//------------------------------// // Oath and Arrival // Story: Hurricane Trinity // by Lovesick-Ded //------------------------------// HURRICANE TRINITY An MLP Extended-Universe Story Written by M.J. Hopper CHAPTER NINE Midnight struck, and Celaeno let out a weary yawn in spite of herself; since Boyle had been the one to take the rudder all day, she had offered to take on the night shift and make sure that the ship was prevented from crashing into anything…or running out of fuel…or some other, unknown-but-probably-there issue that would send them all careening to their deaths if left unattended. That was the problem with sailing in the skies…there were really not too many ways to drop anchor. Everything seemed to be clear skies and smooth sailing for now, but she knew that the Sea of Clouds would end eventually and the last thing she wanted was to make a bad impression on the Hippogryphs by having her ship totaled in one of their higher-altitude villages. Still, it was incredibly hard to stay alert, especially when she hadn’t really gotten a whole lot of rest the previous few nights…she kept having strange dreams; dreams of fuchsia light and battles of old. It was always the same: she was standing in the midst of intense carnage, yet…she did not feel fear in the slightest. Bathed in the same light that she had seen before, she saw herself fighting off these…strange creatures, wielding some kind of sword that she could not quite put her claw on vision-wise. All she knew was, it was powerful, and it had some kind of crest on it… “Ugh…” She slumped against the wheel and rested her head in her arms, trying her darnedest not to fall asleep. Not only did she need to keep an eye out for potential obstacles, she really, REALLY did not want to have that dream again… Cela. The parrot woman’s ears pricked and she raised her head, looking around; someone or something was whispering a name…a name she had not been referred to as in almost a decade. “Who’s there?” she demanded, stepping away from the wheel and reaching toward her side for the cutlass she currently had sheathed. There was silence, utter silence, for a moment; the voice then repeated, in the same tone, the same voice: Cela. The female’s ears flattened against her skull in irritation and she unsheathed the cutlass, looking in the direction of the cabins. “I swear to the gods, if you are who I THINK you are…it’s not funny!” The hold, Cela. “Cut it OUT!!” Celaeno angrily shouted the words into the nothingness, as if to get some kind, any kind, of response from a mortal being; when there was nothing but silence, she growled angrily, her chest huffing. Smiling a bit, as if in some sort of crazed attitude, she nodded her head. “The hold, huh? You mean the cargo hold, right? What’s so important that I need to go there?!” The Oath. “Oh, so NOW you’re talking to me.” Celaeno could not believe that she was attempting to commune with what appeared to be a disembodied voice, but she really did not see any other way to get the damned thing to go away. She continued. “What ‘oath’ are you talking about?” Your Oath. “My…?” The parrot woman’s features contorted into a look of utter confusion, and she looked down at her feet as something began to materialize around her, seeping from the edges of the deck and swirling around her like a fine mist. She could see that it was, in fact, not quite mist but a cloudy fog; however this fog was clearly of magical origin as it was bright pink and seemed to emanate a strange glow against the darkened state of the ship. It weaved toward her from all directions of the deck almost in a single, continuous circle before circling around her feet and climbing its way up her body. “St-stop—” Celaeno began a plea but it was quickly silenced by the realization that the fog did not want to harm her…rather, it appeared to be attempting to tell her something but all she could manage to make out were the same words she had heard before: Hold. Oath. Cela. Yet…she was unsure whether the fog was communicating with her on a subconscious level, but its words clicked something within her mind this time. The parrot-woman’s ears tilted back slightly and she shut her eyes before exhaling a breath, opening them in the direction of the cargo hold. The fog removed itself from around her body and trailed downward, as if forming a small lined path toward the direction of where she intended to go; Celaeno raised her head and took a step forward. “All right,” she said quietly, heading toward the hold’s door with a semi-determined stance. “If the cargo hold is where you want