//------------------------------// // Chapter Five, Building Relationships: Actual Romance. // Story: Airship Mauled // by Darkonshadows //------------------------------// -Jade- “Don’t worry about it cutie, she’s not really all that bad even if she is trying to push our relationship farther than I want it to be. Quite frankly, I haven’t known her for more than a few hours and we really don’t even know each other all too well.” I was sitting down at my never ending campfire to eat a hot bowl of soup and a large chunk of bread wrapped in a napkin. “In fact, why don’t you try to get to know her? She’s made of three animals, seems like something you’d be interested in.” Hopefully I planted the idea in Fluttershy’s head to try and make friends with the Maries, she did seem curious. Cheerilee was eating quietly and sitting across from Sekhet and Maries, even an alicorn sized Sekhet was intimidating to both her and Maries. It was understandable that they feared her, even I was somewhat afraid of a goddess with the power to squish me like a grape. Rainbow wasn’t scared of Sekhet or Maries, Windy was at least respectful and keeping a close eye on Rainbow to make sure she didn’t do anything silly. “So, what was your name again? Maries I believe my daughter has been calling you.” Looking over at mom, I wondered what she was going to ask the chimera. “Tell me about a bit about yourself or your life.” “Collectively we are Bloody Maries, individually we are Mara, Maria and Marie. We are of the Bloody Tracks clan, our father Flames has two male heads and one female, our mother Traces has three female heads.” Going by what Maries just told us, it would be no surprise to me that all chimera are bisexual given they might be one or even two thirds female or male. While the two of her front heads ate, Marie was doing the talking. “Chimera are not always omnivorous, sometimes we are carnivorous and rarely ever herbivorous depending on the heads we are born with. Thankfully we have omnivorous capability. Food is always an issue for us in the swamps as our clan fights and trains to hunt for various things, it is necessary for our continued survival. We may have violent and or even brutal practices among our kin, but we do not hurt one another permanently unless such an injury is warranted. We are not evil… we are just following nature.” “Um… since your friends with Jade, does that mean you don’t need to follow your nature as much?” Yes, keep doing things like being innocent and adorable Fluttershy! “We are tying ourselves to a new clan, with new rules to follow.” Marie looked to Sekhet. “We believe the matriarch is the one who has the final say and we have not yet learned the rules of our prospective mate’s home.” “I’m not the matriarch or leader, that’s technically her job.” Sekhet pointed to mom sitting next to me and Fizzle, mom just rolled her eyes and continued eating. “The mother of our mate is truly the matriarch?” Marie sounded a bit surprised that my mom wore the robes around here. “What a strange hierarchy when an alpha among alphas lives here, but we will learn in time.” After that we learned that chimera were based around being strong or getting good hunts, for the more herbivorous it was survival and supporting the other chimera. Chimera would never hunt and eat another chimera, outliers still existed though. They were savage to an extent and civilized in others, but they were below diamond dogs from a civilization standpoint. Fluttershy had been curious to learn about things from the predatory Maries point of view, it seemed there were no hard feelings between them. She even got to meet the friendly sea turtle, she got so excited and started talking about how cute the shelled critter was. Soon lunch was over and the visitors had to leave, they thanked mom for the food and promised to come back again some time. Throughout all this Fresh Start had been just giving the chimera odd looks, but just shrugged and went with things like she did after meeting Sekhet. Fresh was quite stoic. After the three winged ponies were flying their way home, mom turned on the Maries and started to lay down some ground rules for how we did things around here. Rule one, Maries must try and court me appropriately and not just say that we were mates right off the bat thanks to a trial by combat. She must take my feelings into consideration and be friends with me first or else my mother would never make food for her again. That had Maries grumbling that I was already her mate by right, but she still accepted that rule. It was already too late for her… she had tasted my mother’s cooking. I had to thank my mom for that, Maries kept looking at me a like a piece of meat. Rule