"Yes! Yes, yes, yes!" I ranted with a quickening pulse. "For the love of all things sacred, yes! I can hear you!"
I could practically feel the tears running down my green tinted cheeks as my smile grew even wider than I saw the horse's face was moments ago.
And then it turned sour faster than a candy cane in lime juice. My smile faded as I saw them look at each other in disappointment.
The one that had been interrogating me looked back at me for a moment and finally dimmed the sparkling of her horn. "I hate to admit you were right. He doesn't seem to know our language. Your spell definitely did something to get him excited. But all your research gave us is more of his gibberish."
She walked over to the door and used her head to gesture to the guards to come in. "Until we can establish proper communication, I can't just let him go." Her ears went flat and she gave a quick glance to the other horse as the guards came towards me with the gag. "We both know why I have to hold him. Tell me when you make more progress."
The hairs on the back of my neck cropped up as I tried to analyze the tone of her voice. The effect wasn't nearly as strong as it had been in the past, but I could still tell one thing: She felt uneasy talking about why she was holding me.
I had barely made a note to practice better understanding of my weird luck granting ability before I felt the taste of the gag in my mouth again.
As all of this had been going on, the other non-crystalline horse had been watching me the whole time. When she saw them gag me, she looked around worried for a moment then quickly shot up to the interrogation table, put her head in-front of mine and spoke loudly and with emphasized pronunciation.
"I don't know if you can understand exactly what I'm saying-"
*Click* The guards finished unlocking the cuffs from the shock mechanism and lifted me by the arms with their weird horn levitation.
"-But I'll keep working on it! I have so many ques-voupt gus yua!!" I heard the audibility of her voice fade out as a guard removed the amulet from around my neck. Without a second thought, it was tossed on the table and I was taken away.
For the next week I wasn't interrogated at all and the guards had notably stopped trying to talk to me. I was still well treated, save for the cold and the indecency. Nevertheless, I managed to regain my strength from before as the days passed.
They had finally realized that there was a language barrier and almost fixed it, but apparently it was one way only. The spell Moss had worked like that too, but surely they didn't read it in his spellbook, did they? Well, they did have it with them but how could they read it? Was it written in their language? There weren't exactly any civilizations full of talking horses in any rendition of Faerun or any other D&D world I knew of. Even if they could read it, the comprehend language spell was a temporary effect used on a person, and only on the caster for that matter, not something put on an object.
And what did they want from me? That question kept rattling through my brain as I paced back and forth in my cell, having finally lost my sense of modesty to the guards. Still, a breakthrough had been made, for a moment I had finally understood what they were saying. Even that partial breakthrough had me grinning for the first day and a half.
By the fifth day I had run out of things to think about and had grown bored out of my mind. To stave off boredom I had gone to town on the bricks of my cell. I had been playing and pretending to be a lizard or whatever wall crawling creature I thought was funny at the time, just to stave off the boredom and get some exercise. I couldn't actually transform into anything, though. That was bound to get the guards attention and make them think I was escaping or something. Now that there was a breakthrough, that option got a good solid seat in my "not just yet" list and wasn't likely to be used any time soon.
At one particular time I pretended to have a flying squirrel for a hand, bounding it across increasingly longer distances across the corners of my cell. That one I remembered quite well, because that's the one I was doing when the horse with the broken horn had come to get me. I hadn't even noticed her until I heard the sparking of her horn behind me.
When I glanced over at the bars of the cell in mid fake squirrel jump, my face got plum beet red. I promptly got down on my belly with my arms outstretched, waiting to be cuffed and gagged for transport. I had gotten the routine down packed at that point. The only thing I found odd was how she didn't bark her orders at the guard. It almost sounded like she was calm instead of angry.
Back in the interrogation room, both of the horses from before were there. This time the one that had the amulet was working a new slew of books on the table while the one with the broken horn worked hard at giving me a "Try anything and I'll kill you" glare. With the posse of guards holding spears right at my neck, ribs and other places I didn't want to find out how uncomfortable it would be to have impaled, I didn't really need any help understanding that particular message. So I complied and just pretended to be a statue.
A few fancy effects later and the lavender horse had done something to the amulet. The books were quickly escorted away by some high ranking guards and several minutes passed while we just sat there, waiting for whatever it was they were waiting on.
When a bell gave two dings, the one with a damaged horn gave a sigh of relief and turned off the sparks coming from her horn. A few minutes later, the high ranking guards returned and spoke briefly with her. With a gesture of her head she called off the pincushion crew and I was finally able to take the deep breath my lungs had been craving.
The excess guards left and the lavender horse came towards me with the amulet. When she had it around my neck again, she spoke carefully.
