The Story of Zeta

by Z-A-C

Chapter 8: The Tiger

"Something's wrong with Ganger." I heard The Conqueror say somewhere from the shadows.

"What do you mean? She seems perfectly fine to me." I said looking around for him.

"Really?" He said in an almost sarcastic tone. "She knew about the Gateway, and shes leading you into a trap."

"Except she not leading us. I am!"

"Are you quite sure? Who scouts ahead the most?" He chuckled. "You're just the one with the map! Not the leader."

"Fine! From now on I'll do the scouting. Ganger is more then capable of protecting Velvet."

"Suit yourself. The damage has already been done." I then saw glowing red eyes, and the he emerged from the shadows. "Wake up, it's dawn."

"But what do you mean 'the damage has already been done?' That make no sense. We're close to the edge of the jungle, we'll be there by mid day!"

He smiled. "You'll find out. Now, wake up!" He stomped his hooves and I awoke.

---

"Another bad dream?" Said Ganger as we got prepared for today's travels.

I stared at her groggily. "Yeah. Shouldn't have fallen asleep though. We were all vulnerable to the jungle."

"You can't protect us all of the time you know? Besides, you deserve a good rest."

"I suppose, But still something could of happened..." I emptied the bag's contents onto the ground. We had a good supply of food but we will need to make a slight detour to get more water. "We should stop by the river to fill our canteens."

I heard one of them sniffing the air, and then the tapping of chalk. I looked at her board and she wrote "And bathe." I sighed and Ganger chuckled.

"A quick bath wouldn't hurt, would it?"

"Well it has been awhile since that oasis, and we are going to be there anyway."

Velvet wrote. "It's settled then." and smiled. I shrugged, and put everything back into the bag, and we set off.

After a few minutes of walking we arrived the river. I filled the canteens before I joined the others. The first thing I noticed was how cold the water was. The second thing was the fairly recent sign of an attack and struggle of some kind. I seemed to be the only one to notice, and I decided not to tell them about it. I will, however, keep a watchful eye out, just in case the winning creature is still around.

I'm not sure how clean we are without any soap or shampoo, but at least it's something. Checking the map after I dried off, we started got our bearings and headed out. It was about nine O'clock in the morning now, so we didn't lose that much time. We were still not too sure how far we were from the edge of the of the jungle. I know I said by mid day but I am still not sure how long it will be. I noticed a rustling in the bushes beside us.

"Do you guys hear that?"

"Hear what?" Ganger asked with concern in her voice.

"Just listen." We stopped and I heard nothing. "It's gone. Stay on your guard. It's still stalking us." We started to move more cautiously now. The rustling happened again and Ganger shot her magic in the direction of it. Shortly after we heard something collapses onto the ground. I went over to see what it was and found a tiger laying there. Ganger came up to me and looked at it.

"I only stunned it, we don't have long until it recovers. We should get going."

"Right." We turned around and ran to get as much ground between us and the tiger. Hopefully it will lose track of us, then we wouldn't have to constantly watch our backs.

---

It had been about a mile and no sign of the tiger. I decided to make a stop here since we haven't made one yet.

"It's about time we stopped. Sheesh! My hooves are killing me from all that running."

"I know Ganger, but it was needed." I sighed a sigh of relief. "Let's just hope that tiger lost our trail."

"It should have but I hope so as well. I'm kind of hungry."

"So am I, How about you Velvet?"

"Yes." She said, trying to talk again.

I nodded my head and got the food out, evenly distributing the rations between the three of us. "We are getting low again it seems."

"How bad off are we?"

"We have about a day or two worth of food left. Manageable but we need to start looking for food, as well as making our way to the edge of the jungle."

"Ugh, how long until we reach Equestria?"

I pulled the map out and found our location and found the border. "It seems we're about twenty nine miles closer now."

"So one thousand two ninety four?" Velvet asked.

"Yep." I rolled the map up and packed it.

"How can we still be so far away! It's been a month! A month of nothing but walking through a bucking desert, fighting of predators, and just surviving! Is there a way we can make this go faster?!" I saw tears start to form. She was starting to feel discouraged, I can tell.

"Not unless you want to run the rest of the way." I sighed. "I'm sorry but we can't do anything Ganger. We're all feeling a bit discouraged by the distance, but we can't give up now."

"I-I know, it's just so-" She was cut off by a roar that wasn't that far away.

"Hold that thought," I said, quickly packing up our food and canteens. "and run!" The creature that roared jumped out from the bushes.

Ganger cast a bright light, temporarily blinding the tiger . "Like I said, Always fighting off predators!"

"Shut up and run!" Velvet of all of us yelled at Ganger and ran. Ganger and I followed and caught up with her.

---

I heard it trailing close behind us. At this rate we weren't going to out run it.

"Velvet! Find somewhere to hide! Ganger we're going to have fight it off!"

"What!? Are you crazy!?"

"I don't like the idea either but it's our only option! Go Velvet, hide!!" Ganger and I stopped while Velvet ran ahead.