me to go…I’ll go there. I swear though, if this turns out to be some kind of trick…” Reaching the cargo hold’s main door, she held out a talon and placed it upon the door handle, pushing herself forward and shoving it open; it emitted a horrible squealing sound that felt so loud that for a moments’ time Celaeno was afraid it would wake up everyone on the ship, and she stopped in her tracks, her gaze darting around nervously. When no one appeared to confront her, and when nothing else seemed to even stir for that matter—not even the sails—she heaved a sigh and stepped into the darkened interior, immediately turning her attention to the lantern that lay at her feet near the threshold. Gently tapping at the surface, the fireflies that were within the lantern’s interior stirred, and the hold was immediately lit, albeit faintly. She looked around. For the most part, nothing seemed to be out of the ordinary: everything was still packed away and organized the way they had originally left it when they had been taking inventory much earlier. Still, something felt…different this time around, and the parrot woman was determined to find out what it was, lest the voice come back to haunt her again and lest her natural curiosity get the better of her later on. Narrowing her gaze, she scanned the entire hold again, looking for anything that may be off from before; be different… Nothing. “Gods…whatever’s going on…the answer has to lie in one of these crates,” Celaeno ultimately deduced; this was followed by another irritated sigh as she ran her claws along her head-feathers and glowered, her shoulders slumped. “Wonderful…it’s going to be like finding a needle in a haystack at this point.” It was at that point that the fog crept its way in again and swept past her, trailing in a straight line towards the back of the hold. Celaeno could only take this as a clue that she needed to follow, and she would take any clue she could get right now to make things easier. Stepping forward, she began to follow the smoky trail of pink further and further back, until, eventually, it ended at the base of a rather modest, rectangular-shaped crate. This one was on the floor, further away from the other boxes, and for a brief moment she pondered how and why it had ended up here when they were certain to have stacked all the crates together… Cela…Oath…Cela… “Oh!” The parrot woman gasped as the voice returned and her heart skipped a beat from temporary fright as she placed a talon over her chest, her breathing slightly quicker than normal. Shaking her head to clear her mind, she looked down at the crate, her eyes narrowing. “So…this is what you want me to see, huh…” The whispers carried on, though inaudible, as Celaeno reached out with both talons, shaking a bit as she pried the lid off of the crate and looked inside… …She was not prepared for what she saw next. Lying inside the crate, amongst a makeshift bed of paper and fur scraps, was a single, one-handed sword; judging from the small scratches and pock-marks on the blade itself, it had to have been ancient and have weathered many battles, yet it had been restored to somehow near-pristine condition and the hardened metal it was made from still shone brightly even in the dim light. The blade itself was pure silver and looked as sharp as a pinion, and the hilt appeared to be made of a different type of metal plated entirely with gold and garnished with various gemstones—mainly purple and pink ones above all else. The handle was wrapped in leather and tied at the end crudely. What caught her completely off-guard, however…was the crest on the hilt’s center, where the hilt ultimately met with the blade. It was of a winged creature—quite possibly an eagle or gryphon—and it bore the look of a mighty avian spreading its wings… …The same crest, if not the exact same, that she had seen before in her dreams. She could feel the blood draining out of her face as she eyed it, and for a moment she felt legit fear strike the core of her soul, as if she were having some kind of nightmare rather than an actual discovery in the waking world. “Th…this isn’t funny…” She looked around, her eyes wide and her pupils practically narrowed into dots, clutching one talon to her chest to prevent her entire body from giving in to the shivers that were forming in the top of her spine. She shut her eyes and counted to ten under her breath, convincing herself (and utterly failing) that this was merely another dream; that when she opened her eyes, she would probably be embedded in a mountain somewhere… When she re-opened them, the