Was this blood his own?
Mirth’s ears rang and his lungs burned. Each beat of his heart poured seething agony into his veins. One moment he and his packmates were fighting, winning even, and the next there was fire. So much fire. It rushed through the tunnels like a hissing tide, sparing none in its path.
Where was Razor? He needed to find Razor, to warn him they were―
The sound of pawpads scattering the scorched autumn leaves approached. Mirth, exhausted and beaten, turned as much as his ravaged body would allow to regard the figure. His eyes narrowed as a growl bloomed from deep within his chest. The gryphon.
“You,” he snapped. “I should’ve just snapped your neck when I had the chance! Damned double-crosser...”
The gryphon tilted his head. “Don’t act so surprised, dog. We both knew it would come to this eventually.” He aimed the crossbow in his talons at the Diamond Dog’s head. “I did make a promise, after all.”
The gryphon’s piercing eyes met Mirth’s defiant glare, the world around them falling to stillness.
His talons trembled.
“Fare thee well,” he uttered before pressing his finger against the trigger.
Green Springs sat alone at a rickety table, absentmindedly chewing on a stale piece of bread. Her imagination wandered, for while she may have been confined to these caves in body, her mind was free.
The musty funk that clung to the damp stone floors was replaced with the sweet earthen scent of autumn that always accompanied her mother's lovingly cooked dandelion stew, made all the better by its simplicity; the cold of the subterranean air grew warm with her memories of soaking up the sun in the meadow on beautiful spring days, the grass beneath her teasing her fur and inviting her to rest in its embrace; the brown walls faded into clear blue skies under which she and her sister would frolic without a care in the world. The visions were so clear she felt as though she still had a family to go to, as though she was no longer slave to the Diamond Dogs.
The filly didn't notice she had nearly moved herself to tears, nor did she notice the warmth was no fantasy. She buried her face into the chest of her protector, her gryphon friend who had, seeing her distress, wrapped her under his working wing and pulled her into a comforting hug.
"You'll be fine, Green Springs," he said.
When she gathered her composure, Green Springs pushed away from him, looking into his eyes. "T-Thank you, Gobrend. I didn't mean to lose myself like that..."
The gryphon shook his head, folding his trembling wing. "None of that, Springs. No one blames you for thinking of brighter times."
"But... But you don't―"
“Have I ever told you about the time I ran away from home?”
Green Springs blinked. “No. You… don’t talk about yourself very much. Why would you ever run away from home?”
“I… suppose I wanted to see something new. Hear the birdsong in the spring, feel the breeze caress my feathers as I soared among the clouds...” Gobrend wistfully said. A small smile graced his beak. “Go on an adventure.”
“An adventure? You had to run away from home for that? You probably worried your parents sick!”
Gobrend’s smile lessened. “I’m not saying what I did was smart, Springs. And some part of me wanted those close to me to worry, but…” Gobrend’s eyes flicked to Green Springs' before returning to the table. Sighing, he said, “I spent about three days out there in the forest before I realized just how lonely it was. And when I thought none of the people I left cared, it terrified me.
“So I cried. I was only fourteen or so at the time, but I thought the world was coming to an end. And that’s how my father and a few guards found me: curled up in the woods mewling like a lost fawn. Heh, he and Tali absolutely tore into me when I was brought home, but I didn’t even think of just how much I’d hurt them pulling that stunt. Needless to say, I kept to books a while after that when I wanted an adventure, but that was before...” Gobrend’s gaze dimmed as he turned to Green Springs. “Hold those memories close, Springs. Cherish them. Because while they may hurt, they remind you that there is a tomorrow worth fighting for.”
Ears pressing against her head, Green Springs muttered, “Sometimes it just doesn’t seem fair, Gobrend…”
Gobrend nodded. "That’s because it isn’t. Sometimes we are dealt a bad hand, but we must make the most of it. And do you know why I consider everything I've gone through to be worth it?"
"No…? Why?"
Gobrend playfully ruffled her hair. "Because I got to meet you, you little rascal!"
Green Springs smiled despite herself, attempting to push his claws away with a giggle. "Stop that!" Her giggling was interrupted by a harsh coughing fit.
