//------------------------------// // Chapter 39 // Story: Fallout New Vegas: Unexpected Friends // by Sleepyted //------------------------------// Twilight kept a close eye on the person who said his name was Follows-Chalk in case he tried to do anything to her friend as he carried her. They walked along the high canyon walls, the rocks and dirt a rich orange color instead of the grey and brown Twilight was used to in the Mojave. Chalk talked about the area as they walked, about different things in the area and about the White Legs who attacked them. If it wasn’t for the fact one of her only friends in this world was close to death she may have found the large and clear view breathtaking. The pony made sure to move quickly with the friendly tribal, hoping that Anne would last long enough to get to his tribe. Small blue signs were rattling on their wooden posts as the wind blew gently, showing a picture of the outline of a person hiking with a backpack and a stick. Sometimes as they walked they would pass large paintings of stick figure humans painted on the large rock walls along Zion Valley. “We do not go into buildings of the old world, they are considered taboo.” He explained as they passed a ranger station along their way, white hand prints painted all over the building, probably in warning to any that would think to enter them. “How much longer until we get there?” Twilight asked. “Not much longer, we will have our healer look after your fr-“ ‘ROAR’ The two stop in place. Up on a large rock far ahead of them was what looked like a bear to Twilight, but its fur was falling off in places, its skin a sickly blackish green with many parts of the skin worn away to expose the red flesh. It was also much larger than any bear she has seen, at least double the size. “Stay down, that was the roar of a Yao Guai.” Chalk warned, slowly lowering down his body to a crouch with the wounded Anne still over his shoulder. The monster of a bear stood up on the high rock, its head scanning around before it jumped off and started to run away. Chalk let out a sigh of relief. “That was some kind of lucky. Guess that one was all full of gecko eh? Don’t get used to it though. Yao Guai are plenty mean as a rule.” He said standing back up and walking along. Soon they arrive at an old road, the surface covered with the red dust of the valley and cracked right through in many of the places. “Follow the old road south, we’re almost there.” Twilight couldn’t help but notice after a while there were spears stabbed into the ground along the sides of the road with the decapitated heads of White Leg men, some looking like they’ve been there a while from the greenish skin from the decay. “You see the dead sentries? Shamans say our enemies' souls are trapped in them, but Joshua says it shows we're serious about fighting White Legs.” Chalk said at the sight of Twilight grimacing at the severed heads. Later on Chalk takes them off the road and down a path, medium sized river about thigh height for a human but almost neck height for Twilight. “I hope you don’t mind getting wet, we’re almost there.” The man said as he started to wade through the water, the liquid clear and clean, the bottom fully visible with fish seen under the surface. Twilight didn’t say anything, just grimacing as she walked into the water and followed Chalk, going as fast as she could in the water but with her clothing and the bags weighing her down it wasn’t that quick. “Be careful for traps, we use them to keep the white legs out.” Chalk said, pointing to something rusty under the water. Sparing a quick glance the princess saw that it was a circle of metal with a large button in the middle, the outside ring having large rusty spikes on them. It looked like the mouth of a beast kept on the ground and Twilight could only guess how they worked. After what seemed like forever walking through the chilling water with the knowledge her friend was dying right there the river led to a lake, people walking around the edge and through the water, some having spears but all dressed in the same type of tribal clothing as Chalk. “Here we are. Joshua's just ahead there, in the Angel Cave.” Chalk said. “Talk to him, we’ll try to heal your friend.” Twilight looked uncertainly as they walked to the edge of the lake. She could see people approach them and start to talk amongst each other in a language she didn’t really understand. People hurried over to Chalk and helped take Anne’s bleeding body off him, rushing it away. “I think I might stay with Anne.” Twilight said. “Joshua will want to speak with you, talk with him, there’s nothing you can do to help the healers.” Chalk stated, pointing to the looming mouth of the ‘Angel Cave’ Twilight gulped slightly, she had never felt so alone without Anne, even though Chalk was following her but she didn’t feel close to the young man. Walking into the cave Twilight was greeted with the light from a number of lit touches all around the large cavern they were in, stalactites hanging from the ceiling. There were a few tents inside, made from tanned hide from animals which made Twilight feel slightly sick about. “Hoi! Owslandr zookuh Joshua Graham?” A woman said stepping forward, her head shaved bald. Twilight didn’t know what the woman said but from the tone of her voice it sounded like a question and with Joshua’s name in the sentence she guessed that she was asking something about the man. “Am I… looking for Joshua?” Twilight clarified. “Yes, I am, can you tell me where he is?” “You know our tongue… smart owslandr.” The woman said in a thick accent. “Joshua in high place of cave. You show respect utman! Joshua is greatest warrior. You show him no respect, he shows you thunder and fire.” Twilight gulped. “I-I’ll make sure to be on my best behavior then.” The pony said with a forced smile. “You wise for owslandr.” The woman stated, pointing to her left where a tunnel went deeper into the cave. “Joshua in there.” Twilight nodded, slowly starting to walk