Colm and the young man kicked branches out of their way as they tried to find the path again. They had been forced; several times, now; to leap into the brush whenever they saw or heard anyone ahead of or behind them. The king had patrols out everywhere, probably in anticipation of the siege.
If there had been orders sent out to grab them, it took some time for those orders to reach the soldiers. The first few patrols just laughed at them and made jokes about the pair being racist when they were seen jumping behind cover at the sight of griffons. Colm and the young man just laughed it off with them, mostly out of relief.
Those days were short-lived, though. This morning, a patrol actually tried to detain them, and they had to fight their way out and into the woods. The griffons didn’t pursue them in, as the room for flight was totally inadequate for their fighting style.
They ran quite a distance, shoving their way through dense brush and roots, but now they had to find their way back. Both stallion and man grumbled their various misgivings about the situation, typically cursing that selfish King Yakesh. He was a real piece of work.
At least they got his daughter to run away from that ridiculous marriage. They both deserved that much.
“Hey man,” Colm said. “You think we’ll ever get out of this gods-forsaken country?”
“Heck if I know,” the young man said. “Lot higher than my odds of going home at this rate.”
After what must have been two hours, they emerged from the woods and back onto the path. Or, a path, at least. The patrol was nowhere to be seen. They would have to move quickly, in case they returned with a reaction force.
Nikita hadn’t seen it, but the young man took several items from her quarters before dipping. Colm had taken the bag with most of the stuff first while the young man checked everything topside before leaving through the window. They jacked a map, a compass, and some sheets. They had to leave all the gear the king had made for them, but that wasn’t a big deal.
On their way out of the city, they stole two additional bags and whatever non-perishable food items they could get from storefronts. On the one hand, they were thieves. On the other hand, who really cared at this point that actually mattered? Only the king, but their opinions of him were quite clear by now.
They had been travelling for close to seven days now. They had no idea what became of the city, but one of the initial friendly patrols gave them the news of the princess running of. They just assumed that her personal guard shad been sent to chase her down and bring her home. That was laughable.
And with all these edges held against them, they pressed forward, hoping that they wouldn’t get cut on the way.
“Well, looks pretty safe now,” Colm said.
“Let’s speed it up a bit anyway,” the young man said. “I’d rather not get spotted by a flying patrol and go back into those dang woods.”
“Amen to that,” Colm said.
For the next hour, they moved at a light jogging pace. In truth, they couldn’t go much faster with how much food and water they were carrying. They stole a ton before leaving. They made sure to spread it out to avoid screwing any single storeowner, but in total, they grabbed what would be close to a thousand dollars of food if it were in the United States.
They probably used about a third of it so far, leaving them a solid fourteen more food. Plus, the young man could try his hand at hunting, which could give them an extra day if he was lucky.
When they were too tired to keep jogging, they slowed to a regular walking pace to recuperate and looked to the sky. No patrols. The sun was beginning to set, so when night came, they would have to set up camp and sleep. They couldn’t make a fire, as any night patrols would be looking for that, so they’d have to do it in the light.
“We probably have another decent hour of light,” the young man said.
“We’ll go half an hour, then camp out,” Colm said. The young man nodded in agreement.
After another half hour of walking, the duo stepped off to the side and looked for a decent place to set up camp. They only had a few sheets and then the bags of canned foods for pillows, so it wouldn’t be comfortable. All they wanted was a relatively safe place to sleep.
They stepped into the brush and found nothing, so they made a spot. Colm started clearing away useless brush and the young man used any decent branches to set up the corners of a tent and noise traps in case anything approached. They had three sheets, soon went to each of them and one went over them. The overhead one was the darkest one, a deep navy blue sheet, but it was better than nothing. It would at least be hard to see.
With an area clear and corners set up, the young man made the makeshift tent and he and Colm climbed underneath with their food bags and personal sheets. It was pitch black inside the tent, but it wasn’t much brighter outside anymore. As long as they had response time from the noise traps, they’d be fine.
“Aight, looks good,” the young man said, making one last check on the sides. “To another day of survival.”
“Hoorah,” Colm said.
The young man laughed. “That’s close to a saying my uncle used to say,” he said.
“Huh?” Colm said. “Whatchoo mean?”
“My uncle was a member of my nation’s military, spent nineteen years as a Marine,” the young man explained. “Their battle-cry is Oorah.”
“Huh,” Colm said. “Didn’t you once say you were joining the military?”
“Was,” the young man said, sadness creeping into his voice. “Not likely now.”
“What would you have done?” Colm asked.
“I was planning on joining the Navy for Special Warfare,” the young man said. “Small teams of highly trained, hard dudes who can go anywhere at any time.”
“Sounds tough,” Colm said. The young man shrugged.