Gobrend, concerned, complied immediately and yanked his hand away from her as though she were living flame. She'd been having more and more of these sudden attacks as the weeks passed, and each time it grew more difficult for her to catch her breath after even the smallest of tasks.
He set down a bowl of broth in front of her. "Eat," he commanded in a brotherly tone. "This will make you feel better. You must build your strength as much as possible, Green Springs."
"You got seconds!?" she said a little too loudly, drawing the attention of some of the surrounding tables.
Gobrend nearly jumped out of his seat at her outburst, wildly trying to quiet her down. "Announce it to the whole bloody room, why don't you!" he hissed.
"Oh, sorry..."
He ran a hand over his fluffy head, sighing. "No, no. I shouldn't have snapped at you like that. I'm the one who should apologize."
Green Springs smirked deviously. "I'll accept your apology on one condition: tell me where you got this."
The gryphon froze for a split second, an action which likely would have gone unnoticed to those who never spent much time around him. Spring knew from that tell that he was hiding something. Her smirk fell.
"It was given to me by the yellow unicorn Val Uliss in exchange for the hay from my pillow. I saw you were hardly eating and knew you'd want more than the stale bread they offer us here as a 'meal,' " he explained.
"And you've made these kinds of deals for the past three days?"
"W-Well―"
"You haven't been eating just to make sure I do, haven't you, Gobrend Grasstalon?" Green Springs calmly said, using his full name the way her mother used to in order to express her disappointment.
Gobrend locked his jaw, narrowing his eyes at her. After a tense moment he huffed, crossing his arms. "Yes, you've caught me red-taloned and exposed my diabolical plot to the eyes of all. Proud of yourself?"
"You think this is about pride? I couldn’t care less about that! Gobrend, look at yourself!" she motioned to the skin clinging tightly around his ribs. "You― You're dying! You can't keep hurting yourself like this or you won't last!"
"Oh, that's rich! I'm trying to look out for you, Spring! Do you realize how much it hurts me to listen to you wheeze after you so much as laugh!? It’s horrifying! I am doing what anyone in my position would do. I am doing what anyone who cares would do. I am doing my best!"
"...My mom and sis did their best too. And now they're gone, Gobrend. Gone..."
Gobrend, flustered and unable to retort, fumed as he stared off into a corner of the room. Neither he nor Green Springs paid any mind to the attention their spectacle had drawn from the other ponies. "...I'll only eat if you eat. We'll split the bowl. And if you try this again, I'll starve myself to show you how awful it makes those who care about you feel."
Gobrend grimaced at the filly, eyes dark and searching. After a moment of consideration, he said, "...Very well, Green Springs. Half and half it is."
With a tired swing stone was reduced to gravel. Dust wafted into Gobrend's face as he feebly tried to heft the pickaxe once more overhead, causing the gryphon to hack and cough as he rubbed at his irritated, puffy eyes. His thoughts kept drifting to the conversation between him and Green Springs. Something was amiss. The little filly was not usually one to be so confrontational, much less demanding. And for her to threaten harming herself simply to get to him…
An angry growl came from behind as he dropped the tool and scraped at his face. "Get back to work, bird!" the Diamond Dog, Ren if Gobrend was correct, snarled, whipping the ground next to Gobrend's foot. Gobrend jumped in terror, quickly grabbing his pickaxe and picking away at a portion of the wall where his seventeenth sapphire was embedded. Ren scowled and walked further down the line, growling at the chained slaves as they worked on mining their tenth gem on average. Gobrend was nearing the daily quota of twenty-five, whereupon he'd be free to return to his small cell with a lukewarm bowl of watery porridge or a leathery strip of cragodile jerky—both hardly edible—to rest up for the next day.
"Psst."
Heavens above how he missed his warm bed back in Featherstone.
"Hey, Gobrend."
Not to mention the idea of a bath! He positively reeked! And he wished the dogs were gracious enough to give him something with which to shave; the feathers atop his head were growing far too—
"Gobrend!"
Shaken from his thoughts, Gobrend realized he was aimlessly chiseling away at a gemstone. Anxiety welled within his chest as he redirected his efforts to the rock binding it. He looked at Brocarius from the corner of his eye, the pony carving his twenty-third sapphire out of the wall and carefully scrutinizing it before gently laying the gemstone down with the others. Gobrend didn't know how they always came out picture-perfect when this pony mined them; it was uncanny.