two, don’t eat, kill or take anything that was intelligent, a pet like our resident sea turtle or anything else that someone cared about. If she wanted to hunt something, then she would do so away from the town and had to make sure it was something we wouldn’t care about missing. Like dangerous predators that would hurt those who lived here that decide to encroach upon our territory. No problems at all with that at all, in fact she agreed to the terms quite well. Rule three, learn to use a toilet and or litterbox. Maries easily agreed to learn that particular skill, especially washing her paws. Rule four, she would be joining us for school to learn more about the various societies we all came from. Mara didn’t take this so well. Maria was somewhat curious about it. Marie was all for it. So they eventually agreed to learn how to live with us. - Two weeks later, Fizzle- I nuzzled up against Jade’s side as we relaxed under the tree. I was relieved that Kuril was able to stop the chimera from forcing Jade into anything, it wouldn’t have worked anyway. Still Bloody Maries was quite persistent even when she wasn’t making too much progress in getting much more than sisterly affection out of Jade, any positive affection made the chimera happy. Just like any affection I received made me happy. Things like fingers rubbing the back of my ears or just going through my mane. Currently her hand was rubbing my neck and my head was in her lap, I was quite happy right where I was. I and Jacky were starting to come around to being friends with Bloody Maries, at least parts of her. I got along with Marie and Jacky got along with Maria. Ms. Cheerilee’s classes were interesting, at least she wouldn’t have any trouble teaching a bunch of rabid fillies and colts. Not when she was doing so well with teaching a broken unicorn, a friendly chimera, an unlucky parrot and the insane cat that took an arrow for me and somehow ended up fighting pirates days later. We were relaxing as it was the weekend, Jade said she was thinking of ways to help me use magic and that she might have an idea after we were tired of being lazy for the morning. “So what does wood do when cast or sustained?” Magical alchemy was interesting to me, it was a completely untapped area of magic that both Kuril and Jade were pioneering. “Wood when cast causes the target to become tougher with skin and fur becoming like the bark of a tree, not the kind of effect I’d want to have on me permanently as it kind of chafes badly. Though it is useful, unlike the fish scales it can be cast on objects to improve their durability.” Jade explained to me. Airship Mauled is a magical place to live, I didn’t want to leave. I had family, except I always felt strange around Jade as if there was something more to it. “As for the magical sustain well… it’s not really useful.” “Oh this should be good, now I have to know what it does!” Sustains always had curious effects. Neither I nor Jade had figured out what using the sustain effect for a cloak does and it does actually take up the one sustain limit Jade says is a hard rule of their magic. “Also wouldn’t casting fish scales on an object make it water proof?” “I… hadn’t actually considered the possibility of making an object water proof with the multiple cast permanence effect.” Only Jade could be half as smart as she is dumb at times, that’s why I’m here to point things out for her and then cuddle her because that always felt nice. “As for what the wood sustain does… it makes hair like a mane or tail grow slightly faster in sunlight. Thankfully it doesn’t cause rapid aging and I had Sekhet confirm the effects for me.” “I don’t know, it might have its uses.” I hummed and looked at Jade’s shaggy green hair and noticed that it was halfway down her back instead of just below her shoulders. It’s probably the prettiest thing about the tom cat… what was this strange feeling in my cheeks? She could take care of her hair a bit better, maybe brush or comb it more often. I sometimes felt like I wasn’t capable of much, but I was training my body up with the expert coaching of our resident physical education teacher Sekhet. Sekhet really knows how to put a body through the wringer and she certainly remembers how to train warriors, Maries was even becoming her star pupil. Speaking of the goddess in helping catalogue the effects of wood used in magical alchemy, It’s about time Sekhet did something around here instead of being as lazy as Jade attempts to be. Surprisingly, Cheerilee found Sekhet’s exercise regiments to be within educational standards of Equestria or even better. I, Jacky and Maries wouldn’t let Jade rest for too long or even get fat, though her slight pudge