blade was still there. Damn it. This was real…and it was legit still frightening her. “Wha…what do you want with me?” The parrot woman finally managed to speak, still attempting to hold back the fact she was trembling a bit. “Please…I…I really didn’t do anything to deserve—” Do not fear, Cela… Celaeno blinked and her body seemed to ease in tension ever so slightly. “What?” Do not fear…your Oath. “My—” She realized she was repeating herself from earlier on, and bit the bottom of her beak ever so slightly before again looking down at the sword. Something stirred within her psyche, and slowly her body began to relax a bit more the longer she eyed it. No, there was nothing to fear. It was a sword and nothing else. And, apparently, according to this strange voice or whatever… …It was hers to wield. Reaching a talon out, she slowly wrapped her claws around the handle of the weapon, and almost immediately a surge of energy ran up her arm and coursed through her body, as visions of her previous dreams flashed in the back of her mind and temporarily overwhelmed her for a few seconds. Gasping, she fell forward slightly, breathing heavily, before grunting and fully taking up the sword, holding its gleaming blade up against the light of the lantern. It certainly was an impressive sword, and it still looked like it could be properly wielded. But…at the same time…why did it so closely resemble the sword from the dreams she had been having, and why did what was apparently a disembodied voice lead it to her…? “So strange…” Celaeno murmured to herself as she tilted the blade to one side, eyeing the crest on the hilt with curiosity and determination. “What…are you…?” * “Ow—Mom, stop…!” “Hold still,” Windcaller stated firmly, proceeding to press her hand against her son’s head as she continued to groom him. The two were currently in Prince Stormbreaker’s sleeping quarters, and Windcaller was attempting to brush him down properly after drying him off from a rather tedious (but still quite luxurious) bath. Unfortunately, as she had predicted, he had inherited her fur…thick, impressionable, and completely and utterly futile at attempting to gain proper control of. She had made several attempts with various types of brushes only to wind up in failure, and was now attempting the last one—a thin, rather brittle comb, but at least it was doing its job somewhat. The Yeti female gave a sigh of utter frustration before running it through Stormbreaker’s tail fur one more time and tossing it aside, shakingher head. “Caprinian grooming may be pure luxury, but it utterly fails at getting the job done for us Yeti,” she griped; seeing that her son’s fur was still pretty much a mess, the snowy-white female sighed and opened her mouth, letting her dark-gray tongue loll out. “Guess I’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way…” “M-Mom, no!” Stormbreaker recoiled almost immediately, wrapping his tail around his legs and shaking his head violently. “Th-that’s kids’ stuff…I’m almost an adult now—!” “You’re sixteen,” Windcaller retorted; she gently yanked Stormbreaker toward her and began to gently smooth his fur with her tongue, talking in-between licks. “And, teenager or not…I’m not letting you go to your first Banquet with…uff…a messy coat.” Indeed, the young yeti-goat had reached the age where he could now, under Caprine law, officially attend the Royal Gatherings and Banquets without getting into serious trouble, and tonight was the night of the first Banquet in celebration of the twenty-fifth year of Grogar’s alliance treaty to unite the Yeti and the Caprinians as one. Granted it was held every year, but this year was particularly important as both princes would now be in attendance, and Stormbreaker knew already that he was going to be ogled at by the spectators worse than a slab of meat in a manticore’s den. He groaned and rolled his eyes. “I don’t see why it’s such a big deal if I have a ‘messy coat’ to begin with,” he griped, folding his arms as his mother groomed the back of his head. “I’m probably just gonna be the mascot of the entire gathering…I’m the only freaking ‘half-breed’ there, after all.” Windcaller stopped grooming him for a moment and sighed, shutting her eyes. She placed a palm on Stormbreaker’s cheek, turning his head to face her, and smiled slightly. “Stormbreaker…you’re not a ‘mascot’ to your father; you’re a symbol of HOPE.” She looked down to the side. “We took a lot of risks when we chose to have you…ultimately, though, we went through with it, and I could never be happier that we did. Your father is…well, a