Brocarius was a thin, bespectacled, and all around unassuming earth pony with an equally nonthreatening cutie mark of an olive branch. He looked like he belonged in an office. But Gobrend knew to never trust a pony’s looks, especially this one's. There was a reason Brocarius unsettled him so.
"What is it, Payens?" Gobrend hissed.
"Don’t. Use. That. Name," Brocarius said, his mane clinging to his forehead as he remained focused on his work. He didn’t seem nearly as overworked or malnourished as anypony else. "And face the wall; you know that dog will scourge you for the smallest slip-up." Gobrend did as he was told. Brocarius was right about Ren's notorious streak of sadism. Gobrend's back still ached after their last "session" together.
He scooted inconspicuously closer to the pony, taking a scar in the wall that served as the beginning of a new mine so that he was within whispering range. "Very well... Brocarius," he said, remembering the oddly gryphonic name. "Do you have any news?"
"Only if you consider minor setbacks as news. The Sapphires are now patrolling the eastern mines with greater frequency; something about them being worried about prisoners escaping through them."
"Haven't those mines been unofficially cordoned off for fear of a cave-in?"
"Ah, you've been paying attention. I knew I kept you around for a reason." Gobrend's next strike to the wall was particularly ferocious. "But you're right. It was unofficially cordoned off. Key word: 'unofficially.' Officially, however, it's their job to discourage any attempts at escaping, and capturing those who are desperate enough to flee through condemned caves is a rather effective manner of damaging the gusto of would-be dissenters."
"It's also stupid. Why risk the lives of your own healthy guards for an underfed slave with little hope of surviving the Yaju Forest this far away from the next town? If they escape, then let them escape. They'll either come crawling back or they'll die with the 'freedom' they so fervently thirst for. Tighten security here instead of scattering it about haphazardly.
“If they need the slaves so badly, they'd just post sentries outside those mines. But they do have competition from another nearby pack, don’t they?" Gobrend softened another small portion of the wall into dust, covering his face. "Goodness, that rotten smell! Have we been digging too deeply as of late? Is this stuff poisonous?"
"And flammable," Brocarius added. He then quickly snuck a peek around the bend of the scar in the wall, adjusting his glasses with a tannish hoof. "You're not hitting the ashflake pockets, are you?"
"The what!?"
"These Sapphires aren't going to last too long if they aren't more careful in choosing where they live. It'll be the death of them: the ashflake or their stubbornness."
Gobrend looked horrified, backing away from the wall. "By the gates of Tartarus... How can you be so nonchalant about this!"
"There is a reason we are leaving as soon as possible," Brocarius said matter-of-factly. "I was planning on sticking around a bit longer, but do you think either of us are good to anypony dead?"
"Are you even any good to anyone alive?" Gobrend said, gritting his teeth.
Brocarius chuckled for the first time since Gobrend had met him, moving around to face him once again after checking to ensure Ren was not making another round. "You and I are not ordinary individuals, Gobrend Grasstalon. How, then, can we be judged by their standards?" He carved out another sapphire, this one no less remarkable than the rest.
"We are gems: uncut, unfettered, and all the more brilliant for it." His small, almost nonexistent smile then disappeared, and in his eyes there was a flame. "Don't you ever pretend to be anything less, Gobrend. You may not be one of Us, but you know I speak the truth."
Gobrend stared intensely into Brocarius' eyes, the pony returning the stare. "...And this plan; when exactly are we executing it?"
"What plan?"
The new voice caused Gobrend to jump, while Brocarius curiously turned to the owner of the voice: Green Springs.
"Howdy! You're Green Springs, right? I don't think I'd be fool enough to mistaken the filly Gobrend's so fond of for anypony else," he said with an easygoing chuckle.
"Oh, h-hi," she said, shyly dragging a hoof along the ground.
"Green Springs!" Gobrend searched left and right frantically before pulling her into the scar with him. “What on earth are you doing here!”
"I was being escorted by a guard since I've been too sick to do much work in the smaller mines, but he got bored and stopped really paying attention to me." She looked between Gobrend and Brocarius. "So I slipped away and came over here to see you."