was cute and when she was drenched with sweat… did my heart just speed up there for a bit? Huh, I don’t feel sick at all… anyway if Jade’s idea actually allows me to use magic, then I’m all for whatever the idea is. “So what have you been working on, that’ll help me do magic?” I feel the fingers of her left paw caress the left side of my face softly, it was a very pleasant feeling. I’ve only been these people for a little more than a month, but I was right at home here with them. I didn’t even know I needed what I currently have now until I decided to stay with Kuril at Jade’s request. “Well it’s not anything really big, it’s just using what we already have in a unique manner.” That was modest sounding of her… and rather cryptic. So what was the catch here? I know that Jade doesn’t do normal when she’s motivated to do something. “I have to thank you Fizzy and the best way I know how is giving you some capability to do magic.” “What would you have to thank me for?” Every time she called me Fizzy, something in my gut twisted in an unusually pleasant manner. I hardly do much of anything around here aside from washing dishes or a few minor chores. I idly thought about how the construction crew got that inn built after eating some of Kuril’s cooking. “Several things really. Giving me a fresh perspective on things like magical alchemy for one, being my friend is another and I now even have an idea for a really good birthday present to get Jacky when it comes around thanks to you. Blackcap’s been pretty interested in archery from our games of O and O lately.” That much was true, but why couldn’t Jade just get to telling me how she’s going to get me doing magic already. “Also don’t think none of us haven’t noticed you attempting to use magic when you sneak off on some evenings, you tend to pass out trying and Sekhet has been making sure you safely come back. Your important to all of us Fizzy, so stop doing things that worry us so much. You can do that stuff around Airship Mauled you know.” I… I felt bad for worrying them. “I’m sorry... for worrying you.” She pulled my head close to her belly in a hug, I started to wrap my hooves around her and nuzzled up against her chest. This felt right. I was quite excited to hear her idea, I wanted some of my functionality back without passing out from draining my entire body of magic for one burst. “It’s okay Fizzy, just don’t hurt yourself. Now get up, we’ve got something to try.” With that, I got off of Jade and she looked over to where Jacky was napping on a nearby tree’s branch. “Hey, Jacky!” “Whuh… agh… oof… ach… ow… #@$^!” That poor parrot fell out of the tree hitting several branches on the way down. I don’t even know what that last grunt of pain was before she slammed bodily into the ground face first. She slowly picked herself up and came over to us and threw Jade a salute. “What do you need Captain?” I was surprised that she wasn’t complaining about the several painful bruises likely forming on her body. “Sword me, and I don’t mean accidentally stab me in the butt with it this time.” Yeah, that was an upsetting experience Jade or I would rather not relive. I watched as Jacky pulled the sword out without her belt coming off or her pants dropping, she carefully handed it to Jade as if it were a loaded crossbow. It probably would do something almost exactly like that in her hands. “Thanks Blackcap, go about your business.” Jacky sat down to watch us as Jade turned to me. “Okay, so you know how I and mom have Ogres and Oubliettes character sheets for ourselves? Well I’m going to need you to light your horn for a bit, but don’t discharge.” I Gave Jade a nod and closed my eyes to get ready. “I need you to focus on fire, ice, energy, water, wind or at least something elemental like you would expect from O and O while charging your horn. Do it when you’re ready.” I reached deep down into myself. I had a large well of power, but little to use it on. What did I feel like using? Fire, like Jade’s… warm, comforting and close to my heart. “Okay perfect, hold that thought whatever it is.” I could a feel a portion of my magic rushing out of my broken horn, usually it just explodes out of me all at once uncontrolled. “Done, open your eyes and stop the magic.” I did so and was met with a sword covered in a thin layer of flames. Did I… did I do that? “Guess what, you just might be a spell sword Fizzy!” Jade swung the sword upwards and a blast of fire shot out and exploded as a bright colorful firework above us. I felt a powerful tingle travel up my flank. I decided to act on my first urge and quickly tackled Jade. I pushed my mouth over hers and then like the colorful explosion that went off in the sky… bliss.