hard old goat to figure out, but, he DOES love you…and so do I.” “So why does—” Stormbreaker was about to finish that sentence with “no one else” but decided against it; he did not want to concern his mother further with his own personal issues. Biting his lower lip, he nodded his head. “I…I know, Mom. I just, uh…” He fought for a proper statement for awhile before continuing. “I…I’m nervous about the whole thing, is all. I mean, Gallyen has told me about the Banquets before, but I’ve, you know, never actually BEEN to one…” “You’ll be fine.” Windcaller smiled and playfully licked at one of his ears, winking at him. “You’re like your father…stubborn, but a strong presence and will of mind. I’m sure that everyone is going to respect that.” “Yeah…” Stormbreaker looked off to the side as his voice seemed to trail into the distance; he shook his head to clear his senses. “Uh, anyway…are you, like, done grooming me yet, or do you have to, uh…” Windcaller sighed and ran a clawed finger across her tongue, looking slightly disdainful. “I have your undercoat all over my tongue…PLEASE tell me that you weren’t shedding again when you took your bath, Stormbreaker…” “Er…” The young prince became nervous then, his heartbeat quickening as the rising thought that he was in trouble began to sink into his mind. Tucking his tail between his legs slightly, he got to his feet and leapt towards the door, immediately waving and speaking, quite quickly: “SorryMom Ididn’tmeanit I’llseeyouattheBanquet BYE!” Before Windcaller could even open her mouth to get a word out, the young prince had slammed the door shut; heaving yet another sigh of irritation, Windcaller shook her head before proceeding to scrape her tongue clean with the dull end of one claw. At the same time, however, she was worried, and that worry was something greater than just a mat of fur coating her tongue at the moment… “Please, my gods…” She seemed genuinely more concerned with another thing entirely as she cleaned the last of the white fur off of her tongue, and lowered her head slightly, eyes wavering as she looked toward her knees. “…Don’t let them hurt him…anymore…” * “Land ho!” Capper and Celaeno looked up from the conversation they had been having to see Boyle hanging off one side of the rig, pointing toward the distance with one claw; he seemed genuinely enthralled and it was obvious to both of them why. Approaching the side of the ship, they looked in the direction that the burly parrot male was pointing to see the misty structure of the Winged Citadel, the capital of Mount Aris, loom into view. Capper smiled, whilst Celaeno gave a sigh of relief. “We’re gettin’ there,” Capper declared, momentarily reaching down to feel for the daggers he still had pocketed. “Pretty soon we’re all gonna—HEY!” He gave a shout of surprise as Storm suddenly appeared, zipping up to the side of the ship and pushing his way in-between the young Abyssinian and the parrot woman as he whipped his head from side to side, looking excitable. “Someone say land ho? Are we there? Please tell me we’re close—” “If you’d shut your fang-toothed mouth and just freaking LOOK, you’d see that we’re close,” Celaeno snapped, pushing against his shoulder and shoving him aside with one talon. She shook her head. “It’s crud like this that got you defeated in the first place, Storm ‘King.’ Pay more attention to your surroundings before you open your big—” Seeing that Storm was beginning to glower at her in response, Capper once again stepped between the two, pushing them both to the side gently. “Guys, guys...no fightin’, okay? That’s not what we all came here to do, so don’t go startin’ things up when they shouldn’t be around in the first place, you hear?” “Who was fighting?” Storm replied, though his voice was dripping with sarcasm. He glared at Celaeno, his teeth practically bared. “I was just ‘paying attention to my surroundings,’ is all.” “And I was merely stating a simple fact,” Celaeno replied, fluffing her feathers slightly; she turned around and headed toward the front of the ship. “But anyway, Capper, you have a point…I’m going to go check on Squabble and Lix; see if they have any information on how close we are.” “Yeah, you go do that…you go freaking do that!” Storm called after her; Celaeno merely flipped her tail to the side in response (obviously an insult) and for a moment the goat-creature felt like he was going to legit go off the handle again…it was a really good thing Capper was there at the moment. The young cat-being placed a hand on Storm’s shoulder, smiling weakly and shrugging his own