"And Ren didn't stop you?" Brocarius asked.
"Nope!" Green Springs triumphantly said, Gobrend motioning for her to keep her voice at a whisper. "I mean, um, no. He didn't see me, so he couldn't stop me from coming here."
"Well color me impressed! We've got us our very own little adventurer here, huh, Gobrend?" Green Springs proudly puffed out her chest before a slight cough wiped her grin off her face. She then coughed two more times, both sounding like sandpaper grated against her throat.
"Spring!" Gobrend exclaimed, rushing to pick her up, pickaxe forgotten. She held up a hoof, stopping him, the other pressed against her mouth to mute the noise. When it was clear to her the fit had passed, she fell to her flank, looking more weary than he had ever seen.
"Anyway, w-what was the... the..." she swooned unsteadily on her hooves. "What was..." her eyes then rolled into her head and she fell unconscious.
Before Gobrend could register what had happened he was already scooping her into his arms, checking her for a pulse. He was moving on instinct alone. Relief cooled his veins when he realized she was still breathing. He held her close, listening to her ragged breathing. She'll be alright. She's fine. She won't leave me like the rest!
He was snapped out of his mounting panic by the calm voice of Brocarius. "...Give her to me."
"Why? So you can use this as an excuse to make sure she doesn't wake up!? Get bent, you damned sociopath!"
"You think I want her to die, huh? Look me in the eyes and say that, Gobrend!" Gobrend did so, prepared to give him just what he'd asked for, but became less assured when he noticed the somber quality to his glare. "There is nothing to be gained for me from her death; on the contrary, there's quite a bit to be lost from it. I want her returned safely to her room just as you do, but by somepony who's thinking clearly and knows exactly what he's doing. I know how to handle this and I have none of the panic you harbor to slow me down." He motioned to the cart near Gobrend. "On top of that you still have your quota to fill, while I am finished for the day."
"B-But the—"
"Gobrend, I will give any cover necessary to ensure she isn't punished. And if that doesn’t work I'll simply tell them the truth. Trust me, even in here I can pull a few strings. Come on, there's no time to argue. Her condition could easily deteriorate!"
Gobrend hesitantly handed her over to Brocarius, accepting the logic in the face of his emotion despite his breath nearly leaving him. He was beginning to grow increasingly frustrated with his vulnerability as of late. He hated when things fell out of his control like this.
"Thank you. Now, you'll find her in your cell when you're done; and from the looks of it, you nearly are. She'll be okay, Gobrend. Alright?" he said, gently resting Green Springs on his back. His gaze shifted back to the gryphon. "I know we've already discussed this before, but it is imperative that you do not speak of the plan with her. At all. Not even the smallest of hints. Not even falsifications. Just do not entertain a chat with her, or I can't promise she'll be able to stay out of the dogs' attention if they catch wind of what we're planning."
"Right, right," Gobrend breathed, staring at nothing. "Just... Just go. Go and keep her safe. Be sure to wrap her muzzle with a moist towel; make it warm if possible!"
Brocarius nodded, adjusting his glasses as he turned around.
"And Brocarius?" The pony stopped. "I mean it when I say I want her safe. I don’t care how well connected you believe yourself to be, should any harm come to her..." He allowed the thinly veiled threat to hang between them. The pony trotted off.
Gobrend picked his pickaxe off the ground as he thought, and one more important thought seized his mind, nearly making his heart skip a beat. He ran to the edge of the scar and called softly to Brocarius' retreating form. "Hey, be sure to tuck her in as well! She can read one of my Daring Do comics when she awakes; she adores them! They make her feel..." He sighed to himself, taking a spot on the wall before Ren would have any excuse to set him in his sights. Fortunately, the dog was tormenting another unfortunate soul.
He needed to get a grip. She would be fine; he was sure of it! This wasn't going to end the way it did before. This time he was here! He’d help her get better, and then he’d help her fall asleep the way she helped him when his nightmares kept him awake for days on end, and then he’d make sure she wanted for as little as possible while confined here where no foal deserved to be. And when the time arrived, he’d save her, because for once he had the power to do something.
...So why did he feel so powerless lately?
"They make her feel free..." he muttered, picking away at the wall.