“What’s why it appeals to me,” he said. “If it isn’t difficult, it isn’t worth doing. Hard things make hard men.”
“Ah like that one,” Colm said with a chuckle. “Ah’mma quote ya on it.”
“Please do,” the young man said.
“What were you planning on doing?” the young man asked.
“Ah dunno, honestly,” Colm said. “Ah always had these dreams of taking down the Tong gang. Fight it out, one versus all, and come out on top or die trying. Ah wanted to bring some level of justice to everyone hurt by them.”
“Noble, but not exactly long term,” the young man said.
“Ah know,” Colm said. “Ah just never thought beyond that. Not sure why.”
“You sure about that?” the young man asked. Colm laughed.
“Ah guess yer right,” he said. “Ah guess… Ah guess Ah figured that Ah wouldn’t win, ya know?”
“I hear that,” the young man said.
“Ya ever felt that way? Like ya just won’t win, however hard ya try?” Colm asked.
“No,” the young man answered. “But I’d be lying if I said my future looks bright.”
“Well, maybe not fer what ya want, but it ain’t exactly dark or bleak,” Colm said. He couldn’t see, but the young man turned to face him. “However hard it might be ta accept ya ain’t going home, ya have a bright future here.”
“Here?” the young man laughed.
“You know what Ah mean,” Colm said. “Ya get to Equestria. They won’t extradite ya; you’ll have a good job there. Maybe start a special warfare thing of yer own with her guard.”
“I’m not an operator, so I’m not exactly qualified for that,” the young man said.
“Yer more qualified than any of them, and you’ll have to develop new stuff for ponies anyway,” Colm said. “Or you could start yer own Karate place. You did say that was a retirement thing you would consider back home.”
“I guess,” the young man said. “But… I…” He sighed. “I don’t know. I guess I just don’t feel right here.”
“Why would that be?” Colm asked.
“I’m a simple human with some skills, like most other humans,” the young man explained. “This is a magical world where my rules of life don’t always apply. Where the universal laws of physics don’t apply. It feels… off.”
“I suppose Ah can understand that,” Colm said. “But that’s what life is, ya know. You should know better than anyone; life is full of change. Nothing stays the same. No matter how you try to slow it, times keeps slipping by, and we wonder why it always seems to be time to say goodbye. But with any closing door, another opens. You’ll see.”
“That was quite the little speech,” the young man said. “That could be a part of a song.”
“Well, I do dabble,” Colm joked.
“I bet you wanted to dabble in that princess,” the young man said. Colm punched him on the shoulder, earning a laugh from the young man.
“Yer such a jerk, ya know?” Colm chuckled.
“I’m that sarcastic ass of a friend everyone wants, but that nobody wants to admits to wanting,” the young man said.
“Ponies, griffons, we’re all weird that way,” Colm said with a sigh. “We hate conflict, yet we invite it into our lives all the same.”
“What, you WANT to live a life of dragging steel blades across a field all day, every day, doing nothing else?” the young man asked rhetorically. “I don’t know about most ponies, but that kind of life makes me wanna just die, since that’s what my soul would do.”
“Too true,” Colm said.
The duo had a moment of silence between them as they both became lost in their thoughts. The young man stared up at the sheet as if it were the night sky, trying to imagine the stars beyond. He hadn’t actually gotten a really detailed look at the night sky yet, since his only travels in low-light areas were in less than ideal circumstances.
“Do you think they’re out there?” the young man asked.
“Who?” Colm replied.
“Earth,” the young man said. “My people, humans, my family and friends. Do you think that, somewhere, out there in deep space, maybe it’s all there, and I can look at it right now?” Colm was silent for a moment.
“Ya lost me,” he said.
“There’s billions of galaxies out there, inconceivable numbers of planets and solar systems. What if this one is just another? What if I just need a powerful teleportation spell to go home?” the young man asked. “Maybe if I grabbed a telescope, I’d find out home isn’t as impossibly far as it seems? What if this world is just another world among the many I accept to be real?”
“What?” Colm said.
“Maybe they’re just out there, out of reach for now,” the young man said.
“Ah have no idea what yer going on about, but it makes mah head spin,” Colm said. “Ah’m gonna get some sleep now. Goodnight, man.”
“Goodnight.”
Colm went off to sleep instantly, happy for the respite from the day’s travel and near miss. It was probably going to be the story of their lives for a little while, so it was better to get rest whenever the opportunity came up.
The young man didn’t sleep much that night, though. He simply lay there, imagining how things might be at home and wondering if he would ever get to see his old life again.
Many obstacles lay ahead, the least of which was Yakesh’s fury, and however strong the young man was, he couldn’t stop the demons in his mind from taking him this night. It was just one of many restless nights to come.