blazing fire in seconds. "No, something a little more common." Owayn and Patsy scrambled to their hooves, grabbing whatever armor and weapons that they could. Spin faced off towards the brush, axe laying in his fetlocks, ready to fight. "If there's only one, it'll probably just go around." Klondike positioned himself next to Spin, sword at the ready and wings flared for battle. The crashing sounded much closer now, and multiple whoops and shrieks came from the south. "You just had to say it, didn't you Spin." "Shut up kid." Sir Owayn levitated a very large mace, one that would have taken two hands just to lift. Patsy stood back with a bolt in his crossbow. Individuals could be heard now, growling and huffing at one another as they got closer to the pony camp. The light of the fire illuminated the clearing, but nothing could be seen yet. Owayn almost seemed to panic. "What are they!?" "Wendigos." Spin said, his eyes fixed on the brush to the south. Patsy and Owayn both looked incredulous, "What, like those winter spirits from Hearth's Warming Pageant?" Klondike and Spin glanced at one another, smiling at their foalish ideas. "No, those are windy-goes, they aren't real. What foal would actually think they were real?" Klondike remarked to the dragon slayers. "What's the difference!" Owayn shouted. "You'll see." said Spin. Klondike struggled to keep calm, everypony around him was calm and composed, veterans of innumerable battles and fights. To keep calm he talked about the only thing he really knew, books. "Sir Owayn, does your priory have any books on ecology?" "Yes, many." Owayn stared off into the dark, levitating that huge mace threateningly. "Any on Zebrican wildlife?" "A few." Klondike swallowed the knot in his throat, "Ever seen a picture of a gorilla in those books?" "Once or twice, what does this have to do with our present situation!" "Take a gorilla, make it stand upright and make it about eight feet tall. Give it some horns and a set of tusks, and there you have it, a wendigo." Owayn grinned, "Good to know." Off in the dark, the wendigo pack found the ponies scent trail, howling and shrieking. The crack and snap of branches was close, within a hundred yards, the whoops of the beasts growing louder. Spin noticed Klondike, shaking a little bit. "Easy kid, hold steady." The branches in front of the ponies parted, a large brown primate stepping into the clearing. Slimy mucous dripped from its tusks and foliage was stuck in its upright horns. The great forest ape slammed its fists into its hairy chest, howling at the moon. Four more wendigos stepped into the clearing, huffing and panting. "FOR EQUESTRIA!" Shouted Owayn, and more surprisingly, Spin as well. The warriors charged the nearest wendigos. A soft click sounded from behind the group, and an arrow thudded into the hairy shoulder of a wendigo. "Yeah, come and get some ya fat hairy demon's uncle!" shouted Patsy, drawing his short sword to charge the wendigo. Owayn swung his heavy mace at his wendigo, Spin juggled a pair of them between his ax swings. Leaving only one, a big ugly brute with green tusks and slobber running down his chest to charge Klondike. The pegasus stood ready, leveling his sword he charged the rabid brute. The wendigo stopped short and swung an arm, catching the pegasus in his chest. Klondike was flung like a rag doll, slamming into the trunk of a tree. The wendigo howled, slapping its palms against its chest. Lowering its horned head, it charged on all fours. Klondike rolled out of the way, the wendigo's horns crashing into the tree behind him. Jumping into the air, Klondike landed on the stunned wendigo's back, ready to drive his sword into its spine. But the wendigo rolled over, slamming Klondike again with one of his tree trunk arms. Flung several feet away, the wendigo closed the distance with a single bound. Klondike raised his sword to block its imminent blow. The wendigo slapped it out of his hooves, letting it land solidly into the dirt. Still on his back, Klondike lashed out with his back hooves, kicking the beast in the stomach. The wendigo groaned, clutching its gut with both hairy palms. Rolling to his belly, Klondike scrambled to get his sword. A hairy fist grabbed his back hooves, lifting him off the ground. The wendigo lifted Klondike to face level, those unintelligent eyes staring him down. Opening that tusked mouth, the wendigo roared and started to place its jaws around Klondike's chest. Something inside of him came alive, something deep and primal. His wings whipped outwards, and the wendigo shrieked. The grip on his hind legs came loose, and Klondike fell hard to the ground. Opening his eyes, he saw the wendigo staggering backwards, clutching the bloody stump where its hand had been. His wings, something felt different about his wings. Klondike lifted one to look at it, the tips of the feathers seemed rigid, and covered in the blood of the wendigo. Snapping back to the situation, he stood up and charged the wendigo. Swinging a wing he cut through the wendigo's thigh like paper. The brute screamed, falling to one leg. Klondike lashed out with another wing, arcing it through the wendigo's one good arm. Falling flat on its face, Klondike jumped on its back again, aiming the long feathers straight down. Piercing through flesh and bone with ease, he punctured the beast's lungs, silencing it for good. Spattered with wendigo