With a full stomach, and only slightly nauseous, Viv left Grace’s home as they settled down to sleep. She took her time walking down the curving wooden stairs outside, pausing whenever she felt a little more queasy than normal, and letting her stomach settle.
What truly disturbed her was how much she enjoyed the flavor. Certainly the texture was revolting, even cooked, and the greasiness of it bothered her, but the smoky salty flavor, and the spices they used were delicious. She’d never had anything like it before.
Finally, she found her hooves resting on firm packed earth, and she took a moment to breathe, before finally making her way to the center of the town square, and spreading her magic around the pillar, as though she was anchoring herself to it.
After sitting and waiting for a few minutes, she began to examine the rough surface of the pillar more closely, limiting her magical field to a hoof sized section, and trying to decipher each symbol she discovered. It was clear it was some sort of language, but she could barely understand written Unicorn script when it was clearly defined with printing press blocks, much less whatever it was they had carved into the pillar.
In the middle of her contemplation, Vivid felt a tingling warmth spread down from her ears, then across her face, ever so slowly. She quickly took off the heavy coat and let her whole body experience the slow path of the sunlight as dawn arrived. She couldn’t help but smile. So many mornings were ordinary, but this one felt special. Energetic and hopeful.
What a beautiful thing, she thought, to feel Sol’s sun warm her. Bring life back into tired bones. She didn’t know how the griffins could stand to sleep through it, and she didn’t want to know. Even if just for a short while each morning, she would not let herself forget the sun.
“You really are something special.”
Viv almost fell over, startled by the noise as she shoved her coat back on.
“Ex… Excuse me?” she asked as she turned her head towards the sky, where the voice had come from.
“Special,” the soft voice repeated.
Viv could feel the impact as the griffin landed in front of her.
“Unique. You can feel things with your magic, what about people? Could you examine me with it?”
“Yes… Anie. I can,” Viv said as she finally placed the familiar voice despite her tone sounding different, more serious. “But most beings feel uncomfortable with it, as I then am holding them quite tightly across their entire body. It’s not a gentle thing.”
Anie chuckled and then began walking away, though Viv felt something brush across her nose, which she concluded must have been the griffin’s tail.
“Come! I have to tend to my plants, we can also talk.”
Vivid followed the casual walk of her new friend, easily picking up on the way she would wind to the side just to walk through the crisp dried leaves to the edge of each path. She was fascinated by how every once in a while she would whistle out a bird call, when she heard one in the forest. How each call was just right for the type of bird who had called out.
Viv wondered if Anie knew what each call meant, if it was a language that she had learned. It seemed impossible, but so fanciful.
"Well, come inside."
Viv realized Anie had stopped, and she spread her magic out to find the doorframe, door, and then the thin woven walls they were fastened to.
"It's a garden. Walled, to keep it safe. Come on, now."
Enchanted, Viv followed her into the garden, pulling the door closed behind her. But while she was focused on closing the door, Anie's cheek brushed hers, sending an electric hum through her neck and down her side. It made Viv shiver, almost gasping as her hair stood on end, but she kept her surprise quiet.
"What..."
"You're cold," Anie laughed, as she began to walk away from Viv again. "Maybe you need someplace more comfortable."
"I'm not... not cold, I... why..." Viv mumbled as she followed, still fascinated, as though being led on a leash.
“You are special, and I can feel it,” Anie continued her previous statement as she picked up a bucket that sloshed, and began doling out careful measurements of water to different sections of her garden.
“Special, what sort of special?” Vivid scoffed, finally regaining her senses after being taken off guard by the physical contact that left her heart still racing.
“You don’t belong among all of them. Ordinary, predictable types. You belong in a wild and interesting place, you belong among your kind.”
“Among my kind,” Vivid sighed. “I am quite comfortable being among griffins--”
“Among those who aren’t beholden to men.”
Vivid’s mouth was suddenly dry, and she realized that she had been absconded to this creature’s home, without knowing the way back to grace’s house, and without knowing if this was a trap of some kind. She backed away.
“I’m afraid you must have mistaken me for someone else…” she mumbled.
“There is no need to be afraid, Vivid. If you are not interested in me, I will help you home, and never trouble you again. If I was truly… Mistaken.”
"No!"
Everything was quiet. The birds had stopped singing, and Anie was not moving. It was as though Viv had been dropped in the middle of a forest, alone.
"You are not mistaken," Vivid whispered.
She was almost shaking. To admit to this, aloud, in any company but that of her only friend and in a closed room... To admit to a woman. It was terrifying, she thought.
"Vivid, you said that you could use your magic to see someone. It might be uncomfortable, but you could. I want you to see me," Anie said as she stepped a little closer.
