A mare and her dog

by cammera

Day 3: As roads are walked, and things are regained

With the sun at its highest, Applejack entered a small library. It was an old wood building, with used tomes lying in shelves and some oil lamps illuminating it to compensate for the lack of windows.

"Do you have maps?" she asked, taking care to pronounce it right "I need something in this kingdom, Prasante, Bloka, and the continent"

The diamond dog nodded, already rummaging in the drawers of the counter top.

"The only ones I have left of Bloka are cloth maps" he put three paper ones in the counter "Artisan work in their own, but a hundred reis and fifty cents each"

"Do you accept yallans?" she showed him one "I travel by hoof, so paper ones get broken" or wet. Or ripped apart. Or bitten.

He scanned the coin for a moment, hmming to himself, "Eighty each cloth map"

She took some coins from her purse (Three with star-shaped centers, two with twin spheres) and gave them to him, nodding.

"And do you know of any work a mare could make around here?" she asked as she put the maps in her saddlebags. Her purse felt uncomfortably light, and she'd need to buy more things before heading into uninhabited areas.

The dog scratched his chin for a moment, "You said you are on hooves," he rummaged through a few drawers before putting a heavily annotated cloth map in the counter, then tapped a small city on it "Will you pass through Kushta? Mail out here isn't reliable, and a walking pony is often faster"

She watched the map for a moment, then nodded.

"Take this to a mare there, Reminiscence," he said her name in an awkward Equish, then gave her a letter where he had written something quickly "She'll pay you. Also old Alfonse, in the outskirts of the city, tends to hire hooves to help him pick up. Twenty five cents per fruit, if I remember it right"

She put the letter in a inner pocket of her saddlebags and nodded.

"Thanks,," she smiled at him and turned to the door.

-º-

"Miss?"

Toc, "Yes?"

"The sun is setting"

"Really?" she blinked a few times in confusion, then realized he was right "Huh," she took a deep breath and whistled loudly. Winona barked in response in the distance "I lost track of time. Reminds me of home" she gestured at the tree she had just bucked.

"I see" the old dog, a collection of hanging skin and fur, chortled with his wife.

"It's nice to see someone your age with such a work ethic" she gestured at the rising moon in the horizon "Do you want to stay the night? I wouldn't want a girl your age walking alone at this hour"

"Ah, was just going to ask if could put tent somewhere in fields, " she scratched her nape awkwardly "Don't-"

"Nonsense," the old bitch took her by a leg and pulled with unexpected strength, taking her toward the small farmhouse in the center of the fields "Dinner is ready. You don't want to waste the effort of a weak old woman, right?"

Winona appeared, her fur a collection of sticks and leaves and her tail blurring in motion, and she sat watching Applejack, tongue hanging as if laughing of her.

"Ah, uh, thanks" she laughed awkwardly "You really don't have to-"

"I made it without meat, even," interrupted the bitch, smiling widely "lentils stew"