through the cave for a few minutes until she reached another wide open area, only a table with a man sat behind it there. He was wearing a black vest over his chest but the rest of his body was covered in white bandages, all of it, mouth, face, arms, hands, the only thing that wasn’t covered were his eyes, looking sunken and tired. On the table were two piles of guns Twilight hadn’t seen before but looked a lot like her 9mm pistol, one just a haphazard pile while the other neatly stacked. “We should have given you a better welcome on your first visit to Zion, but from what I hear the White Legs beat us to it.” the man said, using his covered hands to grab one of the pistols not stacked neatly before checking it over, bring back the slide, taking out the empty magazine, to make sure it was in good condition. “White Legs seem to be the only visitors we have these days and I wouldn’t have expected anyone from the Mojave to looking for us.” He said in a smooth tone of voice, one that sounded calm but also cold and calculating. “And you’re a mutant, one that I’ve never seen the likes of before and your friend the wounded courier, not the one I was expecting but he wouldn’t have gone with a caravan.” He said. “I don’t know if you were close to the other members of your group, but you have my sympathy. I pray for the safety of all good people who come to Zion, even Gentiles, but we can’t expect God to do all the work.” Twilight looked slightly confused, how did this man know what has happened to her and Anne already when she hadn’t seen him yet? “How do you know what happened to the caravan?” “The Dead Horses are capable scouts, nothing passes into or out of Zion without my hearing of it.” he stated while still checking over the guns on the table. Twilight hung her head sadly. “The Happy Trails caravan came here to trade with the New Canaanites.” She said sadly, hoping that they would be able to heal Anne up. “Happy Trails. I remember, they were good friends. I have bad news for your employers. New Canaan was destroyed, its citizens scattered. All because of the White Legs, and Caesar of course. The White Legs want to join the Legion, Caesar’s rite of passage is the destruction of the New Canaanites, almost assuredly because of me.” He said sadly. “The good news is that we can help you find your way back. Daniel, one of the other New Canaanites, has made many maps of the region. The bad news is that we can’t help you right now, not with everything that’s going on.” Twilight knew that the Dead Horse’s were doing everything they could to help Anne heal and felt she should do whatever she could as a repayment for that kindness. “We not going to leave without offering to help. What can I do?” twilight asked firmly. “You’re a good neighbor to us. We all go through periods of darkness. In such times we can turn to the Lord, but it’s good to have friends.” He stated. “Daniel and I need pre-war tools to help us navigate beyond Zion. Should we need to evacuate, these instruments will be vital to us. Normally we would have some of the Dead Horses or Sorrows look for them but many Pre-War buildings in the valley are taboo, they won’t go inside.” “I’ll see what I can do.” Twilight said with a nod, wondering who this ‘Lord’ the man was talking about. “Thank you, Follows-Chalk can help you find your way around the valley. He’s inexperienced, but he knows enough of our language to ignore the taboos of Pre-War buildings.” After dropping off the duffle bags at a tent she was given to use she strapped Stella’s rifle onto her back along with any drugs she knew how to use and headed off with Chalk following along with her as a guide. Not too long into their walking Twilight could see a small wooden hut that sat on top of a cliff, her attention getting drawn to it. Walking up she looked at it curiously, a large flat boulder had dozens of white paint marks with red hand prints on them as a sign of warning and a few were actually on the building as well. Twilight froze for a moment as the sound of loud skittering filled her ears. Looking to her left she froze at what she saw, the filly inside her wanting to scream and run away as quickly as she could. Scuttling its way towards them was the biggest scorpion that she had ever seen easily bigger than double her size with its stinger the size of a small knife and pincers looking like they could cut her in half. Pulling out Lucky she fired six shots in rapid succession right into the thing’s chitin covered body and she was horrified when she realized the shell was so thick only one of the bullets that hit the joint of one of its many legs actually went through, cutting the limp off all together. Chalk pulled out a pistol he had, the same type Joshua was cleaning and started to unload on the mutant beast. Twilight could swear it was hissing at her and that scared her even more. “Ahhh! I hate bugs!” Twilight yelled, not being able to hold back anymore and flying up in fear, sweat covering her body as she landed on the roof of the building they were headed to close to the beast where it couldn’t reach her. Looking around quickly her eyes fell onto the boulder with the handprints all over it. With her horn glowing intensely she focused on the rock, it letting out loud cracking sounds before the part under the ground was pulled up, the several ton rock hovering in the air before getting flung at the scorpion, the rock bouncing off the ground once and causing the fighting Chalk to stumble back before the rock finished its short flight and slammed into the arachnid, crushing it between the thrown boulder and another large rock to the side. Panting for air Twilight could feel her head hurting badly again, throbbing with a headache. She could feel a small trickle of blood come from her nose from using her magic too much in one go. “Woah… Remind me to never get on your bad side.” Chalk said with an uncomfortable chuckle, watching as the green blood of the scorpion seem out from between the two rocks.