shoulder in response to this. “Feathers really isn’t all that bad,” he tried to explain. He rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “She just, uh…takes some time to get used to, is all. She’s kinda used to doin’ her own thing, so to speak.” “I noticed,” Storm replied through clenched teeth, and Capper could do nothing more than offer a nervous grin and shrug in return before letting go of Storm’s shoulder. He sighed and lowered his head a bit, his ears drooping. “I just don’t want y’all fightin’, okay?” He raised his head a bit, and Storm’s anger toward the belligerent parrot woman faded temporarily as he eyed the cat-being. “Look, this entire trip was…kinda my idea…KINDA…so I feel partly responsible for any bad blood between us, y’know?” “Whoa, whoa, who said anything about ‘bad blood?’” Storm replied, shaking his head. He held up his hands in defense. “She just…got on my nerves, that’s all. There’s really no need to—” “Mount Aris is in sight!” Celaeno declared from the bow of the deck, waving toward them—Capper, in particular. “We should be touching down on the base of the kingdom itself fairly soon. Boyle will be in charge of docking the ship, so stay on your toes!” Capper breathed a sigh of relief. “Whew…thank gods. We finally made it without no problems.” He looked in Celaeno’s direction for a moment, tapping his chin in thought. “Hey Storm, did you notice, like, anything…DIFFERENT…about Feathers lately? Like, I can’t put my paw on it, but something’s kinda off from her normal get-up, y’know what I’m sayin’?” “She has a new sword,” was all Storm could really say; Capper blinked at this blunt response and eyed Celaeno’s side, where she usually kept her old cutlass…unfortunately the blade was sheathed and only the handle and part of the hilt were visible, but he could, in fact, see that the hilt was far more detailed than that of her cutlass, and it shone like the night sky in gold. He shook his head slightly. “Huh.” The young Abyssinian looked over at the goat-beast and folded his arms, grinning a bit. “Y’see there, I never noticed the sword. Guess you’re not all that bad at takin’ in your surroundings after all, huh?” “Uh—” Storm’s eyes popped open at this statement and he appeared rather flabbergasted; Capper’s grin widened and he clapped a paw on Storm’s back before heading toward the bow of the ship. “Don’t let others doubt ya just yet, Storm,” he encouraged. “There’s a lot more to y’all than meets the eye, it seems.” Storm still remained silent for a moment, and blinked; this was the first time he could remember that Capper had actually semi-complimented him, and it was incredibly new to hear these types of things. Regardless, he still managed a small smile as he looked gratefully in the cat-being’s direction, nodding his head. “Maybe you’re right, Capper…maybe you’re right.” The sounds of snacking were then heard from behind him, and he obviously had had enough experience in this particular field to know who it was. Turning around, he, sure enough, saw Grubber approach, waddling up with a large piece of pumpkin bread in his tiny paws. The little hedgehog paused to take a large bite of the tasty treat before looking up at Storm, then over at Celaeno and Capper. “What’s goin’ on?” he asked, nibbling another bite off of the loaf; Storm sighed and looked over toward the two, placing his hands on his hips. “Well, we’ve undoubtedly arrived at Mount Aris…we should be landing fairly shortly,” he informed Grubber; at hearing this Grubber nearly spat out the large chunk of partially-chewed food that filled his mouth and his eyes lit up again. “R-really?!” The little hedgehog creature seemed even more ecstatic than he was before about reaching Mount Aris, and he stuffed the entire loaf into his mouth, quickly chewing and swallowing before bouncing up and down on his feet. “Oh wow this is gonna be awesome! We may finally get to Tambelon after all! Won’t that be cool?!” “Y-yeah…if they will let…” The white-furred creature suddenly came upon a realization and his heartbeat began to quicken as he looked toward the tip of the Winged Citadel, which drew closer and closer with each passing second; there was no doubt they would be landing at the kingdom’s gates soon. At first he thought about concealing himself from view…but no sooner had he thought that, than a low whooshing noise drifted along the air. Gulping a bit, he forced himself to look upward. Sure enough…the Hippogryphs were already fully aware of their presence; several of them—obviously guards or soldiers due to their armor-clad bodies—were flying along