"You will not enjoy it."
"Then mayhap you will enjoy it enough for the both of us," Anie replied, lighthearted and near to laughter.
"It is no joke!" Vivid protested. "It caused other children panic when I was young, and others to think of me a horror!"
She was struck silent when Anie's hand gently wrapped around Vivid's horn. Her magic reflexively spread from that point.
Vivid could define her fingers, the way the scales hardened as they reached her arm. She could feel every ridge and then the spot just before her elbow where the scales gave away to fine feathers. They were flattened out by her magic, but she dug her magic in, letting it wrap around each feather so that she could feel what they were like without pressure pushing down on them. She felt Anie's whole arm, and then she spread her power across her body. The thin muscle over her body, not for strength but making up the curve of her chest, and her stomach. Making the length of her neck. She felt Anie's wings along their entire length as they stretched out, each feather, and the incredibly strong but small muscles that tied them together across her chest and back.
She found the place around her waist where her feathers faded to fur, but then Vivid stopped. She was going to be holding Anie's hindquarters, or her head, no matter what she did. Those seemed to her, to be the most frightening things she could do.
"Continue," Anie said.
When she spoke, the exhale changed the structure of her chest. The way she was sleeker, smaller. Vivid released her grip on Anie's chest so she could breathe, and she moved her magic across Anie's haunches, her legs were stronger than her arms, and Viv was reminded that Griffins were predators, with bodies designed for pouncing and leaping. The sharp claws on her hands and hind legs were designed for killing. The claws wrapped around her horn, were meant to end life. But for now, they were just fingers, a way to interact with the world.
She encompassed most of Anie's haunches and legs, then felt her tail. Long, whip-like with a tuft of course hair on the end. Like a brush. She was careful not to extend her magic anywhere too intimate.
She then finally felt Anie's face.
She wore a necklace. That surprised Vivid, a necklace of smooth beads and wooden charms. Each one was carved like an animal or plant. She swallowed as the magic continued, and vivid could feel the motion of her throat as she did. The back of her neck, and her head were lined in larger feathers that stuck out, forming a sort of mane of her own. Her ears were tufted spikes of feather, which she could move, instanced by the way they twitched when the magic wrapped around them. Her eyes were smaller than a pony's, and forward facing, again a predatory trait. But somehow endearing to Vivid. It brought to mind the thought of Anie focusing wholly on one thing, investigating it, and understanding it, while a pony may wander from thing to thing, or be too focused on taking in the whole world at once.
Finally, there was her beak.
Hard, sharp, and curved to a wicked point, Viv held all of Anie for a few moments, feeling her heart beat, feeling her breathe, feeling every attempt to twitch or move against the magic encapsulating her. Vivid truly understood what a griffin was, for the first time. Not just being told, or stories. She understood now how, unlike a Pegasus with wings twice the width of the length of their body, a griffin could have vast wings three times as wide as their body length or even longer.
She let go with a snap of spent magic, and a smell of charged air swirling around her, and she nearly fell unconscious from the strain, staggering to the side until she collided with a planter box and came to rest on the ground on her side, legs splayed out.
Her ears were ringing, and she felt nauseous. It reminded her of the sea, and for some reason of that damned seagull she’d eaten raw like a madmare.
“Come here, come here.”
Vivid let herself be lifted and carried off. Soon she was being laid down in a soft cocoon-like swaddle of cloth. A mess of different cloths and blankets made it easy to wiggle and find some sort of comfort as they filled in any gaps.
Anie’s hand traced the line where Vivid’s mane grew from the back of her neck. Her claws were gentle, more of a deep comb through her coat than anything painful. It was soothing, and Vivid let herself relax.
“You now know me better than any griffin does,” Anie commented after some time had passed.
“I can never see you. I can never tell what color your feathers are,” Vivid said bitterly.
“Grey,” Anie chuckled. “Grey with white speckles, quite mundane, and I know quite well what I look like, well enough for both of us/ How about… What do I sound like?”
That was new to Vivid, someone asking her opinion on their voice. She thought on it, and smiled.
“You sound like a trick. No, like… You are so certain of yourself, it seems impossible. Like you must have some secret reason for what you do. You sound… Like you are older than you seem. Wiser. Your voice has an edge to it, a sharpness that I am not used to. Like you are ready for something bad to happen.”
Throughout her rambling, Anie’s claws did not stop their combing of the back of Vivid’s neck. But when she stopped, so did the claws.
“How did you know I was… What I am?” Vivid asked, finally.
“What we are, you mean? Well… there’s something about the way you look. It made me think that you were a Butch.”
“I recognize that word, and I think I am, but… what about the way I look?” Vivid pressed further.