"OK, we need to test this out right. If you think you can hear me, tap the table with your front hoof."
There was a pause as they both waited for me to act. The air became a bit awkward for a moment as I cocked my head at her. Hoof? What did she mean?
It wasn't until she gave a sigh of disappointment that I broke out of my confusion and rattled my knuckles on the table as best I could with the thick cuffs getting in the way. I could only hope that gave her what she was wanting.
Her face lit right back up. "Oh, good!" She cleared her throat and raised her front leg towards me. "Now, can you please move your head in the same direction as my hoof."
With a few nods and turns of my head following her directions, she spoke up again a few times, saying the same thing in a different way. I gave her an odd look, but continued to follow her directions regardless. At around the fifth time she spoke directions to follow her hoof, she told me to do it in the opposite direction.
I had to pause for a moment as she moved her hoof again. I could have sworn her heart leapt up into her throat as she watched me pause in thought. When I started following her pattern in the opposite direction, her face positively glowed with giddiness.
A few more tests were conducted as we made sure I could hear them right. With the excitement of being able to hear them toned down from the week prior, it was kind of frustrating going through simple color and shape tests while being spoken to like a child. I had to keep reminding myself that they didn't know for sure what was going on at my end.
"It seems that the words are translating from us to you accurately enough. Now I'm going to try something," she said carefully as she approached me again. "Don't be alarmed. I'm just going to press on your amulet for a moment."
She came up to me and pressed firmly on the jewel of the amulet. I let myself be pressed up against the back of the chair as she did so, but other than that I couldn't tell what she was doing. I half expected to feel a button depress, but there wasn't even that. Instead, she just kept pressing on the amulet and made her horn glow for a few seconds.
When she eased up, she looked at me again. "OK. I managed to get the amulet to translate words coming in indefinitely, but getting it to do the reverse and translate outgoing words was a bit harder. It can only work for a short time right now, but if I did it right then you should be able to talk to us for a few minutes. Try saying something. What's your name?"
My mouth was agape as they waited for me to process this. I managed to be patient enough with them to finally get proper communication established. Now that it was, there was a zillion and one things I needed to say but one thing was first and foremost. I sobered up and looked right at them. Lightly, I inhaled and spoke but a single word. I spoke it firmly. I spoke it clearly.
"Clothes."
They paused again and looked at each other. The broken horned one shook her head a little. "It's not gibberish anymore, and that's an improvement, but it still seems to be on the fritz. I doubt he meant to say 'clothes.'"
"Lets try that again. Wha-" the lavender one started, but I quickly cut her off.
"No. You heard me loud and clear. You asked for my name, but I didn't give it to you," I ranted with a carefully held tone that wasn't too temperamental, but clear and firm, as I had been mentally practicing.
"I asked for clothes. I don't know how your culture works. You're about as alien to me as one can get while still having things that remind me of home."
Both of them looked at me with surprise. The one with the broken horn was at the ready, a hoof held up to hold the guards in check. The desire to keep my tone from escalating certainly went up another notch as I continued.
"I can tell that your kind don't hold clothes in high priority, but I am saying it up front, here and now: People of my homeland do value not being naked the vast majority of the day. It's indecent, embarrassing and not healthy for us in all but the warmest weather. We don't exactly have a whole lot of fur to keep ourselves warm. While you have provided me with food and accommodations that are well above what I expected to be given a prisoner, I still have been utterly humiliated. I'm surprised I haven't gotten sick from being exposed in that cold cell for so long."
I glanced back at the crystalline guards, then returned my stare towards the two non-crystal horses. Finally, I took one strong breath to signify my resolve.
"If you want any further cooperation from me, I will be provided something to cover myself with, now."
The air was thick with tension by the time I finished giving my demand. That pulsing vein I had seen on the forehead of the one with the broken horn was starting to resurface. She stomped her hoof down and tossed her head towards the door. The guards came up with the gag as she gave the other non-crystalline horse a stoic expression.
She spoke in a cold and bitter tone, "We're done here for today."
A few hours later, back in the holding cell, I heard the sparks of my captor's horn signal her approach. I sat on the edge of my mattress, looking for her to appear in the segment of the hall I could see from my cell.
When she came into view, she looked straight at me and gave me a squinty eyed glare. She then looked to her side and signaled a guard that was just out of view.
Quickly, he stepped up and pushed something through the bars. I looked at the item and found it to be a simple but thick military blanket. When I looked up, she lifted her hoof and pointed to her eyes with it, then turned her hoof and firmly pointed it at me.
She had met my demand, technically. Yet somehow I just knew I was at the top of her shit list now.