blood and panting hard, he twisted his feathers once, ripping them free of the dead brute. Around him, the other ponies had finished off their own wendigos, too stunned by what they saw to help him with his own. Klondike clambered down from his furry perch, panting hard he looked at the stunned and silent faces of his companions. "What?" Spin walked forward, lifting a hoof he touched Klondike's feathers. Soft and flaccid, completely harmless to the old stallion. "How? It's not possible." Owayn dropped his mace, bloody and coated with wendigo brains. "Apparently it is, our young guide is more of a warrior than he ever believed." He too touched the pegasi's wing feathers, amazed beyond belief. "What's going on? Somepony please just tell me what happened!" He flared his wings in agitation, Spin and Owayn both stumbled back like he let out a pair of vipers. "Careful with those things! You're liable to hurt somepony." Owayn said in slight fear. Patsy pushed past the older stallions, "It's simple mate, you have one of the rarest talents in all of ponydom. Even rarer than bein a time lord. You're what's called a 'Razorwing'." "Razorwing?" Klondike stretched out a wing, flexing the feathers. Owayn felt a little safer, approaching once again. "Indeed, Razorwings are a very rare type of pegasus pony, capable of hardening their wing feathers to become like steel. Some say even harder than steel." "That can't be right, I'm not a warrior. I'm a librarian, a bookkeeper, a nobody!" Owayn snorted, "Indeed a nobody. You fit all of the normal parameters of a Razorwing; abnormally large wings, fairly tall, instinctive skill while fighting with your wings, normal every day cutie mark. Let me take a wild guess, you've been shredding bed sheets since you were little?" Klondike considered it, "Yeah, ever since I started flying as a colt..." "You shredded them because your wings would harden while you slept. You would have a nightmare and your body would react to the sense of fear, hardening your wings to defend itself." Klondike's confusion grew into a small smile, chuckling at some memory. "So I did that to my poor alarm clock." His smile went back to confusion, "Why don't I cut myself?" Owayn nodded to that, "Simple really, being a Razorwing is some kind of hereditary magic, your feathers use that magic to recognize your own body, thus rendering you harmless against yourself." Patsy was messing around with one of Klondike's wings, just to see if it hadn't been some kind of illusion. "Some o' the greatest knights and warriors in Equestrian history were Razorwing pegasi. Who was that one m'lord, that one who left the order a couple o' years back? Right befores you got knighted?" "Sir Greyback the Bladeless. Damn fine warrior, the model of an Equestrian knight. But he didn't leave, remember Patsy? He was killed in that quest given by Princess Celestia, that fated journey into the Changeling lands to fight Zito, Queen Chrysalis's champion." "Oh yeah." Spin placed himself between the chatty dragon slayers and the young pegasus. "Right! Wendigos are all dead, put out that fire 'fore we attract a real monster." Owayn and Patsy returned to the blazing fire, putting it out with a little bit of Owayn's magic. The clearing sank back into darkness, the dragon slayers returning to uneasy sleep. Klondike returned to his watch, Spin taking a seat next to him. "Hell of a first time for you kid. I remember my first fight, against a mangy Diamond Dog out near Appleloosa. Damn near put me in the hospital." Klondike stared out at the stars, "What am I Spin? Some kind of freak or a mutant?" he flexed the feathers on his right wing, "Is this why my mom and dad abandoned me?" Spin laid a comforting hoof on Klondike's shoulder, "You aren't a freak, what you are is something different. Something that the Sun Eater won't see coming. Makes you dangerous, gives you an edge over any enemy that stands in your way. What you got is a gift, a gift that sets you even above the other members of our tribe." "But what about my parents? Did they know about this?" he tried to cut through a branch, but this wing feathers just brushed harmlessly away. Spin shook his head, "I don't know, you never hear about Razorwings at a young age. They're loners mostly, sticking to themselves out of some sense of protecting those ponies around them from themselves. My guess is that your parents did know something, but they thought it was something normal for a pegasus foal to go through." "Am...am I a monster? My body is a weapon, just like that thing out there. And I killed that wendigo and felt nothing for it; I didn't kill it for a reason, I just killed it." "You're here talking about it aren't you? A monster wouldn't even show the common courtesy to remember what it did, you feel something bad about what you did. Kid, you are a weapon, but you're a righteous weapon." Spin gave him a nudge. "Go on and hit the hay, I'll cover the rest of tonight's watch. And for all our sakes, try to have sweet dreams." Klondike stood up, still sore from the wendigo's beating. "You know Spin, I think a certain mare will have to take a rain check on that wing massage." Spin cracked a smile, "Probably a good idea, her loss though." Klondike walked over to his bedroll, laying down near the warm glow of the bed of coals. He needed his rest, tomorrow he would confront the self proclaimed lord of Snowreach.