the top and sides of the ship, seemingly scouting the entire vicinity as they circled about. One of them, a small white-spotted creature, was scouting the deck area, and her gaze immediately travelled to Storm. He heard her audible gasp even from where he was standing, and he felt his entire being growing heavy with dread as she darted toward a pair of other guards and began whispering to them. Naturally, this alerted the other two to his presence aboard the ship, and they looked down at the goat-creature, glaring daggers before flying off toward the Winged Citadel. Storm watched them as they departed, then bit his lower lip, chewing on it nervously to the point where he almost drew blood. Gods damn it…why hadn’t he even considered this scenario before? It was so obvious, and yet… “Wowwww, the Hippogryphs are so pretty up close,” Grubber declared, his eyes still sparkling, clearly unaware of the situation at hand. He looked up at Storm. “Why do you think they were here? Do they wanna welcome us or somethin’?” “Yeah…” Storm’s brow furrowed with utter dread as the ship prepared to land, inhaling a breath. He shook his head. “…But…not in the good way…” “Take ‘er in nice and steady!” Celaeno declared from the deck, and the goat-creature raised his head, appearing utterly confused. The Hippogryph guards had been in plain sight, and it was clear that something was up…had he been the only one to see them...? “I can’t believe we’re finally here!” Capper declared, leaning over the edge of the bow in excitement as the ship swerved inward, resting itself at the docks of the kingdom’s Citadel entrance. Leaping backward, he began to head down the deck and toward the side of the ship. “C’mon, Feathers, don’t keep us all waitin’ any longer!” As Celaeno’s crew prepared to lower the docking ramp, Storm wanted, more than anything, to warn them of what he felt was to come…but for some reason, he remained silent, his jaw tightly shut and his tail between his legs; all he could do was look on with sheer worry and slight fear as the ramp was lowered. Still, he felt himself moving forward as the others prepared to leave the ship…still, he was saying nothing, doing nothing… “Ah, land.” The parrot woman smiled as she placed a foot upon the ground near the Citadel’s entrance, and twirled around slightly, as if dancing a bit. She chuckled. “Feels good to put my feet down on solid ground after all that time sailing…even if I do love the sky.” “I’ll say.” Capper smiled in return and took a few small steps forward, looking up at the Citadel’s looming spire with awe. “Wow, they really done fixed up this old place since we were here last…” Storm then heard the sound of wings beating down on the air and, for some reason, this loosened his voice; he attempted to say something immediately: “Guys, I think—” It was far too late, however. By the time he had uttered the third word, a large party of Hippogryph guards appeared from the sky, touching down and landing in a circle around the small party, surrounding them; they folded their wings and raised their heads, their eyes narrowed; their small beak-like mouths twisted in loathing. Celaeno, Capper and Grubber all immediately gasped and drew inward, unaware of what exactly was going on; Storm lowered his head and his ice-blue eyes darted about as he took in their glares of disapproval and hatred. His tail tucked itself in further between his legs and he recoiled slightly. These glares seemed to last for what felt like hours, until a lone Hippogryph—a heavily-armored elite guard with a dark blue coat and lavender mane and tail—stepped forward. He raised his head high. “We have been made aware that you lot arrived here with a sworn enemy of the Queen,” he declared, his voice as cold and hard as snow-covered steel. His gaze flicked to Storm and he snarled a bit before continuing. “As is the law, you are all hereby placed under arrest for charges of treason and as a potential threat towards Mount Aris.” Everyone except the goat-creature seemed genuinely surprised and shocked; Celaeno stepped forward. “Wha-what?!” she stuttered, clutching her talon against her chest. “B-but we haven’t even done anything—” “You’ve done enough by bringing HIM here.” The dark blue Hippogryph turned his head in Storm’s direction. “I don’t know how in the world you managed to come back…but once you are before the Queen herself…” He spat in Storm’s direction and whipped around, signaling the other guards to follow with the small group in tow, and they began to head into the kingdom of Mount Aris. “…She will show you NO mercy.”