We bucked the tiger and sent it flying a few feet, it didn't stay down for long though. It roared again, louder than before, and swiped at Ganger. She dodged the tiger's attacks and tried to counter attack, but she couldn't get close enough. While it was distracted by her, I snuck beside it and bucked as hard as I could. It howled in pain and hit me a couple times to get away. I quickly ran over to Ganger.

"Are you hurt?" She asked with much concern. "I saw it hit you."

"I'm okay. It didn't use it's claws, so I think I'll only be bruised."

"And you're sure about that?" I nodded, trying to stare down the tiger. "Okay then... How are we going to defeat it?"

"No idea. But I'm sure we'll think of something." The tiger started to move. We followed it's movements and were slowly going around in a big circle. I thought of something. "How about you blast it with another spell?"

She shook her head. "I only know a few basic spells, none of which would be useful, and I already used up a lot of my magical energy. So it's all hoof-to-claw." Her voice was shaky, not that it was hard to tell she was nervous.

"I'm not much of a fighter, I have know idea how this is going to turn out."

We heard a loud hiss and we looked at the source. The tiger stopped and pounced again, getting alarming close to me. I tried to kick but I was too slow, it swiped and cut my upper left hind leg and some of my flank.

"Zeta!" Ganger called out and tried to get around the tiger, but to no avail.

"I...fine. it's ugh...just a scratch! Buck this hurts!"

"It won't let me pass!"

"Stay focused on the tiger! Get to me when you can!"

There was no response from Ganger, only the sound of battle filled the air. I looked at where the tiger got me, and it could have been worse but still didn't look good. I passed out a moment later.

When I came too, I saw the tiger had Ganger cornered. It brought up a paw to strike Ganger one last time until. "Enough!!" The tiger and I looked around and the tiger was suddenly surrounded by magical aura, and started levitating. And soon after that flew into a nearby tree. I looked for the owner of the voice and out came Velvet from the bushes. The tiger struggled to get up, and fell when it managed to stand. Velvet ran over to me and helped me up. Once I was set, she ran over to Ganger.

I looked over at the tiger and it just laid there, staring at all of us. I felt anger stand to creep up on me and I started to walk towards it. It saw me and started to growl, when that didn't work it tried backing away but backed into the tree. It's eyes began to widen and then something strange happened. "Help me!" It spoke.

---

I just sat there, staring at it, or her rather, completely dumbfounded. All anger for her has been replaced by confusion. Velvet and Ganger cautiously walked over to me and stared at her as well.

"If you're going to kill me, just do it already!" She yelled. "Quit toying with me and do it!"

"Y-you can talk?" I said.

She stared at me with her own confusion. "Y-yes." she answered slowly. "I can talk. Is that any reason for you not to finish me?"

"We're not going to kill you." Said Velvet, with concern on her face.

"Then why attack me?"

"Why were you stalking us?" Ganger asked, with something similar to annoyance in her voice.

"I was curious! I heard walking close to my den and wondered what it could be." She looked at me. "And then I saw your mane. It looked familiar and I thought...no, nevermind that would be impossible." She shook her head. "And then I was struck by some kind of magic."

"And then you followed us!" Ganger yelled. "I cast that spell, stunned you and we ran. You could have gone back to your den instead!"

"Do you blame me for getting angry!" She growled. "I am only doing what I can to protect my children!" She then lowered her head. "I tried, I really did. What are you going to do with me? Kill me? Take me prisoner? What?"

"We're going to release you." I said with a smile on my face.

"You what?"

"You're free to go. But if I may ask. How does my mane look familiar?"

"I had a friend, along time ago, with a mane like yours. She is also the one that taught me to speak your language. She found me when I was just a cub. I ventured outside of my den and got lost. Trying to find my way back, I ventured further into the jungle. I was attacked at some point and got cornered by boars. That's when she found me. She fought off the boars and checked to see if I was okay. After that, she picked me up and asked me where I lived. I led her to my den and that's when she met my father. He attacked her but I protected her as she did for me. My father asked why I was doing this for a stranger and I told him she saved me. She was a pony, her mane was lighter than your's though."

"What happened to her?" Velvet asked.

"That's the sad part. Shortly after she taught me to speak your language, she told me she had to leave and go back to Equestria. She said she would return but she never did. I don't know where she is or even if she's still alive..."

"H-how long ago was this?" I asked.

"Eighteen years ago. Now that I look at you, you do look a lot like her." She smelled me, and her eyes widened. "I see. What is your name?"

I raised an eyebrow "Zeta..."

"Well then Zeta, I believe I met your mother."

"N-n-not possible! She died giving birth to me! She long since dead!"

"She could still be dead. But you were lied too." She looked at the other two. "Thank you for sparing me, I must be off now." She gave us a quick nod and ran off.

"Be safe!" Velvet called after her and then turned her attention to me. Ganger started to back away and told Velvet to stay put. I just stood up, turned around and started walking.

I was lied to about my mother's death? What else was I lied to about?

Author's Note:

Hello everyone! Sorry about that brief hiatus. I got a job and they've been keeping me pretty busy anyway I hope you enjoy and please tell me if you find any mistakes.