“Your mane is short. When a griffin is butch, they grow out their feathers like a crest, but you ponies are backwards. Lots of mane for mares. So it makes sense that you would crop yours short. You walk like you’re going to make someone get out of your way. You talk with a deeper voice than most ponies. I just… Felt something about you, when I looked at you.”
“So…” Vivid paused, trying to understand how she must appear, what things must have made her so confident in her assumption. “Someone else would not be able to tell?”
“I don’t think so. You’d just be a somewhat masculine mare.”
Anie’s claws moved from the back of Vivid’s neck to the side, running from her cheek down to her shoulder. She shivered, the pleasant feeling shooting through her in tingling waves.
“Are you cold?” Anie asked, her voice clearly hiding a laugh.
“I’m not-- That’s why you asked if I was cold, you can see when that happens? The shiver?”
“Your fur stands on end,” Anie explained as she did it again. “And you shake slightly, it looks like you are cold, really. All fluffy.”
She stopped and drew her hand away.
“I can stop if it is uncomfortable.”
“No, please don’t stop,” Vivid replied, trying to turn towards Anie, but instead swaying in the fabric she’d been laid in.
“You’re in a hammock, I imagine these are new to you,” Anie explained. “It is a sheet of cloth suspended between two trees, strengthened by rope. A bed of sorts. It is hung a little bit off the ground, but not so much it would hurt if you fell out of it. I can put you back on the ground, you just seemed to need some rest.”
“I just don’t… I’d rather be on my own hooves.”
Anie picked her back up, and set her down with ease, and Vivid remembered the way those muscles had felt against her magic. Anie was probably as strong as any earth pony. Vivid sat on the wood floor and spread her magic, finding the hammock had padding under it, and there were nearby stairs. Her magic came across Anie’s hands, and Anie played with the edge of it, making Vivid chuckle as she stood.
“You’re so playful, we’ve known eachother not even a day! Or night, whatever your people use to measure time. It’s been no time at all.”
As she spoke she continued spreading her magic, finding the lower section of the home had shavings of wood scattered around the wooden floor, as well as all sorts of small things. Potted plants, and the legs of a table all passed through her magic.
“You will find I know you quite well despite the short time we’ve had together,” Anie said, sounding almost smug.
Vivid’s magic traveled up the table legs down and behind her. It was difficult to maintain her focus at distance, but as long as it was connected to her, she could continue to spread her magic. She realized as she felt more of it, that it was a small table with the highest concentration of wood shavings spilled around it and on top of it, with some sort of carved wooden thing on the table surface.
“I know you are like a griffin at heart, I know that you fled to this place looking for peace, and that I can give you that peace.”
Vivid’s magic sputtered out as Anie nuzzled her cheek, breaking her concentration and surprising her. Her cheeks grew hot again, and she frowned despite being happy for the contact.
“Griffin at heart? I am a pony. What does that mean?” Vivid asked as she stepped away, just a little.
“You are strong, you have the viciousness of a predator in you. You care for yourself first, and are proud.”
“How could you possibly know that about me? I’ve only been in this town for a single night,” Vivid said as she continued to back away, frowning.
“It doesn’t… It doesn’t matter, okay. I just… I’ve been waiting for you for so long, Vivid.”
“I need to know. How do you know about me? How can you be so certain of who I am? How could you have been waiting for me?!”
As the silence stretched on, Vivid spread her magic around herself, her fear making her think that the silence could be more than just a pause.
“I’m not going to hurt you, Vivid,” Anie said, from a bit further away than Vivid had thought. She sounded hurt, tired. Maybe mournful of mishandling the situation. “I’ll guide you back to Grace’s home. Come.”
She started walking away, and Vivid followed, suddenly feeling uncomfortable in Anie’s home.
They left the garden, and walked in silence back to the town. Once they were there, Viv heard Anie’s wings spread, and she was gone.
Vivid sat in that dirt path, her head hanging a she sighed. It felt wrong, all of it. How Anie had known her so intimately, and yet also how she’d just flown away, leaving Vivid confused and alone. She wished that she could just make Anie answer, and then know how Anie knew. Did she have friends in Bitain? Friends who would know and communicate details about Vivid, of all ponies?
There were no answers coming, so Vivid stood and resumed the walk back to Grace’s home. The welcome heat of the sun warming her back, despite feeling exhausted. She’d been up for too long, and too much of the world baffled her. She remembered those evenings laying among the herbs in her garden, letting the world pass her by, and she longed for that peace. That calm.
Quietly, she ascended the stairs, slipped inside, and curled up like a child on the straw cushions. She didn’t even bother to draw the blanket over her, as she let her tired muscles relax, and her awareness of the world fade away.